Sari passes the final tar pit and stops at the sound of an explosion from far behind them. The sound of a rushing wave can be heard in the distance, so the gypsy gestures for the others to move ahead while she prepares to freeze the oncoming water. Reaching out her arms, she focuses her power to find that it is having no effect on whatever is rolling over the path. The little ice that Sari creates is melted in less than a second, which she does not understand until the churning flood gets closer. Sucking up every tar pit in its path, the wave is composed of the black goo that has been enchanted to be too hot for the gypsy to freeze. With the ocean too far below for her to create a barrier, she turns and sprints after her companions.
Large, jagged rocks have been placed around the road, which slows the travelers to an agonizing crawl. Taking up the rear, Sari can hear the snapping pincers of crabs that have been caught within the wave that smashes many of the animals into the stones. One of the creatures is tossed into her hair and pinches her scalp until she tears it off. Tossing the crab over her shoulder, the gypsy realizes how far behind she has fallen and worries that she will have to leap off the road to take her chances in the ocean. Seeing a clear path along the right hand edge, Sari sprints as fast as she can to get further away from the flood. She has nearly caught up to the others when the ground crumbles and she is sent toppling toward the distant water. Amber tentacles burst from below, their barbed ends flailing and stretching to embrace the falling champion.
“Use your boots!” Kira shouts as she catches Sari’s leg with her weapon. Gripping the sickle end’s shaft with both hands, the heiress is about to haul her friend back onto the path when the wave surges forward. “Hold on tight too!”
Not wanting to slip from the chain, Sari twists to grab the weapon and activates her boots to make her body as light as a feather. Following Kira’s orders, the gypsy lets herself get pulled along while the heiress runs in front of the tar. She pulls her legs up to her chest to avoid the stretching tentacles, which lead to a yawning maw of blackened teeth. Glancing at the road, Sari can see that Kira is vaulting over the occasional small rock instead of wasting time going around the obstacle. Every time her companion lands, the nervous gypsy fears that she is about to fall into the creature’s waiting mouth. Locking her hands around the chain, the champion prays that the slow fall magic of her boots continues to work. As if reading her mind, the artifact gradually weakens and Sari’s natural weight begins to hinder the heiress’s progress. No longer able to leap over the rocks, the gasping heiress darts around the obstacles and struggles against her straining muscles.
Knowing she cannot outrun the tar, Kira jumps off the road and snags her weapon on one of the stones. Dangling next to Sari, the heiress holds on tight as the wave rushes by, the enchanted kusari-gama resisting the magical heat. A faint grinding noise makes the adventurers go pale and look around for any handholds on the underside of the path. The chain slumps as the rock is eroded by the flood and the pair are about to fall when a geyser erupts from below. Controlled by Sari, the salty water strikes the two women with enough force to hurl them toward the end of the path. The drenched travelers land in a heap at the entrance to a stone bridge, which Nimby is already standing on. Coming within inches of the defenseless adventurers, the tar crashes against an invisible wall and flows over the edge to scald the screeching maw in the ocean. Badly injured, the creature sinks back into the depths and leaves the surface, which is now covered in a thick mist.
“I guess you were right that this route wasn’t easy or hard,” Sari groans while getting to her feet. She rubs at her shoulders and limps for a few steps before her ankle pops, the pain being replaced by a slight numbness. “Good thing you figured out the puzzle, Grasdon. Would have hated to run into something worse.”
“To be honest, I lied about figuring out the right path,” Kira replies, refusing to stand until her muscles stop aching. Reaching into her pocket, she puts on a ring with a pink pearl that she twists for a little relief. “There’s no way I’d be able to predict an immortal warlord. I just took a guess and voiced it with confidence. Works when I’m negotiating, so I thought I’d try it as a bluff here.”
“I’m impressed. Why did you pick the middle path?”
“Five paths. Five fingers. I wanted to give the Baron the middle one.”
“Now, I’m less impressed.”
Kira returns the gypsy’s impish grin as General Vile hops onto her shoulder and wraps a lock of her hair around his hand. A jolting crack erupts from the ground the moment Sari steps onto the bridge and a tremor throws her into the granite railing. The cliff collapses and sends Kira plummeting toward the ocean, the heiress swiftly engulfed by the rising fog. Stretching to the furthest extent of its enchantment, her kusari-gama whips out of the cloud and hooks the jagged earth. The chain swings under the broken bridge before the sickle comes loose and disappears into the mist. Sari tries to control the unseen ocean to rescue her friend, but the water refuses to obey her commands.
“There is nothing dangerous on the bridge,” the Lich says, his skeletal fingers tapping on the railing. His hand stops when a dagger bangs off the stone next to his thumb. “I don’t see a problem. General Vile is with the brat and there are islands beneath us. We saw the weapon swing, which means she is still alive. Their path is more difficult, but I trust that they have a chance of reuniting with us.”
“You knew this would happen!” Sari shouts as she grips Nimby’s throat. The halfling squirms out of her hands before they can lock, but she catches him by back of his shirt. “I am sick and tired of you holding back information. Give me one good reason why I don’t saw away at your shoulder and toss that rotting arm over the edge. I doubt Nimby will complain since the alternative is I freeze him until he shatters.”
“Can I voice my opinion here?” asks the halfling while raising his fleshy hand. The gypsy releases him, but ice forms around his feet to prevent an escape. “That’s unnecessary. It isn’t like I have anywhere to go other than forward. Since the Lich isn’t talking, we should simply shut him up.”
“You lost the punishment rod, so you have no power.”
“Except for one trick I’ve been saving for now.”
Grabbing his boney ring finger, Nimby sucks in a breath and snaps the digit off at the third knuckle. He grimaces at how the injury hurts, but the pain is no more than if he accidentally banged his hand into a table. The bronze ring sparks and hisses, the Lich’s rage-fueled curses emerging as nothing more than faint echoes in the thief’s ears. Aware that the finger will reappear on his hand once he falls asleep or drops his guard, Nimby tucks the severed body part into a hidden shirt pocket. Gently patting the twitching bulge, he takes the lead since the gypsy still has a look of distrust and hate etched onto her face.
*****
“None of this looks familiar either,” Vile claims while he stands atop a pile of seaweed covered skulls. He forces his waterstone face to grin, which threatens to break his developing joints and makes an eerie creak. “I don’t understand you. The champions have only brought suffering and loss to your life. Yet, you continue to help them instead of staying away. One would think you’re stupid, but I assume it is more out of loyalty.”
Kira frowns at the chatty figurine, her face smeared with muck due to a graceless crash landing. With a hacking cough, the exhausted woman wipes her arms clean and makes sure her weapon is secured around her torso. Thick fog wraps around the bridge piers, which have become encrusted by salt and dotted with colonies of fist-sized barnacles. A constant gale pushes from behind to clear a path and reveal a swampy graveyard for sailors and small ships. Kira shivers at the sight of skeletal arms reaching out of the rotting kelp and molasses-like sand. Due to the difficulty of every step, she is unsure if they are making progress or her stressed mind is playing tricks. The situation is made even worse by the foul taste of ocean water and what she hopes is mud in her mouth. The bottomless pouch on her hip is torn along the seam, making it impossible for her to retrieve
the rest of her gear without risking a lethal backlash. To her frustration, this means she is traveling without food and potable water until she reunites with Sari.
“Silence is a pathetic answer,” Vile says while his companion tries to move faster. Perched on Kira’s shoulder, he grabs her hair to avoid falling into the mire. “I can respect loyalty. Some may call it a foolish mentality, but a great soldier like myself would disagree. Many times, my life was saved because of the loyalty and respect others held for me. None of that matters because I’m more interested in why a rich, little girl continues to put her life in danger. Is it that you have had nothing left to lose ever since Stephen thoroughly destroyed your family?”
“That monster didn’t destroy my entire family, which is why I keep fighting,” Kira growls as she trudges ahead. Her leg sinks up to her knee, which causes half of a rotting body to sit up as if it is alive. “If you really need an answer then it’s because I fell in love with Luke before he became a champion. That is the man I will always think of before I remember the prophecy, the Baron, and the rest of his adventures. No matter how awkward and embarrassing those early memories are, those are the ones that come to my mind first.”
General Vile’s eyes click in their sockets as they roll, one of them threatening to fall out of his head. “You should have declared loyalty because now I have to point out how ridiculous it is to fight for love. It’s such a fleeting emotion, which causes trouble on the battlefield. Warriors will abandon their allies because love drives them to stay alive for someone else. Not to mention that most times we’re really talking about lust. That’s where Nimby came from. One night with a waitress who handed him over to me soon after his first breath. Loyalty is much more powerful and stable than love. Then again, adventurers are a different breed than soldiers. Maybe it’s more sensible for that kind of life since they aren’t part of an army. Kind of like how mercenaries fight for money.”
“I’m neither a soldier nor an adventurer.”
“Which makes you even more of an enigma.”
“Then, why don’t you take a guess?”
“Well, I already said rich, little girl.”
Kira is about to stuff the possessed toy into her pouch, but stops when she remembers it is damaged. Not wanting to waste energy on an argument, she focuses on moving through the thickening mud. Her boots get heavier with every step, so she finds a patch of solid beach to scrape them clean with a shell. The young woman freezes when she hears splashing to her right, which is followed by a low hum. Not wanting to look directly at the source, Kira faces forward and peeks out of the corner of her eye to spot the approaching whale. The blue-skinned creature disappears for a minute before breaching and using wing-like fins to clear the path. More of the animals erupt from the ocean, the strongest going last after tossing the calves over what they perceive as a wide sand bar.
The landing of the whales creates a powerful current that erases the path and churns the graveyard, which disturbs the bloated bodies. The corpses are caught by a gentle tide and moved to create a grotesque road that bobs in the ocean. It is impossible to tell what the sailors looked like when alive, their features masked by patches of coral. Nose wrinkled and mouth clamped shut in disust, Kira steps onto the first corpse, which pops like a balloon and drops her into the water. Stinging flies buzz around her head until she dives beneath the waves, an undertow threatening to drag her away. Ignoring Vile’s constant tugging on her hair, she grips the underside of each body to pull herself along the path. Each one explodes at the slightest pressure, which increases the swarm that greets her every desperate breath. Kira can feel her lungs burning when she is forced to take a quick gasp and dive back to safety, the sores on her face itching from the salt.
A limbless creature grazes the adventurer’s leg and slithers to the surface where it devours mouthfuls of the insects. The murky water hides the eel’s features, but Kira is close enough to see that the predator is longer than her leg. Fighting against the current, the slender fish searches for narrow gaps of calm sea that allow it to burst forward. Curious about the young woman, the eel gets within a few inches of her face and stares at her with bulbous eyes that remind her of smooth rubies. Unconcerned with Kira, the mottled beast flips so that its head is facing down and its tail is barely piercing the surface. The predator’s mouth opens to reveal a rotating tongue that fires an orb of force into the depths. More of the slender animals emerge from the shadows and enjoy the feast that continues to attack the young woman whenever she comes up for a gulping breath.
As the current weakens, Kira is able to move ahead without touching the bodies and adding more bugs to the dwindling swarm. It is not long before she hears the snapping of jaws to her right and twists away from one of the eels. The edge of its body slaps the heiress’s arm and leaves a thin, burning cut. Sensing that she is in danger, Kira swims as fast and hard as she can and hopes to leave the gathering predators behind. One of them looms out of the water in front of her, but she dives under the sharp-toothed beast at the last moment. Hurrying to get some air, she is yanked down by an eel that has wrapped around her left leg. A solid kick to the eye causes the animal to swim away, but its rough body shreds her pants and scrapes her shin. Reaching the surface, Kira smacks the nearest body to create more food for the eels.
“I can see land,” Vile announces as he swats at the flies. His arm stops above his head when he spots a telltale dorsal fin heading towards them. “We probably shouldn’t be surprised, but there’s a shark coming. Looks pretty big. Can I point out that it would have been better if Sari fell down here instead of you?”
“I’m well aware of that,” Kira mutters, unwrapping her weapon and briefly ducking her head underwater. The large shark barrels through the mass of eels, its mouth already opening to swallow the young woman whole. “At least it’s a normal shark. Doesn’t breathe fire or do anything more than bite. Can’t believe that’s a comfort.”
Curling her legs and sinking below the surface, Kira waits until the predator gets close and kicks off its snout to move aside. Stretching her arm above the water, she spins her kusari-gama and hurls the sickle into the passing dorsal fin. Emerging long enough to take a breath, she coils the chain around her arm to haul herself onto the shark’s back. Ignoring the abrasive skin, Kira tugs on the fin in the hopes of controlling the beast’s direction. It refuses to obey until she leans down to deliver a scratch to the gills, the surprising attack making the large fish believe it is in danger. With her legs able to reach further than her arms, she guides her mount toward land while leaning back to avoid the eels and other sharks that dart through the water. Fearing that one of the bigger fish will attack her smaller mount during the frenzy, Kira frees the blunt end of her weapon and use it to punch those that get too close. She is about to run out of air when she kicks her shark just above the gills and drives it onto a shell-covered beach. Freeing her weapon, the exhausted woman shoves the predator back into the ocean and moves away to collapse on the sand.
“You seem to have adopted and nearly perfected the split-second risk-taking of your insane fiancée,” Vile says, the figurine tangled in his companion’s soaked tresses. He does his best to escape without causing her pain, but a single hair gets stuck in his elbow joint and is yanked out. “I’m looking forward to seeing you battle Yola. Not that I think you have a chance of winning, but you’re proving to be fairly unpredictable and entertaining.”
“Thought you’d remember that after I helped beat you in Gaia,” Kira replies while cutting off one of her sleeves. She does her best to clear the sand off her injured leg before binding it with the makeshift bandage. “I’m saving a surprise for Yola, so don’t believe I’ll be defeated so easily. For now, I want to focus on reaching the end of this path. You know, I have this weird feeling we aren’t heading toward Shayd. The sky is clear and the ocean is calm, which doesn’t seem right. Something about this area reminds me of Cerascent. Definitely more tropical than whatever you want to call Shayd.”
/> “If the Baron is aware of our intentions then he could have moved the path.”
“Which means all of this could be a trap.”
“It was always a trap.”
“This one won’t lead to Luke.”
“Are you going to give up?”
“Over your dead body . . . You know what I mean.”
Kira tests how much weight she can put on her leg, which sends jolts of pain up the left side of her body. Limping forward, she stares into the gathered fog and wonders if she has to travel through the thick cloud. As if taking pity on her, the barrier is dispelled by a howling gale and she finds herself near a canoe that is missing its paddles. Sitting on the edge of a short drop, the boat is fastened to the ground by a single cable draped with seaweed. The canvas sides are soft to the touch and reminds Kira of fur, but they resemble tanned leather. Delicate drawings of eddies and waves are on the vessel, the dried ink giving off a sweet smell. Judging from the size of the canoe, she believes it was made for halflings and someone her size can easily fall out. Stepping onto a patch of wet sand, she hears a wooden snap and uncovers a broken paddle that has been gnawed on by sharp teeth. Tossing the useless object over her shoulder, the heiress runs a finger along the edge of the boat while walking to the front.
Glancing over the drop, Kira sees that it is a slope, which will launch her back into the churning waves. Not far away is a waterfall that is sending lines of fog along the edges of the path, the cool mist caressing the bridge supports. Squinting and shielding her eyes from the midday sun, the tired adventurer notices that the current is going up the jagged cliffs. A strange break captivates Kira’s attention until the heiress realizes that she is not looking at a single waterfall. It is a natural staircase of rising water and dangerous rocks leading to the horizon, which is hiding half of the sun. A small, dark blob appears near the edge of the flaring orb whenever the rising mist or a passing cloud dims the vibrant light.
Ritual of the Lost Lamb Page 36
