Shadow Hunted Page 8

“What should I do then? Because I really want to know.”

  “There. You just did it again. It doesn’t sound right, coming from you. I suggest you stick to being dull. That’s what you’re really good at.”

  “I should have let that man slug you.”

  “But you didn’t. See, that’s what I’m talking about. You’re dull, but you’re steady. Reliable. You always do the right thing.”

  “Now I want to slug you.”

  “But you won’t,” Batu said confidently. “You’re predictable that way.”

  “I think you should stop talking.”

  Batu ignored him. “The only problem is that wasn’t much of a fight. Not really. If they’re going to put that in the song about us, they’re going to have to exaggerate a little. After all we’ve been through, no one will believe that two thugs caused us this much trouble. We should work on that right now, so we can get our story straight. I’m thinking there were a dozen of them instead of only two, and they were carrying giant axes. The mighty Karliss was taken out by a sneaky surprise attack. You and I had to save the day. That’s it! We stood over him and protected him. We drove the attackers off.” He smiled, happy with his ideas.

  “Do you ever listen to yourself?” Hulagu asked.

  “I used to. But it only confuses things.”

  Karliss was barely listening. His discomfort was steadily increasing. “Does it feel hard to breathe to you two?”

  “What?” Batu asked.

  “I don’t think there’s enough air in here.”

  “What are you talking about? There’s plenty of air.”

  “I’m not so sure about that.”

  “Are you feeling okay?” Hulagu asked.

  “It’s too small. There’s not enough air.” Karliss banged on the door. “I have to get out of here.”

  “You will. The constable said it’s only for one night,” Hulagu said.

  “I can’t make it a whole night. I have to get out of here.” Karliss banged harder on the door. Outside, the wind began to blow, the sound audible even through the thick, log walls.

  Hulagu stood up and came over to Karliss. “You’re sweating. What’s wrong?”

  “I told you already,” Karliss snapped. “Weren’t you listening?”

  “Calm down,” Hulagu said. “You’re getting all worked up.”

  “Don’t tell me to calm down. I can’t. I feel dizzy. I have to get out of here.” Karliss gave up pounding on the door and began pacing frantically.

  Batu and Hulagu exchanged worried looks. The wind was growing stronger. They could hear blowing dirt hitting the outside of the jail.

  “Don’t do anything crazy,” Hulagu said. “We don’t want to get into any more trouble.”

  But Karliss wasn’t listening. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. He clawed at his throat, loosening his janu. “I can’t be in here anymore,” he muttered.

  Hulagu tried to take hold of his arm, but Karliss shook him off. “Don’t touch me.”

  “Just take it easy,” Hulagu said. “The constable said he’d be back with some food for us. When he gets here, we can…I don’t know. Work something out.”

  “I can’t wait that long,” Karliss said. He could hear aranti outside, calling to him, wanting to know why he was shut away from them. He felt trapped. Desperate fear boiled up inside him, an immense pressure clamoring for release.

  “Karliss…” Hulagu said.

  Suddenly it was all too much. “I have to get out of here!” Karliss yelled.

  He reached for the wind—

  And the wind answered.

  The howl of the wind turned into a roar. The whole jail shuddered. Hulagu was yelling something, but his words were lost in the maelstrom.

  “Free me!” Karliss screamed.

  With a terrible groaning sound, the roof of the jail was torn off. It shot up into the sky, tumbling end over end into the darkness.

  Aranti raced into the cell, shouting their glee at being reunited with Karliss. Wordlessly he commanded them to pick him up, and the nearest one obeyed without hesitation. He began to rise into the air.

  “Karliss!” Hulagu bellowed.

  Despite the din, his voice got through to Karliss, who looked down and remembered his friends. A touch of his will, and two aranti peeled off from the rest and picked up his friends as well. They rose higher. They were above the walls of the jail now.

  Karliss heard Hulagu shouting something. His friend was pointing down into the jail, into the outer room. Abruptly, his meaning became clear to Karliss. A thought dispatched another aranti, who gathered up their packs and their weapons and brought them along.

  Karliss flew them away then. The last thing he saw before he turned away was the constable, standing in the street outside the jail, bowls of food in his hands, staring up at them openmouthed.

  Chapter 5

  They slept that night on top of a small, bald peak. The wind blew hard the whole night, every gust carrying away a little bit more of Karliss’ anxiety. By morning, he felt like himself again.

  “You look better today,” Hulagu said when he woke up. The sun was just rising. The countryside in all directions was empty, not a sign of a village or even a farm.

  “I feel better.”

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t know for sure,” Karliss said. “I just…I couldn’t stay in there any longer. It felt like it was killing me.”

  Hulagu thought about this for some time, while Batu grunted in his sleep and rolled over. Then Hulagu said, “It’s not surprising, I guess. You’re the wind. You can’t trap the wind.”

  Karliss blinked, surprised. “I never thought of it that way before. I thought maybe it had something to do with getting hit on the head.”

  Hulagu eyed him. “You look a little bruised.”

  Karliss touched the top of his head. He had a good-sized lump there, and it was sore. “He got me good.”

  “He defeats Kasai and is brought down by a wooden box,” Hulagu said with a small smile.

  “Not very heroic,” Karliss replied. “Probably best to leave it out of the song.”

  Batu sat up. “It’s going in the song. It will get a good laugh.”

  “Look, it’s awake,” Hulagu said.

  “That was amazing,” Batu said, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

  “Which part?” Hulagu asked. “Getting beat up or getting thrown in jail?”

  “The way Karliss ripped the roof off the jail. And then he just flew us away! The whole village is going to be talking about that for a long time.”

  “I’m sure they’re going to love rebuilding the jail,” Hulagu said.

  “It’s their own fault,” Batu said seriously. “They shouldn’t have tried to cage the wind.”

  Hulagu sighed and rubbed his forehead.

  “One thing I was thinking about,” Batu said.

  “What now?” Hulagu asked tiredly.

  “I never heard you say the word of power, Karliss, when you had the aranti pick us up.”

  “It was pretty noisy,” Hulagu said.

  “I know. But when he used it before, I could feel something happen. I didn’t feel that this time. Why?” he asked Karliss.

  “Because I didn’t use it,” Karliss replied.

  “Then how did you make them pick us up?”

  “I don’t know. I just…told them.”

  Batu got a look of awe on his face. “Wow. You don’t even need to use the words now.” He whistled. “The legend keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

  “Legend?” Hulagu said with a pained look.

  “What would you call it?”

  “You overdoing everything. Like you always do.”

  “Don’t be grumpy. Just accept it. You’ll feel better.”

  Hulagu groaned and lay back down.

  “Does this mean you don’t need the words anymore at all?” Batu asked Karliss.

  “I don’t know. I guess I’ll find out.” Karliss stood and began rolling up h
is blanket. “Let’s go. I want to try this.”

  Soon they were packed and ready to go. Karliss closed his eyes and called to the aranti, telling them that he and his friends needed a ride.

  The aranti answered willingly, lifting the three of them into the air. Batu whooped, and even Hulagu smiled.

  “Let’s go find this war!” Batu yelled. “The enemy doesn’t stand a chance. Not once Karliss the Great gets there!”

  They flew through the morning and into the afternoon. The terrain changed as they flew south. The choppy hills receded, replaced by gently rolling plains not so different from the steppes, though much lower and warmer. There were still hills and now and then small mountain ranges in the distance.

  In the early afternoon they saw a city off to the east. It had a high, stone wall around it, flags flying proudly from the towers. As soon as he saw it, Batu started clamoring to go visit.

  “We have to go there,” he cried. “We can’t pass by without at least taking a little look around.”

  Hulagu’s expression told Karliss what he thought of the idea. Normally, Karliss would have agreed with Batu. There was sure to be a great many new things to see and do in there. But for some time he’d had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, and it was gradually getting worse. At first he’d thought it was only the aftereffects of getting hit on the head, but as it grew stronger, he began to doubt it was that.

  “There’s something up ahead,” he said finally, overriding Batu’s continuing complaints as the city receded behind them.

  “What is it?” Hulagu asked.

  “I don’t know. There’s some kind of energy flowing around. Whatever it is, it’s strong.”

  “Maybe we should go around it.”

  “No.”

  “You don’t want to run into trouble headlong,” Hulagu warned.

  “I don’t plan to. But I want to know what it is. Maybe it’s exactly what we’re looking for.”

  “We don’t know that. We don’t actually know anything. I think we need to talk to the king in Qarath before we do anything.”

  “I agree. But I want to have a look first.”

  Karliss increased their speed. The aranti were becoming more excited, even fearful. They were all babbling at once, and he wasn’t able to understand much of what they were saying, but he understood enough to know that they were frightened. Thunderclouds began to build overhead.

  Then, ahead on the horizon, he saw a brilliant flash of green light.

  “I’m putting you down,” he told his friends.

  “I don’t think we should split up,” Hulagu said.

  “I agree with him,” Batu added.

  “I’m doing it anyway,” Karliss said. “I have to see what’s happening, and I don’t want to have to worry about you two.” It was true. He did feel as if he had to see what was happening. The need to see was so strong it was almost a compulsion. The aranti’s excitement was contagious.

  They dropped quickly and within moments were on the ground. The aranti carrying Batu and Hulagu released them and raced away chattering.

  “Stay back!” Karliss called as he rose into the air once more. “I’ll come back for you soon.”

  ╬ ╬ ╬

  Batu and Hulagu stood there, watching their friend fly away. The sky had grown quite dark, and lightning was flashing in the clouds. There were more flickers of light to the south, a rusty red as well as green.

  Hulagu looked at Batu. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not standing here waiting for him. I’m going to see if I can help.”

  “That’s the most sensible thing you’ve said all day,” Batu replied.

  Hulagu drew the tulwar, Batu hefted his spear, and they began to run toward the flashes.

  Chapter 6

  Fen stared in stunned disbelief as the first Devourer began to emerge from the Abyss. Thick, powerful fingers ending in blunt claws appeared. Then the creature’s head, large and hairless, with a broad, flattened nose, deep set eyes and prominent canines. The ears were slightly pointed and tilted back. The face was bestial, the skin so white it was nearly translucent, the blue network of veins clearly visible underneath. Broad shoulders and thickly-muscled arms followed as he pulled himself up. The eyes, dark and flecked with orange, fixed on Fen.

  Fen didn’t wait to see any more. He reached up into the ceiling of the cavern and triggered Stone power. Cracks zigzagged rapidly across the ceiling as he jumped to his feet. He glanced down at Barik’s torn body, wishing he was able to give the man who’d been both father and mentor a proper burial. Then he ran for the tunnel.

  He reached the safety of the tunnel and spun around in time to see the ceiling of the cavern come crashing down. Right before it hit, the Devourer threw up one hand and barked out a single harsh, guttural word. A crackling shield of energy sprang up, indigo laced with veins of black.

  Shield and Devourer were buried under a massive pile of stone.

  Fen stood there, breathing hard, blinking in the dust that filled the air. Did it work? Had he killed the Devourer?

  He realized a moment later that he could hear a faint crackling sound. It quickly grew louder. Hundreds of rays of purple light shot upwards from the area where he’d last seen the Devourer, speckling the ceiling. Through his feet he could feel the broken stone vibrating. The rays of light grew brighter, the crackling sound louder. Fen took a step back.

  The stone began to disintegrate, turning into dust before Fen’s eyes. Soon all that was left of the pile of rock was dust. The dust shifted, and a powerful hand emerged, followed by another.

  What did it take to kill these things?

  Fen waited to see no more. He fled down the tunnel, pulling down the stone as he went, collapsing it. It wouldn’t stop that thing, but it should buy him some time.

  He made it back outside and paused on the narrow strip of beach, his thoughts in turmoil. Despite everything he and Barik had done, the sorcerers had succeeded in opening the portal to the Abyss and releasing the Devourers. But how was that possible? Lowellin didn’t have all the pieces of the key yet, did he? Without the key, he shouldn’t have been able to open the Abyss.

  Unless the key was for something else.

  The implications of that were staggering, too much to think about right now. He could ponder it later. Right now he needed to come up with a way to defeat that creature he’d seen.

  But how? He’d dropped the ceiling on the creature, and the Devourer was unscathed. What could he possibly do against such power? What was the point in still trying?

  Before the hopelessness could get a foothold, he shook it off. He could not afford to indulge in it. He was still alive, and that meant there was still hope. There wasn’t time to grieve over Barik’s death. There wasn’t time for self-recrimination over all the things he could have done differently. There wasn’t time for weakness. For his people to have any chance at all, Fen knew he had to think like a soldier. He had to use his training.

  He remembered something Sergeant Flint had constantly reminded his charges of:

  Every enemy, no matter how invincible he first appears, has a weakness.

  So it must be with the Devourers, he told himself. They must have a weakness.

  And what came next? Discovering that weakness.

  He ran to the warehouse where he and Barik had fought the leathery-winged minions of the Ankharan sorcerers and ducked around the corner. He stood in the darkness and waited. He needed to learn everything he could about his enemy.

  He didn’t have to wait long. The crackling sound appeared again. The ground vibrated, and purple light began to leak out through the open door of the shack that had been built up against the hillside to hide the tunnel. All at once the stone crumbled. A puff of rock dust floated out into the night air. Fen wormed his way deeper into the shadows. Hopefully the Devourers couldn’t see in the dark.

  The first of the Devourers emerged from the shack, taller than Fen by a head and significantly broader. He stood on the sand and
looked around. Small waves lapped the beach. The light from the lanterns surrounding the half-built Ankharan ships reflected off the armor he wore, overlapping scales of dull, black metal that extended to mid-thigh and left his arms bare. Around his waist was a wide belt, from which hung a heavy weapon with a hooked blade, the likes of which Fen had never seen before.

  He turned his head toward Fen. Fen resisted the urge to shrink back when those eyes fell on him, knowing how movement drew attention. But the creature’s gaze passed over him, apparently without seeing him.

  Another Devourer emerged from the shack, this one slightly shorter and thicker-bodied. Behind him was a third. That one was missing an eye, a ruined hole showing where it had been.

  The first one spoke to the others, and Fen caught scraps of a harsh, alien language that sounded similar to what he’d heard the Ankharan sorcerers use when they summoned chaos power. The one missing an eye gestured off into the darkness and replied. The first one made a fist and showed his canines. The other two looked down. Clearly the first one was their leader.

  The leader took a step in Fen’s direction, and Fen tensed to run, but the creature came no closer.

  Apparently tired of waiting, the leader yelled something. A single word repeated twice. To his surprise, Fen realized he understood the word.

  Lowellin.

  They were waiting for Lowellin. Fen wanted to run then, but the Devourers were too close. They’d be sure to see him. He remembered the poison Lowellin’s shadowy ally, Ilsith, had injected into him. He would die before he allowed that thing to do it to him again.

  A patch of shadow appeared near the Devourers. The shadow swirled, and out of it stepped Lowellin and two Ankharan sorcerers in billowing black robes. The two Ankharans went to their knees immediately and pressed their faces into the sand. Lowellin looked down at them and shook his head.

  Then something Fen didn’t expect happened. Instead of taking the shape of a black staff, as he’d seen Ilsith do before, the thing billowed and turned into something else.

  A Devourer.

  Yet though he was clearly a Devourer, Ilsith was not the same as the other three. He remained shadowy, insubstantial, as if so long spent as a shadow had made it difficult for him to be completely solid. And he did not stand straight, but was hunched over.