Nameless (Nameless #1)(76)
The sound of the Ram army grew louder. Gryphon had only minutes before they reached the gate and discovered the dead guards and the missing Nameless.
Gryphon retrieved a spear from one of the lifeless guards on the ground. Holding the spear gave him courage and balance, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop the strongest army in the region.
The Historian pulled out a bundle from inside her cloak, greatly resembling the one he’d tied to his spear only a few minutes earlier.
The Ram army sounded like approaching thunder.
Gryphon snatched the bundle from the Historian’s hands and sprinted to the wheel where all of the Nameless still stood. “Get out of here!” Gryphon ordered. He wedged the bundle of chemicals inside the one of the links in the chain then raced up the five flights of stairs that hugged the great wall.
The army turned the final corner and marched to the gate. The Historian had vanished.
From high on the wall Gryphon took a moment to catch his breath while he did his best to judge the distance.
“There, up on the wall!” a voice cried from below.
Gryphon held his spear aloft. The target of explosives seemed tiny from this great height.
“Striker!” Barnabas growled in fury. Men began to climb the walls. Spears flew up to meet Gryphon.
It would be not only his death if he failed, but Joshua and Zo’s, Tess and Eva’s, not to mention countless Nameless. All of their faces passed before his eyes as he reached back then threw his weight forward, his arm arching past his ear last, propelled by all the momentum he possessed.
He knew his aim had been sure even before the spear connected with the explosive pouch. On impact, light, heat, and a deafening boom brought Gryphon to one knee. Chains rattled as the gargantuan boulder acting as the gate’s counterweight dropped from the air and cracked in two as it hit the ground. The wall shook, knocking several of the men pursuing Gryphon off the stairs and plummeting to their deaths.
“I will kill you for this!” Barnabas yelled.
The wood beneath his feet swayed and groaned. With no other options before him, Gryphon pulled both of his daggers from their sheaths. He climbed over the pointed shafts of the fifty-foot wall just as the platform toppled beneath him.
Chapter 40
The first blast was immediately followed by a loud cracking sound that made the earth shake.
Gryphon.
Zo didn’t dare stop to look back at the distant wall. No matter how desperate she was to know if Gryphon survived the impossible task of blocking the Gate, she only allowed herself to think about saving Joshua.
Ahead, Gabe ran with Joshua in tow. The boy’s limbs flopped up and down and side to side as Gabe navigated the rocks and trees of the downward slope. Even with Joshua’s weight, Gabe traveled faster than Tess was able.
Zo turned to Eva, who’d been silently running at their side.
“Can you help Tess? I need to get to Joshua.”
Eva nodded and took Tess’ hand before Zo took off after Gabe. She did her best to block out the scenes from so many of her nightmares of her past, but the macabre images flashed before her eyes without volition.
Mom forces the lid over the basket to hide us just before the Ram enter our hut. She doesn’t realize the basket has holes big enough to peek through.
It all happens fast. The whites of Dad’s eyes catch the light of the low fire. They change like a cloud passing before the sun when the blade of the Ram’s sword slides through his chest to the hilt. Another Ram slices the backs of his knees. Dad crumbles to the ground like a sack of potatoes falling off a cart.
A man covered in fur carries a large round shield in one hand. He holds the tip of his spear to Mom’s neck. He wants to know where the food is, but all Mom can do is stare at Dad and try not to look at the large wicker basket in the corner where I am hiding with my baby sister.
Tess is asleep in my arms and I know any moment she will wake and wonder why Dad can’t get up and blow raspberries into her round tummy. It’s their favorite game.
And that’s all I can think of. Who will blow raspberries in Tess’ belly if Dad doesn’t get up?
Zo tripped, but gathered herself. She needed to get to Joshua before he bled out. They approached the large tree tucked into a corner of rock. The same tree they’d hidden beneath the night before Zo entered the Gate.
Other memories surfaced. Things Zo had somehow forgotten.
Mom shakes her head over and over. She’s crying. Pleading. But the fur-covered man won’t listen. Mom has her hands raised as she steps backward until she is out of our hut. She steps to the side, out of my line of sight, but what I can’t see I can hear. Her screams shatter something fragile within me. Something important that can’t ever be fixed.
I sit with Tess in my lap, my hands blocking her ears as I rock her. And rock her. And rock her. I don’t want her to hear our mother’s screams. Especially the last one that ends so abruptly.
Zo lifted the low-sweeping evergreen boughs from the ground while Gabe crawled under the tree. He set Joshua between two large branching roots near the trunk. “His breath is so shallow,” he said. “Is he going to make it?” Gabe sounded like he knew the answer to his question. He put a hand on Zo’s shoulder as she used the pack to prop up his legs. “Just do your best, Zo. No one can ask more of you than that.” He crawled back out from under the tree, likely off to see if Gryphon survived.