Shadowrise s-3

by Tad Williams

  "I… I am trying, my lord," said Okros, plainly anxious. "It is just… we must… I must be cautious. These are great powers!"

  "Yes, but at this moment I am the greatest power you know. Go ahead. Complete the sacrifice however you see fit-but complete it. We must find the location of the Godstone or we will have no hope of making the power serve us. If we fail this gamble, Okros, I will not suffer alone, I promise you…"

  "Please, my lord, please! See, I am doing as you ask…"

  "You are only poking, you fool. Have I promised you inconceivable riches just to see you poking at a reflection? Reach in, man! Make it happen!"

  "Of course, my lord. But it is not so… so easy…"

  And then, even as the physician's voice grew softer and Tinwright leaned forward to hear him better, a sudden shriek split the darkness, rising so swiftly and so terribly that it did not sound as if it could come from a human throat, then dropping just as quickly into a choking, gurgling noise for the length of a rabbiting heartbeat or two before it vanished beneath the sound of men scuffing and clattering up the stone stairs as they fled the tomb.

  The first one out of the crypt was a guard who fell to his knees at the top of the stairs and began to vomit. The second ran past him, holding his own mouth with one hand and waving a torch in the other. The first got up, still spitting, and began to follow him across the temple-yard, the two of them running in awkward zigzags between the monuments.

  The tall, hooded shape of Hendon Tolly appeared in the door of the crypt, the large cloth bundle in his arms. "Go back to the residence," he told the sentry, who stood now gaping.

  "But… my lord…"

  "Shut your mouth, fool, and get moving. Follow that idiot with the torch. We dare not be caught here. Too much to explain."

  "But… the physician…?"

  "If I must tell you again to be silent I will quiet you for good and all with a slit throat. Go! "

  Within moments they had vanished into darkness, leaving Tinwright gasping and trembling, alone in the shadowed cemetery. The door to the tomb still gaped. Light still flickered there.

  Matt Tinwright did not want to go down those stairs-no man with his right thoughts would do such a thing. But what had happened? Why was the torch still burning there in the depths, despite the silence? At the very least, he should go and pick it up-he did not want to cross the cemetery again without light.

  Tinwright would never after be able to explain why he did what he did. It could not have been bravery: the poet was the first to admit he was not a brave man. And it was not ordinary curiosity-no mere curiosity could have overcome that terror-although it was something like it. The only way he could explain it was that somehow he had to know. At that moment, in the dark temple-yard, he felt sure that nothing would be more terrifying than to wonder ever afterward what had happened down there.

  He put his foot on the first step and paused, listening. The light in the doorway below him was little more than a smear of yellow. Matt Tinwright went carefully and silently down the dark stairs until he reached the bottom. He could see the niches on either side, like dark honeycombs, and the torch lying on the stone floor. That was all he needed, really, he suddenly decided-let wondering be cursed. The burning brand was only a few steps away. He could crawl to it while staying close to the floor so he would not have to look at any of the empty stone faces atop the sarcophagi…

  He saw Okros just as his fingers wrapped around the torch handle. The physician was just to one side, sprawled on his back with legs spread and left arm outflung, a piece of parchment still clutched in his hand. His eyes were impossibly wide and his mouth stretched in a silent scream, the face of a man so terrified that his heart had burst within the walls of his chest. But what was most frightening of all was his right arm-or, rather, the right arm he no longer had: all that remained was a short, shiny length of bone jutting from Okros' shoulder like a broken flute, the flesh peeled back all the way to his neck, showing the red muscle beneath. Nothing else was left from his right shoulder down except little strings and wisps of flesh, like the torn threads of hemp that remained after a rope snapped.

  Worst of all, there was no sign of pooling blood in that entire wreckage of flesh and bone-not a single red drop, as though whatever had torn his limb away had also sucked his flesh dry.

  Tinwright was still on his hands and knees, heaving out the contents of his stomach, when he felt something cold and sharp against the back of his neck.

  "Look, now," a voice said, echoing against the walls of the crypt. "I come back for a scrap of parchment and find a spy. Stand up and let me have a look at you. Wipe the vomit from your chin first, there's a good fellow."

  Tinwright climbed to his feet and turned around as slowly as he could. The cold, sharp thing traced its way up from his neck, bent his ear in passing, slicing the skin so that it was all he could do not to cry out, then was dragged ungently along his cheek until it stopped just below his eye.

  By a trick of the light the blade of the sword was invisible: it seemed as though Hendon Tolly held him prisoner with a length of shadow. The Lord Protector looked feverish, his eyes bright, his skin glittering with sweat.

  "Ah, my little poet!" Tolly grinned, but it did not look at all right. "And who is your true master, then? Princess Briony, pulling your puppet strings all the way from Tessis? Or is it someone closer-Avin Brone, perhaps?" For a moment, the sword threatened to slip higher. "It matters not. You are mine now, young Tinwright. Because, as you can see, I have lost one of my most important liegemen tonight and there is much still to be done-oh, much and much. I need a man who can read, you see." He gestured toward the one-armed remains of Okros Dioketian. "Of course, I cannot promise the job is without dangers-but nothing half so dangerous as refusing me. Aye, poet?"

  Tinwright had to nod very carefully with the sword blade so close to his eye. He felt numbed, helpless, like a trapped fly watching the spider step slowly down the web.

  "Then take that parchment from Okros," Tolly said. "Yes, pick it up. Now walk out ahead of me. Fortunate poet! You will sleep at the foot of my bed tonight-and every night from now on. Oh, the things you will see and learn!" He laughed; the sound was as bad as the sight of his smile had been. "A short time in my employ and you will never again mistake your empty, sickly sweet notions for truth."

  31

  A Single Length of String

  "Kupilas the Artificer, who figures only briefly in the many tales of the Trigon and the Theomachy, nevertheless seems to figure prominently in many of the Qar's stories. Some of their tales even suggest he eventually conquered the Trigonate Brothers-part of what Kyros calls 'the Xixian Heresy.' In Qar legends, Kupilas, whom they call Crooked, is generally a tragic figure."

  -from "A Treatise on the Fairy Peoples of Eion and Xand"

  Barrick had only an instant to draw his sword before the first of the skrikers was upon him. It came out of the darklight as if carried on the wind, pale robe flapping, ragged arms stretching wide. When he slashed at it his blade tore through cloth that seemed no sturdier than a rotting shroud. The pitch of its song changed but the eerie crooning did not stop as he jabbed at it again and again. He could not damage it-his sword touched nothing that felt like a body. Were these Lonely Ones nothing but billowing robes? Were they ghosts?

  He was almost too frightened to think. The silkins had at least been real creatures, whatever they were made of-he could cut them and burn them. But he could not cut these skrikers and he had no fire.

  Again and again the thing swept toward him and then whirled away, its rhythmic song winding in counterpoint around a fainter tune-so where, he suddenly wondered, was the second skriker? Barrick spun just as another undulating shape closed on him from behind. He could hear Shaso's voice shouting in his head as clearly as if the old man stood beside him: "Don't let them fix you in place! Keep moving!"

  As he skipped away from this new attack, desperate not to get caught between two enemies, the first skriker suddenly prod
uced something like a horsewhip, although it looked as though it was made of nothing more substantial than mist and cobweb. When it snapped the whip at him he jumped back, but the lash grazed his calf in an icy swipe of pain.

  Now the two skrikers began to circle, trying to catch him between them again. Terror had a grip on him now, getting stronger by the moment: the second creature had also produced one of the strange lashes, and their song rose again, this time with a hurrying tone of triumph. What were these things made of? Why could he see nothing of them but their eyes, like spots of blood on the pale rags of their faces? They had to be more than air-but what were they?

  As if it meant to answer his question, one of the skrikers lunged at him and for a moment its hood rippled open to reveal a nightmare face, bloodlessly white but for crimson bruises around the red eyes and a mouth like an empty hole-a female face without humanity or kindness, stretched into a shrieking mask.

  That horrifying moment was almost fatal: as Barrick stood transfixed, the other creature caught him with the tip of its lash in the middle of his back. Pain crashed through him like a thunderbolt and dropped him to his knees. His sword clattered away, he didn't know where-the agony had all but blinded him. As he desperately sought the strength to stand the first of the skrikers slid toward him, raising its weapon. Instead of retreating toward the other creature Barrick threw himself forward and grabbed his attacker where its legs should have been. There was nothing there, or almost nothing-he felt rags and dampness and a crunching, brittle resistance like icy branches. Cold spread rapidly through Barrick's arms and within a moment he could feel the chill crawling into his chest, freezing his heart; it was all he could do to pull his arms free and roll to the side. As his fingers closed on his sword the things swept in on him, piping like excited jays, their song clotted with rapid clicking and slurring that might have been words.

  Howling with disgust and fear, Barrick slashed and slashed with his sword, forcing the skrikers back a little way so he could climb to his feet, but his legs were so weak he could barely stand. He swayed, gasping for breath, unable even to keep the blade of his sword level. The situation was hopeless but he was determined to sell his life as dearly as he could.

  Then, as the two things closed on him, eyes narrowed to bloody pinpoints and inhuman voices skirling in cold joy, something black whirled through the air and struck the nearest of the skrikers in the back. For a moment Barrick thought it was Skurn trying to help, but then the creature that had been hit straightened up and let out a weird hoooo of pain or surprise and Barrick saw that small black waves were lapping at its robes-black flames.

  The second skriker had frozen in surprise, as if they were not used to being resisted. Barrick leaped forward and grabbed at it with both hands. Despite its seeming fragility it resisted him with surprising strength, but before it pulled free he was able to force it back just far enough to bring it into contact with its hooting, flapping companion. A moment later a blaze of shadow ran up its sleeves and onto its hood.

  The first skriker was completely engulfed in dark flames, not singing any more, its voice a discordant, almost inaudible shriek. The waves of cold that came from it were too painful for Barrick to approach so he turned to the second one and waded into the chill, slashing away with his sword over and over until he felt the cloth ripping beneath his blows, great shreds of it coming away and tangling his blade. Now his foe was covered in black flames as well, its wordless voice shrilling louder and louder in what sounded much like fear, until it abruptly lost shape and fell away before him. For a moment Barrick grasped at several dark tendrils of something as slick and runny as melting suet, then the blackness flowed away into the ground and was gone and he held only empty, rotting robes that fell apart and ran through his fingers as dust.

  He turned in time to see the other skriker thrashing for an instant in a haze of flickering, leaping darkness, then it fell in on itself with a huge pop and fizzle of ice-cold sparks and was gone, leaving nothing but a smoldering pile of clothes that dwindled away in a last flutter of shadow. But for the charred stump of its handle, the torch itself had entirely burned away.

  For long moments Barrick could only stare, unsure of what had happened, dazed and aching. Then Raemon Beck stepped toward him out of the shadows of the trees, looking almost shamefaced.

  "I… I went and got one of the darklights. I threw it."

  Barrick let out his breath and sat down heavily. "You most certainly did."

  He would have liked nothing better at that moment than to curl up and sleep, but it seemed unlikely they could burn away two of the city's guardians without anyone noticing. In truth, he realized, they might only have moments before more of the hideous things came. Groaning, Barrick struggled back onto his feet and led the reluctant Beck toward the massive stone wall and whatever lay beyond it.

  They made their way cautiously through the wild tangle, following the wall until they found an arched gateway. The gate itself lay on the ground in lengths of rotted timber salted with bits of rusted metal: there was nothing to keep them out.

  To Barrick's surprise, the courtyard beyond the gate was nothing but an overgrown field of grass like a sward around a manor house, although this greenery had not known the teeth of any grazing animals for some time-it was almost knee high, dotted with wild shrubs and netted with black creepers like veins beneath a man's skin. At the far end of this courtyard stood a wall with another archway and another collapsed gate.

  "Let me go first and see what's here," Barrick said.

  He had taken a few steps across the greensward when something grabbed at his ankles. He cursed and yanked his boot free, but when he put it down something clutched him again. The grass itself was twining around him, its blades probing the air like the lightning tongues of serpents, wrapping him in long stalks that continued to twist and climb up his legs.

  "Stay back!" he called to Beck. "The grass-it lives!"

  He hacked desperately at the stems, but for all the damage Qu'arus' sword did to them it might have been made of parchment. Some strands of grass now reached up to snatch at his hand as if it were trying to pull the weapon from his grasp. Behind him he could hear Beck shouting but could not make out what the man was saying.

  The grass blades that had curled around his legs began to tug him downward, contracting like strips of drying animal hide. Barrick knew that if they pulled him to the sward he would never get up again. He was still slashing but still accomplishing nothing-a few of the strands parted, but for every one he cut two more seized him.

  Then, just at his moment of greatest despair, an idea came to him.

  Barrick shucked off the gray cloak he had appropriated and threw it out full length on the grass before him, then fell onto it, twisting as he did so, to land on his back in the middle of the garment. He could feel the grass squirming like clutching fingers beneath the cloth but the strands could not reach him through the heavy wool, which was pressed down by the weight of his body. Momentarily protected, he began to saw away at the grass imprisoning his feet. Hard, breathless work finally released him. For several moments he could only lie panting like a shipwrecked sailor, his cloak a raft on an angry green sea; then, when he had a little of his strength back, Barrick began to crawl like a caterpillar across the length of the lawn. He moved the cloak with him, always keeping the heavy garment between him and the predatory grass. When he reached the far end and clambered off into the archway he took a swift look through it to make sure nothing else lay in wait for him there, then turned and threw the wadded cloak back to Beck. The cloak trick learned, Beck took less time to cross the greensward than Barrick had.

  At last they huddled side by side in the archway, looking into the next courtyard. It was full of low-lying mist, but when Barrick looked closer he saw that the mist floated above a shallow pool of water that filled the courtyard as the other had been filled by grass.

  "You will not try to walk through it, will you, my lord? " asked Beck.

  Bar
rick shook his head. "I don't know what else we can do. But you don't have to come-I told you that."

  The other man groaned. "What, turn back? After helping murder two of the Lonely Ones?"

  "Ah, yes. That was clever," Barrick said as he threw his cloak back over his shoulders. "Burning them with their own darklight torch."

  "No 'clever' about it, sire. I ran to grab something to fight with. The darklight was the first thing I saw."

  For a moment Barrick almost felt warmth toward the man, even something like kinship, but that was a weakness he could no longer afford. He turned to examine the waiting pool.

  The mist curled lazily above the water, but now he could see that it hid a row of cracked, ancient stones that rose just above the surface and led toward yet another arched gate at the far end. It was plain that they were stepping stones, but just as plain to Barrick that even so, crossing would likely not be as easy as it looked. He stepped out onto the first stone and waited an anxious moment for something to happen. When nothing did, he stepped to the next, sword gripped tight in his hand, eyes roving across the water for whatever fearsome creature might strike at him from the deceptively placid shallows. Still no menace emerged, so Barrick stepped forward again and Raemon Beck slowly followed him.

  It was only as he reached the halfway point, beginning to hope that whatever might have once inhabited the pool was gone, that Barrick began to feel a weakness in his lower body, as though his legs were grain sacks and something had gnawed a hole in them. When he looked down he saw that the thin mist above the pool had thickened around his ankles and calves, foggy tendrils moving in a way that seemed to have little to do with any air currents he could feel. As he stared, and as the feeling of weakness began to spread, he thought he could see shapes in the mist, grotesquely deformed faces and clutching fingers. Everywhere the mists touched him he was getting cold. He took another step but his legs had grown so weak that he tottered and almost fell. He looked back helplessly at Beck, who was swaying under the same attack.