Jess gasped, feeling a terrible chill suddenly flow over her as if she had been abruptly dunked in an ice bath and she lurched forward, her breath coming in sharp, ragged gasps before the sudden bolt of terror eased back to tolerable apprehension. A quick appraisal of her companions showed them all looking equally startled, their horses stopping abruptly, all of them sharing a worried glance. Jess blinked, noticing at that moment as well that the gloomy cloud cover overhead had gone from an overcast day to twilight within seconds, and the air felt thick with moisture.
“Am I the only one who felt their stomach lurch?” Malek asked.
Jess and her friends shook their heads. “Nope. I definitely felt something.” Jess turned to gaze at Alex and Jera carefully. “Are you two… feeling all right?”
“Of course, why do you ask?” Alex gave Jess a quizzical look and she just smiled and shrugged.
“No reason," she assured, even as she shared a moment's glance with Malek and as one they donned their bronze helms, deliberately making sure they were free of any iron, save for the weapons they knew so well. "Never hurts to be prepared, though."
Alex smirked. “Indeed.” He closed his eyes and seemed to center himself, opening them a moment later, looking almost like an entirely different person. “Come then. Let us see what lies in store for us, shall we?”
Jera nodded, looking strangely serene, right hand caressing the wooden hilt of her blade, left hand holding her wooden buckler, several more leaves sprouting from its center. “Let’s.”
And very shortly thereafter the brooding town of what they could only assume was Pomell sprung forth in all its gloomy glory, almost as if it had abruptly formed into being from the heavy fog rolling in, though little more than the outlines of the buildings were visible, so thick was the chilly mist suddenly surrounding them.
Malek whistled. “By Justice, this place is gloomy.”
There were a few people making their way through the town, almost stumbling through the haze it seemed, all looking toward their feet, none favoring the travelers with a single glance.
“Come, I see an inn ahead.” Jess looked up at Alex’s words and following his lead made out the outline of the overhanging sign marking the building as possessing lodgings for travelers and drink for all.
“That’s odd,” noted Jess a short time later as they made their way to the stables in back. “There’s no stable lad.”
Malek shrugged. "It does seem quiet here. Not a soul in sight, but the stables are dry, free of draft, and if the hay isn't the freshest, it isn't soiled, either. Might as well stable the horses ourselves, and head inside."
“It's okay, girl, we won't be here too long," Jess soothed, taking a moment to stroke Mercy's head, gently easing her nervous mount with whispered words and fresh apples from one of the pack mares. Jess nodded to her companions, and together they made their way to the front entrance, pushing open the creaky door to behold an almost empty taproom, save for a couple fellows sitting quietly in a corner, and a vacant-eyed man presently standing behind the bar. He was wearing a green tunic that might once have been of fine quality, for all that it was presently rumpled and stained, as if the man had worn it for days on end.
Jess blinked. It seemed that the silver mist must be in here as well. The few patrons seemed almost to have a faint bit of a glow to them, or maybe that was the smoke mixed with the heavy fog that was irritating her eyes.
“Pardon, innkeeper, we would like to inquire about rooms for the night." Alex's voice was firm, yet polite. The very picture of a noble condescending to visit a place beneath his station, a voice that normally brought fawning attention and obsequious compliance from those of lower station, and a useful cover for Alex's role as a traveling scholar of noble background and means. It also conveniently explained the armored guards he ostensibly had at his service. His was a role that had served them well on their journey so far.
Jera's role was harder to place, but she hadn't let that stop her. Her armaments were modest, a finely made quilted gambeson and buckler, sturdy as Jess knew Highrock armaments to be, yet a prosperous mercenary would also be wearing a helm and a shirt of mail if he could afford it, or a cuirass of lamellar armor constructed of boiled rawhide if he could not. Yet Jera's fine blade was of unusual design, the quality of the steel beyond the means of any save the aristocracy, or an exceedingly prosperous merchant or mercenary. Ultimately, she appeared to be what she was. A headstrong young woman of means out for a lark with her man, or perhaps, an adventurer in her own right.
The innkeeper, if that's what he was, did not appear impressed. In fact, he hardly moved. Pasty white skin made him look sickly, his unwashed hair hung in greasy clumps about his head. Eyes void of all thought made him look as if he hadn't slept for a week, or was sleeping still. Alex was about to repeat his question when the man finally spoke.
“Rooms are a talon. Drink what you like.”
Alex blinked. A talon, the smallest silver currency, was the equivalent to ten copper farthings, and was a steep price to pay for a room in what was a middling fair inn at best, Jess thought. Access to free drinks, however, was near unheard of. "Are you saying, good sir, that a silver talon covers room and board?"
The innkeeper just stared at Alex. “Rooms are a talon. Drink what you like.”
Alex gazed at his companions, and Jess shrugged. “Your call.”
“Too damn wet and chilly to camp outside if we don’t have to. Guy seems harmless enough,” Malek grumbled.
Jera nodded. “I'm with Malek. I’m not looking forward to sleeping on cold, damp ground. We don’t have Josie here if we get sick.” She managed a soft chuckle.
Alex sighed. "Very well, sir. One talon, one room, for all of us. Will someone show us to our room?"
With that Alex placed a silver talon on the counter, but the strange man made no move to pick it up. Instead he just stared. “Rooms upstairs.”
Alex shrugged. “Very well, then. If you would kindly pour us a few small ales, to wet our parched throats?”
The Innkeeper didn't even glance at the kegs of ale spiked with spigots behind him. His voice appeared all the more drunk and distorted even during those few moments. A jerky hand shook as he struggled to point to the kegs before he gave up, letting his arm fall to his side. “Help yourselves.”
Exchanging a glance with Malek, Jess went around, eyeing the barkeep carefully, pouring out four small ales into the tin mugs available. A discrete sniff and she sensed nothing save slightly stale drink. She shrugged and tried some. Nothing special, but palatable. She nodded and passed the mugs to her friends, drinking from her own.
“I don’t suppose you stock anything in the way of sustenance for a weary traveler?” Alex queried, the innkeeper blinking at Alex momentarily before losing himself once more in his mindless daze.
“Damn, I’ll bet he’s deep in his cups.” Malek grimaced. “Already, this town feels off to me.”
Jess nodded. “Let’s try to talk to the patrons, few as they are, and see if they can tell us about any strange occurrences of late.” her companions nodded, and as one they made their way to a table adjoining the pair sitting quietly in the corner.
“Excuse me good sirs, how are you this fine day?" Alex queried, favoring the duo with an engaging smile. "I'm a scholar from the capital, and I've heard interesting rumors from this region. Either of you chaps know a good story or two you'd like to part with? I'd be happy to get you a drink to wet your whistle, if you would like."
One of the men snapped angry eyes at Alex, glazed and bloodshot. “Piss off, you little shit!”
His breath, Jess couldn’t help noticing, smelled wretched, like he had eaten filth and never bothered to wash his mouth.
His companion just grinned, lost in his own thoughts. "It's only a matter of time, you know."
“For what?” Jess asked gently, ignoring the blustering larger man, curious as to what his slender companion had to say. The man turned his pale, pale green eyes at Jess and gave her a sad
little smile.
“Before your dreams, they all fade away, and you realize what life is.”
Jess felt a slight chill of foreboding. “What is life, then, good sir?”
The man chuckled sadly. “Life is the dream. That’s the secret. That’s the truth. The secret truth they try to hide from you. The nightmare? That’s when you wake up!” He started to cackle before his companion smacked him.
“Shut the hell up, you fool.” He glared at Jess and her companions, and Jess was struck by how haunted his eyes looked, underneath the anger. “If you have any sense, you’d leave this place. Now.”
“And why is that, good sir?”
The burly man just shook his head and grabbed his madly grinning friend, leading him out the door, turning back to favor Jess with one final glare “The sad thing is, I don’t even know if you fools are really here! But if you are, get out. Get out while you damn well can!”
With that he left, the door slamming behind him, and the room was eerily silent.
The innkeeper began to chuckle. “Well said sir! May I poor you another?” Jess blinked, turned around, but no one was at the counter, just the innkeeper himself, gazing at something only he could see.
Malek shook his head, brooding eyes gazing about him with contempt. “Alright, I’ve had enough of this place. These people are all mad as hatters, and I don’t really want to risk catching whatever is infecting them with craziness.”
The sound of thunder tore through black storm clouds above, lightning flashing so bright they were all momentarily blinded. The steady drizzle they had endured for the last hour had turned into a torrential downpour.
Malek grimaced. "By all the hells."
Alex sighed. "That's what I'm afraid of. Come, my friends. Let's go find ourselves the sturdiest room here, and bed for the night. We'll keep ourselves armed and ready, and if all is well, we'll look for more clues in the morning." He turned to Jess. "As you may recall, your vision of a tower correlates well with early legends of this place. It would serve as a good a focal point for any mad diabolists looking to harness the wand or chalice. I suggest we start inquiries at first light." He sighed. "Hopefully this weather will break by then and we will actually have some sunlight, though I suspect it will only get worse."
Jess, in rare disagreement with her friend, shook her head. “Let’s rest in the stables. Maybe these people are a bit eccentric, and maybe they're just sick, in which case we need to send for a healer and see what they have to say. But one thing I do not want to do is leave our horses exposed and unguarded." Her gaze toward Alex was almost apologetic. "If the other citizens are as out of sorts as these poor souls, we dare not delay in sending for the Guild immediately, even if we must give up our prize, Alex. These people need help, and we need healers and more experienced Delvers than ourselves to deal with it.
Alex looked around and finally shrugged. “This is more than I expected. I had feared there might be a rift in Shadow opening nearby, but neither you nor Malek have said anything to that effect. Obviously something is seriously wrong here, and it worries me as well that we don't have a clue as to what exactly is going on.” Alex sighed. “As much as I think we need to make finding that tower our priority, sending a messenger to the college for healers and alerting the Guild might be the move we have to make.” He chuckled ruefully. “Well, we dare not leave this instant. You and Malek may have the vitality of bears, but Jera and I risk fever riding out in the dead of night in pouring rain, to say nothing of potholes along the way.”
Jera gazed bemusedly at the Innkeeper, and Jess noted how glassy the man's eyes were. He didn't appear to have heard a word they were saying. "It's like he's in a dream," Jera noted, visibly shivering.
Jess nodded. “Yes, true. Far safer to head off in first light, as well as determine if the rest of the town is like this, giving added value to our report. Now let's just get to the horses, I will feel better sleeping by Mercy's stall.”
It was then they heard a terrified whinny and frantic kicking from the stables, and then silence. Quickly followed by the frantic, high-pitched squeals of animals in mortal terror.
26
Bloody hells!” Malek roared. “The stables!” He turned to the door only to find that Jess, sword unsheathed, had already smashed it open, her friends jumping past the splintered door and following her lead.
“By all the fires of the Abyss!" Malek cursed softly, instinctively drawing his blade and stepping to his shieldsister's left, even as they took in the sight before them.
Across the road separating the Inn from the town proper, a dozen twisted figures stared at them in the downpour, seemingly unaffected by the rain, their bodies a blurry outline save for their brilliant yellow eyes, shining like sickly yellow flecks of topaz.
Jess heard Jera scream and risked a quick look back to see her gripping Alex tightly, whimpering incoherently as Alex tried vainly to comfort her.
“Jera! Blade out and point forward. We may need your lightning!” Jess shouted, trying to snap her friend out of her daze before spinning around to keep an eye on the threat before them. She focused on taking long, deep breaths as danger's clarion song resonated within her. Her heart started to race, her eyes taking in every minute detail of her enemies. She waited for the alien shapes to launch an attack, to justify her flying into a berserker's killing fury, but all the twisted and hunched figures did was stare, utterly still. Their pale yellow eyes glowing bright with fevers alien and strange.
Jess grimaced, hesitating to attack what might be nothing more than warped, sickly souls, yet the thought of standing still and vulnerable in the pouring rain while unseen specters terrified their steeds was intolerable. "Malek, let's get to the stables and get the hell out of here!"
“Damn right.” Her shieldbrother’s nod she caught with the corner of her eye as they slowly made their way back to the stalls, and with a subtle nod to Malek, Jess launched herself inside, her blade at the ready for whatever lay in wait.
Jess gasped in dismay. One glimpse told her all she needed to know about how effectively they were pinned.
A blood-spattered pool, numerous eviscerated bodies of what had once been proud, noble beasts.
Jess choked back a sob, recognizing her beloved Mercy, who had sensed from the start that they were not safe. But Jess had ignored her whinnies, soothing her only long enough for her to be left defenseless. Her beloved destrier, gentle brown eyes open wide in death, lay in a crumpled heap, her flank ripped completely open. Torn flesh, scattered entrails, and the sickly sweet coppery tang of blood saturating the air.
And then she noticed it, the horrific crunching sounds of a beast gnawing on the remains of their beloved mounts.
Dark, malformed, moving with an eerie lurking grace, a shadowy form at that very moment ravenously engorging itself on the entrails of the horses it had so viciously butchered. Even as the lightning’s flash near instantly faded back to deepest gloom, she could not deny the scaly texture of the skin, its massive talons, or the tail tip flickering behind it.
This creature was no man.
It looked up at Jess and emitted a hideous cackle, it's voice the choking gargle of a plague victim drowning in his own fluids. “Ah,” it hissed. Jess felt her gut twist as she realized she could make out the living nightmare's distorted words. “Fresh meat comes. Welcome. Welcome to the feast of Blowkin!”
Jess heard Jera’s cry of horror and sensed more than heard Alex grab her close. With a nasty hiss, the gargoylian monster sunk into the shadows, the mad clatter of its claws echoing through the stable as it scurried from wall to ceiling, all but impossible to see clearly. “Did you guys see that?” Alex whispered. “Keep an eye out. It could strike from anywhere!”
“By Justice, what was that thing?” Malek hissed, even as he and Jess instinctively started to circle and protect their companions, blades facing outward.
“Trouble,” Jess cursed. “Keep an eye out, lest it strike us unawares!”
Even as she said the
words, she noticed a streak of darkness coming toward Alex almost too fast to believe. Jess's well-honed reflexes from hundreds of training bouts kicked in instinctively, finely honed longsword snapping forward with a powerful Scheitelhau strike, blade slicing expertly into the shoulder of her mysterious foe.
It let loose a screech and spun away, yet a quick glance showed her blade free of any blood. “Did you score a hit?” Malek whispered hopefully. Jess grimaced and slowly shook her head. Heart racing, it was only then that Jess felt the first touches of dread trickle down her spine.
From the shadows, a wet whistling laughter chilled her to the quick.
“Curse and damnation!” Malek spat. “Sounds like someone coughing through a slit throat. What is it, Jess?”
“Whatever it is, it isn't human," Jess heard herself saying, shocked even to hear the words, yet knowing it was true. "Twilight! Where are you?" Jess was almost ashamed of how very much she sounded like a frightened girl at that moment.
“I’m here, Jess.” Her familiar's voice, soothing as always, helped her to calm her anxiety and focus on the battle at hand. “Beware your back, more foes come!”
“We don’t have time to worry about your cat, Jess!” Alex’s voice, normally so controlled was starting to rise, the first etches of panic apparent. “Look outside!”
Jess risked a quick glance back, noticing the dozen hunched figures, misty through the downpour save their bright yellow eyes, stumbling their way across the road, headed straight toward them. Yet she snapped her attention back upon the twisted gray form scurrying through the shadows, as twisted laughter gushed like spilled blood from its lips.
“Damn. They’re closing in.”
“Alex!” Jera shrieked in utter panic even as Jess caught the streaking image of their slithering menace scurrying across the roof to drop down upon them, silvery talons aimed for their throats glittering as lightning tore once more through the night sky.
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