Called to Darkness

by Richard Lee Byers

  During the third march after that, they had to traverse the narrow strip of mucky ground between a black lake and the cavern wall. As they reached the far end, several fish-men with crests of fin atop their heads swam to the surface of the water and stared after them with goggle eyes. Fortunately, that was all they did. Maybe they weren't hungry. Or perhaps they preferred to swarm out and catch prey in the middle of the path that twisted around the pool, and they'd already missed their chance.

  On the next leg of the journey, the travelers came upon the image of a leering devil or demon with curly horns and cloven hooves carved in bas-relief on a tunnel wall. As far as Kagur could tell, the site was nowhere near the habitation of any intelligent creature, and she had no idea why the sculptor had chosen to place the work here. But someone else had come along after him and taken a chisel to the image's eyes.

  Every creature or phenomenon that was new to Holg made him want to pause to learn what he could about it and inspired him to garrulous speculation. Meanwhile, Kagur gritted her teeth against the impulse to grab him and manhandle him on down the trail, or at least growl at him to hold his peace. To her, the unfamiliar things weren't marvels, just delays.

  Maybe her feelings were unreasonable, for it appeared Ssa had provided good information, and as a result, she and Holg were making faster progress than before. But somehow, that very realization made her even more impatient to find her quarry, and she dreamed of Eovath every time she slept.

  Sometimes she relived the butchery in the communal tent. Sometimes a pleasant recollection twisted into bloody nightmare. But the worst dreams were happy memories that simply played out as they had in the waking world.

  Ignoring his protests that he was too ungainly to learn, she taught the giant to dance.

  Taking advantage of her stubborn refusal to give up, he kept her guessing for weeks at a "riddle" without an answer. When he finally admitted the trick, she launched herself at him and they fell down wrestling in the snow, struggling till her anger turned to laughter.

  On a trading visit to Icestair, they climbed the stone steps to the top of the glacier. As she gazed across the expanse of gleaming ice to the north, and back down at the green and brown tundra stretching away to the south, she felt a weight lift from her heart for the first time since her mother's death.

  Such dreams were the hardest to bear. She woke from them loving him anew and believing she was still with him, her father, and the rest of the tribe. Then she opened her eyes to stone and darkness, rediscovered the truth, and tightened her jaw lest she make an anguished sound that Holg, standing watch, might hear.

  Nine marches out from Ssa's market, the way brought them to a pit as broad and round as the top of the Earthnavel. Red light shined out of it like a fire was burning at the bottom, but when Kagur looked over the rim, she saw patches of the same luminous fungus from which she'd fashioned a torch.

  Unlike the Earthnavel, the pit didn't narrow as it went deeper, or at least the part she could make out didn't. A trail, so steep or narrow in places that it barely deserved the name, spiraled down into the crimson haze.

  Kagur took a long breath. "The way into Orv."

  Holg nodded. "According to Lady Ssa."

  As there was red light to see by, Kagur decided it would be foolish for her and Holg to make themselves conspicuous by showing a green one. She hooded the crystal lantern and strode toward the top of the trail.

  Then, with grinding reluctance, she made herself turn back around. "We've been traveling for a while," she said, "and even with the path, the climb down doesn't look all that easy. We can rest first if you need it."

  Holg grinned. "Even though the wait would drive you mad? Thank you for your consideration, but no. Now that we've made it this far, I want to find out what's at the bottom as urgently as you do."

  They started downward, edging along or clutching at the rocky wall when necessary, trying to avoid both falling to their deaths and making noise. But despite their best efforts, they occasionally dislodged pebbles that clattered down into the darkness, and Kagur gritted her teeth whenever they did.

  She'd long since decided that every part of the Darklands was dangerous, but that wasn't the only reason for her caution. Unless Ssa's information was out of date, dangerous beasts laired and hunted in the lower reaches of the pit. Luckily, there was also supposed to be a way around them.

  Eventually, the trail both widened and leveled out into a ledge that curved halfway around the pit before sloping downward once again. Soft clicking and rustling sounds rose from below.

  An arrow resting on her longbow, Kagur peered over the edge. Squinting, Holg looked as well.

  The eight-legged creatures beneath them resembled spiders or fleas the size of men, with enormous claws and long feelers curling back from their heads. Mostly quiescent at the moment, they crouched on shelves or had squeezed into cracks and depressions in the rock.

  "Are they giant insects?" Holg whispered. "I can't tell."

  "Yes," Kagur replied. "I'll watch them. You find the fissure."

  According to Ssa's information, a natural opening on the ledge provided access to hollow spaces that in turn descended into Orv. Kagur assumed the creatures below her could also find their way into the honeycomb, but hoped that at worst, she and Holg would only run into them one at a time. Which would be better than trying to make their way past several at once.

  Although they could in theory exit the pit if they simply kept on the way they were going. Kagur could just make out tunnel openings at floor level. As she was trying to spot them all, a figure, tiny with distance and vague in the red-lit gloom, came through one on her right. The shadow looked around but seemingly failed to spot the insect-things. They must be less visible from below than from above.

  The newcomer headed for a pale spot on the floor. Watching, likely preparing to attack, some of the insects shifted position.

  When the figure moved into the middle of the space, Kagur could see him better and realized it wasn't just distance that made him look small. He was skinny and only half grown, with elongated canine teeth jutting from his lower jaw, pointed ears, shaggy black hair, and skin that would no doubt be dirty green if viewed in sunlight. He was naked except for the ragged hide kilt wrapped around his waist.

  "I found the opening," Holg whispered. Then, evidently perceiving the tension that had come over her, he added, "What?"

  "There's an orc down there," she replied.

  Which was no concern of hers. The orcs of the Hold of Belkzen were her people's enemies, vicious brutes whose nature it was to murder, rape, torture, and pillage. She had no doubt that the boy below shared the same proclivities, and if the insects were busy devouring him, that would make it easier to slip past them.

  Holg squinted down at the floor of the shaft. "Watch out!" he shouted.

  Startled, the orc boy looked up. Then he whirled toward the nearest opening at the wall.

  "Why did you do that?" Kagur demanded.

  "The orc may have useful information," Holg replied. "He can't share it if he's dead."

  Meanwhile, on the floor of the pit, something flickered though the air. The orc flopped suddenly backward and then slid flailing over the ground toward a different wall.

  In the uncertain light, Kagur couldn't make out what was really happening until the child jerked up into the air. Then she understood that one of the insect-things had thrown a sticky line like a strand of spider web to catch him, yank him off his feet, and drag him bumping and scraping up to its perch. The boy tried clutching the wall to arrest his involuntary ascent, but he wasn't strong enough.

  Kagur would still have been happy to watch the wretched orc die. But if Holg had decided there was a reason to help him, she supposed she ought to follow the old man's lead.

  She drew and loosed. Her arrow pierced the insect that had snared the orc where its bump of a head fused with its body. The creature jerked but kept hauling in its prey.

  Kagur shot another shaft into t
he insect. It shuddered and collapsed on its shelf.

  But the creature's sticky line was still attached to both its body and that of its prey, and its death left the orc boy dangling above the ground. He produced some sort of knife and sawed at the strand but couldn't part it. Meanwhile, clinging to the curving walls, more insects crawled in his direction.

  Holg said, "I'm going to make light," and then started quickly reciting a prayer. Judging that she had time for one more shot before he finished, Kagur took it and squeezed her eyes shut.

  As before, the magical light shined through her eyelids, and she blinked to help her vision adjust. When it did, she saw that unfortunately, the brighter illumination now flooding the pit didn't appear to have blinded or frightened the insects. They were still heading for the boy.

  "Try something else!" she snapped. Laying another arrow on her bow, she stepped to the very edge of the path for a better sightline to the insect closest to the child.

  A filament whipped up from somewhere beneath her.

  She tried to dodge, but the strand snapped across her shoulder anyway. The creature that had sneaked into position to snare her wrenched her into space.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Orv

  As Kagur plummeted, she banged repeatedly against the wall, dropping her bow to grab at outcroppings. She missed one, then caught another and arrested her fall with a jolt she felt from her hands to her shoulders.

  Her elbow and knee hurt, too, where she'd slammed them into the stone, but she barely had time to notice before the creature's strand tugged her upward.

  Her impulse was to resist. But she would have no hope of saving the orc boy unless she dealt quickly with the creature that had snared her, and to do that, she needed it within reach of her sword.

  So she let it drag her up and concentrated on avoiding any more battering against the wall. Maybe the insect-things depended on such impacts to soften up their prey—but if so, this one was going to be disappointed.

  It hitched her closer and closer to its enormous pincers, and she made herself wait to draw her longsword. She didn't want the motion to alarm it prematurely.

  She did want it to deposit her on its ledge before it actually tried to seize her, but it didn't oblige. She was still hanging when, holding onto the line with one set of claws, it reached for her with the other.

  She didn't have her shield. She'd set it aside to use her bow. Instead, she twisted away from the pincers, drew her blade, and cut at them. The weapon crunched through shell and hacked the uppermost claw partway loose from the joint, so it flopped uselessly.

  The insect-thing recoiled. Aided by the resulting pull on the line, Kagur scrambled up onto the shelf, where there was barely space for her between the creature in front of her and the drop behind.

  The insect lunged at her, the other pair of pincers and its mandibles spreading wide. She hacked at the claws, doing little damage but at least knocking them aside. Then she sprang over her adversary's head and scrambled across its body to a patch of ledge with a little more room for her to stand.

  She started to spin back around to face the creature, but the insect was quicker. It gave the strand another jerk, wrenched her off balance, and reached for her sword arm.

  Somehow she snatched the limb back, and the pincers clashed shut on empty air. Bellowing, she cut at the insect's head and split its black-eyed countenance in two.

  The creature shuddered in a spasm. Then it floundered backward, pulling free of her sword in the process, and backed right off the edge of the shelf. Coils of filament straightened as the insect's fall pulled the line whistling after it.

  In one more instant, it was going to drag Kagur over the edge, too. She slashed at the strand, and it parted just as the falling creature's weight drew it taut, enchanted steel prevailing where the orc's blade had failed.

  Sucking in a breath, she pivoted to find out what had become of the orc boy. Somewhat to her surprise, he was still alive.

  Holg had evidently run on down the spiral trail until he reached the section above the insects that had been heading for the boy. Scurrying back and forth, he had made such a pest of himself that the creatures were now endeavoring to climb the wall to kill him first. As Kagur watched, he hurled a stone down with such force that it nearly knocked a scrabbling insect from its perch. A line whirled up at him, and he recoiled, the cast falling short by a finger length.

  The old man was fighting well but plainly couldn't hold out much longer by himself. Two of the insect-things had nearly clambered all the way up to the trail.

  Kagur needed to get herself back on the path. She thrust her sword back in its scabbard and climbed.

  She was in too much of a hurry to test her hand- and toeholds. She gripped and stepped anywhere she could. Loose stone clattered away beneath her feet. A chunk of rock broke free from the wall just as she was about to trust it with her full weight.

  Despite her recklessness, she somehow managed to reach the path. Maybe Gorum thought it would be a waste for one of his worshipers to die in a fall at the very moment she was struggling to rush into battle.

  She picked up her shield, drew her sword, and pounded down the trail. As she neared Holg, another strand looped upward, and this one snared the old man and jerked him off his feet.

  Holg let go of his staff, grabbed hold of a bulge in the stone surface beneath him, and, his wrinkled face contorted, kept himself from sliding over the edge. But he could do nothing else as the two insect-things in the lead scrambled up onto the trail.

  Kagur sprinted even faster, closed the remaining distance, and cut at the nearer of the creatures from behind. Though her blade cracked the shell on its back, it didn't bite deep, and she doubted she'd hurt the creature badly. She just had to hope shock would balk it for a crucial moment. She lunged on past it and hurled herself at the other insect just as it was about to snip its pincers shut around Holg's head.

  Kagur smashed into the creature shield-first to shove it away from its prey, then whirled her blade high and stabbed the point straight down into the insect's head. That killed it, but the blade stuck in the wound. Shouting, she had to pull hard to draw it forth.

  She spun back around to confront the first insect. Backing away, it was drawing filament from its underside. She rushed it before it was quite ready to throw and dropped it with a second cut to the body.

  Then she slashed the line that had Holg stretched out taut and immobilized. He gasped when the pulling stopped.

  "Get up!" Kagur rasped. "The rest are coming!"

  Holg fumbled for his staff, used it to heave himself upright, then pointed it over the edge of the trail and spoke to the spirits. Dazzling light lanced from the end of the rod and burned into the body of the insect that had crawled the highest, knocking it loose from the wall to thud on the floor below.

  Kagur confronted the next two creatures as they clambered onto the shelf. Shifting back and forth, maneuvering so the beasts kept getting in each other's way, she cut down one and then the other. Killing them was a little easier now that she had a sense of how they moved.

  She and Holg assailed the next one together, she slashing and he hammering with his staff until it collapsed. Then she looked over the edge and saw the fight was over. The few remaining insects were scuttling into fissures in the rock.

  Holg stumbled backward to lean against the wall.

  "Are you all right?" Kagur asked.

  He took several wheezing breaths, then managed to straighten up and answer. "Yes. As I keep telling you. Is the orc still with us?"

  Kagur took another look down. The green-skinned boy was still hanging and doggedly sawing away. She suspected the glueyness of the strand impeded the cutting action of the blade.

  "For better or worse," she said.

  "Then we should talk to him." The carved patterns on his staff gleaming yellow, Holg murmured the prayer that enabled him to converse with any creature capable of speech. Then he invested Kagur with the same ability.


  She stepped to the edge of the trail to find the boy peering up at her. "Orc!" she called. "Stop trying to cut yourself free, or the shaman and I will kill you."

  Holg turned to her. "He knows we just saved his life. Why threaten him?"

  "He's an orc," Kagur replied, "and we don't want him running off before we question him. I'm going back up the trail to fetch my gear. Then I'll climb to where I can cut the line. You get to the floor of the pit to keep him there after he drops."

  As far as Kagur could tell looking down from above, the threat of Holg's magic was enough to persuade their captive to behave himself. Though plainly wary, poised to defend himself if need be, the orc didn't try to attack or bolt past the old man as she finished her own descent, her knee and elbow aching now that the excitement of combat no longer masked the pain.

  Up close, she could see that the boy's features were less coarse and swinish than those of the average orc that came raiding north out of Belkzen. Evidently, he had some human blood in him. Given the circumstances under which such interbreeding invariably took place, that didn't dispose her to regard him any more kindly.

  Holg said, "This is Nesteruk. I've given him our names, too."

  Kagur felt a pang of irritation. Of course Holg would chatter endlessly with anyone he could draw into conversation, even orcs.

  The green-skinned boy eyed Kagur with a tense fascination that even Holg with his weird milky eyes and mystical abilities hadn't quite elicited. After a moment, she sensed it was the sword in her hand that dismayed and intrigued him in equal measure.

  "Are you afraid of this?" she asked. "You should be. But if you do as you're told, I won't hurt you." She wiped the insect gore off it and slid it back into its sheath.

  Nesteruk hesitated and then slipped his knife back into his kilt. The weapon was a length of whetted flint with rawhide wrapped around the dull end to provide a grip.

  "What do you want from me?" he asked in a voice that broke from low to high partway through.