“She comes.” “Hungry!” “Wait.” “She comes.” “Witch.”
Hungry eyes and dark shapes watched her from the cave at the foot of the stair, but they did not approach. She climbed the stairs slowly, the yearning within her echoed by a yearning from the top of the mount. As she continued higher and higher, the voices of the guardians faded from her mind and instead she heard another, softer voice.
It started small, little more then a whisper. She had to strain to hear it. Then it grew steadily, increasing with each step. She couldn’t understand the words, yet her mouth moved along with them. It was a joyous, welcoming sound. Beth felt something building up, swelling inside her. Words began to bubble forth from her lips; strange, prayer-like tones.
Beth felt a sudden weakness come over her. Darkness clouded her vision and it became a struggle to make each step. Her feet began to slide towards the stairs’ edge. Something was pulling at her. Beth strained to keep her feet. She looked up. She could see the top. The end was so near!
She fell to her knees and crawled, a dark weight bearing her down. Her feet continued to be pulled to the edge. The thing within her swelled even more, growing until she thought she would burst. She was shouting now, strange words in an unfamiliar language. She was only a few steps away. One foot was dragged over the edge. She lunged towards the top step, touching it with her fingertips . . .
The pressure bearing down on her eased and the pulling stopped. Beth stumbled up over the last step and collapsed on a flat stone bench. She looked up and despite the daylight, she saw the stars. They were so very close. The swelling within her moved up past her lungs and through her throat, pouring into her head. She feared her skull would burst, but it didn’t. Her mind opened up, drinking it all in.
The world unfolded before her eyes. Millions of tiny pinpricks of light dotted the lands before her, each one an individual’s life. Somehow she knew that all she had to do was reach out and touch one of those lights to see the person’s life laid out before her. But Beth had no need to search those people. She reached inside herself instead.
There was a blaze of light and she saw her life roll by before her. The joys, the sadness, the pleasure, the pain, reliving it all in an instant. She felt a sense of dread as her husband’s death approached. Tears streaming down her face, she skipped forward to the present and saw herself laying on a stone altar surrounded by whispery runes.
She reminded herself why she was there. The prophet had promised her answers. But what was the question? Had she ever decided?
“What now?” she whispered. She had been heading to her death when the prophet redirected her. Perhaps that was her question. “Live or die?”
With a flash, her future paths spread out before her. It was like the vision she had seen in the fire, but much more clear and detailed. When she chose death each path was short and many of them quite painful. There were so many ways to die, but what then? What happened after death? The vision would not say.
If she chose to live, many other paths opened before her, some of them satisfying, some of them depressing, but the vision was fickle and left some other paths blurred. One thing was certain. In none of those futures was Coulton alive again. Perhaps death was the right option.
Her reverie was disturbed by sounds from below. There were shouts and roars. Crashes and cracks. A battle was approaching the stairs. A voice rang out from the ether. It was shouting her name.
“Hilt!” she gasped.
The vision zoomed Hilt’s figure to the forefront of her mind. He was battling the guardians below, searching for her. She wished he would go away and leave her to her fate, but she knew Hilt’s pride would not let him accept defeat. His future rolled before her and it was short. He was strong, but his enemy was limitless. He never made it to the top of the stairs. She watched him die multiple times at the guardian’s hands, each time torn apart and devoured. There was only one path in which he had a future and that was if she came down and stopped him.
“But then what?” She grumbled. The vision followed his path further. His future spread out like a tree, each choice he made starting another branch. She followed all the possible directions his life could take. Most were very short, and almost all of them were violent. As she feared, he had grown impatient. She watched him die in battle countless times. Always for pride. She scowled. Hilt’s pride. It would be his undoing.
“The idiot.” He needed someone to temper him. At that suggestion, one path stood out, one path that startled her. This pathway steered him differently, leading to a new set of choices. This was the only pathway in which Hilt lived and in this path, there was only one constant that led him in the correct direction. In each of those crucial moments she was at his side.
“But why?” Why would she choose to stay with him? Hilt was a nobleman and a warrior, cocky, arrogant, and rash; traits she had never found appealing in a man. But then again, though he was arrogant, he hadn’t looked down on her. He had been kind and caring, willing to help and willing to comfort. He was also handsome and her body had certainly reacted to him. But more important than all those traits combined, he had become a friend.
Still she resisted. Her husband had died just a year ago and she had only known Hilt for two days. In answer, her vision shifted again. She saw Hilt’s life from the beginning. Watched his birth, his childhood. Saw his loves and losses. Saw every decision he made, both the good and the bad, the smart and the stupid. Oh there were so many stupid ones and yet, through it all, he was exactly the man she thought him to be.
Her vision brought her back to the present. Hilt was nearly at the stair. He was fighting strong, but that fight would end soon, one way or the other.
It was time for her to decide. Live or die?
She no longer wanted to die, but . . .
Beth tried to scan back over the possible paths ahead of her, but the vision began to fade. She raced back into Hilt’s future, looking at the choices he faced, but she only had one last glimpse before it disappeared all together. She had been shown all she was meant to see. One thing was clear. Hilt needed her.
Beth made her choice. She rolled of the alter and as she stood, her foot landed on something soft.
“Hurts!” “Hungry.” “Dance! Dance!”
“Beth!” Hilt shouted and sent blades of air into the misshapen beasts with great swipes of his swords.
The guardians fell to pieces, but more came out of the caves towards him. The bodies of the beasts he slew sunk into the ground and he wondered if they weren’t just reassembling in some cavern below and just coming back for more.
He glanced to his left and saw Yntri slice one of the guardians in two. He had run out of arrows a while back, but now his bow had become a sword in his hands, as sharp as any steel blade. The elf attacked with fluidity and grace, as good as the best academy swordsmen. The white sap covering his body acted as armor, resisting the attacks of claw and beak.
“Beth!” he shouted again and spun, cleaving more beasts. Their weak points were the large mouths in the center of their torsos. When he cut off heads or appendages, they seemed to keep coming, but if he struck them across the middle, they went down pretty easy. If only there weren’t so many.
“Ancient one.” “EAT!” “Mine!”
Where was she? If not for their constant cries of ‘witch’ he would be sure she was dead. But more than that, there was something in his heart that told him she wasn’t. “Beth!”
Then he saw it arcing down from the cliff face; a long hand-carved stair. “Yntri! There, ahead!”
The elf was sprinting towards a large bear-like guardian with tentacles for arms. He also had discovered their weakness, for he dove into the open mouth on its chest, and sliced his way out the other side. As it fell to the ground with a great shower of blood, he clicked, pointing upward.
Hilt followed his finger towards the top of the cliff. There was an eerie glow emanating up there and he didn’t like it. He ran for the stairs.
“Away.
” “Away.” “Away.”
The guardians howled in unison and poured out of the caves in greater numbers, packing the space between Hilt and the stair.
“Away.” “Away.” “Die.”
Hilt refused to be cowed. He called out for Beth and unleashed his fury upon them, blades of air cutting the beasts down two, three at a time. They howled in protest and he redoubled his efforts. Beasts fell. Trees fell. There was only one important thing. He had to reach her. This was his quest. This was the responsibility placed on him by the prophet. He was to see her to the top alive and if she was already up there, he intended to bring her back down alive.
Slowly he realized that their numbers were decreasing. The discarded hunks of their bodies were sinking into the earth, but they were not being replaced. He watched them slinking back to their hiding places.
“Enough.” “Stop.” “Hungy.” “Witch!”
“Hah! Giving up?” He headed towards the caves. What if they had taken her in there? “Beth!”
“Hilt!”
He turned back and saw Beth approaching from the foot of the stair. She had an almost ethereal glow about her and a satisfied smile on her face.
“Beth!” he shouted. “Hurry to me before the beasts return!”
“They won’t bother us any longer,” Belth said calmly. She walked up and linked her arm in his.
“Hungry.” So hungry.” “The pain!” “Named one.”
“Hush!” she spat, scowling over her shoulder and the voices quieted again.
Hilt’s eyes widened and he looked at her in puzzlement. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I am fine,” she said and laid her head on his shoulder. “Let’s go back down this mountain. You have a mission to finish.”
Yntri padded over to them, covered in blood head to toe, but otherwise unharmed. He was using his Jharro bow to scrape the blood off his arms, but froze when he saw Beth leaning her head on Hilt’s shoulder. He cocked his head at them quizzically and clicked out a question.
Hilt shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know what’s going on, Yntri.” He wiped his swords clean on the body of the dissolving beast next to him and sheathed them, then gently pried Beth from his arm and held her away at arms length. “Beth, what happened?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You would have died if I hadn’t come back down, you know. These monsters are here to keep people like you away.”
“Surely not,” Hilt said with a grin. “These guardians weren’t so-. Wait, people like me? Why?”
“The stair beyond is not for you,” she explained.
“You made it to the top, didn’t you?” Hilt’s eyes followed the stairs as they ascended to the peak. What had she found up there? He took a step forward. Large dark shapes stirred again in the shadows at the stairs’ base.
Beth placed a hand on his arm. “Don’t be tempted, Hilt. There really is nothing for you up there.”
Hilt’s hands gripped his swords, but when he looked back to her, something in her eyes convinced him. He nodded and let go. “Very well. Did you find what you were looking for?”
“I did. And Yntri . . .” She lifted a small leather pouch. “I nearly tripped over this on the way down. I think it’s for you.”
Yntri clicked a question as he walked forward. She let the pouch drop into his hand. When he opened it up, his ancient eyes opened wide and he barked out an excited laugh. He reached inside and pulled out a handful of what looked like gray pebbles. He touched one to the side of his Jharro bow and the pebble stuck in place. Then it slowly sank into the wood. He whistled and jumped up and down in excitement. He poured the pebbles back into the pouch and tucked it into his knapsack.
Yntri threw his arms around her, clicking in gratitude. She hugged him back, heedless of the blood and Jharro sap that now clung to the front of her clothing. “Is this what you were searching for?”
Yntri nodded and clicked before embracing her again.
Hilt smiled, happy for both of them. If only his journey had ended with such a satisfying conclusion. Sure, he had gotten the chance to fight the guardians, but he didn’t feel like he had truly beaten them. His mind wandered back to the troll behemoth in the caves deep below. Fighting the guardians had given him a few ideas on how to kill it.
“Hilt,” Beth said sweetly, interrupting his thoughts. “Will you pry Yntri off of me please, before I club him to death?”
“I think he’s fallen asleep,” Hilt said. The elf’s head was nestled against her chest and his eyes were closed. Soft snoring sounds buzzed from his nose.
“I know you don’t sleep, elf!” Beth snapped, knocking him upside the head with the flat of her palm. “Now get off me or I’m taking that bag of seeds back to the top of this mountain and leaving them there!”
Yntri didn’t pull away, but instead snuggled in even closer. Beth’s face went red and she swung back a fist, but Hilt grabbed her wrist.
“I’m serious. He is asleep,” he said with a chuckle.
“Who sleeps like that?” Beth said incredulously. “Just standing there leaning on a person’s . . . chest?”
“That’s how his people sleep.” Hilt insisted. “Not wrapped around a person usually, but up in the Jharro trees, clutching a branch.”
She didn’t quite believe him, but then again, the old elf did look peaceful, even if he was filthy.
“He has been searching for those seeds for a long time and I haven’t seen him sleep once while on this trip,” Hilt said with an amused smile. “And you should have seen him fighting back there. He should be tired.”
“Well he’s not sleeping on me,” Beth said, reaching around her back trying to work his fingers loose. His grip was tight. “Just help me pry him off . . . please?”
Hilt walked behind her and with great effort, pulled the elf’s hands free. Beth slipped out of his grasp and left Hilt holding Yntri’s hand apart while the elf stood, still very much asleep. Hilt sighed and hoisted the elf over his back. As soon as he had him in position, Yntri’s arms and legs wrapped around him, latching on tight.
He looked back at Beth, he found her watching him with her head cocked. “I know. I look quite ridiculous.”
“It’s not that,” she said. “You don’t look too satisfied with the end of our journey.”
“No, it’s not that. I am quite happy for the both of you. You’ve found your answers. It’s just . . . we have a long way down and I have got to be nearly as tired as Yntri.”
“Oh, I was going to tell you,” Beth said. “There’s something else I learned at the top of those stairs. There is a much easier path along the back side of the mountain. We took the hard way up.”
“Ah,” Hilt said and his shoulders slumped. “That should make me feel better, but somehow it doesn’t.”
“I found an answer for you too,” she said, linking her arm back in his. She turned him away from the stair.
“Oh really?” he asked, eyebrows raised in interest.
“Remember yesterday when you told me that once you have reached the peak, there is nowhere to go but down?” Hilt nodded and she shook her head. “You were wrong.”
“Was I?” he asked.
“Yes, Hilt. You see, this is a big world. There is always another mountain to climb.”
He thought about it for a moment, then gave her a knowing glance. “You saw a lot more up there, didn’t you?”
She gave him a coy smile and led back towards the ridge line. “Why yes I did, Sir Hilt.”
They headed out of the trees, Hilt expecting her to elaborate. But she didn’t. They hiked back down the ridgeline and Hilt was glad that Yntri was such a light old elf. When they arrived back at the boulder that was the source of the hot spring, Beth showed him the narrow trail that led down the back side of the mountain.
“Beth,” Hilt said. “Aren’t you going to tell me what you saw?”
“Perhaps,” Beth replied and as they walked down the narrow path, she rested her head on his shoulder again. “But some revela
tions are best saved for later.”
The following is a preview of The Bowl of Souls Book Four:
The WAR of STARDEON
Coming 2013
Author Note
This preview will contain some spoilers for those of you who have not read the first three books. I don’t believe that there is any information contained in this section that will ruin your enjoyment of the other books. But nonetheless I feel compelled to warn you ahead of time. As always, thank you for reading and if you like what you read, please tell your friends.
Trevor H. Cooley
The WAR of STARDEON
The Bowl of Souls: Book 01.5 - Hilt's Pride Page 12