The Huntresses' Game

by Joe Jackson

“Oh, you know me by my other form,” the creature said. “But I find this one makes it far easier to sneak up on unsuspecting dolts such as yourselves.”

  Kari started to reply, but the creature opened its mouth wide, and a cloud of inky black spilled forth and engulfed her and Aeligos. And into that inky darkness she fell, unconscious.

  Chapter XII – The Edge of Oblivion

  It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the light. Braziers burned here and there, casting the pleasant aroma of wood smoke skyward with their light. She was standing on a wide balcony, its polished granite floor leading to a grand ivory railing. Behind her stood the white columns of a palace or temple, its open archway well lit, revealing a long corridor into its depths. She moved toward the railing.

  The night sky was dotted with a billion stars, fading to obscurity around the bright face of an imposingly large but gentle moon. The air here was warm, the scent of spring in the soft breeze that kept the temperature on the pleasant side. She could see no trees or plants, but she could smell them on the wind, scents of jasmine, pine, and fruit trees. It was a peculiar mix, but it set her soul at ease, blocking out the confusion and trepidation that clawed at the edges of her consciousness.

  Reaching the railing, Kari took in a sharp breath. She stood on the terrace of a mountain temple high among the peaks of a jagged range. Far below were the sparkling expanses of rivers and lakes bathed in the moonlight that filtered between the crags. There were settlements down there, little cliff-side houses where warm light spilled from their depths. She could see people flying to and from some of the dwellings, and she was puzzled. It was so unlike anything she had ever seen before.

  The soft tap of claws on the granite floor turned her around. Approaching was a creature she had seen only in her dreams, and then only once. He was towering, even standing on bent, bird-like legs. He had the head of a hawk, solid black eyes surrounded by a band of light blue that also made appearances across his plumage. His wings spread out in a stretch, showing off the incredible pattern of his feathers before he folded them behind himself. He didn’t carry the elegant war spear she remembered from her dream, nor did he wear the decorative breastplate, instead dressed in a toga-like garment that was pure white.

  He stopped but a few paces from her and folded his hands behind his back. He clicked and whistled a few times, a bit like Kari remembered the griffon Earl Garant had loaned her, and she couldn’t help but smile. After a moment, he spoke in soft but specific tones. “Welcome to my temple, daughter of Sakkrass. I am Huirelius, also called The Welcome Rain.”

  Panic threatened to overtake her, but Kari kept her wits. She bowed down to one knee and lowered her head in the presence of the deity. “Thank you, my lord, but why am I here? I…I’m dead again, aren’t I? Where is Aeligos? Is he all right?”

  Huirelius strode over to the balcony, where he took in a deep breath and looked out over the valleys and crags below. “I will allow the Lord of the Green to explain,” he said. “Be at ease. You are, for the moment, quite safe.”

  “Sakkrass is here?” she perked up.

  It was hard to tell on a beaked countenance, but Kari was pretty sure the hawk-like deity smiled. “Indeed he is. He wished to speak with you, but as this is my temple, he thought it only fitting that I should be the one to welcome you. Do not be in such a hurry to run off to him, young lady. Stay here with me a while, and look out over my world.”

  Kari moved to stand beside him and gazed out at the majestic peaks, the moonlit rivers, and the dwellings that clung to the rock faces. “This is your homeworld?” she asked.

  He waved an arm across the view before them. “You look upon the world of Hrastiria, the birthplace of my people, the tenku.”

  “You’re Sakkrass’ brother, right?” she asked, to which he nodded. “Then you’re sort of like my uncle?”

  Huirelius laughed. “You may look at it that way if you wish. I see that even the splendor of this view will not calm your spirit; there is too much fire in you. Very well, then; come. I will take you to your father.”

  Kari glanced over the railing one more time. It certainly was a beautiful view, but she was acutely aware that there was some reason she should be nervous about being here. It was as if her mind wanted to be troubled, rather than basking in the peace this place afforded. She couldn’t put her finger on what caused her anxiety, but she hoped seeing her father would either drown it out, or he would explain. Huirelius seemed to suggest she wasn’t dead, but then it was possible that he meant that she was dead, and that’s why she was safe.

  He led her down the marble corridor to the temple’s heart. Upon the walls were colorful tapestries depicting the hawk-like tenku deity, a coat of arms, or an image of a six-pointed star in a circle. That made Kari pause, and she stared at it. Where had she seen that before? She’d seen it somewhere on Citaria, she was certain, but her life was becoming cloudy to her, much like her prior life had been for so long. That could only mean…

  So why aren’t I at ease if I’m dead? she wondered.

  Huirelius led her to a sitting room. Bookshelves lined the walls so high that Kari thought it would require flight to get to the upper tomes. A beautifully sculpted fireplace took up a good portion of one wall, and before it was an intricately woven rug and several deep, cushioned chairs. And sitting there in one of the chairs, with a crystal chalice full of something clutched delicately in one hand, was Kari’s adoptive father.

  He was in his serpentine form, but now Kari found it didn’t faze her as it had the first time she saw it in her dreams. He was beautiful, an elegant cobra-like man of deep green scales with golden patterns under the hood and down his chest. He wore the same skirt-like garment he had in her dream, but no jewelry to accentuate his serpentine form. His wide, slit-pupiled golden eyes turned to regard his adopted daughter, and a smile gently creased that face. He did look a lot like Sekassus, but this smile was one of warmth and welcome, not hostility. The differences between them were obvious just in the expression.

  Sakkrass – or was it Ashakku? – rose to his feet, and Kari hesitated. She wasn’t sure if she should kneel before him or run and embrace him as a father. Ultimately, she decided to do both, bowing before him but then approaching him for an embrace. He took her into his arms without pause, and in that gentle embrace, she felt the same safety and love she had when she’d danced with him on Tsalbrin. It was as if his love wrapped around her, a shield against all harm or emotional pain.

  “Welcome, my daughter,” he said, his voice slightly different in this serpentine form, but no less comforting.

  “Father, why am I here? Am I dead? Have I failed?”

  “What does your heart tell you?”

  Kari pulled away just enough to meet his gaze. “That if I was dead, I wouldn’t still be worried about it.” Sakkrass nodded. “So how am I here? Have I left Aeligos alone with…with that vampire and dragon?”

  “Sit.”

  “Father?” she asked. “Has something happened to Aeligos?”

  “Sit,” he commanded, and though his voice was still soft and comforting, Kari found she very much wanted to do as he said. She glanced at Huirelius, who nodded his permission for her to use his chair, and she sat across from her adoptive father. “You are, to put it in a context you might understand, outside of time for the moment. As my brother has already told you, you are, for the moment, quite safe. Do not be afraid.”

  “Outside of time? You mean I could go back, to before we were attacked?”

  Sakkrass blinked slowly, shook his head. “No. You are a temporal creation. We are not. We exist outside of time; time is the way a man’s mind measures one moment to the next, the span of his life, the breadth of his accomplishments. We exist outside of that. We have seen the Beginning and the End. We are here, and with you, but not bound to your concept of the passage of time. It is both a mystery and the simple explanation of what we are: deity. Immortal.”

  Kari furrowed her brow. “Hardly seems simple to
me.”

  “You are another type of being: temporal, mortal. The things of the heavens are simple, but not to your perspective.”

  “Why did you bring me here, father? Can you help us?”

  “I am helping you. I am stoking the fire of your spirit, which is all the help you will need from me.”

  Kari nodded, took in a deep breath, and sighed. “Are you called Sakkrass, or Ashakku? Or both?”

  “I am called a great many things by a great many people. The name I am called matters little; my children know me, and know my voice, and they love and serve me. Whether they call me Ashakku as the Mehr’Durillian syrinthians do, or Sakkrass as the Citarian czarikk do, does not matter. That they call me Father, Lord, and follow my commands, that is what matters.”

  “What can you tell me about the Temple of Archons? What’s in there that the demon kings want so badly?” Kari asked, suddenly remembering all the questions she needed to ask.

  The edges of her vision started to fade, and Kari whipped her head to and fro. Huirelius backed away into the shadows, and when Kari looked to Sakkrass, the light of the fire began to die, casting him in darkness as well. It didn’t make sense; wasn’t he a sun god? Why was he disappearing into darkness?

  It hit her a moment later: she must be dreaming. “Father?!” she called into the deepening shadows. “Is this a dream? Are we really speaking?”

  “Search your heart, my daughter,” his voice came, as if from across a widening gap between them. “But know this: even if it is so, what does that change?”

  Kari sucked in a deep breath and gasped as she sat up. The air was thin here, and it took a minute for her breathing to steady. She was lying on a stone floor in her undergarments, the deep gloom of night all around her but for a moon high above. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she saw that she lay on the top of a castle tower shrouded in shadows. Aeligos was beside her, but she soon realized he was not the only one.

  Desiccated corpses surrounded them as well, though there were a few putrid ones that seemed a lot more recent. Kari’s stomach turned at the stench, and she shook Aeligos to rouse him. He was alive, but he didn’t wake up, so she left him be for a moment and got to her feet. She walked to the tower’s parapets to try to get an idea of where she was.

  The landscape far below was as black as the deepest night. She could make out some detail, but not much. She saw shadows and shapes moving, horrid figures that danced in the gloom. The occasional inhuman shriek told her she was not anywhere on Citaria, and in fact in a great deal of danger. The smell of death was all around her, the stench of old corpses and rot carrying to her even on the updrafts that swirled about the tower. Only then did Kari look up at the moon, and her eyes widened as she realized it was not a moon at all.

  High above her was a swirling vortex with a bright white light at its center. It seemed to draw all heat and light into itself, leaving the landscape around her bathed in shadows. She had no idea where she was; she had never even heard of such a nightmarish place. Was this the very edge of death? Was this where the souls of those enthralled or murdered by vampires went until they finally escaped into eternity? Or was this the very precipice of Hell, an inescapable tower with no salvation but to fall into the doom of the shadows below?

  I find it hard to believe my soul wears underwear, Kari thought ruefully, looking down at her barely-clothed form. She searched around for her armor or weapons, but they were nowhere to be found. The corpses were likewise devoid of anything useful, stripped to the undergarments and left here to rot. Aeligos, too, was in his loincloth only, and Kari realized even her dog tags and wedding band were gone.

  “Son of a bitch,” she spat. The theft of her wedding band overrode all the other anger and anxiety this predicament bestowed. She moved over to Aeligos and shook him more vigorously to wake him up. It took several minutes of slapping his chin, shaking him, and calling his name before he even stirred.

  His eyes were bleary when they finally opened. “Shouldn’t have had that last drink,” he muttered, clutching his head. He blinked a few times, though, and his eyes finally fixed on Kari. “Oh, crap. Kari, where are we?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “But we’re alive, I think. I just don’t know what that is, or where this place is.”

  Aeligos blurted a blunt and obscene observation when he beheld the vortex above them. “Well, won’t this be a story to scare the pants off of Mom,” he said. “So how do we get out of here? Anything down below?”

  “Can hardly see anything from up here,” Kari answered, gesturing toward the parapets. “We’re not in Fort Sabbath, though, that’s for sure. I can’t tell what’s down there in the dark, but it’s not friendly, whatever it is. But it’s really the only way to go that I can see. Maybe there’s an exit under some of these corpses. Not looking forward to touching them, though.”

  Aeligos made a face that said he agreed with that sentiment. They set to work moving bodies, looking for a hatch or other entrance to the tower itself. The stench was only made worse by shifting many of the bodies around, and Kari had to take a minute to lose her last meal over the side of the tower. She was lightheaded, and sat down for a couple of minutes to compose herself. Aeligos lasted a bit longer, doing a better job of holding his breath, but eventually he came and sat beside her.

  “I now have the utmost respect for undead hunters,” he muttered.

  Kari snorted. It hardly seemed the time and place for humor, but what was to be done? They were dealing with the situation as best they could. She wiped her slimy hands off on her undergarments and set back to work, trying her hardest not to breathe. The updraft drew away some of the smell, but the wind itself carried the foul tinge of rot on it, so it was only marginally better. They worked for what felt like an hour, but Kari was pretty sure it was only because of how disgusting their task was; she didn’t think she could’ve actually lasted an hour doing this.

  Their work wasn’t in vain. They found a trapdoor, and cleared the bodies from it and got it open. There was a short ladder of metal rungs in the wall below it, and they descended to a small square landing. The inside of the tower was pitch black, not even enough light available for their night vision to be of much use. Aeligos summoned up a hovering sphere of light like he had in the cemetery a few days past – at least Kari hoped it was only a few days. It didn’t illuminate much, and before they could take a step forward, they watched the light bleed from it and then die altogether.

  “Whatever this place is, it doesn’t like light,” Kari said. “I guess we’ll have to crawl down the steps.”

  She was pretty sure Aeligos nodded, but she couldn’t see him at all. Before she had even taken one backwards, child-like step down the stairs, the entire area was suddenly illuminated. Kari looked at Aeligos staring back at her. She looked at the source, a softly glowing ball of light that hovered just in front of her. It began to lead her down the stairs, and Kari was glad Aeligos had found some sort of spell that didn’t get absorbed by the darkness of this place.

  They reached the bottom of the stairs to find themselves on the main floor of an old castle. None of it looked familiar; Kari had no idea where Annabelle and Zaliskower had taken them, or why they’d left them here alive. The tower stairs emerged into an open antechamber, and Kari followed the light source as it led them down a side passage and through a couple of old rooms. The furnishings were long reduced to dust or rot that was barely holding its shape, and the place smelled musty and unused. In the light of the little globe, Kari could see that nothing had disturbed this place in untold years.

  After a few rooms, however, Aeligos’ light source led them to an armory that was piled with equipment, likely from all the bodies at the top of the tower. “That’s a pretty handy spell you have there,” Kari said as she began sorting through the things.

  “What spell?” he queried as he fell in with what she was doing.

  “The hovering light spell you summoned,” she said, gesturing toward the nearby ball of ligh
t. It was bobbing and weaving, almost like it was pacing, while the two of them searched.

  “It only lasted a few seconds,” Aeligos said, smiling as he found a pair of swords still in their sheaths.

  “Then what’s this here?” Kari indicated the illuminating globe.

  “Where?” he asked, looking around.

  “You don’t see this ball of light behind me?”

  “Ball of light? There’s barely enough light down here to see at all,” he answered. “If I’d summoned a light spell, you’d know it.”

  Kari turned and stared at the little ball of light. Was it a part of Sakkrass following her and casting light for her to see? The little globe began hovering back and forth again, as though it was pacing, and Kari realized that whatever it was, she didn’t have the luxury of time to sit around trying to figure it out. She got back to her searching, but realized quickly that her swords and her paluric armor were not here.

  She found a set of plate mail that was fitted for a rir, and started putting it on. With some help from Aeligos, she punched holes in the back to put her wings through, and they used strips of leather belts to hold the back of the armor together now that it had been compromised. Kari got the entire set on and straightened out, and she took a short circular walk around the chamber.

  “Gods, I forgot how heavy plate armor is,” she said. “It’s like being pregnant again.”

  Aeligos snickered. “I’ll take your word for it; I’ve never dealt with either.”

  They dug around until they found some studded leather gear that was in good enough condition for him to wear for the time being. It wasn’t properly fitted for a winged rir, so they had to make some alterations. Kari thought of how well she and Koursturaux had worked together to set up their hunters’ camp, and was pleased that she and Aeligos shared the same synergy. There were no scimitars among the weapons, but Kari took up a pair of longswords that were in fair condition and gave them a few test swings.

  “How long’s it been since you used something other than a scimitar?” Aeligos asked.