An Opportunity for Profit tddts-5

by David Gross

  Belmer lashed out, quick as a cobra, slapping the bubbering Turbalt hard across the face. As the man's hands released the lantern, Belmer hooked it with one toe and kicked it away, toward the forest. Turbalt fell to the sand, his arms raised to ward off more blows. None came, as Belmer whipped away to join the line of Sharkers and sailors who stood matching the lantern and the forest.

  The beach was bone pale in the moonlight. From he black tree line came the moaning. It grew louder as the lantern tumbled across the sand, miraculously, the lamp did not break. It lay tilted against a stone near the forest's edge, casting its yellow light against the nearest trees, and then upon what emerged from them.

  Ghosts, thought Sharessa. The first looked like one of the great bloated dead of the sea. Huge and pale, with thick wallows of fat rolling down from its hairless head, it shambled toward the light. More emerged from behind it, their skin twisted and grotesque as if ravaged by disease. On some Sharessa could see patches of bone where the flesh had flowed away like lava from a dying volcano. In other places the flesh had run together and hardened in ugly knots.

  From their hands twitched long, hard claws. Shadows spidered across their naked skin, and the lamplight trembled at their approach. Where their feet fell, twigs cracked and stones groaned. All the while, the monsters moaned in discontent, wiggling their long, clawed fingers.

  Three, Sharessa counted, then five, then eight, and more kept coming. With them came a ghastly wind. Sharessa couldn't feel it on her face, but it blew through her bones, leaving them brittle and fragile. She had seen the restless dead clack across her ship's deck on bony feet, and with Belmer and the other Sharkers she had fought them. Even the grave could not ooze this fearsome atmosphere. These were horrors from a farther shore, blown into the world by the icy breath of hell.

  Sharessa wanted to look for Belmer, but she couldn't take her eyes away, lest upon turning back she find one of the fiends standing beside her, reaching out with those hard, sharp fingers.

  "Go!" hissed Belmer.

  Turbalt shrieked, and Shar looked to see him kneeling on the sand, alone. His men had already heeded Belmer's order or their own terror. They ran with frightened speed, the Sharkers not far behind. "Go!" repeated Belmer. "Now!" Shar paused for less than a second, then spun on her heel and ran north, leaving the blubbering Turbalt behind. Anvil ran before her, purposefully slow to let Sharessa and Belmer catch up. Sharessa could feel Belmer beside her, but all she could hear was the pulse of blood in her ears.

  Turbalt screamed louder than ever, and Shar turned back, slowing to a jog.

  The shuffling fiends had reached the lamp. A few milled around it, muttering in confusion or fascination. The rest shambled past, toward the sound of rurbalt's panic. The ship captain screamed, stumbling backward toward the surf despite the wide es-: ape route to the north.

  "Damn!" cursed Anvil, glancing over his shoulder. He slowed his pace.

  "Keep going," said Belmer. His voice was calm and even, despite his own running.

  Anvil said nothing. He turned and ran back toward Turbalt.

  Sharessa stopped running. She wanted nothing more than to get away from the things that had come out of the forest, but she couldn't leave Anvil alone to face them. Belmer stopped a few yards farther on, apparently interested enough in Anvil's late to watch, if not to run back to help him. Two of the things had almost reached Turbalt, and more emerged from the forest. There were dozens of them, and Turbalt stared and screamed as he walked stiffly backward. His terrified wailing rose above both the rolling surf and the low, anxious moaning of the creatures. He backed into the water and fell with a splash. Pale claws reached for him.

  Anvil's blade seemed to pass through the flabbj monster that towered over Turbalt. The ship captain cried out as if he had been struck, but the fiend only stared at Anvil. Then a thick, black line oi ichor formed in the sword's path, and the fiend's head and shoulder slid from its body, into the surf.

  The big man did not hesitate. He slashed at the second in a slow, two-handed attack that any opponent should have avoided. The fiend's eyes rolled left as its black guts spilled into the water, followed by the rest of the deformed monster's body. By now, a half-dozen fiends were closing with Anvil. Instead of attacking, he grabbed the screaming Turbalt by the shirtfront and pulled him out of the water.

  Terrified beyond reason, Turbalt flailed and twisted in Anvil's grasp. His violent thrashing slowed Anvil as the Sharker staggered out of the surf. The fiends were slow, but Turbalt would doom them both in his panic. Sharessa could wait no longer. She ran forward, despite Belmer's order.

  Before Sharessa could reach him, Anvil had lost his patience with the struggling Turbalt. With the bell guard of his sabre, he struck the man hard in the belly. Sharessa could hear the whoosh of air from Turbalt's lungs, and all the fight left him. Anvil hefted the limp form onto his shoulder and began to run.

  Sharessa fell in beside him to fend off any fiends who proved faster than the others. She was surprised to see Belmer on Anvil's other side, doing the same. His face was grim, and Sharessa feared for Anvil after their escape.

  Soon they had outdistanced the fiends. The moon had risen higher, and its reflection in the sea cast blanched light all the way to the forest's edge. The Sharkers and the sailors of the Morning Bird had stopped less than a half mile along the shore. Before reaching the group, Belmer raised a hand, signaling Anvil and Sharessa to stop. Anvil shrugged Turbalt off his shoulders, and the smaller man grunted as he hit the sand. He kept his gaze down, hiding his face from the others. In a second he scrambled up and walked quickly away, toward the larger group, indignant or ashamed.

  Belmer ignored the ship captain and turned to Anvil. Sharessa braced herself to defend her comrade with an argument.

  "Very impressive," said Belmer. Sharessa saw the surprise on Anvil's face and imagined it looked much the same as hers. Perhaps Belmer had come around. He began walking after Turbalt. Anvil and Sharessa followed. Belmer put a friendly hand on Anvil's big arm.

  "Disobey me again, and it won't be the fiends that kill you." His voice was anything but friendly.

  "Here they come," announced Brindra. "Dozens of them. Hundreds, maybe." The heavy woman was almost out of breath. Running was not easy for her, though she could fight as long and hard as any of the Sharkers.

  "How far?" asked Belmer. The others crowded around to hear the news.

  "A little over a mile," she answered. "Probably not much less than that now. The things are damned slow."

  "Lucky for us," said Belgin Dree with some irony.

  "The ones behind us are closer," said one of the Morning Bird sailors. "There's more of them, too."

  "They're herding us," said Ingrar. He had been a shepherd before leaving the Web mountains to find his fortune. While he still had much to learn about sailing and pirating, Sharessa supposed he knew plenty about herding. She didn't like the thought that this time they were the sheep.

  Sharessa suddenly wished Ingrar had stayed at his home, never to join the Sharkers or find himself stalked by fiends in the wilds of Doegan. She looked at his face. He looked older in the moonlight, and some of his fear had left. The Sharkers had learned to depend on his courage in a fray, but something about the fiends in the woods unnerved him. If the truth were told, Sharessa thought, the fiends unnerved them all. Impulsively, she leaned toward him and brushed his cheek with her lips. He straightened his shoulders and gave her a half-smile. She turned and found herself staring into Belmer's cold eyes.

  "Herding us is right," said Rings. "But where?"

  "Into the woods," said Belmer, still holding Sharessa in his gaze. The dark-tressed pirate knew he was right.

  "But why?" asked Ingrar. Sharessa thought she knew the answer to this, too.

  "You saw how slow those things are," she said. "Whatever killed Elsger and Jan is wickedly fast. Maybe it controls the slow ones. Maybe it sent them out to push us back in."

  "And maybe that one can't leave the woods,"
suggested Ingrar, hopefully.

  "I don't think so," said Belmer. "I think it wants to play."

  "What?" said Brindra.

  "It could have killed more of us," said Belgin. "Plenty more." He had taken a pair of dice from his vest pocket and was rolling them around in his palm. Each revolution made another tiny click.

  Belmer nodded. "It doesn't just want to kill us."

  "It wants to terrify us," finished Belgin. Click. Click.

  "What do we do?" said Ingrar. His voice was calmer than Sharessa would have expected, but not resigned.

  "We could take our chances in the woods," offered Sharessa. "If we stay together, it can't get us all. If we don't carry a lantern and.." Everyone was looking at her as if she were insane. Even Belgin's dice-clicking had stopped.

  "Never mind."

  "We can't fight our way thought the melty ones," said Ingrar.

  "Mm," agreed Rings. "Too many."

  "We could swim around a group of the slow ones," suggested Brindra. Sharessa almost groaned at that idea. The Sharkers had spent far too much of their time swimming away from burning or sinking ships. Still, the fiends might not follow them there, and they could all swim faster than those lumbering, half-melted fiends.

  Belmer nodded at Brindra's suggestion. "We could go deep enough that the slow fiends couldn't wade out after us."

  "Uh," rasped Anvil. His voice was raspier than usual. "I didn't say anything earlier, since we were close to shore and didn't really have a choice, but — "

  "Let me guess," said Belmer. "There are fiends in the waters of Doegan, too."

  Anvil just nodded. "Gigantic ones."

  "Joy."

  "I didn't put them there," grumbled Anvil.

  "Well, you were right about fiends in the woods," said Belmer. "I'll take your word on the ones in the water."

  "So what do we do?" asked Ingrar. They all looked at Belmer, and he turned to look back at the woods.

  "Oh, no," said Brindra-and Ingrar, and about half of the sailors. "Oh, yes."

  They crept into the forest slowly, Belmer and Sharessa in the lead. The others followed as reluctantly as skinny-dippers in winter, but the forest was warm and still. The farther they moved away from the sea breeze, the warmer it grew. Sharessa felt her clothes beginning to cling to her damp flesh. She loosened the strings of her shirt and shook the fabric briskly.

  With the heat came renewed fear, and the Mar sailors became clumsy in the stifling darkness.

  "Ow!"

  "Watch where ye're going." "I can't see a-" "Shh!"

  "Slowly," said Belmer. "And quietly."

  They moved along, trying to obey. Even Turbalt was uncharacteristically quiet. The shipless captain hadn't said a word since Anvil had saved him from his own cowardice.

  Sharessa felt Belmer's hand upon her arm. It was cool and dry in the moist heat of the forest. His whisper was so quiet that she had to strain to hear it.

  "Stay," he said. Then he was gone, and Sharessa waited until the sailor behind her came close before putting her hand on his arm and a whisper in his ear. He did the same, and so on down the line with one or two startled yelps. Then Belmer returned and led Sharessa to a new path in the darkness. They continued this way for more than an hour, stopping four more times, more quietly than before.

  Finally, when Belmer returned from the darkness, they gathered close to talk again.

  "Over the hills to the city, right?"

  "Right," whispered one of the sailors.

  "That's right," said Anvil. Though he had spent most of his adult life at sea, the big pirate had been born in Doegan.

  "There's a river canyon in the way," pointed out Belmer. "About fifty yards north."

  "Shouldn't be," said one of the sailors uncertainly. Sharessa imagined a withering stare from Belmer, but she couldn't even see the glimmer of his eyes in the darkness. The heavy canopy of trees obscured all the moonlight here.

  "There was a footbridge, once," said Anvil. "I think."

  "Right," sighed Belmer. "I don't suppose anyone remembers where that is."

  "It was a long time ago," said Anvil. "I think it's farther inland, but I'm not sure." None of the sailors had anything to say.

  "Good. It'll be an adventure." Belmer's voice was more sarcastic than Shar had ever heard it. Unlike the others, who seemed tense and frightened by the fiends, Belmer seemed increasingly annoyed.

  "We'll move along the ravine's edge," he decided. "We'll travel inland and take the first crossing we can manage."

  They formed their snaking line again and followed Belmer through the darkness.

  Chapter Four

  Blood Begets Blood

  Sharessa heard the water before they reached the canyon's edge. Judging by the sound, she guessed it was deep and wide. As they emerged from the darkness of the woods, she saw that where the river split the forest, moonlight shone down onto the water far below. The ravine was deeper than she had imagined. The moonlight slanted sixty feet or more before glancing off the river's face. On either side of the water were ragged cliffs. Some shadowy places on the far wall looked climbable, with ropes and pitons-in daylight. Even then the ascent would be dangerous, as the river's slow teeth gnawed at the earth to either side, undermining the ravine walls.

  Sharessa crouched and gazed across the open space. The far shore was at least thirty yards away, probably more. It was hard to judge the distance across when the drop was so daunting. Thick tufts of grass and forest weeds jutted over the cliff's edge, each one poised like a suicidal lover, ready to plunge into the abyss. They wouldn't be crossing the river here.

  They resumed their march. The moonlight emboldened them, and they quickened their pace. Still, every few minutes, Belmer would stop them with a raised hand, and they would all crouch and listen to the sounds of the forest. It was harder to make out any noise other than the river water. The ravine's walls were like cupped hands around a giant's mouth, magnifying even a gurgle to a roar.

  When they had traveled for another hour, Sharessa dared to hope they had escaped their hidden tormentor. Maybe Ingrar had been right, and the creature couldn't leave the woods. Maybe they were safe out here in the moonlight. Sharessa made a silent prayer that it was so.

  No sooner was the prayer conceived in her mind than she heard a splash behind and below her. One of the men behind her gave an urgent whisper. It came again, louder. Then she could make it out.

  "Garni! He just jumped!" Sharessa didn't remember which sailor was Garni. She thought madly for a second that she should learn the names of the other sailors, as if that might ward them from danger.

  Hurrying back toward the commotion, Sharessa saw the sailor's dark figure in the moonlight. He stood near the edge of the cliff, staring down at the water far below.

  "I can't believe it. He just walked right over the edge. He had to have seen-"

  Before Sharessa could open her mouth, spindly arms reached out from the inky blackness behind the sailor. As she drew her breath to shout, thin claws closed on the man's arms. "Look out!" she cried as those arms withdrew. Before she could close the distance, the echoes of his screams were already returning from the chasm behind her.

  This time the sailors responded to the attack by crouching and falling silent-except for Turbalt. He crashed into the sailor in front of him, running away from where Gami and the other sailor-was his name Haj? — had vanished. Someone near Turbalt grabbed him and pulled him to the ground.

  "Let me-" Turbalt's voice was smothered. Whoever grabbed him had the sense to put a hand over his mouth.

  Sharessa spared a glance over the ravine's edge. Silver ribbons of light danced across the river, but there was nothing else to see. She snapped her attention back toward the forest. She could almost feel her pupils widening as she gazed into the gloom, but she saw nothing.

  "It's gone. Go, go!" came Belmer's whisper from beside her. He moved past her, into the darkness. Sharessa obeyed him, taking the lead by herself.

  She slipped qui
etly as a cat through the half-light of the forest's edge, careful to avoid the uncertain boundary of the ravine. She paused to listen for the sound of the others following. Satisfied that they were moving again, she increased her pace. This time she drew her slim cutlass from its scabbard.

  No sooner did she have it before her than she heard a rustling in the trees beside her.

  Sharessa threw herself down, rolling on her shoulder. Something heavy whipped past her head, and all the flesh on her neck contracted. She came up in a crouch, her sword before her. She could see nothing, but a faint smell of sulfur lingered in the air.

  "It's here!" she cried in warning. But it was too late. The fiend was already among the men behind her.

  An ululating scream pierced Sharessa's ears. It sounded completely inhuman, but Sharessa knew it had to be from another of the sailors. Blades flashed, and dark figures converged on the spot from whence the scream had come. Sharker and sailor alike were ready this time. Sharessa nearly ran into Anvil and Brindra where they stood with four of the sailors, forming their own circle back-to-back. Whatever had been there was now gone, and so was another crewman from the Morning Bird.

  Farther back from the ravine, another man shouted in surprise. Ingrar's voice cried, "Here! It's here!"

  "Follow me," said Sharessa, already running. She dashed toward Ingrar's voice, into the trees. She had almost reached him when she heard the boy's grunt of exertion, then a clunk of sword on wood.

  "Where is it?" he raged. Among the vague silhouettes of tree branches, Sharessa saw Ingrar's black figure slashing blindly. She slowed lest she run into his hacking sword. Then she saw one of the branches unfold like the joints of an insect. It lashed down at Ingrar's head.

  The boy screamed, clutching his face. "My eyes! My eyes!"

  Sharessa stabbed at the attacking limb. Her sword struck nothing at first, then branches, then nothing again. Then her blade struck something tough and yielding. She struck again. Her sword hit hard, but the blade did not bite. A rough, dry claw gripped her wrist and held it fast.