“The lizards might take care of them for us,” Hector said. “If we’re quiet and stay low, they may not see us.”
“I guess that’s all we really can do for now,” Isabel said. “Ayela won’t be able to move until tomorrow at the earliest. How far out are the Sin’Rath?”
“Still a day behind,” Alexander said.
“At least there’s that,” Isabel said.
“I’ll be watching until the Regency soldiers arrive,” Alexander said. “If the lizards kill them all, good enough, if not I’ll try and draw off those that remain. Try and get some rest while you wait. I’ll warn you just before they arrive.”
She smiled at him as he faded out of sight.
***
Isabel waited quietly, her shield firmly in place, while Ayela slept. Hector and Horace had concealed themselves as well as possible, lying on the broad branches of the banyan tree, trying to blend in with the growing shadows. Alexander had come a few minutes before to warn them of the approaching enemy soldiers, and was now unseen but watching.
Isabel held her breath when she heard the rustling coming through the brush in the early evening gloom. The first soldier entered the clearing cautiously, stopping and scanning the area a step from the brush line. When the woman saw the dead lizard, she froze in place, looking for any hint of a threat. After a moment, she signaled those following as she quietly, slowly drew her sword.
Several more women slipped into the clearing and spread out, looking for sign of their quarry. Two soldiers carefully examined the tracks and markings from the fight while the rest fanned out and formed a perimeter.
One soldier screamed, then vanished into the brush. Followed by another. The remaining soldiers fell back into a tight group, their shields and swords pointing out toward the jungle, haunted looks ghosting across their faces as they listened to their companions screaming in agony and terror. Then there was silence.
They waited, their tension palpable in the way they flinched at the slightest noise, their fear barely held in check.
“What was that?” one said.
“One of those,” another answered, motioning to the dead lizard.
“Do you think they got Lady Reishi?” yet another asked.
“There aren’t any bodies.”
“Maybe they dragged her off into the jungle.”
“What difference does it make?” another said. “We won’t make it through the night out in the open.”
“Over there!” one shouted, pointing toward the far edge of the clearing. Isabel looked down and saw herself crouching in the brush. Her image got up and raced off into the jungle.
“Stay together,” one of the soldiers said, motioning for the remains of the Regency platoon to give chase. Within a few moments, sounds of their movement through the jungle faded into the distance.
Isabel started breathing a little easier until a scream shattered the calm evening air, followed by another. Several minutes later, three women crashed through the jungle, stumbling back into the clearing.
“I don’t understand.”
“She just vanished.”
“At least we got one of those blasted lizards.”
“Yeah, and they got seven of us.”
Isabel almost felt sorry for them. She started casting her light-lance spell, but stopped when a blurry patch of air pounced on one of the women, pinning her to the ground, taking her head in its mouth and quickly snapping her neck. The other two attacked, stabbing the chameleon lizard in the side, fatally wounding it, then pressing their advantage, they stabbed it repeatedly until it lay lifeless and mutilated.
Bloody and alone, the two soldiers looked around frantically. Night was falling.
“What do we do now?”
“What else can we do? We go back and try to find the rest of our battalion.”
“Shouldn’t we wait until morning?”
“I’m not staying here,” she said, looking around the clearing at their dead companion and the two dead lizards. “This carrion is bound to draw scavengers.”
The first soldier nodded and they started for the brush line. Hector looked to Isabel; she shook her head slowly. A few moments after the soldiers slipped into the darkening jungle, Shadowfang leapt to the ground.
Ayela woke not long after. “Did I hear screaming?”
“It was nothing,” Isabel said. “Try to rest.”
***
Isabel stretched, trying to work the stiffness out of her back from sleeping in a tree. Dawn broke over an overcast sky, but it didn’t look like rain, a small thing that she reminded herself to be grateful for.
Ayela was nearly healed but still stiff and tender from her wounds, yet she was determined to press on. Then she saw the dead soldier. “What happened last night?” she asked, looking around warily.