"No, she doesn't, does she?" Checuti agreed reflectively.
"She knows that she's going into a region where dark landers and drago mites are fighting for possession of the forest, with who knows what other human forces involved. She must have a very powerful reason for doing that a crazy reason, maybe, but far more powerful than mother-love for the princess. I think it might have something to do with the secret commandments. That could be what binds Ereleth and the dark lander women together. They're all witches ~ parties to the same secret lore."
"That's superstitious rubbish," Andris said.
"Perhaps it is," said the thief-master, 'but crazy situations bring out the craziness in people. I need to know what's going on if I'm to figure out a way to get us out of this. "
"We wouldn't have got into it in the first place," Andris pointed out, 'if you hadn't played that idiotic trick on, me back at the inn.
If you'd just stayed at home counting your coin and left me to make a deal with Phar, neither of us would need sdving from the witch- queen and her over-sized lackey. "
"That's true," Checuti admitted ruefully.
"Personally," Andris said,
"I think you're as crazy as she is. If I'd just brought off the crime of a lifetime I wouldn't have allowed myself to be distracted by the nonsensical claims of your blood brotherhood with a bunch of savages. Surely you could have found a way around it?"
Checuti didn't answer for a minute or so, and Andris wondered whether he might be turning the question over in his mind, seeking for a clue as to the cause of his own folly. Finally, he said: "I suppose I could. To tell you the truth, it wasn't just the Uluru - I'd become curious on my own account about what the princess told
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me and what Fraxinus planned to do. You may
think me all kinds of a fool, but it was the adventure in it that got me hooked. I've always been a sucker for that kind of thing. That's why I made my exit from Xandria with such a flourish believe it or not, the business of stealing the coin in such spectacular fashion meant far more to me than actually having it. It was the crime of a lifetime far more was involved than mere greed. I never had so much pleasure out of anything as I had from its planning, and from the execution of the plan. Afterwards as soon as it was done, without any interval at all I began to feel empty, hungry for further intrigue, desperate for something else in which I could immerse myself. I was wide open to infection by new dreams, and the princess just happened to be on hand to provide a few. Does any of that make sense?"
"If it does," Andris told him drily, 'you certainly got your wish.
We're immersed in this up to our necks, and we're infected with something very nasty indeed. "
"As I told the witch," the thief-master said, with a wry smile, 'she might have won our co-operation far less brutally. I was looking for an adventure, not a tooth-and-nail fight for survival. "
"What chance do we actually have of finding the princess, do you think?"
Andris asked.
"If she's still with Keshvara, very good," Checuti answered.
"Keshvara knows her way around, and she's a force to be reckoned with no matter what she and Lucrezia have to face in the heart of the forest. The real question is, if we do find the princess, what then?
Somehow, I don't think Ereleth will simply let us go. I think she has further plans. I wish I knew what they . . . "
He stopped abruptly as Ereleth walked over to where they were sitting.
"We need food for tomorrow," she said.
"One of you will have to come with me, to help me gather what we can."
"It's the middle of the night," Checuti said unenthusiascially.
"All kinds of nasty things are abroad. The thickets around the tree trunks will be alive with flower worms
"That's why it's a good time," Ereleth retorted.
"Provided that you know what's edible and what's not."
"If I had a dark lander blowpipe and a dark lander knowledge I might be able to agree," Checuti countered.
"As it is . . ."
"You!" said Ereleth, pointing at Andris.
"You can come. Don't be
^J9
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afraid I won't ask y^Sfi to stick your precious hands into any place where they might get stung. You'll just have to hope that I don't get stung either or that if I do, I can get the antidote out quickly enough. "
Andris got up slowly. There didn't seem to be much point in complaining.
Ereleth gave him a lantern and two sacks to hold, then led him away from the makeshift camp. She went from thicket to thicket, studying each one intently for several minutes. i All she picked out of the first few were vegetable growths that ;| could have been taken at any time, but eventually somewhat to Andris's horror she found a cluster of squirming slug-like creatures busy within one of the palely lit miniature forests and plucked them one by one.
"Don't worry," she said to Andris. The ones that sting are bigger and flatter, with bunches of tentacles on their backs. There's one of the bad ones, see higher up. "
Andris followed the direction of her pointing finger. The thing she was pointing at was nearly thirty sims long and eighteen broad, with a big hump in the centre of its dorsal surface, from which protruded eight or ten tentacles, each about four sims long. Its body was dappled with various shades of grey, but the tentacles were milky white. He stepped back but they were already moving on to the next tree. i These won't even make you sick,"
Ereleth said, dropping another into the sack while Andris held the neck open to receive it. " If only we could find a climber or two to go up into the canopy for us we'd be able to stock up with fruit and birds, but that's not women's work. "
"You'd find it much easier if you only had two mouths to feed,"
Andris pointed out.
"We're no real use to you here."
"You will be if we run into drago mite workers," Ereleth said tersely.
"A man your size might even be able to tackle a warrior. The fat man can deal with dark lander men far more easily than I can . . . and it might be as well to have something to trade if Keshvara's inclined to be difficult. don't have your map now . . . and the unswerving loyalty of its maker. Don't underrate your usefulness."
"You're not going to let us go when you find the princess, are you?"
Andris said dully.
"You've no intention of going back to Xandria."
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"We'll go back one day," the old woman said calmly, 'but not immediately.
We have other business first. "
"In the Dragomite Hills?"
Ereleth laughed sharply.
"No," she said, with altogether unnecessary contempt.
"In the Grey Waste." She was moving on yet again, having picked nothing but bulbous fungal growths from the last thicket. For a moment, Andris thought she was joking--but he couldn't believe that Ereleth was the kind of person who indulged in banter.
"I thought nothing earthly can live in the Grey Waste," he said. It was a place he had only heard spoken of in curses and legends.
"Not much that's earthly does live there," she agreed, 'but can is a different matter. You'll eat a lot of unearthly food while we're in the forest and be none the worse for it. We'll survive. "
"But what possible reason . . . ?"
"Serpents live there," she added, almost as if it were an afterthought.
"There are said to be Serpents in the forest as well as drago mites Andris said guardedly.
"Serpents controlling drago mites in fact or so Checuti says."
"Perhaps it's true," Ereleth said, teasingly giving nothing away.
"Perhaps we'll meet them, if it is true. There are no Serpents in the far north, I suppose?"
"None that I know of," Andris told her.
"Too cool. Serpents like heat almost as much as Salamanders. Earthly things thrive in temperate climes, but they have a harder time of it in the tropics.
Hereabouts there was a kind of balance . . . but it was always more delicate than it seemed. Nothing lasts for ever, you know, and when balance fails, chaos is quick to come."
"Is that what's happening?" Andris asked curiously.
"Is chaos coming - first to the hills and the forest, then to Khalorn . ..
and ultimately to Xandria itself? Is that what your precious secret commandments are all about? Do they tell you what to do when chaos comes?"
She rounded on him then, and he saw, somewhat to his surprise, that she was genuinely alarmed.
"What do you know about the secret commandments?" she asked, with some asperity.
He opened his mouth to tell her that they were just myths and 261
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idle
fancies, and titfu he knew no more about them than anyone else, but immediately changed his mind. There might, he thought, be some advantage to be gained from humouring this kind of craziness.
"Ferentina is a civilised nation," he told her.
"Like you, I have royal blood in my veins, and I learned royal traditions in the schoolroom. I was taught to beware of false commandments but always to respect the true." He cast about desperately for something clever which might be used to back up these hazy f implications, and remembered the legend which the blind storyteller had told him in the Wayfaring Tree.
"There are no Serpents in Ferentina," he said, 'but that doesn't mean that we don't know what gift it was that the Serpent brought to the forefathers in Idun, or what promise it was that the forefathers made and failed to fulfill.
"
Andris was warming to his task now, and had begun accompanying his inventions with dramatic gestures. Unfortunately, one of these expansive flourishes swung the lantern so violently that the flame which had grown feeble- suddenly guttered out.
They weren't left in total darkness, but the removal of the bright light left their eyes in dire. need of adaptation to the fainter radiance of the thicket next to which they stood. Andris cursed his luck, and took two brisk steps away from the tree, lest there be flower worms of the kind Ereleth had pointed out lurking amid the parasitic halo.
It was a wise move or would have been, had he not been under such a powerful obligation to his undesired Companion.
Ereleth, less anxious about the darkness than he, began to ask a question which she obviously considered urgent, but she only got as far as
"Tell me . . ." when she was abruptly cut off. The next word stuck in her throat, restricted to a faint gurgle which was a most unsatisfactory symbol of alarm and astonishment.
It was Andris who screamed, as the dull sound of impact told him that something- it was quite impossible to see or guess what- had dropped out of the branches of the tree to fall over Ereleth's shoulders like a great black blanket.
The old woman fell to the floor beneath the creature's weight, but Andris knew that she hadn't been knocked unconscious. She file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Brian%20Stableford%20-%20Serpents%20Blood.TXT (267 of 495) [11/1/2004 12:26:21 AM]
was wrestling the thing
as best she could, thrashing madly with her arms against the shadow-shape, which was as black as black could be.
Andris dropped the useless lantern and the two partly loaded sacks.
He had no weapon but he dared not hesitate. He stepped forward, reached down, grabbed two great handfuls of coarse fur, and hauled the thing away from its victim.
It was unexpectedly light- and unexpectedly agile. Suddenly, it was all teeth and claws, which seemed to be ripping at him from every direction, scoring his flesh in a dozen different places.
Absurdly, the one thought which echoed in his mind was when balance fails, chaos is quick to come . .
Andris realised that the creature with which he was locked in mortal combat must be at least two mets from snout to toe, with long lithe limbs. While he held it up as he was doing now it was free to maul him, and he knew that his only chance was to stifle its movements. He turned on his heel so that he was facing away from the spot where Ereleth had fallen, and deliberately fell over, coming down as hard as he could.
Just as the creature had dropped from above to force its victim to the ground, Andris now forced it down in its turn- and Andris was a much bigger, much heavier creature than the forest predator. As his weight came crashing down upon it the monster let out the most astonishing wail of anguish.
The idea Andris now had in his mind was that he must grab the creature's forelegs in a kind of hammerlock, forcing its claws wide while his knees pressed down on its body from behind. Unfortunately, there was far more optimism than realism in this intention, and although his big hands pulled the thick fur this way and that he had not the slightest idea whereabouts he had taken hold of the beast. He had certainly not managed to render its claws harmless, for it still seemed to be lashing out in every possible direction- thankfully without making much substantial contact.
He bore down more powerfully, trying to flatten the creature out upon the bare ground, but it was wriggling free now. He felt a set of talons raking the top of his head, and was glad that his hair was lately grown into a thick, untidy mat. Even so, blood began to pour down his forehead and into the corners of his eyes.
Screaming with rage, Andris clenched his fists as hard as he 263
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could
within theAaggy hide, and changed tack. He hauled backwards with his arms while using his massive legs to anchor as much of the beast as he could, stretching its spine in the hope of snapping it like a twig. Something gave, but it wasn't the creature's spine. The beast screamed again, but it didn't stop lashing out. Desperately, Andris hurled himself down again, crushing his adversary against the hard soil.
He heard Checuti shouting something, but if it was an instruction he could not get the sense of it for the blood roaring in his ears.
He felt hot breath upon his brow, and knew that the beast must have twisted in his grip to face him. Its breath carried a foetid carrion smell which made him feel strangely faint, and he found to his amazement and alarm that the creature had wriggled out from underneath his body and was now on top of him, where it was far more accustomed to be in respect of its usual prey. It was scrabbling with its claws in a further attempt to rake and rend him.
Andris now had the idea in his mind that at any moment one of his companions might leap to the rescue, thrusting a spear into his attacker's heart, or lopping off its head with a single stroke of a sword- but his mind's eye-bathed in the glow of his fevered i||t imagination, while the real world around him was so dark as fully I'll to justify the forest's ironic name.
' He was flat against the ground now, but he rebelled reflexively against the threat of being rendered helpless and torn apart by trying to roll over, taking his adversary with him as though it were some other man with whom he was engaged in a game of wrestling.
The creature would not consent to being rolled, let alone to being rolled on.
It writhed within his grip, and struck out with its vicious forepaws, catching him about the head not once but twice, knocking him dizzy- but he was fighting man enough to know when to cling tightly, and cling he did, trying with all his might to force his face forward into the thick black fur, so that his poor battered head would be out of the demon's reach. Dimly, he was aware that Checuti was still shouting, yelling his heart out as though to destroy the beast of prey with lethal echoes. The weight pressing down upon him grew more oppressive
still, and suddenly his face was far too full of choking fur, his open mouth blocked
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with coarse hair that was alive with
lice or some other kind of vermin.
His un clawed hands dug into the flesh they held with all the fervour he could muster, and now he was utterly desperate to roll, if only to free himself long enough to take a breath but he felt that all the breath had been squeezed out of him, and that there was an enormous pressure in his chest, and a terrible tension in his throat. His lungs were doing everything they could to draw air, but impotently . all there was to be drawn was rank fur and vermin, and all there was to be felt was horror and dread . . .
The only heroic thing left for him to do was to think: Better this than slow starvation! But he did, at least, manage to think it, and think it almost as if it were a defiant shout, before his mind's eye and his mind's ear were lost in dizziness, and it seemed that death was rushing to meet him at a truly awesome velocity . . .
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a after a hard day's ride to catch up with Fraxinus's expedition in the fringes of the Forest of Absolute Night, when time seemed to fly past, Jacom Cerri found the next three days exceedingly boring. The caravan moved at an unhurried pace along a well-worn trail without encountering trouble of any kind.
Carus Fraxinus had made no objection when Jacom told him of his intention to tag along until they met up with Hyry Keshvara -indeed, he had confessed himself pleased to have his numbers augmented by ten good fighting men.
Jacom gathered that he and Phar had expected to recruit a dozen dark landers to serve as an escort, but that circumstances had forced him to make do with half that number, two of whom were hardly more than boys.
"To tell you the truth, Jacom," the merchant said, in a rare confidential moment, 'we don't really know what we're heading into.
The rum ours about drago mites invading the forest with human riders are probably exaggerated everything Aulakh knows about their habits suggests that they rarely leave their nests for very long, and don't associate with human beings but whatever blight has opened a way through their own territory has obviously disturbed them. Aulakh has a salve which is supposed to stop them attacking its wearers. They use odours for communication and this particular stuff is supposedly construed by the workers and warriors alike as a command to let well alone, but I'm a little doubtful as to its efficacy. I'm sorry that your encounter with Checuti didn't work out as you hoped, but I have to confess that a company of men bearing swords and half-pikes might be a handy thing to have in reserve if we do encounter drago mites
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