The Hammer and the Blade

CHAPTER SEVEN

Nix awakened with a groan, flat on his back, thrown once more into the back of a cart. He blinked, staring up at the canvas-covered ribs of the wagon. The gray light of dawn trickled in through the loose flap at the back. Rain tapped lightly on the canvas, and even that soft drumbeat made Nix wince. His head hurt worse than his worst hangover, and his tongue tasted like he had taken a lascivious lick of Shoddy Way.

At least he was no longer bound. He ran a hand over his skull, felt the tender, painful lumps under his hair. He seemed to be collecting them. He massaged the pink furrows the rope had left on his wrists. He was disarmed and his satchel was gone. He tried to sit up but dizziness and a flash of nausea put him back down.

Egil lay on his side beside him, still unconscious, snoring, drool collecting in his beard. The priest had a discolored lump as large as a gull's egg on the top of his head, the tattooed Eye of Ebenor with an eyeshine.

Nix swallowed down his dry throat, found it as coarse as sand. He flashed on the spellworm, Rakon's manic gaze, the slippery, squirming thing wriggling down his throat, expanding in him, stealing his will.

He thought of the mental space within himself that he'd tried to reserve. If he'd done as he intended, he could use that mental space as a starting point from which to try to slip the compulsion.

"I am Nix Fall," he said tentatively, the words little more than a harsh mumble. But even that small bit of resistance caused him a bout of nausea as the worm squirmed. The magic had rooted deeply.

He left off, in no condition at the moment to try to slip a compulsion. Instead, he sat up on an elbow and looked around.

Supplies filled the wagon: barrels of beer and skins of water, wheels of cheese, salted meat, sacks leaking onions and potatoes, rolled tents, straw and oats for draft animals, even a few stacks of firewood bound in cord. The abundance of supplies put him in mind of Rakon's mention of the Wastes. He'd hoped he'd misheard.

"Shite," he said.

Beside him, Egil groaned.

"Egil," Nix said softly, and shook the priest by the shoulder. "Egil."

The priest opened a bloodshot eye, blinked blearily, squinted at Nix, finally cocked an eyebrow.

"Nix?"

"Yeah. You all right?"

The priest lifted himself up, groaning and wobbly, and sat cross-legged. "Muzzy, but all right. You?"

"As well as I might." He touched the lumps on his head. "A bit tired of getting knocked unconscious, though. Let's avoid that in the future, yeah?"

"Agreed," Egil said, rubbing his head, the back of his neck. "Where are we?"

"I fear to guess."

"The last thing I remember clearly is that sorcerer's spell," Egil said, grimacing at the recollection.

Nix leaned forward, earnest. "Did you do as I said? When the spellworm went down? I told you to focus on Ebenor. Tell me you did that, Egil."

Egil's brow furrowed with thought and he nodded, but not convincingly. "I… tried. I thought of Ebenor, my faith, as you said. A lot of good it did, though."

"You may be surprised," Nix said.

Egil pinched his nose between his fingers. "How do you mean? Gods, my head. Not sure if it's a hangover or the blows."

"Both, I'm sure. Get it cleared. If we're where I think we are, we're going to need our wits."

"Aye. Gods, I'm thirsty." Egil eyed the barrels hopefully, but before he could grab one, the flap at the back of the wagon parted and a pockmarked, mustached face appeared, the hiresword Jyme, now helmed. He must have heard them talking.

"They're up!" he shouted over his shoulder.

"Not so damned loud," Nix said with a wince.

Baras soon appeared, also helmed. He looked grim behind his beard. "Welcome back."

"Uh, thanks?" Nix said.

Baras nodded at a blanket-covered pile in the far corner of the wagon. "Your weapons are there. You carry a lot of blades. Your bag with all the… things in it is there, too."

"Gewgaws," Egil said.

"As you say. The priest's hammers are there also." Baras leaned into the wagon and spoke in a lower tone. "Listen, don't get stupid because you're armed, eh? Stupid will mean you ride in the wagon unconscious. The lord Adjunct doesn't need you until we reach the tomb in Afirion, but I'd rather you awake and walking on your own feet, since I'm not sure your heads, hard as they are, can take another meeting with a sword pommel."

"Yeah," Nix said, massaging the lumps on his scalp. "We were just talking about that. Walking sounds right to me."

Nix crawled to the corner of the wagon and unrolled the oilcloth to reveal his blades, sling, pouch of lead bullets, his satchel of equipment and magical items, and Egil's hammers. He handed the priest his weapons and the crowbar he'd taken to carrying.

"I don't know how you survive with just hammers," Nix said to his friend, while repositioning sharp things all about his person.

"Crowbar, too," Egil said, as he slipped his hammers into loops on his belt. To Baras, he said, "You said Afirion, but we're not on a boat."

"I was going to mention that," Nix said.

"Mention what?" Egil said.

"We're not on a boat," Baras said, "because we're cutting through the Wastes."

"The Demon Wastes?" Egil asked.

"You know of others?"

Egil sniffed, cleared his throat, and said matter-offactly, "Then we're all going to die."

Nix just shook his head. "Traveling the Wastes is madness, Baras. Everyone knows that."

"My Lord Norristru-"

"Is mad," Nix finished. "No one gets through the Wastes."

Baras's face remained blank, the vacant look of a soldier falling back on a sense of duty to get him through. "We do and we will. My lord has his reasons for the route he's chosen."

"Then his reasons must be to get us all killed," Nix said. "Egil has the right of it."

"Give us his reasons," Egil said. "I'd hear them."

Baras shook his head. "His reasons are his own. Now, get up and get out. You walk like the rest of us."

He turned on his heel and left them, the flap closing in his wake.

The moment he disappeared, Egil scooted to the back of the wagon, stuck a hand between the flaps, and looked out. He hefted his hammers and closed his eyes in a silent prayer.

"What are you doing?" Nix asked.

"I'm getting out of the wagon," Egil said. "Isn't that what Baras said to do?"

"He did."

"I'm also causing a ruckus with these slubbers."

"You're what?"

"Meet you out there," Egil said, and bounded out the back of the wagon.

"Egil, wait," Nix said, but the priest was already gone. "He didn't say to cause a ruckus, dammit."

Outside, the priest shouted his usual challenges. A driver shouted at the horses and the wagon lurched to a stop. Horses neighed, men cursed, hurried footsteps trod on coarse ground. More shouts, curses.

Nix knew Egil wouldn't get far, but he didn't want his friend to get hurt. He put his falchion in his fist and slid out through the flap. He blinked in the drizzle and gray light of dawn.

He and Egil must have been unconscious several hours, for they were already in the Wastes, on the scree-covered plains east of Dur Follin. The jagged, broken boulders and rust-colored rockscape stretched around them, the land devoid of everything but the toughest scrub and an occasional malformed tree.

Seven of Rakon's guards, including Baras and Jyme, stood in a loose circle around Egil. The men had swords drawn, though they made no move to attack. An eighth had a cocked crossbow leveled at the priest.

Nix caught a glimpse of Dur Follin in the distance behind them, its crumbling gray walls and the monumental span of the Archbridge ghostly and faded in the dim light and rain.

Egil, hammers in hand, lunged first at one guard, then at another. The men backed off, positioned their blades defensively, but didn't engage.

"Come on, slubbers!" Egil shouted.

"I can order him to shoot," Baras said to Egil, nodding at the guard with the crossbow.

Nix filled his off hand with a throwing dagger. "He'll die before he fires. I don't miss at this range."

Eyes turned to Nix. The guards shifted on their feet. The crossbowman, a young man of perhaps twentyfive winters, licked his lips, backed off, and moved his crossbow from Nix to Egil, from Egil to Nix.

"Take your finger off that pull, boy," Nix said to the crossbowman, his dagger ready for a rapid throw. "Ere I put this dagger in your eye."

Egil lunged at one of the guards and he backpedaled so fast he slipped and fell down. Egil stomped on his wrist. He squawked with pain and released his sword.

"Could have broke it, but I didn't," Egil said to the downed man, and backed off. To Baras, he said, "We just want to walk away, yeah?"

"We can't allow that," Baras said.

"Then we've got a problem," Egil said.

Rakon's voice sounded from a nobleman's lacquered carriage, one of the two horse-drawn vehicles, along with the supply wagon, that made up the caravan. "Let them go, Baras."

Baras looked over his shoulder. "My lord?"

Rakon slid aside the window slat on the carriage and leaned out, looking back. He wore a skullcap and a scowl.

"I said let them go."

Baras's expression remained puzzled, but he said to his men, "You heard."

All of them backed away from Egil. The priest backed off a few steps in the direction of Dur Follin. He grinned.

"Let's go, Nix. Now."

Nix nodded and headed after his friend.

They wouldn't make it far, he knew, but at least he could evaluate the power of the spellworm.

As he passed Baras, Nix said, "We'll be right back, I think."

Baras's puzzled expression deepened.

By the time Nix reached Egil's side, he felt the compulsion working against him. At first he felt only mild resistance, like muscle fatigue and a pit in his stomach, but both grew stronger with each step.

As he and Egil started to back away farther, he felt as if he were yoked to the wagon. His stomach twisted into a knot. Bile crawled up his throat. He found it hard to lift his legs. His falchion and dagger felt like hundredweights in his hands.

Egil, too, had slowed, one thick leg thudding into the rocky ground, then a long pause, then another step.

"What… is… this?" the priest said.

The guards trailed after them, uncertain, weapons held loosely.

Egil began to curse, his arms fell to his sides, as if unable to bear the weight of his hammers. The priest lifted a leg, took another step, one more, then fell to his knees and violently vomited.

"What sorcery is this?" Egil said, down on all fours, spitting the last of his vomit onto the ground.

"The spellworm," Nix said, and fell to all fours. "We have to stop."

"My very teeth ache," Egil said.

"A few more steps and they might have cracked," Nix said. "Or your heart might have exploded. It's a strong worm."

The guards circled them at a distance. Nix felt like a fool down on all fours before them, bent by Rakon's sorcery.

"You two make everything difficult," Baras said.

"It's… a character flaw," Nix said, and hissed at a sudden flash of pain.

"My lord," Baras called back to the carriage. "What should we do with them?"

Nix lifted his head, looked back, and saw the carriage door open. An enormous man in a sweat-stained shirt and pantaloons emerged first, the carriage bouncing on its suspension as he debarked. He stood a hand shorter than Egil, but much wider at the shoulder and middle. His misshapen bald head wouldn't have fit in a well-bucket. Small unblinking eyes floated in shallow sockets, giving him a wide-eyed, wild look. His gaze flitted over Egil and Nix, the guards, and seemed to deflect off without seeing them. His mouth hung partially open, frozen in a vacant smile. His appearance struck Nix as… bulging, overstuffed, as if there were too much of him packed into the bag of his skin.

Probably a eunuch. Definitely a servant of Rakon's.

A large, curved knife hung from the broad sash that circumnavigated the eunuch's waist. He lifted the thick trunk of an arm to assist Rakon out of the carriage.

Rakon stepped onto the scree and eyed Egil and Nix's suffering with a smug smile on his thin lips.

Nix would've given much to punch him hard in the balls. The thought, however, caused the spellworm to twist his stomach yet again and he groaned, holding down the vomit through sheer force of will. He hated vomiting.

"I trust this will prevent any further attempts at escape," Rakon said. "Had you gotten much farther, the spellworm would have maimed or killed you. Did you learn nothing in your year at the Conclave?"

"Fak you," Nix tried to say, but instead the vomit finally won the war with his will and rushed out between his teeth in a flood. Nix coughed, eyes watering, and spit puke onto the rocks, cursing through the chunks.

"Did I not say they would try to run, Baras?" Rakon asked the guardsman. "At first opportunity, I said."

"You did, my lord," Baras answered.

To Egil and Nix, Rakon said, "You must do exactly what I say, when I say, or you'll suffer. The worm feeds on your resistance, whether in thought or deeds. Do you understand?"

"Fak you," Egil grunted.

"Seconded," said Nix, and felt the worm squirm.

"My sisters' lives are far more important to me than yours," Rakon said. "Help me and you help yourselves. Get me the horn and the compulsion will be satisfied. Get them up, Baras."

"Yes, my lord," Baras said, and walked toward Nix. "Jyme, a hand."

"We don't need help to stand, bungholes," Nix said. "Get up, Egil."

Nix rose to his knees, then slowly to his feet, grunting with the effort, his body screaming with pain. He endured and stood, swaying. Egil did the same, pulling his arms off the soil one at a time and climbing to his feet.

Rakon looked on with annoyance. "We don't have much time before Minnear is full," he said tightly, "so no more of this. Defy me, and the worm does its work."

An intense itch behind his left eye caused Nix to blink and set his eye to watering. He wondered for a moment if Rakon was using some kind of eyebite on him; he'd heard of such things from sorcerers.

"They can stand, so they can walk," Rakon said to Baras. "The pain from the worm is temporary, lasting only as long as their defiance. Let's get moving again."

"Yes, my lord," Baras said.

Rakon walked back to the carriage.

The pain from the spellworm abated almost immediately, but the itch behind Nix's eye remained. A thought seized him, blossomed fully into an idea. His mouth formed words, though he didn't remember thinking them.

"Rakon," he called, and started walking toward the carriage.

" Lord Norristru," Baras corrected. He stepped in front of Nix and put a hand on his chest.

"Show me your sisters," Nix called. "Let me see them. You said you're doing this for them. You stole our wills for them. Show them to me."

"Shut your mouth," Baras said, giving him a shove, but Nix didn't stop. He wanted to see Rakon's sisters, needed to see them. He thought much depended on it, though he had no idea why.

Rakon stopped on the footstep to the carriage, looked over at Nix and Baras.

"They walk, Baras."

With that, Rakon disappeared into the black, lacquered box of the carriage. The eunuch followed, vacant-eyed and smiling, but Nix did not relent.

"I call you a liar until my eyes see these so-called sisters! Rakon!"

"That's enough!" Baras said to Nix. "What's into you, man?"

Nix ignored Baras. He stared after Rakon, breathing hard, convinced the inside of the carriage held an answer to a question he could not articulate but needed to hear. The itch behind his eye would not relent.

Baras took him by the bicep and steered him away from the carriage. Jyme tried to do the same for Egil but a glare from the priest put an end to that.

"Suit yourself," Jyme said.

"I'm sorry it went this way," said Baras. "It's not personal. My lord is honorable. Help him and I have no doubt he'll reward you."

"Not personal," echoed Nix, turning his head to stare at the carriage, still blinking at the irritation behind his eye.

"You don't seem stupid," Baras said. "And yet…"

"Never underestimate my ability for stupidity."

Egil snickered. Baras almost smiled.

"This isn't personal either, Baras," Nix said.

"What's that?"

"This," Nix said, and snapped a reverse elbow into Baras's jaw, sending him careening backward, cursing and bleeding.

Jyme reached for his blade, but before he could draw it, Egil tackled him. Priest and hiresword fell to the ground in a tumble, the priest's fists thudding against Jyme's midsection, chiming the links of his mail shirt.

The other guards shouted and drew blades while Nix sprinted for the carriage. He wanted to see the sisters, had to see them. He grabbed the handle, threw open the door, parted the shade curtain and…

"You dare!" Rakon said, wide-eyed with shock and anger. He held a small metal vial in one hand, perhaps an elixir to give to one of his sisters, who slouched in the coach seats across from him.

Blankets wrapped the women's slim forms and their skin, pale and nearly translucent, looked as del icate and colorless as ice. Glassy eyes looked in Nix's direction, bright in the ovals of their faces, but their blank expressions told him that they didn't see him. Long auburn hair fell in waves from the head of the older. Short, almost boyishly cut dark hair crowned the smaller and younger. They looked like beautiful corpses.

"What's wrong with them?" he said, and the itch behind his eyes grew painful. His vision swam, blurred. He dug a knuckle into his eye, groaning.

Rakon half-rose from his seat, careful of his vial, but not before the huge eunuch grunted and lurched toward the door, toward Nix, still wearing the same vacant smile. He pulled his knife free as he advanced.

"Help us!" a woman cried, and a stabbing pain exploded in Nix's temples. He screamed, recoiled as the eunuch reached for him. He stumbled backward, spitting a shout of pain between gritted teeth, his head feeling as if would split asunder. He tripped on a rock, fell backward into the scree, and hit the ground hard enough to drive the air from his lungs.

The eunuch leaped awkwardly from the carriage, knife raised, still smiling stupidly. Nix heard the tread of feet on the rocks as the other guards closed on him, too.

"Nix!" Egil shouted.

Nix raised his hands defensively as the hulking form of the eunuch loomed over him, all dumb smile and sharp edge.

Rakon appeared in the carriage doorway. "No!" he shouted, and at his utterance the eunuch froze, the huge chest rising and falling like a bellows, the light rain glistening on his face and bald head, and those eyes, those vacant, unblinking eyes. He lowered the knife to his side.

The pain in Nix's head subsided, leaving only the ghost of agony to haunt him. He lay flat on his back, the rain falling softly on his face, the hard earth of the Demon Wastes digging into his skin.

Some of the other guards came around him, blades bare. One of them pulled him to his feet.

Rakon stood on the rail of the carriage door, his face floating above the head of the eunuch and the guards.

"I just wanted to see them," Nix said, his words inexplicably slurred. His head felt thick, sluggish, stuffed with cloth. "Your sisters. I needed to see them."

Rakon stepped down and picked his way past the eunuch and guards. He stared at Nix as if he were a pile of dung. "I told you they were dangerous."

"Needed… to see them," Nix muttered.

Rakon looked back into the carriage, then took Nix's face in his hand. "You needed to see them why?"

Nix's tongue seemed made of sand, which was just as well. He could not have answered. He had no idea why. A compulsion had driven him, as strong as Rakon's spellworm. It had come from nowhere. He uttered the first lie that popped into his head.

"Thought you were lying."

Rakon sniffed and pushed him back into the arms of the guards. "Now you know better. Let's get moving."

While Rakon and the eunuch boarded the carriage, the hands gripping Nix turned him around.

Baras glared at him, eyes hard, bleeding from the mouth.

"Sorry," Nix said. "I don't know what happened."

"Apology accepted," Baras said, and punched him in the jaw.

Nix went down in a heap, sparks exploding before his eyes. He heard Egil shout in anger but couldn't make out the words. Baras's face appeared over him, a grizzled moon against the gray of the sky.

Nix blinked in the rain, winced in anticipation of another blow. Instead, Baras took him under the armpits and lifted him to his feet.

"I give as good as I get," Baras said. "Fair is fair."

"Well enough," Nix muttered, swinging his jaw from side to side on loose hinges, tasting blood. Without warning, he vomited again, directly onto Baras's boots.

"Sorry," Nix said, wiping his mouth. "Came on of a sudden. You're not going to pay that one back, are you?"

Baras shook the vomit from his boots and handed Nix off to Egil. The priest had a red mark on his left cheek.

"Jyme catch you?" Nix asked.

"Pfft. One of the others joined in mid-scrum."

"Ah."

Egil kept Nix upright until he'd recovered enough to handle his own locomotion. Soon, the caravan was moving once more, cutting through the Wastes.

"Seems silly to have brought the wagon and carriage," Egil said.

Both vehicles struggled over the terrain.

Nix grunted agreement.

"What was that all about?" Egil asked. "With the sisters?"

Nix shook his head. He rubbed his jaw, his head, his backside, and stared at the carriage, wondering the same thing. "I'm… not sure. It was odd, Egil."

"Odd, aye," Egil said. "And stupid. You saw them, though, eh?"

Nix nodded slowly, seeing the older sister's green eyes so clearly in his mind's eye they might as well have been graven into his brain. "They're sick. Rakon spoke truth about that. Beautiful, too, as much as I could see."

"Well, there's that, then."

"But…"

"But?" Egil prompted.

"Did you… hear something when I cracked the carriage?"

"Something like what?"

"Like a shout for help. A woman's shout."

Egil shook his head. "Not that I heard. You heard it?"

"I thought. But maybe not."

Egil eyed the carriage. "One of the sisters crying out in a fever dream?"

Nix shook his head. "I don't think they can speak. They look very near death."

Egil grunted.

"Rusilla and Merelda," Nix said. "That's their names."

"Had time for introductions, did you?"

Nix shook his head. His thoughts were muddled. "Wait… no."

How did he know their names? Were those their names?

"What?" Egil asked.

"Nothing. I'm… still a bit muzzyheaded, is all."

Egil eyed him. "You're bleeding."

"I know," Nix said, massaging his jaw. Baras had caught him clean. He'd be feeling it for days.

"No. Your nose."

"Huh?" Nix put a knuckle to his nose and it came away bloody. "Shite."

Egil chuckled. "You're slowing down, Nix."

"Must be," Nix agreed, though he didn't remember taking a blow to his nose.

How odd. He stared at the carriage.

"I think Rakon said something else truthful, too."

"And what's that?" Egil asked.

"His sisters are dangerous."