Summer of Crows

by Hans Cummings

  Even through the din of falling rain, wind, and distant thunder, Aveline sensed an unnatural stillness. Tapping her arm, Torben pointed. Leaves on the trees atop the nearby ridge turned black and fell. The trunks withered, rotting before their eyes.

  Tasha’s voice rose above the gale. “It’s here!”

  Like shadowy fingers reaching down the hillside, the blight crept toward them at an alarming pace, destroying all it touched. The abomination that was Koloman burst from the earth, showering them with dirt and rotten vegetation. Its bulbous, pink form glistened in the rain. Snarling, the drak head snapped its teeth at the group, while the wizard’s head sneered.

  It pointed at them with a swollen hand. “You cannot fight the primal force from whence you came and to which you will return.”

  “Maris’s bloody spear, what is that?” Abigail nocked an arrow, then drew back her bow. Streaking through the rain, the arrow sped toward their enemy. The drak head snapped at it, catching the arrow and biting it in half. Its arm shot forward, extending the distance between them. The appendage slapped Abigail away as though she were a fly.

  Holding her shield before her, Aveline slammed her mace into the arm as it retracted past her. Her weapon bounced off its rubbery skin. Roaring, Lukas charged from behind her. Maxim approached from its flank, raising his sword, and Torben hurled one of his axes toward the abomination.

  From the corner of her eye, Aveline saw Abigail land near the drak workers. The warrior slid through the mud, barreling over several of the diggers. Groaning, she slipped as she failed to regain her footing. A few of the draks assisted her up, while others raised their picks and charged forward.

  Passing the knight-captain, Torben’s axe spun end over end, finally embedding itself into the abomination’s chest. The thing that once was Koloman plucked it out. The creature threw it toward Torben, the axe dripping ichor as it spun. The southerner slid under the spinning weapon.

  Now I wish I’d brought my sword. Aveline continued her approach, holding her shield high as the abomination’s arm shot toward her. Impacting the center of her shield, it drove her backward through the mud. She widened her stance to keep from falling. Using her shield for cover, she repeatedly bashed the rubbery appendage.

  Hurry up, Tasha. Aveline lifted her weight off one foot, allowing the abomination’s arm to push past her. She thrust down with her shield, leaping forward. Throwing her weight on it, she embedded the edge into the appendage. The rubbery tentacle proved too tough to sever, however, and she succeeded only in pinning it to the ground. Retracting, the arm dragged her toward its body.

  One of the draks, with his pick raised above his head, ran past Aveline. He swung it in an arc toward the abomination’s chest. The creature caught it, lifting the drak in front of its reptilian head. Upon opening its reptilian mouth, it spewed an inky black miasma all over the digger.

  The drak screamed as his scales blackened. His flesh peeled away in sheets, revealing raw, twitching muscle underneath. As the abomination continued spewing oily mist on its victim, the drak’s muscles withered. The tissues sloughed off, revealing the organs beneath. Then they, too, rotted away until only bones remained on the upper half of the drak’s body.

  Aveline pushed away from the creature’s arm, slipping in the mud. She swung her mace wildly, catching the abomination’s wizard head. With its jaw dangling from its face, it turned a baleful gaze on her. The creature drew back its arm, readying it to strike her.

  Just then, Maxim dove forward, thrusting his sword into the abomination’s side. Wheeling on Maxim, the beast knocked Aveline into the mud once more. The knight-captain backpedaled in the muck. Clinging to his sword, Maxim planted a boot on the abomination’s torso. He ripped out his blade and fell, sprawling.

  Aveline scrambled to reclaim her shield and regain her footing. Torben slid past, hacking with his remaining axe. Another arrow flew over her head, courtesy of Abigail, striking the abomination’s chest. The beast snapped off the shaft. A third leg sprouted from its backside. After two tentacles erupted from its torso, they whipped at Aveline and Maxim.

  Aveline glanced over at her friend. Seemingly unaware of and unmoved by the battle that raged nearby, Tasha stood near the cave entrance with her arms spread. By the gods, Tasha, hurry!

  * * *

  Working the earth with roots, a slow, arduous process, reminded Tasha of untangling a knotted ball of yarn. Each time she thought she’d made progress, she would find another knot, another complication. Exposing the rift took all her effort. However, at the edge of her perception, she felt the abomination destroy the drak. She also felt the efforts of her friends to keep the creature’s attention fixed on themselves.

  Proximity to the abomination, as it fought her companions, pained Tasha. Its existence, an unnatural fusion of two entities combined with elemental chaos, was an affront to the gods, who created order from that chaos.

  Tasha redoubled her efforts. Thus far, she’d reserved energy to later deal with the abomination, but if they couldn’t access the chaos rift, she supposed their plan would be rendered moot. Her perception of the world around her darkened. She felt the earth yield.

  The hillside tore, splitting open like an overripe melon. A thundering crash surrounded her, the reverberation of thousands of tons of boulders and earth moving aside at her will. Trees cracked and shattered, falling away, as the ground which supported them catastrophically rearranged itself.

  The shaking earth unbalanced her, and she slipped in the mud. Landing hard on her back, she lay gasping for breath. She rolled over, pushed to her knees, and regarded the cave entrance. The rift still lay concealed under layers of rock; yet, through the dust and driving rain, she detected faint flashes of kaleidoscopic light.

  Rather than risk another fall, Tasha remained kneeling. She suppressed a flash of annoyance toward the mud covering her skirt as she splayed it, allowing her skin to make a physical connection to Calliome. She prepared again to move the earth.

  Before she fully regained her connection to the Earth Mother, she noticed a flash of motion headed toward her. Tasha ducked just as a fleshy tentacle whipped through the air where her head had been a mere second earlier.

  She focused on the earth, willing the roots to obey her. Around where she knelt, vines erupted, reaching toward the sky. Enclosing her in a wooden dome, they hardened. The root shell shuddered as the tentacles beat against it, but spongy flesh, no matter its origin, proved no match for wood.

  Kneeling, Tasha pressed her hands in the earth, focusing on the hillside covering the rift once more.

  Chapter 68

  Aveline and Abigail stood back to back, fending off thrashing tentacles and muscular arms. The abomination, extruding new appendages, engaged those protecting the Crow Queen and her work.

  Thrusting her shield to block a meaty fist, Aveline risked a glance toward Tasha. She felt the earth rumble. The hillside split, showering them with earth and rocks. Lukas flew past her at the end of a tentacle, and she saw Tasha fall.

  Resisting the urge to rush to her friend’s aid, Aveline fought to maintain control and trust Tasha. Torben ran toward the Crow Queen. Just as Tasha ducked to avoid a tentacle rocketing in her direction, Torben launched himself at one of the other ones thrashing between them. He hacked at it with his axe until it severed. Another tentacle wrapped itself around him, then flung him beyond Aveline’s sight.

  Upon ducking under the fist pounding Aveline’s shield, Maxim swung his sword upward, cutting through the fleshy appendage. Mixing with the pouring rain, blood and ichor drenched them.

  The abomination lunged, bashing them with its body. Aveline landed on her back, then rolled to safety. Barreling forward, the beast trampled Abigail and Maxim.

  Finding a patch of rough terrain, Aveline regained her footing. The abomination beat its fists against Maxim’s back, denting his armor. It captured him with a tentacle, then lifted him in front of the drak head. Charging with a primal scream, Aveline brought her mace down on
the reptilian cranium, driving the upper jaw downward and causing the beast to bite off its own tongue.

  After tossing Maxim aside, the abomination turned its attention to the knight-captain. Raising her shield, Aveline backed away as it advanced. From the corner of her eye, she saw Abigail, who, still on the ground, thrust her sword into the abomination’s leg. The creature screamed when the blade pierced its flesh. The drak head’s bloody maw opened, spewing oily miasma toward Abigail. Scurrying away, she reached safety only after the greasy cloud enveloped her arm.

  The warrior woman gritted her teeth, stifling her anguish, as the substance digested her hand and forearm. Upon summoning the last bit of strength remaining in her dominant arm, she tossed her sword to her left hand, retreating. The muscles sloughed off her right arm, exposing the bones and rendering it useless.

  Seizing Maxim’s sleeve, Aveline dragged him to safety before helping him up. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth, but he set his jaw in grim determination. Raising his sword, he charged the abomination. Gashing the blubber on its back, he brought his weapon down.

  The creature spun on Maxim before melting into the earth. A black stain spread from where the abomination previously stood.

  “Back! Get back! Stay away from it.” Aveline snatched Maxim away from the stain. Abigail, holding her ruined arm close to her body, scrambled backward toward bare rocks.

  With his left eye swollen shut, Lukas stumbled toward them. Maxim gestured for him to keep clear, but the burly man, squinting, shook his head. He limped in their direction.

  “The ground, man, look at the ground.” Maxim pointed toward the black circle of expanding rot. “Move away from it.”

  Holding his head, Lukas fixated on the area where Maxim pointed. Aveline could almost see the man’s addled mind parse each word of Maxim’s order.

  She lunged toward him, but Maxim held her back. The blight reached Lukas’s feet, then climbed his body. His eyes bulged. He shrieked as rotting flesh sloughed off his bones. Thrashing and screaming, he fell into the blight. Still alive, he decomposed, liquefying before their very eyes.

  From the pool of rot and gore, the abomination—three legs, two muscular arms, and a multitude of tentacles—rose again. Both heads turned toward Tasha, still encased in a protective dome of wood.

  Tentacles shot from its body, flinging Aveline and Maxim away. It charged the Crow Queen.

  * * *

  Mustering as much power as possible, Tasha called upon the land to part. She poured her very life-force into the roots and vines in the ground. She rent the cave entrance, as if it were silk. Unleashing a wave of chaos energy, the hillside gave way, exposing the rift.

  The wooden dome around her shattered, showering her with sharp splinters. She moved just as the abomination reached her. The wizard and drak heads snarled. Both heads laughed as the creature brought its arms down on her.

  The impact knocked her away, breaking her connection with the land. She slid through the mud, snatching hold of a root to arrest her motion. Blinking the water and mud out of her eyes, she noticed the land had split apart from the rift in a straight line, creating a deep crevasse.

  Her feet barreled over the edge.

  “Tasha!” Torben lunged toward her, diving into the mud. Arresting her fall, he dragged her away from the crevasse alongside him.

  The Crow Queen’s shoulder ached from being wrenched. A stabbing sensation accompanied her every breath.

  Lifting her, Torben set Tasha on some newly exposed boulders, not yet covered with slick mud.

  Roaring, the abomination charged, its tentacles flailing. Beside her, she heard a primal scream, but when she turned her head in the direction of the sound, she saw only shadows. Tasha wiped her eyes; yet, despite her efforts, the world remained a hazy blur. The rift illuminated the creature before her, however, like a lantern revealing a hidden horror.

  Upon opening its mouth, the drak head spewed greasy, black smoke toward her. She pushed herself backward, attempting to avoid it. Someone else collided with the abomination. When Tasha drew her cloak around her, her vision cleared slightly. She viewed a great, shaggy wolf locking its jaws around the snout of the drak head.

  Torben’s claws scratched deep gouges in the abomination’s flesh, spraying ichor through the air. He pushed, the muscles in his legs bulging, until the abomination slid backward. Torben continued pressing the creature of chaos toward the crevasse. Even though the creature’s three legs provided it stability, they did little to prevent it from sliding in the mud as the werewolf proved its equal in strength.

  Tasha stepped forward until her feet rested in earth once again. She felt electricity in the air. Summoning the power of Gaia coursing through her, she raised her arms above her head.

  “Torben, let him go!” Her voice cut through the rain and cacophony of battle. To his credit, Torben shoved the abomination, allowing the momentum to hurl him backward. Tasha allowed the energy to intensify. The clouds above flashed.

  A bolt of lightning impacted the mud just in front of the abomination. The earth exploded beneath it, thrusting the creature over the edge of the precipice and shooting steam into the air.

  Through the Earth Mother, Tasha felt, more than saw, people approaching. Aveline, Maxim, Abigail, and a handful of draks caught up to her. Closing her eyes, she drew her cloak around her. A dim, hazy vision of the world provided her only insight into the action around her. The knight-captain peered over the edge.

  She swore. “Tinian’s sacred lance. Why won’t you die!”

  A tentacle shot into the air, whipping past her. She swatted at it with her mace. A dozen more tentacles sailed over the edge of the crevasse, finding purchase on trees and boulders to pull itself up.

  Aveline turned to Tasha. “Close that rift. We’ll keep this thing busy.”

  Each began to hack, bash, and gnaw the nearest tentacle. Tasha faced the rift. The kaleidoscopic colors seemed clear as day to her, cutting through the haze of her vision.

  Gripping her amulet, she called upon her arcane knowledge as well as her connection to the Earth Mother. I hope it’s enough. “Stenee pyealee. Stenee pyealee.” Tasha repeated the phrase over and over, pouring as much arcane energy as she could muster into the rift. With each repetition, she felt the rift grow smaller, bit by minuscule bit.

  Her shoulder ached, her ribs throbbed, and her legs trembled with fatigue. She forced herself to focus only on the rift. Tasha compelled herself to press onward. “Stenee pyealee.”

  Chapter 69

  Beating tentacles into a bloody pulp frustrated Aveline, and she again lamented the absence of her sword. Despite pummeling the rubbery flesh with her mace, the tentacles did not loosen their grip.

  Thus far, the abomination remained unable to pull itself out of the crevasse. Maxim sliced and hacked through tentacles with his blade, as did Abigail, despite her horrific injury. For each limb they severed, another writhed its way toward a tree.

  Draks, armed only with picks, attacked the tentacles as though they were rocks to be busted apart. It took a team of draks several strikes to completely sever a tentacle; however, they remained more efficient than Aveline and her mace.

  Torben bounded to her, then gnawed on the appendage she’d been bashing until it tore apart. Ichor dripped from his jaws as he locked eyes with her. Staring into the slavering maw of the werewolf, her heart skipped a beat, but, behind his amber eyes, Aveline recognized Torben’s humanity.

  In a flash, he attacked another tentacle. Aveline observed Tasha holding her amulet aloft. Sapphire wisps of aether swirled around her in a whirlwind of arcane energy before pouring into the rift.

  She detected motion in the breach. Reflecting the light from the fissure in a rainbow of sparkles, a giant creature covered in crystals lumbered forward, freeing itself from the chaos.

  Unleashing a roar like the sound of grinding gravel, the crystal creature raised a boulder-like fist, preparing to pound Tasha into the mud.

  Aveline screamed, cha
rging forward. She deflected the creature’s first blow with her shield, leaping in front of the Crow Queen. Forcing her to her knees, the impact reverberated through her shield and into her arm.

  “No. You can’t have her!” Aveline swung her mace, slamming it into the creature’s fist as it swung at Tasha a second time. Shattering upon impact, crystal shards exploded from the creature’s hand.

  The crystal creature focused its attention on the warrior who injured it, swinging wildly at Aveline. She deftly dodged the blows until one caught her on the shoulder.

  The impact, as strong as a charging horse, spun her. She pitched forward, gasping. Raising her shield at the last second, she landed face first in it instead of on the ragged rocks. Rolling away from the boulders, she noticed a rocky fist sailing toward her head. She swung her mace, batting it away.

  Avoiding another strike, Aveline used the momentum to tuck her feet under herself. Pushing off a nearby boulder, she leapt to her feet. After catching another blow with her shield, she returned the creature’s punch with one of her own.

  Roaring, the crystal creature swung its arm in a wide arc, catching the head of her mace and ripping it from her hands. From behind her, she heard another roar. Risking a glance, she observed the abomination that once was Koloman hauling itself out of the crevasse. It slipped as picks, swords, and sharp teeth assaulted three more tentacles.

  “Hurry it up, Tasha.” Another blow from the crystal creature caught Aveline’s flank. She twisted in agony, feeling her ribs snap. Grimacing from the pain, she rushed the creature, holding her shield in front of her. Slamming into it, she pushed it toward the rift. She noticed the scintillating field of color seemed smaller. As she drew close to the fissure, its energy set her hair on end.

  Tasha’s voice rose to a crescendo. “Stenee pyealee. Stenee pyealee!”