by Troy Denning
The sun finally rose high enough to peer over the brink of the clef ting, pouring its golden warmth down into the shadowed chasm. Atreus stopped, struck by the harmony of it all. Every element had its place, every part its meaning. The scheme was so neat and symmetrical that only Sune could have arranged it, or his own mind, fabricating interpretations for what were really random events.
Atreus pulled the map from inside his cloak and studied it in light of his newfound insight It looked the same as before, but now he saw only names stenciled into empty valleys, nothing to suggest the untold acres of ice he had crossed, nor the verdant paradises he had imagined. Seema was right Langdarma was a myth, and myths existed only within the heart He tore the map into tiny pieces, then looked up into the sky.
This is the best you can do, Goddess?" He dropped the shredded map into the snow. "You expect me to desert Yago to be beautiful inside?"
The sun vanished behind the looming mountain, once again plunging Atreus into the frozen shadows of the clef ting.
CHAPTER 12
"You're what?" growled Yago. The ogre stood shoulder-deep in his trench, glaring up at Atreus in slack-jawed disbelief.
"I'm going home," Atreus replied, squatting down to help his friend out of the hole. It was less than an hour after his revelation in the sun, and already the bottom of the clef ting was as cold as night "Come on."
Yago did not take the offered hand. "Already?" the ogre asked.
Atreus shrugged. "Seema was right," he said. "Langdarma is a myth."
The ogre eyed Atreus warily.
"They've been telling you that since Edenvale. Why believe them now?"
Atreus gestured at the icy wall behind them and said, "The glacier. If Langdarma ever existed, it's gone now."
Yago shook his head. "You said yourself there was a trick to it," he reminded Atreus. The ogre stooped down and returned to his digging, his voice becoming hollow and tinny. This isn't like you, giving up so easy."
"Don't!" Atreus leaped into the trench, grabbed the ogre's arm, and said, "Do you want me to say it? You were right Sune never meant to make me handsome. She just wanted me out of her church."
Yago frowned, pondering Atreus's words, then grew sad and covered his friend's shoulder with his big hand. "Well pay a visit to that fickle sow's temple when we get back," he promised, "and teach her a thing or two about making promises she don't keep."
"You'd do that for me, I know, but this thing's ugly enough," Atreus said, pointing at his own face. "I don't want it known as the face that started a war."
Yago sighed and boosted Atreus up to the lowest of the boulders above their heads, then they clambered out of the clef ting. Even in the shadow of the middle Sister's looming cliffs, the air was much warmer than down in the chasm. This did little to cheer Atreus, who merely motioned for fee others to follow and started down the slope. The glacier below was still blinding white with the sun's afternoon reflection. With any luck, they could cross it and be well past the icefall before the evening shadows came.
Seema quickly caught up to him. "What did you find?" she asked.
"What you said I would," replied Atreus. "Nothing."
She frowned and said, "I said that you would find Langdarma inside. Did you not say you had after the avalanche?"
"I said a lot of things," Atreus replied. "I was half dead."
Seema shook her head. "No," she said. "I saw ft in your eyes. You had seen it"
"Is it there now?" Atreus stopped and glared down at her and pressed, "Do you still see it?"
"No," Seema said as she backed away, her face growing pale. "I see only that you are angry with me."
The sight of Seema's alarm shamed Atreus. Her kindness had lulled him into forgetting that he was a monster, that on his face any sign of ire took on the appearance of a mortal threat He willed his face to relax and started down the slope again.
"I am angry, yes, but not with you," he said gently. "Without you, I would have gotten myself and my friends killed a dozen times. My anger is with my goddess and with myself for being fool enough to believe her."
"There is no reason to be angry with either," said Seema "You have seen Langdarma. If you look inside, you will find it again."
"I'm not interested in what's inside." Atreus could not keep the bitterness out of his voice. "I came to change what is on the outside."
Seema shook her head sadly and said, "You have forgotten everything."
"What have I forgotten? That I must change inside before I can change outside? I have heard that a thousand times, but I am done playing Sune's fool. I'll always have this face… no matter how I feel about it."
"That is true," said Seema.
"It is not what Sune promised. She deceived me."
Seema fell silent and looked away. They reached the bottom of the slope, stepped out onto the sunny part of the glacier, and began to wind their way through a labyrinth of boulders and crevasses toward the icefall. With the full sun beating down on their backs, the four companions soon grew so hot that they removed their cloaks and made poor Yago carry them in the supply bundle. The glare was unbearable. Even squinting, it made their eyes burn and sent daggers of pain shooting through their heads.
After a time, Seema returned to walk at Atreus's side. "It is not always cruel, you know," she told him.
"What isn't?"
"Deceiving," Seema answered. "Sometimes it is done for a person's own good."
This wasn't Sune didn't have to send me across the world to prove I would always be ugly. I was pretty sure of that already."
"Perhaps that is not why she sent you," suggested Seema. "Perhaps she sent you to learn that you are not ugly."
Atreus glared down at her. Thanks for trying," he said, "but I'm done with fables… and you're only making things worse.
Seema's head snapped away as though struck, and Atreus instantly regretted his words. He had not intended to hurt the healer's feelings, and he was not quite sure how he had. Most of the time, people were relieved to hear him acknowledge his hideous-ness. It freed them of the uncomfortable burden of pretending to find him attractive. Seema, on the other hand, had reacted as though he had called her ugly. Atreus thought the matter over a while longer, then shrugged. Perhaps she had just seen something particularly unpleasant in his face.
Seema did not speak again until they reached the edge of the icefall, where the little glacier filled the air with groans and crackles as it spilled down to the main valley.
The afternoon can be a treacherous time to descend the fall," she said. "We could just as easily wait until morning, if you want to have a last look around the basin."
"Oh no, there is nothing to be gained by that," said Rishi. When the others frowned at his outburst, he cringed and added, "I mean to say, are we not running low on food? It will be difficult enough to retrace our steps with the little we have."
"There's always you," suggested Yago.
Rishi's eyes widened, and then he showed his teeth in an uneasy grin. "You are making a joke," Rishi said hopefully. "Very funny."
The ogre looked toward Atreus, his brow furrowed as though confused, and asked, "What's he mean?"
Rishi paled and began to back away, and Seema regarded the ogre with a look previously reserved only for Tarch. Atreus chuckled, the only one to realize that Yago was still mocking the little Mar.
"Relax, Rishi, we'll be back in the Five Kingdoms long before Yago gets that hungry."
Atreus studied the avalanche run out at the base of the icefall. There was no longer a cloud of vapor hanging over its surface, and he could see an icy, funnel-shaped hole where Tarch had melted his way out of the snow. The sooner we get down from here, the better," Atreus added. "I fear I've put us at risk already."
Atreus pointed down at Tarch's escape hole.
Seema gasped and Rishi moaned. Yago simply removed Atreus's chain from the supply bundle and passed it forward. They spent a few minutes searching for their foe in the maze of seracs and crevasse
s below and finally gave up. Seema led them over to the edge of the glacier and started to pick a direct route down, reasoning that since they had not seen the tailed devil yet, he must be following their old trail up the middle of the icefall.
A day in the sun had made slush of much of the ice. Although it was easy to kick steps in the steep sections, their feet were soon numb from the wet cold. They began to stumble and slip, even on relatively steady footing. Once, they nearly lost Yago when he slid fifty paces and slammed into a serac, toppling it over in the opposite direction. Both Rishi and Atreus had close calls when the stash gave way beneath their boots and sent them gliding toward deep crevasses. As frightening as these mishaps were, none of them were as unnerving as the all-too-frequent boom of a falling ice block. Several times, they felt the glacier jump with the impact of a nearby monolith, and once they were showered with ice chips from behind. It did not take long before they began to worry less about Tarch than thawing seracs.
They were a thousand paces from the bottom, working their way down a steep ledge between a mountainous ice slab and a narrow lateral crevasse, when Atreus glimpsed movement out of the corner of his eye. He tapped Seema on the shoulder and whirled around. He found himself staring across an icy abyss deep into a bluish maze of horizontal crevasses and cockeyed seracs. It looked like some sort of crazy cemetery, full of open graves and monolithic tombstones.
"What is it?" Seema whispered.
"It can only be that tailed devil," Rishi hissed, leaping to conclusions. He glanced up and down the steep ledge, then started to push his way forward. "Hurry! We are doomed if he traps us here."
Yago grabbed the Mar from behind. "Stay put, or I push you in. And be quiet1" His deep voice rumbled across the icefall twice as loud as Rishi's.
Atreus eyed the crevasse beside them, peering down into its blue depths. At close to four paces, it was wider than he felt comfortable jumping from a standstill, but there was another way.
"Yago, remember that game your nephews used to play with me?"
The ogre scowled, thinking, then glanced at the crevasse and raised his heavy brow.
His answer was a cautious, "Yeah "
"Can you make it?"
The ogre scratched his head and closed one eye, measuring the distance. "Probably," he said, "but you know it don't work unless there's someone on the other side."
"There will be," Atreus promised.
Yago grinned and passed the supply bundle to Rishi.
Atreus looked across the crevasse into the maze of cockeyed seracs. He could feel the tailed devil out there watching them, nursing his cold anger. The Sisters of Serenity seemed a long way to come for retribution, but Tarch was after more than simple vengeance. He was after Seema, and Atreus suspected the slave master would be willing to travel a lot farther than this to capture such a prize.
Atreus turned toward Rishi and Seema. "When Tarch comes," he told them, "flee uphill and circle around. He'll be expecting you to run downhill."
Seema frowned and asked, "Where will you be?"
"Well meet you down in the valley," he said, "but don't wait for us. If we're not there before you, it means some-thing went wrong."
Seema shook her head. "I can't let you do this," she said. Tarch will kill you."
"He'll try." As Atreus spoke, a muffled splash sounded somewhere in the serac field. There's going to be a fight, Seema. The only thing you can control is whether it means anything."
Seema closed her eyes, then nodded. "No killing," she insisted again. "Not on my behalf"
"No killing?" Yago grumbled. This fight's going to be hard enough-"
Atreus raised his hand to silence his friend.
"We've given our word, Yago. No killing. If you can't abide by that pledge, then you'll have to stay-"
"Not on your life!" The ogre glowered down at Seema, then nodded and said, "You have my word."
"And you mean to leave me here with the woman?" demanded Rishi. To Atreus's surprise, the Mar actually sounded insulted. "I am as much a man as you. Have I not proven my skill in battle many times?"
"Too many times," Atreus said, "but someone has to stay-"
Atreus was cut off by an angry snarl and the sound of feet splashing through slush. He turned to see Tarch charging out from the seracs, his reptilian scales reflecting rainbows in the brilliant sun. Though the tailed devil carried no weapons, the claws at the ends of his fingertips looked more dangerous than any sword, and of course he had plenty of other surprises.
Atreus stretched the chain between his hands, calling, "Now, Yago!"
In the next instant, he was dangling upside down by his ankles, swinging backward as Yago cocked him to throw.
The wall of ice behind them was coming up perilously fast
"Throw, Yago! Throw!"
Atreus turned away just as his shoulder slammed into the ice, suddenly whipping forward and seeing the icy depths of me crevasse spin past beneath him. He caught a glimpse of Tarch's sharp-toothed mouth hanging agape, as he slammed into the devil broadside and bowled him over backward.
Atreus came down flat, driving the wind out of his foe's lungs and winning himself a much needed instant to secure his advantage. He sank his teeth into Tarch's ear and tasted something awful, like rotten fish. They began to slide down the slushy slope, and Atreus smashed an elbow into the devil's flank.
The blow would have broken the ribs of a man, but it merely irritated Tarch. The devil growled once and hurled his attacker off. Atreus kept his jaw clenched, nearly snapping his own neck as the devil's ear came off in his teeth. Tarch roared in pain and slapped at his wound, then rolled to his knees. Atreus was already on him, whipping the chain into the slave master's skull time after time. He did not worry about his promise to Seema. It would take more than a few blows to kill the devil.
In his confusion, Tarch actually brought his arms up to cover his head. Atreus switched his chain to the body and heard a rib snap. If he could break five or six more, the agony just might make the devil flee.
As it was, the pain only brought Tarch to his senses. The devil lashed out with a hammer-hard fist and caught his attacker in the shin.
Atreus felt something snap and fell screaming. He landed head down on his back and started a long slide toward a nearby crevasse, but Tarch saw no delight in such simple death. The devil caught him by his injured leg and reeled him back.
"Slag my boys, will you?" the devil growled. He twisted Atreus's leg around like a wheel as Atreus wailed in pain and rolled to his stomach, still holding the chain. "Peel my best girl, will you?"
Tarch twisted again. Atreus spun to his back and found himself looking up into his foe's sunken black eyes. Yago was sliding down the hill behind the devil, having just leaped across the crevasse.
"Before I'm done with you," said Tarch, "you'll be beggin' me to kill you nice and slow-like!"
"I doubt it," Atreus groaned.
He whipped the chain forward. Tarch hopped it with a quick one-two step and gave Atreus's leg a savage twist, then abruptly let go as a pair of huge hands caught hold of his tail. His eyes flashed crimson, and he started to turn. Yago yanked him off his feet and spun him around, slamming the astonished devil into a serac.
There was a tremendous clatter, and the frozen monolith rained jagged shards of ice down on all three fighters. Tarch whirled on his attacker with slashing claws, but he was no match for the strength of an ogre. Yago cocked his arms back for another smash, flinging the devil out to the end of his tail, then swung again, stepping into the blow like a woodsmasher clubbing down a tree.
Tarch hit with a resounding crash. Something deep inside the serac cracked, and the monolith slumped forward. The devil let out a low groan and started to go limp, shook himself back to consciousness, and managed to fix on angry glare on his foe.
"One more time!" he hissed.
Yago brought his arms back for a smash Atreus prayed would finish their foe when a loud pop echoed across the ice. Tarch went sailing down the i
cefall, leaving his tail in Yago's hands and trailing an arc of rust-colored blood. The slaver crashed through an ice slab and landed ten paces below Atreus.
Yago scowled at the writhing appendage in his hands, staring at the meaty stump as though he could not quite figure out what had happened. There was not as much blood as Atreus would have expected, and he had the sinking feeling that the injury was not enfeebling. He drew his knee up beneath him, and even this little bit of effort sent daggers of pain shooting through his leg.
Yago tossed Tarch's tail into a crevasse and went crashing and sliding down the slope after the battered devil. On the other side of the chasm, Seema was reluctantly fleeing up the ledge as instructed. Rishi was nowhere to be seen, but there was no time to worry about what had become of the Mar. Tarch was gathering himself up to meet Yago, and the ogre was chortling with overconfidence.
"Careful, Yago!" Atreus called, pushing himself up on his good leg. "Don't let him touch-"
Even as Atreus spoke, Yago launched himself into the air and landed on top of Tarch. They tumbled down the slope locked in a death clench. The devil was all but invisible inside the ogre's grasp, and Atreus could well imagine those hairy arms crushing the slave master's battered ribs.
The pair bounced off a serac and slid toward a smile-shaped crevasse lying across the slope below. Atreus started after them, then howled in pain as he put weight on his injured leg. He managed two hopping steps before he fell on his back and started to slide. Instead of trying to stop, he steered himself in the general direction of the combat.
Whether Yago saw the crevasse below him was impossible to say, but Tarch managed to free a scaly arm and start scratching at the ice. Slowly, the sharp claws arrested the pair's descent, bringing them to a halt only five paces above the icy chasm. Yago rolled on top of his foe and sank his jagged yellow teeth into the devil's neck.
