Ringwall`s Doom

by Awert, Wolf

  I know what it means, Nill thought bitterly. Nothing will be as it was. And that’s the same for you, you foolish, brave warriors of Metal. He swallowed. It was difficult.

  One after the other, they left the chamber and forced their way back through the gap. Nill went last. What are gods? he asked himself. No more than another group of creatures in legends. But he did not feel comfortable with such dismissive words. Bucyngaphos, the Demon Lord – he had come face to face with him, and the demon had aided him, albeit in the guise of Ramsker. Where was Ramsker, anyway? How had he managed to lose him?

  The thoughts racing through Nill’s mind made the journey back feel considerably shorter than on the first trip. With every step the air grew purer and cooler, the weight on his heart seemed to lift. The small woman took her place on her high chair once more, and the rest sat down in a circle around her.

  “No, we have never heard of a sorcerer called Perdis. No sorcerer has ever visited us – until you came.”

  The words took a while to reach Nill. It seemed hours since he had asked the question.

  “And rokka-nuts? Is there any special place where they grow?”

  “They are rare, but of no value to us. They grow all over the high reaches of the mountain, but there are so few of them that they are difficult to find. If you need one, I can give you a guide. You would have to travel by night, though.”

  Another hope crushed. His parents could have found the hard wood of his amulet anywhere in the mountains.

  “And the kingspider, or nightcrawler? Do they live in the mountains too?” Nill asked without much hope; these spiders were commonly believed to live somewhere between the Waterways and Woodhold, where the great moors poisoned the air. The answer, therefore, surprised him.

  “The kingspider is unknown to us, and the nightcrawler all the more so. It lives between the rock-towers. I know only one place you might find one, but the mountains are large, and we are almost on the border to the Waterways. There is likely more than one place.”

  Nill gave Matria a bow. “Thank you for your help. I must continue my journey. My path leads me to Woodhold, and I am glad to hear that the Waterways are not far off. But I must find the spiders, and I’m still looking for a friend who lives in one of the settlements here in Metal World. I will leave at sunrise. Although…” Nill had to laugh, “I don’t exactly know when that is. I would not be surprised to find that it’s currently midnight.”

  Matria was unaffected by his laughter. “Follow the valley further the way you came. At its end, take a left until you stand before the great water. Follow the coast until you reach the Seven Penitents. From there, go firewards and you will reach Woodhold. There are faster ways, but none safer.

  “If you mean to reach the settlements of your people, take a right instead at the end of the valley and go through the low pass there. Follow the smells.

  “For the spiders, turn around. Go back, along the length of the valley until you reach the other end. In the rocks there you will find them. You will see the nightcrawler’s webs by day, but the spider itself only appears in the night.

  “Now give me your hand.”

  Nill offered her his hand again as he had done once before. Again, the woman grasped his fourth finger, but this time she slid a ring on it that contracted as she pressed.

  “This is my gift to you. The ring of the four elements. It is a magic ring, although you may not feel it. But if you listen to it, it can teach you our magic, as different as it may seem to your own.”

  Nill looked down at the ring on his finger. It was made of an artfully crafted metal band that intertwined with itself, forming four circles as it wound around his finger, shining brightly in many colors.

  “The gold represents the sun’s fire, and the silver is a sign for white air, as you may know it from seaspray. The iron shines like water when the sun shines on it through the clouds, and the copper is red like the earth. Keep the ring clean and dry. Its magic must be cared for and protected. Fire and air are ever-changing and can keep themselves safe, but if water grows red and earth green, then the ring’s magic has died and you will have no end to your troubles in reigniting it.”

  Nill gave Matria his thanks and sought a polite way of asking for the time, but before he could say anything else he received a friendly thump to the ribs. Pling was standing next to him with his bags.

  “It is light,” he growled. “Come!”

  X

  One more step and Nill stood in the weak morning sunlight. He gulped down the fresh mountain air in deep breaths. Only now did he notice how stale the air in the caves had smelled.

  “Stinks,” Pling said next to him.

  I suppose fresh air is as weird to him as the cave air is to me, Nill thought. “I can’t smell anything,” he said to remain polite.

  “Rotten air,” Pling explained. “Better in the rocks.”

  “Alright, go back then,” Nill laughed. “I think I can find my way down the valley on my own. Downhill all the way.” Pling shook his head.

  “Stinks, rotten air. Careful.” He gave Nill another clap on the shoulder, which caused Nill’s knees to buckle. “Good friend!” he added before retreating into the blackness of the caves. Nill felt Pling’s eyes on him for a while after he had vanished out of sight. Should he ever return to this place, he doubted he could find the entrance. And, he reflected, the Ossronkari meant to move to a different mountain altogether. All that would remain as a reminder of them would be the halidom.

  Nill considered his options. He could follow the path back up the valley to find the nightcrawlers and seek knowledge about his amulet. On the other hand, if he went the opposite way, he could pass through the Waterways to reach the other end of Woodhold, where he hoped to learn more about Perdis. Despite the great distance, Woodhold was far more tempting. He imagined a pair of big gray eyes, stern at first, then crinkled in laughter.

  “Forget it,” he muttered to himself as he cast aside the illusion. “I’ll go and find Brolok. Nothing should stop me from wanting to visit a friend.”

  He found a gap between the densely-grown trees and began his descent. It had grown cold, and Nill was grateful for an excuse to move. His breath was visible about a hand’s length in front of his face before it dissipated, and the leaves beneath his feet crunched as he trod them into the ground. The weather had changed dramatically in the time he had spent in the caves of the Ossronkari.

  Nill made steady progress, but he found himself less happy about that than he had expected. His sense of adventure had left him. He became twitchy and once caught himself staring so intently at a tree it was as if he meant to ask it something, as though he wanted to stop for a while and simply listen to the scratching of leather on the rough bark. And all the time an impalpable sense of dread grew in him. As the first beads of cold sweat ran down his brow, the old panic began to set in. Nill scolded himself silently and suppressed the shivering that had taken hold of his body. He knew the feeling. His reaction was always the same when the Other World approached: sudden rushes of fear. Ever since he had first encountered Bucyngaphos, it had never changed. Even the fact that he had visited the Other World on several occasions did nothing to diminish it. And here, in the middle of a dark, forested mountain, it made no sense at all, unless…

  Nill took several slow steps back. As he walked, he sent his senses out behind him, along the vale and down the cliff, searching for a magical presence. Was this the foul stench Pling had noticed? He understood why his companion had decided to retreat.

  Nill saw nothing. This was both a disadvantage and fortuitous; at least he now knew that whatever lay in wait had not discovered him yet.

  Everything inside him burned to turn around and sprint back up the valley. He knew he had fast legs, but the valley’s incline was steep and his baggage heavy. The noise a hasty flight would make would certainly draw the mysterious follower’s attention – if it was indeed a follower. The smarter choice was to hide, to let the danger pass and then follo
w it out of the valley. Nill still hoped faintly that whatever it was was not here for him. His leap through the portals from the Fire Kingdom to Metal World had thrown off the trail; no mage could have followed him. Choosing a plan was difficult without the knowledge of which enemy he was dealing with. Perhaps it was not even an enemy; anything was possible.

  No, anything is not possible, Nill chastised himself. He trusted in his instincts. The same smell, the creeping reddish-black aura had once before incited panic in him. An older student had summoned a minor demon on his shoulder. The thing that lurked out of his sight was not minor. It had to be a fully-fledged demon.

  Nill kicked a small stone loose from its surroundings, and it gave a loud clatter as it tumbled. Demons can’t hear very well. They don’t see any better than humans or whatever creature whose body they take possession of, Nill told himself, but he knew what the demon was looking for. Demons had honed senses for magic and could detect an unknown aura over a hundred steps away. Auras could not be hidden; shrinking was the best way of hiding one, but nowhere close to infallible.

  Nill slowly crawled up the slope. If I’m lucky I can hide up there and the demon will just pass by below, he hoped, and as he reached a small alcove in the slope he decided to lay in wait there. The valley’s sides were steep. In the lower reaches he could use the tree trunks to pull himself forward, but the further it went the more arduous the climb became. This spot was his best chance.

  The demon was slow. Nill could still not see it, but he now felt the foul presence among the dark trees. All the animals in the forest had picked up on the new arrival and had fallen silent. Now and then a shrill shriek echoed through the silence and sent a chill down Nill’s spine. Tense trills betrayed the nervous birds hiding in their nests. The demon trekked along the valley until it reached a slope, then turned around and went back, each time gaining a little height.

  Pling had been right. It would have been better to stay in the mountain and wait for the creature from the Other World to disappear.

  And if it’s really after me? For the first time, Nill dared let the words form in his mind. Whoever sent Amargreisfing’s ghost after me would have no problem doing the same with a demon.

  Once the thought had formed, it lifted the panic from Nill’s mind like the morning sun lifts the mist. All that remained was the anticipation, the anxiety of facing a more powerful enemy, as any warrior or mage felt before a duel.

  Nill went over the possibilities. A direct confrontation with the demon was his last choice; he was only armed with the short dagger he had once forged and his staff. The staff was useless – demons felt no physical pain. To defeat one, he would have to utterly destroy its body. That was the only way to extinguish that terrible aura.

  His dagger’s blade, despite all the magic it was imbued with, was only a weak weapon against a demon who was undoubtedly bigger, stronger, heavier and faster than himself, and he could probably rule out overpowering it with his own spells as well. Demons were masters of Fire and Metal energy and had the boundless strength of the Earth. Water was their weakness, and Wood was unknown to them. But Metal was more powerful than Wood, and Water could only extinguish Fire if it did not get absorbed by Earth.

  The energy of light could possibly destroy the demon, but Nill had no idea how to call upon it. In the Borderlands of Fire he had simply transformed one energy into another. His only option, he concluded, was to break the summoning ritual that bound the demon to the person who had called upon it. But how was he to do it? He had only succeeded in his fight against Mah Bu because the Demon Lords had interfered. He had won against Amargreisfing because his opponent had given him a valuable hint. But here, he stood alone. A barely qualified sorcerer with the title of archmage against a demon. A demon was not simply a memory of the dead. A demon was a being of the Other World. The encounter’s outcome appeared obvious.

  “Ramsker, where are you?” Nill cried out in the faintest hope that a higher force might yet save him. But the ram did not hear thoughtspeak and had disappeared somewhere high up between the rocks. I have to think of something, fast, Nill thought, but what?

  He moved out from his hiding spot, for the demon was coming dangerously close. If the demon keeps the search as thorough as it has so far I should have enough time. Perhaps there’s a different exit to the valley. If all else fails… I’ll have to use one of the portals back to the Fire Kingdom.

  The thought gave him courage. Nill began to climb and soon reached the spot where he had fought against the roc. It took half a day for him to scale the valley. The sun had climbed with him and now shone down on him from a deep blue sky.

  The sun cooks me and the shadows freeze me, Nill complained silently, but in truth he enjoyed the warmth of the sun on his skin after days in the dark depths. Only the threat of the demon clouded his situation and forced him onwards, and his stomach began to growl. The hastily-gathered fruits along the way had given his teeth something to do, but were far from filling.

  Nill looked around. To his right was the plateau where the roc had dragged the Ossronkar, to his left he knew the portal to the Fire Kingdom. Before him was a narrow ravine, probably gouged into the stone by a river that had long ceased to exist. It seemed the only path to the peaks if he did not want to climb the almost vertical walls. Ramsker might have been able to do so, but Nill was not a natural mountaineer. Where was that stubborn old ram?

  It quickly became clear that the ravine was too tight for Nill to squeeze in with his luggage. He laid it on the ground and bound a cord to it. The first steps were the hardest. He clawed at the rock, pushed one leg into the gap and swinging himself forwards to bring his legs back together. He was now in a painful position; his torso was too wide to follow his legs and was stuck outside, threatening to drag him down. Nill had no experience in true rock-climbing. He was able to make his body lighter and the air around him heavier, but any magic would have been suicide with a watchful demon so close nearby. And so he hung on the rock, no more than a few feet from the ground. He dragged himself upwards and spread his knees apart, and now he finally managed with shaking arms to gain the height he needed for the ravine to accommodate his entire body.

  It was easier now. He turned sideways and pushed himself upwards, a wall in his back and a wall against his knees and hands. A sudden tug at his belt reminded him of his baggage. Nill pulled at the cord, cursed a few times as it snagged on the uneven rock, but finally managed to retrieve his bundle. He tied it around his belly and continued his ascent, pushing further with his knees and his back. As he reached the top he flung his bundle over the edge onto the platform and heaved himself after it.

  The Ossronkari would be in fits if they ever saw me climbing, Nill thought as he shook rubble and earth from his sleeves. The way ahead was steep, but at least it was more horizontal than vertical this time. He could finally walk again. It was unclear where this new path led; it was a mess of dark, weathered rocks, towering high above him, with barely enough earth between them for a lonesome flower to grow.

  It’s actually quite beautiful up here, Nill mused. As he looked around, he saw that he was at the widest spot of a narrow high valley, surrounded by rock on three sides with a wonderful open view of the path he had taken up here and the land beyond. Nill thought he saw one or two small settlements far below, and the shadow of the demon, still moving back and forth. I have to find another place to leave. If I stay here for the night I’ll not see the morning. Even if the demon doesn’t get me, the cold and hunger will. Nill regretted not having taken the portal back. That way was no longer open to him; the demon was too close.

  It would be a freezing cold night. There was not much wood for a fire, and adding to his shivers was his hunger. But a few hours of daylight yet remained.

  Nill wandered over the green velvety moss, through the low-bushes and sporadic tufts of grass, with here and there small patches of earth. Everywhere there were hand-sized spider webs from which small insects were struggling to get free. It’s am
azing how many animals live so high up in the mountains, Nill thought, but I doubt the kingspider or nightcrawler weave such small webs. Nill pulled out his amulet and inspected the band it hung from. Although the strands of spider silk were almost too fine to make out, he knew that a kingspider’s web would look different.

  “Between the rocks,” Matria had said. “Not between the bushes.”

  He would have to come back to the spiders another time. This was not the right moment. Nill felt a small sting of regret as he almost walked into a wide web. A dead bird hung motionless in mid-air; if it hadn’t, Nill would have stumbled right through it. The strands were as good as invisible, and even though Nill knew the web was there, every time he tried to focus on the delicate weave it fled his gaze.

  It can’t be the nightcrawler’s, if the Ossronkari are right. So it has to be the kingspider.

  The web was over six feet tall, connected to the rock in eight spots, and it hung directly above an animal crossing. Well, not a true one like the kind Nill had known in Earthland, but the earth was slightly denser here, and that took paws.

  It appeared to be the only web around here, and the spider was nowhere in sight. Nill looked up at the sun’s position and decided to investigate the shadowy side of the rocks. The bright, translucent nets ought to be easier to spot there than in the glaring shine of the sun. Besides, he could hardly walk straight through here.

  He was right – the pale yellow of the nets was far more distinguishable against the dark stone. Nill counted three: one in the rocks above his head, another in front of him, spread over the entrance to a small cave, and a third across the ground, as though the spider meant it as a trip-up trap.

  The larger crevices were left free. Nill supposed this was because animals too big to be caught often passed through them, tearing down the delicate webs. If his assumption was correct, then they must lead somewhere. To his surprise, he was right for the second time that day: the mess of rocks was not nearly as impassable as it had looked from down by the ravine. Paths and natural corridors were everywhere. Even an inexperienced climber like Nill would have no trouble passing through here. He decided to inspect one of these crevices – he had not forgotten that escape was still his primary goal. He took a few hesitant steps into the shadows, pushed aside a playful tendril dancing in the wind, and as he did so he felt a soft resistance. Nill whipped his hand back, or at least, attempted to. The more he pulled, the tougher the stuff he had accidentally pushed his hand into became. He could still not see what it was, but it was certainly not the light yellow of the kingspider web.