“Someone playing the part,” said Caina.
On the other hand, there really had been a Moroaica, and there really had been a Red Huntress.
“It was her,” whispered Sophia. “It was her. She knew the truth.”
“What do you mean?” said Caina.
She met Caina’s gaze, tears starting in her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
Caina started to ask a question, and then the sounds of howls rang over the frozen forest.
Chapter 10: Mavrokhi
Kylon did not like or trust oracles.
That said, the Surge, the oracle of the Kyracian people, had given him a useful ability.
She had given him the power to sense the presence of spirits from the netherworld. At first, he had thought the ability had been limited to the nagataaru. Later, Kylon had realized he could sense the presence of any spirit of the netherworld that made its way to the material world, and there were countless different kinds of spirits. They organized themselves into kingdoms and orders and empires as mortals did, and most of the spirits of the netherworld were indifferent to humans and the material world.
Some were not. Some preyed upon mortals. The nagataaru did. The ifriti spirits that Cassander Nilas had summoned also preyed upon mortals.
Kylon had never before sensed the spirits that now approached them, but they were just as malevolent as the nagataaru and just as furious as the ifriti. Yet there was something…bestial about them, something that made him think of rabid animals. The nagataaru had been cold and sadistic, creatures that gorged themselves on pain. The ifriti were all hunger, burning with the desire to consume the world in their flames.
These spirits were also hungry, and they desired to rend and tear and kill, to feast on their victims…
“Kylon?”
Caina grabbed his arm.
Her emotions suddenly flooded through his arcane sense. He felt the layer of ice in her mind, the cold calculation that her training and experiences as a Ghost had imparted to her. Kylon also sensed her fear. She was mostly frightened for him, and the howls that rang around them were inspiring that fear.
Those howls almost sounded like wolves.
“Those aren’t wolves,” said Seb.
“Are they?” said Caina. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard wolves howl before.”
“I have.” Seb’s emotional sense grew grim and hard as he drew his sword. “Wolves don’t sound like this. The howls are too deep. Whatever they are, they aren’t wolves.”
“No,” said Kylon. “They’re spirits.”
“Spirits?” said Caina.
“I’ve never sensed them before,” said Kylon. “They’re like…animals, rabid animals…”
“Mavrokhi,” said Sophia.
The girl’s voice was calm, glassy calm, but her sense was pure, unbroken terror.
“Mavrokhi?” said Caina.
“Impossible,” said Seb. “They were all exterminated by the Magisterium years ago…”
“What the hell is a mavrokh?” said Caina.
“The Hounds of the Iron King,” said Sophia, still in that brittle voice. “His wolves and his hunters. They’re coming for me. I’m sorry. I brought them to you. I should have told you the truth. I should have let the Temnoti kill me. I…”
“Sophia, stop talking,” said Caina. “Kylon, how far away are they?”
“Not far,” said Kylon. The malevolent spirits were just at the edge of his senses. “A third of a mile, maybe half a mile away. They’re not moving fast, and they’re spread out.”
“A hunting pack,” said Seb. “They’ll start circling and try to surround us.”
“That Sanctuary Stone the Bronze Witch mentioned,” said Kylon.
Seb frowned. “Do you think she was lying? She might have been working with the mavrokhi. This Sanctuary Stone might be a trap.”
“It might be,” said Caina, “but if those spirits catch us, they’ll find they caught more than they wanted.” She gestured, and her valikon sprang into existence in her right hand. “These can destroy spirits. That might make the mavrokhi change their minds. We’ll run east.”
“Leave me behind,” said Sophia. “It’s me they want. It’s…”
“No.” Caina grabbed Sophia’s shoulder and spun her to the east, and some of the girl’s fear eased. “Run! Move!”
They ran from the road and into the trees to the east, the deep howls ringing behind them.
###
Caina darted through the trees as fast as she could, looking back to make sure the others were keeping pace. She also wanted to make sure that Sophia did not fall behind. The girl had the blank, empty expression of someone facing certain and irrevocable doom. Perhaps the boyar’s creatures had been coming for Sophia, but Caina refused to leave the girl for them.
They ran through the trees, the snow crunching beneath their boots. Caina wished they could have concealed their tracks, but the snow made that impossible. And if these Hounds of the Iron King were anything like real hounds, they might have the same keen sense of smell.
The howls rang again, deep and cold and malevolent. Just listening to them made all the hair on the back of Caina’s neck stand on end, made a wave of fear roll through her gut. She had never suffered any particular fear of animals, but listening to those awful howls made her understand why some people were terrified of dogs and wolves.
Because those creatures were hunting for her, and she heard the hungry rage in those howls.
“It sounds like they’re getting closer,” said Seb, jumping over a tangled root, his armor clattering as he did. He wasn’t even breathing hard yet. Evidently, the training of a battle magus had left him in good physical condition.
“They are,” said Kylon, his voice hard with concentration and strain. The valikon in his right hand swirled with freezing mist. “But not by much. They’re just following us.”
“Can you tell how many?” said Seb.
“Five to seven, I think,” said Kylon.
“Likely they are driving us,” said Caina. But to where, though? An ambush? Caina wanted to ask Sophia more, but the girl was breathing hard, her whole attention turned towards running.
“It depends if this Bronze Witch was helping us or leading us into a trap,” said Kylon.
Caina didn’t know, but she suspected the Witch had been at least attempting to help them. If she had wanted to betray them, she could have simply kept talking until the mavrokhi arrived. Or she could have said nothing at all and remained hidden, watching from concealment as the mavrokhi attacked.
“She told us about the Sanctuary Stone,” said Caina.
“She could have been lying,” said Seb. “Or she could have been pretending to be the Bronze Witch. Children in Ulkaar are told tales of the Bronze Witch to frighten them into behaving…”
“It was her!” said Sophia, wheezing as she ran. “She knew the truth. She knew my heart. I’m sorry, I…”
“Keep going!” said Caina. She dodged around another root and kept running.
Kylon cursed. “There are two more of those spirits ahead.”
“Then they are herding us,” said Seb.
Caina opened her mouth to suggest they change direction, and then she saw the glow.
It was invisible to her eyes of flesh, but it was clear as daylight to the vision of the valikarion. It was the glow of an Iramisian warding spell, an old and strong one, and it was right ahead of them.
“I can see the Sanctuary Stone!” said Caina. “Straight ahead! Keep running!”
A chorus of those deep, unnatural howls rang out, sending a chill down her spine. The fear also gave her strength, and she forced her legs to further speed.
Then the forest opened into a clearing, and Caina saw the Sanctuary Stone.
Caina had not known what to expect. Based on Seb’s description of the Warmaiden, she expected perhaps a crumbling Iramisian tower. Maybe it would look like a smaller version of Silent Ash Temple in the Kaltari Highlands.
Instead, s
he ran into a half-overgrown garden.
Caina stopped, looking around in surprise, the others halting around her. A frozen pond dominated the clearing. A small island stood in the center of the pond, and from it rose an obelisk of white stone about twenty feet tall. Iramisian characters had been carved on all four sides, and Caina recognized the symbols of warding and protection. The symbols glowed, giving off a pale white light. Barren bushes stood around the pond, separated by paths of flat flagstones. Time had taken its toll on the garden, and the flagstones were cracked and worn. Yet this had clearly been a garden, planted by someone with skill and an eye for beauty.
A powerful warding spell had been placed on the obelisk, and it radiated out to cover most of the clearing and the garden.
“I’ll be damned,” said Seb. “A Sanctuary Stone of the Warmaiden, here in the wilds of northern Ulkaar. I wonder why it was forgotten.”
“Maybe it doesn’t work properly,” said Kylon. He looked at Caina. “Do you think the spell will keep these mavrokh things at bay?”
“I don’t know,” said Caina, looking at the light radiating from the obelisk. “It’s a warding spell of the Words of Lore. I saw Annarah use something similar. I don’t think it will stop a malevolent spirit, but the spell will hinder them.” She turned to Seb, who stood with his sword ready, his eyes scanning the trees around the clearing. “Just what is a mavrokh?”
“A human possessed by a mavrokh spirit,” said Seb.
Caina shared a look with Kylon. They had encountered humans possessed by malevolent spirits before.
The Red Huntress had almost killed them both.
“Is a mavrokh like a nagataaru?” said Caina.
“A what?” said Seb. “I’ve never heard the word nagataaru, I fear.”
“Fine,” said Caina. Another chorus of howls rang out from the trees. Sophia shivered and stepped back, her eyes darting back and forth. “Then what can you tell me about the mavrokhi?”
“The Hounds of the Iron King,” said Sophia.
“They were one of Rasarion Yagar’s creations,” said Seb. “He summoned bestial spirits from the netherworld and bound them into his szlachts. The szlachts gained the ability to shapeshift and become wolf-like creatures, though far larger and faster than any natural wolf. The Ulkaari called these spirits the mavrokhi, and the name also came to apply to the Hounds themselves.” He shook his head. “But the mavrokhi are extinct. The witch hunters of the Temple wiped them out long ago. Sometimes the petty necromancers or the followers of the Temnoti figure out how to transform themselves into mavrokhi, and the Magisterium kills them.”
“But the Magisterium is occupied with the civil war,” said Caina, looking at Sophia, “and Boyar Razdan and his friends are interested in the old ways, aren’t they?
Sophia said nothing but gave a miserable nod.
“Here they come,” said Kylon. “Get behind me.”
Caina stepped behind Kylon, her valikon in hand, Sophia shivering next to her. Seb came to Kylon’s side, sword in hand, and she saw the auras as both men prepared spells for battle. Caina held her valikon ready, the blade burning white, the Iramisian sigils glowing. She didn’t see any sorcerous auras in the trees as the mavrokhi approached. That didn’t mean anything, though. The Red Huntress hadn’t been able to use sorcery, but the nagataaru-possessed assassin had been one of the most dangerous enemies Caina had ever encountered.
Another chorus of those blood-freezing howls rang out, and she heard something heavy crashing through the trees. She saw dark shapes blurring between the trunks, and glimpsed something massive and covered in black fur.
Then the noises and the howls stopped.
“They’ve seen us,” said Kylon. “I think they’re trying to decide what to do.”
Caina nodded, her mind racing. That proved the mavrokhi, whatever they were, were not mindless beasts. She supposed wolves would have either come right at them or circled around the clearing to surround them. Caina waited. Once again, she wished she had throwing knives, though she didn’t know if the weapons would have been of any use against the mavrokhi.
The trees started rustling again, and a group of seven men entered the clearing, stopping at the edge of the light from the Sanctuary Stone.
They looked like young noblemen, and they wore dark clothing, heavy jackets lined with fur and long cloaks edged with wolf fur, their boots spattered with mud. All seven noblemen carried swords and daggers at their belts. They look like a group of young nobles out for a hunt. But hunters would have been mounted, and none of the men carried bows or arrows.
“They’re possessed,” said Kylon in Caerish. “All seven of them. I can sense the spirits. They’re…not pleasant.”
One of the men stepped forward. He was somewhere in his thirties, with slicked-back black hair and a drooping mustache styled like the statues of the Iron King that Caina had seen in Sigilsoara. The man walked into the area of the warding spell, grimacing a little, but shook off the effect.
He looked at Sophia and grinned, and she flinched.
“Sophia Zomanek,” said the nobleman, and he said something in Ulkaari that made Sophia go white.
“What did he say?” said Caina.
Seb frowned. “He said that he looks forward to experiencing her with both the senses of touch and taste.”
“Your friends speak the trader’s language, it seems,” said the nobleman in Caerish, looking at Kylon, Seb, and Caina with undisguised disdain. “Then perhaps they ought to learn that tradesmen ought not to interfere with their betters.”
“Who are you?” said Caina in Caerish.
The nobleman laughed at her. “Will the woman speak for the men?” He smirked at Sophia. “How pathetic you are. You run from the honor offered you, and hide behind a foreign woman.”
“If we are to have the honor of addressing our betters,” said Caina, “then perhaps we should know who they are.”
The nobleman stared at her. Despite his bluster and sneer, his eyes were cold and hard, the eyes of a man accustomed to killing. And she could tell the burning valikons that she and Kylon carried made him uneasy. Likely he had planned to simply rush Sophia with his friends, but caution had stayed his hand. Even if he did not recognize the valikons, it was possible the malevolent spirit in his head would, and the mavrokh would be whispering counsels of caution.
“After all,” said Caina, “this is very strange, isn’t it?”
The nobleman scoffed. “What do you mean?”
“You came out here to capture the girl, didn’t you?” said Caina. “You thought she would be alone, and that you could run her down with ease. Instead, you found her standing at a Sanctuary Stone of the Warmaiden, in the company of a battle magus,” she nodded at Seb, “and a Kyracian stormdancer.” She nodded toward her husband.
“And you, Nighmarian,” said the nobleman. His voice and face sneered, but his eyes were as cold as the frozen forest around him. “Whoever you are.”
“Whoever I am,” said Caina with a smile. She took a few steps forward, the valikon held low in her right hand. Kylon and Seb shifted, and so did the Ulkaari noblemen, but their leader remained motionless. “So. Who are you to threaten us?”
“My name,” said the nobleman, “is Rudjak, and I am a szlacht sworn to Razdan Nagrach, the boyar of Kostiv.”
“This is foolishness, Rudjak,” snarled another nobleman. “Kill them and take the girl. The boyar is not patient…”
“Silence, Varlov,” snapped Rudjak. “The boyar gave me this task, not you. And only a fool rushes forward without surveying the ground.” His eyes turned back to Caina. “Now. Who are you?”
“We are simply messengers,” said Caina. “By accident, our path took us to this region of Ulkaar, and we are returning home. While finding our way back to the road, we came across the girl, and she asked to travel with us. We accepted.”
Rudjak grunted. “You sound Imperial.”
“So I’m told,” said Caina. “I could use another accent if you like.
”
“Then do you support the Umbarians?” said Rudjak. “Or are you loyalists of the Empire?”
“To be blunt,” said Caina, “I have been exiled from the Empire, and the Umbarians want me dead. I’m not terribly welcome anywhere.”
Rudjak barked a harsh laugh. “A clever answer. The common fate of bearers of bad news, I suppose. Then what is your business in Ulkaar?”
“I have no business in Ulkaar,” said Caina. “Our errand is elsewhere. We want to leave as quickly as possible. We don’t wish any trouble with you or your boyar. Let us pass through your lands, and you’ll never hear from us again.”
Rudjak considered this. “We live in troubled times. The Emperor and the Umbarians battle against each other, and those who are unprepared will find themselves destroyed. Perhaps it would be for the best to allow you and your…bodyguards to pass unharmed through the boyar’s lands.”
“Rudjak!” said Varlov.
“The boyar has no need of further enemies,” said Rudjak with irritation. “And the Voivode will be furious if we provoke hostilities with another power, especially while he contests with that idiot in Risiviri.”
Caina kept the surprise from her face. It seemed that Rudjak had concluded that she and Kylon and Seb were emissaries from either the Empire or the Umbarians, and had no wish to draw the attention of either power. Perhaps Caina could bluff her way out of this yet.
“The boyar will soon be strong enough to destroy his enemies!” said Varlov. “No one can stop us. The old ways are coming back. The old powers are awakening. Soon both the Emperor and the Umbarians will bow to the true ruler of Ulkaar, and we shall stand at his right hand!” He glared at Caina. “I say we kill the two men and take the girl and the woman both back with us. We can listen to her scream when she joins the Boyar’s Hunt.” He looked at Caina and licked his lips. “I would enjoy that.”
Caina looked at Sophia, but the girl had gone rigid with fear. Kylon’s face was a cold mask. If it came to a fight, he was probably going to kill Varlov first.
Just what was the Boyar’s Hunt?
Ghost in the Ring (Ghost Night Book 1) Page 15
