The Shadow Roads

Twenty-four

They came down from the high valley, wending their way amongtrees that cast long, serpentine shadows across the slope. With the sunbeginning to drop toward the western hills, even Tam’s shadow was worthy of agiant.

It had been an uneventful day. No minions of Hafydd hadcaught them, and they had encountered no one as they made their way across thelands of the Dubrell. Wolfson told them that his people had dwelt in this arealong ago, but the incursions from the borderlands had driven them all away.Only the border patrol still lived there, and they moved constantly, neverspending two nights in the same place. They were wary, Wolfson said, neverknowing when they might be attacked by the unnamed horrors that slipped out ofthe borderlands.

An hour before dusk they found the bottom of the hillsideand would have made better time had they not been so tired. Tam felt as thoughhe could sleep in the saddle, and he noticed Fynnol slumping down, his eyelidsslowly drifting closed.

A wolf howled in the distance. Tam barely noted the sound,but then he realized Alaan and Crowheart where whispering, suddenly very alert.Tam snapped awake, blood pounding through his veins.

“What is it?” he whispered.

“Wolves,” the giant said, striding up beside him. “Some ofmy people are nearby. They patrol the border.” Gesturing to Alaan to slow hispace, Wolfson walked out ahead, shafts of sunlight falling across his path.

A wolf appeared before him, then another. His own pack gatheredaround him, their hackles up, growling. Wolfson spoke firmly to them, and theywagged their tails and licked his hands.

A birdcall Tam did not recognize echoed through the wood,and Wolfson put a hand up to his mouth and answered in kind. A moment laterthe bushes parted, and two of Wolfson’s people stepped out of the wood. Theycast wary glances toward the mounted men, but Wolfson went forward, his palmsout, speaking their rapid, heavily accented dialect.

The giants met in a small clearing, talking surprisinglysoftly for men so large. Much nodding of heads, then one of the giants pointed,and Wolfson came trotting back to his companions.

“Come,” he said, “there has been a nichmear hunting herethese last two nights. Come quickly before it grows dark!”

Tam did not know what a nichmear was, but he dug heels intohis horse’s sides and followed the others. The giants were trotting along now,covering ground more quickly than Tam would have thought possible. They did notseem to tire, and Tam guessed they might keep up such a pace for half a day ormore.

They trotted along through the shadows and low shafts oflight, branches swatting them as they passed. The bars of sunlight suddenlyfaded, as though someone had snuffed a candle, the sun having fallen behindthe western hills. Twilight drifted through the trees like smoke.

Just before darkness fell, and the stars sprang to light,the companions broke out of the trees to find a ruin of tumbled stone, muchovergrown, but one section of wall had obviously been repaired; and it wasthere the giants led them. One of the Dubrell dropped his pack and weapons andclimbed over the wall, clearly knowing where to find purchase for feet andhands. A moment later the oak doors swung open, and they entered. In thefalling darkness Tam could see they were enclosed within a thick stone wall,roughly square and maybe twenty-five paces across. Two shed roofs had beenbuilt against the stone, one enclosed by a fence and clearly for horses, theother covering a hearth set in the wall. Four sets of stairs led up to rampartswith a rough parapet. One giant went directly up to the ramparts and walked aslow circle, staring into the gathering darkness.

Tam dropped down onto the packed dirt and weeds that made upthe floor of the place. Realizing how tired the little Vale-man was, Crowhearttook Fynnol’s mount. Horses were soon rubbed down and watered. Two of the giantstook scythes that hung in the rafters and went out into the clearing, comingback shortly with a small mow of grass between them. The horses munched happilyon this, though Tam thought they were skittish and wary.

A fire was kindled in the hearth, and men and giants weresoon eating dinner-rabbits and partridge they’d killed earlier. Benches-treetrunks with one side flattened by an adze-were arranged around the hearth, andthe Dubrell and their guests threw themselves down on them. Fynnol lay on hisback with his knees drawn up and was immediately asleep.

“You came a distance at a good pace,Wolfson,” the giantnamed Beln said.

The three giants, who called themselves sentries, were allyoung, or so Tam thought. He found it difficult to judge the ages of thesegiants partly because their faces were hidden by thick beards, and their voiceswere all dungeon deep.

“There is no time to waste,” Alaan answered.

The three sentries glanced at each other, then one of themasked, “What’s this we’ve heard of men forcing the north pass?”

Wolfson was slicing onions, his eyes watering. “We put themto rights,” he said. “I don’t think they’ll follow us farther.”

“Don’t be so certain, Wolfson,” Alaan said. “Hafydd’s servantsare more afraid of him than of us.”

“Hafydd … Who is that?” one of the giants asked. He wasthe one who smiled often. Tam had divided them up thus: the one who smiled,named Pounder; the vigilant one, Beln (he kept jogging up onto the ramparts tosearch the darkness); and the sullen one, whom they called Teke. He sat alittle apart from the others and said little.

“A sorcerer,” Alaan said. “One you don’t want to meet.”

“What is it you are hunting here?” Tam asked.

“A nichmear,” Pounder said. “Though it is the nichmear thatwill be hunting us.” He looked up at the sky. “The smoke and the smell ofcooking should draw it. The pack will start to howl when it arrives.”

Tam bent over and retrieved his bow and quiver. He strungthe bow quickly.

“Don’t worry,” the giant said. “Only one’s ever made it overthe wall.”

“But what is this thing?” Tam said.

“Nichmear,” Wolfson said. “‘Nightmare’ in the tongue of men.It is a massive thing. Two-legged, but with the horns of a bull. It has a tailthat cuts like a whip and claws that can tear through mail.” His face becamestrained and anxious. “It is thrice your height, or very nearly, and would takethe lot of you and smash you against the wall with one swipe of its claws. Itcomes out of the twilight, and is never abroad by day, and is the more frighteningfor it. We have killed one once before, and wounded others, always at heavycost.” He looked around the small group of giants. “One of us will be deadbefore morning if the nichmear comes.”

“You hadn’t us to help you before,” Cynddl said.

This caused the giants to turn away or back to their work,not quite hiding their smiles.

“I think you will find that Cynddl is not boasting,” Alaansaid. “They have fought the servants of Death before … and won.”

A howl carried over the wall, and the giants all stopped,suddenly alert.

“Eat up, now,” Pounder said. “Death has no servant more terriblethan this.”

Tam was too nervous to eat much, but forced a few mouth-fulsdown. They were all up on the ramparts in no time, armed with whatever weaponsthey carried. Pounder hefted a great iron ball on the end of a thick oaken handle.In the hands of a giant it would shatter bones-it would break rock, he wassure. The giants didn’t seem much interested in bows or arrows, though theyleaned spears against the wall, and some of these were for throwing. They alsokept a pile of good-sized stones, and Tam guessed these were to crush whoevermight attack from below.

The wall of their small keep was not high, about three timesTam’s height-the same height Wolfson had given to the nichmear. Tam hoped thegiant had been merely trying to scare him with his description.

Beyond the ruins of what once had been a fair-sized keep wasa broad meadow, which ran off to the south out of sight in the dark. On theother three sides a forest stood, nearer in some places than others. Tam couldmake out little in the cool light of the stars and the thin crescent of moon.

Wolves darted along the border of the wood, dodging in andout of shadow. Tam nocked an arrow and tested the pull of his bow. They wereall silent, giants and men-listening. Tam could feel the sweat on his hands andworried that his bowstring might slip off his fingers. Fynnol and Cynddl wereto one side of him, both with their bows ready. Beyond them stood Alaan and Wolfson,and the three giants waited to Tam’s left.

“Will the pack attack this thing?” Tam whispered.

In the faint light he saw Wolfson shake his head. “They’reafraid of it, and you’ll soon see why.”

A small breeze moved Tam’s hair, and he almost jumped. Thecracking of wood sounded somewhere out in the dark, and Tam raised his bow.

“It’s still some way off,” Beln said.” ’Tis the single thingwe can be thankful for when it comes to the nichmear: they know nothing ofstealth.”

“It isn’t really so big as you claimed, I assume?” Fynnolsaid.

“’Tis every bit as big, but in the dark, of course, it looksbigger.”

“Of course,” Fynnol said. “Don’t we all?”

Small clouds sailed across the dark ocean of sky, passing beforethe waning moon, throwing shadows down on the meadow and the half-fallen wallsof the keep. Tam began to see movement in every shadow. The giants postedthemselves on the four corners of the keep, but left the outsiders facing southas it was the most likely place of attack, they said. Tam felt vulnerable themoment the giants were gone. There was something comforting about having fourmen the size of Slighthand standing beside you. And only the giants had foughtthese things before.

“Is that something?” Fynnol whispered, and pointed out intothe darkness.

A cloud had passed before the moon a moment before, and theshadows spread out like pools of water. Tam strained to see into thedarkness-like staring into the night river.

“It is your imagination,” Alaan whispered.

“I think Fynnol is right,” Crowheart said. He pointed at thetallest section of wall. “There. Do you see.”

The horses began to mill around in their small enclosure,whinnying nervously.

Tam’s eyes began to water from staring into the dark. Therewas something there, he was almost sure of it. A darker place in the shadow.Alaan called Wolfson. The giant came pounding along the ramparts.

The cloud blew off then, and the faint light grew, spreadingover the ruins. The dark shape seemed to take on an outline.

“River save us!” Fynnol whispered.

It was immense and coming at great speed. Its feet, poundingon the earth, could be heard now; a deep drumming that shook the stone beneaththeir feet. Alaan cursed. He raised his bow and drew back an arrow. The othersdid the same.

Wolfson came up beside them, and called urgently to the others,who all converged on the center of the south wall.

Run! Tam’s brain screamed. He struggled against hisdesire to flee, muscles in his legs and arms twitching. Run!

Fynnol fired an arrow at the “thing” converging on them. Andthen it was near, a blur of pumping limbs. Tam let his arrow fly then, but hemiscalculated the speed of the thing, which seemed to have materialized out ofdarkness. A glimpse of horns, a malevolent face, then it lowered its head andsmashed into the gates below. Tam was thrown off his feet and would have fallento the yard below, but Wolfson caught his shoulder and dragged him up.

The sound of splintering wood, the scream of iron hingeswrenched out of shape. Pounding like hooves on a barn floor, and the thing wasin the yard below, casting its gaze around and snorting like a bull.

It spotted the horses and charged the enclosure. Alaan’smount, Bris, leapt over the fence first, and the others scrambled to follow,knocking each other down in their panic. The nichmear smashed through thefence, pinning a screaming horse to the wall. As it thrashed and fought theshed roof collapsed, burying gored horse and monster both. Pounder had runaround the wall and jumped down on the fallen roof. Lifting his hammer, hesmashed it down on the shingles, splinters of wood flying up all around. Thecreature howled and stood up, throwing the roof and Pounder off. The giantlanded on his side on the hard-packed dirt, and struggled to his knees, dazed.

The creature looked around, extricating itself from the ruinof the horse pen by breaking away the roof with its claws. In the harshdarkness Tam could not make it out clearly-lethal-looking horns on a massivehead, shoulders muscled like a bulls. It tore its legs free of the debris andspun around, tail snapping like a whip.

Struggling to gain his feet, Pounder faltered and fell tohis hands and knees. Beln leapt down from the wall and put himself between themonster and his companion as Tam and the others rained arrows down on thecreature.

“Shoot at its face!” Alaan cried.

Tam pulled an arrow back to his shoulder and let it fly,aiming at what he hoped was an eye. The creature bellowed and put an arm up toprotect its face. Beln had dragged Pounder to his feet, and the two of themstumbled toward the stair. But the creature ignored them, bounding straightacross the yard toward the men on the wall.

Tam and the others kept firing, but the creature did notslow. It swept the two Dubrell aside with one backhanded swipe and threw itselfat the stone wall, using the debris from the gate as a step.

“It is after the outlanders!” one of the giants shouted.

Alaan cursed. Tam fired a last arrow at the horns he sawrising from below and drew his sword. Claws scraped up onto the stone of theramparts, and Tam swung at what he hoped was the creature’s hand. But it wasquicker than he and snatched its limb away. Grasping Tam by the ankle, it threwhim off the ledge so that he slid down the creature’s back, barely missingbeing gored.

It is afterAlaan,Tam realized.

He fell hard on the ground, driving his knees into hischest. His sword lay a few feet away, and Tam rolled and snatched it up, despitebeing shaken and hurt. On the parapet above, Tam could see shapes jumping asideas the creature tried to bull its way up onto the ledge.

Tam jumped up onto the fallen gate, which lay at an angle,still connected at a top corner by one hinge, bent impossibly out of shape. Thegate shuddered and heaved beneath him as the creature struggled to climb upagainst the resistance of the men above. Taking no time to think, Tam drovethe point of his sword into the back of the creature’s leg joint. It howled soloudly that Tam was frozen for a second. When he tried to pull his sword freehe found it lodged. The creature swung a clawed hand at him, and Tam dived offthe swaying gate just as the beast came tumbling down, tearing the gate awayfrom its last hinge.

Pain shot through Tam’s shoulder, and he struggled up. Hestepped back and stumbled over Pounder’s round-headed hammer. He swept up thehandle and discovered it was all he could do to heft the thing, pain cuttingthrough his shoulder like he’d been stabbed. He swung at the arm of the monsteras it fell full length. Whatever he hit gave, snapping like a thick board. Themonster bellowed and looked up, fixing its terrible gaze on the frightenedValeman.

“Run,Tam!” Fynnol shouted.

Tam bolted for the narrow stair, but he stumbled and fell.The creature would have been upon him had someone not dropped down from thewall above, landing between Tam and the monster.

“It is me you want,” Alaan said calmly. “I’m the one yourmaster sent you for.”

Tam got slowly to his feet as though not to draw the monster’sattention. A sword landed point first a few feet away, and stood therequivering. Tam yanked it free and braced himself, not sure what Alaan might do.

“I’m at your back,” Tam said softly.

“Move away,” Alaan whispered.

The creature had risen to its full height, more than twicethat of Alaan, and thrice the body weight of the largest giant. Before it,Alaan looked like a child holding a toy sword. But the creature eyed himwarily, snorting. It hobbled, the sword still lodged in its knee, so it wouldnot charge headlong, but even so it was the most horrifying monster Tam hadever seen. Against the stars, horns pierced the darkness.

“Come, you stupid beast,” Alaan muttered. “Your master iswaiting.”

“I speak, sorcerer,” the beast hissed, its voice like rocksrumbling down a chasm.

“Then I am the sorcerer once known as Sainth, son of Wyrr.Alaan men call me now. Your master has sent you to find me. Why is it you wait?Can you not work up your nerve?”

The thing began to circle to the left, hobbling painfully onits injured leg.

“I know you, sorcerer,” the creature said. “You have been tothe gate before, but this time it is opening. Can you hear it? The sound ofgrinding bones?”

It stumbled and went down on one knee, but as it came up ithurled something in the dark. Alaan threw himself aside, and Tam’s swordclanged off the stone steps. The beast was upon him, seemingly unhurt. Alaanwas rising from the ground as it leapt forward. He put up a hand, and there wasa flash of white light, so bright Tam staggered back, blinded.

A terrible scream echoed off the stone walls and rose upinto the dark sky. Tam tried desperately to see, but the flash had stolen hisvision. He found himself against the wall, blinking furiously, sharp paincutting through his watering eyes.

It was a moment before his vision began to clear, and thenhe could see only vague silhouettes, odd shapes. Finally, he began to make outsomething large, prostrate on the ground, a small shape-Alaan-standing over it.

Tam groped forward, the scene coming slowly into focus.

“You killed it,” he said to the figure standing there.

“If you can kill something that came from Death’s kingdom,”Alaan answered wearily. “Yes, I killed it. You kill a charging bull by dodgingaside and driving your sword between its shoulder blades.”

“You’ve done it before?”

“No, but Sainth had. The thing was blinded, luckily, whichmade it a bit easier. Let’s see who’s injured.”

Alaan put a hand on Tam’s shoulder, guiding him, for Tamcould still see little. The giants came down from the wall. They had no tauntsfor the outsiders now, but kept glancing from Alaan to the dead creature, andTam wasn’t sure which unsettled them more.

“It spoke to you …” Pounder said.

Alaan nodded.

“It knew your name,” one of the other giants said very quietly.“Death knows your name.”

“It is a long story,” Alaan said. “And you would rather nothear it.” He was walking toward one corner of the keep, where they foundCrowheart soothing the horses.

“We lost a packhorse,” Rabal said, stroking the neck of ashaking mare. The horses gathered around him as though he would protect them.

“I don’t imagine we will be bothered again this night,”Alaan said, “but we should try to do something about the gate.”

The giants all jumped to the task with a will, stillglancing now and then at Alaan. Tam couldn’t tell if they were more awed orfrightened. Sometimes he wondered himself.

“Wolfson?” Alaan said, interrupting their work. “Tomorrow wewill go into the shadow lands. You needn’t travel farther than this.”

The giant nodded quickly, then went back to his work, obviouslyrelieved.