Matt shielded his eyes from the sun to peer across the dusty plain, where only crabgrass and rocky outcroppings broke the monotony of the cairns, so regularly spaced on the sweeping uplands that they resembled some geometric design intended to be viewed from the heavens. 'I don't know — it's hard to tell from this perspective, but it shouldn't be too long before we reach the other side.'
'What if there's no water there, either?' Jack asked. 'Not that I… really need it.' He cast a worried look at Mahalia.
'I think that's the least of our problems,' Matt replied.
Though the sun was low on the horizon, the sky was a mass of shifting colours, purple folding into gold, bubbles of red bursting into green shimmers. The sense that the Borderlands was now close was also evident in the surging eerie noises that occasionally materialised out of the wind, like the effects of some psychedelic garage band. Flavours burst on their tongues — strawberries, burned iron, cardamom and lime. The aroma of rose petals and incense filled the air.
Crowther followed them, his own twisting of reality more muted in comparison but still disturbing, windows on to other worlds opening here and there when they least expected it.
They had been walking all day across the unrelenting landscape, the river now lost far behind them. Their clothes and hair were white with the dust that worked its way into everywhere, stinging their eyes and choking their throats.
Jack eyed one of the cairns as they passed. 'What are they?'
'Just piles of rock.' Weariness was evident in Matt's voice. 'Someone had too much time on their hands.'
'That shows how much you know,' Mahalia said sullenly. 'They're memorials. In some cultures, they're burial mounds.'
Matt shrugged as if the distinction was unimportant, but Mahalia's words struck a chord with Jack.
He stopped and scanned the wide plain uneasily, taking in the countless cairns that stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction. 'Burial mounds?' he repeated.
'That's a heck of a lot of dead bodies,' Matt commented.
Mahalia saw the thoughts flickering across Jack's face; he looked ghostly in the fading light. 'What is it?' she asked gently.
'I heard something,' he began, struggling to pluck information from his memory's depths, 'in the Court of the Final Word. About a place of the dead… like an annexe of the Grey Lands, that's what they said. It had another name-'
'We don't need a history lesson,' Matt snapped, with irritation born of too much trudging. 'Just keep walking or we'll never get to the other side.'
Jack did as he was told, but kept searching for the information niggling at him. Crowther's warping of what passed for reality was setting them all on edge; it was impossible to concentrate on anything.
Yet even through the mask's weird effects, something unusual caught Mahalia's eye. 'Did you see that?' she asked. 'One of the rocks rolled off that cairn over there.' 'It's all that stuff the prof is causing,' Matt said. He picked up his pace, eager to get through this area before dark. They could all sense something in the air, though they had been putting it down to the unusual atmosphere in the proximity of the Borderlands. 'That's just light and sound,' Mahalia snapped at his dismissive attitude. 'The mask isn't generating any vibrations.' A rock rolled off another cairn to her left, and another directly ahead. This time Matt saw it, too. The stones appeared to have moved of their own accord. 'See!' Mahalia said with a note of triumph. Matt paused, then slowly turned, scanning the area. Rocks were rolling off cairns all over the place, one after the other, opening up gaps into their interiors. He glanced up at the sky. The psychedelic warping offered a deceptive illumination; the sun was almost down. On the other horizon, a full butterscotch moon was rising. A jolt transformed Jack's face. 'The Land of the Sleeping Dead!' More rocks fell. Every cairn was coming alive. Movement was visible in the cracks splitting open the ones near at hand. 'There are things inside!' Mahalia gasped. A ghostly white hand began to emerge from one of the openings. 'Jesus!' Matt said under his breath. He grabbed Mahalia and Jack, and yanked them forward. 'The professor!' Mahalia exclaimed. 'Leave him.' Matt began to run, then looked at the innumerable cairns stretching out into the distance and realised the futility of trying to escape. 'The Baobhan Sith!' Jack said, his face as white as death. 'What are they?' Mahalia asked. She began to move forward, saw another figure begin to emerge and turned back, only to be confronted by yet more. 'They lie in wait to suck the blood of travellers… you can't escape them…' Jack said breathlessly.
Matt noticed the cairns in the distance were unmoving. 'They're waking up as the moon's rays fall on them!' he said. 'If we run, we might be able to outpace them.' He sprinted from a standing start.
'You can't escape them!' Jack yelled. Nonetheless, he grabbed Mahalia's hand and ran, too.
The white dust rose in clouds under their pounding feet. Across their field of vision, shimmering shapes emerged from the cairns. There would be thousands, perhaps tens of thousands; and Matt, Jack and Mahalia were right in the centre of the vampiric creatures' homeland.
Matt's greater strength pulled him ahead, but he fell back when he saw Jack and Mahalia floundering. The Baobhan Sith drew slowly from their dark holes, hair long and wild, faces as inexpressive as dolls', dressed in tattered shrouds.
The shadows retreated before the moon's rays at a remarkable rate; there was no way Matt, Jack and Mahalia could keep up. One night creature pulled itself out near their feet as they ran, its dumb expression flickering at their passing. Hands reached out of the cairns ahead of them. At their backs, Matt, Jack and Mahalia could feel the weight of the massing ranks of the Baobhan Sith.
And then a terrible shriek cut through the dusty twilight air. Mahalia felt as if she'd been stabbed in the heart. It was an alarm. Matt glanced back, as more reverberating shrieks picked up the call, the look on his face revealing the horror they all felt.
And then the shrieks were all around. From the corners of her eyes, Mahalia could see masses of wretched figures sweeping towards them, a tidal wave of teeth and clutching hands. The cairns ahead were almost exploding as yet more bloodsuckers emerged rapidly in answer to the call. And suddenly they had nowhere to run. Mahalia dropped to the ground, huddling into a ball. Jack threw himself over her to protect her. They couldn't see Matt.
All around, the Baobhan Sith rushed towards the small circle of dust where they lay; it felt like the only tiny area in the vast plain not covered by bloodthirsty bodies.
And just as they screwed their eyes shut ready for the creatures to fall on them, something very strange happened. A powerful scent of roses descended, followed by the most intense silence Mahalia had ever heard; in a fraction of a second, there was no shrieking, no wind, nothing. She opened her eyes to see a glistening bubble all around them; Matt was sprawled in the dust nearby, blood streaming from the rake-marks of talons across his forehead.
Beyond the bubble, Mahalia could see the Baobhan Sith swarming like roaches, slipping around the edge of the bubble, unable to see it or Mahalia, Jack and Matt within.
'What's going on?' Jack asked, dazed.
Matt pointed through the bubble along the route they had come. Crowther stood there, the mask staring blankly at them. The Baobhan Sith were keeping well away from him, fearful of the power he was exhibiting.
Mahalia jumped to her feet. 'See! He is looking out for us!'
The bubble fizzed and faded in parts before strengthening again.
'I don't think he can keep it up for long,' Matt said. He looked around frantically for an option, then inspiration lighted on his face. Scrambling on his knees, he dived into one of the cairns and began to pull the rocks towards the entrance. 'Come on!' he shouted to the other two.
'You're crazy!' Mahalia said. 'What happens when they go back in there? We'll be trapped!'
'Any better ideas?' Matt snapped. 'I'm betting they won't return until sun-up. If they really are like Jack said, they probably can't stand the rays. So when this one starts coming in, we bolt out. If d
ay's coming, they won't be able to follow us.'
Mahalia wasn't convinced, but she couldn't see another option. She pushed Jack in first, then forced her way in behind. It was cramped inside. The hard rock of the cairn jabbed into backs, ribs, heads, elbows.
With Matt's help, Mahalia rebuilt the doorway, and just as the last stone slipped into place, the bubble disappeared with a faint pooofl
Mahalia's heart instantly sprang into her throat. Through the gaps between the rocks, she saw the Baobhan Sith surge like wild animals into the space they had just vacated. Her breath caught. Would they see them hiding there, rip the cairn open and drag them out to tear out their throats with those needle-teeth?
For a second it seemed that they might. They came right up to where the opening had been, rushing round the edge of the cairn emitting that bone-chilling shriek. Yet none of them bent down to peer into the darkened cracks, or tugged at the precariously piled rocks. She could only guess that they must be predators with minimal intelligence. The thought did nothing to ease her fear.
For the long hours of the night, she remained rigid, afraid that the slightest movement would be heard; it felt as if she hadn't even taken a breath, and by the time the darkest hours had passed her chest burned with the strain.
The shrieking died down after a while, but the Baobhan Sith continued to roam in their masses, and on several occasions one came right up to the cairn, as if it had seen something within. Jack's nails dug into her shoulder more than once, but still she maintained her motionless vigil.
And for all that time Crowther stood stock-still nearby, the mask throwing off loops and warped flashes of light. The night creatures shied away from him like whipped dogs. Finally, the sky began to lighten. In one eerie moment, the entire seething plain of night creatures stopped moving, their noises draining away, and they turned as one to look towards the point where the sun would shortly rise. After a moment that may have been fearful or perhaps even respectful, they began to slink back to their cairns.
Mahalia felt Matt flinch against her back. Everything rested on the next few moments.
All around, the Baobhan Sith started to slip into their holes, the rocks magically rolling back into place. The night creatures passed on either side, heading home, and at last one began to stalk direcdy to the entrance. It paused outside, puzzling that the opening had been filled, and then began to pluck the rocks away with its unfeasibly long, thin fingers.
Matt tapped Mahalia on the shoulder and whispered, 'Now.'
Without thinking twice, Mahalia drove forward, sending the remaining rocks flying. Jack and Matt piled out after her.
The Baobhan Sith drew back, hissing like a cat, but it didn't attack. Instead, it cast repeated menacing glances as it passed by them, easing into the cairn and replacing the rocks behind it.
More Baobhan Sith streamed by on all sides, snarling or scraping the air with their talons, but not one of them made a move towards the companions. The three of them were frozen in the face of the preternatural terror, until finally they accepted that they weren't going to be harmed. The Baobhan Sith were driven by one primal fear: of the rising sun. Matt motioned for the other two to follow him, and they quickly picked a path, continually veering away from any of the Baobhan Sith who came too close, just in case.
Mahalia was soaked in sweat. She still couldn't believe they had got out; she had resigned herself to a quick and painful death. Glancing back hopefully, she was overjoyed to see Crowther plodding relentlessly behind them. She felt a deep and surprising connection with the professor that had crept up on her; even more surprisingly, it felt good. Once they found some way to get the mask off him, she was determined to let him know that he was a good person and that she trusted him. She felt there was no higher recommendation. By the time the sun emerged fully above the horizon, the last of the night creatures were gone, and only then did they allow themselves the chance to celebrate. Mahalia and Jack hugged each other and then they both hugged Matt.
'I thought our number was up there!' Matt gushed. 'Good old Crowther. Who'd have thought the old fool would save the day?'
Mahalia went over to thank the professor personally, but he gave no response at all. She returned to the others, undeterred.
Their survival invigorated them, wiping away the exhaustion they had felt for most of the journey. 'You know what?' Mahalia said. 'If we can get through that, we can get through anything.'
'Don't speak too soon,' Matt cautioned, but his face showed that he clearly felt the same way. The Plain of Cairns ended in a band of lush greenery. Once they saw it, they ran as fast as they could, whooping and skipping. Just beyond, in the shade of some tall trees, lay a series of lakes. They dived in fully clothed, washing the dust from their hair and throats.
Afterwards, they lay on the banks, resting and talking quietly, but they knew it was only a brief respite. The sky overhead mutated furiously with colours and sounds. 'Close,' Matt mused as he looked up at it. He nodded to a steep, grassy rise beyond the lakes. 'Just over there, I would say.'
They steeled themselves, then set off, climbing slowly, putting off what they knew lay ahead. As they neared the top of the rise, the House of Pain loomed up in the distance. It appeared to reach right up into the sky itself, but their minds still couldn't absorb any detail. They saw it as just a black smudge on their vision, and the more they looked, the more it made their heads hurt and the queasier they felt.
Finally they reached the top of the rise. As they looked out across another massive plain of grassland and rocky outcroppings, they realised that the Baobhan Sith hadn't been the worst thing at all.
Purple haze drifted as far as the eye could see, like the smoke of some First World War battiefield. Within it and behind it lay the army of the Lament-Brood, now swelled to apocalyptic proportions. The Whisperers faced the rise, completely surrounding the House of Pain, their numbers disappearing into the misty distance.
'Jesus H. Christ,' Matt said in awe.
'It looks like they've taken over everybody in the Far Lands,' Jack gasped. 'There must be a hundred thousand of them.'
'And there's just four of us.' Mahalia turned from the terrible spectacle and faced them with glittering eyes. Inside her, passion carved its way to the surface. This was it: her time. There was no backing away, no chance of survival. It was all about going out in the best way possible and she didn't care about death. She just wanted to do it right.
She smiled tightly and said, 'Game on.'
Chapter Sixteen
The House of Pain
'I never said, "I want to be alone." I only said, "I want to be LET alone." There is all the difference.'
Greta Garbo
Despair washed up from the grassy plain on the back of a hundred thousand whispers. Mahalia, Matt and Jack did their best to keep its insidious flow at bay — humming, chattering, staring deep into each other's eyes — but at some level they were still tainted.
'They're not going to let us leave, are they?' Jack said dismally. He glanced back across the massed ranks as if he hoped they'd all been magicked away while his gaze was averted. 'We should have known it would turn out like this. We never stood a chance.'
Matt's face was filled with the realisation of their failure. He looked back at the Plain of Cairns and then over the Lament-Brood. 'He's right — it's all over. We can't go back, and if we go forward we'll be wiped out in seconds… and any minute now they're going to come and get us.' He bowed his head, attempting to come to terms with his impending death. Taking a deep breath, he looked up and forced a smile. 'No point crying about it. This is it.'
'Then we should go out in style,' Mahalia stressed. 'I don't want to be forgotten. I don't want to be some nameless loser, or if people do remember me, I don't want them calling me some selfish, spoilt little girl. I want everyone to remember me like the Culture talked about those five who stood up against the gods when they came back. They're like some myth now… like King Arthur and his knights or something. That's wha
t I want.' She bit her lip hard, holding back her emotions so that she could appear defiant.
Matt shrugged. 'I don't think there's going to be anybody reporting back-'
'You don't know! Maybe the Void or whatever you want to call it will see us taking a stand here and think, If all the human race is like that, I don't stand a chance. I'm going back where I came from…'
Matt grinned, then shook his head dismissively.
'Don't laugh! You don't know. Sometimes when you do things, they take on a life of their own. Actions have energy.' She waved him away and went to cross the rise to the downward slope.
Matt caught her arm. 'You're right — we need to do this together. It's Roarke's Drift time.' He looked from Mahalia to Jack. 'You'd better say your goodbyes.'
His words brought home to them the awful truth of what was about to happen. Jack and Mahalia fell into each other's arms with a desperation that brought tears to their eyes. Their kisses were just as hard and before they pulled apart they whispered into each other's ears the promise of what might have been.
Once Mahalia broke away, she instantly became unemotional, didn't even cast another look at Jack. 'OK,' she said. 'Let's do it.'
Before they began, she hurried back to Crowther. 'Professor, you helped us on the Plain of Cairns and we're eternally grateful for that — you saved our lives. But we need you again. And this is even worse. If there's anything you can do… anything…' There was no response, but Mahalia was convinced that he had heard her. Against all her natural reservations, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, just briefly, before returning to the others.
'All set?' Matt asked, as if they were going for a stroll.
As they moved down the rise, the whispering grew more intense and the urge to lie down and give up became overwhelming. 'Fight it for as long as you can,' Matt said. He glanced over at Jack. 'You're going to do the business?'
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