Soul Seeking

by R. Michael Card

  His fear was growing, a gnawing, clawing sensation in his chest, when he became aware of a noise from up ahead and… light as well.

  He could see more and more of what was ahead of him as light reflected off the walls from some well-lit place, and that made him warier.

  When a smaller cave came into view, with light down its shaft as well, he ducked into there. No kroll should be able to fit in here. It was a tight squeeze for even his bulky frame, and he cut himself on a few sharp edges, fairly certain he’d reopened some of the cuts on his back. However it proved worth the pain as he found a slit through which he could see into a much larger cave.

  Several large fires were burning, illuminating the vast cavern… that was crawling with krolls… and in the center of all those hideous shapes was something even larger.

  The krolls Jais had seen stood between eight to twelve feet tall, varying heights and builds, like humans, and all were large and strong. This new one stood a full head, shoulders, and chest above most, and twice as tall as some of the smaller krolls. It was powerfully built as well with a form that was much less the hodgepodge of muscle and misshapen bone, and much more ‘human’. Though to call this giant… thing human would still be a mistake. The general shape was right, but its chest and shoulders were overdeveloped and its arms too long, hands dangling at its knees. There was also something about it, something Jais couldn’t place right away until it looked in his direction. Then Jais caught the glimmer in its eyes, the intelligence there. This one was not only bigger, but smarter as well.

  It hit Jais suddenly in a wave of realization. This was their leader. This was the reason they were banding together. The next thing he saw confirmed that.

  The thing spoke in some guttural, harsh language, and the krolls around it cheered, a horrid and bone-chilling noise. Then it lifted a hand which became engulfed in fire. It pointed that hand at a guttering fire in one corner of the cave and the fire leapt back to life, burning tall and strong… with no fuel that Jais could see.

  …Magic…

  Could this get worse?

  It did.

  His aunt was then carried in by a kroll, firmly holding her squirming form. She was alive, but there was no way Jais could rescue her surrounded by dozens of krolls.

  His heart sank, and he could only watch, tears forming in his eyes. This was not going to go well.

  “I will be well, Jais. Do not worry for me.”

  Jais was so jammed into his spot he couldn’t jump or turn, but the voice nearly stopped his heart, speaking so close, so quiet. He turned his head and saw beside and behind him the glowing form… of his aunt.

  He turned to look in the large cave. She was still there. Checking behind him again proved she was there as well, at least some glowing image of her.

  “Calm yourself. This is a spirit form. I haven’t used it in many years, but it is one of my abilities.”

  Jais felt a wave of emotions wash over him. “I can’t save you,” he said softly, voice choked.

  “I know, now listen for a moment, I have much to say.”

  A glowing blue form entered the small clearing where Caerwyn and Alnia hid.

  “You!” Caerwyn said recognizing the form as Jais’ aunt. “What is this?” Then as another thought occurred to her, she asked, “are you dead?”

  “Not yet, no. But I fear I may be soon. There isn’t much time so please listen. I know why the krolls have been so vigorous in this area, why there are so many. They have a leader, a krolloc, I believe by his size and intelligence. You must be very wary. There are dozens of krolls, yet still you must find a way to kill this being, for he will only incite more death and terror.”

  Caerwyn had questions, but kept her mouth shut as Sarelle continued.

  “There is a cave deep in the woods, head east until you find a tall ridge, then follow that north and you’ll find it. This is where the krolls are. Jais is here as well, but hidden for the moment. You must end this or these creatures will claim all these lands and kill everyone here.”

  The vision wavered for a moment.

  “I am losing strength and my attentions are divided. I must go.”

  “Wait,” Caerwyn said speaking quickly. “I’m wounded, can you heal me?”

  The glowing form shook its head. “No, I spent too much earlier on your companion. Put some of my healing gel on it. That, along with your accelerated healing, should have you feeling well soon enough.”

  “We already have.”

  “Then you’ll do well enough. Sorry I cannot do more.”

  Then the form faded away.

  Only then did Caerwyn’s keen ears pick up calls and shouts in the distance. One of them came through clearly. “I saw something. A light over there!”

  She swore.

  “We need to go. That mystical lightshow gave away our position. The others will find us soon.”

  Alnia nodded and acted without question. Their fire was already low, and there would be no need to cover it since someone already knew they were here. Alnia gathered up only a few things, what she could stuff into a satchel, as Caerwyn rose carefully, still leaning on Davlas for support.

  Then they were off, moving slowly and carefully through the woods. Better to keep quiet now. Someone would find their site soon enough and know they were there, but in the dark of night, tracking them through the forest would be nearly impossible.

  Caerwyn hoped.

  The image of his aunt wavered for a moment. She looked concerned and spoke quickly. “First off, I have visited your friends. The old southern warrior was badly wounded, but I was able to heal him and he has escaped. The woman was also wounded, but I spent too much of my energy on the man and could not help her. But Alnia is with her, and she seems to be recovering. I have visited them and told them where you are.

  “Jais, this is important. That big one out there. That is a krolloc. They are larger and more intelligent than their counterparts, acting as leaders and organizers. He cannot be allowed to live. I cannot stress this enough. Even if it costs you your life, that thing must die. Once it’s gone, these krolls will turn on each other and most will stop being a threat to the village.”

  “What do I care of the village? They turned on us as soon as they found out we were drahksani! They tried to kill me and would have done the same to you if you’d been home.”

  “Oh!” The expression on the image of his aunt showed her shock clear enough, but she shook it off quickly. “It doesn’t matter. Hate us or love us, no one should be subjected to a plague of krolls such as this.

  “My death is imminent, I know that, and my powers are strained at the moment. I will do what I can, but you still have a chance. Kill that thing and we save hundreds of lives!”

  The image wavered again, and she seemed to shrink, looking faint. “I cannot keep this up for much longer, but I will be with you. My spirit is strong, and even after my death I may remain for a while. I love you, Jaistheric. Please do what you can, and I hope you live a long life after this.”

  He got the feeling she wanted to move closer to embrace him but she could not, and a moment later she was gone.

  Jais looked back out to the krolloc and his followers. The form of his aunt was mostly limp now, she’d stopped struggling.

  The krolloc held out a hand making a grasping motion and barked some command. The kroll holding Sarelle released her, but she didn’t fall. Instead, she hovered there, still looking held. When the krolloc moved his hand closer to himself, she moved as well, drawing closer to him.

  How was Jais to fight something with powers like that?

  He tried to calm himself, rein in his racing heart and rapid breath. He tried to find some calm.

  Then the krolloc began to speak, but this time it spoke the northern tongue.

  Jais listened intently.

  19

  Barami woke to darkness… again.

  Was he still trapped?

  No.

  His mind was fuzzy for a while as he tried to
recall where he was, what had happened. It came to him slowly, the beating, the healing, and the escape from the cellar. He’d staggered as far as he could, then hid himself behind a shroud of bushes and retreated to unconsciousness.

  Now, with his awareness returning, he took stock of his situation. He was hurt and tired, though having slept just now seemed to have helped him regain a little energy. His wounds from the mob were better after Jais’ aunt’s healing, but he was still sore all over, a radiating ache which seemed to drain his energy. He’d heard that some older people simply hurt all the time and had trouble moving. Well today he was feeling every inch of his more than forty years of age. But he could deal with that. There were more pressing problems, like his lack of weapons.

  His Oken-adi had been taken from him, as had his shield. He’d really liked that shield. It had been made in the Afgenni forges from the strongest, lightest steel they could make. He’d had it for years, and it had always served him well. But now he had no idea where it, or any of his other weapons, were. He couldn’t risk going back into the village for them either. He could only move forward from here. That led him to his final dilemma, a lack of information. He didn’t know where Caerwyn or Jais were or how they had fared. He needed more information as well as equipment. The only place he could think of to find that was up at Jais’ cabin. That would be the best place to start.

  So he grunted and groaned as he got himself up and began moving in that direction. The moon was setting, it was well into night, and it would still be quite dark when he got there. He hoped that would be a boon to him.

  He crept across the hills toward the cabin. When he saw it he let out a long sigh. The cottage was burning in a giant fire. There were about a dozen men in a group off to one side, so he made a wide circle around behind them, coming at them from the forest, directly opposite to the fire. Hopefully their light-blind eyes wouldn’t see him coming.

  But he paused as he reached the forest’s edge. There were voices off under the trees as well. When he peered into the inky blackness of the woods, he could see spots of light… torches. They were searching the forest for Jais or Caerwyn or both.

  Barami paused and looked to gauge the turning of the stars. It would be several hours still before dawn. He was a decent tracker, but finding a trail at night would be virtually impossible. He doubted he could catch up to Caerwyn or Jais now. Come sunup he could catch their trail and find them, hopefully ahead of this horde.

  But he could still use this situation.

  He crept into the forest, toward one spot of light which seemed to be the farthest from any other. Moving carefully, he stalked the man, catching up to him in bits as he worked his way toward that torch. Once close enough, he took stock of his target. The man had an old sword and a beat-up shield. It wasn’t much, but it was more than Barami had now.

  Barami let the man get ahead of him again, out of earshot. His shirt was torn and ripped in several spots, he removed it entirely and expanded some of the tears until he had four oddly shaped strips. He put these together and wound them up to make them stronger, then he began stalking his target once more. He caught up again when the man stopped by a stream to take a drink. Barami crept up behind him and swung his makeshift rope around the man’s neck. He pulled it tight, crossing his arms behind the man and planting his knee in the man’s back to force him forward. The man had no chance to scream, and died gurgling.

  Barami was no longer concerned with taking it easy on these men. They had shown they were willing to kill him, so his sympathy was lost. This was survival, and he’d do what he must.

  He took the man’s weapons and provisions, which wasn’t much. He also stole the man’s shirt, but it didn’t fit him.

  Now he just had to find a place to hide until morning, when he’d pick up the trail of his friends.

  “Do you know how a kroll is made?” the krolloc asked Jais’ aunt. Jais watched, trying to learn as much as he could before he would have to face that thing.

  “I always thought you were the spawn of Holn,” Sarelle said defiantly. Her body still looked limp and exhausted, but her spirit was still there in her voice.

  “You are not too far off.” Jais couldn’t get over how well spoken the thing could be. He’d expected broken sentences and grunts. “Long ago, not long after drahksani were created, humans dabbled with forces beyond their control in an attempt to create their own equal to such power. They created krolls instead. We cannot reproduce naturally. We are truly unnatural. The only way we can create more of ourselves is to perform the ritual once again on a human. But that will only create another kroll. That is why we are so few. It takes four to perform the ritual, and most krolls would never band together for long enough to do so. Most of the krolls alive today are leftovers from times long past. Just as I am.” He drew her closer still, making a pulling motion with the hand that he’d used to grip her with magic. She floated right up before his fanged visage, which wore a horrible grin. “Do you know how a krolloc is made?”

  She said nothing, defiance in her eyes, if not in her body.

  “The same ritual when performed on a drahksan creates a krolloc. So we are rarer still. Especially now that most of you drahksani have been killed off. There are so few chances left for us to create more leaders for our kind.” He moved her away again, spinning her slowly in the air. “And we do so need leaders. Without me this rabble would tear themselves apart.”

  Jais knew where this was going now and began squirming out of his tight vantage point back the way he’d come. He needed to get to his aunt before the krolloc turned her into one of them. Even as he moved, the clear, booming voice of the krolloc followed him.

  “It took me a hundred years to find three krolls to perform the ritual that first time. I’ve spent another century slowly building up my force to what you see today. I am nearly ready to attack the world in force, but I will need your help. You will start a new clan with those we transform from this village, and then there will be nothing in this world that can stop us! That is the way of our kind: dominate, transform, and destroy.” There was a pause for a moment as Jais thought his aunt was saying something but he couldn’t hear her. The response from the krolloc was laughter.

  “Oh you will have little choice in the matter. The ritual cares not how willing you are. Would you like to see it?” A moment later the krolloc bellowed something in the other language.

  Jais froze.

  He was just reaching the main hallway which would take him into that cavern, and wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be anyone there to discover him.

  Then a woman started screaming, and he couldn’t help but move. He ran out into the main ‘hallway’ toward the large cavern, but nearly ran into the back of a kroll as he emerged into the vast area. But what he saw both horrified him and relieved him. A woman he didn’t know was being pulled from a pen he hadn’t been able to see from his previous vantage point. A cage made of wooden bars and rough ropes contained a small group of people — it was the family from the farm that had been attacked by krolls not that long ago. As much as he was thankful that his aunt was being spared for the moment, the thought of any innocent person being turned into a kroll made him sick.

  But there were a score or more of krolls between him and the woman, what could he do? Any one of these creatures would be a challenge for him, trying to fight through this many would be death. His aunt had tasked him with eliminating the krolloc, but looking at things now, he knew it would have to be through cunning and planning, not brute force.

  So, with that woman’s scream still ringing in his ears he once again retreated to a hiding spot. The main ‘hallway’ passed by the vast cavern so he moved to the far side and slipped into the shadows, watching from there.

  The woman was dragged, probably quite painfully and unceremoniously to a metal rod which looked like it had been thrust down into some crack in the floor, then sharpened at the top. The kroll dragging her lifted her and pushed her down, back first, onto the spike
such that it pierced her through the abdomen on one side. She wasn’t dead, and wouldn’t be for a moment or two, long enough for them to do what they planned, Jais guessed. The woman’s screams intensified with pain and fear, turning to wails. Then the krolloc and three other krolls stood around her and began chanting. The chant sounded vaguely like the northern tongue, certainly not the guttural language of the krolls. Jais didn’t understand any of the words, but it felt… odd. His skin tingled as his ears took in the noise.

  Then he watched in horror as the woman grew. She burst the seams of her dress as her skin became lumpy and gray-green, her hair fell away, any features which made her a woman were dissolved into the lump of mutating flesh. She twitched and writhed now, no longer screaming, her body being bent and twisted by mounds of new muscle.

  The ritual did not last that long, and Jais finally turned away as it finished, no longer morbidly caught up in the horror. The woman was a kroll now, with no vestige of her human heritage remaining.

  “This is the fate that awaits you, drahksan.”

  Like Holn!

  Jais strung his uncle’s bow and had an arrow nocked within a few heartbeats. He’d been trained to shoot since he was ten. He could fell a deer at two hundred paces.

  Aunt Sarelle was only about a hundred paces away…

  But he hesitated, hands trembling, as he sighted her floating form down the shaft of the arrow.

  He had to end this, before she was turned into an abomination. He had to end… her, but he couldn’t. His hand wouldn’t release.

  His entire being was at war. He couldn’t allow her to be made into a krolloc, but he couldn’t kill her either. To take her life, the woman who had raised him, was absurd. She was essentially his mother.

  “Jais, no.”