by Phil Tucker
CHAPTER TWELVE
Kethe heard Asho gasp. The sound was short and sharp and spoke of a sudden panic. Without thinking, she drew her blade, clasped it with both hands, and spun so as to fall into a crouch.
Asho stood still, gazing over his shoulder toward a monstrous hound that had padded up silently behind him. The creature was almost the size of a pony, though it was an unnatural combination of flesh and darkness. Its head, nape, and shoulders were covered in thick, matted black fur, but beyond that, it seemed wrapped in coiling shadow which did little to hide its spinal column and ribs. There was a hint of its rear legs, the talons digging into the rock, and its tail was a burning sheet of black fire.
Impossible. Terrifying. And sniffing at the ground just behind Asho's heels.
Kethe forced herself to swallow and glanced over to Mæva, who was staring at the shadow hound with wide eyes. There was no recognition in her gaze, no sign of a plan. Kethe felt Asho reach out for her and embraced his connection. Immediately, that strange whispering wind of the world pouring through him and into her soul started up. She drank deep, and felt strength coil within her frame, the leather of her gloves creaking as she tightened her grip on her hand-and-a-half castle-forged blade.
Asho took a step away, and the hound's ears flattened alongside its vulpine skull as it moved after him, scenting at the ground on which Asho had stood. Understanding hit Kethe like one of Elon's hammers. Mæva was masking their immediate presence, but not the scent they were leaving behind them. As soon as Asho moved, a fresh footprint sprang into existence before this shadow monster's nose.
Asho had made the same realization. He took a second step, but this time turned as he did, so that he was facing the hound when he stopped. Again the monstrous beast followed and sniffed at the latest print. It was utterly silent, not breathing, its huge talons making no sound as they touched the rock.
Asho was breathing in short, quick pants. He raised his blade overhead. The weak sunlight glimmered down its length.
Kethe's heart began to pound. He was going to strike. And why not? What better option was there? She felt more magic course into her, and knew that he was going to strike hard and true and sever the monster's neck. She willed him to bring the blade down. A moment of tension ran through him as he rose a fraction of an inch onto his toes, then he swung down, both hands cleaving his blade toward the beast.
It darted aside with preternatural speed at the last instant, leaving a wreath of shadows behind it like smoke that faded even as Asho's blade clanged against the rock. The hound threw itself blindly forward, a terrible howl tearing from its muzzle, but Kethe was there first. She crashed into Asho's back and sent him sprawling just as the monster soared through the space where he'd been, snapping its jaws and landing in a mass of confusion, lashing out in all directions.
"Run!" Mæva's voice was stricken with fear. "Follow me!"
Kethe hauled Asho to his feet. The hound was moving in tight circles, snout to the rock. It found their trail immediately, threw back its head, and howled. Black smoke rushed out from its jaws, a rising tendril of darkness that plumed higher and higher into the morning sky as the beast poured forth its mournful cry.
Kethe stared, wide-eyed. What was it doing? But Asho took her by the hand and hauled her after him, and soon they were sprinting after Mæva, up the shattered slope of rock, gasping, their packs smacking up and down as they ran. It was ungainly work, and each time she tripped Kethe skinned her knuckles, not wanting to release her blade. Looking behind her, she saw the shadow beast running after them, the column of smoke still spearing up into the morning sky where it had howled.
Cursing, she put on greater speed. Another howl sounded off to their left, then a third to their right. The rough slope tightened and became a path that hugged a cliff face, massive boulders beetling out over them and extending like ledges below. Mæva ran like the wind, and high above them Kethe saw a second hound leaping from boulder to boulder as it tracked the path.
Kethe sensed more than heard the attack, and with a cry dropped to the ground. Asho spun just in time to take the leaping hound's attack full on the chest. He went down beneath it, crashing onto the path, yelling and struggling to free his blade. Kethe reared up, both hands on her sword, and swung through the creature's back. Her blade dug deep, white fire flourishing where she cut, and the hound let out a shrill cry and whirled away from Asho to snap blindly at the air in front of her.
It was blind to her attacks. She backed away, sword held before her. Shadows poured from its maw like morning mist, disappearing just before they hit the path as it padded after her, ears pricked, sniffing sharply, black eyes narrowed.
Without a sound, Asho leaped a good five feet up and landed astride the hound's back, sword reversed. He speared it straight between the hound's shoulders, driving it down with a jolt so that its head snapped down and hit the path. It howled again, shadows spewing out everywhere and engulfing Asho, wrapping around his arms and body like whips.
Kethe ran in and swiped her blade through the hound's head. She severed the top and both ears with one savage sweep. With a shudder it went still, and the shadows that clung to Asho faded away. Panting, she stumbled back. Asho rose to his feet, the body of the hound dissolving until there was little left but the rotted hide and yellowed bones of a wolf.
"What by the Black Gate was that?" Asho wiped his pale hair from his eyes. "How are we -?"
A terrible howl cut him off. Kethe looked up and saw a second shadow wolf drop upon them. There was no time to react. Somehow, though, she spun, bringing her blade up and sweeping it overhead as if cutting down an apple from a branch. She pushed a jolt of her power into the swing, and white flame coruscated where her sword cleaved through its shoulder. The monster never even hit the path; her blow swept it away and over the side of the cliff so that it fell, still howling, to the distant depths below.
More howls came to them, and Kethe saw plumes of black smoke rising into the sky over the cliff's edge above them and behind.
"We have to run," she said. "We can't fight that many."
"Mæva," said Asho, and he turned and tried to find her. "Where'd she go?"
"Let's find out!" Kethe slipped past him, not bothering to sheath her blade, and sprinted along the path, pack once again bouncing so that she was sorely tempted to hurl it over the edge after the hound.
The path curved around the cliff, dipped in and then swelled back out, broad enough for one but sometimes becoming so narrow she had to slow and take handholds to be able to cross. She didn't look down. Instead, she focused on moving as quickly as she could, always moving ahead of the pack as it closed in around them.
"They're behind us." Asho's voice was tight but composed as he ran after her. "Three, I think. Closing fast."
"We can bottleneck them here," said Kethe, but she didn't want to stand and fight. All one of those things had to do was hit them with enough momentum and they'd all go over the edge.
"Damn them," whispered Asho. "Keep going! I'll hold them off."
Kethe stumbled to a stop. "What? Are you mad?"
"No," said Asho. He had his back to her and stood with his blade lowered. "Just desperate."
"You can't -"
He raised his hand and took a deep breath. The influx of power from him was a sudden deluge, and the world swam. Kethe grabbed onto a ridge of rock as her knees buckled.
Shadow hounds came boiling around the corner, slavering and racing in their unnatural silence. They howled as they came closer, that terrible sound that dug into her mind like broken glass being rubbed behind her eyes. It made her want to scratch bloody grooves across her skin.
Still Asho drank in magic, and just when she couldn't take it any longer, when she wanted to cry for mercy before she passed out, he unleashed everything he'd built up at once.
The world quivered, and for a moment she thought she was underwater, distance deceiving, edges smoothed out, details vague. The path along which they'd been running erupted
beneath the shadow hounds and exploded upwards as huge chunks of rock and shattered boulders leaped into the sky.
The hounds were tossed up amongst them, their bodies crushed between the violent collisions of the rising boulders, which fountained up into the air, pausing at their apex and then crashed back down alongside the face of the cliff, taking the hounds with them, and tumbling down into the depths.
Asho fell to his knees and collapsed against the cliff. The path ended a yard from where he'd been standing, a raw gouge torn out of the mountain and obliterating fifteen yards of the trail, making it utterly impassable.
Kethe also sagged, bile rising up her throat, eyes burning, unable to breathe. Her head pounded. She knew she had to get up. They couldn't stop, couldn't rest. But it was all she could do to remain seated upright, staring dumbly at Asho where he knelt, head low.
Mæva came back around the far curve of the path, Ashurina flitting in the air above her. At the sight of the devastated path she simply stopped, trying to comprehend what she was seeing, then shook her head.
Kethe shifted around so that she could lean against the cliff, focusing on getting her breath back. When she looked back up, Mæva had reached them.
"Are you going to kill or fight every creature or demon we come across?" The witch's voice was harsh. "If so, not only will it be slow going, but it will ultimately prove a fatal exercise."
"What choice did we have?" Kethe fought down her anger. "You saw. They were tracking us. I thought your powers were going to keep us hidden."
Mæva glanced at Ashurina as the firecat landed on her shoulder. "They are, and would have, if we'd just kept moving."
Was that a shred of embarrassment in Mæva's voice? Kethe couldn't be sure.
Asho forced himself to rise, pushing off his knees in order to do so, and stepped over. Blood had run from one nostril, stark crimson against his white skin, and he smeared it with the back of his hand. "We're doing the best we can." He stared at Mæva, unflinching. "You lead us into trouble and then fail to provide a solution. What do you expect from us?"
Mæva threw up her hands. "I don't know! Discretion? Better luck? The range has grown densely populated since last I was here. We should discuss turning back. Because you're right: I'm leading you blindly here, and I have no idea what we might run into next. We're pressing deeper into the Skarpheðinn Range, and if we go much farther we won't be coming out."
Kethe closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Beneath the elation of having won that combat was a fear she could not deny, a beating, insidious fear that whatever they might run into next would be beyond their power to handle. And yet...
"We can't go back," she said. "Asho destroyed the path."
"Well, yes." Asho rubbed the back of his head and turned around to stare at the cliff face behind them. "I - yes. I guess I did."
"Fine. But we can circle around. Look for the first opportunity to flee." Mæva lowered herself smoothly into a crouch. "We came here to learn what we could. This we have learned: the influence of the Black Gate has spread unchecked in the decades since I was last here. The demons are proliferating. That is valuable information, and enough to warrant our returning. Do you agree?"
Kethe shared an uneasy look with Asho and then shook her head. "It's valuable, but it doesn't help us. Where do we go from here? We still need to learn more. The location of the Gate itself. Who defends it. How to take it down. If we flee now, we're merely postponing our eventual return."
Mæva nodded unwillingly. "True. But then the evil that suffuses these peaks won't be on the alert then as it surely is now."
Asho inhaled deeply, then sighed. "You're right. We've probably alerted everything within a mile to our presence." Kethe opened her mouth to protest, but he raised a hand, forestalling her. "We can only succeed here if we're able to be stealthy. If we lose that stealth, we have no hope. I agree with Mæva. Better to return when things have quieted down than to press on into an alert hornet's nest."
Mæva nodded grimly.
Kethe felt a burst of impatience, then something akin to terror or panic seized her by the throat. She wanted to deny their logic, to argue for greater risks, to press on, to fight despite the odds. With an effort she bit her lip and simply nodded.
Asho crouched beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "We'll be back."
"Yes," she whispered. "But will I be able to return with you?"
He went to answer, but she wanted to hear no platitudes. With effort she rose to her feet and picked up her sword. "All right. Fine. Let's find our way out of here. But I'm going to press for a return within days, not weeks. Understood?"
Mæva nodded. "Understood."
"Fine. Then, let's go."
Kethe stepped carefully past the witch and continued following the path as it hugged the cliff face. Soon it rose up so that she had to sheathe her blade and clamber up a slope of sharp rocks emerging like knife blades from the rubble-strewn slope; there was no longer any set path, but rather a wash of rocks that flooded down and proved treacherous underfoot. It took half an hour to gain the ridge above, and this they followed for a good hour, carefully picking their way along its rocky surface.
Pausing to pull out her water skin, Kethe stood breathing deeply, sweat prickling down her back, and stared up at the cliffs above them. The going was becoming more vertical by the minute, and up ahead their ridge melded with a chaotic frieze of winding paths that were cut deep into the rock. They'd have to climb up through that maze if they were to proceed, trying to find the right approach that would let them gain a high defile above them.
Shapes were moving amongst those broken, shattered passes. Straining, Kethe thought she could make out a few details. They were black shadows, humanoid in form, as tall as a man but somehow bulkier. They moved slowly, as if deep in thought or lost, disappearing from view as they turned down side passages in the maze or appearing to turn and stare down at her before trudging on.
"You see them?" She handed the water skin to Asho as he stepped up beside her. "Up there."
He shielded his eyes, then shook his head. "I've never been able to make out details at a distance. What is it?"
"Things. Demons, I suppose. Up above us. Wandering through this awful-looking maze of broken rock."
Asho took a swig of the water, then handed the skin back to her. "Any other way to go?"
Kethe cast around. The ridge on which they were standing beetled out over the void. With enough rope and time, they could make their way down, descending from ledge to ledge, but it looked like a terrifying descent. The rocks directly above them were cracked and ponderous. They could perhaps scale them, but she doubted they'd get very high without accident.
"Maybe we missed a way down," she said at last.
"No," said Mæva, stepping up behind them. "I've been looking. There's nothing feasible, nothing that's less of a risk than pressing on." She stood with her hands on her hips, her athletic frame covered in a sheen of fine sweat. "Blast it. We're going to have to keep pressing on."
"Through that maze, then?" Asho gestured in its rough direction.
"Yes. Though perhaps once we can see the height above it, we'll be able to mark out a different way to descend."
Kethe returned her water skin to her belt. "What do you reckon this Black Gate looks like? My father told me about the one in Bythos, the real Black Gate. He said it's just a dead space, hanging in the air, wrapped in chains, with a dull gray surface to it. Big as a Solar Portal, he said it was. Maybe bigger. Do you reckon the one we're looking for is out in the open?"
Mæva pursed her lips. "I've never seen it. It will be smaller than the Gate in Bythos, however. Much smaller, to have evaded notice for this long. Or perhaps it's grown since then. Who knows. But I believe it to be below ground."
Asho started. "Below ground? Why's that?"
Mæva glanced at Ashurina and reached up to stroke her head. "Just what I sense from the energies of the land. It won't be out under the sun. Like in Bythos, it
needs the dark to flourish."
"So, we're looking for a cave, then," said Kethe. She turned to scrutinize the slopes around them. Nothing obvious met her gaze. "I wonder, will it be marked in some way? Defended?"
"Who knows, child. That's why we came, and why we shall return: to find those answers. Now, come. The longer we stay here, the greater our risks of being discovered."
Mæva pressed on, and within the hour they were following the rising ridge to where it splintered into a dozen paths, each spearing into the maze of columns and sharp canyons between the riven rocks.
Kethe drew her blade and turned to check the position of the sun. Early afternoon. She shivered, but not from the cold. "We'd best hurry if we're going to find our way down before dark."
"Come on, then," said Asho, blade in hand. "Follow me."
He led them into the maze. It was a steep ascent, and they frequently had to grab handholds on the walls to help lever themselves up. The paths interwove throughout the broken rock, and it was only by glancing up and out that Kethe was able to work out their general direction. Several times the path they were following simply narrowed and choked themselves out, forcing the travelers to scramble back down and backtrack to the last junction.
Turning one such corner at the front of the group, Kethe nearly ran into a shadowy monstrosity. It was one of the wandering shapes she had spied before, but up close it was horrifying. The remains of a man were visible within a tarry corpus, the skull projecting forward, stringy tendons affixing it to the body, long forearms clad in sinews ending in wicked hooked claws. Shadows dripped down its body, revealing ribs here, the angular curve of a hip there. Its eyes were profound sockets of night, and numerous scythe-like tails extended behind it.
Kethe threw herself back and collided with Asho. The demon stood still, unnervingly so. Then it canted its head to one side as if it was listening. Its tails stirred, and shadows roiled over its body. It had no legs or feet that she could see, Kethe realized. Its body simply devolved into tendrils of darkness from the waist down, a complex interweaving of black webbing and smoke.