Within

by Aaron Bunce

  The gnarls stalked towards him, gaining confidence with each step. They flexed their clawed hands and licked their dark lips, exposing gleaming, sharp teeth. They eyed him hungrily.

  Julian backed away, waving the torch between him. But they showed no fear of fire and continued to press him. Julian heard the strange noise from the tunnel behind him. It echoed out from the stone opening much louder and closer than before. The gnarls cocked their ears at the sound and appeared to understand its meaning.

  Julian felt the tension bundle up inside him, winding like a coil fit to break. The gnarls ducked at him, slashing their claws at his legs. Julian jabbed with the torch. The creatures couldn’t reach him, but they forced him back to the mouth of the tunnel.

  Julian was stuck. He couldn’t turn his back to the gnarls, but didn’t want to leave his back exposed to the darkness behind as well. Julian flinched as a growl echoed right behind him, and one of the gnarls lurched forward, knocking the torch aside. The other creature jumped forward and raked its claws across his abdomen.

  Julian cursed and kicked out, striking the creature and sending it rolling backward. It sprang up almost instantly and scrabbled back at him.

  He tossed the torch at the two creatures and turned to escape down the tunnel. He would take his chances in the darkness. Perhaps find a place to hide, even just for a while. But his legs wouldn’t move. He turned at the waist, but his feet were rooted to the spot.

  Fear and panic rose up in a tidal wave as the two gnarls jumped on him. He felt their claws and teeth sink into his body, pain burning in a dozen places as they wrestled him from his feet. Julian’s vision narrowed, a dark tunnel closing in around him as a massive pressure filled his head.

  He felt his body moving even before the darkness overcame him. One of the gnarls was blasted into the air and landed, screaming horribly in the roaring fire. Julian fought for control, but he was already toppling away from the light.

  Chapter 49

  Fear thy enemies, fear thyself

  The darkness swirled in a dizzying fog of déjà vu. His world upended, and then righted itself before him in a consciousness rattling collision. He didn’t know who he was for a moment, only that he was cold, alarmingly hungry, and in a very real amount of pain.

  He took a breath and smelled fungus and decay. The ground was rough beneath his feet, and there was an eerie silence all around. He pushed off, the muscles in his arms and chest crying out, burning as if they had been ripped and torn from a hard day’s labor.

  He spit, trying to rid his mouth of the coppery taste of blood, and his face was sore, like he had broken down a door with his head. He pressed his palms flat against the damp ground and pushed up onto his knees.

  He could see blood on his skin, even in the dark. It was smeared on his hands clear up to his elbows. He rocked forward to stand, but a sharp pain erupted in his head, and a host of memories galloped into his mind.

  They slammed into him like a charging steed, crumbling him back to his bloodied knees. He swayed dangerously for a moment, his beleaguered mind threatening to split in two.

  Julian’s life rushed back to him in painful swells, washing over him like waves plowing into a sandy shore. He remembered it all, the pool, Sky’s horrific death, and more importantly, he remember Tanea.

  Her face floated to the forefront in his mind, a beacon of light and love that brought him a sliver of warmth amidst the bleak and cold. His clarity of thought quickly clouded however, and his recollection of her started to slip. If felt like someone was pulling a curtain over his mind.

  Julian reached down, his fingers favoring a series of deep lacerations along his ribs and another on his forearm. The wounds were puffy and discolored, no doubt infected by some ailment of the underground.

  His legs wobbled as he stood, but they settled after a moment. It was almost completely dark around him, save for a solitary light laying a few paces away. Julian took an unsteady step forward, wincing painfully as he bent to pick up the torch.

  Shivers wracked his body, his muscles convulsing and twitching in the increasingly cold caverns. He passed the glowing flames up and down his body, using the paltry heat to hold the chill at bay. His body was a bloody mess. Dozens of seeping cuts and gashes covered him. Some looked minor, little more than scratches, while others were quite deep.

  The sharp pain flared in his head once again, and Julian sagged forward, breathing through the pulsing waves, waiting for them to subside and fighting to stay up and conscious. He bunched up his fingers in fabric, and it took a moment to register.

  When did I get pants? He wondered.

  The pain in his head subsided. He tried to think of Tanea, but she felt even farther from him now. He couldn’t even picture her face in his head.

  What is happening to me? He thought, a twinge of panic tightening his chest.

  Memories that felt so crisp to him moments ago were fast slipping out of reach, and with every throbbing pain they moved further away. Julian swept the torch all around, casting the feeble light across the ground and walls in an attempt to orient himself in the darkness. He needed to find a way out of the tunnels, and he needed to do it before he lost consciousness again.

  Nothing he saw in the torch’s feeble glow gave him much confidence. The tunnel was dark in either direction while every rock and wall looked the same.

  Jagged spike-shaped stalactites hung overhead, hanging a finger breath above him, like the jagged teeth of a stone monstrosity. Julian took a tentative step forward. A knee-high stalagmite loomed suddenly out of the darkness before him, blocking his path.

  He held the torch low, throwing the light towards the ground to navigate over the uneven ground. A red droplet appeared in the light, and then another. Small pools of blood formed a trail leading off into the darkness.

  Julian followed the trail for a short distance, stopping only when he came to a small round entrance to another chamber. He crouched by the opening for a moment, holding his breath, listening for movement in the void beyond.

  Before he could talk himself out of it, Julian lifted his leg and slipped through. It took a moment of twisting and squirming, but he was finally able to work his way through to the other side.

  Julian turned, but as his head came around, something hard slammed into him. Stars flashed before his eyes and he stumbled, temporarily dazed by the lurking stalactite’s blow to his head. Julian took a wobbly step to save his balance, but as his foot came down, it landed awkwardly on something squelchy, and his ankle rolled.

  He fell hard, landing on something uncomfortably wet, that cracked under his weight. He frantically rolled to the stone and scrambled over to the torch.

  The cavern’s floor was covered with a thick layer of something spongy and damp, and the torch’s meager flame fizzled and sputtered. Its glow flickered and dimmed as the dry wood hungrily claimed the moisture.

  Julian cursed the dying light, feeling the ravenous shadows close in around him. And then it went out, throwing him into an absolute and oppressive darkness. For several agonizing moments he sat there, afraid to move, afraid to breathe, for fear of the noise.

  What did I land on? He wondered, immediately thinking of the strange, squelchy object his body landed on.

  He felt the touch of its flesh against his, heard its bones splinter and crack under his weight. Surely it was dead, or it would have cried out when he fell on it.

  If it is dead, how did it die?

  His thoughts frenzied, and he felt along the ground, his fingers walking out like spiders in the dark. He froze when something moved not far away. The noise was so slight he otherwise might not have registered it, but in the chamber’s silence, it rang loud and clear.

  Julian didn’t dare pull his hand back, for fear something would see the movement, even in the impenetrable darkness. Then Julian heard it again, a slight shift…no, it sounded like a rustling, so subtle and soft. It could have been a bat, but it could have been a cloak or boot brushing against stone.
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br />   Julian’s anxiety increased to feverish levels, intensified by the noise and the suffocating darkness. Doubt gnawed at him, playing tricks on his mind.

  Is there something there? Or is this darkness driving me mad?

  The torch felt like a worthless piece of firewood in his hand, a smoldering stick with no weight. The hot embers barely glowed.

  The muscles in his legs and back started to ache from hunching over. He longed to stand and stretch but was too terrified to at the same time. He heard a rustle from somewhere in the darkness, the noise echoing off the empty stone. Julian was sure he heard it, and it sounded closer than ever.

  Droplets of sweat dripped off of his nose and chin, falling to the ground with a plop that sounded impossibly loud. Something scuffled in the darkness ahead of him, but he was already moving. He crawled through the darkness like a crab, reaching in the darkness to feel his way along.

  Almost there, it should be right…here, he thought just as a ripping pain burned its way up his neck and into his head.

  Julian slumped forward, his face bouncing with a crack against the stone. He could feel the pain, but was powerless to do anything about it. The pressure was immense, and like before he felt himself drop away, losing control of his body.

  He was submerged in the same strange thoughts and feelings, each one more potent than the last. He was aware of noises all around him, but he could not turn to see their source. Julian felt his arms and legs move, pushing him off the ground, yet it was not he that controlled them.

  His arm lifted the torch up before him as a ripple of strange light flowed up his arm, his veins shining red beneath his skin. The surge moved up his arm and into his hand, where the torch erupted brightly, surging to life violently.

  The unexpected light blinded him, but Julian was powerless to blink or turn away. He saw strange, blurred figures moving with surprising speed, dashing from shadow to shadow.

  “Sumada Yu’uhrei, fiera austa Neemradaka!” He said.

  Julian felt his mouth move, but they weren’t his words, not in any tongue he understood at least. The strange hooded figures reacted to the sound of his voice. But they didn’t stop.

  The darkness started to close in around him. His consciousness was being pushed away, shoved towards a deep, cold nothingness. He saw the glint of metal as one of the hooded figures withdrew something from their robes, the metal gleaming bright blue in the intense light.

  Julian wanted to fall away, fearing the bite of the sword as it rose to bear down upon him. His hand rose up before him, a small ball of light appearing in his palm.

  “Rierda vind,” the strange words said, reverberating from Julian’s vocal chords.

  The pinprick of light burst forth in a swirling column of cyclonic wind. The hooded figures were tossed back through the air as the churning force ripped by. Julian slipped further into the darkness, and everything was quickly losing focus.

  The world spun around him, and he was faintly aware of his legs moving. His vision continued to close in, but Julian fought, struggling to keep from sliding away.

  Furry lumps were scattered all over the ground. It took him a moment to realize that it was a mass of bloodied bodies. Some were small, slightly larger than a dog, only vicious looking and disfigured. Several gnarls lay nearby, their bodies bloodied and badly broken.

  Then the horrific scene was behind him. He felt urgency and panic, but they were not his own. The small opening appeared, and he was passing through it, the coarse stone grating against his skin.

  No longer having the strength to resist, Julian felt the darkness flood in around him. Filling with despair and grief, he allowed himself to tumble back into the cold black once again.

  Julian wasn’t lost completely this time. He pushed against the immense pressure as it crushed in around him. He felt his consciousness tumble and swirl with it, tossed like a feather in a furious wind.

  Julian’s thoughts had scattered before, overwhelmed and dominated, slipping into a dark nothingness. This time would be different, he refused to lose control.

  It felt like he was suspended in impossibly dark water, battered and pushed by violent currents of thought and emotion. None of it seemed to be tangible, though, his despair told him that it was all out of his control and that there was nothing he could do to stop it. Part of Julian refused to believe that.

  He focused on the forces around him. He blocked out everything else, pushing back stray thoughts and flushed anxieties that clouded his purpose. The currents started to move slower and felt thicker around him, they became more substance than thought, a sinuous strand of coiling, flexing darkness wrapping around his conscious mind.

  Julian grasped it. It felt oily and recoiled from his touch, but he held on. Spider’s words drove him on.

  There is something blossoming within Tanea, something Julian felt deep inside. It was warm, bright, and pure, so unlike the darkness he fought inside him. Their bond was no mere coincidence. Julian realized what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to protect her when no one else could.

  Julian’s thoughts coalesced in a mighty roar. He ripped and tore at the shadowy cocoon, gaining resolve and strength as the winding strands started to pull apart. Gaps formed, and he could see light.

  Fighting an animal, Julian tore his way through. He had to take control. He had to get back to Craymore before the city fell. The black presence constricted around him, trying to smother and drive him into submission. But he could feel its anger, desperation, and fear. It knew that he was winning.

  The darkness broke apart, and his eyes were his own again. The silence was broken. There was a commotion all around him. It washed over him suddenly. His hands waved out before him, and he tried to yell out, to scream for those hurting him to stop, but something hard struck him in the face, and he fell backward.

  Julian didn’t feel his body hit the ground. Everything was so numb…so confusing. A great weight fell on him. He felt hands grasping him, pinning his arms to the ground. A fist crashed against his jaw once, twice, and then a third time. Julian tasted blood, and his body rolled over.

  He tried to plead with them, to tell whoever it was that he was not their enemy, but his mouth felt numb. They lashed his hands and feet, and then he was moving. The world bobbed up and down, the bindings rubbing painfully against his wrists and ankles. He could see shapes and shadows moving through his blindfold, just enough for him to tell that he was outside.

  He bounced along for a great while, twigs and branches snapping against him, scratching and raking his arms and sides. Julian held his breath and strained to hear, waiting for voices, or any other noise to tell him where he was, or what was going on.

  The silence broke when Julian collided with something hard and crashed to the ground. His arms and legs bent at awkward angles as he rolled sideways, crashing through scratchy brush and spindly trees. The pole tied to his hands and feet slammed against his face and chest again and again as he went over, dazing him with every blow until he finally came to a stop.

  Julian squirmed, trying to free himself from the prickly mess. He heard the chatter of voices not far away, they sounded angry, which made him more desperate to break free. He ignored the pain as branches scraped and gouged into his flesh.

  The voices grew louder. They sounded like they were right above him, but he didn’t stop fighting his bonds. Julian heard something crash through the branches and bits of wood and bark peppered his face. Sticks were splintered and knocked aside; he could feel the branches being pulled away.

  The rope grated against his raw and blistered wrists, but he didn’t stop. His shoulder popped painfully as his hand came free, a horrible tearing sensation shooting down the length of his arm.

  Julian turned away from the voices just as he heard the lowest branches pulled away. His blindfold snagged and ripped as he scrabbled forward, pulling himself deeper into the prickly skirt of the monstrous, low-hanging evergreen tree.

  Julian reached out for another branch a
s strong hands wrapped around his ankles and pulled. He clung to the branches, but they snapped in his hands. He slid back through the thick bed of dry pine needles, clawing at the ground and growling in frustration.

  Not now! He thought.

  He slid out from under the skirt of the massive spruce tree, ready to fight. But as he emerged into the bright, clear air, his mind was swarmed over by a dark crushing attack from within.

  Julian closed his eyes tight, fighting with all of his strength to hold his ground. He felt strong hands grasping at him, their strength more than a match for his feeble attempts to protect himself. They wrestled him over onto his back as he fought to keep his mind from being overthrown. Julian could hear them talking angrily, although he paid them little attention, he needed all of his focus and energy directed inward.

  A heavy boot came down on Julian’s chest, cracking his ribs and sending him into a sputtering, breathless fit. He fought for air as a searing pain cut through his head, cleaving his embattled mind right down the center.

  The foot came down, but Julian’s breath was already gone. He only wanted to cradle his throbbing head, but his hands were pinned down.

  “Zingee chu ara masa eezeis, ut chela…eezeis!” a deep voice rumbled.

  His right eye started to tingle and then burn, like something was clawing its way out.

  “Eezeis!” the deep voice growled again when he did not respond, and then Julian felt the kiss of cold steel against his throat.

  Go ahead. Open your eyes. It would not be wise to offend them, a strange voice echoed in Julian’s head.

  Slowly, and painfully, Julian opened his eyes. He squinted against the light cascading down from a clear and brilliant blue sky. He resisted the urge to blink away the tears as he stared up the magnificent blue blade held to his neck, and the tall shadowed warrior towering above.

  I’m in so much trouble, Julian thought. Yes, yes we are, the little voice in his head quickly agreed.