EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (417 page)

He wasn’t sure why he added that last part. The master never spoke of rewarding his servants. Neither did he seem to favor the name ‘First Father’, preferring other titles. But that wasn’t important. What mattered was that he had returned to punish the faithless and recompense his followers for their long years of adherence. If he chose these foul creatures to prepare his way, if he seemed more intent on building martial power than guiding the people… well, these things were not for Varian to question.

Instead he walked from one grave marker to the next, pausing to lay his hands over each mound of earth. Softly he uttered the ancient incantation the master had taught him, while his amulet glowed with an unnatural light. Then the ground would tremble, and the grave would heave, as another newly awakened corpse clawed its way to the surface to join its undead brothers and sisters.

It was draining work, but Varian ignored the aching of his body and tried not to notice how his starved flesh melted away until he was almost as thin as the corpses around him. The master demanded a high price of his followers. But Varian would not regret his service—not when every step brought the master closer to victory and the day when he would finally reveal his true face to the world. Then at last the time of testing would be over. Everyone would bow to the First Father again, and all would be right in Earth Realm.

Chapter XIX

E
YDIS

E
YDIS
FLOATED
WEIGHTLESSLY
AS
she drifted, not into darkness but into a world of light. Like an eagle, she soared high above snow-capped mountains and gorges, while white flurries swirled around her. She didn’t feel the cold wind of the blizzard, only a prompting curiosity to discover what lay on the other side of the next mountain. She crested the summit, and there, spiraling into the sky, was a great tower of granite hidden in a snow-blanketed valley.

Circling the buttressed tower for a closer view, she saw movement near its base. A large winged creature with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion prowled below, as if waiting for something. Or someone. Cautious of the creature, Eydis banked toward the tower, landing on an outward-jutting balcony near the pinnacle. Once safely behind the railing, she no longer seemed like an insubstantial spirit. Now she had form and feeling and a sudden awareness of the biting wind and the sting of the ice crystals it flung against her skin.

Out here, her light cloak offered little protection. But there was an open entranceway letting off the balcony into a shadowy interior. Almost without realizing it, she found herself drawn toward that gloomy shelter for protection from the icy blast. It was a vast hall she entered, with ceilings and archways soaring high overhead. The walls were sleek and unadorned, lined with thick columns that cast long shadows across the floor tiles.

At the echo of approaching footsteps and unfamiliar voices, she ducked instinctively behind one of the pillars. The sounds grew nearer until the speakers were close enough for her to see them from her secret vantage point. Both men were strangers to her. The taller had an air of command, reflected in the fineness of his velvet over-robe. His silvery hair was long and drawn back in many braids. Rings glittered on his fingers, and a gold chain rested over his chest. His face was less smooth than his finery. One cheek was marred by a row of scars that might have been left by a bear’s claw. His cheekbones were high and sharp, his eyes as hard and cold as the granite walls around him.

His companion was more mysterious. His frame was short and wiry, but Eydis could determine no more than that because of the hooded gray cloak he wore. Only his chin was visible and the glitter of golden eyes within the shadows of his hood. Maybe it was the dangerous way he walked. Maybe it was the glimpse she caught of two dagger hilts, one protruding from his boot top, the other from his sleeve. But something told Eydis this smaller man was more dangerous than the first.

The silver haired one was speaking in a cultured accent. “If I wanted a simple murder, I would have hired a cheap thug to do the job. But the mistress of masks is no ordinary mark. She has powerful protectors and magical abilities she herself probably does not comprehend. Such an extraordinary problem requires … extraordinary measures.”

“I don’t ask questions,” answered the hooded man in a gravelly voice. “All I care about is that I get paid.”

“I admire your single-mindedness, my cutthroat friend. For your price I only hope you are as skilled as they say.”

“I’ve had no complaints.”

Silver hair quirked a brow. “Yes, I suspect anyone who interfered with your good word-of-mouth might find himself summarily silenced.”

Despite his outward ease, Eydis sensed silver hair was wary of his companion. As if to cover the emotion, he shrugged and reached into the folds of his over-robe, saying, “Here’s the first half of your payment. The rest when your assignment is complete.”

He tossed a jingling coin pouch to the hooded man, who caught it with quick, cat-like reflexes.

Whatever the hooded man said in response, Eydis couldn’t hear. That was because the men and the hall had begun to recede. Or maybe it was Eydis herself being pulled away…

Flailing, Eydis gasped for breath. But instead of air, cold water filled her nose, mouth, and throat. She was drowning. Lungs burning, she paddled toward the surface, but the dark waters were disorienting. She no longer knew up from down, and her strength was fading fast. When something clamped onto her collar and began dragging her along, she was too weak to fight the unknown force. Instead she gave in and allowed herself to be pulled.

Then, miraculously her head broke the surface. Coughing and sucking in air, she was so dizzy it was hard to make sense of her surroundings. Behind her was a high, roaring waterfall, and before her a steep and muddy embankment. As she stopped choking up dirty water and her head cleared, she realized it was Geveral who had a tight grip on her collar and was towing her toward the safety of the bank. She kicked and paddled in a feeble effort to assist him, until together they reached the shallows.

Helping one another up the side of the river bank, they collapsed at the top and took a moment to catch their breaths.

“Are you all right?” Geveral asked when he could speak.

“I think so. I got confused under the water and couldn’t find my way up. For an instant I thought I was back at the sacred grove, being rescued by one of the pool guardians.”

“By one of the what?”

“Never mind. It’s a long story.” She shoved a curtain of wet hair out of her face and looked up and down the bank. “Where’s Orrick?”

Geveral looked around too. “I don’t know. I surfaced just in time to see you sinking to the bottom. There was no sign of Orrick.”

Her concern grew and she hauled herself to her feet, saying, “We’ve got to look for him.”

The last she had seen of the big Kroadian had been his back as he leapt down the falls and she and Geveral followed after. Everything after that was a blur in her mind. She couldn’t recall hitting the water or anything that happened afterward, prior to waking from her vision and being rescued by Geveral. Maybe Orrick hadn’t made it out at all.

Banishing the thought, she stumbled up and down the shoreline with Geveral, calling out for the barbarian. There was no response, except the roar of the waterfall all but drowning out their voices. Their friend had simply vanished. The only useful thing they found was the remains of Eydis’s halberd washed up on shore. One end of the pole was shattered, but the half with the blade remained intact.

“You take it,” Eydis said, tossing the broken weapon to Geveral. “I’ll never look at the thing again without thinking of those awful cave crawlers.”

He seemed like he wanted to protest but didn’t.

They continued their search, until both grew hoarse with yelling and found themselves exhausted and shivering from the cold. Although last night’s storm had passed, the skies were still cloudy and the wind was high.

“We’re helping no one like this,” Geveral finally pointed out. “Even if we found Orrick, we’d be of little use to him weak and half-frozen. We should build a fire, rest until we’re dry, then continue the search.”

Reluctantly, Eydis agreed.

They kept close to the river, sheltering from the wind in a nearby stand of fir trees. They had lost their flint-stone, but luckily Geveral was adept at the old woodsman’s method of rubbing sticks together. The damp firewood resisted at first, but he eventually coaxed a fitful flame to life. Huddling close to the fire, they spoke little at first, as there seemed nothing hopeful to be said.

But Geveral eventually voiced the question that had to be asked. “Is it likely our barbarian friend survived the falls and abandoned us by choice?”

Eydis remembered how reluctant Orrick had initially been to join her quest. But she recalled also how determined he had been to locate his old acquaintance, Arik the One-Eyed, a man whose location was known only to her. And she would not divulge that location until after the mission was over.

She said, “No. I cannot imagine Orrick would leave us by his will. As long as there’s breath in him, nothing would stop him from completing our quest.”

She said nothing of the vision she’d had after the Isle of Bones, the vision in which she’d seen Orrick betray her at the battle for Asincourt. It was the vision more than anything else that convinced her the betrayer of blood was still alive out there somewhere and that they were destined to meet again. The knowledge was unexpectedly comforting. She told herself it was because if their party lost one of its catalysts, they could not obtain victory.

Changing the subject, she said, “I’m going scavenging for some dry firewood. We’ll never get a decent blaze out of these wet sticks.”

Leaving Geveral behind, she wandered into the deeper shadows of the grove. Her search for dry wood took her farther than expected, but each time she looked up she could still see and smell the smoke of their fire burning in the distance. The ground remained soggy, the wet leaves muffling her footsteps. Maybe that was why she didn’t immediately realize she was not alone. It came to her gradually, the sense that she was being watched by hostile eyes.

Was it her imagination, or did she hear a low growling sound from the underbrush? Did a dark shape crouch beneath the screen of brush and another identical shape slink behind a fallen log? Her thoughts jumping to the hunger hounds they had left behind mere days ago, she backed away. She should never have come out here unarmed, should never have left Geveral alone.

She turned to run back to camp, but before she had gone a dozen steps, she was struck from behind. She gave a sharp yelp of pain as the force of the blow knocked her to her knees. The ground reeled before her, and she struggled not to fall on her face. Before she could regain her bearings, she was grabbed by her hair and dragged to her feet by an unseen person, quickly finding a massive arm wrapped tight around her head.

“Go ahead and scream,” an inhuman voice grated in her ear. “I could snap your skinny neck now, but the master wouldn’t be pleased. He wants your friends with you. So do Naroz a favor and call out to them.”

Eydis shuddered at the waft of hot air on her cheek. The creature’s breath held the stink of decay, and its voice was like metal against metal. A mental image surfaced of the monster she had seen with the hunger hounds—the giant with spikes protruding from its eye sockets.

Suppressing her horror, she said, “I don’t know any Naroz.”

“Naroz is me,” it growled impatiently. “I serve the master who demands your death. But help me destroy your friends, and I promise your own end will be quick.”

“I can’t. I have no friends left to call,” she lied. “The others were killed when we jumped over the waterfall. Only I survived.”

Before she could ascertain whether her captor believed her, there came the noisy sounds of someone crashing through the trees. Geveral! He must have heard her involuntary cry.

When her friend burst on the scene, the monster growled, “Don’t take another step, dryad scum. Drop the weapon or I’ll twist her head off.”

Freezing, his eyes rushing to Eydis in alarm, Geveral lowered the broken halberd he carried.

“Don’t, Geveral,” she said. “He’ll kill us both anyway.”

But the halberd had already hit the ground.

“Good, good,” the monster approved, hauling Eydis toward Geveral.

“Bind the dryad with this,” it ordered, shoving a dirty coil of rope at her with its free fist.

She had every intention of refusing, but Geveral caught her eye and gave a slight headshake. “It’s all right, Eydis. Do as he says.”

Play for time,
his eyes urged.
We may yet find a way out of this.

So she followed directions, binding her friend’s wrists as loosely as she dared under their captor’s scrutiny. She was unsure how good his sight could be with those great spikes driven through his eyes. But he seemed aware of her every movement. So too did the pair of great black hounds that slunk snarling out of hiding, watching her with hungry eyes that burned like coals.