Bones of the Empire by Jim Galford Read Free Book Online Page B

past Raeln. She was going to die, Raeln knew it, but he could not make himself stand with the stone in his stomach. Closing his eyes, Raeln refused to watch her be torn apart by the undead. He had failed his group, but he could not let himself watch as another innocent died while he was unable to help.
    Roars filled the area, followed by a deafening crack of thunder. Raeln lifted his head slowly and found a group of heavily armored six-foot bug-like creatures had erupted from the ground and were fighting the undead. The Turessians were hurling spells at the beetle-like monsters while Dalania dragged Yoska away from them and back toward Raeln.
    “Get back up!” Dalania told Raeln, grunting as she struggled to pull Yoska, who was groaning but barely moving. “My friends won’t hold them long. Raeln!”
    Raeln forced one of his feet under him and tried to stand, but he could not find the strength. Looking down, he saw blood was seeping steadily from his side, soaking his hand, running down his leg, and staining the snow all around him. He tried to shut out the pain and get up anyway, but his body refused to obey.
    “I said, get up!” Dalania repeated, putting a hand on Raeln’s shoulder. Strength flooded his body immediately and the pain subsided. “I’m not going to be able to talk reasonably with them…we need to go.”
    His breath rasping in his lungs, Raeln got to his feet, grabbed Yoska, and hoisted him over his shoulder. The stone still pressed against his stomach muscles, making it hard to breathe, but whatever Dalania had done was allowing him to ignore it. He ran, making sure to stay a step behind Dalania the whole way down the hillside so he was the target of any attacks.
    Within minutes, Raeln felt his strength ebbing and the pain returning. His pace slowed quickly, but Dalania was also slowing as they made their way from the hills to a rockier area of the region, where Raeln hoped they could hide for a time. He began to limp as his whole body ached. It was a struggle to even stay upright, but the stony rises ahead were beckoning him, and he knew he had to make it that far.
    Raeln made it to the first section of snow-free ground before he collapsed, barely managing to spare Yoska from being dropped on his head. Yoska groaned as Raeln set him down hard. The moment Yoska hit the ground, he clutched at his ribs, which might well have been broken after the beating Raeln had seen him take.
    Straining just to take in enough air to stay conscious, Raeln tried to check Yoska’s wounds, but his shaking hands would not obey. He fell onto his side, staring off in the direction Dalania had gone, hoping to see her come with a horse or some other beast that might carry them away in a hurry. Instead, she reappeared a minute later, walking slowly toward them with her hands in the air. Behind her, a group of ten black-robed humans followed, two with hands raised toward her, their gloved fingers crackling with lightning.
    “I’m sorry,” Dalania whispered as she stopped, and Raeln could only stare at her hopelessly as his lungs tightened. “They were waiting for us.”
     
    *
     
    Waking gradually, Raeln’s first sensation was agony as his stomach muscles clenched around the stone embedded in his flesh. Someone else was nearby and he was on his back, but it took him a minute or two to make out where he was. Even the cold winds seemed to be gone, making him wonder how long he had been unconscious. He wanted to lash out and try to get to his friends, but he was well aware that aimlessly swinging at the air would do little good.
    Opening his eyes, Raeln saw dry old wooden beams overhead that held up hardened clay bricks. It took him a moment to remember where he had seen similar building designs: the abandoned village outside the mine. Dismissing the idea that he was there, he noticed the rising smoke of a fire burning at one end of the room. Without being able to move easily, he could still see bits of furniture from the