The River of Shadows Part 54

The shadow of the mountain was shrinking toward them, but they could always, Pazel supposed, move closer to the mountain.

Thasha and Neeps were descending on his left; Neda and her brother sfvantskor sfvantskors on his right. All of them watching the ground; it was the only safe way to proceed. And yet, Pazel thought, and yet- He raised his eyes-and fought down the urge to cry aloud. About three yards from Neeps, a tiny face was watching them from a hole in the lava. It was hideous, part human, buck-toothed, squinting, red. The face was attached to a hairy body about the size and shape of a gopher. The creature had hair everywhere except on that face, and the hands-they were hands hands, not paws-that gripped the edges of the scalding rock.

It vanished down the tube. Pazel was so shocked that he nearly missed a step. The others looked at him in alarm. No one else had seen the creature. He pointed at the hole, then gestured wildly (squinting eyes, fingers for teeth). Was it the same sort of creature he and Ibjen had glimpsed? Was it dangerous, or did its silence mean that it, too, had learned to remain unnoticed by the trolls?

There were more vultures now, and they circled lower over the Tongue. The others in the party glanced at them, frowning. Pazel realized that they had quickened their pace.

Less than a mile to go. The dogs gazed ahead, clearly wis.h.i.+ng they could run. Each man and woman moving precisely, silently. A Masalym soldier lost his balance, and a Turach caught his arm. The dlomu mouthed a silent thank you; thank you; the Turach smiled, and then everyone stopped dead. the Turach smiled, and then everyone stopped dead.

Hercol had flung his arms wide, a violent gesture. At first Pazel did not understand. Then someone gasped and, turning, he saw that they were surrounded. From inside every hole and behind every bulge and hardened bubble, the red-faced creatures stared at them with their strange squinting faces, like old men who had lost their gla.s.ses. A hundred, perhaps many more. Yards deep they stood, eight or ten together in the larger tunnels. Not one of them moved a muscle.

Vadu's mouth was agape. The dogs' hair stood on end, but they did not growl.

"Warriors," said Hercol with monumental slowness. "Be ready with your weapons, but do not attack first. We are going on." And with Ildraquin's tip hovering just before his knees, he stepped forward.

The creatures bristled, and bared their white rodents' teeth. Hercol took another step. The creatures directly before him hissed, and shrank into their holes. But those on the sides only tensed and twitched, as though ready to spring.

Then Vadu laughed. He held his knife at arm's length, and over the tiny nub of bone the ghost-blade flickered. Suddenly a great shrieking hiss went up from all the creatures, and they whirled about and disappeared into their holes. A brief sound of scurrying rose from the depths. Then nothing more. The travelers looked at one another in shock.

"I told you I had power to keep us safe," said Vadu.

"Let us go on," said Hercol.

"Counselor Vadu?" said Pazel suddenly. He startled everyone, beginning with himself, but he knew what he was doing. "Let the ixchel go. We've come too far to turn back anyway."

Vadu glanced down at Myett and Ensyl, clutched against his chest. He laughed again. "It is not enough that I obeyed a human, for a time. Now I am to take orders from a human underling, a servant boy!"

Pazel swallowed. "I think-"

"That is open to question."

"-you're going to need that knife for something else."

Vadu started. His head wobbled as he looked at the holes, the ma.s.sing vultures, the distance yet to walk. Then, with a jerky motion, he thrust the two ixchel into Pazel's hands. "I release them," he said. The women gasped suddenly.

"Quiet!" said Pazel, in their own language. "Don't shout! You were enchanted. You're free now, but we're not safe."

Both ixchel began to shake. Her eyes closed, Myett whispered, "Who did this to us?"

Pazel was about to answer when he noticed that Vadu was still staring at his knife. The look of rapture on his face made Pazel think suddenly of the s.h.a.ggat, gazing with adoration at the Nilstone that had almost killed him. Vadu raised the knife above his head, and as he did so his hand cleared the shadow of the mountain. Sunlight touched the last, minuscule bone-shard upon the hilt-and with a slight quaking of the air, the shard was gone.

Vadu lowered his arm. "It is over," he said. "I released them, and the Blade released me. That was its final act. The end was closer than I dared hope." He rubbed his face, his neck: the twitching had finally ceased. Joy welled suddenly in the counselor's eyes. Before anyone realized his intention he turned and flung the hilt across the lava flow with all his might. "I am free!" he cried, and with that all bedlam erupted.

Fire burst from holes far and near. A roaring filled the earth. A dog howled, and from the larger tunnels the flame-trolls began to emerge: first their long fingers, ash-white and clawed; then their mighty arms; then their heads, large and powerful as the heads of horses, but with the spreading jaws of wolves. They were hairless, and the flames of the depths licked over them, as though their very pores exuded some combustible oil. Their eyes wept fire; the spittle in their mouths was fire. The first to emerge was nearly nine feet tall.

It made to leap but Hercol moved first, and before Pazel knew what had happened the troll was waving the stumps of its hacked-off limbs, and its foul blood was spattering them all.

"Run!" thundered Hercol. "Turachs, sfvantskor sfvantskors, to the vanguard! Men of Masalym, stand with me behind!"

No one questioned his orders now. The party charged for the forest with weapons drawn. Pazel ran with Thasha at his side, and Neeps just behind. He bore his sword in one hand, Myett and Ensyl in the other, curled to his chest. They were ahead of the trolls, that was clear. The creatures were bursting forth in greater numbers, but always a step or two behind. As though their footfalls were guiding them, waking them. And he remembered suddenly running along a hollow log back in Ormael: a log that housed a great, drowsy hive of bees. He had felt them stirring under his feet, but had gotten away without a sting.

Then he saw the red-faced creatures, swarming out of the fumaroles dead ahead. They squealed piercingly, and the trolls rose in answer, cutting off the party from the trees.

The sfvantskor sfvantskors met them first, slas.h.i.+ng at the flaming arms, the spitting heads. The Turachs did their part as well, hacking and stabbing alongside their old enemies. Three or four trolls died before they could escape the tunnels.

But right and left the creatures were gaining their feet and leaping to the attack. Suddenly all was carnage, terrible and blindingly swift. Cayer Vispek jumped over a troll's groping hand, then killed it-killed it-with a savage kick to the head. A Turach drove his blade straight into flaming jaws. The dogs killed the rodent-beasts with swift efficiency, shaking them, flinging the carca.s.ses away. But their muzzles were burning; Big Skip's s.h.i.+rt was burning; a dying troll spat flame in Vadu's face. On Pazel's right a dlomic soldier beheaded a troll just rising from the earth, and a second troll caught his arm and wrenched him, headfirst, into the fumarole. He never managed a scream. it-with a savage kick to the head. A Turach drove his blade straight into flaming jaws. The dogs killed the rodent-beasts with swift efficiency, shaking them, flinging the carca.s.ses away. But their muzzles were burning; Big Skip's s.h.i.+rt was burning; a dying troll spat flame in Vadu's face. On Pazel's right a dlomic soldier beheaded a troll just rising from the earth, and a second troll caught his arm and wrenched him, headfirst, into the fumarole. He never managed a scream.

"On! On! Stop for nothing!" Hercol was bellowing. And somehow they did go on, right through the fire, over the twitching bodies, the arms still reaching from the earth. They ran with the red-faced creatures dragging from their ankles; they ran not knowing which of them, what part of them, was burning.

"Pazel, stay with us! Protect them!" Thasha shouted, waving at the ixchel. He ran with her on one side, Neeps on the other. Together, as though maddened by danger, they charged a huge troll with broken fangs. The beast lunged at Thasha; she parried with her sword and stabbed it through the hand with her knife, and turned her head before its fire-spittle could scald her in the face. Neeps managed only to graze the creature before it raked him with the claws of its free hand, sending him sprawling. The troll snapped at him, tore out a mouthful of hair. Then Pazel and Thasha lunged together. His sword pierced its chest; Thasha's tore its belly open. It toppled sideways, dying; the three of them were past it-and then Pazel felt it sink those teeth into his calf.

He fell flat atop the ixchel; the troll's claws were shredding his pack and clothes, seeking his flesh; then from the corner of his eye he saw Neeps make a desperate upward thrust, and blood from the troll's severed throat washed down his leg.

The corpse fell burning atop him; Thasha and Neeps somehow moved it in a matter of seconds, and to their clear amazement Pazel leaped up and ran at their side. But the burning followed him, enveloped him; and still more trolls slavered at their heels. He felt that his run was an extended fall down a black cliff, faster and faster, his feet somehow staying under him just enough to fend him off the lava, and then suddenly he was on thinner lava, crumbled lava, then earth, then leaves, and the hooting, howling pursuit went on into the forest, and he smashed through vines and palms and thorns and flowers and brush, his arm over the ixchel's faces, his own flesh torn, and then Praise Rin and His host Praise Rin and His host there was the river, a blessed short muddy bank and then in, down, the fire in his clothes hissing out, the ixchel coughing and choking as he lifted them clear, trod water, kicked out into the water among the other survivors, while on the banks behind them twenty or thirty flame-trolls stood screaming their hate, and fighting over the corpses already roasting in their grasp. there was the river, a blessed short muddy bank and then in, down, the fire in his clothes hissing out, the ixchel coughing and choking as he lifted them clear, trod water, kicked out into the water among the other survivors, while on the banks behind them twenty or thirty flame-trolls stood screaming their hate, and fighting over the corpses already roasting in their grasp.

The Ansyndra here was wide and shallow; they bobbed along with it gently, the dlomu helping the humans stay afloat, until they rounded a long bend and left the creatures behind. Then they dragged themselves ash.o.r.e. Three of the eight Masalym soldiers were gone, and one Turach also. Two dogs limped onto the sand, and a third, nearly hairless, came whimpering from the forest.

"Sit down!" said Thasha to Pazel, catching him by the arm. "We've got to take care of that leg. d.a.m.n it all, the packs, our medicine kit, our food-"

"How did we do it?" Pazel gasped. "How did we get away?"

"Hercol," she said, "and Vadu. I know it looked like there were trolls everywhere, but most of them were behind us. They held them all back. Vadu can fight, by Rin."

"Hush, Thasha," said Neeps, looking past her shoulder.

The surviving dlomic warriors were laying Vadu in the gra.s.s. He was hideously burned, his face unrecognizable, the lids barely moving over the silver eyes. His hands were so blistered and torn it was hard to tell where one finger ended and the next began. "I don't think he can move," whispered Neeps. "They floated him downstream like a log."

But Vadu could move, for he was raising one hand, weakly beckoning. It was Hercol he wanted. The swordsman drew close and knelt at his shoulder.

"Now I pay," said Vadu, his voice faint and rasping. "For all my folly, and a life of borrowed strength."

"You have been paying for years, son of Masalym," said Hercol.

Vadu shook his ruined head. "Not everyone who touched a Blade surrendered to it. I gave myself to the eguar, and lost my sanity, my soul. You alone had no fear to say so, to my face. Human, warrior human. I look at you and see the man I should have been."

"You are that man," said Hercol. "You have outlived the curse you carried."

"I have done that," said Vadu. "Yes. That is something. Farewell, strange friend-"

Vadu said no more. He lay still, and though Pazel knew he might be imagining it, he thought that peace stole over the counselor's body; and Bolutu, no longer a monk of the Rinfaith but practiced in such moments nonetheless, gently closed his eyes.

The Infernal Forest

8 Modobrin 941

Thasha's hair was half the length it had been an hour before; her locks ended in singed, black strands. Kneeling beside Pazel, she cut away the shreds of his trouser leg, and winced at what she saw. But Pazel knew he was lucky. His calf had been pierced in four places, but the broken fangs had not gone deep; the troll had meant to hold him while its claws did the killing. Still, something was wrong. The wound throbbed, and ugly green-purple blotches were rising around the broken skin. Thasha looked around helplessly. "Blary wonderful place to be without a doctor," she said.

Pazel thought of Neeps, and cringed inside. What doctor could help him, though? In Arqual Chadfallow had cured the talking fever, but that was not a magical plague. And all the doctors of the South had obviously failed. So much horror, he thought, watching a Turach wrap wet bandages about a burned dlomic forehead.

"The trick will be to keep those holes from getting infected," said Ensyl, studying his leg.

No, he thought, the trick was to keep moving. To keep moving, and not to let his thoughts wander anywhere he couldn't stand to look. With that goal in mind he glanced up at the trees. There were fifty shades of green straight overhead. Tiny b.u.t.terflies were descending like a fall of orange snowflakes. "This doesn't look very infernal to me," he said.

"No," said Thasha, "I don't suppose we're there yet."

The survivors dressed their wounds, and those of the three remaining dogs. Then they carried Vadu into the forest, and built a cairn of stones over his body, and held their breath to the count of one hundred for the dead, as their people had done for so many generations that no one could say how the custom began.

As they returned Pazel looked over the remaining soldiers. Two Turachs: an older warrior, with a scar on his forehead like an extra eyebrow; and a younger man with a sullen, boyish face. Five dlomic warriors, including a tall and capable woman who appeared to be taking charge of her comrades.

Ibjen walked knee-deep into the river, staring intently at something offsh.o.r.e.

"What is it, lad?" asked Cayer Vispek. But instead of answering, Ibjen suddenly dived.

He surfaced many yards away, swimming with a power no champion human swimmer could hope to match. As Pazel watched he closed on some jagged rocks at mid-river, where sticks and other debris had collected. Carefully he plucked something from the detritus, then turned and swam back to the sh.o.r.e.

"This is yours, Thas.h.i.+ziq," he said as he emerged. On his palm rested an ornate wooden box, soaked and battered but intact.

"The box from Vasparhaven!" said Thasha, taking it. "The one the novice said came from you, Pazel. I thought for sure it was lost. But that lovely crystal-it can't possibly have survived."

She sprang the latch, raised the lid. Unfortunately she was quite correct: nothing but a fine dust remained of Kirishgan's exquisite sphere. The parchment was damp, but not soaked. As the others gathered, watching, Thasha took out the little sc.r.a.p and unfolded it with great care. The selk's writing had begun to blur, but it could still be read.

A sworn secret must be kept-but in like measure, a fateful meeting must be honored. Therefore in deepest trust I tell you: there is hope downriver, between the mountains and the sea.

Alyash turned away, sneering. "That's profound, that is. I'm all a-quiver."

"You're a fool," said Pazel. "He's telling us something important. As clearly as he can without breaking an oath."

"The message is surely important," said Hercol, "but we cannot debate it now. Rest a little more, all of you, and see that your wounds are dressed properly. We have our own oaths to keep, and they will soon spur us onward."

Pazel lay down with his head on a stone, watching the b.u.t.terflies, trying not to think of the trolls. He closed his eyes and saw their faces, their flame-s...o...b..r, their claws. He heard Dastu say something about "Pathkendle's nurse" and realized that Thasha was still fussing over his leg. Once again he felt a surge of annoyance with her, although he knew the response was foolish. What was he resisting, exactly? Her touch, his need for it? Whatever it was, Thasha sensed his impatience, and her fingers grew clumsy on his bandages.

Very soon Hercol called the party together. "It is best that you know the truth," he said. "We have lost all our supplies, save the weapons we managed to swim with, and what Alyash and I carried on our backs. We have some half a dozen mul mul, but nothing else to eat. We have no spare clothes, no oilskins against the rain, no telescope, or rope, or compa.s.s. There are torches, and a box of matches that may dry out eventually. Among the twenty-one of us we have nine swords and two knives."

"And one pistol," said Alyash.

"One soaked pistol," said Hercol. "This is what I would tell you now: we may perish in this quest. But if you are with me still, I can promise you that ours will not be a thoughtless or an empty death. We will stand together, and if need be fall together, but we will yet do all that we can to prevail."

"But of course we'll follow you," said Thasha.

Hercol's fondness for her shone in his eyes. "You are my right hand, Thasha-or perhaps I am your left. It is to others I speak."

"As for the three of us," said Cayer Vispek, "you need not waste your breath. The scriptures tell us that it is a blessing to discover one's fight, to see the devil by the plain light of day, and take after him with a blade. Most are denied this; most lunge at false devils-even at their brothers. We have taken enough false lunges. I think now that you were sent to show us our true fight-even if that is a fight from which we do not return. So lead on, Tholja.s.san. I say again, if we did not follow you, where would we go?"

"This is no debate we need to have," added the dlomic woman. "Any doubts we harbored, we left behind in Masalym. Even Counselor Vadu knew in his heart that you must lead. We will go forward, and if fate permits we will kill this sorcerer before it is too late."

The other dlomic soldiers nodded. "The Otter speaks for us all," said one.

"Otter?" said Hercol.

The dlomic woman looked slightly embarra.s.sed. "I am Lunja, a sergeant of the Masalym Watch. My name means 'Otter' in the old tongue of Chaldryl. So to my men I am the Otter."

Hercol nodded to her. "I thank you for your trust, Sergeant Lunja." He looked at the remaining faces, one by one. His gaze fell last on Alyash, who was something of an apparition. His hair had burned off completely; his s.h.i.+rt was torn open, revealing his old, extensive scars, and blisters like embedded pearls graced his ears and forehead.

"What are you staring at?" said the bosun. "Yes, I'll blary follow you. Not as if anyone here's going to take orders from me. me."

"Then prepare to march," said Hercol, strapping Ildraquin over his shoulder. "Fulbreech is still moving away. We will rest at dusk, whether he pauses or not. But since we have crossed the Black Tongue by daylight, let us at least do as Vadu wished and use these hours well."

He set off at an unforgiving pace, and the others, in their burned boots (and in Vispek's case, no boots at all) struggled to keep up. They walked under the trees, out of the dense underbrush at the margin of the forest, but near enough its edge to keep the river in sight. Thasha, who carried nothing except her sword, began to help Pazel hobble along on his wounded leg. After a few minutes she gave the task to Neeps. "You're the right height," she said, sliding Pazel's arm over his shoulder. Neeps flashed her an awkward smile, and so did Pazel. But when he smelled lemons he turned away, pretending that his leg hurt him awfully, so that neither would see the truth on his face.

An hour later Pazel felt stronger, and told Neeps he could manage on his own. The forest began to thin by midafternoon, and in time they marched out of it altogether, onto a narrow plain of low, feathery gra.s.ses, bounded on the right by jagged cliffs and the scree of old landslides, and on the left by the crumbling banks of the Ansyndra, along which grew scattered pines and cedars and the occasional oak. It was strange country, very warm and windless, and yet enclosed on all sides by those enfortressed mountains, looming over them with vast shoulders of snow. The Ansyndra became deeper, narrower, more violent and swift. They had no other guide but Ildraquin's whispers to Hercol, but he drove them on, nearly running, saying that their quarry lay ahead, always downriver and ahead.

So the day ended, and at dusk as promised Hercol let them rest. They chose a spot with many cedars near the river. The mountain's shadow brought swift darkness, but they had good luck with the matches and soon a fire was burning. It cheered them some and dried their boots, but its heat made their burns ache. Alyash disa.s.sembled Ott's pistol, drying the components on a stone. Pazel gazed blearily at the little wood-and-steel mechanism. Hard to believe that it could kill a man.

Famished, the twenty-one travelers and three dogs shared half their stock of mul mul, which came to about a teaspoon each. Pazel was battling sleep even as he chewed. He drifted off with Thasha once more examining his leg, and a dog licking his mul mul-sticky fingers with equal concentration.

At dawn they were chilled and soaked with dew. Hercol had them up and marching before they were properly awake, and certainly before they could commiserate about their injuries, their fallen comrades, the lack of food, the impossibility of return. The plain widened as the river (unreachable now, sunk deep in its rocky gorge) cut longer serpentines. Hercol maintained his savage pace, cutting off any protests with a lancing stare. When they crossed a stream he ordered them to bend and drink deep, and while they did so he wrenched off his own boots and handed them without a word to Cayer Vispek. In the heat of the afternoon the scalded dog began to limp and drop behind, calling after them with a mournful yelp. Hercol turned back and lifted it over his shoulders, and carried it that way like a sack of grain. "If its foot does not improve by morning we will eat it," he declared.

They ate the last of the mul mul that night, and Bolutu extracted a long thorn from the dog's paw. Hercol would not permit a fire. "We have closed the gap," he said. "I think the sorcerer is within five miles, and I would not lose him now." that night, and Bolutu extracted a long thorn from the dog's paw. Hercol would not permit a fire. "We have closed the gap," he said. "I think the sorcerer is within five miles, and I would not lose him now."

Just beyond their camp the land rose in a stony bluff, leaning out over the river gorge. While the others prepared to sleep, Hercol climbed the bluff with Ensyl on his shoulder. They crouched among rocks at the summit, hidden from the sight of anyone beyond, staring through small gaps. They remained there a long time, motionless.

"What are they looking at?" said Neeps finally.

Thasha got to her feet. "Let's go find out," she said. She and Neeps climbed the bluff and stood beside Hercol. At once they grew still, gazing beyond the rocks, transfixed.

When Neda too noticed their fascination, Pazel held out his hand. "Help me up," he said. "We'll go and see for ourselves."

At that Jalantri leaped to his feet and caught Neda by the arm. "You're not thinking, sister! You're badly bruised and there is fighting ahead. Let him waste his strength if he will. We know better, Phoenix-Flame."

Neda seemed at a loss for words. She looked at Jalantri's hand on her arm until he dropped it, chastened. Then she glanced quickly at Pazel and started up the hill.

They walked in silence (so weirdly normal, climbing a hill beside his sister; they might have been back in Ormael) until Neda said, "The way of the sfvantskor sfvantskor is perfection." is perfection."