by Troy Denning
By the third day, Yago and Rishi had spotted a likely looking building not far down the valley. Atreus decided to go along, telling Seema that he was going to start hiking with his friends to strengthen his leg. To his dismay, she insisted on coming, greatly adding to the already heavy pall of guilt weighing him down. They started at dawn, intending to pass through Timin's village and start the descent into the main valley before mid-morning.
An hour into the journey, they stopped to drink from one of Langdarma's pristine streams. As Atreus kneeled on the mossy bank, the water grew cloudy and pink. He cried out and jerked his hands back, wondering if the valley somehow knew of his plan and was passing judgment on his deception.
Atreus's companions gathered along the bank behind him, staring and gasping as the water grew murkier and darker. Yago kneeled and brought a palmful to his mouth.
"Vaprak's veins!" he cursed. "Blood!"
"Blood?" Seema gasped.
Atreus stood and looked up through the thick undergrowth, searching for any sign of a predatory beast The rhododendrons remained as still as stones. The water continued to grow darker and redder. To lose that much blood, an animal would have to be the size of a dragon, and even in this dense forest a predator animal large enough to down a dragon could hardly be missed.
"Seema, what's at the top of this stream?" Atreus asked.
She glanced up at the ice-blue sky, somehow estimating their position from its mottled surface. "A herder's shed."
"Please do not tell us this herder has a daughter," said Rishi.
Seema's face grew fearful. "I am afraid he does," she said. "Two of them."
Yago studied his companions, then said, "Can't be what you're thinking. Too much blood."
"I don't think it's blood," said Atreus, "at least not the way you think."
He pointed down the creek to where it was joined by a small rivulet from a side gully. The red stain was spreading up the side gulch.
"Think we found Tarch?" Yago asked.
Atreus's only response was to start up the stream bank.
They crept through the rhododendrons, moving as quietly and rapidly as four people could through such thick undergrowth. The water continued to grow redder and thicker until the stream took on the appearance of a vein filled with dark, clotty blood. A nauseating, copper-like stench began to hang in the air, and alarming little noises began to rise from Seema's throat. When they finally reached the terraces beneath the herder's shed, it grew apparent that there was no need for stealth. The grassy pastures were strewn with slaughtered yaks, and an old woman was up near the shed, wailing and cradling her husband's smashed head.
"Seema, you'd better go first," said Atreus, recalling how Timin's delirious father had initially reacted to him and Yago. "We'll follow after you cover her eyes."
Seema nodded, then clambered over the terraces. She kneeled beside the old woman and spoke to her softly, covering her head with a shawl. By the time Atreus and his companions arrived, Seema had the story.
"She said a sharp-eared devil came for her daughters and killed her husband when he tried to save them. The beast left five minutes ago." Seema's face was hard and angry, almost ugly. She pointed into the shed. There are axes and scythes inside."
Rishi's jaw fell and he asked, "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"
Seema glanced at the destruction surrounding her and said, "Do what you must I want him stopped."
Atreus raised his brow. "We'll try," he said, "but it wouldn't hurt to call the Sannyasi."
Seema nodded, and Rishi rushed off to fetch the weapons. Yago glanced at Atreus. Though the ogre had managed to force a smile onto his jaw, Atreus could read the doubt in his friend's eyes. Shield-breaker or not, Yago was afraid. As far as he was concerned, Tarch could not be stopped.
Atreus clamped the ogre on his huge forearm and said, "We'll manage."
"Don't we always?" Yago answered. "But if I get-"
"I know… don't let the crows get your eyes," said Atreus.
Yago's behest was a standard Shield-breaker request They believed crows to be spies of Skiggaret, the fear-loving god of their bugbear enemies. Though the reminder betrayed Yago's fear at facing Tarch again, Atreus said nothing to reassure his friend. Among ogres, acknowledging another's fear was the worst kind of insult.
"You have nothing to worry about, Yago," said Seema. "There are no crows in Langdarma."
The ogre forced a smile and said, "So this is paradise."
Rishi returned with an armload of tools. He had a rope and the scythe for Yago, an iron kettle lid and a double-bladed tree axe for Atreus, and a pair of skinning knives and a net for himself. As he accepted the kettle lid, Atreus frowned in confusion.
"For the flames," Rishi explained, smiling. "I am always thinking of the good sir's safety, am I not?"
"What you're thinking is that I'll go in first," Atreus replied, "and you're right."
He started off at a trot and they had no trouble following Tarch's trail. The devil was tearing a broad swath through the rhododendrons, angling up the slope toward the cliffs at the mouth of the basin. The slave master appeared to be carrying one daughter under each arm, as the stalkers never saw any tracks but his. Even so, he was moving so rapidly they never seemed to catch a glimpse of him.
After a quarter hour of running, they climbed out of the forest, emerging onto one of the talus fields that tumbled down from the basin walls. Tarch was nowhere in sight. It was impossible to follow his trail across the field of jumbled boulders, but there was no question about where he was going. A mile ahead loomed the Turquoise Cliff, its face pocked by the dark mouths of the Caves of Blue.
"Got to catch him before he gets into them caves again," huffed Yago.
The ogre bounded up the talus field at an ungainly sprint, quickly drawing away from his companions. Atreus followed as best he could. His weak leg began to ache from the exertion, but he clenched his teeth and hobbled up the mountain, inspired by his friend's example. Yago soon vanished behind a jumbled crest of stone. Tarch's silhouette appeared farther up the hill, running along a flat boulder with a beautiful Langdarma girl tucked under each arm.
For the next few minutes, the chase continued with Yago and Tarch vanishing and reappearing at odd intervals, the ogre steadily closing the distance as the devil drew nearer to the Caves of Blue. Rishi hung back for a while, then finally cursed Langdarma for rubbing off on him and danced up the hill ahead of Atreus. Atreus tried to match the Mar's pace, but found it impossible and resigned himself to watching the first part of the battle from below.
Yago was still twenty paces behind when Tarch reached the Turquoise Cliff and, tucking both girls under one arm, began to scurry up the rocky face as easily as a spider. Yago grabbed a melon-sized rock and hurled it on the run.
The stone caught Tarch square between the shoulder blades. The devil grunted loudly, let his captives tumble free, and pushed off the cliff. He spun around in mid-air and landed facing his attacker. The battle was on, with Atreus still a hundred paces down the slope.
The fury of Yago's assault belied his dread of facing Tarch again. The ogre stepped in swinging, bringing the scythe around in a two-handed sweep that caught the devil in his midsection and launched him across the slope. Tarch landed a half dozen paces away, clattered down between the boulders, and disappeared. For one long moment, Atreus dared to hope Yago had ended the battle with a single bloody stroke.
As the ogre stomped over to finish what he had started, a goat-sized boulder came flying up at him. He raised his scythe to block. The rock smashed through the wooden handle and caught him full in the chest, bowling him over backward. He came down hard, a sharp crack echoing off the cliff as his head struck the flat of a stone.
Tarch clambered into view and staggered toward his groaning foe, a flap of scaly hide dangling from the gruesome wound in his side. Rishi was a dozen paces behind the devil, creeping across the boulder pile as silently as a cloud. Atreus wanted to shout at him to h
urry but did not dare. The Mar's only advantage was surprise.
Tarch stopped a pace shy of the groaning ogre and lifted a hand, preparing to incinerate him. Atreus opened his* mouth to shout. In the same instant Rishi braced himself and flung his net, wrapping the devil's arm in a mesh of coarse rope.
Rishi gave the draw line a terrific jerk and leaped down behind a boulder. Tarch was spun around, his hand spraying a crescent of flame across the talus field.
"Filthy Mar!" The devil shook his arm free of the net's charred remains, then started toward Rishi's hiding place. "That's the last time you skrag me!"
"Then it's…" Yago paused, drawing in a breath so deep Atreus heard it fifteen paces away,"… my turn!"
The ogre sat up, heaving the boulder on his chest toward Tarch. The devil brought his arm up and spun around, but the stone's momentum blasted through the block and sent him tumbling headfirst down into the talus.
Yago was up in an instant, flinging himself across the jumbled stones with scythe in hand. A scaly hand emerged from between the boulders. The ogre stopped short, twisting aside just as a long gout of orange flame shot past.
Then Atreus was there, climbing over the talus from the opposite side, holding the kettle lid in front of him like a shield. Tarch lay down in a hollow between three boulders, one leg trapped under the heavy stone he and Yago had been hurling back and forth, struggling to twist around so he could bring his crackling flames to bear on the ogre. Though his side lay flayed open from sternum to spine, his scaly face betrayed nothing but anger. Atreus leaped down, turning the iron lid flat and lowering it over the devil's hand.
The flame stream reversed itself and roared back into the hollow and billowed up in a huge, orange halo. The acrid smell of scorched leather filled the air. Tarch howled in anguish. Atreus dropped the lid and leaped away, one arm raised to protect his face from the searing heat.
The roar died as abruptly as it had begun, as Tarch started to rise from his fiery grave.
Atreus jumped down to meet him, wielding his axe with both hands. Tarch, now a withered and blackened thing that seemed nothing but scorched claw and charred fang, lashed out with both claws. Atreus slipped the first attack and caught the second on his axe head, then brought the sharp blade around and buried it deep in the devil's shoulder.
Tarch bellowed and brought his uninjured arm up to unleash another of his conflagrations. Yago's scythe arced down from above, severing the scaly hand at the wrist. A gummy syrup of fire oozed from the stump, rolling back down the devil's arm and engulfing it in flame.
Tarch's blazing arm went limp and fell back toward his scorched chest. Atreus and Yago were on him with their flashing blades, hewing and chopping and slicing until the battered devil finally stopped struggling and lay in his hole charred and bleeding, barely conscious and clinging to life only by the thinnest strand of wicked will.
Atreus stepped over next to Tarch's mangled head and raised his axe, preparing to finish the battle. The devil glared up at him out of one blood-shot eye, his vicious stare expressing the hatred his tongue was too weak to speak. Atreus bent his knees, gathering the strength he would need to chop through the tough sinews and thick bone of Tarch's neck. Then a pair of small voices gasped from the edge of the hollow.
He looked up to see Tarch's kidnap victims standing on a boulder above him, staring down at him with two pairs of horrified brown eyes. They were as beautiful as all the children of Langdarma, and in their puzzled expressions he saw both the innocence and the peaceful repose that had first attracted him to Seema.
Rishi rushed up from behind the two girls. "What are you doing?" he said. "This is not for the eyes of little girls."
The Mar pulled the girls back from the edge of the hollow, but Atreus could not bring the axe down. Instead, he motioned Yago to his side.
"The Sannyasi should be here soon." Atreus handed the axe to the ogre. "Until then, you're in charge."
The ogre frowned, then glanced in the direction of the retreating girls and seemed to understand. He hefted the axe over Tarch's throat, sneering down at his prisoner.
"I doubt you can move," he said. "But just so you know, I'd enjoy taking your head off if you try."
CHAPTER 15
By the time Seema arrived at the Turquoise Cliffs, all the streams in the basin had turned the color of blood. The stain was creeping down into the main valley, lacing its way through the trees as though some huge spider was spinning a scarlet web over Langdarma itself. Atreus could see by the alarm in Seema's eyes that such a thing had never before happened, and that she blamed herself for this horror. Had she known what would come of bringing strangers into paradise, he wondered if she would still have saved his life.
As Seema came up beside him, Atreus gestured down into the hollow, where Yago still held the axe over Tarch's neck.
"He's pretty beaten up, but we didn't kill him," Atreus said, glancing out over the red-laced basin. "I don't know if that will mean anything for Langdarma."
"Who can say?" Seema sounded drained and numb. "It is good you spared him. A second murder does not undo the first. What of the girls? Are they injured?"
Atreus shook his head, then pointed toward the base of the cliff and said, "Rishi has them up in a cave. They're not hurt physically, but they're not saying much." He looked down at Tarch's mangled form. "They saw a pretty bloody fight"
When Seema glanced at the devil, her eyes grew hard and surprisingly ugly. "At least they did not see a vengeance murder," she said. "They will heal better for it, but I am not sure I will. I wanted him dead. I still do."
Atreus looked away, not knowing what to say. Had she expressed such sentiments in Rivenshield he would have handed her Yago's axe and told her to take as many swings as she liked. But they were not in Rivenshield, and Atreus was as lost with his emotions as she was with hers. He had spared Tarch's life only because he did not want to corrupt the innocence of the two girls watching. Now that Seema had lost hers, he had no idea how to give it back.
Instead, he said, "Maybe you should check the girls. You'll be more comfort to them than Rishi."
The suggestion seemed to lighten Seema's burden. Her eyes grew brighter and she said, nodding, "Of course. They will need to know their mother is well, and perhaps I can explain to them how this happened." She squeezed his shoulder. "Thank you."
Seema started up the slope. Not long after, Atreus noticed a silver comet over the main valley. For a moment, it seemed to hang motionless near the far end, then it gradually began to swell and brighten. A faint sizzling echoed up the canyon, growing louder as the comet enlarged, and at last it became apparent that the shiny ball was actually moving, streaking through the air toward the Turquoise Cliffs.
The sizzle built to a roar, and the silver ball became a platinum blur arcing down toward the talus slope. Tarch's bloodshot eyes grew large and angry. He tried to roll to his feet, but Yago hammered his head with the flat of the axe blade and beat him back into submission.
The platinum blur resolved itself into a milky white oval supported by two shimmering wings. Seema and Rishi came down from the cave with the two sisters and stood next to Atreus. Together, they all waited respectfully as the figure slowed and took on the more humanlike form of the Sannyasi, then circled overhead, creating a pearly halo over the hollow where Tarch lay trapped.
After this brief inspection, the Sannyasi alighted on the boulder next to Atreus. He turned at once to the girls.
"Have no fear," he said, and touched his palms to their faces. "The devil will harm you no more."
"We are not afraid for ourselves," said the oldest sister. "We are thinking of our father."
"The devil bit him!" gasped the younger.
"I know," the Sannyasi said grimacing. He continued to touch them, but even he could not erase their pain or explain to them why Tarch had done such a terrible thing. He merely nodded and said, "He is from Outside, and there are things Outside we can never understand. Do not worry on your father's accou
nt He is with the Serene Ones now, and it makes no difference to them how he died. You were a blessing to him in life, and I have it on good authority that his only wish is for you live in peace and forget what you have seen today."
This drew some of the pain from the girls faces, and only then did the Sannyasi spread his feathery wings and glide down into the hollow. Tarch's scorched and battered body began to tremble and exude vile-smelling fumes, and he glared at the winged guardian in red-eyed hatred.
The Sannyasi took the axe from Yago and motioned him out of the hollow. He looked down at Tarch.
"How dare you bring your evil into this place." The Sannyasi's voice was filled with controlled fury. "Did you not see my wards?"
"Pike it… bubber!" Tarch barely managed to moan the words. "How long you think you can hold this little corner? This world's ours. We'll be coming for you soon enough-"
"If that is so, you will not see it"
The Sannyasi stepped on his prisoner's chest. A glowing white halo appeared beneath his foot and started to spread outward, slowly turning the devil's scaly hide pale and translucent. Tarch howled in pain and began to flail around, his thrashing fists pounding stones to powder. He struck at his captor time and again, clawed his leg, tried to drag himself free, but he was no match for the Sannyasi's strength. The white radiance continued to spread over the devil's body, turning him as clear as glass from head to toe, and when he became nothing more than a crystal ghost, he finally let out an agonized howl and stopped writhing.
The Sannyasi glared down at the devil's still form, then brought the axe down. Tarch's body shattered like ice, and began to melt away and stream off in all directions.
