by Troy Denning
“You have nothing to worry about, Yago,” said Seema. “There are no crows in Langdarma.”
The ogre forced a smile and said, “So this is paradise.”
Rishi returned with an armload of tools. He had a rope and the scythe for Yago, an iron kettle lid and a double-bladed tree axe for Atreus, and a pair of skinning knives and a net for himself. As he accepted the kettle lid, Atreus frowned in confusion.
“For the flames,” Rishi explained, smiling. “I am always thinking of the good sir’s safety, am I not?”
“What you’re thinking is that I’ll go in first,” Atreus replied, “and you’re right.”
He started off at a trot and they had no trouble following Tarch’s trail. The devil was tearing a broad swath through the rhododendrons, angling up the slope toward the cliffs at the mouth of the basin. The slave master appeared to be carrying one daughter under each arm, as the stalkers never saw any tracks but his. Even so, he was moving so rapidly they never seemed to catch a glimpse of him.
After a quarter hour of running, they climbed out of the forest, emerging onto one of the talus fields that tumbled down from the basin walls. Tarch was nowhere in sight. It was impossible to follow his trail across the field of jumbled boulders, but there was no question about where he was going. A mile ahead loomed the Turquoise Cliff, its face pocked by the dark mouths of the Caves of Blue.
“Got to catch him before he gets into them caves again,” huffed Yago.
The ogre bounded up the talus field at an ungainly sprint, quickly drawing away from his companions. Atreus followed as best he could. His weak leg began to ache from the exertion, but he clenched his teeth and hobbled up the mountain, inspired by his friend’s example. Yago soon vanished behind a jumbled crest of stone. Tarch’s silhouette appeared farther up the hill, running along a flat boulder with a beautiful Langdarma girl tucked under each arm.
For the next few minutes, the chase continued with Yago and Tarch vanishing and reappearing at odd intervals, the ogre steadily closing the distance as the devil drew nearer to the Caves of Blue. Rishi hung back for a while, then finally cursed Langdarma for rubbing off on him and danced up the hill ahead of Atreus. Atreus tried to match the Mar’s pace, but found it impossible and resigned himself to watching the first part of the battle from below.
Yago was still twenty paces behind when Tarch reached the Turquoise Cliff and, tucking both girls under one arm, began to scurry up the rocky face as easily as a spider. Yago grabbed a melon-sized rock and hurled it on the run.
The stone caught Tarch square between the shoulder blades. The devil grunted loudly, let his captives tumble free, and pushed off the cliff. He spun around in mid-air and landed facing his attacker. The battle was on, with Atreus still a hundred paces down the slope.
The fury of Yago’s assault belied his dread of facing Tarch again. The ogre stepped in swinging, bringing the scythe around in a two-handed sweep that caught the devil in his midsection and launched him across the slope. Tarch landed a half dozen paces away, clattered down between the boulders, and disappeared. For one long moment, Atreus dared to hope Yago had ended the battle with a single bloody stroke.
As the ogre stomped over to finish what he had started, a goat-sized boulder came flying up at him. He raised his scythe to block. The rock smashed through the wooden handle and caught him full in the chest, bowling him over backward. He came down hard, a sharp crack echoing off the cliff as his head struck the flat of a stone.
Tarch clambered into view and staggered toward his groaning foe, a flap of scaly hide dangling from the gruesome wound in his side. Rishi was a dozen paces behind the devil, creeping across the boulder pile as silently as a cloud. Atreus wanted to shout at him to hurry but did not dare. The Mar’s only advantage was surprise.
Tarch stopped a pace shy of the groaning ogre and lifted a hand, preparing to incinerate him. Atreus opened his mouth to shout In the same instant Rishi braced himself and flung his net, wrapping the devil’s arm in a mesh of coarse rope.
Rishi gave the draw line a terrific jerk and leaped down behind a boulder. Tarch was spun around, his hand spraying a crescent of flame across the talus field.
“Filthy Mar!” The devil shook his arm free of the net’s charred remains, then started toward Rishi’s hiding place. “That’s the last time you skrag me!”
“Then it’s …” Yago paused, drawing in a breath so deep Atreus heard it fifteen paces away, “… my turn!”
The ogre sat up, heaving the boulder on his chest toward Tarch. The devil brought his arm up and spun around, but the stone’s momentum blasted through the block and sent him tumbling headfirst down into the talus.
Yago was up in an instant, flinging himself across the jumbled stones with scythe in hand. A scaly hand emerged from between the boulders. The ogre stopped short, twisting aside just as a long gout of orange flame shot past.
Then Atreus was there, climbing over the talus from the opposite side, holding the kettle lid in front of him like a shield. Tarch lay down in a hollow between three boulders, one leg trapped under the heavy stone he and Yago had been hurling back and forth, struggling to twist around so he could bring his crackling flames to bear on the ogre. Though his side lay flayed open from sternum to spine, his scaly face betrayed nothing but anger. Atreus leaped down, turning the iron lid flat and lowering it over the devil’s hand.
The flame stream reversed itself and roared back into the hollow and billowed up in a huge, orange halo. The acrid smell of scorched leather filled the air. Tarch howled in anguish. Atreus dropped the lid and leaped away, one arm raised to protect his face from the searing heat.
The roar died as abruptly as it had begun, as Tarch started to rise from his fiery grave.
Atreus jumped down to meet him, wielding his axe with both hands. Tarch, now a withered and blackened thing that seemed nothing but scorched claw and charred fang, lashed out with both claws. Atreus slipped the first attack and caught the second on his axe head, then brought the sharp blade around and buried it deep in the devil’s shoulder.
Tarch bellowed and brought his uninjured arm up to unleash another of his conflagrations. Yago’s scythe arced down from above, severing the scaly hand at the wrist. A gummy syrup of fire oozed from the stump, rolling back down the devil’s arm and engulfing it in flame.
Tarch’s blazing arm went limp and fell back toward his scorched chest Atreus and Yago were on him with their flashing blades, hewing and chopping and slicing until the battered devil finally stopped struggling and lay in his hole charred and bleeding, barely conscious and clinging to life only by the thinnest strand of wicked will.
Atreus stepped over next to Tarch’s mangled head and raised his axe, preparing to finish the battle. The devil glared up at him out of one blood-shot eye, his vicious stare expressing the hatred his tongue was too weak to speak. Atreus bent his knees, gathering the strength he would need to chop through the tough sinews and thick bone of Tarch’s neck. Then a pair of small voices gasped from the edge of the hollow.
He looked up to see Tarch’s kidnap victims standing on a boulder above him, staring down at him with two pairs of horrified brown eyes. They were as beautiful as all the children of Langdarma, and in their puzzled expressions he saw both the innocence and the peaceful repose that had first attracted him to Seema.
Rishi rushed up from behind the two girls. “What are you doing?” he said. “This is not for the eyes of little girls.”
The Mar pulled the girls back from the edge of the hollow, but Atreus could not bring the axe down. Instead, he motioned Yago to his side.
“The sannyasi should be here soon.” Atreus handed the axe to the ogre. “Until then, you’re in charge.”
The ogre frowned, then glanced in the direction of the retreating girls and seemed to understand. He hefted the axe over Tarch’s throat, sneering down at his prisoner.
“I doubt you can move,” he said. “But just so you know, I’d enjoy taking your head off if you try.”<
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15
By the time Seema arrived at the Turquoise Cliffs, all the streams in the basin had turned the color of blood. The stain was creeping down into the main valley, lacing its way through the trees as though some huge spider was spinning a scarlet web over Langdarma itself. Atreus could see by the alarm in Seema’s eyes that such a thing had never before happened, and that she blamed herself for this horror. Had she known what would come of bringing strangers into paradise, he wondered if she would still have saved his life.
As Seema came up beside him, Atreus gestured down into the hollow, where Yago still held the axe over Tarch’s neck.
“He’s pretty beaten up, but we didn’t kill him,” Atreus said, glancing out over the red-laced basin. “I don’t know if that will mean anything for Langdarma.”
“Who can say?” Seema sounded drained and numb. “It is good you spared him. A second murder does not undo the first. What of the girls? Are they injured?”
Atreus shook his head, then pointed toward the base of the cliff and said, “Rishi has them up in a cave. They’re not hurt physically, but they’re not saying much.” He looked down at Tarch’s mangled form. “They saw a pretty bloody fight.”
When Seema glanced at the devil, her eyes grew hard and surprisingly ugly. “At least they did not see a vengeance murder,” she said. “They will heal better for it, but I am not sure I will. I wanted him dead. I still do.”
Atreus looked away, not knowing what to say. Had she expressed such sentiments in Rivenshield he would have handed her Yago’s axe and told her to take as many swings as she liked. But they were not in Rivenshield, and Atreus was as lost with his emotions as she was with hers. He had spared Tarch’s life only because he did not want to corrupt the innocence of the two girls watching. Now that Seema had lost hers, he had no idea how to give it back.
Instead, he said, “Maybe you should check the girls. You’ll be more comfort to them than Rishi.”
The suggestion seemed to lighten Seema’s burden. Her eyes grew brighter and she said, nodding, “Of course. They will need to know their mother is well, and perhaps I can explain to them how this happened.” She squeezed his shoulder. “Thank you.”
Seema started up the slope. Not long after, Atreus noticed a silver comet over the main valley. For a moment, it seemed to hang motionless near the far end, then it gradually began to swell and brighten. A faint sizzling echoed up the canyon, growing louder as the comet enlarged, and at last it became apparent that the shiny ball was actually moving, streaking through the air toward the Turquoise Cliffs.
The sizzle built to a roar, and the silver ball became a platinum blur arcing down toward the talus slope. Tarch’s bloodshot eyes grew large and angry. He tried to roll to his feet, but Yago hammered his head with the flat of the axe blade and beat him back into submission.
The platinum blur resolved itself into a milky white oval supported by two shimmering wings. Seema and Rishi came down from the cave with the two sisters and stood next to Atreus. Together, they all waited respectfully as the figure slowed and took on the more humanlike form of the sannyasi, then circled overhead, creating a pearly halo over the hollow where Tarch lay trapped.
After this brief inspection, the sannyasi alighted on the boulder next to Atreus. He turned at once to the girls.
“Have no fear,” he said, and touched his palms to their faces. “The devil will harm you no more.”
“We are not afraid for ourselves,” said the oldest sister. “We are thinking of our father.”
“The devil bit him!” gasped the younger.
“I know,” the sannyasi said grimacing. He continued to touch them, but even he could not erase their pain or explain to them why Tarch had done such a terrible thing. He merely nodded and said, “He is from Outside, and there are things Outside we can never understand. Do not worry on your father’s account. He is with the Serene Ones now, and it makes no difference to them how he died. You were a blessing to him in life, and I have it on good authority that his only wish is for you live in peace and forget what you have seen today.”
This drew some of the pain from the girls’ faces, and only then did the sannyasi spread his feathery wings and glide down into the hollow. Tarch’s scorched and battered body began to tremble and exude vile-smelling fumes, and he glared at the winged guardian in red-eyed hatred.
The sannyasi took the axe from Yago and motioned him out of the hollow. He looked down at Tarch.
“How dare you bring your evil into this place.” The sannyasi’s voice was filled with controlled fury. “Did you not see my wards?”
“Pike it … bubber!” Tarch barely managed to moan the words. “How long you think you can hold this little corner? This world’s ours. We’ll be coming for you soon enough.…”
“If that is so, you will not see it.”
The sannyasi stepped on his prisoner’s chest. A glowing white halo appeared beneath his foot and started to spread outward, slowly turning the devil’s scaly hide pale and translucent Tarch howled in pain and began to flail around, his thrashing fists pounding stones to powder. He struck at his captor time and again, clawed his leg, tried to drag himself free, but he was no match for the sannyasi’s strength. The white radiance continued to spread over the devil’s body, turning him as clear as glass from head to toe, and when he became nothing more than a crystal ghost, he finally let out an agonized howl and stopped writhing.
The sannyasi glared down at the devil’s still form, then brought the axe down. Tarch’s body shattered like ice, and began to melt away and stream off in all directions.
“Water turns the wheel, the wheel turns time,” said the sannyasi. “When the wheel brings your spirit around again, I pray you find a happier life.”
Yago arched his bushy brows. “You killed him,” he said. “After all we went through not to?”
“I did not kill him. I sent his spirit back to the endless river,” the sannyasi said, then returned the axe to Yago. “You were right to spare his life. It will help you find happiness Outside.”
“Outside?” Seema asked.
The sannyasi nodded. “It is not easy to subdue such a fiend without killing him,” he said. “If your friends are strong enough to do this, they are strong enough to leave Langdarma.”
Atreus’s heart sank.
“How soon?”
The sannyasi looked from Seema to Atreus. “Three days,” he said. “The fall storms are coming soon.”
“And if we don’t care about the storms?” Atreus asked. He glanced at the scowl on Yago’s face, then added, “What if I don’t care about the storms. What if I don’t want to leave … ever?”
The sannyasi’s eyes softened. “This is not your home,” he said softly.
“I have never been happier in my home than I am here.” Atreus took Seema’s hand, then added, “I have found here what is forbidden me in Rivenshield.”
“Perhaps that is so. But you are a child of Rivenshield. You have a violent heart, and we have already seen what comes of violent hearts in Langdarma.” The sannyasi gestured at the web of scarlet streams spreading over the valley and said, “It cannot be.”
“Violent hearts?” Rishi scoffed. “Did we not risk our own lives to spare Tarch’s?”
“Tarch was here only because of you, and you are here only because of him.” The sannyasi glanced up at the two young sisters, who were observing the exchange with blank, faraway eyes, and continued, “Violence clings to you like an aura. You carry it with you wherever you go. You may stay for three days … no more.”
“Ungrateful squab!” Rishi hissed. “After all we have done for Langdarma, you dare insult us like this? You do not know who you are talking to.”
“I do not need to,” said the sannyasi. “You have proven my point with your own words.”
“And if they don’t leave?” Yago’s tone was stubborn and menacing, but it did not escape Atreus’s notice that the ogre had not included himself. He, at least, knew where he belong
ed, and it wasn’t Langdarma. “You think you can force them?”
Seema gasped at the ogre’s brazenness, but the sannyasi’s silvery eyes remained calm and patient
“They will leave. That is the only possible outcome.” He looked away from the ogre and asked Atreus, “What of the other two missing women?”
It took Atreus a moment to swallow his disappointment and answer, for his stomach had grown so bitter and tight that he could barely speak.
“I imagine they’re still alive,” he said, gesturing at the cave mouth toward which Tarch had been climbing. “We’ll find them somewhere in there.”
“I will find them,” said the sannyasi. “You must rest and prepare yourself for your journey.”
With that, he spread his wings and flew up to the cave, leaving Atreus and his companions alone with the two girls. Atreus watched the sannyasi disappear into the dark cavern and turned to stare out over Langdarma. The red web already stretched over as much of the valley as he could see.
“Maybe the sannyasi is right,” Atreus said, shaking his head sadly. “I only hope we haven’t destroyed this little world already.”
“Us?” Rishi snorted. “This is not our fault. It was Tarch who killed, not us.”
“Tarch wouldn’t have found Langdarma if we hadn’t been looking for it,” said Atreus.
“And Seema would’ve been some devil’s bed slave by now,” Yago said, and smothered Atreus’s shoulder beneath his heavy hand. “Don’t go playing ‘what if.’ This is a big valley. If you want to stay, we can hide out until after the storms start. The sannyasi won’t send us off till next summer, and maybe he’ll change his mind by then.”
“Thanks. I know what a sacrifice that would be for you,” said Atreus, “but no good can come of defying the sannyasi. It would only harm Langdarma, and we’d still have to leave.”
Seema raised her brow, then her eyes grew glassy. She turned to the girls Tarch had kidnapped and asked them, “Will it be okay for Rishi and Yago to take you back to your mother? They helped rescue you, and I believe you know you can trust them.”