Heart of Shadows

by Martin Ash

  She crawled further out. He limbs began to tremble uncontrollably. Great, wracking sobs forced their way from her lungs and gut as her pent-up terror was released. She folded forward onto her hands and knees. As the convulsions passed she sank onto her belly, utterly drained.

  She would have lain there, too weak to move, but a new fear struck her: Jans!

  At the same instant she realized her foolishness, sprawled here on the dusty ground, wholly vulnerable. Skalatin could be prowling nearby. He could return.

  Meglan scrambled to her feet. He legs still shook, her footsteps unsteady, but she made off as quickly as she could toward the spot where she had left Jans and the two horses, fearful of what she might find. Her head was swimming, she was almost delirious, but at the same time a feeling of anger welled, imbuing her with a renewed strength and a sense of determination.

  She slid around a low bluff. Something rose suddenly in front of her. Meglan fell back with a gasp, shielding herself with one arm. Then she gave a cry of relief as Jans, half-running, half-crouched, grabbed her and drew her behind the rocks.

  He was breathing hard, his face pale and set. ‘You’re safe, Mistress!’

  ‘What is it, Jans? What’s the matter?’

  He peered over the rocks into the desolate distance. ‘I was worried for you. I saw something. A beast of some kind. I feared you’d been attacked.’

  ‘Where did it go?’

  ‘Away. That way. It moved so fast!’

  ‘I saw it. I don’t know how it failed to see me.’

  ‘I thought the same,’ said Jans. ‘I wasn’t concealed. I was simply standing with the horses. It passed fifty paces away. I thought it looked directly at us, but it didn’t slow nor alter its course.’

  ‘Maybe it’s only looking for me,’ Meglan muttered through pursed lips, wondering, Why? It’s the red stone Skalatin wants. Why is he following me? And how could he not have seen me?

  Jans eyed her curiously. ‘You? What do you mean?’

  ‘It was searching for me. It knew my name. I’ve encountered this monster before.’

  ‘You’ve met it before?’ A nervousness entered Jans’s gaze. ‘Mistress, what’s happening? What’s the reason for this journey we’ve undertaken?’

  Gods, Meglan thought. What right did I have to involve others in this? I should have come alone.

  She reasoned to herself that she could not have anticipated Skalatin’s coming after her, nor this enforced detour due to the brigands on the Dharsoul Road. Jans was a bodyguard, well-paid for his services. But still, the perils they were facing now were enormous. She could not expect so much of him.

  ‘Jans, this creature… I don’t know what it is. It can change its form – I’ve just seen it do it. Previously it adopted the guise of a man-thing. He – it – calls himself Skalatin. He has menaced my father. He is evil. I know this without a shadow of a doubt. He assaulted me and gave me the bruises that you saw. Master Atturio has something – a strange red stone – which apparently belongs to Skalatin, or to some person Skalatin represents. I’m coming to believe that this second person doesn’t exist. It’s Skalatin himself who desires the stone, though I don’t know why.

  ‘Father sent my brother, Sildemund, to Dharsoul with the stone, to find out more about it. Later, Skalatin made it clear that he will stop at nothing, nothing at all, to regain the stone. He has murdered poor Dervad, and Edric too, I think. He attacked my father as well as me. I left to find Sildemund and have him bring the stone back to Volm immediately. I believe father is in danger as long as the stone is kept from Skalatin. Now, for some reason, Skalatin is following us – following me.’ She put her fingertips to her brow, frowning and shaking her head. ‘Yet he found me and didn’t see me. I don’t understand.’

  From the thong around her wrist the little snake talisman swayed to and fro before her eyes, and a grain of an idea began to form in Meglan’s mind. She stood quickly.

  ‘Jans, wait here. Watch me.’

  She walked away slowly, out from the direction from which she had come. She observed the talisman, and shifted her gaze from it to Jans, who watched her with a vexed expression.

  She had gone perhaps ten paces when the talisman rotated as if with its own volition. She felt the heat upon her skin. She took a couple more paces and looked back.

  ‘Jans, where are you?’

  ‘Is this a game?’

  Meglan’s heart beat hard. ‘No. No game. I can’t see you.’

  She was staring at the place where Jans had stood. The rocks, the ground, were plain in view… but Jans was not visible. ‘Have you hidden? Have you moved behind a rock?’

  ‘No. I’m here, looking straight at you.’

  ‘Do something. Move. Wave your arms. Something vigorous.’

  Now she made him out. A vague, blurred figure frantically waving.

  ‘Now stop.’

  The movement ceased. Jans was invisible again.

  Meglan strode back. Within three paces Jans came clearly into view.

  ‘It’s the Serpentine Path! It protects us, makes us invisible to anyone not on it. Go, Jans, stand where I stood. Can you see me?’

  Jans followed her instruction, watching her over his shoulder as he went. After a few paces he stopped and gaped. ‘Mistress, you have gone.’

  ‘I’m still here, Jans. It seems we are invisible on the Serpentine Path. Now, come back before you’re seen.’

  Jans rejoined her. Meglan thought hard. Why had Skalatin not seen her? He’d been so close. It could only have been sheer luck. In stepping past the rock where she crouched, Skalatin must have unknowingly taken himself off the Serpentine Path. Perhaps only by inches, but it was enough. He hadn’t seen her. Had she hidden anywhere else, anywhere at all, she would have been lost.

  ‘We’ll be safe so long as we stay on the Path,’ she said.

  ‘And as long as Skalatin doesn’t join us on it.’

  ‘Jans, I’m sorry. I should never have brought you on this journey. But I didn’t know the danger. I had no way of knowing what would happen. Now I say to you gladly, “Go, if you wish. There’s no reason you should subject yourself to this. Leave me, and I won’t think the worse of you for it.” But…’ she spread her hands. ‘We’re lost.’

  Jans gave a wry shrug. ‘Aye, we’re lost. I can’t go, other than with you. But even if we weren’t, rest assured, Mistress, I wouldn’t abandon you. I’ll do all I can to help you. Now come, we shouldn’t waste time.’

  XV

  They rode on, ever-watchful, ever-cautious, into the Despair that seemed to have no end. Signs of human habitation were non-existent and, apart from an infrequent glimpse of a wild goat or the bleached bones or desiccated carcass of some unfortunate beast, there was barely any indication of fauna. It was as if there was no other world, as of nothing existed bar the bare rock, the choking dust and shimmering heat, the heartless span of the Despair.

  They grew desolate with the monotony of it, the sheer empty expanse. Their eyes constantly scanned the landscape, longing for relief, a vestige of life, any small reassurance that they had not been flung into a land that was dead and irredeemable. Rocks and shadows merged to throw up familiar forms: a cluster of houses, a graveyard… But as they focused their gaze the illusion dissolved, and they trudged on, always mindful that the one thing they might likely see was that which they most dreaded: the fleet, unnatural form of Skalatin.

  The glare of the sun was merciless, but they were at least protected from the worst it could throw down as long as they kept to the Serpentine Path. They pushed on, sometimes dismounting to lead their tired horses over the more demanding terrain. The sun settled, the night gathered. They made camp in a defile beneath the chill wind that sprang up with the darkness.

  There was no spring here. Both Meglan and Jans gave up precious water from their flasks so that the horses might take at least a small amount of liquid. Neither voiced their thoughts but it was on their minds that the way ahead might be without water. The Se
rpentine Path could still be leading them to their deaths.

  They lit no fire, for fear of attracting what they did not want. They ate food from their packs, hardly speaking, then Meglan took first watch while Jans curled up under his blanket on the hard earth, and slept.

  With the first yellow-grey light of dawn they moved on. After three hours or so, to Meglan’s relief, the snake talisman turned to face southwards, and while still winding and twisting, held generally true to that direction. Meglan’s spirits began to rise. This was what Jans had predicted if the path was taking them to Dharsoul. She sat forward in the saddle now, eagerly searching the horizon for the first glimpse of the city’s towers and minarets, though she was aware they must still lie a long way off.

  They came upon a tiny rill, sufficient to allow the horses to drink and the two of them to refill their flasks. Then they moved on again.

  Meglan’s thoughts took on a wild cast, almost deranged, tumbling over each other as she struggled to plan a way out of her predicament: Skalatin will do anything to get the stone. He’s following me. I’ll lead him on, yes. That’s it! Have him follow me to Dharsoul. Find Sil, and when Skalatin finds us, give him the stone. Then go. That’s all he wants. We’ll be safe then. It will all be over.

  But she did not believe it. There was something in Skalatin, something about the manner in which he had touched her at home in Volm, the way he had looked at her, spoken to her, assaulted her… And now he had followed her - how? - across Dazdun’s Despair, searching her out, speaking her name in such a brazen, loathsome, lascivious way. Even if the stone he so coveted was returned to him, Meglan did not believe that all would be done with Skalatin.

  ~

  It was during the afternoon that Meglan spotted the vultures circling in the sky ahead. She had spied them once or twice previously, tearing at any tatters of flesh that still clung to animal corpses. But this had been carrion, dead for some time. The birds had been on the ground, and few in number. Those she saw now were in a mass.

  The fact that they remained airborne suggested that something clung to life on the way ahead. Apprehension mounted in Meglan’s breast. She told herself it was probably nothing more than a dying animal, but she could not dispel her fears. She gauged the position of the birds. Unless the Serpentine Path altered course, she would find out soon enough what it was that attracted them.

  They came upon the sight about half an hour later. The corpses of two freshly slain wild goats lay upon the earth, their blood glistening bright in the sunlight, seeping into the dust. A third goat lived, a ram with one leg broken. It was bleeding profusely from leg, head and flank and was plainly very weak, but still it struggled to keep the vultures at bay. As the birds descended, flapping and squawking, to pick at the two dead females, the ram charged them. His head low, he put himself among them again and again, scattering them even as he stumbled exhausted to his knees.

  From their horses about twenty paces off, Meglan and Jans watched warily. More vultures landed. Sensing the ram’s ebbing strength, they grew bolder. They crowded the two corpses, squabbling. The big ram dragged himself to his feet. He stood for some moments, panting, but making no move towards the birds. Then his legs folded and he sank onto his belly. A pair of vultures ventured close. He tossed his head, scaring them back, but had the strength for nothing more.

  Meglan nervously scanned her surroundings. ‘What can have done this?’

  ‘A lion, maybe?’

  ‘A lion would just take one, and then would have eaten. And those wounds were not inflicted by a big cat.’

  ‘I can’t tell from here. I’ll take a closer look, and put that poor creature out of its misery.’

  ‘Be careful. You’ll be leaving the Path.’

  ‘Whatever was here has gone now, I think. I’ll only be a moment.’

  Jans urged his horse slowly forward. Meglan watched. He approached the fallen goats, waving his sabre to scatter the scavenging birds. After a pause, he dismounted and stood before the two corpses, then turned to the ram. A vulture had alighted on its rump and was tearing at the flesh with its beak. The ram could barely lift its head. Jans stepped across and brought his sabre down hard.

  He remounted and made to return. With Meglan invisible to him he approached at a slight angle. Stepping back onto the Path, he said, ‘It’s a grisly scene. The two dead goats have had their rib-cages torn open. Their hearts are gone.’

  Skalatin!

  ‘That’s how he kills,’ Meglan began. Something caught her eye. A movement, in the shadow of a ragged boulder a short distance away. Her heart thumped. She craned forward, peering hard. She could see nothing there except dense shadow. Had she imagined it?

  No! It was there again! Or were her eyes playing tricks? There was a hot wind, skittering, raising dust, and the air was addled by the heat. Was that all she had seen?

  ‘Jans, keep absolutely still. Do not move a muscle.’

  She could not tell. She stared, blinked, stared again.

  Something shifted. She stiffened. A bulky form beneath a low overhang. A body of some kind, concealed in the shade of a natural pit scoured by wind and sand.

  The thing moved again, easing forward. Meglan almost cried out in terror as Skalatin emerged from shadow.

  He was on all fours, low to the ground, though his form was mock-human. He rose slowly erect, peering towards Jans, his head tilting to one side.

  A moment passed and he took four loping steps then stopped, continuing to stare at Jans, though it seemed he could not see him. Slowly his dreadful gaze shifted. Now he peered directly at Meglan. Again her terror threatened to give her away, but then his eyes moved away, back. His head was cocked quizzically. He took another step.

  And Meglan knew that in a moment he would step onto the Path, and would see them both.

  Jans, seeing the fear in her eyes, turned to look in the direction she faced, for he was not yet aware of Skalatin. Skalatin’s eyes rested on him.

  ‘Don’t move!’ whispered Meglan.

  Skalatin’s head twisted a little more. Had he heard her?

  His mouth opened. ‘Meg-lan? Pretty, pretty? Where are you? I know you are here, Meg-lan.’

  Meglan sat, breathless.

  ‘Meg-lan? Where is my heart?’

  His heart? What did he mean? Her? Was he uttering some obscene form of endearment?

  Skalatin took another step, slightly to one side. He could be just inches from entering the Path. Meglan half thought she caught the taint of his breath.

  ‘Meg-lan? My heart? You stole my heart. Give it back, love-ly chi-ld. To Skalatin. Give me back my heart.’

  The hairs rose on the back of Meglan’s neck as the full implications of his words struck her. Her thoughts flew feverishly back to her father’s study just a few evenings earlier. Her first sight of the red stone. Upon seeing it she had been immediately struck by its resemblance to a heart. Cold, hard, bloody. A heart that had turned to stone.

  ‘Meg-lan? Sweet Meg-lan?’

  This is why he has come after me! It’s the stone! He believes I have the stone!

  There was no time to think. Skalatin moved closer.

  A wild impulse came to her. ‘Jans, stay here! I’ll draw him off. Don’t leave this spot! I’ll come back for you!

  She had dug her heels hard into Swift Cloud’s flanks before Jans could respond. Skalatin heard, and glimpsed her movement, but before he could react Swift Cloud had slammed into him, knocking him aside. Meglan drew her sabre and swung low, the blade slicing into him as he fell hard to the ground with a dismal moan.

  Knowing instinctively that no blow she might inflict would kill or even seriously incapacitate her foe, she urged Swift Cloud on at full gallop. She headed for the rocks from which Skalatin had come, aware of the full blast of the sun on her shoulders. Not daring to look back, she invoked the fabled enchantress Yshcopthe to give her strength, allow her the few instants she needed to gain an edge.

  Skalatin would come after her. That was what sh
e wanted, to draw him away from the Serpentine Path, and Jans, and then, before he saw where she had gone, to double back onto it and vanish from his sight. She had seen that he could not locate the Path, other than by chance.

  The vultures rose, a squawking, flapping mob. She drove Swift Cloud through them, praying that the horse would not miss its footing and hoping that the birds might form a hindrance to Skalatin, no matter how minor. Nearing the outcrop of rocks she risked a glance behind her.

  Skalatin was on the ground, rising to all fours, glowering after her. He was altering his form, becoming the fleet hound-beast she had seen earlier. She knew she could not outrun him in that form.

  She swerved Swift Cloud around the rocks. The ground rose a little, taking her beyond Skalatin’s view. She glanced at the snake talisman swinging wildly from her wrist. It pointed forward, slightly to her left.

  Bent low, head to Swift Cloud’s mane, she raced on. They entered a patch of scrub, and the head of the talisman turned. She swung the horse in the new direction, up again, over crumbling rock. She looked back over her shoulder. A dark form sped like an arrow from the rocks behind her. It streaked forward, then swerved a little, then came to a standstill. It stood, tilting its head from side to side.

  Meglan breathed a shuddering sigh. She was unseen, back on the Serpentine Path. She quickly brought Swift Cloud to a halt, fearful that any sound might give them away. Skalatin was twenty paces away, perhaps less, watchful, riled, but his eyes were not upon her.

  With a sudden powerful thrust he bounded up the side of a leaning rock, climbing to its crest. His form altered again. He stood tall, peering around him.

  Slowly, Meglan walked Swift Cloud on, anxious to put as much distance as possible between her and her foe. The breeze favoured her, and she had a sense that Skalatin’s hearing was not particularly keen. With caution she would not be heard. She intended to break from hiding again somewhere ahead, lure Skalatin further on, then once more return to the sanctuary of the Serpentine Path. Once she had drawn him far enough away she would double back to where Jans waited for her.