“Spread out and head up to the Grey Ghost,” Butcher ordered. “We need to survey the west country and retreat into our own territory before any more Renegades come over here and find out what’s happening.”

  “Wait a minute, Uncle,” Viking panted. “Vulture is injured. He won’t be able to climb all that way.”

  “I’ll stay with him,” Hangman offered. “I’ll take him out to the jungle and wait for you to return.”

  Butcher nodded, pulled the pictures out of his bag, and spread them on the ground. “Look for these peaks while you’re up there. Look for anything that might resemble these lines of mountains—and look for any sign of the weapons. These flat sections of stone should be visible from a distance.”

  He pointed out huge perfectly flat expanses of hardened stone underneath the strange weapons. Hangman didn’t see how any stone could be that big and flat.

  Butcher was right, though. The area covered a massive valley between the mountains. If the area was anywhere beyond the western mountains, the Godless would have been able to see it easily from the top of the Jagged Points.

  Then again, the area and the mountains in question might not be in the west country at all.

  The party split up. Butcher put his pictures away, gave orders to the other men, and they left the Renegade camp on their way west.

  Hangman turned his attention to Vulture. He looked like he might have gotten into a fight against another Gurlg. The wound in his leg didn’t look clean enough to have been made by a blade, especially not one of the Renegade’s metal blades.

  Hangman didn’t ask. He tore off some of the dead Renegades’ clothes, bound the skins tightly around the wound, got under his bigger cousin’s arm, and helped Vulture hobble up the hill into the trees.

  Vulture winced a lot, but he kept his mouth shut and didn’t complain. He gasped in pain when Hangman lowered him to the ground under a tree where no one from the Renegade camp would be able to see them.

  “Stay here,” Hangman murmured. “I’ll get you some water and some leaves to make the paste.”

  Vulture only nodded. He wouldn’t be able to leave even if he wanted to.

  Hangman returned to the camp—or he tried to. A small stream ran behind the camp on the west side. That was the closest water source. The Renegades must have chosen this spot for that reason.

  He made it as far as the fringe of trees and almost walked out into the open before he saw movement at the edge of the camp.

  He crouched in the shadows and watched four Renegades hiding in a clump of bushes on the north side of the camp. The Godless didn’t see these last remaining Renegades from the camp, but Hangman saw them from the hilltop.

  They hid close enough to see and hear every word Butcher just said to his men. The Renegades pointed up the western mountains where the Godless just passed out of sight.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Hangman’s brain went into a tailspin. Those Renegades knew about the Godless now.

  Those men knew the Godless attacked this camp. They knew the Godless were scouting the west country for some kind of weapons.

  The Renegades also knew which mountains and features the Godless were looking for.

  Hangman realized the truth in a heartbeat. He had to eliminate these Renegades at all costs. He couldn’t let them make it back to their own people with this information.

  The Godless hoped to use these weapons against the Renegades. It would be catastrophic if the Renegades found the weapons first.

  The Renegades had all the advantage on their side. They controlled all the country to the west.

  The weapons could be right there inside Renegade territory—right where the Renegades would be able to use these weapons against the Godless instead of the other way around.

  Hangman couldn’t let that happen. He considered going back to Vulture and explaining the problem to him, but Hangman didn’t have time for that.

  The Renegades pulled back from their position and headed west to follow the Godless. They would overtake his relatives and probably spring a surprise attack on the Godless from behind.

  That would never happen because Hangman would get to the Renegades first. He would pull the same maneuver, isolate them in the jungle, and cut them down before his relatives even knew the Renegades were there.

  He set off through the undergrowth to catch up with them. He had to move fast, but he also had to make sure not to give himself away.

  He came to a rough patch of ground, scaled a tree, and traveled much faster through the canopy. He balanced along branches and used their springy bounce to jump to new branches.

  The canopy got so thick that it gave him plenty of branches to hold onto with his hands. He could get closer to the Renegades like this without them detecting that he was following them.

  They made it easier for him by creeping along more slowly. They didn’t want to alert the Godless to their presence.

  He came in sight of them and measured how to attack them. He was still following them when he noticed a pack of Abnormits on a nearby tree.

  Each of these large insects was as big as he was. The Abnormits scuttled along the ground on six jointed legs attached to a horizontal, cylindrical body.

  Their heads blended in with the rest of their bodies except for long feelers waving and undulating from their heads.

  He had to climb out of the branches to avoid them, but it was too late. They picked up his scent and started dropping to the ground all around him.

  Their armored bodies thumped into the dirt, the Abnormits flailed their jointed limbs to turn themselves over, and they all scurried after him trying to catch him.

  He made a snap decision, took off running for the Renegades, and drew his weapons before he came insight of them. They wouldn’t be able to go near the Godless with a bunch of Abnormits trying to get them.

  The Abnormits could run faster than Hangman could. They closed the gap and would have devoured him if not for the Renegades.

  They heard him coming and turned around to confront him. They might even have heard the Abnormits’ feet rushing through the leaf litter.

  He raised his kukris above his head, bellowed at the top of his lungs, and charged attack with his weapons.

  The Renegades saw him first, closed ranks to meet him—and then they saw the Abnormits. The Renegades all pivoted away from Hangman to confront the creatures. It was too late to run.

  He took advantage of the Renegades’ surprise, hacked one of them through the neck, and kept on running.

  The oncoming Abnormits swarmed the Renegades. Two of them actually did scream as the creatures pulled the men to the ground.

  Hangman sprang back into the branches of a low-growing tree and scrambled back into the canopy.

  It was all over except for the munching and crunching sounds drifting up from below. He watched for a minute, but there was nothing left of the Renegades.

  The Abnormits devoured everything, including bones, clothing, and hair. The insects eventually crawled away into the jungle leaving only the Renegades’ weapons lying on the ground.

  End of Chapter 11.

  ? 2024 by Theo Mann

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