The smell was absolutely horrendous. Burned flesh smells bad enough, but burned anthrophage smelled as if I had poured a bucket of rotting entrails and hair clippings into a fire. It made me glad that I hadn’t eaten breakfast.
Nothing else moved in the forest.
I let out a long breath, making sure not to breathe through my nose.
“Oh my God,” said Alexandra. “Oh my God, oh my God. Oh, Jesus.”
“If you keep pestering him like that, he’ll never answer,” I said.
Alexandra blinked at me, her blue eyes full of tears, and I felt a little bad.
“What was that thing?” said Alexandra.
“Anthrophage,” I said. “Creature of the Shadowlands.”
“Yes, but…what is it?” said Alexandra.
“Don’t really know,” I said. I gripped her shoulder and steered her forward. The anthrophage had been alone, but anthrophages always hunted in packs. Best to be back on Earth before the dead anthrophage’s friends found the corpse. “They can disguise themselves as humans when they want, and they…uh, well, they eat us. They’re pretty smart, too, and are hard to fool. It was smelling the ground. My spell hid us from sight, and it blocked our scent as well, but the anthrophage could still smell the trail we had left. It would have walked into us sooner or later.”
“What did you do to it?” said Alexandra. “That light came from your hands…”
“Lightning,” I said. “Elemental magic.”
She blinked at that. “I thought…human women don’t usually learn magic. Were you part of the Wizards’ Legion?”
“I told you,” I said, “you can’t ask me who I am.” If she started thinking along those lines, she might figure out that I had turned both of us invisible. Then she might realize that I had used illusion magic, and the less that she knew about me, the better off we all would be. “Let’s go before our dead anthrophage’s friends start looking for it. Or for me.”
“For you?” said Alexandra, pulling her torn blouse and blazer closed again. “You’ve…seen these things before?”
“Yeah,” I said. I couldn’t tell her about Paul McCade and the cult of the Dark Ones. “I ticked them off a couple of weeks ago. They’ve been following me ever since.”
“What did you do to tick them off?” said Alexandra.
“They tried to eat me, and I objected,” I said.
Alexandra blinked, let out a hysterical little laugh, and then got herself back under control. “That was just terribly rude of you.”
“Wasn’t it?” I said. We reached the edge of the trees again, and I saw the crumbling gray stones of the ruined castle, the bleak mountains rising in the distance. “Then let’s get out of here before we have the chance to be rude to them again.”
“Oh, God, yes,” said Alexandra. “I think…”
A wet, rumbling chuckle cut off her words.
I whirled so fast my heels cut a half-circle into the dirt beneath my feet.
A white shape moved through the trees with slow deliberation, coming towards us. For a moment my brain could not make sense of the sight, but then it snapped into focus.
It was an anthrophage, but one unlike any I had seen before.
My first thought was that it looked like a corrupt Southern sheriff from 20th and 21st century pre-Conquest movies. The creature looked like an enormously fat man, almost as wide as he was tall, and it wore a white suit with a white vest, white shirt, and silken white tie. Yet the creature was obviously not human. It had the gray skin of an anthrophage, the fang-lined mouth, the black claw-tipped fingers, the triangular crater for a nose and the malevolent yellow eyes. The other anthrophages had been gaunt and emaciated, yet the rolls of fat somehow made this anthrophage look more threatening, almost like a fat spider lurking in its web. Despite its bulk, the anthrophage moved with fluid, light grace.
And it was laughing, its yellow eyes fixed upon me. Its neck bulged out as it laughed, making the creature look like a huge carnivorous toad.
“Right,” I muttered, raking my hand through the air as I summoned more power and forced it into a spell. Blue-white light flared around my hand, and a globe of lightning spun into existence over the tips of my fingers. I focused my will and flung the globe at the bloated anthrophage. I hadn’t conjured enough lightning to kill it, but hopefully the spell would stun the thing long enough for us to escape.
The anthrophage made no effort to dodge. Still chuckling, it lifted a clawed hand and gestured. Purple-black flames shimmered around its claws, and I realized that the anthrophage was casting a spell of its own. My lightning sphere struck him and shattered in a spray of brilliant blue-white sparks, leaving him untouched.
The thing could cast spells, just as the anthrophage I had killed in Los Angeles had done.
The bloated creature’s rasping, wet laughter got louder.
“Oh, God,” whispered Alexandra. “What are we going to do?”
“Nice suit,” I said, keeping my eyes on the anthrophage as I tried to think of something clever.
“Thank you,” rasped the anthrophage in English, its yellow eyes fixed upon me.
“But it does make you look like a big damned snowball,” I said. “A big damned snowball with the head of a carnivorous frog. It’s not an appealing look. You know, you could try exercising, lose some weight. You’d feel better. Start small. Maybe a walk a couple of times a week, some light weight training, a…”
“The masters said,” rumbled the anthrophage, “that you were overly fond of words. In this, as in so many other things, the masters were correct.”
“The masters?” I said, my mind racing. Likely the ‘masters’ meant the Dark Ones, which made a twisted sort of sense. There had been no surviving witnesses to my actions at Paul McCade’s mansion, save for Corvus himself, and I didn’t think that the Shadow Hunters would send anthrophages to kill me.
Not when they could do it themselves so easily.
But a Dark One had possessed McCade when I had helped kill him. We’d killed McCade, but the Dark One had just been banished back to the Void. If the Dark Ones could communicate from the Void to their servants here, that would explain why the anthrophages sought me.
“You offended the masters greatly,” said the anthrophage, “so they have decreed your death. This, at least, shall be no hardship.” His smile widened, showing his black fangs, and his yellow eyes glittered with hunger. “My pack failed to find you, so I may feast upon you myself. Young human females are a fine meal. Especially…ah! Neither have you have yet borne children.” His gleaming tongue slithered over the black fangs. “Your wombs will be rich with potential life. Such a splendid feast you shall make!”
“Yeah,” I said, drawing the word out as my mind raced. “That’s not creepy or anything.” The anthrophage walked towards us with slow, patient steps. It was taking time to enjoy itself, like a man savoring the smell before digging into a good steak. Alexandra and I were both backing away step by step, trying to keep our distance from the creature. I shot a glance over my shoulder, but I didn’t see any other anthrophages lurking behind us. Likely the fat anthrophage really did want to eat us alone.
I wondered how many people it had eaten to become so fat.
Yet I noticed that the anthrophage took care to avoid the blue-glowing leaves on the low-hanging branches of the trees. I didn’t know what they were, but if the anthrophage was avoiding them, then likely I had been correct to assume they were dangerous.
“What are you?” said Alexandra, her voice quavering. “Why are you doing this? We’ve done nothing to you!”
I took another step back, preparing my mind for a spell.
The anthrophage let out a horrible rasping laugh. “Delightful! She will die in ignorance and fear. All the more seasoning for the meat!” I took another step backwards, moving to the left, and the anthrophage followed, its eyes fixed on me. Clearly it did not consider Alexandra to be a threat.
It also did not appear to notice the branch two or three fe
et over its head, heavy with blue-glowing leaves.
I took a deep breath and cast a spell, focusing my mind. The anthrophage grinned its fanged smile and started its warding spell again, but I wasn’t aiming for the creature. I wasn’t very good at the spell I cast, and couldn’t control it well. When someone like Morvilind used it, he could snap his fingers and cause a book to leap from a shelf and land gently in his outstretched hand, cradled in invisible bands of telekinetic force. When I used the spell, I tended just to make a mess.
But I had enough focus to push upon the tree branch with a burst of telekinetic power.
The branch wobbled as if someone had sat on it, and a dozen leaves smacked the anthrophage in its face. Maybe the leaves were poisonous, and would leave burns down its face like mutant poison ivy. Or they would excrete a sleeping pollen or something.
I did not expect a dozen arcs of blue lightning to erupt from the leaves and stab into the anthrophage with enough force to throw the creature backward. Dozens more of the tiny lightning bolts erupted from the leaves, ripping into the anthrophage. The creature struck the ground, bounced, and clawed to its hands and knees, its white suit charred and smoking, hideous burns marking its face and arms.
The anthrophage glared up at me, its eyes filled with insane rage.
“Run!” I shouted, grabbing Alexandra’s arm and spinning her around. We sprinted for the edge of the forest. The wounded anthrophage did not pursue us. Perhaps the lightning had injured the creature. A hideous, grating scream erupted from the forest as we burst from the trees and raced across the plain. A cold jolt went down my spine. I recognized that terrible scream. It was the hunting cry of the anthrophages. The bloated anthrophage had called its pack to hunt us.
Not good.
“Faster!” I shouted, putting on a little more speed. Alexandra, thankfully, kept pace with me. In fact, she had longer legs, so she started pulling ahead. Sprinting at full speed across a grassy meadow while wearing high heels was not an experience I ever wanted to repeat, but by some fluke or good luck or the simple grace of God, I didn’t snap my ankle and land on my face.
Again the tearing howl rang out from the trees, and this time answering cries rose from the surrounding plain. I saw gray shapes moving through the pale grass with terrific speed. Dozens of anthrophages converged on us. The creatures had abandoned their efforts at human guise, and ran on all fours, the movement making their gaunt, gray-skinned bodies seem insect-like. A second group came from another direction, and with a sinking feeling I realized that they would cut us off from reaching the ruined castle.
They were going to surround us, and they were going to kill us.
“Stop!” I shouted, skidding to a halt near one of the gray obelisks. One of my heels sank a little into the ground, and I had to flail my arms to keep my balance. “We won’t make it! I’ll have to open the rift way from here!”
Alexandra stopped. “But you don’t know where it will go.”
“Nope,” I said, gathering magical power. The power roared up at my command and I fought to control it, to force it into a spell. It was harder than it had been a few hours ago. I had cast multiple spells, and the magical effort was wearing on me. “But if we stay here they’re going to kill us. Better to take our chances.”
The anthrophages moved into a loose circle around us, drawing closer with slow, cautious steps. Likely they were waiting to see if I would cast another globe of lightning, or if I had a more powerful spell I could unleash.
I didn’t, and I hoped they wouldn’t realize that before the rift way opened.
“You should thank me!”
The bloated anthrophage’s voice boomed in my ears, and I saw the creature sprinting from the trees like a white blur. Its great mass did not slow it in the slightest. If anything, it was faster than the gaunt anthrophages of its pack. Maybe anthrophages got stronger as they ate more people.
White light and gray mist swirled around my hands as I struggled to hold the spell together. Just a little more effort…
Something invisible smacked me in the side of the head, and I stumbled as cold power washed over me. The bloated anthrophage had hit me with a spell, and I felt my magic drain away, the casting disrupted. Frantic, I started pulling together the threads again, but it was too late.
Dozens of anthrophages stood in a ring around us, tongues darting over their fangs, their yellow eyes fixed upon us. The bloated anthrophage strolled to the edge of the ring, grinning its inhuman smile at me. Its white suit was charred and blackened, but the burns in its gray hide had healed. Purplish-black fire crackled around its right hand, another spell ready to disrupt my magic if I tried to open another rift way.
“Do it,” whispered Alexandra, frantic. “Do it.”
I shook my head, dread choking me. “Can’t. Sorry.”
“Behold,” said the anthrophage, pleasure filling its inhuman voice, “you are about to die in agony. But, really, it could have been worse. So much worse. For the servants of the masters consulted the oracle bones and beheld your future. Would you like to know what your fate would have been?”
“To listen to boring speeches from freakish monsters?” I spat, trying for defiance. I think it just came out shrill and terrified.
“A day would have come,” said the anthrophage, “when your life would have reached its climax. You would have been locked in a room with the people you loved most in all the world…and you would have murdered them in cold blood. Every single one of them. So this is a mercy, really, that you die today. My children!” The anthrophages looked at him. “Feast!”
The anthrophages screamed their delight and surged forward. I heard Alexandra screaming and crying for Jesus to save us, heard the bloated anthrophage laughing with delight.
“Russell,” I whispered. The frostfever was going to kill him now. “Russell, I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry…”
The gray obelisk behind the anthrophages melted.
I blinked in astonishment, wondering if my mind had snapped in the final instant before the claws and fangs of the anthrophages sank into my flesh. That would be a mercy, really.
But the obelisk stopped melting, and it reformed into a man.
Specifically, a warrior.
A giant nine feet tall, clad from head to foot in gleaming steel plate armor colored a deep electric blue. Runes and sigils marked the plates, and they shone with a harsh white light, the color of lightning at midnight. The helmet was a featureless mask, adorned only by an eye slit and small holes for breath. A gray plume rose from the top of the helmet, and a gray cloak streamed from the armored giant’s shoulders.
In his fists he held a sword longer than I was tall. More symbols of harsh white light burned upon the blade, and the weapon gave out a peculiar buzzing noise that I felt against my entire body.
The warrior released a hand from the sword’s hilt and pointed at the anthrophages. The charging creatures did not notice, but their bloated leader looked at the warrior…and terror went over the creature’s face.
Lightning exploded from the warrior’s hand.
It was a globe of lightning like I could conjure, but nearly a yard across, and it was as bright as a miniature sun. The globe smashed into an anthrophage, killing the creature at once, and its charred carcass fell limp to the grasses. The globe kept going, leaping from anthrophage to anthrophage, and in five seconds nearly thirty of the anthrophages had been killed.
Whoever the armored warrior was, the anthrophages wanted no part of him. The creatures ran, scattering in all directions. The fat anthrophage outpaced the rest of them and vanished into the blue-glowing trees. The globe of lightning shot after the fleeing anthrophages with the speed of a bullet, jumping from creature to creature and leaving charred carcasses in its wake.
In less than twenty seconds, the blue-armored warrior had wiped out about two-thirds of the anthrophages and sent the rest of them fleeing.
That said, I wasn’t about to hang around. I didn’t know who the armored giant was o
r what he wanted, but just because he had killed the anthrophages didn’t meant that he wouldn’t hurt us. It was time to get out of here, and I started summoning the power for a rift way spell.
The featureless helmet turned towards me.
“No.”
The voice was like a metallic thunderclap, and the warrior gestured with his free hand. He was working another spell, but he was too late. I cast the rift way spell, mist and white light rippling before me and…
Nothing happened.
The spell fell apart. For an instant I thought that I had botched it. Then I realized that the warrior had cast a counterspell of some kind, a ward that had sealed off this part of the Shadowlands.
Making it impossible to open a rift way.
I couldn’t even fathom the amount of magical power that would take.
“Who are you?” I said, once I had found my voice.
“I am the Knight of Grayhold,” said the towering warrior in that voice a metallic thunder, “and you have trespassed upon my demesne.”
“We didn’t meant to do it!” said Alexandra.
“Right, yes, exactly,” I said. “If you just let us go, we shall depart immediately and never return.”
“No,” said the Knight. “There is a mystery here. You will give me the truth.”
He gestured, and white light swallowed everything.
Chapter 6: A Deal You Just Can’t Refuse
I flinched, half-expecting to feel a blast of lightning ripping into my flesh.
Instead I only felt cold air blowing against my face and hands and legs, and I heard the loud click as my heels struck stone.
A hard, polished, smooth stone floor.
I spun, blinking in surprise.
Alexandra stood next to me, her jacket and torn blouse blowing in the cold wind. We were still in the Shadowlands, and the ribbons of fire played across the empty sky over our heads.
Cloak Games: Omnibus One Page 24
