The Shattered Land

CHAPTER 33

The forest was on fire. The temperature had jumped, and the emerald green that cloaked the trees was a blaze of orange. This sheet of fire had swept forward, and Pierce, Lei, and the strangers vanished beneath the fiery curtain. Daine cried out in wordless anguish, barely halting his progress before he tumbled into the flame.

No. Not flames-tall grass, weeds painted in red and orange. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he realized that their surroundings had completely changed. The trees were draped in the colors of autumn, and the trees and shrubs themselves were clearly different. The clearing was far smaller than the last one had been.

Daine could see Gerrion out of the corner of his eye, and he turned toward the half-elf, his sword still in his hand. Lakashtai was even swifter. She lashed out with her foot. The kick caught Gerrion in the side of the head and slammed him to the broken earth. Lakashtai brought her knee down in the small of Gerrion’s back, pressing him into the ground. Her right fist was poised above his head, wrapped in a halo of baleful green energy.

“Explain swiftly or I will tear the answers from your mind,” she said, her voice cold and hard.

“Helped you …” Gerrion gasped.

“Lei and Pierce!” Daine said. “What did you do to them?”

Lakashtai traced one finger across the back of Gerrion’s neck, and he convulsed in pain.

“You’re closer … closer to your goal,” Gerrion said. “The map. Magical … teleportation. We escaped your enemy, moved closer.”

Lakashtai hissed and shoved Gerrion’s head into the ground with a swift blow of her hand. “How dare you? Abandoning the others to save your own miserable skin.”

As angry as Daine was, he was still surprised by Lakashtai’s viciousness. The kalashtar was usually so calm, and she’d hardly seemed to care about Pierce or Lei. Now Gerrion was writhing on the ground as the light flared around her fingers.

“Don’t kill him! We still don’t know what he’s done.”

“Nor do we need to, because he’s about to undo it. Aren’t you, guide?” Lakashtai released Gerrion and stood up, her face twisted in anger. The halo around her hands slowly faded.

“I can’t,” Gerrion moaned. “Look … down. Ground.”

The stone beneath their feet was just a cracked shard of an ancient plaza. Once it might have been a mirror of the map they had seen before, but if so war and weather had destroyed it long ago.

“There’s no going back,” Gerrion said. He’d rolled onto his back and was slowly catching his breath, and his gray skin glistened with cold sweat. “I thought the others were on the map. I swear. It’s too late. Now it would take us more than a day to get back to the boat, and even if the others survive, there’s no telling where they’ll have gone by then. Just find the Monolith. Do what you came here to do.”

“Unacceptable!” Daine said. “I don’t care what happens to me. We are NOT leaving them behind.” He pondered. “The boat. They’d return to the boat. It’s the only place we all know. They’ll return there and wait for us.”

“If they survived.”

“Pray that they did.” Lakashtai said. She had regained her composure, but Daine could still feel her anger, like a burning itch at the back of his mind. “Now get on your feet and show us the way back, and the next time you feel like doing something clever-don’t.”

Gerrion slowly rose to his feet. “I didn’t mean to abandon them. Truly. I thought they were on the map.” Whether it was pain or sorrow, his voice was still shaking, and he kept his gaze trained on the ground. Daine was still filled with anger, but the half-elf seemed so dejected, so pathetic, that it was difficult to hate him.

But he could certainly try.

“Just show us the path. Now,” Daine said.

“We can’t travel through the night.”

“Can’t we?” Daine said. He glanced at Lakashtai, and a flicker of emerald fire played across her fingertips. “Somehow, I just don’t feel like sleeping.”

“You don’t understand. This is the forest of fire. There are things that come in the night-forces even you can’t fight. We need to take shelter.”

“Even if that’s true, I don’t see many safe havens out here. Don’t tell me there’s a comfortable inn nearby? The Fool’s Rest?”

Gerrion closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Finally he opened his eyes and stared at Daine, trying to keep his voice level. “There is a settlement nearby. Hunter-gatherers. I’ve dealt with them before and I’m sure I can convince them to give us shelter.” His voice finally broke. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, I swear! I just wanted to help. If you want to return to the boat, we’ll go back, but you’ll never make it without me-and I promise you, travel into the night and you won’t live to see the morning.”

Daine struggled with his emotions and fears. In his mind, he saw Jode in the sewers of Sharn, and he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Lei to the same fate, but the voice in the clearing had offered a chance to surrender. Even if they were outmatched, it was possible Lei and Pierce were unharmed-and they knew how to take care of themselves. He had to believe they were still alive, and for all his bravado, he was tired, and a march through the night would leave him with no energy to battle whatever they might find on the other side. He glanced at Lakashtai.

“What do you think?”

She shook her head ever so slightly. The anger had evaporated, and once again she was calm and collected. “This is Xen’drik. No doubt there are dangers in these jungles we know nothing about. It seems we must trust him. This may have been a mistake after all.” She glanced at Gerrion, and her eyes flashed. “Be warned, another such mistake could be fatal.”

“Of course,” Gerrion said. He wiped his brow and ran a hand through his hair, smoothing out his pale locks. His manner was still subdued, but he had recovered a hint of his former jaunty demeanor. “Follow me then. We’ll reach the city within an hour, and be on the path again by dawn.”

The gray man waded into the field of orange grass, retrieving his light-sphere. The vegetation was densely packed, and progress was slow. “There should be a path once we reach the treeline,” Gerrion said. “These weeds-they’re seasonal. Rapid growth.”

Daine’s thoughts were still on Lei and Pierce and the strange metal giant they might be fighting even now. They were warforged. Lei can fight warforged. Even through the fog of concern, he could still see what an excellent opportunity this was for an ambush. Tall grass, poor lighting-Daine could barely see the trees themselves, let alone anything that might be hidden around the treeline. Swordsmen crouching in the weeds, a few archers scattered among the trees. Wait until the enemy reached the center of the meadow-there-then strike.

He was off by five feet.

He dropped down the instant he heard the whiirr. Something flashed over his head, a spinning object thrown with considerable force-an axe? Knife? He ducked down into the grass. “I’m going to kill you, Gerrion!”

Daine. Lakashtai’s thoughts filled his mind. I have been struck with a wooden weapon with sharpened points. The wound … it is not deep … but … I fear poison. Were you … injured?

No, he thought. He kept still, his blades before him, listening for any sound of motion. Their enemies would be spread across the field. In the darkness, perhaps they thought that he’d been hit and had fallen to the ground. If they were using poison, they would wait for the venom to take full effect before closing in. Did you see Gerrion? Was he part of this?

No response. He heard the sound of shifting grass, but he thought it was a body falling to the ground, and the light suddenly faded.

Lakashtai?

Nothing.

So. Attacked by unknown enemies. Either Gerrion has betrayed us, or he’s just led us into a trap. Perhaps Pierce and Lei were the lucky ones.

He waited, listening.

Do they think we’re all dead? Could they have left?

No. It didn’t make sense. Surely anyone who would go to this effort would want to confirm the kill-or to strip the bodies. If Gerrion was involved, he knew Lakashtai had gold.

Then he heard it. The faintest whisper of wind in the grass-but there was no wind. Someone was moving toward him. Possibilities flashed through his mind. Riedran soldiers? More warforged? Psychotic kobolds? The stranger wasn’t carrying any sort of light, and the footsteps were almost silent. Daine carefully set his sword on the ground, shifting his dagger to his right hand. This needed to be close and quick. Once he would have drawn comfort from the Silver Flame. Now he cursed any god that might be listening.

The wind blew through the grass again. A dark figure emerged, a slender silhouette set against the night sky. There was the faint gleam of moonlight on long silver hair, on skin dappled in patterns of black and white. That was all he saw before he struck.

He swept her legs out from under her, and she tumbled to the ground. Daine felt a thrill of relief as he leaned down on her neck and placed the point of his dagger against her throat.

“Drop your weapons and don’t make a sound,” he whispered.

He was talking to empty air. It was like trying to hold water; one instant his arm was against her neck, the next he was staring down at the earth and she was standing beside him. Her features were still hidden in shadow, but she held a long knife in each hand.

Daine threw himself backwards, and the twin blades struck earth. He snatched his sword from the ground and rose to his feet, throwing himself into first guard position.

Three other people were spread around the clearing-and as dark as it was, Daine could see that Gerrion and Lakashtai were not among them.

Oh, this isn’t good.

He knocked the woman’s daggers out of line with a sweeping blow from his sword and slammed into her, throwing her back into the grass. Something whirred past his head and he ducked down into the weeds. So much for subtlety. As his opponent rose to her feet he slammed the pommels of both blades against the side of her head. She staggered for a moment, and he struck again, the metal balls making a sickening crunch against her unarmored flesh. She fell, dropping her blades, but he couldn’t stop now; he followed her down and struck again, smashing her head against the ground. Daine felt the faintest twinge of guilt, but he’d seen and done far worse in the past-if she was lucky, she’d live through the night.

He might not be so fortunate.

Sheathing his sword, Daine wrapped an arm around the woman’s chest and stood up. For all her speed, she had the build of a scrawny teenager, and in the heat of battle she seemed almost weightless. He backed toward the remains of the shattered plaza, bringing his dagger up to her neck.

The other three strangers had disappeared. Dropped down into the weeds, no doubt.

“I don’t want to hurt her,” Daine called out. “Show yourselves and we can talk this out. We didn’t mean to come here, and all I want to do is to leave with my companions.”

Nothing. The treeline was a wall of shadows, and there could easily be a hundred enemies hidden in that darkness.

“I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care,” Daine continued, watching the grass and waiting for movement. “We’re going north. Back to our ship. Leaving.”

“You lie.”

One man stood up, facing Daine across the clearing. He spoke with an odd, lyrical cadence, blending the syllables of the common tongue together as if they were part of the same word. Like Daine’s captive, the man was little more than a silhouette in the darkness, although he wore some sort of opalescent breastplate that shimmered in the light of the moons.

“Where are your friends?” Daine said, keeping his eyes on the grass. “Surprises make my hands twitch. I think this lady will be much safer if they show themselves.”

“You show your heart,” the shadowy figure said, “speaking of peace, but threatening death.”

“I do that when people try to kill me and my friends. If the others don’t show themselves now, you’ll see what that’s like.”

There was a pause. Daine had the sense that the man was staring at him-but it was too dark for him to see the stranger’s face. Putting on his best scowl, he traced a line across his captive’s neck with his black dagger.

“If that’s what you want …”

“Halt!” The man did sing, then, or spoke in a language Daine didn’t know-though something about it seemed hauntingly familiar. The other two figures appeared, both closer than Daine had expected; they must have been creeping up in the darkness. One held a pair of daggers; the other carried a long chain, similar to the weapon of a Darguul chainmaster, but lighter. “You will die with her.”

“Not a lot of alternatives, and I never planned on dying alone.” Daine took a few more steps back, trying to keep the woman between him and his enemies. “I’d be happier if no one died tonight.”

“You say again, but you travel with others.”

“So do you.” There was an object in the stranger’s right hand, held at his hip-a weapon, probably, but just out of sight.

“North, you travel. To the glass city.”

“If that’s what it’s called, sure, that’s the plan. The jungle’s a dangerous place at night. Perhaps you’ve heard about that.”

The two warriors flanking Daine had not moved; they might just as well have been shadows. The speaker slowly raised his hand, revealing a curved, dark object with three prongs. “Perhaps you speak truth. I cast away the weapon.”

“Good. Get your friends to drop theirs, and we might be able to have a real conversation.”

The slender man didn’t drop the weapon-he threw it, sending it whirling through the air, but while Daine was surprised, the throw was well to Daine’s left-a warning shot, at best.

“What was-”

Before Daine could complete the sentence, the world went white as something heavy smashed into the back of his head. There was a sharp pain in his neck, replaced almost instantly by a cold, spreading numbness. Daine tried to tighten his grip on the woman, but his hands seemed to have plans of their own; even as he tried to get his arms to move, the silver chain flashed in the moonlight, snatching the dagger out of his grasp. Then he was on the ground, the numbness spreading across his body. There was a wooden object lying in the dirt next to his face-a wheel formed from three curved spikes. Did it … curve back? He thought.

That was his last thought for some time.