by Garry Spoor
“What about you?” he asked. “Are you going to be all right?”
“I should be,” she replied. “Just make sure you’re on the right side of the pass when Umingoth seals it off.”
Alex grinned. “Don’t worry about that,” he said. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life telling stories to the Rojan.”
Closing her eyes, Kile fell into her Edge and pulled the feral side to the surface. It was like a fire which coursed through her body, filling every part of her with an inner warmth. Her senses were suddenly awakened and she was aware of everything around her. She could feel the cold northern wind brushing against her skin and the vibrations under her feet from the advancing army. She could smell the vir on their horses, riding further south and it filled her with a need to hunt.
Without saying another word to Alex, she was off, tracking the scent of the vanguard through the pass. She was moving swiftly over the uneven ground, faster than even the horses of the northern army. She kept to the higher ground, closer to the valley walls, so as not to be seen. The tall brush scratched at her arms and her face, but she never let it slow her down.
When the scent got stronger, she reached out with her consciousness, touching the will of the horses. The northern mounts were loyal. As with all horses, they did not go against their riders without reason. But she had no time for reason. Even if they would listen to her, what could she tell them? She may be able to persuade a few of them to turn back, but they numbered close to fifty and she needed them all to turn back. She could convince them, if she had time, but she didn’t think the riders would sit still long enough for her to try. Besides, Alex may be able to cast an illusion to stop the advance army in their tracks. But for how long? He had already expended too much energy keeping Umingoth hidden from sight. That left her with only one choice.
She finally caught up to them around the last bend. They were moving at a slow, steady pace, but that was to be expected, advancing into enemy territory. They had no idea the King’s Command was still a day’s ride away. As far as they knew, the entire Aruvian army could be around the next corner.
Making for the higher ground on the eastern side of the pass, she stopped on one of the lower ledges to get a better idea of what she was about to do. The vanguard was still moving away from her, and there appeared to be more men than she had anticipated. Closing her eyes, she stretched out her consciousness once again, but this time she didn’t just touch the minds of the horses, she forced her will upon them. She could feel the black, sticky strands reaching out from within her, as they stretched across the landscape, entangling them.
It had been a long time since she had used the Maligar in this manner. She hated what she was about to do, and she hated the way it made her feel, but if she wanted to prevent a second war, she had no other choice. She would never attempt this with the Valgar. They were a part of the Maligar and their wills were so strong, she could easily lose herself to their madness. But the Rojan mounts were of her world.
The black strands wrapped tightly around her and stretched out through the vanguard, stabbing at the horses’ minds. She could feel herself merging with them. First one, then two, then a dozen. With each connection she was divided. The first few were always easy but soon she became disoriented. One moment she was standing on a ledge overlooking the pass, the next moment she was walking among the horses with a northerner on her back. The vir was heavy, weighted down with his weapons and armor, not to mention the fact that he stank of fur, sweat and leather. As she continued to follow the lead horses, she was pulled back through memories, all the way back to the mouth of Lutmorli, but it was covered with ice and snow. This was what the pass looked like from the northern side, high within the spine of the world, but the memories didn’t stop there. She was pulled back even further to the Rojan settlements where she waited in the stables as the men prepared to march. The small community seemed primitive when compared to the sprawling cities of Aru.
As she waited, a rider approached. He was one of the largest vir she had ever seen. He stood over six feet tall and was as wide as any two vir she had ever met. His hair was long and braided down his back and he was sporting a thick, full beard which hid most of his face. He was dressed in furs, to keep out the cold northern winds, and wore a great sword strapped a crossed his back. She was positive he would be more than a match for Master Boraro and almost wished she could see her old weapons’ master try to defend himself against this Rojan.
Just when she thought this vir was the most intimidating warrior she had ever laid eyes on, even if they weren’t her own eyes, a young boy came running out of the crowd toward him. The vir reached down and scooped the child up with one hand, as if he was no more than a rag doll, and the child laughed. He spoke to him in a strange, yet soothing language. Kile couldn’t understand what he was saying, but the boy could. She could tell by the look on the child’s face, whatever the man said was not what the boy wanted to hear. A slender, yet strong woman, with long blonde hair, stood beside the warrior. She silently took the child from him. Leaning down, he kissed her gently, and then ruffled the young boy’s hair. He gave them a smile before turning back toward Kile, his horse. The joyful look on his face was replaced with a grim, yet sad expression.
She saw similar scenes play out with several families as she connected with more and more horses. They all ended the same way. These were not the faces of men going off to glory and battle, these were the faces of men leaving all that they cared about behind in order to defend their homelands. But, during all these memories, she couldn’t help but feel something was out of place, something didn’t quite fit in. It took her a few memories, but she finally spotted it.
A pale man, with a haunted look, was standing in the crowd, staring at her. He had been there through most of her memories, but now she took notice of him. He was thin, almost sickly looking with matted black hair and a stooping posture. He wasn’t dressed like the other Rojan. His clothes were little more than rags and he wore no shoes. A man standing in the snow with no shoes and barely dressed, should have caught someone’s attention, but no one seemed to notice him. The fact he was staring right at her was also a bit disquieting. She was, after all, seeing these memories through the eyes of a horse, and yet she had the strange feeling this man knew who and what she was. He never moved, he just stood there with his head slightly tilted and his arm hanging down by his side. When their eyes finally met, his lips curled up into a grin, exposing crooked yellow teeth. His eyes widened, and he started to laugh.
Kile quickly pulled herself back through the memories, and although the vision was gone, the laugher was still ringing in her ears. When she opened her eyes, it was dark, but the night hadn’t fallen yet. She was trapped within the shadows of the Maligar.
There was no way of telling if she reached all the horses. Her mind was stretched further than it had ever been stretched, and she could feel herself slipping away. The darkness was calling to her, although, for some reason, she felt she had more control this time. Was it because there were no Valgar in the region, or was it something else. Umingoth said he broke the barrier within her. But what did that mean?
There was no time to think about it as she sent her first command. Most of the horses in the vanguard stopped. It was an unnatural, sickening sight, because they didn’t stop like horses. Some stopped in mid stride, a few nearly toppled over. It was as if she was playing with marionettes, pulling on their thick black sticky strings. The riders were bewildered. Some shouted, some cursed, and some, she thought, even prayed.
Now what? Keep the command simple, but make it powerful.
-Home-
With every bit of her strength she forced the word into each of the horses, filling it with visions of the Rojan village. She could feel the strands tightening around her, she could feel the darkness drawing her in, she could hear the laughter. She needed to maintain the connection as long as she could. Break it now and the horses would be back under the control of the riders, an
d then all of this would be for nothing. There would be little chance of her seizing control again. The darkness was now descending, the shadows were getting closer, the laugher was growing louder, but the horses were going home. Even those who weren’t under her control followed the lead horses as they turned around in the valley and headed back north to Rojan.
Kile watched as the riders did everything in their power to regain control. Some even dismounted to help their colleagues, and even though they were able to stop a few of the horses with brute strength, they couldn’t stop them all. Eventually they had no other choice but to return to the main force, since that’s the direction their mounts were carrying them in. One Rojan, whose horse was not entangled by the black strands of the Maligar, dismounted. The vir looked a little nervous as he cautiously walked forward to stand in the area where they had first lost control of their mounts. Reaching down, he took a handful of dirt and cast it in the air. He watched as the winds carried it away, and he must not have liked what he saw. After making a quick gesture, some sort of sign to either appease the gods or ward off evil, he jumped back onto his horse. The last thing Kile remembered was watching him ride away, and wondering if Alex was able to keep the main force from reaching the narrow section of the pass. Beyond that, there was nothing as the darkness descended.
***~~~***
28
When Kile came to, she had no idea where she was. The only thing she knew for sure was that she was no longer in the Lutmorli pass. Gone were the mountains and the cold north winds. The world was dark, and seemed greater than she remembered. The ground had been scorched as if a great fire swept through, leaving the earth black and barren. Thick clouds hung low over the horizon, blocking out the sky so neither sun nor moon could be seen.
When she moved, she felt awkward and clumsy, not quite herself. When she tried to get to her feet, she ended up rolling over onto her back. Something was definitely wrong, she thought, as she tried once more to get up. It probably had something to do with the fact that her hands were small white paws and she was covered in fur. She sat down and looked at her feet, which were abnormally long, or at least they would have been, if she was still human.
“I’m a rabbit?” she squealed, and then quickly covered her mouth.
Her voice seemed loud, when there were no other sounds to compare it to. The world was eerily silent.
Rolling over she fell forward onto her front paws, then kicked out her back legs, one at a time. She even went as far as to wiggle her tail. At least everything seemed to be working. When she moved forward it was in short hops. It was a strange means of movement, but she never heard any rabbits complain. It didn’t take her long to get the hang of it, and soon she was moving in something of a straight line. If only she knew where that line was headed.
She scanned the horizon for some sign of life, or at least some destination to aim for. There was nothing out there. No buildings, no trees, not even a decent sized rock to call a starting point. Well, she supposed one direction was as good as any when you didn’t know where you were going.
She continued on her crooked path when her rabbit ears picked up the first sound that wasn’t made by her. The rabbit’s sense of hearing was amazing, even when compared to her own feral senses. It only took her a few seconds to determine how far away the sound was and in which direction it was coming from. She stopped and turned around, staring off toward the horizon. Whatever it was, it was getting louder, which meant it was getting closer. Then she could see something moving. It was cutting a straight line across the scorched ground and was heading directly for her. Her rabbit instincts were telling her to run.
She took off across the barren landscape and soon learned rabbits were designed for speed. Unfortunately, so was the creature behind her. She tried cutting back and forth, as she had seen rabbits do when fleeing predators, but it was no use, it caught up to her. Barreling over her, it pinned her to the ground, and she soon found herself looking into the face of a black fox with crooked yellow teeth. She struggled to get out from under it, but the fox only laughed and stared at her with a strange, haunted expression.
Using her powerful back legs, she kicked out from under the fox, sending him rolling across the ground. He landed in a heap and lay motionless. Hopping closer, she sniffed the creature. Although her nose told her it was indeed a fox, it was like no fox she had ever smelled before.
-What are you? -
She asked.
She wasn’t quite sure if she was speaking as a rabbit or a vir, or if the fox could even understand her. Nothing, at the moment, seemed to make sense.
Another short hop brought her closer, but not too close. If he turned on her, she needed the space to get away.
-Are you okay?-
She asked.
The fox began to shake. At first, she thought it might have been in pain, that maybe she kicked it a little too hard. Only when she got closer did she realize he wasn’t suffering, he was laughing hysterically. Kile backed up as the fox slowly got to his feet. He turned to face her with that wild haunted look still in his eyes. His head shifted back and forth in an unnatural, chopping motion, all the while his eyes followed her. His body began to contort, his legs grew longer, his chest broader, his head wider.
She knew she should be running about now, but she was held in place by his eyes. The fox had transformed into a large black wolf. When he grinned, he showed the same crooked yellow teeth. Somehow, that sight broke his hold over her, and she shot between the wolf’s legs just as its jaws snapped down at her.
She tried to put as much distance between her and the wolf before he could turn around, but if the fox was fast, the wolf was faster. It didn’t take him long to catch up. Overtaking her, he spun around to block her path, and she soon found herself running toward him. Skidding to a halt, she scrambled to change directions and tried to outrun him again, but it was no use. The wolf kept overtaking her. He was playing with her. He could end it any time he wanted. He had her moving in so many directions she had no idea which way she was going. As she turned one more time, she found the wolf standing in front of her once again. She couldn’t keep this up for much longer, she could already feel her rabbit feet tiring. Instead of changing directions, she slid into the wolf, kicking up the blackened dirt into his eyes.
It made a horrible noise, as it rolled around on the ground. She had no intention of making the same mistake twice and this time left it to its agony. She needed to find a place to hide, a place to rest before it recovered enough to pick up the hunt.
-Keep running, this way.-
A voice called out to her.
She didn’t actually hear the voice, not with her ears. It was inside her head, but she knew in which direction it was coming from. Now that she had a destination, she was getting her second wind.
She saw the light first, a faint glow on the horizon, but it was still some distance away. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew if she could reach that light, she would be safe.
As the light grew brighter, another sound reached her ears. Someone was screaming, or was that screeching. Her rabbit instincts told her to move left, so she quickly rolled to one side as a large black shape dropped out of the sky, striking the ground beside her before flying away. She only got a glimpse of it, but she knew what it was.
-Great, now he’s an eagle.-
She cursed.
-Quickly, he’s coming back.-
The voice called out.
-I’m running as fast as I can.-
Kile shouted.
-Watch out.-
The eagle swooped down again, but missed her as she leapt to the other side. That one was way too close, she was sure she felt his talons brush the back of her leg. This must be why rabbits ran from side to side, she realized, and quickly started to randomly change direction.
As she got closer to the light, she realized what it was. The large oak tree she had seen in her dreams, but it didn’t look as grand as it once had. The bark was gray and whol
e sections of its crown were missing leaves as if poisoned by blight. Abandoning her zig-zag course, she ran straight for the tree.
The eagle dropped from the sky, a flash of light emanated from the tree, and everything went black.
***~~~***
29
“Sir.”
“What is it, Corporal?”
“I know you don’t want to be disturbed, but Sorto’s squad has returned.”
“Very well, wait for me out in the hall.”
There was a bit of noise, followed by a chair sliding and the sound of soft leather boots walking across the floor. Kile struggled to open her eyes, but she just didn’t have the energy, all she could do was lay there and listen to the conversation.
“Report, Corporal, what did Sorto find?”
“It’s what he didn’t find, sir. The Rojan.”
“No sign of them?”
“None. The Lutmorli pass has been completely sealed off.”
“Are you sure?”
“Sorto saw it with his own eyes. He said it looked as if someone pulled down the mountainside”
“I see. How long will it take them to get through?”
“It’s hard to say. If you have enough men working on it nonstop, you might see progress by late next year.”
“I see. Anything else?”
“There is one other thing, sir. Mystic Elmac reports, they may have found the command words.”
“Which command words, Corporal?”
“That’s just it, sir, he’s not entirely sure. The Alva have not been very helpful.”
“I didn’t really expect them to be.”
“Then why are we still dealing with them, if I may ask.”
“Because it’s all part of the game, Corporal.”
“As you say, sir. Still, I just don’t trust them.”