Thor smiled down at the boy.
"You have a big heart," he said. "And it wasn't long ago that I was your size—and despite that, I joined the Legion. I don’t see why you can’t, too. Right guys?” Thor asked, turning to the others.
They all nodded back enthusiastically.
“He has more heart than half the Legion,” Reece said.
“We will make sure they take you seriously,” O’Connor said. “It is the least we can do.”
The boy grinned wide.
“Tell me boy," Thor said, "what is your name? You never told us.”
The boy looked up and squinted.
"I don't have one,” he responded. “It is not our custom to give names here in the Empire. We are all slaves to the great Andronicus. Giving someone a name is punishable by death. Some of us take names upon ourselves. Hidden names, which we keep inside. But we are to never tell anyone.”
“You can tell us yours,” Thor said. “We vow to keep it a secret.”
The boy looked at all their faces, hesitating, and Thor could see the fear in his eyes. Finally, he cleared his throat and said:
“Ario.”
The boy quickly reached out, clasped forearms with Thor, then turned and hurried off, bouncing back down the road towards the jungle.
"Remember," the boy called out, "do not stray from the path. The city comes upon you quickly. Be careful.”
With that, the boy turned and ran, disappearing down the road.
Thor turned and looked at the others, and they all followed the path closely.
Hour followed hour, and the second sun rose and grew unbearably hot as they marched deeper and deeper into the wasteland. As he marched, left alone with the monotony of his thoughts, Thor wondered when all of this would end. He saw before him the footsteps of those who must have stolen the Sword, their prints deep. The boy had been tracking their steps the entire way, and Thor was beginning to feel confident that they were close on their trail. He hoped that they could reach the city in time, catch the thieves before their arrival, and somehow get the Sword and get home, undetected by the Empire, before it was too late.
As they continued to march, Thor's legs shaking, growing weary, finally they turned a bend, the land sloped off down below, and they were afforded a bird’s-eye view of Slave City. There it sat, sprawling on the horizon. It was the largest city Thor had ever seen, low and flat, stretching for miles with no end in sight. It had a drab, industrial feeling, with thousands of structures built close to each other.
Amidst these structures worked thousands of slaves, packed into the streets, milling about like ants. Even from here, Thor could see that they were chained to each other, and that among them were thousands of Empire taskmasters, whipping them. Punctuating the city were large flashes of light, and Thor saw small fires shoot up from the ground, all over the place. The city blended into the desert land, and Thor was surprised to see it was not enclosed.
"No gates, no walls," Thor observed.
“I guess they’re not afraid the slaves will run,” Reece said.
“Where would they run to, in this godforsaken place?” Elden asked.
"They don't need them," Conval said. "They're all chained together. They couldn’t run if they tried.”
"Not to mention the soldiers,” Conven said. “There are as many of them as there are slaves.”
“Plus, they don't need walls to defend it," O’Connor said, "because nobody would be stupid enough to attack. There are thousands of Empire here. And nothing around this place for miles.”
"Why would the thieves bring the Sword to this place?" Elden asked.
Thor studied the ground, and saw the tracks heading in that direction.
"It doesn't make sense,” Reece added.
Thor shrugged.
"Like the boy said, maybe it's a stop for them, on the road to somewhere else.”
As one, they all set off on the trail towards the city, each of them tensing up, hands on their scabbards.
"It won't be long until we’re spotted," Reece said. "You see that crop of rock there? We should head to it and stay close along its edge, in the shadows. Otherwise they’ll see us.”
"But the boy said not to go off the path," O'Connor said.
Reece shrugged.
"We won’t be far off the path. And I'd rather take my chances with whatever's out there than with the Empire.”
Thor could feel them all looking to him to make the final decision. He could see both points of view, and it was not an easy call.
Finally, he nodded back.
“The path is a guaranteed death,” Thor said. “The rock is not. Let's go to the rock.”
As one, they all hurried off the path, sticking close to the huge outcropping of rock so as not to be detected. They slowly approached the city. Hardly a hundred yards away, they could begin to hear the cries and moans of the slaves, suffering beneath the abuse of the Empire soldiers. The city was filled with the sound of cracking whips, and of bursting flames, shooting up everywhere.
As they neared, Thor saw metal structures built into the ground from which dangled some sort of mining apparatus; the slaves, held by thick iron shackles, guided them to massive holes, striking again and again into the ground. As they dug deeper into the holes, flames shot up and into the structure.
"What are they doing?" Conval asked.
"It looks like they’re mining something," Elden said.
"But what?”
They all shrugged, at a loss.
Before they could take another step, suddenly O'Connor screamed out—and they all stopped and turned. Thor looked down and saw the long, bony hand of a beast shoot up from the sand and grab O'Connor's calf. It wrapped its claws around him and yanked O'Connor, dragging him down, sinking into the sand.
Thor was first to react, stepping forward with his sword and slashing the creature's wrist. There came a muted screeching noise, from somewhere beneath the sand, and the creature’s arm slunk back down to the ground. But the hand, severed, still clung to O’Connor's calf, screaming; Krohn, snarling, leapt forward and bit it, and the hand let go and scurried across the sand, then dove down beneath the surface, too.
The boys looked at each other in wonder.
But they had no time to figure it out, because suddenly, dozens of creatures’ arms started popping out from the sand, all around them. Thor finally understood why the boy told them not to veer from the path.