Beyond the Hell Cliffs

by Case C. Capehart

  As they passed into the cave, Raegith saw a huge form that seemed out of place among the smaller Urufen. It was a Rathgar and he was enormous.

  “No fucking way,” Helkree breathed, catching sight of the Rathgar.

  “There is our other visitor,” Bardr said, pointing to the man. “Been here for almost three seasons now, eating all of our food.”

  The hulking figure turned, showing a scarred, stubbly jawline and crimson eyes. His dark grey hair was shaved on the sides and stood upwards in a single strip down the middle of his head. He noticed the new group being brought into the cave and his wide mouth split into a grin.

  “Brimgor?” Raegith exclaimed, breaking away from the others and lifting the hood of his parka away.

  “Grass-head!” he replied, pointing to Raegith’s head. “You’re thieving my look from me!”

  “What are you doing here?” Raegith laughed, clasping hands with the Agillean.

  “Training… and waiting. You were supposed to bring me a war, Grass-head.”

  “It’s Grass-hair, remember? And I did bring a war here.” Raegith sobered quickly, his smile draining away. “The Citadel was attacked, Brimgor. The men from Rellizbix came and destroyed it. They murdered the Empress. You must have missed it.”

  “No, I heard,” Brimgor said. “That’s not the war I am waiting on. The smell of blood is still on the wind and has not changed since that day we last parted. There is still a war to be had with the men from the north and we will both be fighting it. Damn, it’s good to see you again. Have you come here to get stronger as well?”

  “In a way,” Raegith answered.

  “He’s looking for the Junies,” Helkree said, joining them.

  “Great, all the freeloaders know each other!” Bardr exclaimed, frustratingly leading the others over to the conversation.

  “You’re still dragging the Stone Worshipper around with you?” Brimgor laughed. “Have you not found anything better to stick it in, yet?”

  “I’m about to stick my boot in your ass,” Helkree replied. “You sure look chipper. You find a new drug that you haven’t built up a massive tolerance to yet or something?”

  “Hey, foreigner, do you want to see Thorin or not?” Bardr said.

  Raegith nodded and turned back to Brimgor. “I need to speak with the Chief of this tribe, but I’d like to talk more with you.”

  “I’ll be around.”

  Bardr and his team accompanied the foursome into the cave and through its halls. Without the winds, it was much warmer inside, though the air was smoky and thick. Along the walls were green-burning torches instead of emberstones. As he looked about, he could find no Rellizbix technology inside the caves. There were no hints and whispers of the Treaty inside the cave, as there were in the Outposts and Citadel. There were no steel instruments or weapons. Everything was primitive compared to the villages and settlements in the rest of the Greimere.

  The group entered a chamber of the cave that housed the Chief. Thorin was a broad-shouldered Urufen with pure white hair and collar. His tan, leathery skin was stretched over hard muscle and though his face showed an aged and weary elder, his figure was one of an alpha warrior.

  Bardr stopped the group short of the steps of the throne Thorin sat upon and approached the elder. Thorin stroked his long, white beard as he listened to the youth and then waved Bardr back dismissively and stood. His arms spread wide and a smile crossed his lips.

  “Little Fang! It warms me to see you among us again. Have you come to find a mate among my tribe? A spirit such as yours belongs here, high on the Alfhildr.”

  “I appreciate that, Elder,” Freya replied, skipping forward to be embraced by the old man. “Have you any young men that could tame me, though?”

  Thorin’s laughter boomed in the small chamber. “Some would try, I think.”

  He let her go and looked back to Raegith and his companions. “Are these friends of yours? The red-furred one I could understand, but how did you come to be in the company of a Rathgar woman and one of the Sun-kissed Folk?”

  “Fenra is a city-pup, Elder, but I like her. She’s fierce… like we are.” Freya motioned to the other two. “Helkree is a female warrior! Can you believe that? She doesn’t give a damn what the men say in the Citadel!”

  “And Helkree speaks for the man?”

  “I speak for myself, Elder,” Raegith said, bowing his head.

  Thorin gave him a surprised look. “You speak our tongue? You’ve been in these lands for some time, then? Come closer; tell me your name.”

  Raegith approached the curious Urufen Chief. “I am Raegith the Grass-haired, Elder, and I have been in the Greimere for two years now. One was spent in the Pit inside the Citadel, where I found Fenra. The other year has been spent liberating the Lokai villages from their Rathgar captors since the fall of the Greimere Empire.”

  “But not the Urufen tribes to east, I believe.”

  “No, the Urufens did not need my help,” Raegith replied. “Chief Freydif has been kind enough to extend his help to me, though. I come to you hoping to gain your assistance as well.”

  “Live high on the mountain,” Thorin said.

  Raegith looked at Freya and back at Thorin, cautiously. “Excuse me?”

  “That’s how you will become stronger, Raegith the Grass-haired. That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it? Ambition is not so difficult to recognize in the eyes of men and there are only two reasons men come this high up to seek me out: to grow stronger or to domesticate my tribe.”

  “I did not come here as a conqueror, Elder.”

  “I would hope not, with only three allies,” Thorin chuckled. “And you did not come to liberate us from the Empress’s goons, either. Chief Freydif told you that I could make you stronger, didn’t he? Sometimes I think he sees me as some mythical figure due to my age, when I am just a stubborn old wolf who cannot adapt to modern living.”

  “I appreciate the offer to make me stronger, Elder, but I seek only information. I have nothing to give in repayment but a pair of hands.”

  “Three pairs,” Helkree chimed in.

  “This is unexpected,” Thorin replied. “A visitor from the Sun-kissed lands travels deep into enemy territory, climbs high upon the Alfhildr, and seeks me out for my conversation? What is it you would like to know?”

  “Where can I find the Junrei’sha?”

  Thorin looked at him for a moment and then turned and sat back down on his throne. “Go home, Raegith the Grass-haired, wherever that may be. Leave the zealots alone; they are nothing but trouble and you’ll only die trying to reach their ‘Path.’ Worship the mountain gods if you need a higher calling.”

  “I cannot turn back, Elder, and I won’t,” Raegith said. “I’m not foolish enough to try and force the information out of you, but if you need me to prove my worthiness of this information, then bring me your best fighter.”

  “My best fighter would tear you in half, boy, and I don’t like the direction this conversation is taking. Take your friends and return to civilization. You don’t need this information as much as you think.”

  “It’s not for me, Elder, but all of Greimere.”

  Raegith dropped to one knee and Helkree immediately hissed at him. He ignored her and knelt before the Chief. “The people here are dying, Chief. Your people have kept the old ways and will carry on through history, but the others will not make it. Thousands of Rathgar, Lokai, Gimlet and Urufen will die off, starving in these lands for the ways forced upon them by those from the Sun-kissed lands.”

  “What business is that of mine?” Thorin asked. “The weaklings inside the Citadel bent their knee to those from the Sun-kissed lands just as you bend yours and now they die for it. It is all they deserve for living as they did.”

  “The common people are ignorant of the Treaty and you know that!” Raegith exclaimed. “Even if they knew of it, what could they do? They have become dependent upon the security of the Citadel and the gifts of the north and now they are wit
hout both. Ignore them, Chief, and you will soon find yourself alone in this entire land. You’re already looking to Freya’s tribe to add fresh stock to your people. How long can your tribe last when there are no mates for your young men?”

  “And you think you can save all of the Greimere? You; an enemy to all of the people in these lands? If there is blame to be cast upon this dire situation, it should be cast upon you.”

  “I won’t disagree with you, Elder, but blame by itself will do nothing for these people,” Raegith said. “You could execute me right now; torture me for all the strife wrought upon these lands and it would do nothing but give a few of you temporary satisfaction.

  “I will save Greimere, Chief, and you will either aid me and be a savior to Urufen everywhere, or I will find someone else who can help me and your tribe will wither on the mountain.”

  Thorin did not speak. His thoughts were hidden behind a stern expression and a rigid posture.

  “I cannot bribe you, Chief,” Raegith continued. “I won’t promise you captured technology or slaves or anything else that you would accept. You have all survived so long by living in the harshest environment in the Greimere, because it makes you strong. But now that strength is needed; those who are not as strong as you need your strength, Elder. If you could make the others as strong as you are now, would you do it?”

  Thorin turned to Fenra. “Is this why you’re with him, city-pup? These fierce words move you?”

  Fenra nodded. “I would have died a dishonorable death if not for him, Elder.”

  “Can you turn for me, Fenra of the Citadel?” Thorin asked. “Do you even know how?”

  “I don’t even know what you’re talking about, Elder.”

  In an instant Thorin exploded in fur and dropped to the ground. It was just a flash, as if his body had pulled in the air around him and transformed it into mass and then Thorin the man was gone. In his place was a white beast of muscle and teeth; a wolf-like creature the size of an ox. It stepped about the now cramped chamber on massive, panther-like paws with claws like hooked daggers that clattered on the ground loudly.

  Everyone stepped back as the Chief circled once and then sat down on his haunches. In another flash, the air around him expanded and then rapidly shrunk. In the blink of an eye, Thorin was back in his original form, fully clothed and sitting upon the floor with his arms rested upon his knees.

  “Just as I had thought, the Turning is lost upon all but my tribe,” he said. “I am not surprised. Learning it is physically and mentally excruciating and takes patience. It is probably a waste of time to those living in the civilized world.”

  “When can I start?” Fenra asked, looking over at Raegith.

  “What is it you think that the Junrei’sha can give you, Grass-hair?” Thorin asked.

  “I cannot Turn like the Urufen,” Raegith said. “I cannot shrug off damage like the Rathgar or walk in the shadows like the Lokai. Among my own kind I am irregular. I cannot commune with nature as my mother’s people can nor am I comfortable in the armor of my father’s people. My tongue is the sharpest weapon I can use, but my teacher in the Path saw something in me. She told me to find her in the south, among the Junrei’sha. That’s where I will find what I need to save the Greimere.”

  “It is an incredibly difficult task, reaching the Junrei’sha,” Thorin said. “The Path, I am convinced, is just a trail of bones and corpses of fools who have tried to reach the Junrei’sha. I myself have tried twice, in my prime, to reach them. I saw no temples or civilizations… only a thousand different ways death can claim a man.”

  “So you do know a way to find them,” Raegith said.

  Thorin laughed, longer and louder than Raegith expected. The others looked around, all as surprised as he was.

  “That’s what you have to say after all that I just told you?” Thorin bellowed. “You will not be deterred, will you Raegith the Grass-haired? Very well. I have tried my hardest to save your life, but you won’t have any of it. I will tell you how to reach the Junrei’sha and your own death.”

  Thorin stood and walked toward the exit of the chamber. The others followed him as he led the group through the cave. The Chief took a torch from the wall and led them downward, into the mountain. They walked on, traveling past all of the villagers and into the unlit passages. Thorin sniffed the air as they went, finding his way through the labyrinth and taking them onward for much longer than they expected. They walked for what seemed like hours until the passage started to lighten.

  Suddenly they were out on a ledge and the wind nearly toppled all but Thorin. There was a howling that sounded like a thousand night beasts screaming right in their ears. Below, the ledge dropped off just as the Hell Cliffs did, and nearly as far before the first decent landing was spotted. The slope was only slightly less steep past the landing and it dropped below the clouds and out of sight. Through the dense, atmospheric puffs below, glimpses of brown and yellow land could be seen.

  “If my memory is still good, I believe it took me three days to reach the bottom,” Thorin said. “Picking the correct path down is important. Several times I would get within a few lengths of a landing before realizing there was nothing to grab on to below me. Having to retrace your route back up the mountain after almost killing yourself going down that path was enough to make me want to just let go and let the bitch take me. I would try to give you a map, but the Alfhildr changes its face with every winter.”

  “But you made it down?” Raegith asked.

  “I did, both times. The first time I spent a week in the jungle below, getting lost, before a water serpent sunk his poison in my leg. The second time I made it through the jungle to find another mountain, even steeper than the Alfhildr, blocking my path. I had not seen bones in over a day. I’m sure it was the edge of the world and that I had gone farther than any other.”

  “You went by yourself?” Helkree asked.

  “It is the only way to go,” Thorin said. “This side of the mountain only allows a single passage. The paths down are too narrow and the rock and snow is too loose to try with two climbers.”

  “Well, that’s too bad, because it’s going to have to support my ass along with Raegith’s,” Helkree said.

  “Let’s go back,” Raegith said. “I need to rest first before I try this.”

  The group went back through the cave and up into the civilized section. Thorin charged Bardr with seeing to their needs and putting them up for the night and once they were fed, Raegith met up with Brimgor.

  Over the afternoon, they caught up on things over a few mugs of a thick, stout lager the Urufen made up in the mountain. Brimgor had sought out the Tyrra clan in order to cleanse his spirit on the mountain. He had purged himself of the drugs in his system over a brutal, month-long fast in the wastelands of the northern Greimere and then made his way into the east on foot. Brimgor listened to Raegith’s tales of glory inside the Pit and how he built a following among the other inmates. Raegith also told of the plans that he had made with the Empress and of how she died.

  “Noble women,” Brimgor huffed, taking a pull from his mug. “They’ll fuck your world up, Grass-hair, that’s for sure. I had one, once. Even as Agillean, I did not have the right, though. I had the right to nothing but death on the battlefield and now you tell me that there was never a true battle to begin with.”

  “I’m sorry you had to find out like this, friend,” Raegith said.

  “It doesn’t matter now. There will be blood very soon and I will be ready for it.”

  “I need to ask a favor of you, Brimgor,” Raegith said. “I’m going to be leaving into the south, to find the Junrei’sha.”

  “That’s what I hear. If it’s strength you need, then I’ll train you, Grass-hair. What can the Junrei’sha teach you that’s better than the greatest Agillean ever?”

  “I can’t fight like a Rathgar, Brimgor. Plus, there is more to it. Noriko could do magic; a very odd, primal sort of magic. That’s what I need to learn.”

&n
bsp; “So what favor do you need?”

  “I’m going to be gone, probably for a long time… years even,” Raegith said. “When I return, there is going to be revolution here in the Greimere. I’m leading us up out of this shithole and Helkree is going to be right by my side, but she cannot go with me to the Junrei’sha. I want you to train her while I’m gone.”

  Brimgor snorted beer through his nose. “Are you crazy? Helkree of Edge, the most homicidal lunatic this place has ever seen… trained by an Agillean? I thought you wanted to save the Empire, not burn it to the ground. Besides, I cannot train a female.”

  “Since when have you ever abided the laws of the Empire? Now that it’s gone, you’re going to start? That’s a bit strange, isn’t it? Maybe you’re afraid she’ll be a better killer than you?”

  “Women belong in the bedroom, not the battlefield, Raegith,” Brimgor said. “Men do the fighting, everywhere you go.”

  “Well, we no longer have the option to abide by that idea anymore, Brimgor. The females are going to fight and if you want this war to last more than a day, you’ll do what you must to make sure they can stay alive on the field.”

  “This is so beneath me!” Brimgor whined. “What happens when I teach her and she uses the knowledge to rape all the men in this land, including me? What a disgrace I’ll be then.”

  “Yeah, that’s going to keep me up at night, too. You don’t have to teach her everything, just in case… that happens.”

  “This is complete bullshit, Raegith!”

  Helkree was seething in anger, pulling her clothes on and casting about for her parka. She could not believe he was commanding her to stay there in the Urufen village while he went off into the most deadly area of the entire world.

  He had come in from drinking with Brimgor and with Fenra touring the village with Freya, she was looking forward to having him to herself for a few hours. It took a lot to keep up the pretense of only being his bodyguard. She felt so strongly about him, about keeping him safe, that it made her feel weaker and she kept a certain amount of emotional distance from him. He knew that she would never leave him and that was enough for her most of the time, but there was always that need to be closer to him. She could not find the words for how she felt about him and she would not know what to say to him if she could. When her emotions got the better of her, she simply fucked him.