He heard Elowen calling to her blade Dymondheart and the sound of Ususi chanting, closer, behind him, maybe. Another effort saw him to his feet.
Constructions of leafless, interlocking branches, each forming a sinister humanoid shape, surrounded them. Faceless, their empty visages inspired terror all the more. The sound of their combined movement was horrible to hear: a rush of creaks, the dry saw of wood on wood, and a low roar like wind in the trees. Some were only three feet high, but others topped ten. One of these large ones again menaced Marrec, but he dodged the massive arm as it again tried to smash him flat.
An eruption of flame to his left and behind caused many of the creatures to flinch. He heard Ususi’s voice
“You twigblights don’t like that, do you? Just wait, I have more.”
Amidst the rushing, thrashing branches, he saw the mage.
Ususi stood in a self-created circular clearing littered with burning twigs and branches. The creatures outside the periphery seemed more interested in staying away from Ususi than closing on her. The portal mouth at Ususi’s back, from which he’d exited, was still visible as a dark void in the air. More of the creatures shuffled forward from behind the portal, skirting its edge. They had lain in wait, that was obvious. So much for his theory about their arrival being unmarked.
A knot of activity to his right and closer to the first arch drew his eye—he could see the gleam of Dymondheart as it rose above the branch tops of their attackers. Elowen was there, but where was Gunggari?
Deciding his friend could take care of himself, he rushed toward Ususi. Her magic was impressive, but his experience taught him that impressive magic often came at the price of a fragile body. Apparently, one of the large monsters had the same thought. Just as Marrec was about to reach Ususi’s side, a branch crashed down on the mage’s head. The woman fell like a puppet with severed strings.
“Ususi!” he screamed.
Justlance finally in hand, he drove its spear point into the dark heartwood of the creature, using all the strength granted him by his gloves—it felt as if he could draw more or less strength as he needed. He realized at the same time that the reservoir of might offered by the Nentyarch’s gift was not without limit. He used up a great quantity of that strength with that thrust. The twigblight, as Ususi had called it, groaned like a live thing, its branches flailing randomly as it was felled. When it struck the ground, it shattered into hundreds of smaller unmoving pieces. Where its heart would have been were it a living creature, a double-handful of stinking mud burst and oozed. Marrec was reminded of the ooze creatures they’d faced within the Nadir. He realized that his strike for the “heart” of the monster had been a lucky strike indeed. He doubted his spear would have the same lethal effect on these creatures if he didn’t pierce the ‘heartwood.’
The still-burning splinters of the creatures Ususi had blasted seemed a deterrent to the other, smaller stick monstrosities. He stood, and Ususi lay, at the center of that safe zone. The dark portal to the Nadir remained open, only a step away, held open by the solidified mass of mud and ooze that made up the island on the opposite side. He considered pulling Ususi back through to get her out of harm’s way. That would mean leaving Gunggari and Elowen to their fate, something Marrec could not bring himself to do.
The creatures were retreating from him and his fallen comrade. They were concentrating their numbers where he guessed Elowen, and he hoped Gunggari, were standing.
The sound of Gunggari’s dizheri blared forth. Marrec grinned. The tattooed warrior was still up and around.
The twigblights surged forward, redoubling their efforts to win into the center of the knot of activity where Dymondheart flailed and the dizheri played. Without the press of monsters battering him, Marrec was better able to see the focus of their attention. Finally, he caught glimpses of Elowen and Gunggari together, fighting back-to-back. They were fighting furiously and would need a respite soon, but he couldn’t leave Ususi alone.
When chance gave him another glimpse of Gunggari through the thrashing limbs, Marrec cupped his hands and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Flee into the arches—you’re too vulnerable out here.”
Gunggari darted his gaze toward Marrec. He nodded. Seconds later Marrec’s line of sight was again obscured, but the concentration of creatures surged forward under the first stone arch of Xenosi. The arches were too narrow for the whole mass of attackers. The twigblights were unable to maintain the ferocity of their assault, and those on the sides were forced to peel away. A great creaking crackled and popped through the air. Marrec wondered if the creatures were concerned that their quarry would escape or frustrated that their plan to ambush and overwhelm had failed.
Not all the creatures followed after Elowen and Gunggari. A handful turned back toward him, one almost as large as the creature he’d earlier vanquished with a thrust of Justlance.
He’d been saving one last spell of healing, holding onto it for a desperate situation. The current situation qualified, he decided. Without Ususi’s aid, he doubted his spear alone would see him through the conflict. That’s when the temptation thrust up from his subconscious, like a bubble of poisonous gas seeping to a swamp surface. He could call on his heritage; he could use his talent. He could end the threat then and there.
“No,” he uttered out loud.
It was too much. He’d sworn to himself ….
Thrusting the thought from his mind, he bent and recited the spell of healing on the fallen mage. With Ususi’s magical arsenal at hand, there would be no reason to bring his talent into it, but the temptation, awake once more, settled into the back of his mind, waiting.
Ususi groaned, her eyes fluttering, when the bluish gleam of his healing magic faded from her skin.
“Up and at ’em,” Marrec cajoled. “We’re about to have company. Why don’t you show them the hot end of a fire blast?”
Ususi mumbled something, then took Marrec’s proffered hand. He helped her to stand, but her grip was weak and shaking. His healing spell had brought her to consciousness, but he realized the woman was still hurt.
Her eyes widened, and she pointed behind.
Marrec whirled in time to see the last ooze man fly from the still-open portal mouth, its flapping wings spattering droplets of muck. When it saw Ususi and Marrec, it crowed in delight then croaked, “Anammelech is coming! Anammelech is coming!”
The twigblights, their courage restored by Ususi’s weakness, pressed them from the other side. They were only twenty or thirty feet away and moving closer with a determined step, if constructs of dead tree branches can be determined.
“Ususi, take them,” Marrec whispered.
He grabbed up his spear once more, and cast it at the screaming muckman. The shaft flew wide, missing the darting, yelling creature by inches.
Ususi steadied herself and began speaking. Her low tones climbed in octave, and with a rush she managed to force several sounds out of her mouth simultaneously. A wave of red flame was born from the path of her waving hand. The semicircle of fire grew in height and width and rushed away from her toward the returning twigblights. The fiery front broke over the creatures like a true wave. Marrec could feel the heat even from where he stood, as five of the creatures caught fire immediately, sending streams of oily smoke into the sky. The crackle and snap of burning twigblight was loud. The remaining three creatures danced away, apparently in full retreat.
“Way to go, Ususi,” he congratulated the mage. She graced him with another of her rare smiles.
The muckman continued its disturbing chant about the imminent arrival of Anammelech. It opened the distance between itself and Marrec, wary of Justlance’s sudden return to Marrec’s grasp.
Without warning, the creature exploded.
Ooze and odiferous mud splattered Marrec and Ususi. All that remained of the muck creature was a crater-like circle, its circumference formed by its remains.
“Well … that was convenient,” opined Marrec after a few seconds of examinatio
n.
Ususi studied muck crater, concentration wrinkling her brow. She said, “That was no accident.”
“You think it blew itself up on purpose?”
She responded, “The master calling home his familiar, perhaps.”
“Messy way to say, ‘here, boy,’ don’t you think?”
Ususi sighed, “Do you make a joke of everything?”
“Only when I’ve just escaped death by a nail’s breadth,” confided Marrec, grinning.
“You know, I have noticed you don’t always joke.
“Hmm?” Marrec raised an eyebrow.
“Most of the time you speak simply, even like a commoner, but every so often your speech lapses into a series of formal proclamations, like ‘Flee or perish!’ or ‘Now you shall meet the cruel end of Justlance!’ It is … interesting,” finished the mage.
Marrec opened his mouth to respond, but Ususi spoke up again, saying, “It is a habit I’ve been studying. It is my theory that you slip into that manner of talking when you think people around need the encouragement of a self-assured voice. Or you yourself need it. Anyway, it is a theory.”
Marrec’s felt his face warm. Ususi looked at him with one raised eyebrow, as if she expected him to cork off with a sample proclamation.
A gurgle and sucking sound drew their gazes back to the circular crater of ooze. The ooze was drawing back together.
Marrec said, “He’s returning, be ready.” He was almost grateful the creature was back—it relieved him of having to comment on Ususi’s theory. He readied his spear.
Yet another blanket of stench erupted from the coagulating ooze. As it slumped back together, it seemed to grow in quantity. Soon there was no question that the ooze was somehow replenishing itself, growing larger and taller than the muck man had been. A half-formed arm reached forward, palm out. Marrec’s stomach twisted as he recognized a sort of dark mirror of himself summoning Justlance. In the half-formed creature’s hand a slender, weapon-shaped object blackened the air. Both he and Ususi recognized the weapon immediately. It was twin to the halberd wielded by fallen Gameliel.
Ususi whispered, “A blightlord comes. I am too tired to fight.”
“You were right about the ooze creature, almost. It called its master, not the other way around. It must be Anammelech.” He grabbed Ususi’s hand and they dashed toward the empty mouth of the Arches of Xenosi. “Let’s try to catch up with Gunggari and Elowen.”
Marrec glanced back as they passed from the sun into the tree-lined corridor framed by the arches. The blightlord was almost fully formed and already sliding forward on a layer of slime like an upright, armored slug. Then they were fully committed to the cool green hall under the trees, running over light-stippled earth.
He was surprised to discover that he couldn’t see very far at all along the length of the passage. Some sort of viridian mist greened out vision beyond more than forty or fifty feet, if that. As it happened, that was about the distance between each successive stone arch. Though the lane was strangely clear of growth, the forest pressed in on all sides, and vines grew thickly on the sides of each arch, and some few hung down beneath each stone span.
Like light, sound was also muffled in the lane, though he thought he could hear the sound of conflict far ahead. If Gunggari’s tracking skill could be trusted, Ash and her kidnapper were also ahead. He tightened his grip slightly on Ususi’s hand and tried to speed up.
Ususi’s injuries came to the fore. A stitch in her breath soon became a gasp, and she stumbled. She said something in a language Marrec couldn’t understand. He was pretty sure it was a language he’d never heard before.
“What?” he asked, slowing a trifle.
“I can not keep this pace. My foresight has failed me. I know just the spell to speed me along, but I do not have it prepared.”
Marrec frowned but decided not to remind Ususi of his current diminished state of being unable to prepare any spells at all. It would only come across sounding petty.
Instead he said, “They are just a bit ahead of us. Just a little bit farther. I’d rather Anammelech catch up with us only after we’ve caught up with Gunny and Elowen.”
She nodded, conserving her breath.
They penetrated further into the Rawlinswood. The light dimmed slightly, but otherwise the trees, undergrowth, and other foliage to either side of the corridor remained fairly uniform. By that time their forward progress had slowed to a fast walk. The sounds of fighting ahead died away, perhaps because of intervening distance.
To keep his mind off their slow pace, he asked, “Why’d you call those creatures twigblights?”
Ususi shrugged. She said, “It seemed appropriate.”
The unicorn warrior smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. “Indeed.”
Recognition of the true nature of the ‘dead tree’ standing just outside the arch-defined corridor came a heartbeat too late, as it stumble-rushed forward on its tree trunk legs, blocking their path.
Ususi cursed, again in a language unknown to Marrec. No, she wasn’t cursing; she was uttering syllables of a spell. Marrec released her hand and reached for his spear. Just in time; her hands began to spark with the imminent release of power.
The twigblight rushed them. It was so big that it had to duck to fit beneath the stone arch under which they’d stopped. He rolled left, Ususi rolled right; the creature charged past. One of its twig-claw hands scraped along Marrec’s armor but failed to find an opening.
Marrec drove his spear into the creature’s back, trying to find the ‘sweet spot’ he’d discovered on the other creature outside the forest. It deflected his thrust with a weighty claw of gnarled wood.
Ususi’s spell generated an arc of electric blue light that crackled along the creature’s body, sending it into flailing convulsions. The smell of burning wood and ozone mixed, and a trail of smoke rose to mingle with the greenish mist.
Partially stunned, the twigblight shuddered and stepped back. Marrec was ready. That time the creature wasn’t able to bring up its wooden limbs quickly enough to defend its heart. The tip of his spear punched through the woody shell and found something soft, yielding, and odiferous. It shuddered again, then ceased all movement. Robbed of animation, the creature resembled nothing so much as an old, rotting tree with vividly posed branches.
“Impressive,” whispered a voice from behind.
Marrec groaned with sick anticipation as he whirled to face the speaker. A dark silhouette, hazy and indistinct in the green distance, gained clarity and sharpness of outline as it glided smoothly forward along the ground. Anammelech had caught them.
The blightlord’s armor was either covered with or formed of hardened ooze. The plates were mobile, softening, shifting, and flowing over and across each other in a mesmerizing crawl. Anammelech’s head was bare, and the crawling plates of his armor never rose above his neckline. His face was filthy and his eye sockets twin voids but for a wet sparkle far back in each empty orbit. In one hand he gripped a halberd-shaped hole in the air, just like Gameliel’s.
The blightlord continued to slide forward without flexing his legs to stride like a mortal. Marrec saw a glistening slime trail in Anammelech’s wake. He was reminded of a snail’s trail.
The blightlord slid to within just a few feet of Marrec and Ususi. They both stood ready, Marrec with Justlance, Ususi poised to fling a spell.
“I guess I should thank you,” continued Anammelech in a conversational tone, “You fit the description of those who slew my compatriot. I’ve always fancied Gloomgate, but the weapon was given him by the Talontyr. With Gameliel’s death, Gloomgate passed to me.” He gestured with the halberd-shaped profanity.
Despite the part of his mind warning him against striking up a conversation with the blightlord, Marrec blurted, “Our description?”
“When it appeared to me, it told me of Gameliel’s slaying, and about his slayers. It told me of all your plans, so you see, I knew you were going to Yeshelmaar. I even guessed you might come her
e, chasing after that poor little girl.”
Marrec glared at the dark weapon. Intelligent weapons were rare, and those aligned with evil even more so. Truly Gloomgate was an abomination.
“Imagine my surprise when our spy Fallon gifted me with this …” said the blightlord as he drew forth the dully glinting Keystone.
Marrec’s eyes widened. Ususi gasped.
“Where’s Ash?” rasped the unicorn warrior. If Anammelech had the Keystone, he must also have the girl.
“I sent ‘Ash’ along ahead with Fallon. The Talontyr wants to see her.” Anammelech chuckled, though the sound bubbled up as if from lungs choked with fluid.
Marrec brought his own spear up, tip dancing a few feet away from unconcerned features of Anammelech. “We destroyed Gameliel and doubt not that you’ll fall just as easily. So leave us, and retreat whence you’ve come. If we find that you’re following us, we’ll be forced to destroy you. You’ve been warned.”
Anammelech’s chuckle grew into a full-throated laugh of incredulity.
“First,” added Ususi, “Hand over the Keystone. It is mine.” She held out her left hand palm up.
“You want this?” asked the blightlord, a playful note in his voice. He dangled the Keystone higher, causing it to swing back in forth before Ususi. “I’m afraid I’ve grown quite fond of it in just the short time it’s been with me. Quite an interesting little area this trinket unlocks. Once I’ve dealt with you, I intend to explore it at my leisure.”
Marrec came to the end of his patience. “You’ve had your warning.”
Anammelech sighed. He said, “Don’t you think Gloomgate has informed me of your abilities? Even now, it whispers to me of your failing spells, your needy spear with its inability to be parted from you, and your sad devotion to a diminished goddess. And you,” he turned his empty sockets on Ususi, “are completely reliant upon spells, especially fire. Good thing fire has no power over me.”
Like the head of a striking adder, the axe head of Gloomgate lashed out, slashing Ususi down the side. Black mist smoked off the halberd, tracing its deadly path through the air. The blade left a horribly long, deep gash. Blood flowed. Ususi screamed as she collapsed backward then fell prone, unmoving.
Lady of Poison Page 14
