Chapter Two Hundred Twenty-One: 'Fears not the torch...'

Boy, it sure did suck, not having access to his undead strength or endurance at times like this. Sure, at least the recuperative "hangover" later wouldn't be nearly as bad, but it sure would've come in handy during all this hiking.

Raul hadn't realized just how rugged the terrain was. These wooded mountains weren't even that big. The Waress Mountains back home easily put them to shame. But Raul's only interaction with those giants had been occasionally looking at them on the horizon.

As he put one foot in front of the other and tried not to dwell on how heavily he was breathing or how much he was sweating, he found himself wondering if perhaps that pride in his homeland had blinded him to the difficulty of this task.

Maybe just a tad.

The little mountain here wasn't tall, but it was certainly steep. The road below was one of only two paths in or out of Miro. The other one was on the opposite side of the town. Adan and Esai were handling it. Raul would have to make do on his own.

He stopped to catch his breath. The sun was almost finished setting, already. He had a flashlight in his bag, but even so, this wasn't going to get any easier at night.

Not to mention, the longer he took, the more likely it was that one more truck full of slaves would make it out of Miro.

He had to block the road. And preferably, he had to make it look like a natural occurrence. If the enemy realized they were being sabotaged, everything would become more complicated.

And god knew, things were complicated enough already.

He finally pulled out his flashlight and shone it up ahead, searching the jagged rock faces there.

Hmm. No clear path for him, it seemed. He'd have to climb straight upward if he wanted to keep going this direction.

Well, maybe he didn't need to. Maybe this was high enough.

Raul searched around for any large, loose boulders. He spotted a couple candidates, though they were stuck into the ground more deeply than he would've liked, and it was also difficult to tell if they alone would be enough.

He'd never started a landslide before.

Hmm. Yeah, those rocks wouldn't do the job, he decided. He might have to use more of his power than he first thought.

In that case, this could get very tricky. If he wasn't careful, he could easily kill himself here. If he lost his footing, he would go tumbling down the side of this mountain along with everything else and probably end up buried alive or simply crushed to death.

Well, this was characteristic of plans that were made on such short notice, he supposed. High risk. There would be no telling how long it might take his reaper to locate his corpse way out here in the wilds of Vantalay. Hell, depending on how the war developed, that could take years.

So he didn't want to slip and fall. He needed to make sure that he could maintain solid footing.

Perhaps his alteration power over friction could solve that problem for him, too. This awkward, uneven ground added some uncertainty to the equation, but he felt like he could manage it.

Hopefully.

He positioned himself with his back against the rocky wall that he'd found. He checked directly above his head, wanting to make sure there were no obviously loose boulders up there that would fall and crush him, and when he was satisfied with where he was standing, he crouched down, and dug his fingers into a patch of dirt at his feet.

He needed to two things. First, he needed to create a kind of "increased friction bubble" for himself--something to prevent the ground directly beneath him from moving.

Secondly, he had to decrease the friction just about everywhere else.

A sudden thought struck him, and Raul hesitated.

He pulled his right hand out of the dirt and grabbed his phone out of his pocket. He texted his brothers, informing him that he was in position and waiting on them.

If they were to be discreet, then it would be best if both roads were blocked simultaneously. Two landslides happening at the same time might instead seem like one incident. Which would be less suspicious.

He didn't bother to articulate all of that in his text just now, but he doubted he would need to. They'd understand.

So he waited a bit longer for word from his brothers. They were taking a while, which was unsurprising. They had farther to go than he did.

He pulled out his binoculars and spied on the town. This wasn't a very good vantage point compared to the one he'd used earlier in the day, but it let him see a few of the buildings at least. He could see a handful of apparent guards on duty.

Hold on.

Was that someone using binoculars, too?

They turned this way.

Raul turned off his flashlight.

The guard was still looking in this direction. They weren't using binoculars equipped with night-vision, were they?

He hunkered down a bit lower, enough to let the treeline block his line of sight.

Hmm. These Abolishers were more vigilant than he thought. The Killer of Krohin had a reputation for brutality, not competency, but perhaps in this case, they went hand-in-hand. You couldn't maintain such notoriety without at least a little bit of the latter, Raul supposed.

The text arrived from his brothers. They were in position, too. Good.

He was tempted to pop his head up another time and look toward Miro again, but he resisted. He sent his response text, telling his brothers to go ahead, and then dug his fingers back into the dirt.

He tried to go deep with his friction. He needed to shift a lot of ground. Moving the topsoil would be easiest but probably not enough.

Nothing was moving yet, so he pushed harder, removing more and more friction. His ability was a bit difficult to work with insofar as it doesn't offer much mental or visual feedback for him. Was it working? Was it not? Friction could be a little obtuse, at times.

But then, all at once, the earth shifted and heaved. The entire side of the mountain fell away from him in the darkness, taking trees and boulders with it. The rumbling roar was so loud and intense that he certainly would've been knocked off his feet if he hadn't already been crouching.

Dirt and rock and splintered wood flew up in all directions, creating a cloud over the road below.

For a time, Raul just kind of stared.

Well, it worked. Better than he'd expected, honestly. It was a bit hard to tell through the darkness and the debris, but the blockage on the road was maybe a quarter-mile long or so. At least.

Not too shabby.

And the mountain. Wow. It looked like it had been sheered clean by a giant razor. Now that he'd released his power, he stepped off of his safe little island and set foot on the smooth, sloping rock that was left.

It was almost slippery now. He'd have to be careful going back down.

Oh crap, he hoped he'd parked the rental car far enough away. He hadn't expected the landslide to be quite so huge. Perhaps he'd underestimated his own power a bit. Well, he supposed that would make sense, considering his family's isolation all these years. Training was one thing, but testing his capabilities out in the field like this was quite another.

He was all but surfing by the time he made it down to the bottom of the slope. He used his ability to help slow his descent, making sure not to be too abrupt, lest he throw himself off balance and topple forward face first.

He'd made that kind of mistake many times as a teenager.

He started toward the direction of the car. He sent another quick text to his brothers, informing them that he was done. Thankfully, the reply arrived soon thereafter. They were heading back to the car, too. It would take them a bit longer to get back to it, so he'd have to wait for them again.

First, he had to find the thing, though. With all the dust and debris everywhere, he was becoming increasingly worried that the car really had been a victim of the landslide.

He kept searching.

A sudden noise acquired his attention from the direction of Miro, and he turned to look. It was difficult to tell through all the lingering particles in the air, but he thought he could see headlights in the distance, and as he listened more intently, he realized it was an approaching truck.

He hunkered down again.

This was both good and bad, Raul thought. He'd managed to prevent another truck from leaving Miro, so that was great. But now they were close. There were probably hostiles in that truck, as well as slaves.

And the rental car was still nowhere to be seen.

He tried to pick up his pace as he sent off a warning text to his brothers, telling them to be wary of enemies in the vicinity.

Gah. There was so much debris. Uprooted trees, shattered boulders, splintered wood--everywhere he looked, there were more things to be careful of. If he tripped and injured himself, he couldn't regenerate.

He heard yelling behind him, then turned to see specks of light moving over the top of the wrecked land. Flashlights, most likely. Nothing to panic about. He had a good distance on them.

Then he saw a pair of blackbirds high up in the night sky. Despite the darkness, they didn't blend in, instead having ethereal auras around them that made them glow in that all-too-familiar way.

Reapers, no doubt.

They were far away but not that far. And Raul was all alone out here. If the reapers hadn't sensed his soul already, they soon would.

He needed to pick up his pace. He concentrated and stamped the uneven ground with his foot. A path ahead of him appeared in the ground as the topmost layer of wreckage slid away, down a gentle slope in the direction of the car.

The path that he'd just created for himself wasn't steep, but he knew perfectly well how dangerous it would be to walk on it haphazardly. With as much friction as he'd removed, it would be like ice now.

But of course, Raul had considerable experience with this tactic.

He dove straight onto the path and went flying down it, feeling the evening wind rush past him. He kept his balance perfectly. He could go much faster than this, if needed, but as the speed increased, so did the accompanying risks, and he wasn't yet convinced that such drastic measures were necessary.

When he looked back, the reapers were little more than specks in the distance.

Excellent.

He still had no idea where the rental car was, but the fact of the matter was that he and his brothers didn't actually need it. With their power, they could make it back to Ridgemark in no time on their own.

The ground began to even out as he arrived at the edge of the landslide, but Raul hardly slowed at all. He extended his friction-reduced path onto the flat pavement of the road and just kept going, though he did start pumping with his legs as if he really was ice skating in order to help maintain his speed.

Still skating, he whipped out his phone to text his brothers another time. It was a shame that they had to abandon their vehicle, but oh well. Helping those poor folks in Miro was more than worth the lost money.

If he'd known how big the landslide would be, he could've saved the car. That was a result of his own lack of field experience, Raul knew. Hopefully, the project leaders back in Warrenhold wouldn't be too upset at him for allowing such a waste.

His brothers were taking a while to respond to his text, Raul noticed.

The road ahead was straight and clear, so he turned around and started skating backwards. He pulled out his binoculars again.

It was too far and too dark. He couldn't make anything out.

He allowed the friction on his path to regather, and his pace slowed.

"C'mon," he said under his breath. "Respond, bros."

He waited.

It seemed like that was all he was doing, lately. Waiting on his brothers. He normally didn't mind. They were one unit. Always had been. That unity was what made them effective.

But this was agonizing.

They knew that they were supposed to send confirmation. This wasn't carelessness on their part. And the text looked like it had gone through. He typed it out a second time and sent it again, just in case.

He was fully stopped now, just standing there in the middle of the road, continually checking the binoculars in vain. He watched the clock on his phone, growing more tense with each passing second.

Three minutes went by without word. Then five. Then eight. Ten.

This was certainly too long. No one was chasing him, it seemed, but given the seriousness of the situation, with hostiles having been in the vicinity, ten minutes of silence was cause to start thinking the worst.

Which he was. Had they been captured?

Finally, a response arrived.

ok ok

Relief washed through him. Both of them had answered, almost in unison. Another text from Adan came through.

meet up comprised. need new location. closer by

Raul's prior sense of relief diminished as quickly as it had come. And another text arrived, this time from Esai.

agreed

And a set of latitude and longitude coordinates appeared.

Raul's green eyes went hollow as he stared at the screen.

Those texts weren't from his brothers. Or if they were, then they were being sent under duress.

Raul knew this because he had discussed the subject of secondary rendezvous points with them before the mission. There should have been no need to send coordinates. They both should have already known where to go.

Damn those Abolish snakes in lakefire.

They were trying to lure him into a trap. No doubt, if he actually went to those coordinates, he would soon find himself surrounded.

He checked those coordinates anyway, making sure that he didn't accidentally head toward them, and then started skating his way back to Ridgemark.

He put his phone away. There was one other thing he needed to confirm.

Oh, boy, he wasn't looking forward to this conversation.

'Arumoro,' he called.

'Raul,' came his reaper's private response from all the way back in Warrenhold.

There was no dancing around it. '...Have Adan and Esai been captured?'

'Why in damnation are you asking that?!' yelled Arumoro, no longer in the echo of privacy.

Raul explained.

'You did all that without permission?!'

'We needed to buy time for our reinforcements to arrive,' said Raul.

'You still should have told us about it!'

'You would have just forbidden us from doing it.'

'You're damn right we would have!'

Raul's expression remained steadfast in the darkness. 'I don't regret it. And neither do they, I'm sure. The operation was successful. Abolish won't be able to move anyone out of Miro for a while.'

The reaper sighed at him.

'Would you mind yelling at me later?' said Raul. 'I need you to confirm for me that Adan and Esai are actually captured and not just lost or dead.'

Arumoro growled at him, but said, 'One minute.' And presumably, he went to go talk to their reapers.

The forest was beginning to thin, and the taller hotels of Ridgemark were coming into view. Despite his lack of access to undead vigor, Raul still wasn't even breaking a sweat.

He meant what he'd said about not regretting his actions. But he also wondered how long that landslide would truly last. There were obviously servants there in Miro. Depending on what abilities they had, removing the blockages might be trivial for them.

But they had to be spooked now, also. Even if they did manage to clear the roads, they might think twice about trying to move any more slaves. The Triplets had wanted to make their dual landslides look like a natural occurrence, but perhaps it was better for the hostages this way.

Or maybe he was just trying to rationalize his failure away.

Arumoro returned with the news he'd been expecting. 'They are indeed captured,' he said, speaking privately again. 'However, their captors haven't frozen their heads yet, because they're trying to figure out who they are.'

Ah. That was good news.

Partially.

'...Are they being tortured?' said Raul.

'Yes.'

Raul's jaw clenched. His brothers could handle it. They were servants. Part of what made torture effective was the threat of death. Without it, Adan and Esai would be all but impossible to crack.

But the pain that they were going to go through...

And other forms of torture existed, too, of course. It depended on how creative their captors were.

'Also, it's unclear if Abolish realizes that they're servants yet,' said Arumoro.

'They should at least suspect as much,' said Raul. 'It would've been difficult for non-servants to cause those landslides.'

'Yes, well, this is Abolish. They might be morons.'

Considering how they had tried to trap him, Raul doubted that. And he didn't think a bunch of idiots would have been able to successfully capture his brothers.

'I think it would be a mistake to underestimate these enemies,' said Raul.

'I'm not underestimating anyone,' said Arumoro. 'I'm just trying to be optimistic.'

Raul found that amusing. 'Heh, really? That must be hard for you.'

'Extremely.'

Raul wiped his mirth away again. 'I assume Adan and Esai are unable to destroy their own brains?'

'Yeah. I asked. And their reapers would've already started regenerating them by now if they could.'

Then the Abolishers were indeed being cautious. They must've had his brothers tied up or otherwise bound such that they couldn't move much. Destroying their own brains wasn't the easiest trick to pull off with their power, but they did have compact explosives in their bags. They must have not been able to use them in time. Unfortunately, a simple knife or gunshot wound to the skull was not damaging enough to constitute regrowing the brain from scratch.

'This a real mess you've gotten yourselves in,' said Arumoro.

Raul understood why the reaper felt that way, but frankly, he disagreed. It was far from ideal, true, but in the end, the mission hadn't really changed. There were just two more people in need of rescue, now.

And he was a Rainlord.

This was nothing to be growing demoralized over. It was just providing more motivation.