Vengeance

CHAPTER 58

It rose up behind the child, a vast, looming shape with the heavy shadows surrounding it wavering, shifting and drifting so that, despite the light streaming from Rannilt’s fingers, it could never be seen clearly. Now it had the shape of a heavily muscled man with a frilled head, now it was more like a bear with clusters of whips instead of arms — or were they tentacles? Tali could not tell; it was transforming all the time, each morph more grim and ghastly than the one before.

It raised its head, tossed something into the air — a gobbet of horse haunch — caught it and swallowed with sucking noises and belches that glowed a sickly green and poisoned the air around it. And it seemed to smile, as if it delighted in death and ruin.

As the air thickened and congealed around it, Tali’s long bones ached and she tasted foulness in the back of her throat. She closed her eyes for a second but its shifting mental forms were more terrible yet. It was reaching out, trying to get its psychic hooks into her and tear her down to its level.

‘Why are you standin’ there!’ Rannilt screamed. ‘Run!’

But Tali saw instantly what the child could not, that Rannilt was a lure of no further use, a life to be savaged and trampled on the way to the real quarry. And not only because Rannilt was in the way. It was how the shifter had been created — as a weapon of terror, a destroyer.

Tobry choked and clutched at his blistered face with his free hand. His cheeks were the colour of an infected wound. He covered his eyes, as if he could not bear to look, and she thought he was going to break and run. But then, with a pitiful moan he shuffled forwards, Rix’s sword upraised. Tobry knew he had met his nemesis but it was not in him to turn away.

If she were to rescue Rannilt, Tali had to be mobile. She could not have summoned healing magery in her own defence but the peril of an innocent child brought it forth. Clapping a hand to her thigh, she twisted the healing charm to numb her pain.

The relief was so instant that she lost her balance and nearly fell. Tali snatched the titane sword from Tobry’s hand and ran, stiff-legged, for the golden glow. If the shifter was a creature of magery, the sword might help her to fight it. Her thigh felt peculiar and she was probably doing further damage but she put everything out of her mind save Rannilt.

The shifter took a swirling leap forward, the shadows writhing about it, arcing high and looming all around as if to cup the golden light in the petals of a savage flower. Another couple of leaps and it would be onto the child. Its right arm shifted to a cluster of metal-tipped flails, to barbed tentacles, to multiple arms terminating in hooked blades.

It was huge. One blow could shatter every fragile bone in Rannilt’s body, and Tali’s too if she went within range. But there was no other way.

She lurched forwards, swinging the surprisingly light sword while she sized the creature up for a killing blow. How, though? Since she did not understand what kind of creature it was inside, how could she tell where to strike? There was no time to reason it out; all she could do was hit hard and try to hurt it as much as she could.

It sprang again, shifter-shadows swirling about it like black flames, the heat of it blasting gusts of baked carrion at her. Tali gagged, choked down vomit and went at it, springing up to meet it as it leapt towards Rannilt to smash her out of the way.

As she closed in she saw a ragged mouth, eyes as black as the abandoned sinter pits of Cython and, above them, the deep indentation of a large hoof print, as if it had been kicked there. Such a blow would have killed any normal creature and might have dazed the shifter, perhaps weakening it. She took some comfort from that.

It struck at Rannilt from the left, a killing blow, but Tali was expecting it. She slashed safely above the child’s head and across, and felt a surge of strength flow through her from the weapon. It made a buzzing sound, an arm or flail or tentacle went flying, and momentarily the shifter drew back, shrinking a little as if gathering its remaining members to it.

‘Run to Tobry, Rannilt!’ Tali roared, and sprang high.

Rannilt scurried between her legs. Tali hacked across and back, this time only severing shadows. A tentacular arm shot out past her, lengthening as it went.

‘Look out!’

She flicked a glance over her shoulder. Tobry had ducked the blow but his horse fell to the ground, its skull crushed. The shifter’s arm retracted for another blow. It could shatter him as easily.

But not her. It wanted her alive and that was her only advantage. Tali lunged and plunged the sword deep into the centre of the creature, twisting it where the heart and lungs of any normal beast would be.

Bone crunched, she felt tissue part beneath the point and almost-black blood gushed forth, but the creature did not flinch. The sword was stuck; she could not pull it free. Tali was backpedalling when an impossibly long arm curled around from the left, three bundles of flails snapped from the right and they all wrapped around her. The sword was ejected from the shifter like a bolt from a crossbow, whizzing past her ear. Its enchantments had done no good here.

The flail-arms tightened around her, binding her arms to her side. She had done just what it wanted her to do.

‘Cel-lar,’ said the shifter. ‘Take to mur-der cel-lar.’

It picked Tali up like an empty bag, tossed her over its shoulder and started down the hill, moving across the uneven ground as though supported on a raft of air. Its touch was hideous; she was sinking into it as though its skin was decayed, though there was hardness beneath, sometimes scaly, sometimes a claggy slime. She kicked feebly and dug deep, but could not summon any magery in her own defence.

Tobry was stumbling after them with Rix’s sword but the shifter was moving faster than he could. Tali could not see Rannilt anywhere. Had she been caught by one of those flails as she had run for safety?

‘Let her go, you stinking beast!’ shrilled Rannilt from the dark, ahead. ‘Or else.’

The shifter kept moving as if to roll directly over her, but as it reached the point from which she had spoken a ball of golden light flared so brilliantly that, for a second or two, it would have eclipsed the midday sun. A pure and perfect light that bathed Tali in a healing balm.

Though to the shifter it must have felt like venom, for it reared, shielding the region of its eyes and screeching like a sheet of metal being torn. Tali kicked but could not break free.

‘ Put her down!’ shrieked Rannilt, dancing up and down.

The light grew until the fluttering shadows surrounding the shifter were blown away, revealing a lanky creature within, bone and sinew that was almost fleshless, though no less menacing.

The glow ascended as though Rannilt had raised the globe over her head, then shot towards the horseshoe indentation on the shifter’s forehead, whoomph-whoomph, and struck. And stuck there.

The creature howled and flung up skeletal arms as the light brightened. It touched Tali like a bath of tingling bubbles, then she went tumbling down, down, to smack hard into the ground. Her healing charm snapped and the pain came shrieking back.

The shifter was swaying on its bony feet, evidently trying to transform, for parts of its body kept extending out to where the shadows had been, then freezing and retracting again as if, without filling in the shadows first, it was unable to change.

As Tali crawled away, her thigh so painful that she could only drag the leg, the shifter was whacking at the globe on its forehead, trying to knock it off. It kept flinching away from the light.

Rannilt tottered up, wobbly on her feet. Her skin was almost translucent. Taking Tali under the arms, she tried to drag her.

‘Hurry, oh hurry! I’m losin’ it. As soon as it goes out, the beast’s gonna attack.’

The golden glow did seem to be dwindling, the shadows returning and extending. There came a shrill whistle, an answering whinny, then Tobry was heaving Tali over his shoulder and running back to a gigantic horse, black as the inside of a skull and with rolling red eyes that went deep purple when the light from his elbrot passed across them.

‘Leather!’ said Tobry, stroking her muzzle. ‘Leather, old friend. If that’s your hoof mark inch-deep in the beast’s skull, you’ve done us some service.’

He heaved Tali across the front of the saddle like a bag of carrots, clambered up and lifted Rannilt after him.

‘Take this, child!’ he said, handing her the elbrot and whirling Leather around. ‘Hold it up until we’re on the Caulderon road.’

Rannilt held it as high as she could reach, the light illuminating the slope of the hill and the Seethings beyond that. As Tali looked the other way, the golden glow went out and the surrounding shadows strengthened. The shifter whacked the globe off his forehead and began to transform.

‘Go, Leather!’ said Tobry, and the horse bolted down the slope.

When Tali looked back, the shifter was lost among the scrub.

‘Thank you, thank you,’ sobbed Rannilt, throwing her thin arms around Tali and hugging her, accidentally whacking her sore ear with the elbrot. ‘I was so afraid. Horrid, smelly thing. But you saved me. I knew you’d come.’

‘You saved us all, Rannilt. You’re the cleverest girl in the world — ’

Tali had a sudden foreboding that Rannilt’s gift should have been concealed from the enemy. Leather crashed down into a dip, sending a jolt of pain through her. She gasped and closed her eyes. Endure it. You’ve got to endure it.

Tears … pain without end … the pressure of small hands on her thigh, and a gentle golden light that warmed her over and drove the pain down deep until she could barely feel it. Until she slept.

‘Facinore!’ she cried, snapping awake.

‘It’s far away,’ whispered Tobry. ‘Go back to sleep.’

The elbrot light was out and Leather was trotting along a smooth, hard surface. They must be on the road. Rannilt was asleep, her arms locked around Tali’s middle.

‘The shifter’s called a facinore,’ said Tali.

‘Where did you get that from?’

‘It came to me in my sleep. The wrythen must have called it that. What is a facinore? Is it man? Beast? Phantom?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ said Tobry, shivering a little. ‘But the word has an unpleasant ring to it.’

‘It won’t give up. He won’t let it.’

‘Nothing in Hightspall on two legs or four can catch Leather when she’s racing. Besides, it’ll never get through Caulderon’s guarded gates. Go to sleep now.’

She woke as Leather stopped. Tobry cursed and stood up in the stirrups, looking all around.

‘Wassamatta?’ said Tali, drowsily.

‘Lights! Right across the Seethings from east to west, as far as the edge of Lake Fumerous.’

‘Do you think it’s the enemy, looking for me?’

‘More than likely. And by the look of those lights, they’re heading directly for the city.’

‘To cut us off?’

‘And form a cordon of war we’ll find it impossible to creep through.’

He thumped down in the saddle and flicked the reins. Leather began to trot, then canter, then moved to a rocking, rolling gallop.

Tali held Rannilt more tightly. ‘How far is it?’

‘We just passed the five-mile post.’

‘Can we beat them to the gates?’

‘The back roads are good in Suthly County, out to our left, and they’ll make fast time there. But if anyone can outrun them, Leather can.’

‘Carrying the three of us?’

‘I doubt that we three together weigh more than Rix. Go, Leather, old girl. Run like the very wind or we’ll suffer the same fate as poor Beetle.’

Their speed, at full gallop, was so terrifying that it almost detached Tali from the pain of each jarring stride. Almost. She dared not close her eyes. If Leather struck a deep pothole and broke a leg they would hit the ground hard enough to smash every bone.

Soon, far ahead she made out the glow of the city lanterns. Tali clung onto Rannilt, who was still sleeping, clenched her teeth, and prayed.

‘How far to the gates now?’ said Tali.

‘Two miles.’

‘How long?’

‘Less than four minutes.’

‘So fast,’ she marvelled.

‘Rix has never lost a race on Leather.’

‘I can see lights to the left. Ahead of us.’

‘Yes.’

‘They seem to be cutting across to this road.’

‘They are.’

‘Will they catch us?’

‘They’ll certainly come within bowshot.’

Skyrocket flares shot up from the left, one, two and then a third, hanging high in the air and burning with a brilliant yellow light that illuminated everything for half a mile around. Rannilt cried out in her sleep. Tali clutched her protectively, blinking against the brightness.

‘Where are they, Tobry? I can’t see them.’

‘Everywhere,’ Tobry said grimly. ‘They’re everywhere. Thousands of the devils.’

He had one hand over his eyes and was peering through his slitted fingers. Tali did the same, and started. The Cythonians had extinguished their lights and were running in a vast horde, the black cloaks swirling out around them making them difficult to pick out of the darkness.

Leather careered past the one-mile post. The Cythonians were curving around towards the road now, racing to cut them off. Ahead, Tali could see lanterns on the city gates, and guards moving restlessly there.

‘The gates don’t seem to be open.’

‘They never are, at night,’ said Tobry.

‘Will the guards open them for us?’

‘Depends how close the enemy is.’

‘You mean we could reach the gates and be trapped up against them?’

‘More than likely.’

Something shot past Leather’s nose — a streak of silver accompanied by a hackle-raising screech. The great horse tossed her head and whinnied, but kept on.

‘What the blazes was that?’ said Tobry.

‘I’ve heard talk of shriek-arrows,’ said Tali.

‘If they’re intended to frighten us, they’re succeeding.’

A shriek-arrow passed low overhead. Leather’s eyes were rolling now. Tobry patted her and spoke soothing words. Another arrow shot by, trailing a fine wire that caught fire in the air and burned with the brilliance of the flares, though it was gone in an instant.

Leather let out a screaming whinny, leapt five feet high and seemed to double the speed of her precipitous dash. This time, Tobry had to reach forwards and place his elbrot on her neck, and even that did not fully calm her.

‘What was that weapon?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Tali.

She did not see the next missile which, judging by its effect, had been hurled from a small catapult. It went off with a thudding explosion a little short of the road and spun in spirals, gushing white smoke that hung low to the ground and was carried towards them by the breeze.

‘Half a mile,’ said Tobry. ‘One last effort, Leather old friend, for all our lives. Tali, wake Rannilt and be ready to run … whatever happens.’

Tali shook Rannilt awake, which took an effort. Despite their headlong pace, despite the howls and blasts and shrieks, she clung to sleep as if it were a lost friend.

‘Wha-?’ Rannilt said.

‘We’re nearly to Caulderon but they’re after us again. Hold my hand.’

More arrows were falling around them, ordinary ones this time, though only one came close. It thumped into the saddle horn in front of Tali and stuck there, quivering.

‘I’m surprised they’re not better shots,’ she said. ‘They shoot at targets all the time, in Cython.’

‘Not easy to hit a racing target when you’re running flat out,’ said Tobry. ‘You can’t train for that underground.’

They were hurtling towards the gates, which remained closed. ‘Tobry?’ Tali was afraid they were going to break their necks.

‘It’s all or nothing now.’ He stood up in the stirrups, waving furiously. ‘Recognise me, you bastards. Or at least, recognise Leather.’

A hundred yards to go. The enemy was flooding in from either side. More burning-wire arrows threaded the sky, then from the corner of her eye Tali saw three Cythonians stop and raise their bows. They were only a hundred and fifty yards away and Leather made a huge target.

Forty yards. Thirty.

‘Jump!’ said Tobry.

As they fired Leather soared high, as though jumping a gate, and the arrows passed beneath her belly.

They were down to twenty yards when a small gate opened to the right side of the main gates. It was low and narrow, though. Would they fit?

‘Heads down!’

Tali and Rannilt ducked, Leather lowered her long neck and they shot through the gate, tearing off the saddlebags and twisting the saddle so badly that Tali thought they were going to be flung to the ground. The gate banged shut behind them and dozens of arrows thudded into it.

Leather skidded to a halt on a broad avenue surfaced in yellow brick-work, blowing hard and covered in streaks of foam. Something went boom outside the gates, shaking them to their foundations, then all the pain Tali had been holding back for the past hours went off at once and she surrendered to it.