Excerpt: Silence in the Crossfire

Yukrin bent over and looted a medium, dark wood bow and an embroidered quiver from the corpse of a human slaver. He had a neat bullet hole between his eyebrows. I tend to use my gun when leaving rooms in hostile territory. Pulling a trigger is faster than targeting and stabbing, and I like living. Though when surer of my surroundings I tend to use a blade or other weapon; since guns are technically illegal bullets are expensive. Go figure. I watched as she pulled the quiver over her body and hooked an arrow to the bow with an air of a skilled marksman, she seemed more confident now. I didn’t blame her; I tend to feel naked without at least two guns and three blades. Ryjjil was tenderly carrying the girl. I felt a stab of irrational jealousy. I remembered when he used to carry me like that. Quickly I shook my head feeling the longer locks of my hair whisper around my ears. It was a stupid feeling, jealousy. I concentrated on my surroundings. The corridors were cleaner than the slave pen sectors, a rough, sandpapery kind of old metal. There were shouts echoing, bouncing off the rounded tunnels proclaiming fighting up ahead. By The Goddess, how much damage could the tyke do? Don’t answer that, I already know. I’ve seen that flamethrower of hers in action. The stench of burning humanoid flesh wasn’t on my perfume list. It smells like messy sex and shit. There’s a reason people gut and clean animals before cooking them. We kept moving towards the bridge. I was presuming that Ryjjil had cooked up a plan of sorts, or I was going to kick him up the ass. Though Ryjjil had earned the position of the only other mercenary I trusted completely. The bounty on my real identity was big enough to not trust anyone, let alone the notoriety of mercenaries in general. Untrusting? Who, me? Another explosion shuddered the ship and I could hear more screaming from the head of the ship as the worn steel of the barge moaned in protest. I could smell the crisp yet smoggy burn of gunpowder on my tongue. Yukrin was putting a strong face on for all her injuries. The masterful way she held the bow was a strange comfort. She seemed to know what she was doing. Her cloved hooves made hammer-like sounds on the sandy floor. The rhythm of her pattering was giving our flight a peculiarly unreal feel. Her footfalls seemed to reverberate within the inner reaches of my mind as we ran for the bridge. Why we were running towards the disturbance I didn’t know. I personally didn’t want to see what Miika was up to given her hysterical laughter, but for today at least Ryjjil was in charge. My soft leather boots fell on the hard floor quietly but did little to soften the impact of my movements. I would have to remember to have some padding added to the inner soles. We reached an intersection. Ryjjil held his hand out for a standstill and paused to listen. He had good hearing despite the fact that, like the rest of his race, he had no ears; merely holes in the side of his head with a strange layer of leathery skin over it. He held up 5 fingers and pressed his bulk against one of the walls. We followed suit in the hopes that they would be preoccupied with the thought of what was potentially a platoon of armed men attacking the bridge, rather than one walking armory of a gnome. My breathing suddenly sounded very loud, like it was roaring in my ears. I got that feeling you get in those dreams where you’re hiding from the bad guys that are after you and suddenly it’s impossible to breathe any quieter than an irritable horse. So, I just held my breathe. The sudden quiet indicated that I wasn’t alone in that. I listened to the choir of footsteps getting closer. I could count three humans, a Connoja and Faeza. They ran into our vision. A bloodthirsty-animal like snarl rattled beside me, stretching from a caught whisper to a roar. It was all the more frightening because it came from the gentle Yukrin lips. With surprising speed she tore from my side and unleashed three arrows at the Connoja. One took out his shoulder, another hit his helmet and bounced of and as he turned another pierced his genital area. He let out a surprised howl, tainted with the shock of unexpected, biting pain. The pure, animalistic fury and need to kill was splattered all over Yukrin face as she leapt for his body with a horrible snarl and started to tear him apart.