by H. D. Gordon
When I didn’t choke or die from poison, both Asha and Vega served their own plates and began eating as well.
As we did this, still moving in that eerily uniform way, the Seers lifted the silver goblets from the tabletops and began sipping slowly from them, taking little breaks in between. When they pulled the chalices away from their lips, I saw that the black stains at the seams of them were deepened, and I again wondered just what the hell was inside those goblets.
I tried to get a look without being too obvious, and saw that whatever it was, it was as black as tar, and thick like blood.
I found that despite the fact that the food was rather delicious, and I was particularly hungry from so many days of travel, it was hard to eat while they sipped from those goblets all around me, watching with those white eyes and moving in uniform, as if they were each connected by some invisible hive mind.
It was safe to say that it was the most awkward dinner I’ve ever been forced to sit through. No one said a single word, and the only sound from the hundred Seers was the slight slurping that was probably too low a volume for anyone other than me to pick up with my Wolf ears. Every once in a while, the Seers would smack their lips and sigh lowly in satisfaction, and my stomach would wring anew.
Listening to this while trying to eat was a task, and a stolen glance at Asha told me I was not alone in the feeling. Only Vega seemed unaffected, but then again, he spent most of his time with that female octopus we called the Erl Queen, so it was not a surprise that this had apparently lent him an iron stomach.
There was no telling how long the bizarre ritual went on, but at some point, a few of the Acolytes we’d glimpsed earlier came and removed our plates, along with the now empty goblets of the Seers. After this was accomplished, we sat in silence for a moment while I tried to figure out whom the hell I should address.
The Seer directly across the table from me saved me from the trouble. In the same exact voice as all the others had used, he said, “You have travelled a long way to be here, moonchild, and now it is time to make your request.”
My face heated at the sight of all those milky orbs fixed on me, and I actually considered pointing at Asha and saying that all of this was the Demon’s idea, so she should do the talking, but recognized that this was a tad ridiculous, and cleared my throat instead.
“How do we remove the magical collars worn by the Dogs?” I asked.
One hundred sets of lips stained black at the seams curved upward in identical, toothless smiles. If I wasn’t mistaken, even Vega shifted a little under the chilling effect this had.
“The magic binding the collars is sustained by a deal made long ago, between the Pack Masters and higher powers,” the Seer answered.
“Higher powers,” I repeated. “Like who?” I glanced up and down the table. “Like you?”
Asha shot me a glance at this, and it certainly was saying something if she was warning me to watch my mouth.
This only made the Seers’ grins grow, the look coming over their strange faces like that one might give to a naïve child.
“We don’t consider ourselves as higher,” the Seer answered, and all one hundred of them bowed their heads slightly in unison. “We are simply servants to the Gods that bless and sustain us.”
My eyebrows arched as I cast a slow look around the room, taking in the opulence of the place, and returning their condescending look with one of my own. This time, Asha shifted in her seat and gulped down whatever words she was holding back.
“Right,” I said in response to what I knew was baldly false humility. “Servants to the Gods that bless and sustain you. Which Gods are those? Money and power?”
“Rook,” Asha warned between clenched teeth.
I dismissed her with a quick flick of my gaze, returning my attention to the Seers. I wasn’t sure if it was just because I was weary after so much constant danger and peril, or if I sensed something dark in these beings, or a combination of both, but I couldn’t seem to curb my flippant behavior.
“We have little use for money, moonchild,” the Seer replied.
“But power… There’s always a use for that,” I countered. “Will you tell us how to remove the collars, or have we come all this way for nothing?”
A moment of silence fell over the large room, and I could practically taste the tension on my tongue. They didn’t look like much, but I had no idea what the Seers were capable of, if this thing suddenly turned violent.
Then, the Seer across from me offered another of those chilling, toothless smiles, and said, “We have the answer you seek, moonchild, but the real question is, what are you willing to give for it?”
25
“No,” I said, my voice tight and my hands clenched into fists below the table. “The question is, what do you want in return. Clearly you knew we were coming, and why we’re here, and something tells me we would have never even found this place unless you wanted us to find it, so why not just tell us what you want from us, and cut the bullshit.”
Again, that awkward silence, all those sets of white eyes turned my way, all those bald heads poised in my direction.
The Seer said, “Very well, moonchild… There is an item we require, something that was stolen from us a very long time ago, and that we would very much like back. We do not leave this realm, and those we’ve sent before have failed to retrieve it, so your help in the matter would be very much appreciated.”
“What is it?” Asha asked, speaking for the first time, her voice less sharp than the tone she usually took with me.
The Seer did not look at her when he answered, but instead, continued to hold my gaze. Were I a lesser Wolf who had not stared down many a predator in my relatively short number of days, I would not have been able to hold it. But I was not about to be punked by some soft-bodied male in a robe with an over-inflated sense of importance.
So I held the Seer’s gaze steadily.
“It is a simple stone, of little importance to anyone but us, and also very rightfully ours, by divine right,” the Seer said. “So will you help us get it back?”
“Where is it?” I asked.
“Not far,” the Seer answered, and I didn’t have to look to know that ninety-nine others up and down the table mirrored the growing smile on his face. “But distance is not the issue… The stone is guarded, and retrieving it will require a number of skills.”
Now his face scanned the three of us, and in that moment, I got the strange feeling that this entire thing had somehow been decided upon long before, as if the Valac warrior, the Demon, and myself were all fated to end up here, destined to be faced with a decision that we could not possibly know the consequences of.
“Between the three of you,” the Seer continued, “you should be able to handle it. You demonstrated various strengths just on your travels here, and we have high hopes for your success.”
I nodded slowly. “High hopes, despite the failure of however many came before us.”
As one, every Seer at the table merely shrugged.
The one across from me said, “The choice is yours, and you may take an hour to discuss it. If you should be successful in retrieving the stone and bringing it back to us, we will tell you how to remove the collars, and save all the Dogs you feel such kinship to, along with your beloved Mixbreed.”
At the mention of Adriel, my nails dug deeply enough into my palms to draw blood. This was no doubt the desired effect.
I glanced at Asha, who met my eyes with no malice for the first time ever. Instead, the Demon only looked back at me, and gave the slightest of nods, letting me not only speak for us, but also encouraging me to make the final decision. Vega had been ordered by his queen to follow us, and he would go as far as we required.
With a deep breath, I turned back to the Seer. “We don’t need to discuss it,” I said. “Tell us how to get to the stone, and we’ll retrieve it and bring it back to you.”
The Seers clasped their hands together in front of them, their long fingers mostly co
ncealed under the folds of their robes, clearly pleased with this answer.
“Wonderful,” they said in unison. “Then you should leave at once.”
As visually stunning as the City was, I was anxious to get away from it, and I could tell that both Asha and Vega felt the same way.
It was almost as if the very air were different, smelling of salt and citrus upon first impression, but then slowly giving way to a sickly sweet scent as time went on. Basic functions seemed to gradually grow more difficult for me. My breathing was a bit more labored, my muscles achy, and my head filling with a slow fog.
We went back to the room where we’d left our clothing and belongings, and shed the ridiculous robes. I laced up my boots and made sure that my sword and daggers were in place, and then we were ready to go.
A single Seer was waiting outside our door when we emerged, and he led us wordlessly to the center of the courtyard, where a burbling fountain waited. He reached into the folds of his robes and pulled out a small golden compass, and handed it to Asha.
“This will point the way toward the stone,” he said.
Asha took it and tucked it into her pocket with a small nod.
“Are you ready?” the Seer asked.
I glanced at Asha, swallowed hard, and nodded, even though a resounding no echoed through my head.
The Seer turned toward the fountain, lifting his arms into the air. The water began to bubble, and then to churn, as if someone had set a blaze beneath the fountain and turned it up to boil.
The Seer brought his hands together, then pulled them apart again, and the churning water separated. Rather than revealing the bottom of the fountain, a swirling portal appeared in the space between.
The Seer said nothing, only waited for us to jump through.
I won’t lie; my body resisted. Gods only knew what waited on the other side. Releasing a slow breath, I stepped into the portal before I could convince myself not to.
The familiar not-quite-falling and not-quite-flying feeling of portal transportation overcame me, but I had done it before, so I only stumbled a little as I landed in a jungle of thick vines and large trees.
From the crouched position I’d landed in, I rose slowly, my nose testing the moist air and detecting all manner of life present here. My boots sank into the mossy ground a half-inch, and I almost expected some rabid animal or monster to leap out and attack, because that seemed to be the theme of this damn mission.
As I stood alone in the center of the lush jungle, I also considered the possibility that Asha and Vega might not follow me through the portal, that they might leave me to complete this final leg of the journey by myself.
But, then, just as I had, Asha appeared in the space beside me, landing in a crouch. Vega followed, his fearsome mask already in place and his sword clutched in his hand.
“Where are we?” I asked.
Asha glanced around, taking in the characteristics I’d already noted. “I don’t know,” she said.
It was Vega who provided the answer.
“This land is unclaimed,” he said. “It is a piece of territory so wild and untamable, that it was never divided up among the races. No one wanted it.”
I swallowed around a lump growing in my throat, the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. It was not the words themselves that had such an effect, but rather, the scent that was now rising off the Valac warrior.
My nose never lied, and if I was not mistaken, that was fear I smelled.
Since the start of this mission, we’d faced a great serpent and Sahnda scorpions, dead pirates and deadly seas, but not once had I picked up that emotion from Vega, not once had his scent filled with the unmistakable tang of fear.
“How do you know?” I asked, not sure that I wanted the answer. “Have you been here before?”
Vega nodded slowly, and I got the feeling that behind that mask, his handsome face was filled with dread that bordered on horror.
“Yes,” he said. “I have, and the last time I was, I barely escaped with my life.”
My instincts had been right; I did not want to know the answer, but because Vega seemed lost in his own head, he continued on in that dreadfully foreboding monotone of his.
“When we make a mistake, the Erl Queen sends us here for a single night as punishment,” he said. “I’ve only been once, and I’m also the only one who made it through the evening—the only one who came back. It’s dangerous during the day, but all of the worst creatures come out after nightfall.”
Fear was contagious, and it was spiraling in my stomach now, so I shoved it away as hard as I could and suggested, “Let’s not still be here by nightfall then.”
Asha shoved past me, heading in the direction indicated by the compass the Seer had given her.
“Look at that, Rukiya dearest,” she said. “Something we actually agree on.”
I didn’t respond, because I was way past the point of giving two shits about the Demon’s prodding. My nose told me that Asha was not immune to the fear that had been delivered with Vega’s words, and that part of her poking had to do with the fact that she was afraid, also.
Around us, the jungle was teeming with life. My sensitive ears could hear creatures swinging and slithering through the branches above us, while others crept and crawled through the underbrush beneath our feet. Birds chirped and insects fluttered from here to there, and somewhere in the near distance, a brook burbled and flowed.
We followed the direction of the needle, none of us speaking as we waited for the inevitable attack. In my head, I began playing a game I called What the Hell Will Attack Us Next, and put my smart money on either giant gorillas or sleek black panthers, though a behemoth wasp or hornet came in tight in the running as well.
But to my surprise, we passed through the jungle without so much as a sting from a mosquito, and the most dangerous creature we came across was the poisonous frog I spotted sticking to the trunk of a tree, its bulbous eyes waiting for some unsuspecting insect to flutter through the striking path of its long tongue.
Where was the horror, the things that had stricken fear into the heart of the Valac warrior traveling along beside me? The Seers had said that others had come before us, and none had succeeded in retrieving the stone from wherever it waited.
They had not explicitly said that the others had died in their mission, but in my mind, that part was implied.
As the sun began sinking through the trees, however, the feeling of foreboding only increased, until my nerves felt as frayed as the edges of an old carpet.
When the trees parted, and we found ourselves at the base of a great mountain range made of stone that was as black as charcoal, I cursed the Gods for what had to be the millionth time on this trip, and turned toward my companions. The place could not have been more ominous had there been literal storm clouds hanging over the peaks and a glaring sign that read Enter at your own risk written in the rock.
“Let me guess,” I said. “To find what we’re looking for, we have to go in there.”
In response, Asha only turned the face of the compass toward me, revealing that the needle indeed pointed straight ahead.
26
To my relief, we didn’t have to climb the mountain. That alone honestly might have zapped any remaining motivation right out of me.
Instead, we had to journey inside the rock, where we would apparently find a stone guarded by something that was horrific enough to have deterred or killed all those who had come before us.
Asha led us toward the base, and still, we were not attacked or assailed. Instead, we found a path between the rocks that led upward, toward a small gap that looked as though it might provide access to the heart of the mountain.
I watched the sun as we made the short hike, calculating the amount of time we had to accomplish our task before night fell over this land. By my estimation, we had an hour and a half at most.
The path was treacherous, but we reached the gap between the rocks and stood at the dark entrance.
From inside, cool air drifted out, and I caught a scent that I knew, but could not place for the life of me.
“You won’t fit in there,” Asha said to Vega, who assessed the gap in the rocks and sighed as he apparently came to the same conclusion. I thought that maybe it was a sigh of relief, and couldn’t say I blamed him.
Asha held up the compass, revealing that the needle pointed directly inside.
The three of us stood for a handful of seconds, not saying a word, and not heading inside, either. I knew that I was not the only one who was steeling myself for whatever we would face within, convincing myself that we had come way too far to turn back now.
I said as much to the others, and Asha only nodded, while Vega stood silent, tension lining every muscle in the warrior’s body.
Another glance at the sun pushed me forward, and I followed on Asha’s heels as she squeezed through, leaving Vega behind as the darkness swallowed us up within moments.
It was much colder inside, and that scent I was having trouble placing grew stronger and stronger the deeper we went.
The Wolf in me recoiled at the tightness of the passage, at the way I had to duck my head and hunch my shoulders just to fit. As the light of the opening behind us narrowed to a tiny point, and then disappeared altogether, the fear in me grew steadily, and if not for the fact that I knew Asha was ahead of me, I’m not sure I would have had the courage to even carry on.
Asha kept a tiny ball of blue sparks blazing between her fingertips, and though this provided the only light by which we had to see, it also casted flickering shadows on the tight walls, ceiling, and ground beneath us, creating a rather chilling effect.
When we came to a point in the passage that narrowed down so that we had to crawl, I honestly felt like crying out at the terror that was still rising in me. The lack of bite in Asha’s voice did nothing to help the matter. It meant she was afraid, too.