Chaos Lives in Everything - 47. Chapter 47

It’s strange that my journey is taking me full circle after all of this time, Skold thought.

After six centuries of keeping it in a glass box Skold was wearing the armor and carrying the sword. He had kept it through the centuries but had never expected to wear it again. There came with it an unexpected yet satisfying sense of nostalgia.

He looked back at those who were following him into battle. He knew only four of them, but none of the rest. Dom, Rebecca, Candestine, and Maeglin. It was best not to know the name of the others. They were faces that he would probably never see again after this night whether everything went according to plan or not. And it was not best to know names of those who followed you into combat because you never knew which ones were going to die and which ones might live.

The chopper was silent. No one spoke, no one laughed. He wondered if it the other three chapters behind them were just as silent and full of tension and full. Skold did not disapprove of their fear. None of them had any idea of what they were truly walking into. There had not been enough time to recieve the information they needed in order to create a viable plan and backup plan. For all we know this could be a suicide mission, he thought.

The pilot turned to look at them. “Grab your parachute and prepare to make the jump.”

Skold nodded at the pilot and got to his feet. He handed a parachute bag to Rebecca and helped her strap into it. She was so scared that she was shaking.

“Uh, are these things safe?” she asked nervously.

“Of course.”

“Are you sure?”

“Have you ever been skydiving before?”

“No, I don’t like heights.”

He patted her shoulder and smiled. “You’ll be fine, I promise. Just do what everyone else does.”

She chuckled fearfully. “You’re not making me feel much better.”

He winked at her. “If you wanted to be encouraged then perhaps you should have talked to Dom. My sister and I are not good at…what do you call it...the touchy feely...stuff...”

“Yeah,” Rebecca murmered under her breath, “no kidding...”

At that second the ramp to the chopper opened and Skold stepped up, ready to take the lead. Numbing wind and snow slapped his face, bringing tears to his eyes. Thousands of feet below he could see the mountain on which Paladin’s newly restored palace stood, and beneath that, the village. The streets appeared to be completely empty, not a soul in sight. There was no movement. From what he could see everything was dissettlingly still. His instincts told him that there was going to be trouble; just because he couldn’t see it didn’t mean that wasn’t there. It was in those moments that danger was most likely lurking around, waiting to sneak up on you.

The pilot gave him the thumbs up and Skold dived off the the ramp of the helicopter and into the open air. He fell from three thousand feet, the wind slapping at his face so hard that it took his breath away. It felt as though he was breathing in ice water. His heart was hammering in his chest harder than it ever had before, his blood rushing through his veins. The ground which had seemed so far away was rushing up to meet him.

When he was sure that he was a thousand feet from the ground he ejected the parachute. The harness strapped to his back gave a sharp jerk, the straps digging into his armpits. His fall didn’t slow for another four hundred feet or so. Two hundred feet away from the ground he used a dagger to cut the straps of the harness and dropped the rest of the way. He landed gracefully on the ground and watched as three hundred or so parachutes drifted from the sky.

Rebecca was the second to last to land with Candestine taking the rear.

“I had to kick her off,” said Skold’s older sister in disgust. “And what’s worse is she vomited and it splattered on me.”

“Wipe it off,” Skold said impatiently, helping Rebecca out of her harness. “You’ll be fine.”

“I don’t want to do that ever again.” Rebecca’s face had no color to it.

“You’re still alive. That’s always a good thing, correct?”

“Yeah, what about the rest of the night though?”

“You stay with Dom, Candestine, Maeglin or I you will be fine. You have my word on that.”

He turned to Dom. “Whatever you do I need you to help me keep an eye on her. I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to her.”

Dom nodded. “Nor could I. I will, cross my heart and hope to die.”

“I wouldn’t be able to bear it if you were able to die either. Candestine not so much.” Skold grinned to show that he was joking.

Soldiers stepped back as he made his way into the middle of the street. He signalled for them to wait over his shoulder. He stopped again and listened, his eyes scanning the night. None of the street lights were on, nor were there any lights in any of the houses. Nothing stirred but the wind. Something doesn’t feel right, he thought. Something doesn’t feel right at all. I can feel it in my bones. He had sensed this from the moment he had glimpsed the village from the helicopter.

To his small army he said, “We’re going to split off into groups. Check all of the houses. Something doesn’t feel right. I want everyone to meet back in this spot in ten minutes tops. If you find anything, anything at all, shout, do what you have to do and reconvene in this spot. Does everyone understand?”

There were immediate murmers and nods from every which direction. He gestured for Dom, Rebecca, Candestine, and Maeglin to join him.

“Do you have your weapon and ammo still?” Skold asked Rebecca.

She looked down at her holster. “Yes. My grenades as well.”

“Remember what I told you. Use your grenades as a last resort but remember that they are very dangerous. Keep your gun out. Anything can happen between the second that you don’t expect it to and the second when it’s too late.”

He waited until she had her gun pulled out and let them towards a small line of houses as the rest of King Yaldon’s men split off into groups.