The Hungering Saga Complete

by Heath Pfaff

  The king nodded. "I will have Ferocity take her out of the camp and to the city where the refugees are being kept. There, Fero will stay and keep watch over our daughter. If anything happens, Fero is more than capable of getting them both safely out."

  I breathed a deep sigh of relief. My own life I did not worry about, but I wanted to be certain Kay would be safe, and with the Hungering drawing ever nearer, that safety was certainly in question.

  "Don't worry, Noble. There is nothing in the world that would make me put that little girl in harm's way." Weaver said, placing his hand on my shoulder. I tried not to shy away from his touch, but I flinched at his fingers, as though they burned. He either didn't notice, or didn't care.

  "If you have everything you need, I recommend you get on your way before the camp has fully roused. It will mean less interference." Lucidil said. It was time to go.

  I walked out of the tent and into the morning. The sky was still dark, but at the horizon the faintest hint of dawn could be seen. The Hungering would be returning to their holes soon enough and that would give us at least a few hours of safe traveling. With the winter days decreasing in length, those few hours would be short indeed. Still, it was better than traveling in full night. The first day of travel would be quiet.

  Malice fell in at my side, and then Ethaniel stepped out in front of us, his wings wrapped about his shoulders. He looked like a dark god, his face framed in long black hair and topped by his large spiraling horns. He was the sort of being one only thought to encounter in legends, and yet it was he that would be leading us on our journey. He walked through camp quickly, seeming to barely touch the ground as he moved, and Malice and I fell in behind him.

  I gave one last look over my shoulder as we departed the camp, my eyes scanning the silent tents. I felt certain if I could just watch long enough I might see Kay one more time before we left. I knew it was an idle fancy, but I couldn't stop myself from looking. I had gotten so close to her, only to have to now leave her behind once more. She would not miss me when I was gone, but I knew that I would think of her every day that I was away. That knowledge was its own kind of torment.

  "Be safe, Kay." I said softly. I knew she did not hear the words, but I wanted to believe that by uttering them, I could force their meaning into reality. I turned my attention back on the path ahead, and saw Malice's head turning forward as well. Had her thoughts been similar to mine? Had she wished Kay a last farewell also? I couldn't know.

  As the sun crept up in the sky, the landscape about us began to change and shift. We kept a near suicidal pace, crashing through the forest with reckless abandon. Though our rate of travel was dangerous, we were not moving at the highest speed we could manage. There were many miles between us and our destination, and we'd need to conserve some energy for any fighting that we might encounter along the way. We had to balance our speed with our caution, and hope we made the right choice.

  We crossed into the lands the Hungering were believed to occupy, and it was as though the life in the world around us had been snuffed out like a candle. With the trees sleeping for the winter, and the pervasive silence that surrounded us, the world seemed a dead place. Even with my sensitive ears, I could hear nothing but the occasional breath of wind through the skeletal remains of winter trees.

  "They're below us." Ethaniel said as we ran. His second eyes, the gray, smoke-filled orbs, were as disturbing as they'd ever been, but they seemed to be focused elsewhere. They no longer bore into me when he looked in my direction.

  "They're all around us as well. They've already carved out extensive tunnels in this area. They will definitely start their assault on Lucidil's fortifications tonight. They might not even wait for full dark. The burrowers don't seem to hate the sun as much as those that follow after." He added.

  "What of the drakes?" Malice asked him, keeping pace on the other side of Ethaniel.

  "They don't travel below ground, though they do live there. They'll come across land. I'm not sure where they are as of yet. I can't see them." Ethaniel answered. "Right now, though, that is not our biggest concern."

  "Reaching the army is our goal." I said, certain that was what he meant.

  Ethaniel shook his head. "No, our biggest concern is that the Hungering know we're up here." He looked grim. I couldn't blame him, because I too felt a sense of dread at that knowledge.

  "Certainly they can't track us while we're traveling at these speeds?" Malice's voice betrayed her shock.

  "They can, and they are also able to communicate across great distances. I don't know how it's done, but we can be certain that the enemy lays in wait ahead of us. They are waiting for nightfall. That is their time." Ethaniel's voice was calm. He delivered what information he had, and his opinions, as solid facts, left no room for argument. That, I noticed, was a trait of those who'd lead men for any length of time. It was better to leave no room for questioning.

  "Can you see far enough ahead to tell us where, and how many of the enemy there are?" I had decided I would prefer to known what I was running into.

  "No, my vision gets imprecise not far ahead of us. There must be some of the yellow stone in the ground that seems to cloud my ability to see. Until we're past it, I cannot see much further than you can." Ethaniel explained. His ability, for all that it could be useful, had some striking limitations. I would have preferred not to have to depend upon it at all, but I knew that it might very well be our death if we chose to ignore Ethaniel's words.

  Part of my distrust of Ethaniel's ability was, I knew, caused by the gray eyes that carried the power. Ethaniel talked of using the ability to our benefit, but every time I saw those malicious orbs, I couldn't help but wonder whether we were using them or if they were really using us. I couldn't shake the impression that there was some dark intent, an evil intelligence, behind the smoke. Ethaniel seemed changed from when I'd first met him, and I believed those eyes to be the cause.

  My gaze kept returning to the sun. The hours of the day were flying by far too quickly. It would be full dark in another hour, and the enemy lay hidden somewhere below us. We couldn't risk stopping for the night, there just wasn't enough time. Even if we did risk a pause, the Hungering would surely be upon us in a matter of minutes. So long as we walked upon the ground over their heads, they would always know where we were. We would be crossing the land above them for at least the first three days of our journey. My thoughts wondered through the dangers of our position, and I began to ponder what fighting we might have to do to reach our destination. For the first time, the true risk of what we were undertaking struck home.

  The road ahead was long and dangerous, and we might have to fight for every mile we gained. What was worse, if we didn't reach our destination fast enough, all of this risk would be for nothing. If we let the Hungering slow us down too much, the king's men would be destroyed before we could send help back to them. What would become of us then? What would become of Kay? I forced that thought to the back of my mind. I couldn't afford to be distracted.

  "Once the fighting starts, we kill just enough of them to get through, and then we run. We can't afford to stop and fight in one place for too long. We have to keep moving. If need be, we can run at full speed. It will exhaust us quickly, but the most vital part of our mission is that we reach the rear army and get them headed in the proper direction again. If we don't do that, everything is lost." Ethaniel said, as though he had heard the very thoughts in my mind.

  I didn't know Ethaniel well, but I sensed a certain desperation in his voice. He was fighting for what he believed in, and he knew better than any of us the stakes. Despite all the atrocities he had borne witness to over the years, and the death of so many Uliona in the process of making more Knights, he still cared about the land and the people. It eased the tension in me to know that at least one of the people I was newly aligned with cared about what we were really fighting for.

  "We'll punch straight through." I replied. "We can put on speed the moment we see them and carve
a path to safety."

  "If one of us falls, the others must go on." Malice added, and I looked to her, surprised that she would say such a thing. Malice had stood beside me in many terrible situations, and I couldn't imagine leaving her behind if she fell in battle. Her green eyes flared in the evening light, lit by the falling sun and her own fierce determination.

  "As much as it pains me, you speak the truth." Ethaniel answered, accepting Malice's grim ultimatum in the very way that I should have. My heart, however, would not allow me that concession.

  "None of us will fall." I said, and I burned those words into my soul. None of us will fall. I would not let any of those who fought beside me die. I saw the others look at me, questions in their gazes I did not intend to answer. Their eyes said, "Will you not do what is necessary to reach our ends?" My heart could only answer, "None of us will fall."

  The sun faltered in the sky, sinking below the horizon in a wash of reds and purples that faded to dull blue, and darkness fell heavily about us. We kept our pace fast, pushing ourselves even harder than we had earlier in the day. It took all of our skill and grace to keep footing on the rough terrain. An hour passed, and then a second as we flew through the darkness, and I began to wonder if Ethaniel had been incorrect in his guess that the Hungering would attack us in the night. Maybe the Hungering did not know we passed above them, or maybe they didn't care since there were so few of us. I was deceiving myself.

  We crested a hill, and as a group we drew to a halt. The valley floor was carpeted in red glowing eyes, all watching in our direction as though they'd anticipated our coming. Of course, they had known we were coming for some time. They had likely been waiting for hours, having received word through their own secret form of silent long-distance communication.

  I drew my sword, and heard the gesture echoed by the other two members of our group. None of us will fall. I repeated those words in my head, a mantra to fight by. I looked once more to Malice. Especially you. I cannot let you fall.

  At that moment, standing atop a hill, starring into the face of death, I realized something that I should have known for years. Malice wasn't merely a dear friend to me, though she had often been that. She was so much more than that to me, indeed I truly loved her. No matter what she thought of me -- whether I was simply a friend to her or even merely an acquaintance with benefits -- I loved Malice. I was afraid to lose her. I was terrified that she might die, and that I would be well and truly alone in the world.

  My daughter was mostly lost to me, Kye, who I still loved, was gone forever, but Malice was still there. All those years I'd spent alone in prison, I'd spent countless hours wondering if she was safe, and hoping that she would not forget about me. Those times we'd been together physically, the tenderness, the closeness and safety I found in her arms, those times all came back to me then as I stood looking down at thousands of burning red eyes. I was in love with Malice.

  "None of us will fall." I said the words aloud.

  I charged, my sword ready, the others at my side. I didn't spare either of them another look, for I knew that the time for hesitation was at an end. Death waited in the valley, and I had to either defeat him, or prepare myself to take his hand, and I didn't intend to fall.

  Red eyes swarmed forward as a seething mass of violence, and the world lurched into a slowed pace as I drove myself into a flurry of speed, breaking the fragile limits of human men. My sword blazed from enemy to enemy, severing limbs, inflicting mortal wounds, and then passing on to the next. Somewhere deep inside my being the echo of giant, hungry jaws gnashed the air, drooling in blissful pleasure at the slaughter around me.

  A six-legged beast broke from the pack of red eyes, charging to my left, in Malice's direction. I dove left, severing the head of a Hungering warrior and using its corpses to propel myself forward in the process. I thrust my sword out, and two of the six-legged creature's legs fell away from its body. It turned to bite, moving far faster than a normal Hungering soldier could. I brought my sword up and lodged the blade in its jaws, stopping what would have been a killing strike. I willed my claws to their sharpest and lashed out at the demon's neck. The force of the blow tore through its throat and into its spine. I had to pry my sword free from its still clenched jaws before I could move on.

  The Hungering advanced, coming from every side. There were hundreds of them, maybe thousands, and they were all clambering to kill our three-person party. My blade never stopped in its course, I couldn't afford to let it slow down. I pressed every attack, killing with almost every blow. Some weapons broke through my defense, but I ignored the minor wounds and pressed on. Malice and Ethaniel were still fighting strong, doing better than I was. I was the weakest fighter, I knew. My companions had both honed their skills over hundreds of years. I had always had trouble mastering the blade.

  A thrum of sound rippled through the air, strangely familiar. It took me a moment, a slowed moment, but I figured out what it was. Bows. I spun about, my eyes searching for the trails of movement that signaled bolts. My eyes quickly found them, but they were coming too fast. Ethaniel would be struck. I willed my body faster.

  My heart hammered, like thunder tears at the air. I had to go faster. A primal howl filled the inside of my body, as though some beast was lifting its head and giving praise to the moon. My heart beat faster, stronger. I pulsed forward, the ground shredding beneath my padded wolf's feet. There was a peculiar singularity of purpose in me, as though the Fell Beast within was responding to my call to arms. My sword blade quivered and flexed as I churned it through the air towards the incoming arrow, the metal of the weapon bending against the forces that resisted its motion. My blade struck the arrow shaft and the dangerous projectile flew wide, but even then more thrums were filling the air. More arrows were being fired, several. Faster.

  Fire filled my limbs, my bones ached with the pressure of my movement, but the world around me had slowed down even further. Even Malice and Ethaniel, moving at blinding speeds, seemed to be dancing slowly through their movements. I shifted direction and charged at the nearest arrow. It was inching through the sky at a snail's pace. I reached out, pushing through the terrible pressure that tried to resist my movements, and grabbed the arrow, twisting it in the air and throwing it back the way it had come. Pain exploded in my palm. My eyes shifted to my hand, and I saw the flesh rip, blood splashing from the wound in a slow dance. I was applying too much stress to my body, and the arrow was moving too fast to touch it directly to my skin.

  I dove for the next arrow, it was aimed for Malice. I swung my claws at it. The pressure against my arm was tremendous, but as my claws hit the arrow it shattered into countless tiny pieces. I felt the impact through my arm, but it was far less dramatic than the pain I'd felt in my palm. I'd found a way to deal with the arrows. I darted from arrow to arrow, smashing them from the sky. I struck down any Hungering that was in my path.

  Malice and Ethaniel were getting faster. Though, in truth, I knew that I was slowing down. My body could not maintain the levels I had pushed it to. I fell back into the pace of battle, matching Malice and Ethaniel. My body ached. My legs and my arms felt as though they might break at any moment, the muscles were sore to the point that the pain interfered with my movements. Still, I pushed myself forward.

  I darted amidst the group of Hungering, looking for those with bows or crossbows. As I found them, I killed them. I didn't know if I could block another volley of arrows, but now that I knew they were coming, I could attempt to prevent further attacks. A cold chill shot down my spine, and I spun around just in time to see a sword slip through Malice's defenses. The blade passed in slow motion, slicing through the air with dangerous precision. I could see it moving, but I was too far away to do anything about it. Malice was engaged with three enemies.

  The gleaming metal passed through fabric and struck flesh. I saw the moment it made impact in terrible clarity. Malice spun, her clawed left hand striking the blade aside, but the damage had already been done. The blade drew a l
ine of crimson red across her back as she spun. I could see the blood course into the air, and that red filled my vision. My heart hammered against the inside of my chest, and I dove forward. The bestial howl from inside of me was suddenly ripping its way through my throat, and though I couldn't hear it clearly through the strange fog of high speed movement, I could feel it ripping my throat raw as it issued forth from me.

  Snow. . .

  Blood. . .

  The hunt. . .

  I was consumed by an insatiable rage which I couldn't seem to stifle. My sword fell from my hands, forgotten as I dove forward with my claws, ripping and tearing at anything that chanced to cross my path. Red eyes burned out with every strike of my clawed fists, but I did not slow. I carved a path of blood and bone, rage growing with every opponent that fell before me.

  Kill. . .

  Faster. . .

  The world was red, the bodies of my enemies were piling up around me, but I noticed little of it. I was intent upon killing everything that dared raise a weapon to me. I would have kept going until my claws had worn away, or my heart had faltered. Maintain yourself. Calm. The fire is getting nearer . . . calm. The words echoed through my mind, a familiar voice, feminine, yet gravelly, distant, reaching to me. It was another voice, though, a louder, more pressing voice that finally broke the murderous haze that had fallen over me.