Doom-Quest of Ara-Karn 4 Darkbridge

by Adam Corby

  ‘Dark Bridge! O She-Tooth, what do you know of a Dark Bridge?’

  ‘We know your people smuggle goods and refugees out of the South to somewhere. But beyond these lands are only the sunless Seas of God. Ships can be no good in darkness. You must have a way of doing that which no one else can.’

  He studied her, still amused. ‘Perhaps we do. But you are wrong about the ships, straight one – so wrong! What could you offer us – what would you give to me, if I could gather you away from that world and its new lord, and bring you to a land of which you have scarcely dreamed?’

  ‘First you must tell me if this myth truly exists.’

  ‘Oh, it exists,’ he drawled. ‘But only to those who have paid the price.’

  ‘I have about me enough jewels to buy a crown.’

  ‘I have a crown.’ He shrugged. ‘The crown of Ul Raambar. One of my sluts plays with it: she thinks it a pretty toy. And a throne is only for those who wish to be seen sitting astride it. There is no sight here, Golden One. Tell me, what could you do if I decided to put an arrow between those sweet breasts, steal the jewels, and sell your body to the armies of Ara-Karn? I am sure they would pay much for you, in any condition – your majesty.’

  ‘Ara-Karn would not be pleased,’ she answered.

  He sighed, perhaps hearing the conviction in her tones. ‘That is perhaps true. And what a waste! I sense fire in your loins, for the right man. This Ara-Karn, he is a strange man for one who casts a shadow. Unpredictable. He might even be one of us. And yet it would please him no more, if I helped you to escape from him. Give me the jewels.’

  ‘Not until I am safely in the world beyond.’

  ‘Woman, will you barter with me? Were you queen or grocer’s wife back there? Believe me when I say that, of all of us who cast no shadow, I am the only one who would, or could, see you across Darkbridge. Your life is in my hands. If it amused me (as it has amused me often in the past), I could lead you over a cliff in the darkness, and laugh as you fell to your death. Or I could be really cruel and leave you as I find you, to freeze and sicken in the darkness, wandering in circles until the Darkbeasts found your flesh!

  ‘Seven soldiers came into our lands some time after Ghezbal Daan sought my hospitality. They too sought this Darkbridge. They called it in the darkness, offering rewards or service for the favor: “Darkbridge! Darkbridge! Golden Elnics for word of Darkbridge!” But no one gave them answer. It pleased me rather to follow and watch them until they died – some sickened, the others starved. We had their gear and weapons afterwards, along with all their coins. And you would bicker with me over payment like some hag in the bazaar? You were of the gods, they tell me: gods despise gold. Give me your riches.’

  He extended a gloved hand. She shrugged. Turning so that he would not see, she reached under the tatters of her skirts to where the small pouch rested between inner and outer lora. She handed it to him.

  ‘Heavy enough,’ he grunted, hefting it. He held it up to his swathed cheek and sniffed. ‘Warm still,’ he commented. ‘A subtle and not unpleasant fragrance. That is not all perfume either, I’ll wager. I only wish all my fees came thus.’ He stared at her, and she flushed beneath his gaze. Never before in all her life had anyone so humiliated and degraded her. Two years earlier, had someone done one-tenth of what this man had done to her, she would have had him taken and beaten until the blood flowed, and left him hanging in the Gardens.

  Instead she bowed her head and said in low tones she could scarcely control, ‘And will you not show me the way to Darkbridge, Charan?’

  ‘Call me not by your titles, wench.’ He turned and gestured to his dogs. ‘Come.’

  She had great ado to keep pace with him.

  * * *

  Twice-ten times the Eye of God rode overhead as they journeyed across that snowy darkness deathly-cold, toward the North beyond. The Madpriest took the reins of Kis Halá in one hand and guided her from the saddle of his own horse; Emsha’s pony he fed to his dogs. So too he gave them the body of his dead friend; but Allissál guarded Emsha’s corpse, much to his amusement, and covered it over with some dignity. More than that she might not do.

  At their sides and before them roved his savage dogs, scenting the paths for the dung of the beasts of this vile land. He rode on surely, as if he knew exactly where he was and whither bound; she did no more than slump half-asleep in the saddle, rocking back and forth. Her fever had returned, but he would stop to rest no more than the horses required. Yet he did concede to give her a strong drink with a bitter taste, which gave her strength.

  Beneath her robes she now wore the black wrappings of Al-Tah, which Estar Kane gave her as spoils of the kill. And so they rode across the snow-bound, Moon-bright land in silence.

  She longed to see Goddess again and bask in Her warm rays, if only for an hour. But they only went farther into the darkness, so deep that not even a violet-blue existed over the horizon to show that there had ever been a Sun.

  At times, in the rages of her fever, she wondered whether he would lead her into a trap and sacrifice her upon the black altar of his God, as was writ down in the book of Skhel. But then she thought, perhaps that was no more than a lie. And she knew she had no other hope than trust this arrogant, taciturn man.

  They traveled along rocky paths and over the numerous ledge-plains, where the winds and harsh downpouring of rain so frequent in this land kept any soil from clinging. Below them she glimpse lowland vales where the tangled undergrowth grew even this far into darkness. They went on scarcely stopping, the Madpriest so sure of his path and his uncanny ability to see in darkness that not even the failing of God gave him pause.

  It was then that she noticed, through the mists of her fever, stars.

  Little quivering things they were, impossibly small and far away, seeming to enlarge the sky and force back the plashes of heaven to illimitable depths. She leaned back gazing up at them so long she grew dizzy and had to look down, clutching her saddle with both her hands.

  But she feared to look upon the moon in His fullness. The sight of that silver green orb soaring through Heaven almost brought her to tears. It began as a crescent sickle-edged, scything the field of stars, at home among its followers leading them to blood and glory, as the Madpriest explained. Each moon devoured the stars, adding their brightness to His own, until at last all were eaten and no more food remained. Then, one last time, He sailed alone in empty, desolate skies; and so came to His death. Then the stars came warily back until He came again. Allissál shook her head at these superstitions, but could not smile at them. The sight of the moon riding alone and solitary never failed to inspire in her breast a profound pity and dread.

  So they progressed, encountering no others in that harsh land, until they reached the top of a hill with the sound of far-off roaring in their ears. The Madpriest drew his horse to a halt and gestured.

  ‘There,’ he said over the sound of the surf. ‘That is Darkbridge.’

  XI

  The Ancient Path

  ALLISSÁL STRAINED HER EYES in the gloom. God was but a sickle. His brightness danced coldly off the waters of the sea and the snow-mantled hills, and a sea-mist spread the light.

  Stretched at the foot of the slopes below her, the silver ribbon of the beach sundered sea from land. At one point the ribbon was broken by a rocky outcrop shaped like a rude quay thrusting into the surf. Iron rods, shining with a skin of ice, were driven deep and twisted fast into the rock, and from those innumerable rods stretched the strands of an immense cable that ran through a ship grounded upon the shallows. From the first ship the cable ran to a second a few feet beyond, also parallel to the line of the shore. Beyond the second ship lay a third, beyond the third a fourth. So a train of ships curved across the deep swells of the sea. As far as her eye could see, the cable ran from ship to ship, vanishing at last in the glimmering mist.

  ‘Darkbridge,’ murmured Estar Kane. For the first and only time she heard in the Madpriest’s voice a note of respect – a
lmost of religious reverence.

  Then his horse stirred and one of his mongrel dogs growled, and he gestured roughly. ‘Come, will you stand here till the end of time?’

  Wordlessly she followed him.

  They rode down the slick ledges. The outcrop grew as she approached it: she had misjudged the stone’s immensity, and the number of rods fastened to it. As they neared the outcropping a dozen low shapes sprang from crevices in the rock.

  ‘Your name,’ the little figures cried, ‘and your goal!’

  ‘I am Estar Kane,’ the Madpriest answered in tones used opon inferiors. ‘I bring an exile who seeks the world beyond.’

  They clapped their hands and piped, ‘The fee, the fee, great Estar Kane!’

  ‘Take it,’ he said, and threw them the pouch of jewels. ‘For my own part I take only a single diamond with the glitter of the Eye of God. Do you likewise take but a gem to share amongst you. Pay the rest to Darkbridge.’

  ‘It shall be done, it shall be done,’ they said, examining the jewels. ‘Is it not always so? But what else do you have, Great One, for Darkbridge?’

  ‘This, and these,’ he said, drawing from his belt a small pouch of bandarskin. He rode to the point where the great cable twisted together from the union of the many strands anchored on the rock. He leaned down from the saddle, and shook out the pouch over the joining-point, where the strands twisted into one.

  Something shook out of the pouch, and entered the twisting maze of strands. It was not a thing Allissál could see – rather she heard it, like a hundred voices of men, groaning, fiercely striving, and dying.

  The sounds faded, and seemed to echo from deeper in the cable where it passed away from ship to ship.

  ‘Souls for Darkbridge!’ the hooded creatures sang. ‘Truly, Great One, to take life is to give life to dark God!’

  The Madpriest rode back down before Allissál. ‘They will take you the rest of the way. I do not go to the world beyond, or nearer to the sea than this. A prophecy once warned me I would meet my death from water. Go beyond and find your doom, O golden slayer of Al-Tah.’

  He brought his horse about and whipped the dogs up the slope, galloping after them. She heard the clatter of his hooves upon the icy stone but did not watch him leave. She had a great desire to shout some parting curse upon his back, but as she considered her choices her detestation for him wilted. He had not molested her, had shared his food and drink, and had kept straitly to his bargain. It was true, he had also insulted her beyond all measure, but when she considered this world in which he lived, she did not wonder he was insane.

  A wave of sudden understanding, almost of sympathy, washed over her. That man took no women he could not buy or beat into submission. She had seen with what respect he had treated the body of his friend. How lonely and pained must be the existence of such a man, who dwelt only with his own arrogant pride as a substitute for friendship! The thought of Ara-Karn occurred to her, alone in the Hall of Justice of the Black Citadel; then she looked up and saw the falling moon, an aged crescent ready to die.

  ‘Come, come!’ the voices chirped. Little bent hands tugged at her boots and black hose. ‘Come, the tide is high!’

  ‘Truly, yours is a handsome horse. A great beast, a noble beast! Will you take it Beyond?’

  ‘There will be danger is she does.’

  ‘But truly, she has paid well. Look at this jewel! Surely enough for two. Truly, Darkbridge receives his fees! He is thankful for these gifts from Ara-Karn!’

  It was a shock to hear that name spoken so familiarly even here, far beyond the world. ‘What do you know of Ara-Karn?’

  ‘Ara-Karn, Son to Kaan!’ they chanted. ‘Such fees for Darkbridge! First the lord gives us Ul Raambar, and then he sweeps the lands, and so many wish to escape him – many rich enough for Darkbridge, the rest rich enough to rob!’

  Clustering about Kis Halá’s flanks they brought her to the end of the huge rocky outcropping, where heavy planks led to the edge of the first ship.

  ‘Decide now, the tide slips. Will you take your horse? If so you must ride it all the way you can, and it will be your own charge. Few horses like the roll of ships and sound of water all around.’

  ‘I cannot leave her here.’ She looked back. Kis Halá in the hands of these starving, stunted wretches? – or worse, stumbling about in snowbound darkness until she was devoured by some great beast of prey? ‘Give me a moment to muffle her eyes and ears with this wrap.’

  ‘Yes, yes, but hurry, the tide beckons.’

  ‘…I am ready. Show me the way.’

  They led Kis Halá across the planks. The deck of the ship was planked and re-planked many times, covered with damp straw and sand. Musty odors arose from it as of some well-traveled road in the rain.

  The sound of the hooves on the planks brought other dark-robed figures from hatches on the ship. They stood in groups, gesturing and muttering in low tones.

  ‘What do they here?’ she asked her guides.

  ‘Truly they live here, woman with a shadow.’

  One of the newcomers came forward. Larger than the others, still he would only have risen to the belt of Estar Kane. Her guide went to him, or her; they embraced and conferred. Kis Halá grew nervous, and stamped a hoof and shook her head as if to be rid of the wrappings over her eyes. Absently Allissál stroked the broad warm head. She tried to catch what the stunted people said. The words were hushed and spoken in that strange dialect of the barbarians’ tongue, but there were two words she caught: her guide saying ‘—Kane!’ and the other gasping in amazement, ‘No!’ Apparently her warrior-guide was feared throughout these dark lands. For a moment she wondered who he really was, and what he had been before he had gone mad and fled the Sun.

  ‘Haste, haste!’ urged another guide. ‘The tides move whether we do or not!’

  The leader rejoined them and they started forward again. Across to the second ship they took her, then to the third. Here more of the creatures labored, repairing a hole in the prow. Her curiosity increased. ‘Who are these people?’ she asked.

  ‘Truly, we are the fleas in the mane of Darkbridge,’ they replied. ‘We are not like the warriors, the holy brigands like the great Estar Kane. We are humble folk, fishermen and carpenters and the like. We guide folk across and they make sure Darkbridge is well. Others still repair the Cable that is the spine of Darkbridge, twining rope and covering the cable with resin. And all is done in accordance with His will, with what we buy with fees and loot.’

  ‘There must be a good deal of that if you can maintain this great bridge against the storms,’ she said. Now they had reached the sixth ship.

  ‘Enough – and more than enough, since he came!’

  ‘Why are the ships not turned end to end? It must require many more ships this way.’

  ‘Truly. But only thus may Darkbridge ride the storms and currents without the Cable snapping like a hair from woman’s brow. Darkbridge is great, but greater still is the God-swollen Sea.’

  ‘How many ships are there in all? How far have we to go?’

  ‘Far, far, O woman with a shadow!’ They laughed. ‘Would you skip from world to world in a twinkling? And then, when the swells grow dangerous, we must stop and wait for the sea to rise again.’

  ‘How was Darkbridge built?’

  ‘It was long ago, lady with a shadow. Long, long! We were giants in those times, when they drove us from our lands. They chased us into the darkness to our deaths, and all in Her name – Hers! That is why we curse Her and spit upon Her robes! Oh, but they were giants then. Warlord Borun-Kane built it, bridging the seas in seven strides, gathering whole ships under his arms. Have you never heard of Borun-Kane?’

  ‘Never.’

  ‘Truly? Not so much as even his name?’

  ‘Never. Not a word.’

  ‘Blessed are the ignorant! Truly it was said that those who cast shadows are rendered mad by the blinding light. Never heard of Borun-Kane! – But then, you must have heard of the wiz
ard Enpsit Ennahael who made the Cable, and put into its heart a single strand of Borun-Kane’s hair so long it spanned the distance, so that never has the Cable parted?’

  ‘No, nor of the wizard either.’

  ‘Truly, truly!’ They seemed amazed at her answers.

  ‘And do you do all these things,’ she asked, ‘—Repair the ships, fish, give birth, grow old and die – all in darkness hidden from the Sun?’

  ‘Ah! Do not speak that name! We spit upon Her skirts, we curse Her name! Speak not of Her lest you bring down His wroth and we be forced to throw you over the side in apology to Darkbridge!’ So they cried in terror and anger; and afterwards went on in stony silence as if she had offended them.

  They crossed over many ships. When the tide fell they stopped in the hold of one ship, ate hot food and slept in small dark bunks beneath thick blankets. She refused such comfort, preferring the open deck by her mare, so that Kis Halá might not grow too afraid. The little people seemed to respect her moods without understanding them, treating her with as much real courtesy as she had ever received at court.

  When the tide rose they went on. She became more and more impressed with Darkbridge and the knowledge required to construct and maintain such a formidable structure. Yet the little people seemed more interested with tales and legends of Ara-Karn; they asked her of him so many times that in the end she had to answer them.

  ‘I will tell you of him,’ she said, ‘if first you tell me what you know of Elna.’

  ‘Al-Nah, Al-Nah!’ they chanted. ‘Do you know nothing of the Traitor either then? Al-Nah was a mighty killer, and he won to chieftain of his tribe red-handed when he had but twelve winters. He led raids and was honored in blood-brotherhood by Tont Ornoth and Borun-Kane himself; but in the mountains of Bolla-Kar, Al-Nah was bewitched by the Whore-Priestess. She seduced Al-Nah from God, so that to become her consort he betrayed his tribesmen to the other priestesses, who slew them all with golden needles. Then Al-Nah led the Low Peoples against the tribes, and drove us into darkness.