Acrid smoke made her nostrils raw. Breathless, she stumbled into the glade, landing hard on one knee and gasped for air. Exertion in this place was just another way to die. Heat and humidity conspired at once to give the impression of drowning with every breath and leaving one’s mouth dry with dehydration.
Maryam tried to listen. Somewhere nearby, dulled by the drumming of her own heartbeat, she could hear the sounds of dying battle. It was done. Thank the Virtues, it was done.
Sweat mingled with the spray of blood across her face and trickled down her brow, burning her eyes. She blinked hard, seeing the jungle through a pale red haze. A pair of courting birds cut through the canopy and came down into the glade, calling out to each other and gliding mesmerisingly before her. This place might have been beautiful had it not been monstrous.
A tiny chiming of bells behind her should have been a warning but, exhausted, Maryam was unable to avoid the hand shoving her hard in the back, causing her to lose balance and go reeling face first into the mossy ground. Maryam rolled to one side so she could see her assailant and brought up her axe in defence.
“What the fuck…!” she managed before Zarah planted a boot hard in her ribs, winding her.
” ‘What the fuck?’ Isn’t that my line?” Zarah screamed at her as she kicked a second time, harder.
Maryam bit hard on her lip and rolled to one side, using the momentum to come up on one knee again so she could better face the other woman.
Zarah’s eyes were pale and full of fury.
“Why?” she demanded. “Why?! After all we did? They were our only chance! You have killed us, this is all your fault, you have killed us all.”
Maryam flinched. “Stand down, sister,” she said through gritted teeth.
A tall man and a woman with long blonde braids stumbled into the clearing.
“What is happening here?” he asked.
“Keep your fucking nose out of it, barbarian!” Zarah spat at him.
The man’s eyes narrowed and he straightened himself up to full stature. The woman with braids looked nervously from Zarah to Maryam.
Another woman stepped into the glade, her face marked with soot, her weapons sheathed but her hands bloody.
“They are all dead,” she said to Zarah.
“Why, Captain?” Zarah asked, this time her anger giving way to desperation.
“So we can go home,” Maryam replied through gritted teeth, finally finding the strength to push through the pain and rise to her feet.
“Fuck you, Captain,” Zarah said angrily, tears welling in her eyes. “We should have never followed you in the first place.”
“Leave it, Zarah,” said the bloody-handed new arrival. “It’s too late now.”
Zarah’s fists clenched and she snarled at Maryam. “You don’t deserve them. You don’t deserve any of us.”
The new arrival wiped her hand on her tunic before placing it gently on Zarah’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”
As they left, the woman with the long blonde braids went down on one knee to inspect Maryam’s injury. “Are you alright?” she said, poking her ribs and causing Maryam to flinch.
“It doesn’t matter.” She brushed the pain and the attention aside. “Did you find them?”
The concerned woman reached for the pouch at her side and emptied the contents into her hand. Iridescent crystals glittered up at them.
“You think you can do it? It is asking too much of you, surely?”
“Yes, Captain, I will do it,” she replied. “What is right remains so regardless of consequence.”
Maryam closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Maybe, just maybe they could find a way home.