And Night Descends (The Third Book of the Small Gods Series)

by Blake, Bruce

  As they approached the green glow, the land flattened again, allowing Ailyssa the opportunity to survey the path they’d taken and convince herself the strange figure hadn’t followed them. She spied nothing but forest and hills; a shudder trembled through her shoulders.

  “Look. It reaches to the ground.”

  The nameless man raised his hand, pointed ahead of them. Ailyssa did as he said and glimpsed flashes of green fire between the trunks of the trees. She didn’t understand what might cause such a thing, but it didn’t fill her with dread the way the shadowy figure at the village did.

  The man quickened his pace, pulling her along with him. The glow pulsed and wavered in the waning light of approaching twilight, brightening and dimming in steady rhythm as though a heart beat within it. Seeing it made Ailyssa forget the ominous silhouette, the weird village; even Jubha Kyna and her banishment from Olvana left her, replaced by a sense of awe.

  “What do you think it is?” she asked breathlessly as they approached the green wall.

  “A barrier of some sort.”

  Ailyssa tilted her head back to survey the shimmering wall’s full height. It was impossible to say how high it climbed; from her vantage point on the ground, it appeared to reach all the way to the sky.

  “I don’t understand,” she said, directing her attention to her companion.

  He didn’t appear to hear as he stared at the green curtain, eyes wide and mouth gaping. A trance-like state had overtaken him, drawing him toward the barrier and blocking out the rest of the world. Ailyssa understood—she felt drawn to it as well—but caution kept her from giving into it.

  “Stop,” she said, grabbing his wrist with her free hand.

  He tried to keep walking, but she dug her feet into the ground. For a moment, she thought he’d drag her along behind him, heels cutting deep furrows into the dirt, but her weight pulled him from the trance. He stopped and faced her.

  “We don’t know what it is,” Ailyssa said.

  The man blinked twice and shook his head, regarded the shimmering wall briefly before returning his attention to her. When he did, his eyes had cleared.

  “I couldn’t stop,” he said, letting his gaze drop. “It was like something within the glow beckoned me.”

  “We should take care.”

  He nodded and they took up walking again, amending their path to travel parallel to the barrier rather than heading toward it. Only ten paces separated them from it, but its attraction diminished. They walked in silence until it occurred to Ailyssa that she didn’t know where they’d go and assumed her companion didn’t either. She parted her lips to ask when he broke the quiet before she had the chance.

  “Look,” he said, pointing again.

  This time he gestured skyward. Ailyssa lifted her gaze, looking where he indicated, and noticed an unusual cluster of clouds on the horizon. In the distance, the cloud was broad, but as it came closer to them, it narrowed until it ended in a point.

  Ailyssa narrowed her eyes, staring at the apex of the cloud. A movement at the front of it drew the vapor across the sky behind. She took a few heartbeats to realize what it was.

  “A bird!”

  Cloud puffed out behind it with each flap of its wings and Ailyssa stared, open-mouthed. She’d seen nothing like it before. They watched it come closer until it passed overhead. The trail of cloud it left spread out above them, butting up against the green wall on one side, its expansion halted, but expanding across the sky on the other. She attempted to continue watching the bird, but the cloudy trail left in its wake obscured it, so she turned her attention to the cloud swirling against the barrier high above.

  “Come with me,” she said, tugging on the nameless man’s hand. “But avert your eyes from the wall.”

  He followed without hesitation, the sensation of leading swelling her heart. As they crossed the space toward the shimmering green barrier, anticipation grew in her, an unexpected excitement. The wall tugged at her as before, but not with such insistence that she couldn’t resist it if she chose.

  When they’d come within arm’s reach, she stopped and glanced back at her companion. He’d directed his eyes toward the ground to avoid gazing at the barrier as she’d told him. He halted when she did.

  The green light, brighter with the clouds blotting out the near-twilight sky, pulsed and faded, pulsed and faded. After watching it for a few breaths, Ailyssa realized the rhythm of the glow matched the beat of her own heart; whether her heart kept pace with the wall’s pulsations, or the wall duplicated hers, she didn’t know. Either way, realizing it dried up all the saliva in her mouth.

  “What are you doing?” her companion asked.

  “I want to find out if it’s as solid as it seems.”

  Why did she say that? She’d never intended to touch the green glow, only to examine it more closely. Yet the words came from her lips and she found herself lifting her arm, reaching toward the strange light.

  Her fingertips brushed its surface and bolts of verdant lightning crackled across it without making a sound. It was warm and smooth and the effect her touch created caused no pain or discomfort. She drew her hand away and the wall’s reaction ceased. When she touched it again, it returned.

  “Amazing,” she said, breathless.

  This time when she removed her touch, she noticed movement on the other side. Startled, she stepped away, back pressing against her companion. Her heart beat faster, the pulse of the light keeping pace until she found what drew her attention.

  On the other side of the barrier opposite her stood a deer, different from any deer she’d seen before. It resembled the size and shape of any she’d encountered—most of which had been dead, brought to Olvana by hunters and sold to them for food—but this one sported only a single, straight horn jutting from the center of its head. It bore no sign of fights or accidents that might have caused the loss of others, no stumps where they should have been, just the lone antler. The animal stared back at her with as much surprise and wonder in its gaze as she imagined must be in hers.

  “Look,” she said, gripping the nameless man’s hand.

  He did as she continued holding onto him, squeezing, hoping to keep him from being lost in a trance again. He raised his arm. At first, she thought him reaching for the wall and her heart leapt with concern. A shock of lightning sprinted across the barrier along with it, but he was gesturing beyond the strange deer.

  “There are others.”

  She looked past the animal. On the other side of the wall, the forest grew thick with tree trunks and brush, having been allowed to flourish when someone had cleared the forest away where they stood. On a fallen log behind the deer sat a rabbit with floppy ears and a wiggling nose, but it was the size of a pig. Birds perched in the boughs of the trees, too. She counted at least five different varieties, each notable by their colorful plumage and none of them like any she’d ever seen. Every bird and animal stared back as though as curious about them as they were about the animals.

  Ailyssa shivered.

  “Perhaps we should keep moving.”

  From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed the man nodding. An instant later, he started out and she went with him, keeping herself between him and the green wall. Try as she might to keep her gaze from the forest on the far side, the barrier compelled her to raise her eyes from watching her footsteps and glance beyond it as they walked. She found the deer loping along with them, and birds following, flitting from branch to branch.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, more to distract herself from the animals than because she expected him to have an answer.

  “Eventually, we’ll find a town. A real town.”

  The thought brought her both hope and fear. Though the sun had risen several times since they escaped Juddah’s barn, they couldn’t be sure their pursuers gave up the chase, so it would do them well to find somewhere to hide. But Ailyssa had had little luck when accepting help from strangers; first Creidra took her to Jubha Kyna to become the pla
ything of men, then Juddah locked her in his barn, intending to keep her as his own. She had no choice but to trust the nameless man whose touch gave her sight, but she doubted her ability to believe anyone else truly wanted to aid her. Sometimes, she wasn’t sure her companion did.

  The deer following them on her right halted, its attention diverted from the two people to something ahead. It backed away one step at a time, then turned tail and ran, bounding through brush and over moss-covered logs. Hesitantly, Ailyssa looked ahead, searching for what frightened the one-horned animal.

  It took little effort to differentiate the large creature from the dense forest.

  Thick, black hair covered its massive form while its head—larger than a man’s—sported a blunt snout and short, rounded ears. It stood on all fours, head tilted back as though listening or scenting the wind. Ailyssa pulled on her companion’s hand, dragging him to a stop.

  “What is—?”

  She put her finger to his lips to keep him from speaking and attracting the creature’s attention, then pointed. When he sighted the beast, the nameless man’s demeanor didn’t change. Instead of acting fearful, as Ailyssa felt, he coaxed her onward. After three steps, the animal caught wind of them.

  It reared, standing on its back legs, the top of its head two arm’s lengths higher than the nameless man’s. The beast’s lips parted, revealing sharp teeth designed for rending flesh. It waved its gigantic paws and its mouth opened in what should have been an earsplitting roar but which Ailyssa and her companion couldn’t hear.

  “The barrier may be as much to keep them in as to keep us out,” the nameless man said.

  Ailyssa swallowed. Assuming the wall had it trapped on the other side did little to ease her fear of its pointed teeth and dangerous claws.

  It is good to be afraid of such things. Goddess made them fearful-looking for a reason.

  When the animal realized they didn’t react to its warning, it dropped back to all four feet and moved toward the green wall, its bulk heaving side to side with each step. Ailyssa pulled herself closer to the nameless man, gaining small comfort in the touch of his chest against her shoulder, but the beast stopped short of the barrier, not close enough to brush against it.

  “See? It knows better.”

  Ailyssa nodded and sighed a relieved breath as they walked again. From the corner of her eye, she saw the beast lumbering along beside them, picking its way over fallen trees and around thick brush while the path on their side remained clear. After a short while, she convinced herself to forget the animal, directing her attention instead to the clouds blotting out the sky.

  Approaching twilight painted the blanket of cloud covering the world in shades of gray, with darkness and night soon to follow. The green wall looked to hold back the clouds as effectively as it kept Ailyssa out and the forest creatures in.

  Can anything pass the wall?

  A fat raindrop plopped on Ailyssa’s shoulder, a few others pattered against leaves and grass. The thought of being caught out in the rain should have dulled her spirit, but Ailyssa had always enjoyed whatever the Goddess’ world offered: sun, rain, wind, night. It all reminded her how good it was to be alive. Despite everything that had happened—the heartache and hardships she’d endured—the drops felt splendid on her cheeks.

  The wind rose, playing through her short hair and she resisted the urge to close her eyes, enjoy how the elements touched her. A jagged bolt of lightning shot across the sky, startling a gasp out of her. The nameless man squeezed her hand tighter, as though he thought she feared the lightning rather than being surprised by it. His action at once made her feel an indebtedness to him and a loathing he should assume she needed his protection. If it wouldn’t have thrown her into blindness, she’d have pulled her hand away from his comforting gesture.

  The space of five heartbeats later, thunder rumbled through the world. This time, since she prepared herself for it, she giggled at the sound. The rain increased; not enough to drench them, but enough the drops couldn’t be avoided. She tilted her head back and allowed them to caress her cheek, to cool her skin.

  Her companion halted and Ailyssa walked into him, bumping her nose on his shoulder and sending painful stars flashing across her vision.

  “Hey. What are you—?”

  She raised her head and saw the robed figures emerging from the edge of the forest.

  The nameless man’s body tensed, his head jerked side to side, searching for an escape route. Ailyssa looked too and found other figures had crept up behind them, surrounding them, cutting off any path. The last to show himself was the one who wore no robe and led Juddah by the length of frayed rope.

  Ailyssa gasped when she spied her one-time rescuer/captor. Even with night descending upon them, she recognized his swollen face, his shoulders sagging with fatigue and defeat. His feet dragged as he was led toward them; he looked like a dead man who didn’t realize his time was done.

  “Well, well, Juddah,” the man leading him said, “it appears you’ve done more work for me and the brothers than we might have hoped.”

  The nameless man ushered Ailyssa behind him and backed away as the robed men formed a semicircle around them, penning them in with their backs to the glowing green wall. Distress at needing to be protected once again flitted through her, but the fear of what these men might do to them quashed it at once.

  “Not only have you brought us the man from across the sea, as the prophecy said,” he continued, “but it seems you have also led us to the barren mother.”

  Rain cascaded down Ailyssa’s cheeks, dripped from her chin, found its way under her collar and down her back, but she noticed none of it. The term the man used in describing her—barren mother—cut into her as if he’d plunged a knife between her ribs. Her companion continued backing them away from the robed men and she wondered if he could do anything to keep them from harm.

  Ailyssa sensed the barrier close behind them. She glanced over her shoulder and saw it fewer than two paces from her, rain droplets striking it and sending spiderwebs of fine, green lightning crawling across its surface. She set her feet and pushed back against her companion, letting him know they’d gone as far as space allowed. He stopped, planted his feet, braced himself.

  A smile crept across the face of the man leading Juddah. It smacked of satisfaction, Ailyssa thought, like the grin of someone who’d worked a long time for something, finally achieving it. Lightning filled the sky again, the light flashing in his eyes as though fire burned within them. For the first time in her life, Ailyssa considered true evil might exist in the world.

  “Take them,” the man commanded.

  The semicircle drew closer around them, leaving their leader where he stood, the smile making a home upon his lips. Ailyssa’s gaze flitted from one to the next. She saw no weapons in their hands, but suspected it didn’t matter; they could still do them harm.

  Thunder rolled, the rumble building and folding over on itself until it became a roar.

  “No!”

  The word was all but lost in the booming thunder, but it caught Ailyssa’s attention, for neither she nor her companion uttered it. Everything moved so fast afterward, she struggled to recognize what happened.

  Juddah jumped forward, his sudden and unexpected movement catching his captor off-guard. The thick rope slipped from his grasp and the big man hurled himself with surprising energy into the nearest robed fellow. His bulk lifted the stranger into the air and sent him toppling to the ground before Juddah threw himself at the next.

  Half of the robed men turned their attention to the escaped prisoner while the others closed the distance to Ailyssa and her companion. The nameless man jerked away, pushing her back. She gasped as the barrier pressed against her spine. The man without a robe shouted, Juddah growled, energy crackled through the air; another robed figure reached for her companion, a dim light emanating from the sleeve of his robe.

  Green light engulfed her vision and a hiss like rushing water filled Ailyssa’s hea
d. It lasted for only a moment, but in that moment, she watched one of the robed men grab Juddah by the head and twist his neck hard. He crumpled to the ground.

  First, the sounds disappeared, followed by the world itself. Ailyssa fell, landing hard enough to knock the air out of her lungs. Her companion’s touch drifted away and the forest returned to nothing but featureless white haze as she lay on her back struggling to find her breath. When it returned, she gasped air into her chest, filling her lungs. Panic filled her chest along with it.

  A wide leaf touched her cheek and she jerked away, startled, wiping at the spot with the back of her hand. Only then did she realize the rain had stopped. She froze, fighting to control her breath and ignore the pounding of her heart in her ears. Instead of the sound of a fight, she heard the gentle rustle of leaves stirred by a light wind, the chirrup of crickets singing in the night. The odors were different, too: wood and moss and loam, the scents of the forest.

  I’ve passed through the barrier.

  With the realization, she identified another fragrance amongst the aromas of the woods, this one not as pleasant: the musty odor of a wet thing not given the opportunity to properly dry.

  Ailyssa held her breath as a branch snapped under the weight of a footstep. Her mind, unhindered by sight, brought a clear picture of the black beast with the small ears and sharp teeth to her, speeding the beat of her heart.

  A deep rumbling disturbed the forest’s sounds, but this wasn’t the complaint of thunder. The noise rolled in the throat of a great, black animal rooting through the brush in search of her.

  ***

  Juddah didn’t know where the energy came from to yank the rope out of his captor’s hands; blind rage, perhaps. A memory of Kooj’s twisted corpse flashed through his mind at the sight of the robed men approaching two more of his possessions, and he snapped, unable to accept that these prizes should suffer the same fate as his beloved dog.