‘Where would you see?’ said Far Gaze irritably.
‘The land about, as far as you can take me. I have had this cast once before. It showed me many miles beyond, but the mage cooked himself in casting it. I could not eat meat for weeks after.’ Some of the men chuckled.
Far Gaze’s jaw clenched. ‘A very foolish mage that must have been, not to know certain limitations. I heard a similar tale, in which the magician accidentally cooked the ones he cast upon. Such things can happen. It is a shame.’
‘The Mayor meant no disrespect, good mage—’
‘Shut up! All crowd in. My version of the spell is cast not on one person but over a small area, so several of you will be cast upon. This was once a hunting spell, used to confuse dangerous animals by ruining their vision. The tribes used it. My people altered it and made it more useful. I will be blind. All of you will have “far gaze”. It is safe to speak to me during the cast but do not touch me. If you feel any pain, step away and keep your eyes closed till we are finished.’ He looked around the glade. There was no sign of recent human activity; the old path was grown over. ‘I am troubled – this place is not safe. One of you stand watch. Go! We’ll soon be blind to our surrounds. Enough dithering, I cast now. Shut your eyes.’
He sniffed hard for a minute or two, waiting for some ingredient in the airs. His eyes rolled back in his head; he began a low murmuring in a lost tribal tongue, almost a song, his resonant voice pleasant to hear. Seven of the Mayor’s men crowded in around him, along with Tauk and Siel, all smelling of the road, Siel acutely conscious of the Mayor’s closeness. She hoped he would bump into her, longed for his touch even if it were inadvertent. The road did that too – made one ravenously horny – and she felt some of the other men standing much closer to her than they strictly needed to; the odd brush of a hand or elbow against her butt or hip. Just now she didn’t mind that at all.
Soon Far Gaze’s voice was like a physical thing touching her inner mind, the feel of it pleasant despite provoking a need to squirm away. It went on for a while, then, as though the touch had hit on some key spot, all in a rush the hill fell away in a spinning lurch, to the gasps and mutters of the men crowding in.
From high above they saw the land they’d just ridden through, with occasional people and wagons moving along the roads. The land off road was dotted now and then with Tormentors, motionless or stalking along. ‘Take us further afield, if you can,’ said Tauk. ‘Hear me, mage?’
‘He cannot answer you, but he hears you,’ said Siel.
Now whizzing beneath was the country they had travelled overnight, the road winding like a river. More abandoned wagons could be seen on their sides, sometimes in smouldering ruin, goods scattered over the fields, bodies abandoned. No Tormentors were here, aside from the occasional corpse of one broken in pieces.
It was as their sight flew near the Great Dividing Road and travelled along it many quick miles north that the Mayor drew a sharp breath. There was the horde that had been Blain’s rebel force. Each one looked small from the height of their spell’s vantage point, so that it looked like a repulsive swarm of insects crawling along. ‘What compels them onward?’ one of the men said. ‘Whose order to march do they follow?’
‘No one’s. They are wild creatures, not thinking ones,’ said another.
‘Yet look, they all head north as though on some mission, obeying some order. The ones who don’t move have been distracted.’
‘Nightmare!’ Siel said, suddenly realising. ‘It must be him, or the other god at World’s End, Wisdom!’
‘Why do you say this?’ said Tauk.
‘The gods there were keeping things from crossing the barrier,’ she said excitedly. ‘Blain explained it to us. The gods must have somehow compelled these things to flee north, away from the barrier, so they would not cross back!’
‘Surely neither you nor Blain can claim to know the minds of the gods,’ said the Mayor. ‘But whether you’re right or wrong—’
‘Come back!’ the watch-man shouted. ‘Danger! Come back!’
4
Far Gaze ceased chanting. For a little while the world spun crazily around; there was a sensation of falling from high in the air even though their feet were planted. Each of them came to on the ground in a tangle of bodies. The man keeping watch stopped shouting.
When their sight returned it showed Far Gaze frenziedly hurling rocks at something on the overgrown path behind them. Siel was first to her feet. She reeled back from the lone Tormentor which, with ponderous graceful movements, tore apart the man who’d kept watch. The streaks and drops of blood its hands flung through the air made it seem like a composer making music it alone could hear. The thrown rocks bounced off it harmlessly.
‘Stop throwing rocks and fight it!’ said one of the men, scrambling to his feet.
‘I am not casting combat spells,’ Far Gaze growled. ‘This is your Mayor’s fight. We are here against my wishes and I’ll not cook myself for you.’
Four men stood with weapons drawn. They hesitated before the Tormentor, having learned in the night how ineffectual swords could be against their hides. One said, ‘Do something, mage, or being cooked won’t be your greatest danger.’
A shape crashed through the curtain of ferns drawn about the down-hill pathway. Gorb emerged from the greenery with one of Bald’s guns in hand. ‘Great plan, leaving me behind,’ he said. He crouched on one knee, fired and sent a shot ricocheting over the beast’s head, bouncing through the glade behind it. He put another sharpened stone down the gun’s barrel, aimed more carefully and with a cracking sound the shot split a cleave in the Tormentor’s chest.
It went still for a moment then resumed playing with the almost-dead man in its hands, as if it did not realise it had just been badly hurt. The other men found their nerve and rushed at it. Their swords rang on its back but did little more than scratch it. The largest of them heaved his two-handed blade with an overhead diagonal swipe and cut off part of the creature’s foot.
The Tormentor tilted sideways, off balance. It turned the motion into a graceful sweeping reach for the man who’d cut it. He fell toward its spread hands.
‘Down!’ Siel yelled at the men. ‘Stay down! You are in the giant’s way!’
They did not get down. Gorb waited as long as he dared for a clear shot then chanced firing again. A part of the Tormentor’s head broke off and landed with a thump in the foliage some distance away.
The creature took a few steps then went still but for the curling of its spikes. More sword blows toppled its stiff body over. In the quiet that followed there came the creak, creak, creak indicating more of them nearby. ‘Hush!’ Far Gaze said. ‘They’re drawn by our sounds.’
‘Do something, mage, or you will be named an enemy of my city,’ said the Mayor.
Far Gaze looked stunned for a moment, then laughed. ‘If I do nothing, no one will live to spread news of your city’s new enemy. No one but me, that is – I can escape safely enough. So which is it, Mayor? Do you hate me or love me?’
‘Enough!’ Siel whispered fiercely, grabbing Far Gaze’s arm. ‘Help us! This excursion was not my idea either. I am willing to die in battle but not to those things.’
‘Oh fine! Everyone, listen. Lie down, stay low. Gorb, come closer.’
‘What do you cast?’ said the Mayor.
‘A spell that would shield us from the sight of men. But some animals can see through it, and it may not work on these creatures. There is no time for my other options. I gamble my life for yours, Mayor. I don’t have to do this. Remember it if we live! You are steeply in my debt. You personally, and your city. Do you agree?’
Tauk’s eyes blazed with anger. ‘I do.’
‘Good. I have made your word to me binding and if you lied you are cursed. All of you be utterly still, make no sound.’
They lay flat on their bellies among the long stiff grass and dead leaves. The creaking sounds seemed to come through the trees around them, at times from where the pa
th curved behind. Far Gaze began an urgent chant, till his low murmur sounded like wind blowing through leaves. Cold air passed over them as though blown from the magician’s lips. ‘Hold your nerve,’ the Mayor whispered. Siel did not turn her head to see what had provoked his comment, but she heard the creatures coming. The air filled with their stink. She had an almost overpowering urge to watch them, to glean some scrap of knowledge of the creatures while they didn’t know they were being observed. Dust from the ground went in her nose and made her want to cough. Creak, creak, creak…
Here came one stalking through their midst, by luck not bringing its feet’s pointed blades down on any of them. It paused by the corpse of the slain Tormentor. The newcomer was taller than the other had been, its arms so long its finger-blades reached the ground. Its head moved in a fast low swing as it peered at the corpse; its mane of needles faintly rattled. It went still.
Another came. Like black knives the long spikes of its feet sank into the ground close to Siel’s face. She tensed, expecting to feel the stab of blades sinking into her. Hold your nerve, hold your nerve, she thought. Did the magician’s spell work? They were not invisible to each other, and she could not be certain the Tormentors didn’t see them. One of the men would panic and run, she was sure. He would dispel the whole illusion …
The two creatures stood close together and went still. Perfectly still, Lalie’s voice echoed, with an image of the hunters’ hall and all its death. She shut her eyes as she all too clearly envisioned the same death spread over this ground they lay upon, her own remains indiscernible among the glistening red.
The minutes stretched out as though they were in the pull of the creatures’ bent time. One of the two suddenly shifted, its limbs swinging in smooth arcs, its many hooks and spikes in a flurry of motion as though by these means it spoke an urgent message to the other. It stalked away down the path. The other followed.
Siel felt triumphant sweet relief for just a second, till yet another came from the path behind them. Her skin crawled as she heard it come close, closer, the heavy press of its feet indicating it was the largest of them yet. Then the man next to her hissed through his teeth in pain. She turned her head ever so slightly. One of its long dark legs had planted right beside her, the spikes all down its length curling. Two of its foot’s five long blades had gone through the wrist of the man next to her.
Its other toes tentatively explored the ground around it with gentle touches. Then finally, finally the creature’s foot lifted and it moved on. She could have kissed the man beside her.
The Tormentor went to where the others had lingered and stood still as stone.
There was noise of more of the creatures coming. Siel sighed deeply. Would the next one walk over her? Would Far Gaze’s spell break if their spiked feet trampled him?
Movement caught her eye then: a small hand waving. She heard in clear focus a tapping sound that had been going on for a little while now as though to get her attention. The hand came, it seemed, from the ground. As though …
Tii’s face popped up. He looked back behind to where the lingering Tormentor now seemed engaged in a silent dance of its sweeping arms and head. Tii couldn’t see them through Far Gaze’s spell, but he knew they were here. ‘Tii!’ she whisper-called.
‘Hush,’ said the man who’d endured the Tormentor’s foot. His voice was quiet as a breath but she heard furious anger in it for her speaking after what he’d endured in silence.
Tii had heard her. ‘Hole! Back, not far! Come down?’ he called.
‘Take us?’ she whispered as loud as she dared.
‘Yes! Big one not fit.’
The Tormentor, if it had heard the exchange, did not react – its slow dance went on. Siel took a deep breath, counted to three, then yelled, ‘All of you, up and run, now!’
She got up and dashed toward Tii without pausing to see if the others followed. Tii darted off like a rabbit, out of a groundman hole too small for the rest of them to fit through. He dived into a slanted cut in the ground she’d not have seen without him going through it first. She dived in after him, her feet hitting its floor painfully hard.
She rolled away to make room for the others. Gorb’s head poked in but his shoulders would not fit. ‘Tii! What about the giant?’ said Siel.
Tii eyed Gorb nervously. ‘Cave, that way,’ he said, pointing. ‘Go in. Big enough. Meet there soon.’
‘I’m going to go find Bald,’ said Gorb, ‘I left him down the path. They might’ve got him.’
‘Fine, but go! You’re blocking the hole!’
Gorb stood aside for the Mayor’s men, who slid down the dim tunnel and gazed about as though hardly daring to believe what they saw. The small space filled with their hoarse panting. Tii looked at them pensively as though he’d not expected this many would be coming underground with him. Siel was too relieved to care. She laughed, embraced the man next to her, embraced Tii. ‘Why are you here?’ she said, crying tears of relief.
‘Follow,’ he said. ‘Follow you from place with water. Never far. Tunnels all beneath. Secret tunnels, big people never find. Found friends, below. They come too. Not far.’
‘You followed me all this way? Since the tower?’
‘Followed, by stone paths. Deep path.’ He tapped the cavern wall. ‘Felt you. Felt bad things, near you. But no way up. Stone told us where you came. Hard work to follow. You go fast. Where Shadow?’
Eric, he means where’s Eric. ‘I don’t know, Tii. He’s not with us. Can you help us? Can you lead us all back to Tanton, underground? It may be the only safe way for us to get there.’
‘I take you,’ Tii said, still eyeing off the Mayor’s entourage with grave concern. ‘These men come?’
‘Yes. I know that’s uncomfortable for you. But Shadow would want it.’
‘For Shadow. I take men to city. Only for Shadow.’
5
Their brief walk through the caverns was the closest Siel had come to happiness in a while now: a rush of relief and joy to be alive. Her head spun with what she’d seen in Far Gaze’s spell. Generations had known only inevitable defeat or long and bitter stalemate. She felt she were dreaming. What would her parents think, that this day had come in their daughter’s lifetime? Would they feel avenged by her part in making history, or just saddened by all she’d gone through?
‘I did it for you,’ she whispered, tears coming to her eyes as she imagined them with her now, hearing her. ‘I did it all for you.’
If Tii’s groundman friends were nearby, they were too nervous to show themselves. Soon he took them to a part of the tunnel he had to widen out for them to pass through. On the other side, Gorb the half-giant waited in a hillside cave. Next to him Bald rocked back and forth on his heels, face covered with his hands. Gorb spoke consoling words. One of the guns was braced on his knee. A small dead Tormentor lay in broken pieces at the cave entrance.
The Mayor touched Gorb’s gun barrel very carefully. ‘What is this device?’ he said.
‘Bald made it,’ said Gorb. A hint of anger had come into his slow speech. ‘I got six more of em in the pack. It’s what I wanted to show you earlier. But you rode off, left me behind. It cost one of your men his life. That matter much?’
‘Watch your words, giant,’ said Tauk.
‘Watch yours, human. Your bones break easy; your skin is soft; that sword won’t kill me.’
‘This is an ally of ours,’ said Siel, mortified.
Gorb scoffed. ‘Not of mine. His city never did much for my kind. Made it a crime to hunt us. But that didn’t stop em. One bribe and the Hunter’s free. I’m not loyal to him. I could break all these guns. Or I could take Bald and run to some other city. Think a different city would want a look at these guns? They might make a thousand more. Then they’ll make war on him,’ he jerked his thumb at Tauk, ‘whether they call him friend today or not. Like he’ll do to them.’
‘I do not make war on friends,’ said Tauk in a gentler tone. ‘I can’t speak for past rulers of
my city. You remain free to go where you will.’
‘And not because of some human boss’s say-so,’ said Gorb.
‘Of course. You’re invited to come with us to the safety of my city’s walls, if you will mind your words. I cannot be spoken to this way before my people.’
‘I’ll go with those two if they want me.’ Gorb nodded to Siel and Far Gaze. ‘I’ll ask them that in private.’
‘I’ve not decided my course,’ grunted the folk magician. Still naked, he sat with legs crossed on the stone floor. ‘It is now a very changed world. Leave me alone, all of you. Mayor, some advice. Get back to your city, prepare it for battle, if battle is not already upon it. I’ll visit to claim my debt when I am ready. And I will claim it. Lives are expensive. The lives of Mayors? More so.’
Tauk’s jaw clenched; he didn’t reply. He and his men filed out through the cave, back into the tunnels.
Siel picked up from the ground one of the broken pieces of Tormentor Gorb had blasted apart. She had to will herself to touch it, but it was just like holding cool stone. The spikes were slightly flexible. ‘The corpses get weaker, but very slowly,’ said Far Gaze, watching her with his eyes half closed. ‘They stay hard but become easier to cut and break. It is not like any other flesh I know.’
‘What are they?’ she said, and suddenly tears were in her eyes. Angrily she wiped them away. ‘I can’t understand them. Not anything about them.’
‘The wolf scented things which I now understand. The airs that changed them are not normal, not even in Levaal South. They are like poisonous silt on a river bottom. Something kicked them up, probably the stoneflesh giant that crossed. They settled quickly and sank again. Your friend Tii and his people will need to stay away from tunnels near the Conflict Point, once this poison settles again.’
‘Conflict Point,’ she repeated, intrigued by the phrase. ‘What is this poison? A flung weapon?’
Shadow (The Pendulum Trilogy) Page 31
