Cenotaph of Bones: Chapter 26 (Patreon)

Chapter 26: Consequences

As soon as I opened my eyes, I could hear angry shouts coming from the sailor’s area headed our direction.  Everyone else was already awake, stuffing their feet into boots and donning armor as quickly as possible.  I peeked out the window near my bedroll to see an actual mob of people coming toward us.  Where in the stars did they find torches and pitchforks down here?

I was concerned enough that I spun up my brain core enough to provide me with a speed boost.  Just as I dropped my helm’s visor in place, the first man holding a torch stepped into the area we had marked off as our own.  Maybe he thought all the swirling rune designs on the ground, wooden placards, formation plates, and clearly marked flags warning them not to enter were just for funsies.  Well, let’s just say he was quickly shown the error of his ways.

Donny had apparently gone a little overboard on the traps for the main path leading to our section, because the chain reaction the first guy set off was more than a little excessive.  He was thrown straight up into the air, blasted with a wave of fire, and then slapped out of sight with an actual giant hand of stone.  The hand made a very rude gesture in the general direction of the poor fellow before fading back into the ground.  I needed to find out how Donny managed that last one.

After seeing the results of charging into our area, the rest of the mob seemed to be having second thoughts.  Instead of charging forward, they clustered together at the edge of the not-so-imaginary line of our designated area.

Since it looked like no one else was going to try and win the ‘King of Stupidity’ award today, I went outside to see what they wanted.

“What did you do with them?!”

“Where’s our friends, you jerks?!”

“Ragum fragum furger?!”

“How about you tell us what’s going on, so we can answer your questions?”  I looked around to try and find the last speaker.  “Well, most of the questions.”

“Don’t play dumb, we know it was you!”  I recognized the speaker as the man who had planned to steal our horses shortly before our two groups had separated on the surface.  “Everyone heard about you trying to chain up Shoop, and now he and Bee Yang are missing!”

“I can assure you, none of us did anything to your friends.  We haven’t left our building since we tried to heal your friend.”  I was about to explain that our proof was the undisturbed ring of traps - which their compatriot had already verified - but he didn’t let me finish.

“You think you’re all high and mighty, struttin’ around in your pretty armor, with your pretty horses, and your pretty ladies, and pretty… other stuff!”  He drew the saber sheathed on his belt, and pointed it at me.  “I knew I shoulda’ finished you off after them goats didn’t kill you, but I won’t be makin’ that mistake this time!”

The stiletto I carried in the storage stud at the small of my back was my favorite tool for carving fine detail into whatever material I was working on.  It was also very well balanced.  When it thudded into the base of the man’s throat, I took a second to appreciate just how finely crafted it really was.  For a plain steel weapon, it truly was a masterpiece.

“It was only a matter of time until I found out who knocked me into that stampede!”  A quick flick of my wrist and flex of my willpower brought the thin blade back to me.  No one had even noticed the spider-silk thin strand of air qi attached to the handle.  They seemed shocked by the sudden turn of events, and the ones in the back had no idea what had transpired.

“Would anyone else like to admit to trying to kill our friend?”  Jamila stepped in front of me, her weapons already in her hands.  “How about more pointless accusations?”

“But-!”

“But nothing.”  She cut the speaker off.  The attempted murder finally dropped to his knees, his saber clattering to the cavern floor beside him.  “This man openly stated he tried to kill our friend, and was here to finish the job.  He deserved what he got.”

“How about we all calm down here?”  The captain finally decided to show his face, pushing his way up from the rear.  When he finally reached the front, the body of his sailor was face-down in a slowly expanding pool of his own blood.  “What in the gods-”

“Don’t worry captain, we found the man responsible for trying to kill Jim during the goat stampede you all brought back to us.”  Jamila sheathed her swords with a flourish.  “I suggest you and your men return to your side of the camp, before more criminals in your ranks open their mouths to speak their own doom.”

I couldn’t help but give Jamila a sharp glance.  ‘Speak their own doom?’  Maybe she was still suffering from the side effects of the dark qi saturation.

“I think it would be best if our two groups went their separate ways.”  The captain was gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, doing his best to keep from attacking us.  I could see him carefully weighing his options.  Apparently, trying to fight five heavily armed and armored cultivators surrounded by unknown traps was too much of a gamble for him.  “I no longer think staying together is a good idea.”

Before Jamila could say something else crazy, I cut in.  “We didn’t touch your men.  I don’t even know who Bee Yang is.”  I flipped up my faceplate so I could look the captain in the eye.  “Stars, I don’t even know your name, because you never even introduced yourself to us!  At every opportunity imaginable, you have hindered us instead of helped.  I understand you blame me for sinking the ship, but we would have been torn apart by Pilum Crabs if I hadn’t killed them all.  I warned you about Shoop, and your inability to listen to me probably cost the life of the other guy.  Your actions have consequences.  We’re done holding your hands.  You want us gone?  Fine.  We’ll be gone in less than an hour.”

I spun around and stomped off, mad enough to want to kill the man.  I knew in my past life I would have just walked away feeling nothing but pity.  This wasn’t my past life, it was now.  I was still in the body of a teenager, and they weren’t exactly well-known for their even tempers and good decisions.  I didn’t care.  Right now, I reveled in my anger.

We packed quickly, making sure all our traps were collected as well.  I left a thin line of barrier traps to cover the gate we had secured, but they would have to guard it themselves.  As we walked away and Donny and I led the horses through the gate, the sailors lined up to watch us go.  Only a handful seemed to realize the danger they were now in, but I couldn’t manage to feel pity for them.  They had built their house.  Now, it was time to die while it burned around them.

“Where should we go now?”  Donny was limping beside me as we walked into the tunnel.  While we were packing, Scout had nudged a stack of heavy crates filled with blank copper formation plates that just so happened to land on his foot.  I could feel him still using his wood qi focusing disk to help heal it.  “We can get through the trap now without setting it off, but we don’t know how much farther the horses can make it past that outpost.”

“I hate to do it, but I think we are going to have to split up.”  He was wearing his helmet, so I could only see his eyes.  I could tell he didn’t like the idea.  “Look, that next cavern has four tunnels leading out of it.  Since we don’t have unlimited food and water supplies, we certainly can’t search all of them one at a time.  One person stays at camp, and the other four go check the tunnels.  The one back at camp can run to help the others if needed.”

“That sounds like a terrible idea.”  He was shaking his head.  “It’s never a good idea to split the party.”

“We don’t have a choice.”  I looked over at him.  “And the part you won’t like the most, is that I think you should be the one to wait back at camp.”  Before he could argue, I held up a hand to stop him.  “Think about it.  The other three are a lower cultivation level, and can’t sense qi fluctuations as far as you.  With me down one tunnel, you can focus on the three that they use, and rush in to help if they need it.” [Eric: Need to make sure my description of the second outpost mentions four tunnels, not counting the one they used to get in]

“Why don’t you be the one to wait with the horses then?”  His tone told me he was angry, but there was more of a question than a challenge.  “You have better senses than I do.”

“I know you are strong, but I wouldn’t be able to ignore you going into a tunnel by yourself.  I would have to split my attention between all of the tunnels, and that might cost us minutes in response time.”  It wasn’t necessary for me to describe how important a minute could be in a fight.  Donny understood that already.  “Once you have mastered better control of light and dark qi, I won’t have to worry about you as much.”

He didn’t say anything after that, instead concentrating on healing his injured foot.  It took us several hours to get through the trapped area without setting it off, and we managed to get to the outpost without incident.  We placed more traps at both gates, and made sure to layer plenty of them along the approach.  It would certainly be enough to slow down an army of skeletons, but the bigger monsters were large enough to soak up a lot of damage.

“Okay, I’ll take the far left tunnel, and you three handle the others.”  Jamila, Valerie, and Chu were already on their way before I could even finish speaking.  I turned and looked at Donny.  “Be ready.  There’s no telling what’s down here with us.”  He gave me a sharp nod, and I was off.  That death cultivator had to be down here somewhere, and I was going to find him.