The point caught it just behind the dome of its skull, and the momentum of the creature’s forward rush, along with the difficulty of penetrating that thick hide, nearly wrenched the weapon from Tejohn’s hand. He held on, feeling his whole body shoved backward until the butt of the spear finally caught on something behind him and the point plunged deep.
But even as that first alligaunt cried out, the other--the one that spoke with the tone of command--pressed him hard. It did not try to close its jaws on his shield as Bully had; it caught the edge and shoved it aside.
Grateful am I to be permitted to travel The Way.
The jaws gaped, showing red, wet mouth and black gums behind small jagged teeth. Tejohn had a glance of the alligaunt’s curling, tentacle-like tongue before the thing swooped onto him, black eyes rolling back white, and bit down on his cuirass.
The power of the thing was tremendous. It slammed him against the vertical brace behind him, making lights flash in his vision. The cuirass crumpled at the edges, pressing against his ribs.
Tejohn’s spear was no longer in his hand, but he’d already reached down to his right hip and taken hold of his short sword. The alligaunt twisted, trying to spin and disorient him, and it might have worked if he hadn’t been pinned against a brace.
Too long. This was all taking too long. Tejohn thrust his sword dead center behind the alligaunt’s skull. The creature shuddered and seemed to lose its strength. He stabbed again and again, desperate to free himself.
There was still a third hunter out there somewhere, and Cazia had no protection. He shook himself free, finally, and hurried toward the braid where she was doing her work. “Cazia!”
“I’m sorry,” she said, “I lost concentration when they started attacking. I--”
“It’s fine,” Tejohn assured her. He moved close and held his shield to protect her. “There’s a third one out here somewhere, and they like to attack from below.”
“Not just a third,” she said.
He followed her gaze and saw several dark forms moving through the dim chambers, swimming toward them. The third had not circled around to attack; it had gone for help.
Before he could ask, she said, “I didn’t finish. It wasn’t enough time--”
“There never is.”
Tejohn slid his sword back into its scabbard. There was no point in worrying about wiping off the alligaunt’s blood, not down here. Besides, his weapons would last longer than he would. His spear was still sticking out of the first alligaunt, but it had not died yet. It snapped its jaws weakly as he approached, as though it could frighten him away.
“You don’t look very good,” Cazia said.
“You’re going to die here.” The alligaunt’s eyes rolled back, then forward again. The moving shapes grew nearer. “Examiner will mark your people for destruction, and we will unleash waves of prey upon you, until even your ruins are lost and forgotten. That’s the price of breaking a truce in our city. We will erase y--”
A groan echoed through the deep. The alligaunt fell silent suddenly, and the dark shapes approaching them suddenly lost their urgency.
Tejohn looked at Cazia. Her eyes were wide with shock, even in this light. Then, as the groan faded, a new one sounded out from the wood all around them. The whole world seemed to shudder and sway, and the alligaunts--normally so quiet--let out a chorus of screams.
“Hold on!” Cazia shouted at him, rushing forward to grab the nearest brace. Tejohn did the same, just as a sound like the entire world cracking open boomed in his ears. It was a deafening noise that washed over him like a wave.
The two massive trunks split wide as though they’d found a reason to smile. The smaller braids around them bent and stretched under the strain of holding them together, then two burst. The huge trunks, as they split apart, seemed to suck at everything around them, drawing it into the newly opened space. The dead alligaunt went between the breaking braids like a leaf floating into a drain, and the injured one was close behind.
Cazia reached out and caught hold of Tejohn’s spear as the injured alligaunt went by. The point slid out of its back in a dark cloud of blood, then the creature was drawn soundlessly between the straining braids.
Just then, the water pressure shifted and the two massive trunks slammed back together like the lid of a heavy crate falling closed. Both alligaunts were crushed in an instant, and the wave of pressure tore Tejohn and Cazia away from their braces and pushed them deeper into the chambers.
Tejohn struck a vertical brace and held out his shield arm to catch Cazia as she rushed by. The butt of the spear passed very near to his eye, but she had held on and he was glad.
“Thank you,” she said. Her expression had a hunted look. “That was loud.”
“I suspect it’s going to get--”
The hive groaned again; the sound of straining wood and terrible pressure chilled Tejohn’s blood. The chambers around them compressed and bulged, the braids straining to hold their shape. A strand of wood burst and the broken end lashed out, striking Cazia high on her calf.
She cried out, and Tejohn realized they were not going to be crushed by the collapsing structure. When they died, it would be on the end of a jagged shard of wood.
“Go!” he shouted, pushing her through the slender opening beside him. Not that there was anywhere to go, really, but if she went into the commons, it might take longer for death to catch her. “Go quickly!”
“Come with me!” she called. “I have an idea!”
The water pressure had begun to push the other way as the two massive trunks began to bend open again. Tejohn barely had time to catch Cazia’s wrist before they were both sucked down into it.
The smaller braces snapped like bowstrings. Together, Tejohn and Cazia were swept between the two split tree trunks, a space larger than any great hall Tejohn had ever seen.
Then the third trunk, the one Cazia did not have time to destroy, splintered. Shards of wood sprayed past them, one catching Tejohn high on his left forearm. Their momentum carried them toward the commons. Wood shivered and split, pulling the whole top of the braid inward. Cazia and Tejohn were swept up in the wake of it, and as they came near the bottom part of the trunk, they kicked at the surface and pushed themselves clear of the bottom braid as the top slammed back down.
Tejohn looked back and saw the top half of the braid slide down beside the bottom, shearing off the smaller braids like a scythe through wheat.
The first braid they’d sabotaged was doing almost exactly the same thing, and together, they were dragging down the whole hive, bending the far side so much that it loomed overhead.
Then, one of the supports that had not been sabotaged shattered with a sound like the end of the world, and Tejohn knew they had succeeded. This alligaunt city was doomed.
The residents knew it, too. Alligaunts streamed out of the chambers and fled downward toward the portal.
The portal. Of course.
“Wrap your arms around my waist,” Cazia shouted. “You need to hold the bars and your spear between us, and hold on to me, because I need both my hands free.”
He pulled himself closer to her, which was more like pulling her toward him. “My armor will just weigh you down.”
“I hope so.” She set his spear against her back, then glanced at him. Tejohn wrapped his arms around her waist--if they survived, this was not part of the story he would ever tell anyone--pinning his spear and the hooked bars against her back. A moment later, he felt the alligaunt rope slip out from between them like a snake.
Cazia began to cast a spell, and after a few moments, a granite block appeared some twenty-five feet away. Immediately, the alligaunt rope zipped out and snared it. The falling rock pulled them hard against the water, certainly faster than they could have swum. When the rope was vertical, Cazia released the stone and their descent slowed. She began her spell again.
That was how they crossed the commons and descended to the lake bed: surge, stop, surge, stop. Tejohn had nothing to
do but play backpack and, worried that he was slowing her down, he would have released her if he thought she would let him go instead of stopping to argue about it.
Another main support burst, then the last. They toppled down toward the two of them, although he wasn’t sure why. Shouldn’t this whole structure have simply torn itself free and floated to the surface of Lake Windmark, to the delight of Ghoron, Esselba, and everyone else at Tempest Pass?
Then he saw a glimmer of sunlight break the gloom above. The shield above the city had cracked.
Alligaunts screamed as they fled, swimming downward and rushing into the portal at their utmost speed. Tejohn realized he hadn’t seen Examiner, hadn’t seen whatever retinue an alligaunt dignitary might demand.
Braids snapped all around him, and chambers collapsed. He saw no fewer than fifteen alligaunts skewered or crushed in a buckled tunnel opening. Shards of broken wood floated upward, and so did light globes, rising to the surface like mournful ghosts.
The alligaunts passed within feet of them, but none spared the time to take revenge. Not one even thought to destroy the rope Cazia was using to cross the commons. Each was out for itself.
A shard of the broken roof of the city fell against the chambers, turning on its edge and shearing through the wooden braids. Great Way, it must have been immensely heavy. It struck one of the broken supports, then began to tilt toward the commons. Never in his life had Tejohn seen something this huge come apart. He was an ant looking at the wheel of a cart. The massive, terrifying spectacle of it entranced him.
Two humans. That’s all it took. Remember that when you seek out new hunting grounds.
The shard struck the side of the collapsing hive, which slowed its descent. The bottom ten chambers of the hive were slowly squeezing themselves flat, and Tejohn suddenly felt sick. Speaker had said they keep their young down there. Song knew the alligaunts and the grunts did not care how many young people they hurt, but he was not--
Then he noticed a stream of tiny figures moving below. There was a sizable arch made of the black stone that Cazia was so interested in, and as Tejohn watched, the end of a long line of tiny alligaunts scurrying toward the portal.
Fire pass them by.
A second, larger piece of the roof broke free and fell onto the first shard.
“How much longer?”
“We’re almost there.”
Tejohn glanced down and saw the portal below them. Great Way, she really had carried them both across half the commons. It was still at least a hundred feet down, though, and she released the granite block.
“Okay,” Cazia said. “Grab your spear.”
Tejohn did. The rope snaked around her back and looped around the four hooked bars. The young scholar had already begun to fall more slowly than him, but she moved close, ducking between his body and his shield.
He couldn’t help hissing slightly when she bumped the shard of wood still jutting from his left arm. “Sorry,” she said, then plucked it out. “Press it against my shoulder to stop the bleeding.”
While he did that, the rope began to lift and move the hooked bars, linking them from one hook to the next. Glancing down, Tejohn saw the last of the tiny alligaunts disappear into the portal with their caregivers. The steady stream of escaping creatures had slowed to a few stragglers.
The two broken pieces of roof tore through what was left of the hive like an axe through threadbare cloth. Wood cracked and roared under its weight. One of the broken structural braids fell less than a hundred feet from them, impacting the lake bed with a dull thud.
They were only fifty feet from the portal, then forty. At Cazia’s command, the rope had linked all the hooked bars together. Tejohn looked down and saw that the alligaunts had used those hooks to anchor the portal. Why had she hooked them together?
“What’s the plan?” Tejohn shouted.
“Do you remember that Dhe said The Great Way was a not-space not-moment? Well, Speaker said alligaunt magic could hold The Great Way at bay. I think… I don’t know what I think, but I’m not going in there unless we have something to protect us!”
Twenty feet. Tejohn looked back at the broken pieces of roof and saw that they had collapsed all the way to the lake bed. The second, larger shard toppled toward them like a monstrous hand, large enough to crush an army. It loomed above them, blotting out light and hope, rushing downward to crush them.
And then Tejohn’s foot touched the portal and they were drawn inside.
Chapter 38
At first, there was darkness. No light, no sound, not even a sensation of touch. Then, just as the darkness became alarming, a golden light flashed and disappeared. A moment later, they were in a cavern of dark rock lit only by thousands of glowing purple grubs. Dozens of tunnels extended in every direction. Then the rock dissipated like mist, and they were standing on a monstrous spider web, then a snow-bound field, then a skiff in the center of a lake, then…
“Where are we?” Tejohn asked. “Where did the portal eject us?”
“We’re in the Scholars’ Tower,” Cazia answered. “Downstairs, near the map room. But there are so many doors…”
“No, it’s a crossroads,” Tejohn said. “Near Sunset Ridge. I was a boy here, but there are so many paths….”
“It’s not real,” Cazia said. “This is a hallucination. We’re not anywhere.”
“We’re still inside the portal.”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s pick a hallucination we can both stand. Something familiar that won’t make me ache for home.”
“How about the promenade at the palace?”
The promenade of the Palace of Song and Morning appeared around them. Tejohn could not help but feel a pang of loss--he’d last spoken to Amlian right on this spot--but he did not ask for something more neutral. A little grief wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Their feet rested on solid stone, while at the same time, rested on nothing. The more they thought about what was solid beneath their feet, the more real it felt, but it was never real enough to be truly convincing.
Cazia touched the hooked black iron bars that surrounded them. That felt real.
“We’re creating this ourselves,” Cazia said, although she knew she was not really talking, not in this place. Neither of them were. It only felt like talking. “We’re making it out of our thoughts.”
/We can not reach you.
That startled both of them. Cazia laid her hand against the alligaunt barrier as though she could physically brace it. “Who?” Tejohn called. “Who is trying to reach us?”
“Are you real, or have we made you up, too?”
A huge golden glow seemed to rise up in front of them. It was both extraordinarily close and as far as the mountains to the north at the same time.
/We are, just as you are. We can not reach you.
The glow became more complex, with some parts turning more blue and others becoming more orange. The shades and shadows within churned and shifted around each other.
“Tell us who you are.”
/We are, just as you are.
Tejohn could feel Cazia’s annoyance growing as if it was his own. “Are what?” she asked. “Be more descriptive.”
/We are. We endure. We change. We remember. We connect. Matter touches moment and we are there.
Cazia was not sure what to think, but Tejohn understood immediately. “We endure: Monument. We change: The Little Spinner. We remember: Song. We connect--”
“The Great Way,” Cazia finished. We can not reach you. Her barrier, made from the black iron alligaunt bars, had worked. They had held the gods at bay, even here inside. “We are talking to… What about Fire and Fury?”
/They are not. We recognize those names, but we are. They are not.
Cazia felt Tejohn’s sudden ache of dismay; so many years of his life had been spent in devout worship to those gods, only to discover that his prayers had been wasted. In contrast, Tejohn knew Cazia’s most powerful response was a childish resentment
against the alligaunts for being right.
/We can not reach you.
Tejohn’s and Cazia’s thoughts and feelings were mingling--they were each experiencing what the other did--and now so were their memories. Tejohn remembered hundreds of times Cazia had cast spells, and how it had felt to channel such power. Her ability to concentrate in the face of life-threatening distractions was amazing.
For her part, Cazia remembered so many battlefields: the screams, the blood, the desperate physical effort, the looks of shock and horror on the faces of those who had received one of Tejohn’s killing strokes. Great Way, it was all so intimate and physical and nightmarish.
/We can not reach you.
A moment later, they were not alone--in fact, they realized they had never been alone. Ghostly images of other people filled the promenade, all of them frozen in a single moment. Beside them was a mob of alligaunts, maybe the same ones that had fled through the portal with them. Beyond them were giant eagles, and the grotesque insect people that Cazia recognized as the Tilkilit.
Beyond them were more human beings, and there were The Blessing. There were endless multitudes in every direction of all sorts of beings.
/We can not reach you.
Of course, there was no promenade--not really--and there was no crowd standing utterly still as though snatched out of a moment. The inside of the portal was a not-space and not-moment; Tejohn understood for both of them that these were simply visions meant to explain something their minds were not equipped to understand. These ghostly figures were everyone who had ever entered a portal. Everyone.
Then, just as Cazia and Tejohn shared each other’s thoughts and memories, they began to experience the memories of those outside their barrier. The hooked bars might be able to hold the gods at bay, but they could not cancel the nature of this place: to connect.
The sudden loss of self was disorienting. Their thoughts were flooded with the memories of Examiner, with all her retinue, and their memories of ambush: sudden motion, tearing flesh, and smug satisfaction.
The Way Into Darkness: Book Three of The Great Way Page 40
