The Black Morass

by Gerald Lambert

  clues—moving creatures, breathing, etc. I'll be holding my bow in my left hand, so if I raise my right hand like this," he held it up palm forward at shoulder height, "then stop. I might move ahead to smell things away from the group. I can't use my mind to send mental warnings, so follow any commands I give right away. Sorry to be so serious, but I'm

  assuming the Shade wants us dead and made this into a fatal trap. We'll probably move slowly so I can examine everything in our surroundings as carefully as possible."

  Nefin withdrew an arrow from the quiver slung across his back and nocked his bow, holding both in his left hand. "Weapons at the ready. If you notice any threat that I miss, don't

  hesitate to fight. You don't need my permission, but be prepared for unexpected magical backfire. Though we can't use magic in here, I'm guessing there are plenty of hidden

  enchantments at work. Just be alert."

  "Do you know whether we need to go left or right?" Brin asked.

  Nefin shook his head. "But I'll find out. I think it will be fastest if I go alone, so stay here for a minute." He drew his sword with his right hand and held it out in front of him.

  "But what if you get hurt by yourself?" Keeta anxiously questioned. "When you were standing on top of the hedge, could you see anything of the correct course through the maze?"

  Nefin grinned down at her, thinking she looked just as adorable as when he had first seen her wearing Rhunön's helmet.

  "Unfortunately not," he replied. "The same invisible barrier blurred my vision of the labyrinth beyond this outer wall. But I'll probably be fine. If not, I'll yell or something. Then just

  run and find me." He winked and slowly moved away to their right, scanning the path ahead with all of his keen senses. When he reached the first bend, Nefin paused and listened

  for anything around the corner. Nothing triggered any warnings, so he advanced and kept moving.

  At each subsequent turn, Nefin did the same by carefully scouting ahead of himself in search of danger. After exploring every possible route, all of which deadended, Nefin

  followed his back trail to his friends.

  "All of the forks in that direction ended with bushes. I think we need to go left."

  As Nefin began to head off, Keeta pleaded, "But next time we're unsure, let's stick together to find the right path rather than send you away on your own."

  "I agree," Brom said. "We need to stay together as a group so no one gets lost and because we have a better chance of overcoming any dangers."

  "Absolutely," Nefin consented. "Stay close. Let's show that Shade what we're capable of."

  A dismally overcast sky blocked out any bright sunlight, but eerie shadows nonetheless played over the labyrinth's hedges, which towered more than a foot above Will's head. The

  vegetation was gnarled and . . . sick. That was the only way Will could think to describe it. Though it seemed bushy and green from a distance, up close one could see that the

  leaves were abnormal and misshapen, the branches gray and brittle—like dusty bones—rather than brown and supple.

  This maze was an unnatural abomination, and Will felt the sinister misery of his surroundings. To him it seemed like the maze wanted to die, to cease to exist as abruptly as it had

  been forced into existence, and to take with it any living thing inside its unearthly walls.

  A shiver crawled up Will's spine as a chilly draft ruffled his hair. His eyes darted back and forth, though Will knew he wasn't observing half of what Nefin could. But he hoped they

  would soon come across a threat he could fight. The amount of time their travels from Feinster took had nearly driven Will mad. Two months! Over two months! And he was now

  desperate to act, to fight, to crush, to kill. If he couldn't soon, he thought he might go insane.

  He was almost positive Tenga had discovered Lena's ring. And since the pull on his own band remained steady all that time, Will worried they truly were walking straight into a trap,

  which guess the presence of this maze certainly supported.

  But what other choice did they have except to follow the draw from his ring? They were lost without it. And Will could now feel that they were closer than they yet had been to

  Lena's ring. His hope that Lena was on the other side of this maze was overwhelming, and Will could barely keep himself from charging past Nefin and sprinting fullspeed to the

  city gates.

  A shrill squeal interrupted his musings, and Will almost tripped over Keeta when she stopped dead in her tracks. He looked up between Nefin and Brin.

  At the end of their current path stood an enormous wild boar, pawing the ground with the cloven hoof of its right foreleg and snorting angrily. The giant swine was a tall as one of

  their horses, with a bristly black hide, beady yellow eyes, and thick tusks jutting from its jaw.

  "A Nagra," Keeta breathed.

  Nefin raised his loaded bow. "An arrow won't penetrate its hide, Nefin," Keeta whispered. "Nor would one through the eye do much good. Its brain is too small."

  "How do dwarves usually kill them?" Nefin muttered from the corner of his mouth, never taking his eyes off the monstrous boar.

  "Slicing open their underbellies. We're small enough to fit beneath, though it's a huge risk. Many are trampled to death or gored through the middle during the attempt, which is why

  only the bravest dwarves ever try."

  "Want to give it a shot?" Nefin dryly questioned.

  Keeta twittered nervously.

  "Only kidding, Keeta."

  "Be ready," Keeta warned. "It's preparing to charge, and they're deceptively fast."

  "Let me," Will insisted. "Move, Keeta. I'll face this brute. I can wrestle it to the ground. I want to fight it."

  Keeta doubtfully regarded Will as she stepped aside. Nefin and Brin also parted.

  "Careful, cousin," Brin advised.

  "Not a chance," Will defied. He boldly strode forward, wholly unafraid, and unbuckled his sword, which he tossed to Brin.

  Don't want that getting in the way, he absently thought, anticipating this confrontation more than was probably healthy. You're going down, ugly pig.

  "Come and get me!" Will shouted. The boar tossed its head, squealing its displeasure as it sprang forward.

  Will saw that Keeta had spoken honestly about the beast's speed, but he actually started running toward it at the same time, coiled too tightly to wait and not wanting their clash to

  occur near his friends.

  "You have no idea what you're up against, fiend!" Will wildly bellowed. "And you won't be around long enough to find out!"

  While he was as tall as the swine, Will knew that trying to halt the Nagra in midcharge would be impossible. But Will had wrestled with his Uncle Grintuk, who probably weighed

  close to the same. And this creature didn't have arms or hands.

  Right before the moment of collision, Will lunged sideways and snagged one of the boar's tusks, using his forward movement to launch himself onto its back. "I've ridden a dragon

  bareback, monster!" Will taunted. "Your sharp bristles won't bother me!"

  There was no question in Will's mind that he would kill the beast, but he didn't want to do so too quickly. Here was the perfect opportunity to vent some of his pentup aggression

  without hurting someone he cared about.

  The Nagra snorted in fury and madly tossed its head, stomping around in an effort to dislodge his unexpected rider. Will held on to its ears and clamped his legs around its middle,

  which only enraged the animal all the more. He laughed maniacally as his crazed mount reared and bucked.

  "Is that the best you can do?" he loudly ridiculed. "Well, you'll have to do better to throw a Dragon Rider!"

  The boar continued on for several more minutes, never coming close to tossing Will from its back. But when their jerky dance took them too near his friends, who were watching

  with emotions ranging from fear
to amusement to approval, Will sprang off its back toward the rear and roared his challenge.

  The Nagra whirled, echoing the death cry and removing sizable chunks of greenery from either side of the surrounding hedges. Foamy spittle frothed around its mouth and dripped

  down its tusks as it recklessly pawed the ground before once again leaping forward.

  As it reached him, Will crouched down and grabbed the boar's slimy tusks, wrenching hard toward the ground so the giant swine would flip over his head and land on its back. The

  sudden slam into the ground momentarily stunned the Nagra, and Will quickly wiped his hands on his pants before grasping the tusks in a new grip and sharply jerking to the side.

  The animal's neck snapped, and it began to sporadically flop about, twitching in agonized death throes.

  Will yelled to Brin, "Throw me my sword!"

  He caught it onehanded, unsheathing it the same second. Feeling more brutal than ever before, Will sliced open the boar's belly in proper Nagraslaying fashion then beheaded it to

  end its misery. He sprang back but didn't completely avoid the spray of blood that shot from the beast's truncated body. He breathed heavily for a few moments, his free hand

  clenched into a tight fist that slowly relaxed as Will forced himself to calm down.

  His bloodlust satisfied, Will then felt slightly sickened by the savagery and how he had reveled in it. But the creature had to die for them to move forward, so Will tried not to dwell

  on it any longer.

  He wiped and sheathed his sword, turning back to fall in behind Keeta.

  "Guess we can keep going," Will muttered. "I got the urge to kill something out of my system."

  "We noticed," Brin responded. "Well done, I guess."

  Will shrugged. "Sorry. I've been bottling up my impatience all these months. I think Var was the only one who really knew how tightly wound I was. All better."

  Brin grinned and dismissively shook her head. "No need to apologize. If that was the case, you probably dispatched that Nagra more efficiently than any of the rest of us could

  have."

  Nefin nodded his agreement. "Let's keep moving. I just hope you'll still pitch in if we have more monsters to face."

  "You better believe it," Will confirmed. And so they resumed their slow advance through the maze.

  Time passed in a strange way inside the labyrinth. Without help from the sun to give them any clues, the group didn't know whether they had been moving five minutes or five

  hours. And their crawling pace only lent to the distortion.

  So after an unmeasured span of stop and go movement, during which Nefin frequently halted his companions to smell or listen around corners, they came to a long stretch of

  unobstructed maze. Since Nefin could see that the path was clear and didn't fork anytime soon, he gradually increased his pace while still scanning left to right, high and low.

  Sensing his friends'—particularly Will's—impatience and gaining confidence by the lack of obstacles, he began moving yet more quickly.

  An indistinct ringing in his ear was his only clue of the next test, and he abruptly threw out his hand to stop Brin as he hissed, "Shhh!" Keeta bumped into him from behind.

  Nefin sensed the apology she didn't voice aloud, and everyone was even quieter after Nefin's command.

  Then Nefin muttered, "Back up. Everyone move back a few steps."

  They did as instructed, and Nefin bent over to scoop up a handful of dirt. He tossed it forward on the path. About two feet ahead of them, it hit an indiscernible impediment and

  sizzled. Sparks flew as the dirt made contact with something that wholly obliterated it.

  "That was so close," Nefin shakily confessed. "I only heard it right before we would have walked into it. That could have been us."

  "What is it?" Brin asked.

  "Some type of magical electrical field, like an invisible lightning bolt," Nefin explained. "I think. I'm not sure how to get by. I wonder if it would deactivate after something living

  passed through."

  "Where's another Nagra when we need it?" Keeta hesitantly joked.

  Nefin turned and smiled feebly. "I need to examine it more closely. Maybe there's a gap somewhere, an inconsistency in the spell."

  He reached down and picked up a stray stick lying under the hedgerow before walking forward. Then he just stood beside the unseen obstruction, his head cocked to the side as he

  listened for the faint magical hum. He bent over and continued his examination at waist level before getting on his hands and knees to hear right by the ground.

  When he reached the hedge to their right, Nefin paused. Then he tentatively extended the stick through the air toward the undetectable barrier, cringing slightly as he anticipated more sizzling and flames. But nothing happened.

  Listening even more intently, Nefin slowly raised the stick a small distance, stopping when the far tip sizzled off from light contact with the enchantment. Quickly jerking the stick

  back, he then lowered it all the way to the ground without any reaction. Next he moved the small branch toward the right of this safe zone until it stopped at the hedge, again

  without encountering any evidence that he had breached the barricade. So he carefully shifted his twig left until he lost another inch to the magical field.

  Zadí observed Nefin for a time along with the others, but he took so long that she soon dropped her gaze to the ground.

  I'll probably be just as useless here as in most places, she thought to herself. At least I was able to do some good back in Frederick's village. Acquiring the horses was helpful.

  Otherwise it might have taken us four months to arrive rather than two. But I still wish I could offer some value as a fighter. Even Hanna is a decent shot with a bow and arrow. If I

  had a sword I might be able to do something, but I don't.

  Zadí sighed and was just about to raise her eyes away from their examination of the earth when a small movement near the border of the hedge caught her attention. She focused

  on the activity, her eyes widening in fascinated horror as an eyeless white head slowly emerged from the dirt, followed by a plump, segmented body about three inches long.

  The gigantic grub held very still for a long while, as if ascertaining that no one was paying it any mind. Then it slowly raised its head and opened its mouth, turning side to side as it

  scented the air.

  Though it made no sound to reveal itself, Zadí thought the maggot must be a burrow grub, and she carefully reached out to brush Ajh's arm. If her guess was accurate, Ajh would most likely be able to confirm it. After all, Galbatorix had used a burrow grub to torture Ajh's mother, and Zadí knew he was familiar with the incident. Ajh turned toward her, a

  questioning look on his face.

  Zadí raised a finger to her lips while pointing toward the ground. "What's that?" she silently mouthed. "Burrow grub?"

  Ajh raised his eyebrows and nodded. They both remained motionless, unsure how to proceed when they knew the burrow grub could hop into the air at any moment and divide into

  a dozen wriggling centipedes that would chew their way through any material in search of living flesh.

  Just then, another burrow grub inched its way out of the earth near the place where the first one had emerged. A third soon joined its companions. All three began a slow advance

  toward Ajh's boots.

  Nefin's voice made them both start.

  "There's a gap in the spell right here at this lower corner," Nefin informed his friends. "Maybe just over a foot square."

  "Nefin," Ajh rasped, "maybe we can test your theory about something living deactivating the lightning wall with these little fellows. Any ideas on how to get them over there without making them split?"

  Nefin glanced up in confusion. He followed Ajh's gaze to the ground and sharply inhaled. "Ajh, don't move. Does anybody have something we could trap them in before they mutate?


  It would be a lot harder to account for thirtysix small centipedes than three huge maggots."

  "Here comes another one," Ajh muttered. "How many are there?"

  Zadí opened her pouch and withdrew the small glass jar full of smelling salts from Hanna, which she used whenever she felt nauseous due to her pregnancy. Zadí unscrewed the top

  and dumped the salts back into her pouch, then slowly crouched down behind Ajh, hurriedly scooting the first three grubs into the opening of her container using the lid.

  The fourth wasn't right beside the other three, and Zadí's sudden movements alerted it to the danger. It coiled and hopped, aiming for her hand as it descended. But she moved the

  jar right under it and slid the lid aside just as the maggot landed, quickly snapping it back in place before her other captives could escape. The last grub plopped down inside the jar,

  splitting into twelve wriggling green worms. These smaller larvae instantly swarmed the larger three, who defensively reared up with their sharp mandibles snapping.

  Ajh breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Zadí. As focused as I was on Nefin, I wouldn't have noticed until those things were eating my foot. Would you care to do the honors?"

  Zadí nodded and made her way through the others until she stood beside Nefin. "How should I do this?"

  "Open the jar pointing forward and let them jump out onto the invisible death trap," Nefin proposed.

  Zadí did just as he advised, and all of the squirming grubs instantly sprang out. A symphony of sizzles seared the air as they landed on the fatal enchantment.

  Nefin wrinkled his nose at the acrid smell and praised, "Well done, Zadí. I'm glad you noticed those. Any more, Ajh?"

  "Not that I've seen yet," Ajh returned. "And I'm paying close attention now. Did it do anything to the barrier?"

  Nefin extended his stick, quickly yanking it back when another short segment sizzled away. "It's not all the way gone, but . . ." He knelt back down and measured the gap he had

  discovered earlier. ". . . I think this faulty area might be slightly larger. Maybe the burrow grubs somehow weakened it. I wonder if a larger living being passing through would have