by Mark Eller
The four of them hit the roof with a loud thud, shaking the shingles beneath them. Her body jarred painfully as she landed on the bottom of the heap and became entangled with the others. In a jumble of body parts and weapons, everything slid off the roof. Flailing out in desperation, Fox sucked in air while clutching at the edge with a single hand as her legs swung free and her body dropped. Below, she heard several thuds followed by grunts as two fools and an ordig hit the street. Panting and terrified, Fox grasped the edge with her other hand and pulled herself up on the roof again. She took several moments to suck in fresh air before getting to her feet and staggering toward the opposite side. After her near fatal brush with death, she didn’t intend to stick around to see if there were survivors, not with Dakar missing in action. She couldn’t do much to the ordig without her god’s help.
Then again, maybe they were all dead. It was a long fall, three stories. With any luck they would all three soon be meeting Erlmene, the god of the dead.
Fox scowled into the shadows as they suddenly moved with a life of their own. She had been wrong. Dakar wasn’t missing. “I see you there…hiding. You bastard. I almost bit it and you did nothing but watch.”
Twin furnaces lit the shadows; a foul wind blew hard into her face.
“Yeah right,” Fox taunted. “Go ahead and play scary. After all I’ve been through, do you really think evil eyes and a bit of stench scares me anymore?”
The shadows swirled, and Dakar’s eyes disappeared. The night grew still.
Muttering, the thief skulked off into the dark. Fine. If Dakar wanted to pout about her lack of respect…let him. She didn’t need the bastard anyway.
* * * *
The thief stumbled along the road exhausted and aching. She could still feel where the ordig’s hand had wrapped around her slender neck; there were bruises she was sure. Numbness had claimed her mind, and she could no longer think of anything but putting one foot in front of the other. The clothes which kept her very warm when traveling with Mathew now seemed totally inadequate for the job. Dakar, of course, once again falling down on the job.
Fox shivered. Fuck! Ilian never got this damn cold…at least not in the parts she occupied. Fox frowned, checking out her surroundings. She didn’t know how long she had been walking. All she knew was the sun was peaking up over the horizon, and her belly cried out it was empty. At least in the sunlight the only thing she had to worry about was Matthew’s men. The ordig didn’t seem to be a creature of the light; not in its present condition anyway. If it lived, Fox was betting the foul thing would find a dark, dank place to put down its roots and wait for dark. Then, it would either come looking for her again, or hopefully, die. Maybe. Maybe, if Yanez, the god of luck, was with her today, they’d all be dead.
Fox snorted. Yeah…right.
Stopping to rest, Fox sat on a fallen tree off to one side of the road. She ran her hands through her thick, tangled curls and hung her head in exhaustion. Her queue had been ripped from her hair by one of the idiots when he fell off the roof. She doubted she looked much like a nobleman anymore. No matter. She had stopped binding her breasts after Mathew’s men thought they captured her. More fools. As if the likes of them could drag her someplace she didn’t want to go.
Gathering her thoughts, the thief looked about and tried to gauge where she was at and which way she needed to go. Fox sighed. “Okay, a little help here please.” A cool morning breeze stirred the air but nothing more. Dakar remained silent.
Fox stood up quickly, angry at her god’s lack of assistance; enough with the games.
“Look, if you want this damn stone eye put back then you better start making with the directions ‘cause I HAVE HAD IT!” Still, no reply.
Frustrated, angry ,and tired, Fox turned on her heal and started walking again. Damned if she was going to apologize to the arrogant bastard. Besides, what else could she do? She hadn’t traveled all this way and went through all this trouble for nothing. She would find Dakar’s temple with or without the god’s assistance. And, when she found it, she would shove the damn gem right up his ass.
The day drifted slowly by. The noon sun warmed her and chased the chill from the air. Fox soon left the road and walked among the silent forest with its dying foliage. She could see the rot, smell the decay, and feel the dark death which stole among the barren landscape. What creatures were these that sucked the life from the earth itself? She continued on a path which ran nearly parallel to the road. In the distance, she heard the light rumble of thunder. How odd. There was not a cloud on the horizon, and she had never seen a thunderstorm in the middle of winter, not even in Ilian where winters weren’t nearly so cold.
Pausing, Fox leaned against a tree and stamped her feet to get some measure of warmth back into them. At least the snow was not very deep…barely a few inches on the ground. Her freaking toes hurt from the cold. “Does this blasted forest ever end?”
Her belly grumbled; her mouth was dry. Fox had stopped only once earlier this morning, long enough to eat the last of the hard cheese and stale bread she had in her pack. Her water flask was nearly empty, but she could easily fill it with fallen snow, but if she did would it melt into water or stay solid. Even if it did melt, snow wouldn’t help replenish her food. She had meant to refill her pack upon leaving the inn, but for obvious reasons, she had not.
Trying not to panic, Fox slowed her breathing and listened, focusing her concentration on the surrounding wood. In his temple beneath the mountains of Sorrow, Dakar had shown her the way to Lost Falls. There was supposed to be a small stream she had to follow, close to the road. Hopefully, it hadn’t frozen over and been covered. Fox didn’t think this would be the case, but once again, she had never before experienced this kind of cold.
A faint noise came to her on the breeze; definitely a water sound, but louder than a flowing stream. If she remembered the map correctly there had been a waterfall at his temple. Could she be close? Maybe. She might be hearing water falling a long way over a cliff.
Fox pushed herself away from the tree and headed in the direction of the sound. Her mind chased itself in circles, wandering into long forgotten territory. She thought back to days of simple thieving, as if it had been years and not months since she had first seen Taymor. Fox’s muscles ached. Her feet felt swollen, tender. Weariness dragged at her dispirited soul. The forest’s murkiness seemed to be seeping into her skin, sucking out her life in an effort to revive its own. There was something very seriously wrong with this place.
Fox stumbled on, heading deeper into the desolate woods. Before long, she found a small stream.
“Well…it’s not the waterfall, but it might be the stream I saw in my vision. And thank the god’s…it’s a drink.” She reached down to fill her water skin but stopped so suddenly she nearly fell in. This was like no water she had ever seen before. It was a strange, foamy, greenish-black with bits and pieces of what could only be bones clinging to the riverbank. Fox covered her mouth and stumbled away. Once clear, she sat heavily on the ground and hung her head between her legs. Taking shallow breaths, she tried not to vomit.
“What in the name of shadows has Dakar gotten me into? What happened here? Is this what happened to all the people back in the village? This is crazy.” Fox’s heart thudded loud, reverberating in her head.
For long moments she sat with her palms pressed against her eyelids, trying to make her mind focus on what she had to do to survive. Fox lifted her head and stood, her resolve firm, her mind made up.
“Well, at least I’ve found a stream. If it’s the right one I should be able to follow it and find Dakar’s temple.” Gathering her resolve, Fox started walking along the stream bank, being sure not to look down. She wasn’t even remotely curious to discover what kind of bones lay in the water.
“Just follow the stream, follow the stream. All I need to do so I can claim my fame, get my treasure, and never deal with the bastard again is follow the stream.” Anger and fear prickled her body, reminding her of the
time when she had been poisoned by a rival thief and had nearly died. The same sensations now crawled over her skin, making her think she might be hallucinating. Out of the corner of her right eye she kept seeing movement, but when she looked…only more death, more decay, showed themselves.
Fox followed the stream north for a time until abruptly it turned east, back toward the road. Up above, the sun was well past its zenith. Fox began to get worried. She knew she was lost. It shouldn’t have taken this long to go ten miles. The gods only knew she did not want to be out in the open when the sun sank behind the mountains. She was running out of time.
Again, she paused to get her bearings and thought she heard more water, bigger water…north. Opening her water skin, she drank down the last bit she had. It did nothing to slake her thirst or quiet her stomach. Her legs felt like string, her head hot, achy, Closing her eyes, Fox tried to focus. “I can do this,” she mumbled through dry, wind chapped lips. But could she? How many of Dakar’s thieves had previously failed? Twenty, thirty— who knew? The dark god was known for his deceptions, and the gods only knew what the hell else lurked in the forest.
Fox sucked in a lungful of fetid air and trudged away from the stream, going deeper into the woods, following the sound of water, but no matter how far she went, the waterfall seemed just as far away.
The day wore on. The sun sunk lower.
“Gods, my back aches,” she muttered. “Walking at this slow pace is getting me nowhere fast, and I’m running out of time.” Fox desperately wanted to stop, longed to lie down among the dead leaves and sleep, but something told her doing so would be a death sentence.
Stumbling, she fell. A branch jabbed her sharply in the leg.
“Damn it all!” she shouted.
Studying her leg, she saw the branch had ripped through her leggings and left a long bloody scratch. Anger rose in her, hot, heady. She pounded the ground. “Listen up forest! I am Fox Marwin, and I’m the best damned thief in all of Ilian. I refuse to die in this piece of shit land lying face down in the frozen muck.”
Fox shoved herself off the ground, secured her pack and water skin, and began to run. She fought her fatigue, ignored the shadows, and set her mind to surviving. She would find the temple. She would give Dakar his eye back, and then she would go home to Taymor and have sex with him for a week and eat and drink and hide in her cubbyhole at the thieves’ guild until everyone thought she was dead.
And by the gods, if anything or anyone got in her way, she would make them market meat.
An eternity of nothing but endless running seemed to pass as she chased an elusive sound. Within two hours she could no longer feel her legs. No thought existed in her numb mind but the need to chase after a sound that wasn’t there.
The sun was approaching the mountains by the time she found the second stream. Fox stopped, panting, and stared at the insolent stream, daring it to explain why the sound she still heard did not originate from its waters. Shrugging, she followed this stream to the north for a short while before it shifted to the east.
Once again, she stopped running. Tapping her hand against her thigh, she contemplated this new development. The tantalizing sound she had originally followed of a waterfall no longer existed. All she had was the faint burbling of this foul stream. Part of her wanted to turn back to where she last heard the waterfall. Another part wanted to follow this stream. One way would take her to a familiar area. The other might lead her into darker realms and greater cold.
“Please tell me this isn’t another fricken damned dead end,” she demanded of the stream. “I’m too tired to have to retrace my steps.”
Since the stream did not answer, she started running again before her body had time to cool down and seize.
Fox grew worried when the stream kept heading east. Just as she thought she would have to stop and double back, it turned once again to the north. A heartening change, but she could no longer run along its bank because the underbrush had thickened and bore leaves. About her, the trees showed no sign of rot. Some even appeared healthy. She hazarded a glance at the water. It flowed clear, its bed only littered with sticks and rocks.
Stumbling to the edge, Fox laughed and dropped to her knees beside the calm waters. She dipped her skin into its freezing depths and then took several careful sips. The last thing she needed was for her stomach to cramp up. Shivering, she took a breath of clean, crisp, air, and listened.
It was back. Without warning or fanfare, the sound of cascading water was suddenly so loud she knew the waterfall had to be just ahead of her. “Thank the gods,” she whispered.
“Welcome,” Dakar whispered in her mind, and then he laughed.
“Stupid damn god playing fucking games,” Fox muttered angrily, but Dakar was gone.
Frowning, she glanced at the sun…it was hovering just at the top of the mountains so her light was about to disappear. Night wouldn’t be far behind. Bring it on. She wasn’t worried. The temple would be at the waterfall. For the first time since her early morning escape, hope rose in her. She was going to make it.
Fox smiled. She laughed. She almost fell over. “Okay. I’m okay. Let’s go girl…times a wastin’”
Straightening, she began to walk toward the waterfall. Fox took the journey at a steady but not too quick pace. Her rubber legs could no longer manage a run. Even so, within only half an hour Fox found herself in the most beautiful place she had ever seen.
“By the gods,” she breathed, stepping into the clearing. Her body tingled for a moment when she first left the trees, like someone had tapped her funny bone, except in this instance her entire body was the funny bone, She didn’t care because once the sensation was over she found herself in the middle of paradise. Before her, the waterfall cascaded over a rocky cliff, falling at least five hundred feet or more into a basin of the clearest water she had ever seen. Flowers of bright red and orange lined the far side of the pond, and lush greenery covered everything. A warm tropical breeze brushed gently at her tangled curls. She smiled. Apparently, winter did not hold sway here.
Fox held her breath for a moment, soaking it all in. What magic held this place in eternal beauty? Was it natural to the place, or was it something Dakar managed many thousands of years earlier.
Walking up to the water’s edge, she saw it wasn’t a natural pond but one built by human hands. Ornately carved designs covered its bottom in symbols she did not understand...except for one. The phallic symbol in the center represented Dakar.
“I did it,” she whispered, hesitant to raise her voice in this obviously holy place. “I really did it. I found the temple.”
Searching around the edge of the pond, Fox tried to find some sort of entrance or perhaps steps leading into the temple. Excitement built inside her, chasing away fatigue and hunger. But not for long. After searching for what seemed an eternity, she again despaired.
She found nothing; abso-fucking-lutelynothing.
Plopping down on her butt, Fox slowly surveyed the area around her. Maybe the door was hidden. After all, such occurrences were known to happen around secret godly temples placed on some sort of blessed holy land. All the stories said so. Maybe the entrance was behind the waterfall. But if it was behind the waterfall, how could she get to it? She had better figure this out soon because night was fast approaching. She didn’t relish the idea of spending another night out in the open. Foxes liked nice comforting walls around them.
Fox stood up again, brushed off her behind, and walked to where the water dropped into the basin. Sweat trickled off her forehead so she tossed her cloak to the side. She obviously wouldn’t need it in this environment, and never mind the fact she still saw snow falling among the trees.
Shifting the pack on her shoulders, she groaned at the ache of her injuries. The bruises and scratches she had sustained over the last twenty-four hours were catching up to her, and exhaustion threatened to pull her down. Fox shook her head slowly and wiped at her face. So close; she had to keep searching.
A
quick search found her a suitably sized rock. Using it, she pounded on the cliff and boulders to either side of the waterfall as she continued her search for a secret door.
Again, nothing.
“Damn you Dakar!” Fox shouted into the quiet. “I brought your stupid stone to your stupid temple after putting up with those two stupid idiots and their stupid, stupid...AAAAGGHHH.” Fox screamed to the sky, stomped her feet, and pulled at her dirty hair. She was tired. She was hot in her overly heavy clothing, and she was fucking frustrated.
She screamed at Dakar again, but as expected, he did not respond.
Picking up a handful of rocks, Fox started throwing them at the waterfall. Each rock was sucked into the water without so much as a splash. Irritated and angry, she looked for and found a larger rock, one the size of her fist. She heaved it at the waterfall and turned to look for yet another before the rock hit. Spying a rock twice as large as the last near the pond’s edge, Fox leaped for it without thinking and caught her foot on a small branch. Her foot slipping out from under her, she flailed her arms wildly, trying to regain her balance, but failed.
Cursing, Fox went down. She was getting a bath.
Fox hit the water, awkward and angry, and sucked in a lung full of water before she remembered to stop cursing and snap her mouth shut. Standing back up quickly in the waist deep water, she coughed and gagged and began cursing again for another half minute. Fit over, she leaned down to catch her breath before working to pull water weeds from her disheveled clothes. Finished, Fox glared at the recalcitrant waterfall and wished she wasn’t a tougher than hell thief because if she was a regular sort of girl now would be the perfect time to cry.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t very good at crying.
Releasing a wry half-smile, she shook her head. “Okay. I get it. I shouldn’t have called you stone stupid. I shouldn’t have called you a bastard and a coward. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, a thousand times, I’m sorry. Now can we please let the bickering end? I’m outside your temple doors. I’m miserable and wet. Night is falling and I want to come in, but I can’t. I need you to give me some directions here. You know, show me a handle, a doorway, or a great big sign saying ‘enter here’. Come on. Show some compassion for your favorite thief. It’s not like you’ve given me time to case this place, or even provided reliable directions.”