by Jon F. Merz
Ran scanned the ground nearby for anything he could use against Zal. There were weapons here and there, and a simple roll would bring them into Ran’s grasp. But he had to make sure he did it subtly. If Zal suspected anything, he would detonate the blue rocks.
When the little man moved, Ran was surprised. Zal came screaming at him from around the corner of the cage and lashed out a high kick that nearly caught Ran in his side. He turned at the last moment and managed to avoid the blow. He dropped a fist at Zal’s head, but the Mung simply dropped and rolled away.
As he came up, however, he threw a dagger right at Ran. Ran leapt to the side as the blade embedded itself in one of the boxes. “I thought we were doing this unarmed,” said Ran.
Zal laughed. “You really are a fool, aren’t you?”
“Apparently,” said Ran. “You keep telling me that.”
Zal came at him again, rushing in to tackle him around the waist. Ran dropped his feet back and drove his elbows down into Zal’s back. The Mung grunted and then dropped, but not before he bit a chunk out of Ran’s right calf muscle. Ran screamed as he felt Zal’s teeth tear into his flesh. What crazy enemy was this that he would try to bite him while they fought? Then he remembered that Zal’s true nature was one of cannibalism. Ran hadn’t seen him eat anyone, but the realization startled him as he realized he should have expected it.
Zal’s mouth was covered with Ran’s blood, and Ran felt light-headed. He swatted Zal away with his left hand, and the Mung staggered back, closer to Kuva’s corpse. Ran followed him, limping heavily on his right leg. Zal kicked at Ran, trying to catch him in the groin, but Ran avoided it and punched Zal in his mouth. As he did so, Zal opened his mouth and let his razor-sharp teeth tear across Ran’s fist. Ran felt like he’d just driven his hand into metallic teeth and glass. Blood streamed out of his hand.
Zal wrapped his arms around Ran and then lifted him off the ground. Ran felt his feet leave the cave floor, and then, as Zal dropped him back and down, Ran was forced to go with the energy of the throw to dissipate the force that came when he hit the cave floor. He exhaled hard and then tried to flush his lungs with more air.
Zal climbed on top of him and started punching him in the head. The Mung’s fists felt like they were iron anvils. Ran blocked a lot of them, but the little man simply did not stop. More punches rained down on Ran, and his vision blurred as the area around his eyes began to swell up from repeated blows. Ran bucked his hips and sent Zal flying. Ran rolled and came up to his feet unsteadily. Zal came at him again, and this time Ran used the Mung’s momentum to throw him farther back into the cave.
Zal landed and rolled to a stop close to Kuva.
Ran frowned. The last thing he wanted was to have to fight near the body of his deceased friend. He need to get Zal away from there.
Which is why he was so surprised when he saw Kuva’s hand reach up and grab Zal around the ankle.
Zal screamed and looked down in time to see Kuva pulling himself up.
“No!”
Zal drove one of his fists down at Kuva’s hands, but the bigger man was simply too strong and too heavy to shake loose. Zal stomped on Kuva’s arm, but it did little good. Ran saw a fire burning in Kuva’s eyes and knew that his friend would not let Zal go. Not now.
Not ever.
Zal must have seen that same fire, because the Mung’s face changed. Instead of trying to free himself, he rammed his hand down into his tunic and pulled out the small box he’d used to detonate the blur rocks before.
Ran saw the action and then the gleeful look in Zal’s eyes.
He heard Kuva’s voice then shout loud and long. “Go, Ran! Go!”
Ran turned.
Dashed toward the mouth of the cave.
Threw himself out of the opening into the blinding snow and wind. The blizzard roared in his ears.
And then the world exploded all around him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Ran awoke to someone turning him over in the deep snow. Flakes fell against his face and melted, streaking cold water down his skin. He opened his eyes and saw Cassandra leaning over him. “Are you all right?”
He sat up, aware that snow was melting through his tunic and making him wet. There was a whine in his ears, and he smelled something burning in the air, but otherwise, he felt okay. He glanced back at the cave entrance and frowned. It was gone.
“Where’s the opening to the catacombs?”
Cassandra shook her head. “Gone. When Zal detonated the blue rocks, the entire mountain shook and rocks buried the entrance. I don’t know what it’s like inside, but I heard a series of explosions. They were muffled and gradually faded away, but it sure sounded like Zal’s plan went off without a hitch. I don’t know who could have possibly survived that.”
Ran got to his feet with Cassandra’s assistance. “He killed them. He killed them all.”
“The Mung?”
Ran nodded. “I didn’t think he was capable of it. They were his people, after all. But that didn’t even seem to faze him. He was willing to do whatever it took to get vengeance on them for the injustices he suffered through. What drives someone to do something like that? Something so complete in its totality that there can never be a way back from it?”
“I don’t know,” said Cassandra. “But maybe somewhere, there’s an answer.”
Ran eyed her. “Something tells me that Zal won’t find the peace he was looking for even in the afterlife.”
“If there’s such a thing,” said the Princess. “I remain unconvinced, myself.”
Ran shrugged and looked at the landscape. The blizzard continued to howl around them, and yet it was strangely peaceful. “I wouldn’t have gotten out of there if it hadn’t been for Kuva,” he said quietly.
“Kuva?” Cassandra shook her head. “Kuva was dead before I left.”
Ran stared at the mountain. “Then I was just helped by a ghost. He grabbed Zal and wouldn’t let him go. When Zal decided to detonate the blue rocks, Kuva shouted for me to run. Something in his voice galvanized me to throw myself out of the cave a moment before it exploded. Any longer and I wouldn’t have made it. I’d be buried under a million tons of rock.”
Cassandra stayed quiet for a moment. “Maybe he wasn’t quite dead.”
“Maybe.” But Ran knew what he thought. Kuva’s spirit had been so strong that even death couldn’t keep him from helping a friend. Another flake settled on Ran’s eyelash and then melted down his face. Ran wiped his eyes. “Thank you, brother,” he said quietly. And then he recited a mantra in his native tongue, his voice low and guttural, allowing the syllables of the powerful vocal trigger to be carried out into the wilds of the storm.
Neither he nor Cassandra spoke for some time after that. Finally Cassandra touched his arm. “We need to find shelter. We’ll die in this storm otherwise.”
Ran blinked and snapped back to reality. She was right, of course. The sooner they were out of the cold, the better. He glanced around. “Did you see if anyone else made it out?”
She nodded. “They did, but they all headed down into the valley where we originally came from. I don’t know where they are. And frankly, they’re not my concern. You mentioned something about a temple in the area. Are you sure it’s here?”
“I only know what Zal spoke of. That the temple is built into the side of the mountain.” He turned and studied the peaks before them. In the storm, it was difficult to see where one ended and the other began. Snow flew sideways, obscuring his vision, but as he scanned from left to right, he thought he saw something that looked vaguely unnatural on one of the mountains. He pointed it out to Cassandra. “I think that’s where we ought to head for.”
“That could be miles away,” she said. “We might not make it.”
“We definitely won’t make it if we stay here arguing about it,” said Ran. “And we don’t really have any other choice except to try for it. With the cave effectively blocked, the best thing we could do is dig a snow cave, but that’s
no guarantee of survival. If we keep moving and can make it to the temple, then we can get out of the storm until it blows over.”
“All right,” said Cassandra. “Let’s go then.”
They huddled together and made their way across the snows to the foot of the mountains. Ran picked his way carefully, testing each step in case there was a crevasse he didn’t know about. The storm had only started an hour ago or so, but the snows were already deep and the blizzard showed no signs of abatement. Ran shivered as they walked, and used his breathing to warm himself up. He did his best to assist Cassandra, but for her part, she seemed less affected than Ran was.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Just let’s keep moving. The sooner we reach it, the better.”
As they walked, Ran stopped them every so often. Dangerous mounds of snow leaned precariously close overhead as they ascended the mountain. Any wrong movement might bring down an avalanche on top of them. Ran felt fortunate that he’d been brought up in the mountains of Nehon and was used to traveling in bad conditions like this. The Nine Daggers clan had situated itself deep in the mountains, where snows like this were common during the winter.
They traveled up and across a dangerous pass that gave them an overview of the valley far below. The thin lip of rock they stood upon stretched for half a mile. Ran felt certain he was staring at the Passage of Harangyo that Iqban had mentioned. And the slaver had been right: the valley floor below was a narrow stretch of land that would only permit perhaps twenty soldiers walking abreast access at a time. If there truly was an invading army coming this way from the north, this is how they would have to come through the mountains. Trying to cross the way Ran and Cassandra were at the moment would have been suicidal.
Ran pointed it out to Cassandra. “That’s the only way to get across these mountains in force.”
Cassandra nodded. “Wonderful. Can we keep moving?”
He grinned in spite of the conditions. Cassandra kept him focused on the priorities. They needed to find shelter. So if the Passage stretched below them, then it seemed appropriate to assume that the shelter Zal had mentioned must be around here somewhere. Perhaps it even overlooked the Passage itself.
Ran scanned once again, and there ahead of them the lip extended into nothingness and then reemerged just short of a perfectly flat outcropping. Ran moved forward and scouted the path before them on his hands and knees. The lip didn’t stop, but a bank of clouds had hidden it. He waved Cassandra forward, and she, too, got down on her hands and knees to make the final part of the journey.
As they crossed off of the lip and onto the wider outcropping of rock, Ran glanced back and felt a bit lightheaded when he saw how far they’d traveled and across what type of terrain. Only the necessity of survival could have motivated them to make that journey, he concluded. He stood and held his hand out to Cassandra. “You okay?”
She nodded and looked past him. “What is this place?”
Ran turned and regarded the flat stone edifice. Oblong rocks arranged in some sort of geometric pattern greeted him. From a distance, the face of the building appeared only slightly unnatural. But up close, he could see the workmanship that had gone into carving the stones. A three-sided effigy of some sort of creature stood in the center of the building. And beneath it, a gray rectangular slab stood in slight indentation to the rest of the wall that surrounded it.
Ran headed for it and was surprised to see that the gray slab acted as some sort of doorway. He waved Cassandra over, and when they stood under it the roar of the blizzard suddenly dissipated.
Cassandra looked around the slab. “Is this the way inside?”
Ran unsheathed his sword. While he didn’t think there was much chance of encountering an enemy this high up in the mountains, he wasn’t sure that someone else might not have made this place into a home of some sort. No one ever died being too careful, he recalled one of his instructors telling him.
Creeping inside, Ran surveyed the area before him. He had come into a small vestibule perhaps ten feet by ten feet. A single door directly in front of him barred any further progress. And for the moment, there was little else he saw of much interest. An old torch lay on the floor along with a rock. Ran used the edge of his blade to strike a spark with the rock, and the torch roared to life, illuminating the room. Shadows danced, and the light bounced off the intricately adorned walls.
Cassandra entered behind him. “Looks like some sort of temple.”
“But to which deity?” asked Ran. He pointed at the symbols and scripts on the walls that surrounded them. “I’ve never seen this language before. If this is one of the tongues that people around here speak, then it’s one that none of my teachers ever knew about.”
Cassandra walked closer to the wall on the left. She ran her hand over the markings and brought it away. “The script has been carved into the walls so it won’t fade away with time.”
“It looks as fresh as if it were done yesterday,” said Ran. “I guess whoever built this place wanted to be sure it stayed around for a very long time.”
Cassandra turned back to the entryway. “I’m so glad to get out of that storm. I think if we were out there any longer, we might have frozen to death. As it is, my skin burns in some places.”
Ran came over to her and examined her hands. They were bright red, but not gray or black. Ran breathed a sigh of relief. “You’d better let me see your toes, too.”
Cassandra slid her shoes off, and Ran bent to look at her toes. But they were only slightly redder than her fingers. He stood back up. “You’re right. If we’d had to stay out there any longer, things might be considerably worse than they are.”
“But what now?” asked Cassandra. “We’ve got a torch, yes, but there’s no wood here. We can’t build a fire for much warmth. And there’s no real way to sort ourselves out here. We’re out of the blizzard, but if it keeps up? Sooner or later we’re going to need food and better warmth than what we have here right now.”
Ran turned and eyed the door. “That must be the proper entrance.”
Cassandra stared at it with him. “Why do I feel like an imposter?”
“Trespasser, yes.” Ran held the torch higher and studied the outline of the door. It was unremarkable. The hinges must have been on the other side, which meant it opened inward. There would be no way to simply pop the hinges and remove it if there was a complicated locking mechanism.
“There’s a keyhole in the center of the door,” said Cassandra. “Why do you suppose they put it there?”
Ran shook his head. “I don’t know. But we’ve got a decision to make, I guess.”
“Stay here or go deeper inside.”
“Yes.” Ran disliked the idea of trespassing in an ancient temple. But the reality of their situation was that they needed better shelter and a chance to build a fire for real warmth. Cassandra’s fingers and toes could continue to suffer if they stayed here. And if the blizzard continued, they could actually get trapped.
Then there was the fact that Ran had finally arrived at the location the clan wanted him to survey. If he was to do his job properly, it would mean investigating the temple, whether or not he liked the idea.
“We don’t really have a choice,” he said finally.
“No,” said Cassandra. “We don’t.”
Ran looked her over. “Still got your sword?”
“Yes.”
“Good, because chances are we might need it.”
Cassandra frowned. “In this old place? What sort of things are you expecting to find here?”
“I don’t know,” said Ran. “Anything is possible.”
And with that, he went to inspect the keyhole before them.
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