by Jamie Davis
She glanced over her shoulder, pausing beside a ridge leading north south and tried to see if there was any sign of pursuit yet. She could hear them, but saw nothing.
For a second, Marci was tempted to climb the ridge to get a better look. She shook her head. That would be a bad idea if the demons didn’t know where she was. She couldn’t afford to give them a chance to spot her this early in the hunt.
Bending over with her hands on her knees, Marci struggled for a few seconds to catch her breath. She had to pace herself or they’d catch her as soon as she collapsed from exhaustion.
Standing and staring northward, Marci tried to judge the distance between her location and the jagged peak that was her target destination. It didn’t seem any closer but that could just be a trick of the landscape.
She started north again. She decided it was impossible to judge distance across this fractured terrain. There were so many places where the land dipped up and down, it could double the running distance between here and there. All she could do was keep going and use the mountain peak as her landmark.
Marci continued at a steady, loping pace, saving her energy as best she could. This should enable her to break into a sprint if she needed to at a moment’s notice. After a while, the easier pace improved her energy level enough that she began to hope she’d make it to her destination.
Her biggest worry was dehydration in the dry, barren landscape. Marci carried nothing in the way of sustenance and so far had seen no sign of any source of water. She’d have to find something to drink somewhere soon to replenish the fluids she was losing as she ran in the hot sun.
She was searching along a dry stream bed for a spring or other water source when Marci heard the first sounds of closer pursuit. It was an hour and a half since she raced out of the demon camp.
Marci figured she’d covered at least five kilometers across the rough and broken terrain at this point. She paused to rest in the shade of a boulder when the howling increased in intensity to the south. They’d found her trail.
Marci stood up, scanning the southern horizon. She saw no sign of movement.
The baying of the sixers who led the hunt seemed to increase in volume again. It could only mean they were drawing closer.
Marci picked up her pace, shifting the backpack holding the Chaos Crystal as she struggled to reach the mountain ahead of her. Despair set in again because it seemed no closer. It didn’t seem to matter how fast she ran.
It occurred to her that Harshad might have given her false instructions. Perhaps the Chaos Crystal was not born in this mountain, but somewhere else. He could be leading her in the wrong direction.
Marci shook her head. No, her instincts told her he had to tell the truth where it concerned the contest. He’d already demonstrated he had to follow certain rules regarding recovering the crystal. If that weren’t the case, he’d have had no reason to let her go at all.
No, the crystal’s home must be in that mountain peak. She just had to reach it before they caught up to her.
Taking a deep breath, Marci raced onward, weaving through the narrow stream bed, trying to remain below the horizon line and hidden from view as much as possible.
It was here the first of the sixer demons leaped down from the raised stream bank to land in front of her.
At first, Marci thought she’d somehow gotten turned around, accidentally heading in the wrong direction. Then she realized the demon was alone. This one wasn’t part of the band hunting her. She’d been unlucky enough to run into a lone straggler of some other group.
Marci dodged the initial attack as it charged her. She dove to her left and rolled back to her feet, avoiding the slashing claws and snapping fangs.
She brought her tomahawk around and hacked into the leading shoulder on the demon. The front leg crumpled under the powerful blow.
She’d crippled it and caused it to howl in pain and frustration as she danced back from another series of attacks.
Feinting forward as if attacking, Marci drew the demon off balance on its weakened side.
The sixer fell for the trick and Marci brought her tomahawk down in the center of the creature’s forehead right between its eyes.
The silver alloy blade crashed into the creature’s skull and felled it with the strike to its brain. As the demon lay dying at her feet, Marci stood and looked around for any signs of others accompanying this one. She heard the howling behind her but nothing forward. The hunt seemed a little closer though.
Cursing under her breath at the delay this lone creature cost her, Marci ran up the stream bed until she reached the far side and pulled herself out and over the cracked lip of the raised bank. A glance behind her showed the first signs of her pursuers.
In the distance, movement drew her eye and Marci saw a pack of about fifteen sixers racing over a hillside about a half a kilometer back.
They were gaining on her though she didn’t think they’d spotted her yet. Marci turned and sprinted northward. She had to put more distance between them and throw them off the trail.
The first thing she did was try to find a place where rocky boulders stretched out in the correct direction. They had to be close together, close enough that she could leap from one to another in the line.
She found them about fifteen minutes later.
Marci figured if she could get up off the ground and try to stay on hard rock surfaces, she could avoid leaving any prints or physical trace of her passing. The line of boulders and rock outcroppings she found stretched more north westerly than directly north, but perhaps that, too, would help take them off her trail.
Scrambling atop the first of the boulders, Marci ran to the edge and leaped across the narrow gap to the next outcropping. She continued this pattern, trying to remain off the sandy ground below as much as possible until she reached the end of the ridge.
Marci slid down the far side of the final boulder to crouch on the ground beside it. She took a moment to catch her breath and then ran for a hillside just ahead of her. She had to reach the back side of the hill and get out of sight so she could not be seen by her pursuers.
She dove over the top of the hill and rolled down the far side. The rough gravel on the opposite side of the hill scraped up her back and arms as she slid down the steep slope.
Rocks caught and snapped one strap holding her backpack closed. The flap came loose and the Chaos Crystal tumbled out onto the ground.
The first thing Marci noticed as she moved to scoop it back into the backpack, was that the crystal now glowed with an internal red light similar to the glow she’d seen in the distance the night before.
That was new, she thought to herself. It must mean that the crystal was nearing its birthplace as Harshad told her. Perhaps it could sense its home nearby.
Marci thought for a moment and then placed both hands on the Crystal kneeling down beside it and closing her eyes. Perhaps Harshad’s reach to cloud her magical ability was far enough away now. Perhaps she could try to engage a spell to assist her in her escape.
Marci reached out. She sensed the magical energy swirling around her. Using her mind to try to grab a hold of the twisting flows of magic flooding all around, Marci tried to cast a spell.
She couldn’t make it work for her though. It was as if she were grasping at wisps of smoke. Everything slipped away from her whenever she came close to success.
After a minute of trying, Marci sighed and gave up. It was no use. Whatever Harshad had done to keep her from accessing her magic was still in place.
Getting back to her feet and sliding the crystal back into her backpack, Marci slid the pack over one shoulder, careful to keep the crystal from spilling out and started off north again.
She kept the hillside to her right, struggling to keep the natural barrier between her and the pursuers. As long as they couldn’t see her, she hoped her plan to leave them off her trail would work.
The baying of the pursuing hounds continued in the distance to the right. It was difficult for
her to determine if they were following her or not.
As she angled towards the mountain peak northward, a new thought occurred to her. Harshad didn’t have to follow her at all. The fallen angel knew her destination. He already knew the only place she could claim safety and victory in this pursuit.
The hunt didn’t have to find her on the trail. He and the other demons just had to reach the peak first.
“Dammit,” Marci said to herself. She hadn’t thought it through. She wasn’t racing to keep them from catching up with her as much is racing to beat them to a final destination.
Shaking her head, Marci stopped focusing on what she might have done wrong. She picked up speed again, hoping to regain whatever advantage she lost by angling off the direct trail to the peak.
She knew the increased speed would wear down her reserves, but Marci felt like she had no choice. At this point it was a race to the finish line and a race for her survival.
She heard a change in the sound of the sixer hounds on her trail. The pitch and intensity of the howling made her think perhaps they’d gotten confused and lost her scent.
Marci hoped that was the case. She didn’t even know if these creatures tracked by sense of smell or by some other unknown tracking ability.
All Marci could do was to keep going. She couldn’t afford to stop and check to see where everyone was. It wouldn’t do her any good anyway.
As she crested the top of the next rise, Marci spotted the base of the mountain peak for the first time. She was much closer than she thought. A sob of relief came from her and tears flowed down her cheeks. She might make it after all.
The realization her destination was so close helped revitalize her. Marci picked up speed once again. It was a short-lived respite, as the sound of the howling pursuit changed once again and increased in intensity. Somehow, they’d discovered her trail once again.
Marci was perhaps a half kilometer away from the base of the mountain when she spotted the line of pursuers to her right. They now angled in her direction.
Maybe they hadn’t found her trail before. One of them had spotted her now, though, moving across the flatter terrain around the base of the mountain.
Marci knew she had to figure out a way to distract them or get past them. They had the angle on her and at the rate they were running, the demons would cut her off well before she reached her destination up the slope.
Marci growled deep in her throat. She would not admit defeat. She’d find away, somehow to get past this advance group of those that hunted her.
It appeared to be only eight to ten sixers racing in her direction. The others must have split off following other potential tracks once they lost her trail.
Somewhere deep inside her, Marci knew she could never take on ten of the six-legged creatures all by herself. That didn’t matter. She would not quit.
Marci squeezed the haft of her tomahawk, using the solid feel of the wood and leather grip beneath her fingers to reassure her. She raced onward watching the approaching line of demons as they snarled and howled at her, growing closer with each passing step.
The fight would be on for her soon enough.
Chapter 18
Kurt crouched down, examining the footprint on the sandy soil before him. He knew it was Marci’s and still pointed to the west.
He stared west, but then turned and looked northward. Something had changed. Ever since the sun rose on that second day, he’d felt a pull to the north, off Marci’s trail.
Every time he forced himself to stay on the trail of footprints, he found himself filled with an increasing sense of dread. He couldn’t identify the source. It made him uneasy.
As he examined the footprint, Jonesey walked up to stand beside him.
“What’s the deal?” The elf asked.
“I’m not sure. Marci definitely went through this way, but for some reason it doesn’t feel like I should follow these prints anymore. Every time I take a step closer to catching her to the west, I feel as if something horrible is about to happen to the north.”
“Kurt, you’ve got to know by now that magic has a tenuous hold on what is real in the sense of how we construe reality. It often connects things we do not see from within our magical abilities. Our senses pick up on those connections, though we may not understand why.”
“So we stop going after her? I refuse to accept that.”
“No,” Jonesey said, shaking her head. “You need to think about this in different terms. If you’re not supposed to go west, what are you supposed to do? Try to identify what that internal compass feeling is telling you the next step must be.”
“I’ll try. Honestly, I’ve never accessed magic at this emotional level before. It’s something I use to do mundane things in the course of my work. I used to understand exactly what needed to be done and how to achieve it using my magic.”
Jonesey laughed aloud. “You know better than to give in to that kind of cold analysis of how your magic works. You have to understand that magic is in constant motion as reality changes around it. It is not cold and analytical. That is one issue Marci has with her use of spells. She sees magic as a scientist sees any source of energy. You must do it differently. Access your emotions. Don’t be afraid of what they tell you to do.”
Jonesey laid a hand on his shoulder and Kurt closed his eyes holding his hands out over the footprint before him. He thought about what he had to do to follow Marci’s trail.
Once again the feelings for Marci surfaced. He embraced those feelings and tried to use them to sort of tune the compass within him that pulled him one way or another.
Kurt kept his eyes closed and focused. In his mind’s eye, images formed and shifted from one to another: a mountainside, a jagged cave entrance, an open wound in smooth, white skin. Then, last of all, an image formed of Marci’s face, flushed with sweat, and coated with dust and grime.
His eyes popped open. Kurt found he’d turned in place while his eyes were closed. He now faced north.
“There!” Kurt shouted as he pointed at the mountain peak rising from the barren plain nearby. It was only a few kilometers away. “She’s there.”
Jonesey nodded, an approving smile on her face.
The rest of the squad glanced at each other, confused.
“How do you know?” Sarge asked. “If we change direction and you’re wrong, we might not make it to her in time.”
“I’m not wrong and we have to hurry. She needs us.”
Sarge held Kurt’s gaze for a long time, searching for something in his eyes, then the soldier nodded. “Smalls, take point. Stretch, you’ve got rear guard. Everyone else, keep your eyes open. We’re bound to see action soon. There haven’t been any demons at all so far. That means we will probably see a whole bunch of them soon.”
Stretch grumbled something under his breath about walking into a trap. He shut up as soon as the sergeant shot him a stern glance.
Smalls hefted her spear and took off at a steady jog towards the mountain peak. Kurt and the others fell in behind Sarge as they followed the scout forward.
Chapter 19
Marci rolled over on her back, kicking at the demon that landed on top of her. Her boot drove into its snarling face. The six-legged creature had been big enough to knock her to the ground.
Her kick it dislodged it enough for her to scramble out from beneath the demon. She swung blindly with her tomahawk as she tried to crab walk backward away from the creature on one arm and two feet. She felt the tomahawk strike home and then heard a squeal. She looked back to see a dead demon, its throat slashed open by the sharp tomahawk blade.
Scrambling back to her feet, Marci struggled to clamber up the slope towards the peak of the mountain. She’d been climbing upward amidst the rocky terrain for over an hour.
Her pursuers had split up in an effort to chase her down no matter which way she went amidst the rocks and loose gravel that made up the broken slope.
She’d killed two demons so far, but she knew there were m
any more out there. She could also now hear the guttural voices of the taller humanoid horned demons. Marci knew Harshad could not be far behind.
Ignoring the pain in her hip where one demon had slashed through her body armor, Marci picked her way around some loose gravel and rocks to reach a narrow ledge.
Her scramble sent stones the size of her fist rolling down the slope behind her. The sliding and rolling stones started a small rockslide.
Marci knew the sound of the rocks would bring more demons in this direction. She had to move on and get away before they got there.
She reached the ledge she’d been aiming for and ran along it, trying to put distance between herself and the others.
Marci barely stopped herself in time to avoid plummeting over the cliff that appeared around a bend in the ledge. Beyond the three-meter gap, the ledge continued.
Part of the ledge had fallen away. It was far enough across to make her stop and reconsider whether she should turn back.
A baying howl behind her made the decision for her. Marci had to keep going.
The demons found her trail again. There was no going back now.
Taking three steps backwards to give herself a running start, Marci ran as fast as her exhausted legs could carry her.
She reached the lip of the gap and pushed off as she leaped across the break in the ledge.
Marci knew right away she hadn’t pushed off with enough force. Her exhausted legs had nothing more to give.
She landed on the far ledge on her stomach. Grunting as the landing knocked the wind out of her lungs, she scrambled with her free hand to grab ahold of anything to hold on to. She had to keep herself from slipping down into the chasm below.
Her feet kicked off the cliff face. She pushed upward when her toe caught an outcropping. It kept her from falling back into the gap.
Marci breathed a sigh of relief. It was just enough of a toehold to help her push herself up onto the other side. Behind her she heard a snarling growl.