190 The Great Escape (2/2)

”Azuma, we need you protecting the injured more,” she said in a reassuring voice that reminded me of my mother. ”Don't worry… Dean will lead the march himself.”

It was just like Aura to volunteer me for the hard job, not that I was complaining as I did plan to lead the march which she probably assumed.

”And to be safe, I'll go with him,” she added smoothly.

”Hold on… that's not the plan,” I interrupted. ”You're getting on those gliders.”

”Dean, my squad and I just got here, and most of us apart from Ty have done very little,” she argued. ”Supporting our escape is something we can manage better than a regular infantry unit can.”

”She's right, Commander,” Varda popped in from behind Azuma. ”Landslides, creeping mist, overgrown shrubberies, walls of fire — you name it, we can do it!”

I groaned. It was just like Varda to make sense at the most inconvenient of times.

”You've got some strong females in your unit, Dean,” Al whispered in my ear. ”Must be nice…”

”Um, most times, they're a handful,” I whispered back. ”So your all-male team might be better.”

”Trust me, buddy,” he wrapped a shoulder around my neck. ”You've got it better.”

I asked Al to lead the glider teams out after they'd been loaded, and he was gone within the hour along with Azuma and the rest of our injured men.

At this point, the fighting above had slowed to a crawl as Edo and Ashley were leading their forces down the southern slope while their pursuers were impeded by the many traps hidden between barricades.

”Zarz would have loved to seen all this,” I said as I accepted Myth Chaser's reins from Luca's hand. ”He helped make it all possible.”

”Yeah, the little gnome is as crazy as you are,” Luca laughed from his seat on Jade Shadow.

My younger brother had been nice enough to drag mine and Aura's mounts with him during his cavalry's march. He'd even sent them to the bottom of the sand dune's southern slope with a few guards to keep them out of harm's way while he led the charge up the northern slope.

I climbed up Myth Chaser and patted its neck lovingly. Then I gazed up and saw that the last of our defenders were making their way down the lower half of the southern slope with pursuers not far behind.

”Qwipps!” I called. ”Shouldn't it have all gone kaboom by now?”

”We used a pretty long fuse… but it should happen any second now,” he answered while glancing down at the hourglass in his palm. ”Right about… now!”

An explosion rocked the oasis above sending both sand and water raining down on us.

”How much black powder did you guys use?” Luca asked.

”Three barrels worth,” Qwipps answered a little too gleefully. ”We planted them just beside the watering hole and right underneath a mound of sand.”

”That's a waste of an oasis,” Luca said.

”Better us than them, Luca,” Qwipps countered.

”That's our cue to go,” I said.

I spent one last moment gazing up at the oasis and whispered a small prayer to the Fayne's spirits for the dead we left behind.

It was just that kind of mission where we couldn't afford to bring all the bodies back with us as there was barely enough space for the living. Still, we had three wagons full of our dead — the ones we'd managed to take back — ready to join the march although they weren't nearly enough of them. We'd lost a lot of people to this plan of mine.

Sensing the turmoil inside me, Aura placed her milky smooth hand over my sun-kissed arm and squeezed.

”They didn't die in vain,” she assured me. ”As long as we're alive… their deaths will continue to matter.”

”Thanks...” I said. Then I turned to face the surviving Foolhardies and yelled, ”Let's move out!”