The Darkness That Hunts
Chapter 26

The rope burns my palms andmy longbow digs into my tailbone as I scramble down. Above us, the necromancershrieks and spits dark promises that we will not escape and while I’m not eagerto replace out what nasty surprise awaits us at the bottom of this rope, neitherdo I want to face Naked Mage with her nasty slug-like tongue.

Darkness embraces us,absolute and thick. The cloying smell is like old, wet newspaper and desertshrubs. It gets warmer the further I descend, though not overbearing like inthe tunnels beneath the Wastes. My muscles scream as I fight not to fall orgive in to the panic slowly tightening within me. Where is this going? I cansee nothing but darkness as black as pitch. Not even the rope is visible to me.

And suddenly hands, sweatyand slick, slither around my waist. I scream.

“Shari, it’s just me.”Kamiron’s disembodied voice drifts around me and it takes him a few repetitionsbefore I understand.

“Sorry,” I whisper. Kamironhelps me down and the burning muscles of my shoulders and arms rejoice. I can’tsee him, I can’t even see what we’re standing on--though it feels bouncy. Likeone of those ergonomic mats retailers place on the ground for their cashiers.

“I should have told you whatI was doing. You okay now?”

I nod before I remember hecan’t see me. “Got a light?”

“No, you?”

“No.”

His arm drops from my waistand I feel a pang of loss but a half-second later, his fingers thread throughmine. A tingle runs up my arm at Kamiron’s quiet strength, that deep power andunwavering resolve. It steadies me and reassures me, though I should be reassuring him considering his injuries and thepain lacing his voice.

“How are you feeling?”

Kamiron hesitates and then myfingers feel a squeeze. “I’ll survive. Where do we go? That necromancer seemedreluctant to come down here, but we should put some distance between ourselves andher just incase.”

I’m not eager to go foraginginto total darkness, but at least Kam’s at my side. I tune myself into thetugging sensation and am surprised to discover it’s straight ahead. I don’twant to follow it. I want to climb the rope ladder back up, replace Zakk and Dace,and get out of here.

The faster you obtain the tether, the faster you can help them,Vayu intones. I feel him curled up by my left ear like a nesting eagle.

Not if we just end up getting ourselves killed,I scowl, but I give Kam’s hand a squeeze and follow the electric sensationtugging on my gut.

Taking small, uncertainsteps expecting at any moment to tumble into an empty chasm, we walk for monthsin absolute darkness. No matter how many times I blink, my eyes do not adjust.I’m afraid to talk to Kamiron; afraid of what might be listening, what could bewatching us from the deep darkness.

When I get too freaked out,I squeeze Kam’s hand.

He always squeezes back.

“Shari.” Kamiron stops meand sidles up close. His body presses against mine and the warmth of his breathtickles my ear. “Do you see that, to the far west?”

I scour the velvet dark,certain there can be nothing out here, but I immediately spot it. Light. Or,rather, grayish wisps of color suggesting light, but it’s something and it actslike a beacon.

“Think it’s a trap?”

“I think we need to replaceout,” Kam counters.

As we approach, a narrowshape forms out of the darkness. The dome of light, though not bright, is vividagainst the oppressive darkness, and encircles a solitary obelisk. In theanemic light, the bouncy ground beneath us is solid but looks like transparent blackliquid; the obelisk, narrow and no more than five feet in height, looms out itlike the fin of a shark or the tip of an iceberg. The smell, that wet newspaperscent, gives way to the odor of dry putrefaction and . . . Despite ourselves,Kam and I inhale deeply.

I frown. “Is that . . . cloves?”

“We’ve seen weirder.”

Although a strange pillar inthe literal middle of nowhere is up there on the weird list, it’s hardly out ofplace for Ater. “What do you think this is?”

Kamiron is brave enough toapproach it. I hover just inside the dome of light.

“There’s writing chiseledonto it.”

“Writing? Like directions?”

“A spell, maybe. No--apoem.” Kamiron inhales sharply. “Jisei--adeath poem.”

“Death poem? What’s that?”

Kamiron reaches out as if totouch the obelisk but catches himself at the last minute. “Jisei are written on your deathbed. They reflect your final thoughtsabout your impending death or death in general.”

“That’s pretty morbid.”

“I’ve always been fascinatedby them.” Kamiron admits and then gives a sharp shake of his head. Hisexpression relays his puzzlement. “But this one . . . seems wrong somehow.”

“How so?”

“Typical jisei are metaphorical. They almost nevermention death explicitly. Instead, they talk about the end of seasons, sunsets,or falling cherry blossoms. This one, though, it’s almost . . . crude. Aperversion.”

I stare at the sterncharacters that bleed down the obelisk like infected lacerations. “What’s itsay?”

Kamiron steps closer, hisgaze scanning the five short lines. His voice echoes ominously as hetranslates.

“The melting snowflakes

The countless ruined cities,

Both Devastation

And Death lust insatiably

For the taste of human flesh.”

The implication dawns on usat the same instant. Hefting his sledgehammer as if his injuries are nothing,Kamiron scrambles back as the ground surrounding the obelisk bubbles likeglassy tar.

“Stay behind me. You get ashot, take it.”

My fingers shake as I nockthe arrow that was looped in my belt. The obelisk fractures down the center,splitting in half as if struck by lightning. The bubbling ground swallows thechunks of stone with sickening slurping sounds.

And then I see it, just beneaththe boiling ground. It lurks along the seam where darkness meets light. A gianthorse, though nothing like the kelpie we saw in the Onyx. Its flesh is the graycolor of decay. Dead eyes, clouded and rotten, bulge out of its equine skull.It surges out of the ground and an ethereal cloud envelopes it, ghastly andpale like smoke lit by a harvest moon. Rank ooze pours down its mane, drippingmaggots, millipedes and beetles.

The stink brings me to myknees. The undead creature smells like garbage burning in a thousand humid,swampy landfills. And yet the electric buzzing in my gut, the overwhelming tugsuggests . . .

“Kamiron,” I wheeze,crawling away from the circle of light as if doing so will hide me from thehideous monster. “That thing is thetether!”

Kamiron spares me ahorrified look. Over his shoulder, the massive horse, taller than mostbuildings, opens its enormous mouth and bears crooked black-green teeth.Mustard-colored fumes spill out of its throat and nostrils, and before I canchoke out a warning--

“Don’t know how much more .. . of this I can . . . take,” Dace wheezes, his back bent and shouldersheaving. “They just don’t give up.”

Zakk wipes at his bleedingnose and peeks out of the mausoleum’s leaded glass window. The eerie, glowingNecropolis shimmers before them, quiet except for the ground-shaking thuds ofthe pair of lichs and the hissing calls of other undead.

“I don’t think we thoughtthrough this plan too well,” Zakk admits. He runs a palm down his face. “Mymagic is tapped out.”

“Yeah, I hear ya. I’m on mylast leg, too.”

Silence.

They both cock their heads,listening. A shuffle pauses at the mausoleum doorway. Dace positions hischakram for a lethal blow but Zakk holds up a hand to forestall him.

A half-second later the feetshuffle on. Dace exhales and scowls down at the black ring marring his wrist.“They still can track us?”

Zakk shrugs. “I think thespell’s finally working. Throwing our scent.”

Dace hesitates, scuffing hisshoes on the cement. “Look, Z, about earlier, in the barrow--”

“We’re fine, Dace. Besides,we have bigger issues to face. Got your breath back?”

Dace’s chin dips in ashallow nod and his mouth forms a grim and serious line. He peers out thewindow, his gaze assessing every minute detail. “They are several blocks away.Naja’s doing a great job.”

“They sense the blood Ismeared on her.”

“Now seems like as good asit’ll get. We go to the ziggurat and meet the others?”

“Help me up.”

Dace strides over to Zakkand hooks his arm around the taller boy’s waist. Zakk leans on both his naginataand Dace before limping out towards the deserted boulevard. The air is cool anddry. A fetid breeze ruffles their aketons as they slip behind two narrowcrypts. Four blocks away, the ziggurat arches for the bloody skyline. Anemicclouds swirl over its crown like a halo.

“I can’t stand looking atthat thing. Makes me feel like I’m gonna hurl,” Dace mutters, picking his waydown the street. Zakk grunts and his eyelids flutter as if he is on the vergeof fainting.

“Don’t look at it too long,”he wheezes, “It’s designed to do that--there are runes.”

Dace squints at themonstrous structure, his gaze roving over the white characters scratched intothe surface. He groans and his face pales to green. “Ugh.”

“Well, well. What bountifulfeast do we have here?” a sibilant voice purrs.

Dace and Zakk whirl, peeringinto the dim gap between a pair of mausoleums. A necromancer slithers forward.Unlike its compatriots, it does not wear Victorian-style clothing. Instead a tatteredrobe dangles from its muscular frame. A thick purplish tail like that of analligator sways as it strides closer.

Zakk pulls away from Daceand angles his naginata at the creature’s head, covered by a deep hood thathides most its features except for its long snout and feral blue eyes.

“What are you?” Dacedemands.

“Unseelie, like my brothersand sisters.” The necromancer lowers its hood to reveal a reptilian face. Itssnout flares and its wedge-shaped head angles toward Zakk. “I taste magic onyou, tall one.”

Zakk says nothing but hisfeet shift into an offensive position.

“I see why you hide undertattered robes, Bowser. Not quite as good looking as the rest of the family,huh?” Dace taunts. The creature’s lips draw back from serrated fangs that areangled backwards like a snake.

“My name is Jaaspialzar, notBowser, and I care not for the drama of aesthetics. I prefer the pleasure ofpower. I am the wisest, the strongest. I knew you would turn up here sooner orlater, mortal ones. I will not share your essence with the others. I will gainmore power once I eat you.”

“I prefer to be taken out todinner and cuddled first, Jasper.” Blue-white fire blazes along the deadlycurves of Dace’s chakram. Zakk elbows him and the boys peer around. Ahalf-dozen revenants erupt from the mausoleums. They form a tight circle aroundDace and Zakk. A deep, bone numbing cold, the chill of the grave, saturates thedry air.

Jaaspialzar grins. “Dinner?I think my pets can arrange that.”

A revenant lunges at Dace.He has just enough time to parry its rapier with his chakram before anotherrevenant sinks its spear--

I wake up gasping, my heartracing. It’s dark but not the all-consuming darkness of before. Globes ofbronze float above my head rendering light but I’m too disoriented tounderstand what it’s showing me. I have images of Dace and Zakk in my mind. Itwas like I was there but invisible and unable to speak. Was it a dream? Did Ijust see the future?

What happened?

You gave Dace and Zakk one of your arrows,Vayu explains. When you lost consciousness from the fumes, your awareness and concernfor your friends allowed you to “see” them through the connection of yourarrows.

I have to help them!

You need to help yourself, first.

What?

I try to sit up but replacemyself tied down to a round stone slab. The bronze globes float around me,their hazy glow casting circular light on some kind of casting circle filledwith black-flame candles and bones.

“Good, you’re awake.”

Ice freezes my blood and Itilt my head to the side to replace naked belt lady. She grins at me. “We meetagain.”

I curse. Kamiron was right,I should have killed the heifer when I had the chance. The thought of Kamironjolts me. The last I remember, he was confronting that giant monster, the oneholding the tether. And now he’s alone. He needs me. Dace and Zakk, battlingfor their lives against impossible odds, they need me and yet here I am,trapped with Miss Nudity.

I scream in frustration andstruggle against the leather cords anchoring my wrists and ankles to the slab.The necromancer laughs.

“Now, now, little mortalchild, no struggling. Once I’ve eaten your soul, I’m going to turn your corpseinto my new servant. I don’t want you too damaged beforehand.”

My heart slams against myribs and I can’t seem to get enough breath. When she comes at me with anobsidian knife, I lose all reason. I want to be brave, to not grant her thesatisfaction of my terror, but I can’t stop screaming and my tears blur herimage. She squats and inhales deeply. Her blade slashes down and my shriekrenders the air as white heat sizzles down my torso. My shredded aketon fallsaway, exposing bare flesh.

“Mmm, fear. A lovely spice.”

She leans over me and licksat my blood like a cat. “When I finally found you, you were so limp. I was annoyed,thinking you might be already dead, but imagine my luck! You stilled breathed.As for your champion--not so much. He will die a terrible death, but there isno helping that. I have you at least, and you taste delightful. Well worthbraving that horrible creature’s Den.” Her slug-like gray tongue burns as ifit’s coated in acid. I whimper.

Pull yourself together! Vayu-Vaata growls. You are not helpless.

Not helpless? My weapon is gone, my hands are tied, and--

Your essence, the essence of the element Air, is in your weaponand in your arrows. You called them out of the air itself, remember?

I know it’s supposed to besignificant what Vayu says, but I can’t focus through the pain. It’s like hermagic is amplifying her hold over me; like she is siphoning away my will and reasononly to replace it with panic and blind terror.

Searing pain down my leftthigh this time. With each cut of the obsidian blade, I feel my life drainingaway. Despite the heat of the wounds, I’m growing numb and cold. Serratedlightning follows battery acid as her fat tongue stabs the fresh wound acrossmy upper right thigh.

Vayu is yelling something.Telling me words that can save my life but I don’t understand them. He soundslike mosquitos buzzing near my ear on a hot summer afternoon. The pain drags meto--

Zakk collapses under a pileof decayed flesh. Jaaspialzar cackles as the revenants kick Dace’s feet outfrom under him. His last chakram spills from his bloody fingers and clattersacross the cobbles. A pair of revenants grab him by each arm, holding him stillbefore their master.

Jaaspialzar slithers overthe fetid remains of four of his creations without so much as a glance. Histhick tail lashes Dace across the cheek, knocking his glasses askew. Dace’seyes roll into the back of his head. Dirt and blood smear his lenses, andhairline cracks crawl towards his wire frames.

“How was dinner?”Jaaspialzar scratches his scaly snout with one of his three fingers. Therevenants drop Dace who crumples unceremoniously at Jaaspialzar’s feet. Therevenants climb off Zakk though their bottomless hunger doesn’t abate. Zakkdoesn’t move or appear to be breathing.

“Glad you enjoyed your meal.Now, shall we cuddle?” Jaaspialzar kneels, drawing Dace up close. Thenecromancer crushes Dace’s arms to his sides and opens his long snout.

Above, a screech shattersthe intimate moment and a grey blur collides with Jaaspialzar. Stony claws ripat the necromancer’s beady eyes and he howls, dropping Dace in his attempts toswat Naja away. Dace fumbles with his belt and pulls out the pale orange arrow.It looks transparent and brittle, like it might shatter at any contact.

Jaaspialzar uses his tail tobat Naja away. She disappears behind a tombstone. He turns towards Dace and hisblack tongue licks at his fangs. “Now, where were we--”

Jaaspialzar’s eyes bulge asDace stabs the arrow into his mouth, sinking it deep into his snout. The arrow burrowsinto the necromancer and disappears.

“We were discussing dessert,but I’ll have to take a rain check on that, Jasper.”

Jaaspialzar’s scales glowbutterscotch before shattering into thick shards. It sounds like bells when thepieces of the necromancer hit the cobblestones. The remaining revenants fallstill, staring blankly at the glittering pieces of Jaaspialzar. Their hungercontinues to bite the air, but they no longer attack. Instead they--

She drags the edge of the knifeup my hip. The cold blade splits the fabric of my breeches, and saturates myflesh with hoarfrost. My throat closes with fear, but I fight through theweakness and pain. The fingers of my right hand flex against the leatherrestraints and air condenses in my palm.

Setting the obsidian bladenear my left hand, naked belt lady leans over me. Her teeth nip at my throat,right at my pulse. Her slug tongue traces circles up and down the side of myneck and then she pulls back. Eyes like soil lock on mine. There is nothingremotely human in her expression.

“You taste so good, mortal.I will savor you a little longer, I think.”

Grunting, I bury the slendershaft of my saffron-colored arrow deep into her stomach, just below her bellybutton. Bile squirts out of her mouth and blood courses down my wrist. Shestaggers back with my arrow burrowing into her stomach like a nesting sparrow. Thenecromancer tries to shriek but only chokes on her own blood. For a fewseconds, her mossy green skin glows the color of rotted kiwi and bubblesoutward like boiling water. Gurgling, her dark eyes and slug-like tonguewriting, the necromancer collapses. Her leather belts fold around crumpled, flabbyskin and a reeking substance stains the floor where she once stood.

I sag and dizzinessoverwhelms me. When it at last passes, my left hand flounders until my fingerscurl around the obsidian blade the necromancer abandoned. I cut through theleather cords binding me with clumsy, weak movements. Pain and feeling rushback into my limbs and blood oozes out of the deep cuts the necromancer hasmade across my body.

Get up, Shari. Your friends need you!I coax, but my body only curls into the fetal position. I’m too exhausted tomove much less rush to the rescue of Dace, Zakk, and Kamiron. I lay in thedarkness against the cool slab. The black-flame candles crackle like awelcoming campfire. I feel Vayu-Vaata hovering between my temples like somekind of massive hawk. At last he seems to come to some sort of decision.

I will lend you some of my essence,he announces. It should strengthen you.

Relief floods through me butit is short-lived. Something in his tone is . . . grim. What’s wrong? Isn’t that a good thing?

You are not yet ready to handle my essence. I risk damaging youfurther. And once my essence recedes, you will require hours of rest. Time youcan ill afford.

If I can’t get to my friends, there won’t be any time left for anyof us, I point out. I accept the risk.

I sense Vayu’s continued hesitation.What do I need to do? I prompt.

His sigh is like an articcold front. Nothing. Just try to relax.

I start to snicker at theidea of “relaxing” at a time like this, but then Vayu attacks me.

Crushing hurricane windsbeat against me, yanking me off the floor. I dangle several feet in the air. Myhair lashes about wildly. The wind snatches the air from my lungs and I can’tbreathe. The tattered strips of my aketon thwumps around my bloody body but Ino longer feel weakness or pain. Though it is a struggle, air fills my lungsand Slowly I drift to the ground. My head shifts side to side, taking in theroom though it is not me that moves it.

It is me, Vayu confirms. Part of the sharing of essences is that I possess your body for a time.

What? I gasp, feeling horrified and vulnerable. How come you neglected to tell me this earlier?Didn’t you think it was important to know?

Before more panic can build,Vayu shifts, receding from my consciousness enough that I regain control of mybody. I’m embarrassed at my instant relief. Vayu-Vaata is helping me, has savedmy life twice over, even helped me save Kam’s life. Why can’t I trust him totake possession of me--especially if it will help me rescue my friends?

We’ll cohabit your body for a short while,Vayu continues, politely ignoring my internal debate. For the most part I will remain in the background, but if I see theneed, I will step in, he warns. You must not fight me when I take control.

Where do I go?

I feel Vayu’s smug smile. Nowhere. I will take us where we are needed.Who do we assist first?

Kamiron. Is he even alive still?

Your weapon remains near him. See for yourself.Vayu’s attention drifts. When I get alock on him, we will shift to his location.

Shift?

I exist everywhere there is air, Shari. I move through it andtherefore so can you.

Like a movie screen, the airbefore me turns viscous and milky. Shapes grow out of the mist like a 3-Dhologram and I recognize the cavern. My longbow rests at the dome of light’s threshold.At the giant horse’s rear hooves I spot a form sprawled on the glassy ground.

Kam.

My heart skips. He isn’tmoving and the horse is angling up for a fatal stomp.

“Kamiron! Move!” Iscream, but of course he can’t hear me. Hooves as big as cars crash down and Iwatch in helpless horror as Kamiron is trampled underneath.