by Tim Akers
They came out of the shadows, all fury and teeth.
Chapter TWENTY-NINE
A SOUND HERD
ROUND THE WORLD
The first chimisit came right at me. It erupted from the tall grass and arced through the air, gaping maw yawning open. I brought my shield up and braced, but the force of the impact sent me sprawling. I lost my sword and by the time I looked up, Esther was already on the beast, hacking into its spine like it was kindling.
Two more appeared out of nowhere, latching onto Tembo’s leg with their long, grotesque jaws. The big mage roared, smashing down with his staff, but before he could free himself, three more of the howling beasts leapt from the grass and started to circle at his feet. Chesa circled close by, shooting arrows into the beasts as they flailed against Tembo’s legs, each of her arrows piercing a throat or puncturing a monstrous heart, but for every beast she slayed, two more leapt from the sea of grass. Tembo swung wildly with his staff, managing to tear one from his leg. The wound left behind was gruesome.
“Don’t just lie there, Rast!” Esther shouted. She was still tussling with the hound that had knocked me flat, trading blows and hammering away with her shield. “If Tembo dies, we all die!”
“Also, you know, he’s our friend,” I muttered as I searched the hill for my sword. “It’s never good when your friends are eaten by bear-wolf-demons.”
Bethany leapt out of the shadows, screaming as she buried a pair of daggers in the back of one of the demons. It howled and bucked, trying to shake her off. The daggers were stuck, but her grip was less sure. Each time she lost her grip on one of the knives, she would draw another blade and stab again, until the creature’s back was a pincushion of bloody hilts. It finally charged into the grasses, taking Bethany with it. Her cries of fury filled the air.
The grasses on the top of our little hill had already been trampled flat, which was fortunate, because it gave me some room to look around. The grasses all around us rustled with constant movement, the humpy backs of the monsters appearing and disappearing, like shark fins. I tried to ignore that. Finally, I found what I was looking for. My sword was lying point down in the mud, about ten feet away. I scooped it up and rushed to Tembo’s aid.
“Tem! Incoming!” I shouted, hoping he wouldn’t accidentally clip me with his whirling staff. The massive weapon whistled through the air, thumping into rib cages and cracking skulls. I slammed my shield into one of the circling demons, then sliced at the creature’s head when it turned to face me. It yipped, snapped at my face, then bounded off into the grasslands. The two remaining turned to face me. They spread out, growling and prancing. I backed away, trying to keep both of them in front of me. It wasn’t until I felt the grass on my back that I realized how far I had gone.
They launched at me at the same time, two howling missiles of fur and teeth, bristling with quills. I hunched behind my shield, but they were too heavy, too fast. Massive teeth wrinkled the edge of the bulwark and would have torn the shield away if it hadn’t been lashed to my arm. As it was, I was tossed back and forth like a rag, my shoulder screaming as the chimisit shook me. The other beast, the one that wasn’t playing with my shield, barreled past me and then whirled back. It snapped at my sword arm a few times, but between the shake game and my own attempts to stay in one piece, it wasn’t able to grab hold.
Chesa came to my rescue. With a thunderous roar, she hurtled past, slicing with that wicked scimitar Clarence had first given her. Like the rest of her kit, the sword had changed with exposure to her domain, and now looked more like a moon-bright sickle. The blade sliced through flesh and bone like the creature was nothing but fog. The demon dropped in several pieces to the ground, knocking me flat. While I rolled around in the trampled grasses, simultaneously dizzy and frantic, she kicked at the second chimisit, driving it into the shadows. Chesa stood over me while I got my bearings.
“You’re going to have to do better than that, Rast,” Esther said. She was standing over Matthew’s limp form, eyeing a pair of circling chemisits at the edge of the plateau. Our boss was pretty torn up. Long ruts crisscrossed her shield, and the pauldron of her sword arm was gone, revealing abraded skin and tattered fatigues.
I crawled to my feet, still unsteady, but determined to not be the guy lying down on the job. Together, Chesa and I made our way back to the center of the plateau. Tembo loomed over all of us. His massive staff was gouged and bloody.
Bethany reappeared in a rolling tumble. She was covered in the blood of demons and smiling from ear to ear. She held a severed dog’s head in one hand. When she landed, she rolled it back in the direction she had come, drawing a yelp from the trees.
“Quite an entrance,” I said. “But can you do that blindfolded?”
“Shut up, Rast,” Chesa said. “Bee, are you alright?”
“Great, I’m great,” she answered, chest heaving. “This is a pretty good way to die. You know, if you have to die.”
“Can I ask a question. Because people keep saying that heroes can’t die in their own domain, but that,” I pointed to Tembo’s gruesome wound. “That looks an awful lot like dying.”
“Everyone is different. Being able to die here is essential to my myth.” He straightened. “It is the only place I can pass from the mortal coil.”
“You’re...you’re immortal?” Chesa asked.
“That’s a pretty good gig,” Bethany said. “Though it makes this a bit perilous.”
“It has its advantages, and its dangers.” Tembo raised his staff and slammed it into the ground, sending a dull thud through the ground. It rattled my teeth, and apparently unsettled the circling demons. They flinched away, disappearing into the grass, even if only for a second.
“I’m assuming that we didn’t drive them off,” I said.
“If we kill enough of them, they will slink off into the shadows, where they belong,” Tembo said. “But no. We have not killed enough.”
“Is there a progress bar we can track? Some kind of milestone I should shoot for? Ten beardogs? Twenty?”
“Is this answer enough?” Tembo asked. He pointed to the grasslands. Hundreds of spiny backs loped through the prairie toward us, their chattering laughter floating through the air. They were coming straight at us.
“So, like, fifty? Is fifty a good number? Because right now I’m at...” I started counting on my fingers, doing some mental math. “Zero. But I have at least two assists.”
“What is that?” Chesa snapped, pointing in the direction of the approaching tide of murdering demon dogs.
“Our imminent deaths?” I ventured.
“No, beyond, there’s a light.”
“Yes, I see it,” Tembo said. “We have been followed.”
I strained my eyes in the direction she was indicating. Eventually I saw it. Two pinpoints of light, low to the ground and filtered through the grass, but clearly coming closer, and fast.
“Headlights?” I asked.
“That should not be,” Tembo said, in a way that expressed horror more than disbelief. “This place is sacred. It is holy!”
“We can’t stay here,” Esther said. “How far do we have to go, Tem?”
“Too far. And Gravehome would provide no shelter to your kind. It is simply death by another name.”
“Not Gravehome,” Esther said. “The herd.”
Tembo didn’t answer at first. The chimisit pack was circling, waiting for their reinforcements, but pretty soon we were going to be in the thick of it again. He shook his head.
“That is not wise,” he said. “You could not survive.”
“We have three bad choices, and only one of them doesn’t destroy this realm or let whatever that is—” she pointed furiously at the approaching car. “Doesn’t let it get to us, or the domains beyond. I would rather die than let that happen.”
“Yes, but die horribly?” I asked. “Do we have to die horribly?”
Esther ignored me. Tembo ignored me. The girls ignored me. I took my cue and shut up.
“Very we
ll. If that is your wish,” Tembo finally said. “It will be a death worthy of your story, my lady.”
“Just do it,” she said, then glanced at us. “Strap up, you three. This is going to be rough.”
Rather than ask how anything could be rougher than the last few minutes, I set about tightening my gear and preparing to fight. My helm was gone, kicked away during the fight, but I was glad for the fresh air in my lungs. Tembo’s domain really was a beautiful place, once you got past the murdering bits.
He set his staff in front of him, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. After a nerve-wracking moment, he raised his head into the air and trumpeted. It was a deep, mournful sound, a dirge, the kind of noise you expected to hear at the end of the world. It echoed through the sky. It hummed through the earth. It turned the air into warm honey and filled my head with light.
It was answered by an earthquake and a storm cloud on the far horizon. The thin spear of light was occluded, filtering through a sudden cloud of dust. Trumpets, distant and thin, filled the air. Then I could see them. Elephants. Hundreds, if not thousands, stampeding toward us.
At the first sound of the herd, the pack broke. It wheeled away from the thundering path of the herd, dispersing until it disappeared completely. I laughed.
“It’s working! Ye gods, but I thought we were done for.” I turned back to Esther and Tembo. “You guys don’t look relieved. Why don’t you look relieved?”
Tembo took a knee, resting the staff on his shoulder. “Get on. I will pass the others to you. I will need my hands free for the staff.”
“We’re supposed to ride you?” I asked.
“You will be crushed otherwise,” Tembo said. “Now hurry. They are nearly here.”
Chesa leapt lightly to Tembo’s shoulders, helping Bethany to her side. I looked over at the stampeding herd. It was at least a mile wide, maybe more, and showed no signs of slowing down. The car, which had been driving parallel to the herd’s path, had disappeared in the plumes of dust kicked up by hundreds of thundering feet.
“Got it. Trampled alive,” I said, sheathing my sword and buckling my shield across my back. Esther scrambled up just ahead of me. I used Tembo’s staff as a handrail as I scrambled up the elephantine leg and shoulder. Once I was settled, Tembo handed us Matthew’s limp form. Using rope from Esther’s satchel of many wonders, we secured him as best we could, then tried to lash ourselves down. Tembo stood. That alone was nearly enough to throw me to the ground.
“Careful, man! It’s not like we have saddles up here.”
“I am going to have my hands full,” he said. “You must adapt.”
Slowly, ponderously, Tembo started to run away from the stampede. He gave us time to adjust, time to find the rhythm of his gait, swaying with his stride as he picked up speed. The stampede was rapidly catching up to us. I leaned close to Esther’s ear.
“What’s going to happen here?” I shouted, my words nearly lost in the wind and the thunder of Tembo’s stride. “What’s our endgame?”
“All domains have a road. A pathway through, both for getting there and for leaving. It’s usually something specific to the owner, something that resonates with their identity, and is really only safe for them.” She leaned slightly, hanging precariously from the makeshift harness we had created. She pointed to the rapidly approaching herd. “That is Tembo’s road.”
“Where does it lead?”
“Gravehome, the heart of this place. From there we should be able to find the door to the mundane.”
“And if we can’t?” I asked nervously.
“Then we find another way,” she answered without looking in my direction.
I had more questions, but then the herd was on us.
The lead elephants overtook us with a sound like worlds collapsing. The ground shook, and clouds of dust washed over us, carried on hurricane force winds. I covered my head and huddled close to Tembo’s sloping shoulder, trying to keep the biting dust out of my eyes and mouth. It was hopeless. Fine grit filled my nose and mouth, forcing me to cough, each breath making the problem worse and worse. The winds died down after the initial wave had passed, but by then I was trapped in a haze of dirt and bellowing elephants.
Though really, not quite elephants. The tusks of these creatures were more like elk horns, multi-tipped and curling, sometimes climbing up the elephant’s head to sprout around their head like wicked crowns. Their ears and trunks were decorated with tattoos, and their massive flanks were caparisoned with fine silk or hardy leather, jangling with brass and gold. They spared us not a glance as they thundered past. And thunder they did. The sound of their passing was a deafening roar, like nothing I had ever heard.
Suddenly my footing shifted. Tembo lurched forward, like a man running downhill and trying to keep his balance. I grabbed our rickety harness, holding on for dear life. The herd was going past at an incredible rate of speed. Tembo wasn’t able to keep up, and the herd wasn’t willing to part around him. Elephants, small and large, brushed past, the force of the impact staggering even Tembo’s massive frame. And stumbling slowed him down, which led to more unfortunate encounters, which led to more stumbling.
I looked down at the earth passing under our feet. Trampled grass, cracked earth, flying by in a blur. What happens if I fall? I thought. What happens if Tembo falls?
Chesa started beating on my shoulder. I twisted around to see what fresh horror awaited, but she was pointing ahead. There was something rising out of the grasses, outlined in the purple spear of the horizon. A henge of bones and tusks, their curved archways reaching nearly to the sky. The herd spread out as we approached, winnowing down until we ran alone toward the entrance. The wide stampede of ur-elephants lapped around the structure. The noise of their passage slowly lifted from our ears. Tembo stumbled forward. I turned around, whooping with joy that we had escaped.
This was the end. This was Gravehome. And there, skirting the edge of the stampede, I could see a pair of headlights.
Chapter THIRTY
GRAVEHOME
The thunder of the herd faded into the distance, leaving only a cloud of dust and the ringing in my ears. I stood taller on Tembo’s shoulders, peering at the rings of bleached bone ahead. Tembo’s loping gait slowed, until we were nearly at a standstill.
“This is as far as I can go,” Tembo rumbled. “I will lose myself among the herd and return to Mundane Actual once I have recovered.”
“You can’t go the extra mile, buddy?” I asked.
“Not without dying. That is the gift of this domain, and the curse.” Swaying dangerously, Tembo went to one knee and extended his arm. We scrambled to the ground. Matthew rolled gracelessly into the grass. Esther immediately bent to Matthew’s side. The rest of us formed a loose perimeter.
“General location of the portal?” Esther asked without looking up, her voice clipped.
“Just beyond the archway,” Tembo said. “I have never seen it. I enter and leave out in the steppe, with the herd and the horizon.”
“Fair enough. Good luck, Tem,” she said.
“And you.” The giant bent carefully and put a massive hand on Matthew’s head. His thumb, as thick and rough as a loaf of crusty bread, gently brushed Matthew’s hair from his face. “Take care of him. See that he lives.”
“We will,” Bethany answered sternly. “We always do.”
Tembo nodded. Then he stood and slowly loped into the swirling dust. His footsteps faded a moment later, and then we were alone. I looked around. Everything was bones and dust. The walls that surrounded the enclosure looked like stacked ribcages, with the occasional tusk or leg bone. The archway in front of us contained rack after rack of sun-bleached tusks and was crowned by an elephant skull. Beyond the entrance, I could see pillars of bone, and lesser henges of pale white, all arranged with mathematical precision. Much creepier than my little cabin and its pot of eternal stew.
“So what is this place?” I asked.
“The heart of his domain,” Esther answered. Sh
e knelt beside Matthew’s still form, working frantically. “John, you’re going to do the heavy lifting here. We don’t have a lot of time.”
“What we do have is company,” Bethany said. She was staring into the clouds of dust that swirled across the steppe. The dim pinpricks of headlights burned through the gloom.
“I take it this isn’t a matter of those dog things learning to drive, is it?” I asked.
“Most certainly not,” Esther said. She looked up from her work long enough to squint nervously at the approaching car. “It must be your friend. If he ever catches up to us, I’m going to have some very sharp questions for him.”
“I’m up for the fight,” Bethany said. “This guy’s screwed up enough of my life. Time to return the favor.”
“I can’t believe Eric would do this. There must be something else...something we don’t understand,” I muttered.
“Only thing I don’t understand is why we rescued your friend in the first place,” Bethany said. “I had my knife to his throat. I should have finished the job.”
“Nice sentiment, but Matthew can’t wait. We need to get him into his domain as quickly as possible. And we still have to find the door to Mundane Actual.” Esther finished what she was doing and looked up at me. “John?”
A series of belts and canvas straps crisscrossed Matthew’s body, tied in place by Esther’s expert hand. She held two loops in her hands and was offering them to me.
“You turned him into a backpack,” I said.
“Duffel bag, really. It’s the best I can do.”
I threw the straps over my shoulder and stood. Matthew slumped against my back. He was lighter than I expected, like a bag full of dry sticks. Esther caught the surprise in my eyes and nodded.
“All his weight is in his soul. And there’s not a lot of that left at the moment,” she said. “Bethany, you’re on point. Chesa, follow close, but keep your eyes behind us. Those monsters shouldn’t be able to follow us, but you never know. And your friend in the car will have to wait.”