Page 59 of The Gilded Ones

When we look up, Captain Kelechi is standing above us, his mouth turned down in a disapproving frown. Keita and I immediately jerk upright.

Keita clears his throat. “Captain, I was—”

“Chattering with your partner when you should be inspecting the perimeter?” the captain interrupts, eyebrow raised.

Keita bows. “My apologies, Captain,” he says quickly. “I will do so now.”

Once he disappears into the shadows, Captain Kelechi turns to me. “Get some sleep, alaki,” he says. “We’ll need you at your best this morning.”

“Yes, Captain.” I bow, but by the time I lift my head, he’s already gone.

The moon has just begun lowering in the sky when we reach the deathshriek nest early next morning. Even though the rest of the jungle simmers with heat, this area is bathed in a cold, clammy mist. It lets us know we’re in the right place. I stare up at the trees, wonder rising despite the tension gripping my muscles. In the forests back home, we never had such giants, vines dripping from their branches, brightly coloured flowers nestled in their trunks. They’re so beautiful, they almost make me forget the fear gnawing at my mind.

What if I can’t sink into the combat state? Even worse – what if I can’t use the voice? What if I freeze the way I did with Katya and someone dies?

What if, what if, what if…

Britta taps me, motioning for me to focus. I nod, try to push away these unhelpful thoughts by breathing deeply the way White Hands taught me. I’m mentally reaching for that dark ocean, the golden door inside it. Thankfully, it surges up easily, and just like that, I’m in the deep combat state, which allows me to see even more clearly in the dark, the creatures there shimmering with that strange, unearthly glow as I move soundlessly through the trees with the others. I quickly spot leapers, the deathshriek sentries hidden up in the branches. Their heartbeats shine brightest of all, living drums that pound so loudly, I can almost feel them vibrating under my skin.

I motion for the group to stop, pointing up. There are two leapers up there, both well camouflaged in the trees. No one else has seen them yet – no one else has the advantage of being able to track them using only their heartbeats, the way I can. Thankfully, they haven’t noticed us yet. One false move and they will.

Captain Kelechi points a finger at me and then motions. Time for you to go, the signal says.

I motion that I understand, and then Britta and I are on the move, creeping slowly through the underbrush, making sure not to make any noises that would alert the deathshrieks. I’m dimly aware of Keita beside me, his shadow blending in and out of the trees. The years of nightly deathshriek raids have made him as quiet as he is deadly. Britta, unfortunately, is not as graceful, but she makes silent progress across the jungle as well, steadfastly watching my back.

Within moments, we’re all near both deathshrieks. The one closest to me is scanning the area, eyes alert for threats. I frown, watching it. As with the ones that attacked our walls two months ago, it seems sharper, more alive somehow, than the deathshrieks in the Warthu Bera. It doesn’t seem to notice me skulking below it, however. I’ve learned how to be stealthy during White Hands’s many lessons.

I’m the hunter now.

“Don’t make a sound,” I command, my voice reverberating, that familiar power pushing out from my skin. “Come down here.”

Both deathshrieks turn to me at the same time, their black eyes going wide with surprise before they just as quickly glaze over. Their hearts slow, the beats dulling to a trickle. When they slowly begin to descend, relief whooshes from my lungs. It’s actually working!

Soon enough, they’re on the ground, and Keita makes quick work of them, slicing their heads off before they’re any the wiser. It’s all I can do not to vomit when a musky-sweet smell tinges the air and blue blood wells up where their heads were.

Flashes. Gold on the floor. The look in Father’s eyes. The look in Katya’s…

Britta taps me and I turn away from the hated memory. I’m no longer in that cellar, and no one is going to behead me here. As I regain my composure, Keita walks over to me, eyes searching for any sign of tiredness. I still haven’t conquered the exhaustion that rises whenever I use my voice to command. I can already feel it, that hazy feeling spreading over my limbs. I won’t be able to remain standing for much longer.

“Excellent job,” he says. “They never even saw it com—”

The sound of shaking branches alerts us to movement. I turn to find a pair of black deathshriek eyes peeking out from a nearby tree. The deathshriek stops, horrified, when it sees the bodies of its slaughtered comrades.

It opens its mouth – only to make a horrible gurgling sound as a knife rips through its throat, pinning it to the tree. Belcalis lowers her hand, but her knife came too late. The deathshriek’s dying scream is now echoing through the trees. For a moment, Keita and I look at each other, hoping against hope that we’re safe – that the other deathshrieks haven’t been awakened.

Then the shrieks begin, each more horrific than the next, so piercing, I can hear them through my helmet. I toss it aside, trying to hear the direction they’re coming from. I’m resistant to the worst effects of deathshriek screams, and my time in the caverns with Rattle and the other deathshrieks has made me even more so.

The mist thickens, the enraged deathshrieks excreting it more and more, and Keita grabs me, running towards the rest of the group. “Infinity take it, there’s too many of them!” he hisses, feet pounding faster. I try to keep up, but every stride is a battle against the exhaustion now weighing down my limbs.

“I’ve got her!” Britta says, swooping me up like I weigh nothing.

“Keep her close!” Keita replies, readying his sword as we reach the others.

Captain Kelechi is prepared for our arrival. “Swords outward!” he commands as the raiding party bands together.

Britta places me in the middle of the circle, and then everyone else closes ranks, backs to each other, swords out towards the incoming threat. Around us, the mist is thickening even more and the treetops are rustling as shimmering figures lope across branches while others make their way through the underbrush. I watch it, my limbs so heavy now, I can barely remain standing. Exhaustion weights my every muscle.

“Make sure you leave no openings!” Captain Kelechi calls out.

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