The Bowl of Souls: Book 01.5 - Hilt's Pride (16 page)

Yntri had accepted the mission with excitement, but he had not known how frustrating these pilgrimages were going to be. Successful trips were few and far between. Sometimes the trees had been discovered and cut down, but more often the tree he found had grown wild and strange. The few times he had found thriving trees, he had left them with trepidation knowing that they were vulnerable without a caretaker and also knowing that his people were too few in number to look after the trees themselves.

It had been fifty years since he had last found a viable tree and most of the grove had grown stale and stagnant. A few of the oldest trees, including his father’s and mother’s trees had become stiff and
unmaleable
, refusing to talk to the elves at all. Yntri feared that the days of the Jharro tree were coming to an end.

This year he had ended his pilgrimage despondent. The tree he found had become foul and rotten, inhabited by an evil thing. But he had met two humans with strong spirits, heirs of the bow. One he had left to ripen on his own, but Beth was nearly ready. The time for his mission to end was fast approaching.

Beth took a deep breath and realized that Yntri had released her hand. Her mind slowly returned to the present. Hilt was standing beside her, speaking to the elf in hushed tones. He had his swords drawn and ready.

They had arrived. She stood at the top of the ridgeline and saw the cliff that protected the peak rising before her. She looked back at the long ridgeline behind them. How had she missed the climb?

“What do you want to do, Beth?” Hilt asked. “The cliff is too sheer, but maybe there is a way farther down or around the other side.”

“Yntri . . . his story . . .” The elf watched the path before them, ancient and small, but with such a heavy responsibility resting on his shoulders.

“I know,” Hilt said, his kind eyes taking in her confused gaze with concern. “And I hope that he finds his answer here just as surely as I know you will. Now, focus with me. This is your quest. Are you ready to proceed?”

Beth turned her attention to the path ahead. This place was strange. Hilt was right about the cliff wall. It was unnaturally smooth and unmarred. There would be no hand holds.
At least none that she would be able to use.
At the bottom of the cliff was a wide flat area clustered with trees. But they weren’t pines like she would expect, but lush leafy trees, as green as if it were summer.

“I think you’re right. We need to continue along the side of the cliff and find a way up,” she said and realized how obvious the statement was. It was the only option they had. Hilt had only asked her the question to help her clear her mind. She looked along the cliff base and saw round shadows periodically through the trees. “What are those round shadows, just at the cliffs base?”

“Caves, we think,” Hilt said and now that her focus had returned, he was once again brimming with excitement. “Maybe that’s where the guardians live. Or maybe there is a way to climb to the top from within the mountain. We won’t know until we scout it out.”

Beth nodded and pulled her bow from her back. The viper awakened at her touch. She drew an arrow. “Let’s go.”

They walked down to the base of the cliff and Beth realized something else strange. Her clothes were still damp from their climb up the waterfall, but she didn’t feel a chill. She hadn’t since Yntri had started his story. The air here should have been frigid, but it was warm as a spring day.

When they reached the tree line, they found a pathway stretching along the cliffs base. It was clean and free of leaves as if it had been well maintained. They stood in front of it and looked hesitantly at one another until Hilt stepped boldly onto the pathway.

Beth felt a strange stirring inside her. There was a slight ringing in her ears and her vision tightened around the edges. Shadows moved within the trees. Whispers rang out in her ears. No. The whispers were in her mind. She couldn’t make them out at first, but then they became louder, more insistent, a chorus of voices, each one unique.
Each one plaintive.

“
Named one
.”
“
Leave.
”
“
So hungry.
”
“
Ancient one
.”
“
Come
.” “
Eat you
.”

Beth looked at Hilt and Yntri. They were looking at her with the same question. Hilt pointed to his head and nodded. She felt a slight sense of relief that they heard the voices too.

 “
LEAVE THIS PLACE
.” “
Dance with
meeee
.”
“
Your answer . . .
” “
Play with us.
”
“
EAT
YOU!
”
“
Witch.
”

 
“Witch?”
Beth said, gritting her teeth. She tightened her grip on her bow. “What do we do?”

“
Run.
” “
Come.
”
“
So tasty
.”
“
LEAVE
.”

“We have no choice,” Hilt said and Yntri nodded. “We fight. It’s the only way to reach the top.”

“
Devour
!”
“
BONES
.”
“
Come, witch
.”

“But the voices . . .” Beth said, resisting the urge to place her hands over her ears.

“It’s part of their attack,” Hilt said. His body was at the same time loose and ready, yet tensed like a coiled spring. “They’re trying to scare us, distract us,
drive
us mad. You need to ignore them.”

“
Named one
.”
“
Eat.
” “
Eat!
”
“
Witch.
”
“
EAT
YOU
ALL
!”

Beth looked to Yntri. The white paste on his skin glowed eerily and he nodded at her. She looked back to Hilt. “I’m ready.”

“Good. Stay between us and shoot when you have an opening,” he said, and they started down the path.

“
YES!
”
“
Yesss
.”
“
EAT
YOU!!
”

Shadows moved all around them. Yntri released an arrow into the trees. Hilt swung his blades, sending blades of air ahead of them. Crashes resounded, roars erupted, and the voices exulted.

“
The pain
!”
“
Ancient one
!”
“
Yes
!”

Beth pulled an arrow back and whipped around with her bow, searching for a target. The viper hissed in anticipation, ready to spring, but she could not see anything more than vague shapes among the trees. She shifted to mage sight.

She saw them now. The guardians were mutated irregular beasts. Their anatomy seemed to make no sense. Some had the head of a dog, others birds. Some had multiple heads, extra arms. Some were hairy or scaled or feathered. The only thing they had in common were mouths, gaping toothy mouths in their chests.

“
Come.
” “
Come
.” “
Hungry . .
.” “
Witch
.”

“Stop calling me witch!” She released her arrow at a guardian with the head of a three-eyed cat. The viper struck the middle eye with pleasure. It fell to the ground, shuddering.

Yntri cried out and she saw a large beast with yellow scales hurtle off of the mountain edge, speared by his arrow. Another beast rose in front of her, but great golden blades of air cut it in two and continued into the trees, shearing off branches as they went.

“
Blood!
”
“
EAT
YOU!
”

Beth gathered her courage and fired again and again.
Each arrow striking with the viper’s bite, knocking the beasts to the ground convulsing and foaming from their chest mouths.
She was going to have to ask Yntri how it worked.

She stepped forward with confidence, felling guardians until she realized with a panic that she was out of arrows. She could hear Yntri and Hilt fighting to either side, but could not see them.

“Hilt!” she cried and a gigantic beast came out of the trees ahead. Its head was that of a spider with multiple round eyes, but it had the body of a serpent. It reared up in front of her and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to run from its grasp.

But the guardian didn’t attack. It slithered around her and headed towards the commotion Hilt was causing. Beth watched it go in confusion,
then
noticed other guardians flowing through the forest to either side of her. None of them came her way.

Why didn’t they attack? Was it her power? How could it work against holy beasts like these when it didn’t faze the trolls? Then it came to her. She was meant to be here. The prophet told her to come. The guardians weren’t there for her.

She turned and saw something through the trees ahead.
A stairway.
She put her bow over her shoulder and walked closer.

The stairs curved up the cliff face, each looking as if chiseled by hand. This was it. This was where the prophet intended her to go. She could feel something above calling out to her. Beth approached the bottom step.

“
She comes
.” “
Hungry!
” “
Wait
.” “
She comes
.”
“
Witch
.”

Hungry eyes and dark shapes watched her from the cave at the foot of the stair, but they did not approach. She climbed the stairs slowly, the yearning within her echoed by a yearning from the top of the mount. As she continued higher and higher, the voices of the guardians faded from her mind and instead she heard another, softer voice.

It started small, little more then a whisper. She had to strain to hear it. Then it grew steadily, increasing with each step. She couldn’t understand the words, yet her mouth moved along with them. It was a joyous, welcoming sound. Beth felt something building up, swelling inside her. Words began to bubble forth from her lips; strange, prayer-like tones.   

Beth felt a sudden weakness come over her. Darkness clouded her vision and it became a struggle to make each step. Her feet began to slide towards the stairs’ edge. Something was pulling at her. Beth strained to keep her feet. She looked up. She could see the top. The end was so near!

She fell to her knees and crawled, a dark weight bearing her down. Her feet continued to be pulled to the edge. The thing within her swelled even more, growing until she thought she would burst. She was shouting now, strange words in an unfamiliar language. She was only a few steps away. One foot was dragged over the edge. She lunged towards the top step, touching it with her fingertips . . .

The pressure bearing down on her eased and the pulling stopped. Beth stumbled up over the last step and collapsed on a flat stone bench. She looked up and despite the daylight, she saw the stars. They were so very close. The swelling within her moved up past her lungs and through her throat, pouring into her head. She feared her skull would burst, but it didn’t. Her mind opened up, drinking it all in.

The world unfolded before her eyes. Millions of tiny pinpricks of light dotted the lands before her, each one an individual’s life. Somehow she knew that all she had to do was reach out and touch one of those lights to see the person’s life laid out before her. But Beth had no need to search those people. She reached inside herself instead.

There was a blaze of light and she saw her life roll by before her.
The joys, the sadness, the pleasure, the pain, reliving it all in an instant.
She felt a sense of dread as her husband’s death approached. Tears streaming down her face, she skipped forward to the present and saw herself
laying
on a stone altar surrounded by whispery runes.

She reminded herself why she was there. The prophet had promised her answers. But what was the question? Had she ever decided?

“What now?” she whispered. She had been heading to her death when the prophet redirected her. Perhaps that was her question. “Live or die?”

With a flash, her future paths spread out before her. It was like the vision she had seen in the fire, but much more clear and detailed. When she chose death each path was short and many of them quite painful. There were so many ways to die, but what then? What happened after death? The vision would not say.