Chương 19: B1 Chapter 18

The Bone Jaw had driven them together without realizing what they were doing. Or perhaps they had realized. Perhaps that was the plan. Our hunters formed a rough half-circle near the center of the village. The huts stood behind them, the firepit burned to one side, and the open ground stretched before them. And the Bone Jaw filled that open ground. They were between my people and the forest, between my people and the women, between my people and the children. The Bone Jaw did not see the trap.

They thought they had cornered our hunters. They thought the men were pinned against the huts and the brush behind them was empty. They didn't know I was there. They didn't know the darkness at the bush line had eyes or that the leaves were hiding a weapon. They didn't know every movement they made was being measured. A Bone Jaw raid leader stepped forward. He wore a necklace of fingers and held a long-handled axe. The others quieted when he raised one hand.

He looked over our hunters, then pointed toward the trees. Two Bone Jaw dragged another child from behind a hut. The child screamed for his mother. My father saw him, and his face changed. The exhaustion disappeared. The pain disappeared. He lifted his spear. The Bone Jaw leader smiled. He knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted our hunters to break formation, to rush, to leave one another exposed. My father took one step forward. Joa caught his arm.

"Wait," Joa said. The Bone Jaw leader shouted, and the warriors advanced. Our hunters tightened their circle. The first Bone Jaw came at Makua. Makua met him with a spear thrust. The warrior knocked it aside and swung his axe. Makua stepped back, and the axe cut through the air. A second Bone Jaw attacked from the side. Makua turned too late. I loaded another dart. The warrior's leg was exposed. I fired. The dart struck behind his knee, and his leg buckled. Makua's spear drove into his chest.

The first Bone Jaw hesitated. Makua used the hesitation. He stepped inside the axe swing and struck the man beneath the ribs. The Bone Jaw folded. Makua pulled his spear free and looked toward the brush. Not directly at me. But close enough that my heart stopped. Then he turned back to the fight. The Bone Jaw leader shouted again. This time, they came all at once. The open ground disappeared beneath moving bodies. Stone struck wood. Spears scraped against shields. Men screamed.

Our hunters fought shoulder to shoulder, but the Bone Jaw pressed from every direction. My father thrust. Joa blocked. Hokan struck. Makua shouted. The line bent backward. One of our hunters fell, and another stepped over him and filled the gap. A Bone Jaw axe struck a spear shaft and split it. The hunter holding it grabbed the broken end and stabbed with it. A club struck someone's face. Blood sprayed across the dirt. The Bone Jaw leader moved behind his warriors, shouting orders. He wasn't fighting.

He was directing them. That made him more dangerous than the others. He saw where our line was weak and sent men there. He saw when someone stumbled and sent another warrior to finish him. Then he saw my father. He pointed. Three Bone Jaw broke away from the main fight and rushed him. My father raised his spear. The first warrior struck high, and my father blocked. The second struck low, forcing my father to jump back. The third came from behind. I loaded another dart. You could be reading stolen content.

Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. The Bone Jaw behind my father lifted his club. I fired. The dart struck his cheek. He jerked his head aside, and the club missed my father's skull and struck his shoulder instead. My father grunted but stayed upright. He turned and drove his spear into the man's stomach. Joa seized the first warrior by the arm and pulled him off balance. Hokan struck the second across the face, and Makua finished him with a thrust through the chest. The three Bone Jaw fell almost together.

The leader stared. He looked from the bodies to our hunters. Then his eyes moved toward the bush line. I froze. He had not seen me. Not yet. But he had seen the pattern. Men were falling at moments that made no sense. A warrior stumbled when no spear touched him. Another dropped his weapon. Another turned his face just before a killing blow. The leader's gaze moved slowly across the edge of the village. He was searching for the hand behind the fight. I pressed my body lower. The leaves trembled against my back.

A Bone Jaw warrior came toward the brush. The same one I had noticed before. He held a club in one hand and a knife in the other. His eyes moved over the leaves as he stepped carefully, testing the ground before each footfall. Behind him, the battle continued. Our hunters were still pinned, and the Bone Jaw still believed they had trapped us. They didn't know the trap had another side. The warrior came closer. I slid another dart into the blowgun. He stopped at the edge of the brush and tilted his head.

He had heard something. Perhaps my breathing. Perhaps the faint click of the dart entering the tube. He crouched. His hand reached toward the leaves. I aimed at his eye. Then I saw movement beyond him. A woman was being dragged toward the trees. She fought with both hands, digging her fingers into the dirt. A child clung to her leg. The Bone Jaw dragging her struck the child with the back of his hand. The child fell. The woman screamed. Something inside me went still.

I lowered the blowgun from the warrior's eye and aimed past him. The dart struck the Bone Jaw dragging the woman in the throat. He released her and staggered backward, clawing at the shaft. The woman rolled away. The warrior at the bush line spun toward the sound. I fired again. The dart struck his hand, and his knife dropped. He shouted and lunged into the brush. I rolled sideways as his club smashed into the leaves where my head had been. The ground shook beneath me. He swung again.

I crawled backward, pushing through roots and dead leaves. My bad shoulder dragged uselessly against the ground, sending a hot pulse of pain through my chest. I couldn't use it to brace myself or reach for anything with it. Every movement had to come from my legs, my good arm, and the twisting strength of my torso. The brush was too thick for him to move quickly. That was why I had chosen it. He cursed and reached after me. I grabbed a fallen branch with my good hand and shoved it between us.

His club struck the branch and broke it. I pulled the blowgun close and kicked at his knee with my good leg. He stumbled. I rolled away, but the warrior crashed forward, half falling into the brush. His hand closed around my ankle. I struck his wrist with the blowgun. Once. Twice. He pulled harder. His knife was gone, but his fingers were thick and strong. I twisted and drove my heel into his face. He released me. I scrambled backward until my shoulders struck a tree root. The movement wrenched my injured shoulder.

White pain burst across my vision, and for a moment, my arm went numb. The warrior rose. His face was bleeding. His eyes found mine. For the first time, a Bone Jaw saw me clearly. He opened his mouth to shout. I shoved the blowgun against his throat. There was no dart inside. It didn't matter. I drove the wooden tube into his windpipe. He gagged. I struck him again. He grabbed for me, but I ducked beneath his arm, keeping my bad shoulder tucked tight against my ribs, and seized the knife at his belt.

I hadn't seen it there. I pulled it free and drove it into the soft place beneath his ribs. The Bone Jaw stiffened. His hands closed around my shoulders, and his grip caught my injured side. Pain tore through me, but I bit down and held on. For a moment, I thought he would crush me even while dying. Then his grip loosened. He fell into the leaves. I stayed beneath him until I was certain he would not move. Then I pushed his body aside with my good arm and looked back toward the village. The fight had changed.

The woman had crawled toward the huts, and the child was on his knees beside her. One of our hunters had reached them and pulled them behind the line. The Bone Jaw leader had seen it. He was shouting now. Not orders. Something else. Fear. The Bone Jaw warriors were no longer advancing as one. They kept looking toward the brush, toward the bodies, toward the places where their men had fallen without warning. Our hunters noticed. My father noticed. Joa noticed.

They didn't know I was there, but they knew the Bone Jaw were afraid of something. That was enough. My father raised his spear and shouted. Our hunters answered. The sound rolled across the village. The Bone Jaw line faltered. Makua charged first. He drove into the nearest warrior and knocked him backward. Joa followed, striking low, and Hokan came behind them. My father moved with the others. The hunters were no longer waiting to be crushed. They pushed forward.

The Bone Jaw tried to hold their ground, but the formation had broken. One warrior turned toward the trees. Another backed away from the firepit. A third stumbled over a body. I loaded another dart. The Bone Jaw leader saw the movement. He pointed toward the brush. Three warriors began moving in my direction. I fired at the first. The dart struck his thigh, and he stumbled. The second looked down. I fired again. The dart struck his hand, and his spear fell. The third kept coming.

He had learned not to look at the darts. He lowered his head and charged through the leaves. I crawled sideways. My bad shoulder dragged behind me, useless and burning. I couldn't push off with it, so I hooked my good hand around a root and pulled my body clear. The warrior crashed past me, searching. I waited until his back turned. Then I drove the knife into the back of his knee. He dropped with a roar. I pulled the blade free and struck his neck. He fell face-first into the dirt.

The first two Bone Jaw were still alive. One tried to crawl while the other clutched his hand. I left them. The fight was moving away from me now. Our hunters had broken through the center. The Bone Jaw were retreating toward the forest, but they were not running together. Some dragged wounded men. Some abandoned them. Some still carried women and children. My father saw one. He broke from the line. Joa shouted after him, but my father ran toward the trees. A Bone Jaw carrying a boy turned and raised his axe.

My father threw his spear. It struck the warrior in the back. The man fell, and the boy rolled free. My father reached him and pulled him against his chest. Another Bone Jaw rushed from the side. I lifted the blowgun. The dart struck the warrior's ankle, and he stumbled. My father turned and struck him with the butt of the spear. The man fell beside the child. My father carried the boy back toward the village. The Bone Jaw leader watched him. Then he looked toward the bush line again.

His eyes stopped near the body of the warrior I had killed. He understood. Not everything. But enough. He shouted and pointed directly at the darkness beneath the leaves. The remaining Bone Jaw turned. For the first time, they were all looking toward me. I pressed myself against the earth. The village had come together behind my father and the other hunters. The Bone Jaw stood between us and the forest. They thought they had pinned our people. They thought the huts and the bodies had trapped us.

They thought the brush was empty. They were wrong. I was in the dark of the bush line. And now they knew there was something there. Not who. Not how many. Only that every step toward the leaves might be the step that killed them. I slid the last of my darts into the blowgun. My injured shoulder throbbed beside me, heavy and useless. The Bone Jaw leader raised his axe. Our hunters tightened around the women and children. My father lifted his spear. Joa wiped blood from his mouth.

Makua planted his feet, and Hokan bent low, ready to charge. The Bone Jaw leader shouted. His warriors began moving toward the brush. I took aim. Let them come. They still had to find me.