Arderi pulled his brother to his feet. “Elith, get Alant out of here. Start running that way.” He pointed deeper into the jungle and away from the approaching sounds—away from Rohann’s camp, as well. “I will be right behind you.”
She nodded before prodding Alant into the jungle.
Stalking over to the Kith, Arderi reached out and grabbed his arm. “What are you doing? We need to run. Now!”
The large lion-man shrugged off his grasp. “My sword! I will not—” Stepping over the corpse of a brown-haired man with a missing leg, he bent down and picked up a curved, black-streaked blade. Slipping his paw into an odd, V-shaped hilt with what looked like a clawed hand covering it, he gave the blade an experimental stroke in the air. He then bent down and cleaned the gore from it on the shirt of a dead man before slipping it into the sheath at his waist. Standing back to his full height, he glared down at Arderi. “Do not think I have forgotten who you are, boy.” His voice came low and guttural.
Added to the way the lion-man growled his words, Arderi almost did not understand him. The anger in the beast’s eyes could not be misunderstood, however. “This is not the time, Kith. Besides, we just saved your life.”
The Kith looked ready to say something when a small lizard-creature leapt out of the brush next to them, its razor-sharp claws aimed for the back of the lion-man’s neck. Without thinking, the Sight of Sujen fell on Arderi. Reality froze. Everything around him leapt out in vivid clarity. The red of the lizard’s tongue just peeking from its mouth. The veins on the large, shield-sized leaf of the plant the creature had jumped past. The slight yellow color of Klain’s fangs as he opened his mouth to speak.
Forcing his muscles to bend to his speed of thinking, he drew Dorochi from its scabbard. Sidestepping, he brought the blade up, striking the monster’s arm just below the elbow as it moved slowly forward to cut into Klain.
Reality snapped forward.
The lizard’s arm smacked into the back of Klain as the creature whisked between the two of them. Landing in a ball, the monster writhed on the ground holding its stump and hissing in what could only be described as agony.
Klain did not react. Instead, he stood there narrowing one eye at Arderi, glancing from the creature,s arm to Dorochi. For a moment he thought the lion-man was going to attack him anyway. With a nod and a glance at the creature on the ground, Klain brushed past Arderi, running over and herding Rohann and the boy deeper into the jungle after Alant and Elith.
Arderi let out a breath he had not realized he held. He took a step toward the injured creature just as two more broke through the underbrush on the far side of the clearing. The three stared at each other. Spinning, Arderi ran after the Kith as fast as he had ever run.
He did not know how far he was behind the others, nor how close more of those creatures were. Without slowing down, he cupped his hands around his mouth. “Run!”
“Run!” Arderi’s scream spurred Alant Cor into action and he tore into the thick foliage. The jungle came alive with the sounds of their pursuers. Hisses and clacks, the crunch of limbs and leaves, and the memory of those poor dismembered men still fresh in his mind’s eye. All this worked to keep his legs pumping as fast as they could go. Limbs and broad leaves smacked into him, and soon he was bleeding from several small cuts and nicks on his arms and face. The terrain continued to slant downward, adding to his speed. Although he only caught glimpses of the others, he heard them all smashing through the underbrush close behind him. His foot landed in one of the myriad of creeks that cut through the area, soaking him to mid-calf. A root reached out and snagged his other foot as he ran up a small bank, sending him slamming to the ground.
Out of nowhere, Elith slid to a stop next to him and yanked him back to his feet. “You must not fall behind, Mah’Sukai.” Half-pulling, half-pushing, she drove him on.
From what seemed like every direction, the clacking and hissing came. His heart pounded in his ears. If not for Elith, he would have fallen several more times. After cresting a small rise, the terrain sloped sharply and the two slid more than ran down a hill. Dead leaves and rotting muck added to their speed. Down and down they sped, dodging thick-trunked trees in their haste to escape. At a breath-taking speed, they burst through a heavy growth of broad-leafed shrubs and the canopy over their heads vanished, replaced by the purple of a clear dusk sky. And before them…nothing. The land simply ended a few paces away with a sheer drop-off into a massive chasm, the other side some twenty paces distant.
With a scream of defiance, Elith slammed her shoulder into Alant, sending him careening into the trunk of an old, gnarled tree leaning over the edge. Crashing into it, the tree bent further out and his breath whooshed from his lungs. He watched in horror as the gray-skinned girl dropped to the ground, arms splayed out seeking a handhold as shot over the edge of the cliff. She made no sound as she disappeared from his view.
A crash behind Alant made his head snap around just in time to see Arderi break through the brush at a full run. His brother slammed into him and the tree shook, tipping more. The pops and cracks of its roots breaking as it carried the brothers out over the ledge sent waves of fear stabbing into Alant. Looking down, his heart stopped. The chasm dropped away for hundreds of paces, the bottom swallowed in a thick fog. As one of its roots tore free, the old tree fell another half-pace. The jolt shook Alant and he slid off the side of the tree trunk with a shriek.
Arderi’s hand slapped around his wrist, stopping his fall and leaving him dangling in midair. “Give me your other hand!” Alant did not miss the strain in his brother’s voice.
With a last wild-eyed look down, Alant swung his free hand up and grabbed his brother’s wrist. Motion in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Elith hung, holding herself against the cliff face. Hand over hand like some giant insect, she made her way back to the top. Pulling his mind back to the task of saving his own life, he helped Arderi pull him up. Once back on the trunk, the two scrambled off the tree and back onto the cliff.
Arderi started to say something, then spun holding out both his hands. “Stop! We are on a cliff’s edge!” His voice echoed in the large open area of the chasm.
With a snarl, the Kith broke from the jungle. Digging his heels in, he stopped well short of the edge. Rohann followed in the lion-man’s wake. Reaching out, Klain stopped him with a grunt. The boy broke the tree line a pace away and ran into Elith who had just regained her footing. He squeaked, then pushed away from her and ran to Klain.
The sounds of their pursuers crashing through the underbrush behind them grew louder. It would not be long before they were overtaken.
Breathing hard, Rohann walked to the edge and leaned over. “What now? We cannot outrun those things much longer.”
Looking to the far side of the gorge, Alant saw a massive tangle of vines draping over the edge. Their tops were a tangled mess, weaving in and out of the trees overlooking the cliff. He thought that they might just be long enough. “Those vines!” Letting the Sight fall upon him, he reached out and pulled one to him. It did not separate from the others, and he realized he would have to pull the entire group over. He had never tried to move such a heavy weight before, and was not even sure if he could. Wrapping as many Strands as he could around the cluster of vines, he pulled. At first, the vines barely moved. With a mental yank, their small roots ripped from their holdings and the vines rose toward Alant. With the weight, he was able to pull it only a few paces before it stopped moving again. It was simply too heavy.
With a sudden jerk, the vines flew toward him. Alant knew he had not done it. It felt as if some other force had reached out with him and grabbed the vines. The realization startled him so much he lost the Sight. When he did, the group of vines sagged back to the far wall.
“Why did you stop?” His brother stood next to him, arm raised as if he were reaching out to grab the vines. “I cannot do this alone!”
“Alone
?” Then Alant understood. The unseen force helping him was Arderi. “Wait. You?”
The strain on Arderi’s face was causing veins to pop out on his neck. “Really? Now? You want to ask questions about how I am doing this now?”
A loud thrashing in the jungle caused Alant to flinch. “Nix, I guess there are better times.” Letting the Sight fall back upon him, he once again reached out and pulled on the mass of vines. The tangle jerked toward them. He knew he could not lift this much weight alone. And it was obvious Arderi could not either. Yet, together their abilities seemed to increase ten-fold. Within moments, Elith and Klain were able to reach out and grab the group of vines.
Growling, the Kith bent down in front of the boy. “Charver! Come. Climb over while I hold these.”
The boy scrambled up onto the vines Klain held. The father stepped up behind his son. “Are you not going to tie them off? You cannot hold them for all of us!”
The lion-man bared his fangs. “There is no time! I can feel the lizard creatures approaching. Once Charver is across, the rest of us will have to swing over.”
Watching his son scramble over the vines—he was about halfway to the other side now—Rohann shook his head. “That gorge is at least twenty paces across! We will not survive hitting the far wall. And if I do survive slamming into the rocks, I doubt I will have the strength left to then climb up!”
“The Human has a point.” Elith slid down the edge of the ravine still holding two handfuls of vines. “Mah’Sukai, you climb over as the boy is doing while she holds these.”
“Wait, there may be another way.” Alant walked back to the tree he and his brother had hit. “Wrap the vines around this tree.”
The gray-skinned girl did not ask questions. With the grace of a dancer, she glided onto the tree and wrapped what she held around the trunk twice. Still holding the Sight, Alant grabbed all the Spectals from both the vines and the tree and merged them. Not that he had ever done this before, yet it seemed the right thing to do. Turning his attention to the tree, he did the same to the roots and the rocks they lay imbedded in. Jumping up next to Elith, he dropped down on all fours and scurried to the top of the tree. Looking across, he was pleased to see the young boy standing on the other side. “I will go first.”
Swallowing a lump that had lodged in his throat, he crawled out onto the web of vines. He stopped a pace out over the edge and gave the makeshift bridge an experimental bounce. “It seems to be holding. Wait until—” One of the vines holding him up broke free from the other side and he dropped a half a pace. With a death grip on the vines he froze, looking at the far ledge. When the other vines held, he glanced over his shoulder at the others. “Wait until I am across before you come out. I do not think this will hold more than one of us at a time.” Without waiting on an answer, he crawled. Fast. When he reached the other side, his heart thumping loud in his chest, he scrambled up and stood next to Charver. “Come on, hurry!”
Rohann scrambled onto the tilting tree next. However, once on all fours, he stopped and stared straight down. Not until the Kith roared at him did the man move again. When he reached the other side, Alant bent and helped him up. The merchant took his hand with a nod. “Thank you.”
A commotion of clacks and hisses burst from the tree line a few dozen paces from their makeshift bridge. Oversized reptilian heads swiveled one way, then the other, before they spotted the rest of the group and raced toward them.
“Get across! Now!” Letting loose the energy he had stored up, Alant targeted the creature in the lead. Lightning slammed into the thing’s chest, hurling him into the others. He immediately pulled in more energy, yet knew he would not have enough to attack again before the lizards reached his friends. Looking back at his brother, he was horrified to see that Arderi was not even halfway across.
Elith held her staff in her hands once more, blades adorning both ends. She looked over her shoulder at Klain, her cat-like eyes almost glowing silver in the pale light. “Move, Kithian! This is not the time to argue!”
Despite her order, Klain hesitated. With a final roar, he scrambled onto the tree and started across. Alant heard the vines around him groan with the added weight. The Kith’s paws were not adept at vine crossing and his arm or leg fell through the web every pace or so, slowing his progress.
Another lizard-thing burst from the jungle. Elith sliced its head cleanly from its shoulders before it ever knew she stood next to it. Then two more slid to a stop less than a pace from her. Spinning, she sliced one across its chest and took the legs off the other. Before they hit the ground, half a dozen more of the monsters broke from the tree line at staggered intervals. Her staff a whirlwind of death, Elith slid her way onto the tree that formed her side of the bridge. She kept the hissing creatures at bay with her weapon as they followed her out. Without looking, she stepped onto the vines, never stopping the twirl of her staff. Within a few steps, she backed into Klain who had made very little progress.
Grunting, Arderi pulled himself up to stand next to Alant. Like the others, he stared at the scene on the other side of the gorge. With a wave of his hand, the leg of the lizard in front of Elith jerked sideways. The creature tried to compensate, though by the look on its reptilian face, it had not expected the misstep. Claws scraping bark, the creature fell to its chest. It reached out to grab hold of the tree, failed to catch itself and tumbled down, swallowed by the fog below. A gut-wrenching sound, like that of a watermelon shattering on the ground, echoed up.
A half score of the lizard creatures were now on the tree, jumping up and down and hissing at Elith. The tree shuddered, then bent under the added weight with a jerk, sending the Kith tumbling off the bridge. One paw lashed out and snagged a vine. Kicking wildly, Klain dangled over the chasm.
Slashing at a creature that came too close, Elith looked down. “Get a good grip, Kithian. She is going to cut the vines!”
“What!” With his growly voice, it was hard to say, yet Alant thought he heard fear in the Kith’s words. “Wait! NO!” Just as the lion-man reached up and grasped a vine with his second paw, Elith spun her staff in a large, swinging arc. She cut all of the vines attached to the tree in one stroke. The vines dropped away from her and she fell like a stone. Elith pivoted and spun, grabbing the end of a vine as she streaked past.
As if in slow motion, the two swung down toward the cliff face, picking up speed as they went. With a meaty thud, Klain slammed into the wall. Alant watched in amazement as Elith prepared herself and landed feet first, still holding onto the vine with only one hand. Her other held her staff, blades gone and shrinking in size.
“You crazy white witch!” The Kith’s yell echoed off the far bank where hundreds of the lizard creatures now stood jumping up and down, hissing and clacking. “You could have killed me!”
“No. She saved you. You are alive. And if you wish to remain that way, she suggests that you climb.” Taking her own advice, she slipped her staff into its holder at the base of her spine and climbed hand over hand. Arderi helped her up the last span before Klain even maneuvered himself to start his ascent.
Several agonizing moments later, with much cursing on the Kith’s part, Arderi and Elith pulled the exhausted lion-man onto the ledge where he lay panting.
Watching the far bank, Alant noticed the lizard creatures turning and wandering back into the jungle. Leaning out, he looked along the gorge for the first time. It ran in both directions for leagues. “I do not think they know a way across.” Stepping back, he let the Sight slip from him and sank to the ground. “I think we may be safe.”
His brother stepped up next to him and nudged him with a foot. Glancing up, Alant saw that Arderi stared off into the jungle on this side. “Safe, huh? That is reassuring.”
Twisting his neck, Alant took a good look at the jungle. Dark and foreboding, it looked like a nightmare version of what they had just traveled through on the other side. The trees here grew clos
er together, more gnarled. The stench of death and rot hung heavy in the air. Even the ground seemed wetter. Alant saw pools of standing water, a green film covering their surfaces. “Well, at least we will not be eaten by lizard-men.”
“Aye.” Arderi eased his sword in its sheath. “And I am all a tingle to discover what will eat us.”
Delmith Bathooll spent the tenday his Prince had given him delving deeper into the mystery of what had happened to the Human, Alant. He spent time tracking down every book or tome he could find that even hinted about the Chi’utlan, both in public and private collections. He wasted aurns deciphering more of the runes lining the hall that led to the Chamber of the Chi’utlan. He even spoke to a decrepit Vanria who was nearly seven-hundred and fifty winters old! Yet, try as he did, he gained no insight into what might have happened to the boy.
There are simply no references to someone being crushed out of existence!
He slapped his hand onto the arm of his chair. He sat in the study of his home. Fear and worry fought for dominance over inquisitiveness and curiosity within him. On the one hand, everything he learned fascinated him. He had dug up histories and knowledge from the past that he doubted anyone on the entire Plane remembered. He did not feel he understood a tenth of what he needed, however. On the other hand, what he had gleaned only added to his questions. And if he did not have more answers than questions, he was certain that his Prince would not be happy. Mayhaps to his demise.
Did the Essence spill through the Chi’utlan from some other dimension? Why did it have a pattern, growing stronger as the millennia rolled by? Why, with a sudden upheaval of power, did it flee this Plane—fall off to a mere speck of the power it had risen to, and lay dormant for another millennia before it started the process all over again? Could Alant have been pulled through the Chi’utlan to somewhere else instead of being crushed out of existence, as it had appeared?
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