Ahead, beyond the meadow, the ground descended into the gloom among spreading trees, trailers of vine, and hanging moss. Strange calls, clicks, and whistles came from under the verdant shroud.
"In the middle of winter. . . " was all she could think to say.
Tom lifted the feed bags from the back of the wagon. "Might be a nice place to spend the winter, too"-he gestured with a nod down the hill, under the tangle of growth-"were it not for what people say comes out
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of there. If it weren't true, I'd bet there would be some fool who by now would have tried to give it a go, here. But, if they have, they were pulled in there by some nightmare creature and never made it back out."
"You mean, you really think here are ... monsters, or something, in there?"
He rested his forearms on the wagon's sides as he leaned in, right over her. "Jennsen, I don't hold with scaring ladies. When I was a boy, some of the other boys enjoyed waving a wriggling snake at the girls just to hear them scream. I never did. I'm not trying to frighten you.
"But I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I just allowed you to go bounding in there as if it were some lark and then you ended up never coming out. Maybe it's just talk; I don't know; I've never gone in there. I don't know anyone who has ever gone in there without being invited in-and that's from the other side. People say you can't go in the back and live to tell about it. If anyone would insist on attempting it, it would be you. I know you're here for an important reason, so I don't expect you're going to sit around for days, waiting for an invitation."
Jennsen swallowed. Her tongue tasted sour. She nodded her thanks, not knowing what to say.
Tom swiped back his fall of blond hair. "I just wanted to tell you the truth of what I know." He hoisted the feed bags on his way to the horses.
Whatever was in there was in there. She had to go in, that was all there was to it. She didn't have any choice; if she wanted to get Sebastian away from his captors, she had to go in. If she ever wanted to be free of Lord Rahl, she had to go in.
She reached under her cloak and touched the hilt of her knife. She wasn't some town girl, scared of her own shadow, unable to defend herself.
She was Jennsen Rahl.
Jennsen pushed the blankets the rest of the way off her and climbed out of the wagon bed, using a rear wheel spoke for a step. Tom was coming back around carrying a waterskin.
"Drink? It's water-I kept it hooked over the hame so the horses would keep it from freezing."
The cold had dried her out and she drank eagerly. She saw Tom wipe sweat from his brow and realized only then how warm it really was. She supposed no proper self-respecting swamp full of monsters would allow itself to be frozen over.
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Tom pulled back the folds of cloth of something he held in one hand. "Breakfast?"
She smiled at seeing a meat pie. "You're a thoughtful man, besides being a good man."
He grinned as he handed her the pie and then turned to undo the trace chains from the horses. "Don't forget, you promised to tell Lord Rahl," he called back to her.
Rather than be pulled into any kind of a conversation having to do with her hunter, she diverted him from the subject. "You'll be right here, then? When I come back, I mean? You'll be waiting, so we can get back?"
He peered back as he lifted the breaching strap over the horse's rump. "You have my word, Jennsen. I won't desert you here."
By his expression, he was swearing an oath. She smiled her appreciation. "You should get some rest. You've driven all night."
"I'll try. "
She took another bite of the meat pie. It was cold, but good, and it was filling. As she chewed, she glanced at the wall of green beyond the meadow, at the darkness within, then appraised the iron gray sky.
"Any idea what time of day it is?"
"Sun's been up an hour, at most," he said as he checked the joints on the leather straps. He gestured back the way they had come in. "Before we started down into this low place, we were up above this fog and mist. It was sunny up there."
As somber as it was below the dark overcast, such a notion amazed her. It looked like dawn had yet to arrive. It was hard to believe that the sun was shinning not far off, but she had seen such heavy blankets of fog before as she looked down from high places.
After she was finished eating the meat pie and had brushed the crumbs from her palm, Jennsen stood waiting until Tom turned from unbuckling the girth strap from around the deep, powerful chest of one of his horses. Both big, well-kept animals were gray with black manes and tails. They were horses as big as any she had ever seen. They seemed out of scale, until she took in Tom working beside them. He made them seem not quite so imposing, especially as he gave them affectionate strokes. They appeared to welcome his familiar touch.
Both horses looked back occasionally at Tom as he removed all their gear, or rolled a dark eye toward Jennsen, but both kept much closer watch on the shadows beyond the edge of the meadow. Their ears were at attention, and fixed on the swamp.
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"I'd better get going. There's no time to waste." He offered a single nod. "Thank you, Tom. If I don't get another chance to say it, thank you for helping me. Not many people would have done as you did."
His shy grin appeared again to show his teeth. "Most anyone would have helped you. But I'm pleased to be the one who was able to."
She was sure he meant something that she didn't quite understand. Whatever it was, she had bigger worries.
Her eyes turned toward the echoing calls coming out of the swamp. There was no telling how big the trees were because the tops disappeared up into the mist. As large as they looked, the trunks would have to be enormous. Vines descended out of the mist, along with any number of other twisting climbing plants enshrouding the limbs of the huge trees, as if trying to wrestle them down into the darkness below.
Jermsen searched the rim and found a ridge descending from the edge of the meadow, like the spine of some huge beast beneath the ground. It ran down in under the spreading limbs. It wasn't a path, exactly, but a place to start. She had lived in the woods her whole life and could find a trail others would never know existed. There was no trail into this place. Nothing, it appeared, ever went in. She would have to find her own way.
Jermsen turned back from the edge of the meadow and shared a long look with the big man's blue eyes.
He offered her a small smile-respect for what she was doing. "May the good spirits be with you, and watch over you."
"And you, Tom. Get some sleep. When I get back, we'll need to ride hard back to the palace."
He bowed. "By your command."
She smiled at his surprising manner, and then turned to the gloom and headed down in.
The swamp held heat gathered under its skirts. The humidity was like a presence waiting to push intruders back. With every step it grew darker. The quiet was as thick as the damp air, and the few calls reverberating through the darkness beyond only accentuated the hush and the vast distance that lay below.
Jennsen followed the spine of the ridge as it twisted this way and that, going ever lower. Branches of trees off to each side drooped with the weight of mosses and vines draped over them. In some places, as she stepped along the exposed rock of the ridge, she had to squat down to duck under the limbs. In other places, she had to push vines aside to make progress. The stink of decay drifted up to her through the dead still air.
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Turning, looking back, she saw a tunnel of light back up to the meadow. In the center of the circle of dull light at the end, she could see the silhouette of a big man, standing, hands on hips, watching down at her. As dark as it was, he had no hope of seeing her. She could only see him because he stood against the light. But he stood watching, anyway.
Jennsen couldn't decide what she thought about him. He was difficu
lt to figure out. He seemed a kindhearted man, but she trusted no one. Except Sebastian. She trusted him.
As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw, looking back, that the way she had come in was the only way to enter, at least anywhere close that she could see. There were steep walls where the rock dropped downward. The meadow had been like a mere shelf in the mountainside's descent into the swamp. Below the meadow, the walls held a wealth of plants that used the rock for support as they climbed upward from the swamp below. The ridge she used for her descent was a mere fold of rock that provided a way for her to climb down. Without it, the walls were too steep.
Taking a deep breath for resolve as she gazed about, Jennsen started back down, following the ridge of rock as it twisted its way down, deeper and deeper in among the trees. In places, there were frightening drops to each side of where she walked. In one place, there was only darkness to each side below, as if she were on a thread of stone spanning a rupture in the world. After peering down into the depths, and imagining the Keeper of the underworld below awaiting the unwary, she trod more carefully.
She soon came to realize that many of the trees she had seen up higher had only been the canopy of towering, ancient oaks rising up from ledges in the rock. She realized that she had mistaken some of their upper limbs for trunks. Jennsen had never seen trees so big. Her fear was almost replaced by awe. She gaped at the layer upon layer of massive limbs as she climbed down past them. In the distance she saw nests, large clumps of twigs and stalks draped with downy moss and lichen, perched in the crotch of limbs. If the nests were occupied, she didn't see what sort of bird could have built such imposing havens, but she guessed they had to be raptors.
As she stooped while clambering over rock to squeeze herself under a tightly woven net of limbs drooping down close over the spine of the ridge, the vista opened onto a vast land hidden under the thick leafy layers of the upper canopy. It was like a whole new world hidden away, unvisited by anyone before. Shafts of muted light hardly dared penetrate down this
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far. Here and there vines hung down out of the dark growth above. Birds drifted silently through the cavernous gloom. An animal she had never heard before called from the distance. A faraway answer returned from another direction.
As primitive and foreboding as the place seemed, she also thought it was darkly beautiful. It put her in mind of being in a garden of the underworld, where plants basked in eternal gloom. The underworld might be the Keeper's cold domain, but the Creator's everlasting light nourished and warmed good souls.
In a way, the swamp reminded her of so much about D'Hara-dark, threatening, and dangerous, but at the same time achingly beautiful. In the same way, her knife embodied the ugliness of the House of Rahl, yet it was undeniably exquisite.
Trees clung to the rocky slope around her with clawlike roots, as if fearing to be dragged down to what might lurk in the lower reaches. Some of the ancient pines, long dead, lay partly fallen, caught by their brethren before they could topple to the ground. The nearby trees embraced them, as if trying to help them up. Dead gray wood was visible in places under the covering of growth climbing up the tilted trunks. Many, though, had collapsed to the ground. One old tree lay across her way, as if it had melted there, conforming to every contour, every rise and fall of the ridge. The disintegrating wood was spongy underfoot, and teeming with insects.
Up in the branches, an owl watched as she scrambled ever downward. Ants marched along the ground, carrying bits of treasures from the damp forest. Roaches, big, hard, and glossy brown, skittered across the leaf litter. Things off in the dense undergrowth disturbed branches as they moved away from her.
Jennsen had spent a lifetime in forests and had seen everything from huge bears to newborn fawns, birds to bugs, bats to newts. There were things that worried her, like snakes and bears with cubs, but she knew the animals well. For the most part, they feared people and usually wanted only to be left alone, so they generally didn't frighten her. But she didn't know what animals might be lurking in this dark and damp place, what poison things with fangs. She didn't know what conjured beasts might prowl the nether reaches of this sorceress's lair, beasts that feared nothing.
She saw spiders, fat, dark, and hairy, their legs slowly raking the dank air, descending smoothly on threads anchored somewhere above. They vanished into the ferns growing in sprawling mats across the ground. As warm and humid as it was, Jennsen kept her cloak closed around her and
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the hood covering her head to better protect herself from the likes of spiders.
The bite of a spider could be as deadly as any animal. Dead was dead, no matter the cause. The Keeper of the dead gave no special dispensation because the deadly poison came from something small and seemingly insignificant. The Keeper of the dead embraced with eternal darkness those come into his domain-for whatever reason. No grace was granted for how you came to be dead.
As at home as Jennsen felt in the out-of-doors, and as hauntingly beautiful as the swamp was, the place still kept her eyes wide and her pulse racing. Every vine or green wisp she touched seemed threatening, and more than once made her JUMP.
The whole place felt as though death skulked nearby.
And then, before her, the spine of rock, her only path down, ended in a still, flat, rank, moldering, mossy place crisscrossed with a tangle of roots. It looked like the trees feared the murky wet, and tried to keep their roots up out of it. To the sides, the ground was grown over with every sort of spreading vegetation.
She spotted the distinctive shape of a leg bone sticking up from the muddy expanse to the side. The bone was covered with fuzzy green mold, but the general shape remained recognizable. What sort of animal it could be from, she didn't know. At least, she hoped it was an animal bone.
She was surprised to come upon muddy spots that actually looked as if the mud were boiling. Gooey bubbles of dark brown mud bubbled as if at a slow boil, throwing globs of the thick mud and releasing steam. Nothing grew in the sunken areas of bubbling mud. In some places, the mud had hardened into collections of short cones from which rose yellowish vapor.
As Jennsen carefully picked a path among the tangle of roots, between steaming vents and boiling mud, wending her way deeper into the shadows at the bottom, she saw that the muddy stretches began to be replaced by standing water. At first, it was pools and puddles that boiled and hissed and released plumes of acrid vapor. As she left the hot springs behind, the water grew in size to ponds surrounded by tall reeds reaching up toward clouds of tiny bugs flitting together in balls.
Stagnant water finally took over in earnest, a forest floor that was dark and liquid. Dead trunks stood in the black water, sentinels watching over a land reeking of rot. The whoops and calls of animals carried across the water from places darker still. Duckweed grew in some areas near the edges, under leafy banks, welcoming the unwary with the look of green
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ground to tread more easily across. Jennsen noticed eyes poked up through the duckweed, watching her pass near by.
The mossy ground became spongy, until it, too, gradually lowered beneath the motionless water. At first, she could see the bottom, just inches below the glassy surface, but it went deeper until she could see only darkness below. Through that darkness, she saw shapes, darker yet, glide by.
Jennsen stepped from root to root, trying to keep her balance without having to put her hands to the often slimy trunks of trees for support. By staying on the protruding curves of roots, she didn't have to step down into water. She feared the water might hide a hole that could swallow her.
With each step, as the roots standing above the surface of the water grew farther and farther apart, the knot in the pit of her stomach drew tighter. She hesitated, fearing she was going too far, that she would reach a place where she couldn't turn around. She couldn't really question her judgment that this w
as the best way in, because there had been no opportunity to make a choice; this had been the only way. She leaned down, squinting into the gloom, peering ahead past trailers of moss and leafy vines. Through the mist and shadows and undergrowth, she thought that not far ahead the ground rose up again, offering a drier path.
Taking a deep breath of the sultry air, Jennsen extended her leg to step across to the next fat root, but she couldn't reach it. She squatted slightly and stretched harder, trying to span the patch of still water, but it was just too far. She straightened to reconsider.
She was going to have to jump to the distant thick bulge of root. It was more of a hop, really, than a jump. She just didn't like what would be under her if she slipped and fell. She also didn't want to have to balance on the lone root out in the expanse of water. If she jumped with enough speed and hit the root just right, she could spring off it to the far bank.
She put her fingertips against the smooth but sticky trunk of a tree for support. At least it wasn't slimy, which could make her hand slip at the worst possible moment. She studied the distance. As much of a reach as it was, it was the closest place that offered a firm dry step. With enough momentum she could hop to the next root beyond on drier ground.
Jennsen took a deep breath and then with a grunt of effort shoved away from the tree, bounding out over the span of open water.
Just as she landed on the curve of tree root, the root moved underfoot. Her weight was committed-she couldn't reverse direction.
The root, thicker than her ankle, suddenly writhed beneath her and disap-
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peared. In an instant, a thick coil twisted back around, grasping her calf as another length of cold scales whipped up to seize her around her knee.
It was all so fast that part of her was still going for the root that had grabbed her as another part of her was trying to recoil. Caught between where she'd left and where she was going, she had nothing to help her stay upright.
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