Chapter Five: A Change In Power

   The now-familiar sound of boots outside woke Jairo and a bandit tossed in the usual stale breakfast. Korf reached the bag first, and passed out a loaf to everyone. Dae took the sackcloth bag and went over to Asa, who had propped himself up against the wall but otherwise seemed rather recovered from yesterday's stabbing. Jairo went over to see, and only a small interruption in the skin, and some blood, showed where the wound had been. It was still relatively open, but healing fast. Dae dabbed up the remaining blood on the surface, with Asa grimacing at the rough touch of the cloth. But then Hyle took the sackcloth and twisted it, dripping it onto his own stomach, smearing the blood around a little so it wouldn't drip down or anything.

   "Do you think I could pass for Asa?" Hyle asked.

   Jairo thought for a moment, then leaned forward to muss up their hair. "Now you look virtually identical. You're a little thicker-built than Asa, but that can't be helped."

   "I want to stay here today, so I can work more on the sword. If luck is with us, you won't get a very hard job, Asa. At least until you're healed fully."

   The next few minutes were spent getting Hyle to lie in the same position Asa had been in, and concealing his bones. Jairo also worked a bit more on Asa's stomach, mostly focusing on patching the skin over so there was no visible signs. Then a bandit came soon after, as they always do, ushering them out. Then the bandit grew angry with Hyle's still form, shouting at him.

   "But he's injured!" Kort said, "and so he won't be able to do any work if he has a knife wound to the stomach."

   Surprisingly, the bandit laughed. "Your betraying friend is as good as dead." Then he slammed the cell door and led them on.

-----V-----

   They met another bandit who looked like he almost had a bit of brain to work with at an intersection of a bunch of tunnels. Everyone had their own little name for it, like "the hub," or the "crossroads." He had a bit of a clipboard that just had little etched pictures representing chores.

   "Any volunteers for the cargo job?" he began, sighing and clearly bored of the routine. Then Asa stepped forward.

   "I will," he said. The bandit gave him a confused look and raised an eyebrow. Jairo noticed he had clenched fists and nearly put his head in his hand. Stupid Asa trying to prove himself somehow, when there was really no need to.

   The bandit must have had a cruel inspiration, for his eyes suddenly gleamed. "Nah, we'll let... this guy do it," and he pointed at Jairo. He sighed to himself, not looking forward to the backbreaking, meticulous work. Asa got the stable cleaning job. It wasn't as hard as moving cargo from the bandits' regular operations, but very dirty and smelly. The stomach wound's accelerated healing should have finished putting skin over, but he still didn't hope the wound got infected.

   Jairo trudged off to his work, and tried to focus on what he was doing, knowing there was nothing else to be done for now.

-----V-----

   That evening, when their work was done, he wondered what Hyle had done all day. They got back with the evening meal already in the cell, a gallon of water and one kind or another of dry meat. When they got in, Hyle had a pleased expression on his face until they were sure the person who had locked their cell was out of earshot.

   "So? What happened?" Dae asked fervently.

   Hyle forced down a swallow dry meat. "Man, it went by pretty quick. If I had more bones, I probably could be halfway done with a second sword by now. But we probably shouldn't, I nearly got caught when someone passing by heard my carving." Hyle drank a bit of water. "But they didn't check my wound or anything, they probably think it's a matter of time before death comes. Tomorrow you'll take my place, Jairo. Fuse these bone pieces into a sword." Hyle washed off Asa's blood from his skin. "Getting itchy, anyway."

   The following morning, Jairo ate breakfast. Then he positioned himself so he looked injured without showing his stomach and not looking suspicious. The bones were placed in a pile that put Jairo's body between the cell door and itself. This time the bandit didn't even ask for Jairo to get up. When the footsteps faded into silence he moved around and set to work.

   Once he found the order in which the pieces went he laid them out spaced a bit away from each other, then he started with the hilt. Taking two pieces, he found a place where they touched and he put the index finger from each hand to each of the bones. Jairo heated those specific points intensely, until he felt the bone begin to move under his finger fluidly. Quickly he put the pieces together and drew out the heat until it was completely solid. The bones were connected, but weakly by a single point. He did the same at another point but with just one finger, touching both bones as if he were trying to put his finger between the bones. Then Jairo heated everything directly around his finger, retracting it when the bone began to flow over his finger. When they had significantly melted into each other he sucked out the heat and solidified it again. He did this until the two bones were connected at several points and he couldn't pull them apart with both his arms, without heat. Then Jairo picked a third adjoining piece, and began to melt it on.

   Several pieces in Jairo was able to grasp the hilt instead of holding it by the tips of his fingers, and it became much easier from there. A couple more after that he heard footsteps in the hallway. He quickly and silently rearranged himself. The footsteps stopped, and Jairo grew nervous, gritting his teeth. A small grating sound was heard and the light outside bobbed. A new crackling sound started, and the footsteps moved past the cell door. Phew, someone was just replacing the torches.

   The torch person left and Jairo resumed his work on the sword. Soon the cross guard, pommel, and handle were complete. Jairo picked up some of the blade's edge pieces. Could using heat make the sword sharper? Melting it would make the edge rounded and blobbier, so no. Hyle was the person to have made it sharp, carving it and all.

   When he finished the sword, he stood up and appraised the whole of it. It was a wider and overall thicker blade than the iron sword he had, but the handle length and the overall weight was the same. He swung it around a couple times. Not bad balance, was a bit slow at swinging but he could easily imagine cutting through wood with this, let alone bandit flesh. But the bone-white color of the whole thing, and the sheen of smooth melted bone in the sparse torchlight made it seem unreal. 

   Apparently evening wasn't here yet, so Jairo set to work a bit more on the sword. He tried to smooth the gaps in between pieces in the handle so it would be easier to grasp without the sharp ridges of the pieces moving sharply across your palm. Still nobody else here. He smoothed out the rest of the sword, and was just finishing the center of the cross guard when footsteps came into hearing outside. He hid the sword under him and lay there, trying to look as if in pain while a bandit dragged in their supper. When the bandit left he stood up and leaned against the wall, stroking pieces of the sword while he waited for the others to come back.

   Soon, he heard lots of footsteps coming down the hallway, and the other five came in, looking weary from a day of work. Jairo plopped down next to them as they began to eat. He was also hungry, because you didn't get lunch if you weren't working. After they were done Jairo passed the sword to Hyle, who examined it closely.

   "Amazing," he said, running his fingers over the smoothed handle. "I find it extraordinary that we can still make weapons, even when we're prisoners." He looked up and grinned at all of them.

   Asa beckoned and Hyle passed the sword to him. "Hmm," he said, weighing it in his hand. "Doesn't feel like something I'd use, too much weight on the blade. But amazing workmanship, given the circumstances. I honestly expected it to look like crap."

   "Thanks," Jairo and Hyle said simultaneously, gazing balefully at Asa.

   Dae took the sword from where Asa had left it on the ground. "I like this," he said, and twirled it a bit. "Yeah, I really like it. If you guys don't mind me using it..."

   "Well, I can just get some more bones from today and make some knives or something for everyone else, Jairo has fire powers," Hyle said. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

   "Do you think you could get those knives done tonight, or by tomorrow morning?" Asa asked.

   "We're going to need a route of escape though," Jairo said. "Some way to actually get out. I'd like to get out as quickly as possible, without wandering around and giving them time to mount a large counterattack."

   "Well, I've been scouting around while on sweeping duty. And I've found a fairly direct route from here to there. We can probably get out with only a few adversaries, if luck is with us." Asa explained, making wiggly motions with his fingers as if he was drawing a battle plan in the air. They talked late into the night, discussing combat tactics and strategy.

-----V-----

   The next morning, they ate their bread quickly, and assumed their positions they had talked about the night before. Dae lay as the injured one next to the entrance, and the other five stayed near the back wall. When the bandit came and told them to come along, they just ignored him and looked at the ground, bone knives hidden behind their backs. The bandit grew red in the face and starting yelling at them. Jairo darted a deliberate glance at the bandit, and the mockery sent the bandit into a rage. Striding into the cell angrily, then slumping to the ground as Dae knocked the lights out of the bandit with the pommel of the sword.

   They proceeded through the tunnels quickly and silently as possible, Asa leading. They encountered a pair of bandits, one had their throat slit by Korf's knife, and the other got one of Jairo's fireballs to the head, the impact alone enough to knock out. Shouting started up behind them, and they started running, abandoning all stealth. Hyle must've looked behind, because he said: "There's got to be at least half a dozen behind us! Keep going!"

   Another one popped up on the right and Jairo stabbed him in the eye with his knife and left it there. He sent a couple fireballs behind him as well, and he heard a few screams shortly after.

   Then they came to the Hub, and several bandits surrounded them completely.

   "We need to go over that way!" said Asa, pointing with his knife.

   "But there's no way we can all get away like this!" yelled Hyle, deflecting the occasional stab.

   "Too true," said Dae, feinting to keep a distance between him and the bandits. "I can distract them enough for you to get away!'

   "But you'll DIE!" pointed out Jairo.

   "Well, better than all of us dying. And I CERTAINLY won't go without a fight." he said, twirling the sword with a wicked look in his eyes. "Go! GO!"

   Jairo ran with the others, and looked back to see Dae hacking and stabbing crazily, though taking many cuts in return. He sent a fireball to help, and then a bend in the tunnel blocked his view. Shortly after they came into Saph's big room, and the bandit leader himself stood in front of the molding chair.

   "Behind the chair!" Asa said. "There's a tunnel that leads out!"

   "It's a THRONE!" screamed Saph. "Not a CHAIR. And YOU'RE not getting out alive!"

   Within moments, the chamber was filled by a couple dozen bandits surrounding their leader. But that was just so UNFAIR. They were six, probably five now, versus who knows how many scummy bandits in these cursed tunnels. He will NOT remain a slave. He WILL be independent and able to support himself. He will no longer trust ANYONE. And Dae will NOT die in vain.

   Jairo felt that heat rising in him, unstoppable in a boiling tempest of rage. By some arcane instinct he punched his fist in the air and roared. A pillar of fire erupted and arced across the room, landing right on top of Saph and in the middle of his guard. Saph was burned down to the marrow, and then his skeleton was disintegrated. The surrounding guard was enveloped in flames and they were all either screaming or lying ominously still on the floor. Jairo gestured, flames of hatred still in his eyes, and they all booked it out the tunnel, running and then jogging for a good mile before stopping.

   They all sat down heavily, and Asa shouldered off a pack he had grabbed on the way out. They all ate of the meager supplies, consuming at least half before they were anywhere near satisfied.

   "So... no gratitude?" Asa said suddenly.

   "Huh?" Hyle said bluntly.

   Asa regarded him coldly, face inscrutable for what was going on in his head. "I got that pack when we were leaving. You should be grateful to me, else you wouldn't have any food to eat."

   "Well, in that case, you've done your part as a member of our group very well," Hyle said, munching on a piece of bread.

   "You ungrateful little brat." Asa spat. Anger was evident in his face, etching out wrinkles Jairo had never seen before on a face so young.

   "We all did our parts!" Hyle said, offended. "If not for the bone weapons, we would still be there." He ripped off another chunk of bread loudly and ate it.

   Asa stared. "I also found the tunnel out. I created the opportunity for you to make your sword so fast. I've contributed a lot more than you have!"

   "That last one was an accident. You meant to kill Saph, but even then it would have only angered the bandits into probably killing us."

   His face was livid now. "You ungrateful wretch! You should be on your knees, worshiping me for SAVING you." He saw Hyle take another bite. "You eat of my food without a single thank-you?" Asa stepped forward and drove his bone knife into the side of Hyle's head, killing him instantly.

   Korf and Kort buckled. "Thank you, Asa! Thank you a hundred times for saving us!"

   The best young warrior of the Ren tribe turned his murderous gaze towards Jairo, pulling out the knife and standing up to his full height.

   The words came clearly to mind. "You should not have killed him. He was a good man."

   Asa growled and lunged and Jairo. He sent a wall of flame to knock him to the side, and he stood up. Jairo fisted a flamethrower into Asa's face, and he howled in agony. Jairo lifted off and torched the rest of the creature who had killed the last good man of this group. Korf and Kort ran away into the night. No point running after them.

   Jairo built a funeral pyre for Hyle, while Asa's body lay still, no longer flaming but with smoking rags that were his clothes. He left the roaring blaze behind him, continuing west as they had when they left the village. He had the pack on his back, and he steadily walked, without looking behind, for the rest of the night.

-----V-----

   Two days later, Jairo's mind was delirious. He hadn't slept, he was out of water, nearly out of food, and he kept seeing mirages of oases and mountains, and he kept seeing Hyle and Dae. The sun still shone down without fail, and the sand was sloping steadily downward. He swore he could hear running water now, but he was too tired to lift his head. Finally he collapsed on the hot sand, feeling the breeze, barely, on his face. The last thing he saw was the sun glaring down and a piece of cloth fluttering in the wind.

Author's Note

The geographical lore has now expanded: the Foore desert, Jairo's home town, and the bandit's mountain (though there might be other mountains in the desert).
Literacy is uncommon and unneeded in the desert, the best form of written communication is pictures or maps.