by Lloyd, Tom
Death leaned forward. ‘So granted, but entry through those doors will not be without peril. The guardian heeds neither God nor mortal. The bones of those who have turned from Ghain’s ascent litter the first step on your journey.’
Mihn bowed his head in acknowledgment. ‘I thank you, my Lord.’
‘You do not fear it?’
‘My fear is reserved for others,’ Mihn said, trying to keep his voice from breaking as his throat dried at the thought. Daima had warned him about the journey he would have to take; the Jailer of the Dark was only the most certain of the many horrors he would have to face. But there was no choice.
‘Very well. Your have my favour.’ Death gestured to the objects adorning his throne. ‘I offer you the pick of my trophies. Each one bears my blessing, and will keep you safe on the slopes of Ghain. A thousand torments await the judged there, but the taste of the living will be all the sweeter for them.’
Mihn opened his mouth to speak, then stopped and thought. Of Daima’s many warnings, the first had been to take neither staff nor weapon with him. ‘Carry nothing but what you wear. A weapon is an invitation to war, and they will smell the blood on it.’
‘I thank you, Lord Death, but I do not go to war on Ghenna. I must trust myself alone.’
He felt the weight on his shoulders lessen as Death sat back in his throne. ‘Good. I had thought to have the Mercies teach you that lesson, but it is one you have already learned.’
Death raised a bone-white finger and pointed towards the door beneath the great stone dragon. ‘Go then. Find what you seek.’
Mihn stood and backed out of the black square, bowing all the while. As soon as he was out he saw the woman’s ghost drift within and Death’s gaze lifted as the Herald stepped beside Mihn once more. The small man looked first at Death, then His Herald before rubbing a hand roughly over his face and blinking hard.
‘Strange,’ Mihn commented to the expressionless Aspect of Death. ‘I never really thought I’d even get this far.’
There was no reply, or even a sign the Herald had heard him. Mihn gestured towards the door and set off towards it, the Herald beside him.
‘Now I just have to break into the Dark Place itself.’
As he walked, he felt the weight on his shoulders returning with every step.
Venn moved with the painful care of an old man whose next fall would be his last. Walking across the floor of the shrine cavern and up the gently sloped tunnel that led to the Land outside, even so short a distance, left the renegade Harlequin fatigued and huffing for breath in the cold air. He found the steps up to the tunnel particularly difficult; the priestess, Paen, was at his side and had to help him balance as he lifted one foot after the other.
She seemed taller now than when he’d first returned, when her pride had been the key Venn had used to unlock the Harlequin clans - she was standing tall and strong and proud while Venn grew steadily weaker. His unnatural grace was a distant memory now, his speed as absent as the whipcord strength he’d once boasted.
Paen tried to dissuade him from this daily pilgrimage, but Venn knew he had to do it. With two heartbeats hammering in his ears and the breath of two men forcing its way through his lips, Venn knew he had to force himself to move each day, no matter how hard, otherwise he would slowly succumb to the fatigue that was deep in his bones. It was bitterly cold outside, where the snow still lay thick on the ground, but that was still preferable to an interminable tramp around the vast cavern, past the shrines and open temples that littered it.
Jackdaw was silent, even after Venn had dismissed the priestess and two apprentice Harlequins who watched over him with possessive reverence. The black-clad Harlequin was the herald of a new dawn in their eyes; something between an oracle of the Gods and a prophet. They feared and worshipped him in equal measure.
Jackdaw remained a secret from all the others, but while the former monk of Vellern was the secret of Venn’s success, as his magery slowly turned the Harlequins to Azaer’s service, he was slowly killing Venn. His presence in Venn’s shadow was taking a toll the Harlequin would not be able to bear much longer.
I am failing you, master, Venn thought distantly, knowing Azaer could most likely not hear his prayers; not while the shadow inhabited a mortal body. I had thought this was how I would deliver the Harlequin clans to you, but I do not have the strength. These spells you taught Jackdaw did everything I asked, but I am failing nonetheless.
He began to shuffle through the snow, barely noticing the cold at first. The evening was clear and sharp, the stars bright and the hunter’s moon free of cloud. In Kasi’s light the cloud-oaks studding the forest below glowed a dull white against the miles of dark pine. He stopped and looked up at the sky above the forest: Kasi lay low against the horizon while the greater moon, Alterr, was a yellowed lump at its zenith.
Kasi: this monument to a dull, unthinking thug, and Alterr: a spiteful bitch whose icy heart is displayed for the whole Land to pity. Neither of you deserve the magnificence of the night.
He hunched over, coughing, as the cold air began to tickle his throat, the effort causing his whole chest to ache.
Perhaps I shall ask to be the one to change that.
Venn smiled to himself at the thought. In the fullness of time there would be nothing beyond Azaer’s ability to grant.
He continued on, taking careful steps alongside last night’s trampled path, which had already compacted into treacherous ice. His bearskin was a leaden weight on his shoulders, but without it he would freeze so he bore it, and fought his body to keep the signs of hardship from his face. As he made his slow progress he watched carefully for discarded branches or stones that might trip him. Slowly an ache built in his chest, dull but insistent, wrapped around his ribcage like a serpent’s embrace. He let out a grunt. His foot scuffed along the snow-covered ground and hit something, a yielding mass that rolled under his foot and pitched Venn to the ground. A tearing sensation raced through his chest, driving the wind from his lungs.
He cried out again, unable to bear the pain as purple stars burst before his eyes. The apprentice Harlequins were quick to run to his side. One feeble arm, unable to break his fall, was pinned under his body.
They were about to roll him onto his back when the priestess’ stern voice cut the air. ‘No, fetch a stretcher!’
Without thinking Venn pushed himself over with his free arm. The weight on his body had lifted without warning, the sapping ache of exhaustion that gripped his body vanishing into numbness.
Spirits below, am I dying?
The pain in his chest was gone; whatever had happened in the fall, now he felt nothing.
‘Sweet Prince,’ exclaimed the priestess as she hurried over. The apprentices stepped back from Venn.
She crouched at his feet and Venn lifted his head to look at her, puzzled. She appeared to be inspecting his boots - no, she was looking at the lump he had tripped on.
‘It’s a man,’ she breathed.
Venn struggled into a sitting position, then looked down with wonder as he realised the ease with which he had moved. The apprentices stared at him with even greater astonishment and fear than they had before.
‘A man?’ he rasped.
She looked up, the face behind her half-mask of obsidian shards betraying even greater shock than the others. ‘Master — Your face — ? You look — ’
‘Reborn,’ Venn muttered, realisation stealing over him. ‘My faith has restored my youth.’
‘A miracle,’ one of the apprentices breathed. ‘That fall should have killed you in your weakened state!’
Venn inclined his head. ‘And yet my weakness has become strength.’
Paen turned to the figure on the ground, rolling the body over so they could see his face.
‘He’s not of the tribes,’ she announced with alarm. These parts were remote and the Harlequin clans did not welcome travellers eager to discover their secrets. She turned the head to one side. ‘These are feather tattoos; he was a
priest of Vellern?’
‘What?’ screamed a voice in Venn’s mind. ‘What is happening?’
‘He must have travelled a long way to reach us, but he died at the very entrance to the cavern,’ Venn said softly. ‘Hush your mouth, Jackdaw, let me think.’
‘Is he Farlan?’
Venn peered at the dead body. There was no mistaking the face; it was the former Prior Corci, the monk dubbed Jackdaw by his new master, Azaer. The puckered scars where Azaer had ripped a handful of tattooed feathers from his cheek were clearly visible. Venn restrained the urge to laugh long and loudly.
‘It appears so,’ he ventured, thinking madly. ‘Please, help me up.’
He allowed the apprentices to slip their hands under his arms and bear him upright, tottering a little for good measure before adopting the same hunched posture imposed on him for months. Acting was part of a Harlequin’s training, and Venn shuffled over to the corpse as like the man who had ventured outside a few minutes earlier as possible. The strain might have been lifted from his face, but he’d quickly realised a more gradual return to his former strength would be safer. Jackdaw’s magic had not dampened their ability to question.
‘What was he doing here?’ one of the apprentices asked in a whisper.
‘What’s happening? What has happened to me?’ Jackdaw wailed in Venn’s mind.
‘Seeking me,’ Venn said finally. ‘The Land has sickened and men seek a cure to its ills. This man has followed his faith and given his life to call us forth.’
‘Should we leave sooner than the Equinox Festival?’ Paen asked.
Venn bowed his head. ‘We will leave within the week. My time of testing is over; I will soon be strong enough to travel again.’
‘Venn, I’m lying dead on the ground ! ’ Jackdaw shrieked hysterically, unheard by the others.
‘So you are,’ Venn said softly once the others were out of earshot, trying to hide the quick grin that stole over his face. ‘Our master has quite a sense of humour.’
‘Humour ?’ Jackdaw screamed, ‘my body is dead ! Merciful Gods, I’m trapped inside your shadow, and I cannot feel anything! I’m a ghost, a living ghost!’
‘Living? Oh, I don’t think so, my friend,’ Venn replied.
‘Far from it,’ purred a third voice inside him.
Venn froze, an icy twitch of fear running down his spine.
‘Morghien will so relish having competition for his title.’
‘Spirits below,’ Venn breathed, stumbling in shock. The priestess gave him a puzzled look but Venn ignored it, as he ignored Jackdaw’s sobs of terror. On the wind there was a faint smell, one Venn recognised all too well: the scent of peach blossom . . . despite the winter snow.
‘Indeed,’ said Rojak.
Mihn stepped through the black doors and for a gut-clenching moment everything went dark. There was a distant boom as the enormous doors closed again. After a while he realised there was some faint light on the other side. At first he could see little, though he could feel the oppressive presence of a vast slope, stretching up ahead. The incline was shallow, and more or less regular, but it continued endlessly into the distance with nothing beyond. A hot, sour-smelling wind drifted over him, and Mihn felt very vulnerable and exposed as he took in the boundlessness of the place.
Behind him came a great rasping noise, accompanied by a stench so foul he found himself gagging even as he ran blindly for several hundred yards, not daring to look back. Ancient, brittle bones crackled underfoot, and an awful whispery sound was interspersed with faint sighs and occasional groans. Daima had warned him not to linger there, nor to look back, but there was little need for her caution: Mihn knew full well the rotting corpse of a dragon was bound to this side of the doors and he had no desire to look upon it. Bad enough that he would have to if he returned.
As he reached a chunk of rock twice his height that was protruding awkwardly from the slope Mihn stopped, realising the bones underfoot had given way to grit and dirt. As he paused to catch his breath he felt the heat radiate out from the rock. Now he dared to look at his surroundings and take in the sight of Ghain, the great slope which all souls must walk before they reached either the land of no time or the punishments of Ghenna.
The darkness was not so complete as he’d first thought, more a ghastly red tint, and little by little he started to see some detail of the immeasurable mountain slope. Nothing was clear, but at least he could discern where the bigger stones lay, and the cant of the ground. Here and there boulders punctuated the jagged, stony slope. He crouched and ran his fingers through the dirt at his feet. It felt gritty, almost greasy on his skin, quite unlike the sands of a desert.
There were a few stunted trees but Mihn knew this was not a place where any real life could be sustained. Up above was a roiling mess of smoke-clouds that looked positively poisonous, far from the sort that might provide rain. He started out towards the nearest tree, but after a few hundred yards he began to make out shapes around its base and as he got closer he could see something writhing in its crooked, dead branches . . . He turned away at once, giving the strange sight a wide berth.
When he was safely clear, Mihn stopped and looked up the slope. He felt terribly alone, as fearful as an abandoned child, and part of him wanted to curl up in a hollow and hide from the dread that pervaded the slope. The quiet was broken only by tremors running through the ground and the distant moans of the damned drifting on the air, which was uncomfortably hot, irritating his eyes and throat. At last Mihn shook himself and started off again, trudging up the slope. He kept a wary eye open, checking in all directions every few minutes, but Ghain remained empty until he came to a hollow in the ground, a dozen yards across, below a level stone. From Mihn’s angle it looked like a door lintel set into the slope and while there was nothing but the position of the stone to differentiate it, something made Mihn stop.
He checked his feet and palms, brushing the dirt from his bare soles and ensuring the tattoos put there by the witch of Llehden remained unbroken. Reassured, he skirted the hollow and checked around. Some faint dragging sound seemed to accompany a tiny movement in the distance, but it was miles away and Mihn discounted the threat, at least for the present. He bent and picked up a large stone, hefting it to feel the weight for a moment, then hurled it into the hollow.
The dead soil exploded into movement, a grey cloud of dust erupting up as some hidden creature snapped at the stone. It clawed at the place where the stone had landed, then shook violently to bury itself once more in the ground.
Mihn gaped. Years ago a friend had shown him an ant-lion’s lair, and whilst he had seen only the claw of whatever lay in hidden in Ghain’s slope, it had to be several hundred times larger than the savage insect they’d teased out of the ground all those years ago. He shivered, and continued even more warily on his way.
Death was not a God prone to exaggeration. He had said there were a thousand torments lurking on the slopes of Ghain, and as he walked, Mihn began to wonder whether these were neither daemon nor Aspect: What if they are the mischief and cruelty of mortals given flesh? Or is all I see born of my own fears?
He shivered and chanced a look behind. He felt like he’d walked several miles already and as he turned he saw, far away, the pitted stone construction that housed the door to Death’s throne room, standing alone like a forgotten monument, forever overshadowed by the enormous, torn wings of a shape perched above it. The wings reflected no light, throwing off even Ghain’s lambent glow.
Behind the gate a featureless wasteland stretched out into the distance: endless flat miles of red dust and rock. There was no escape from Ghain, this empty place that sat between the domain of daemons, Ghenna, and the implacable Jailer of the Dark. In the Age of Myths, the dragon had been too proud and too powerful to accept death, so the Gods had chained it there, to prevent it from ever returning to the Land.
Mihn felt it watching him, its presence like acid on the breeze. Above his head something invisible flapped past with
slow, heavy strokes. He shrank down instinctively but the sound of tattered leather wings soon passed and he was left alone once more, feeling increasingly bleak.
He rubbed his palms together and looked at the stylised owl’s head on each. While he hadn’t seen what had flown past, it had been close enough to see him. Clearly the magic imbued into his skin by the witch was still working here.
Please let that continue, he prayed fervently. Without it I don’t stand a chance.
How much the tattoos could protect him he didn’t know, but he had no wish to find out what would happen if the magic failed. As he lingered, chilling howls rolled over the dusty slopes, provoking renewed fear. Mihn wondered how he ever thought what he was attempting was even possible . . .
But he walked on, glad to turn his back on the dragon. He focused on picking his way up the slopes rather than thinking too hard about the sounds that echoed across Ghain. Still he saw no others, neither torments nor trudging souls, until the slope suddenly levelled out for a stretch and he saw a silver pavilion emerge from the gloom.