The Long War 02 - The Dark Blood (38 page)

Anya shook her head, but smiled contentedly at Wulfrick’s renewed warmth. ‘No, no, no. Your path goes beneath, young man.’ She stretched out her hands and rubbed them together in front of the fire. ‘In the ice caverns you will lose some, but at the Bear’s Mouth you will lose all.’

‘People don’t come back from the ice caverns, mother,’ replied Wulfrick.

Halla had never heard of any way beneath the Bear’s Mouth. She was leaning in now and listening intently to the wise woman.

‘You are almost as silly as the girl, young man,’ snapped Anya. She turned back to Halla and smirked mischievously. ‘Your path goes beneath. Listen to an old woman who knows more than you can possibly imagine, axe-maiden of Rowanoco.’

Halla maintained eye-contact with the old woman for a moment before looking across the camp and shouting for Rexel Falling Cloud to join them. The axe-master of Hammerfall looked up sharply and made his way over to them. He did not take his eyes off the old woman as he approached. Whatever Heinrich had been saying had put him on guard.

‘A cold night,’ he said conversationally, sitting down by their fire and warming his hands. ‘I’ll take ten men on ahead at first light and see what we can find.’

Anya chuckled to herself and nuzzled further into Wulfrick’s chest to protect herself against the cold.

‘I won’t fall for the wise old woman act, Lullaby... and don’t you even
think
about slapping me,’ barked Falling Cloud.

Anya smirked. ‘Do not let fear of things you don’t understand drive you to foolishness.’

‘Keep it to yourself,’ said Rexel. Then he turned to Halla and formed his words more respectfully. ‘You wanted something, my lady?’

She nodded and waved away the objection Wulfrick was about to make to Falling Cloud’s comment. The woman’s wisdom aside, it was his way to be suspicious and it was a quality she valued.

‘The ice caverns, what do you know about them?’ she asked abruptly.

Rexel screwed his face up in thought. ‘You mean the spider caverns?’

‘Do I?’ she asked Anya, who nodded gleefully.

‘Shit,’ was the simple comment from Rexel. ‘Only a madman or a fool would consider that a safer route than the Bear’s Mouth.’

‘I am neither, young Falling Cloud.’ Anya wasn’t looking at him and her frail hands were still extended towards the fire. ‘You do not have enough warriors to pass the Bear’s Mouth. You will all die.’ She spoke as if it were the simplest matter in the world.

‘Let’s not be hasty,’ interjected Wulfrick. ‘We’re hard people to kill.’ He spoke with a pride that Falling Cloud clearly shared.

Anya chuckled again. ‘You will kill many, and you will die bravely.’

Neither of the men said anything. Instead, both looked at Halla. She was considering her options. Passion alone would not be sufficient to preserve her company against Grammah Black Eyes and an unknown number of warriors. She had women and children, too, to worry about now. If the warriors were killed, they would surely die soon after. But she trusted Falling Cloud’s judgement, and she hoped he would have some wise counsel concerning these ice caverns.

‘The ice caverns?’ she prompted. ‘Do you know anything useful about them?’

Rexel nodded and gave a slight frown. ‘They’re easy to find, if that’s what you mean.’ He paused and adopted a more serious expression. ‘Okay, the ice caverns. They run from Jarvik to... I don’t know, the sea, probably. They’re full of Gorlan, and I mean the big ones that
are
actually dangerous. Trolls don’t go down there, that should tell you something.’

They had encountered many nests of ice spiders on their journey north, but Halla had yet to see one of the great beasts that so terrified the common folk of Fjorlan. They were said to emerge with lightning speed from trapdoors and snare men.

‘Are they passable?’ she asked.

‘They are, but I’d prefer a stand-up fight at the Bear’s Mouth,’ he replied, with a slight twitch of his lip, indicating his eagerness for the fight.

‘You have no choice,’ cackled Anya, clapping her hands together and bouncing up and down excitedly.

‘Shut it, Lullaby,’ snapped Falling Cloud.

‘Rexel, remember your manners,’ Wulfrick growled at him.

‘You don’t know this old hag. She was half-mad when I was a boy...’ He stood up defiantly. ‘Halla, I will follow you into the ice halls if you bid me to, but tell me you’re going on more than this crazed old woman’s word.’

Heinrich Blood appeared over Falling Cloud’s shoulder, making the axe-master of Hammerfall jump. ‘You should listen to her,’ said the young novice. ‘She might appear mad, but she speaks for the Earth Shaker.’

Anya smiled once more and they all relaxed – even Rexel, whose defiance quickly evaporated. Whatever the old woman might be, Halla was sure she was not their enemy. ‘Heinrich,’ she asked the young novice, ‘do you trust her words?’

He looked at the fire, deep in thought. ‘I am not worthy to call myself a priest of the Order of the Hammer – not yet, maybe never – but I can feel the footsteps of the Ice Giants and I have devoted my life to Rowanoco.’ He paused and looked at Anya Lullaby with something approaching reverence. ‘The blood is almost spent, mother. Samson the Liar is dead, the last old-blood of the Ice Giants has fallen, and the shades come.’

Heinrich had repeated Anya’s words, though there were no bones to read – just a glance between the two faithful of Rowanoco.

‘Yes,’ said Heinrich with conviction. ‘I trust her words, and so should you.’

‘The ice caverns it is,’ said Falling Cloud reluctantly. ‘We’d have only ended up massacring a load more Ranen at the Bear’s Mouth anyway.’

‘Our road hasn’t changed,’ said Halla. ‘We are still bound for Jarvik and a cloud-stone, we’re just changing how we get there.’

‘And not all dying,’ giggled Anya, cuddling up to Wulfrick so that the huge axe-master looked rather uncomfortable.

* * *

Word had spread quickly among the company that their road was to go under the Bear’s Mouth rather than through it. Halla heard a variety of responses, from both the battle-brothers and the common folk who travelled with them. Mostly they were pleased they wouldn’t be clashing axes with Grammah Black Eyes, but Wulfrick said this was because they didn’t truly know what awaited in the ice caverns – not that Halla did either, as she led her company into the dark, forbidding cave that opened before them.

Her captains were at the front of the column, and all except Wulfrick had their weapons drawn. Lullaby stood behind them and they walked forward in a tight group.

They had followed Rexel’s directions away from the gully and marched for most of the day until they had found a narrow canyon that dug into the ice plateaus of Ursa. Most of the column, the non-combatants from Hammerfall, waited above on the flat ground while the hardened warriors investigated the cave entrance below. Once the way was clear, Halla would begin to move the column through the ice caverns, hoping that any attack might come at a place where they could defend themselves.

Oleff Hard Head and several others had flaming torches and were taking their first steps into the caverns. Halla and Wulfrick were a step behind and saw a vista of ice open up before them. The cavern appeared as a forest of stalactites hanging down and producing a regular drip of tepid water on to the floor. Irregular paths ran away from them, stretching into the dark caves beyond their globe of light. If there were Gorlan living in these caverns, they were deeper underground. Halla’s skin crawled as she imagined a silent attack from the ice spiders.

‘Move forward,’ she said quietly, holding her battleaxe loosely in her hand.

Oleff took a deep breath and led the first few men into the cave. The firelight spread out and the rest of the column followed slowly. Halla made sure she was close behind Oleff. Wulfrick, who had still not drawn his axe, remained just behind.

Within a few minutes, the first hundred or so battle-brothers had entered the ice caverns and Halla could see their fearful eyes behind her. She had witnessed much bravery and strength among her men since they had escaped the Kraken Sea, but she had not seen fear like this on their faces.

‘Stay together. We need to find somewhere where we can camp five hundred people and not get eaten.’ Halla tried to sound light-hearted, but she knew that no one felt anything but fear as they advanced further into the ice caverns.

It was a slow process. As soon as the hundreds of non-combatants had entered the cave, their pace slowed to a virtual crawl. The way northwards was relatively easy to navigate at first and Halla found herself walking warily along an undulating road of slippery ice. Either side of them, stalactites descended at irregular heights from the cave roof. As the caverns stretched away from the Fjorlanders, the column lengthened to pass the narrowest points.

The caves quickly began to all look the same. Within a few hours, it was only Lullaby’s unerring sense of direction that kept them heading north, and Oleff’s torches that allowed them to see. Halla had placed torch-bearers at regular intervals along the column and looking back through the cave was like watching a slowly moving snake of light crawling through the icy darkness.

Halla had seen no signs of Gorlan. They would pass underneath the Bear’s Mouth within a day and then, Falling Cloud assured them, there was an external waterfall that marked the northern boundary of the ice caverns. If they could set a faster pace and sleep for as few hours as possible, Halla hoped they would see the sky in two or three days.

Then, as complaints about tiredness started to ripple through the column, they dropped into a large cavern. Halla called a halt, observing the size of the cave they had entered and the web coating every surface. It was the largest space they had come across since entering the caverns and their first few torches hardly cast any light into the icy expanse.

‘What the...’ said Oleff, as he held up his flaming torch to expose hundreds of web-filled tunnels leading away from them. The mouth of each tunnel was covered with a strange, corrosive-looking fluid and, though she could see no spiders, Halla knew they must be close.

‘Did we take a wrong turn?’ she asked Anya, who stood in Wulfrick’s shadow.

‘No, this is the way, young lady, onwards and upwards.’ The old woman’s words were trembling and croaky.

‘We need to keep quiet,’ said Falling Cloud, crouching. ‘Keep your footsteps as light as possible.’

‘Rexel, I’m hardly a waif, you know,’ Wulfrick responded. ‘I can only stay so quiet.’

They looked at their metal armour and heavy weaponry. Behind them, a hundred battle-brothers whispered anxious words as they followed Halla and her captains into the cavern.

‘They sense vibration, and they never make any noise,’ whispered Falling Cloud.

‘The Ice Father said that many would die,’ said Anya intensely. ‘But all would die at the Bear’s Mouth. Remember that, young lady.’

A grunt of alarm sounded from behind them.

Near the entrance to the cavern, where the column was still entering the vast space, Halla saw the head of one of her men disappear quickly down a thickly webbed side tunnel. Two grotesque, blade-like legs wrapped round the Ranen’s head and smothered his cry as a stain of blood sprayed up into the torchlight. The creature’s legs were stark white and had a bloated and bulbous quality that made Halla’s skin crawl and her mouth turn dry. Other tunnels above and beneath them erupted into movement as more ice spiders reached out and grabbed any man close enough.

Halla hefted her axe and, no longer trying to remain quiet, shouted, ‘Move everyone forward, now!’

Wulfrick reared up next to her and, looking ahead, took a sharp intake of breath. ‘We need to get the fuck out of here,’ he said, with a catch in his voice. ‘Look!’ The last word was deathly quiet, and Oleff, Rexel, Anya and Halla all peered forward in the direction they had been travelling.

Emerging from a thickly webbed tunnel, which dropped down almost vertically, was a giant, white spider. The Gorlan spread its jagged and bulbous legs on to the cavern floor and shifted its grotesque abdomen upwards. It was coloured a sickly white and looked almost opaque against the ice. The word
spider
seemed inadequate, as a sticky, viscous fluid dripped from two huge fangs and melted the ice beneath the beast.

They froze for a moment in unutterable fear. Not since the Krakens had Halla felt so small when faced with an enemy, and all the battle-brothers clenched their fists around their axes.

The Gorlan was terrifying, but Halla steeled herself and shouted, ‘Clear the way,’ as she ran at the ice spider, followed by a roaring Wulfrick and other captains.

The beast was clearly blind and the pink orbs of its eyes floated on the sticky surface of its head. Halla had to move slower than she wished to remain standing on the ice, and she almost slid into the massive beast, using her axe as a battering ram.

With a grunt of exertion, the axe-maiden struck the spider between two of its eight eyes, causing the Gorlan to flinch and lash forward with its sticky, gelatinous feelers. One of these was instantly severed by Wulfrick’s two-handed axe and Falling Cloud grabbed the other.

‘Skewer the fucking thing,’ roared Rexel, as Oleff jumped forward and rammed his battleaxe into the creature’s abdomen.

Halla pulled back her own weapon and drove it into the spider’s head a second time. More of the beast’s viscous blood coated her axe and spread on to the ice. The Gorlan made a vile gurgling sound and reared up, baring its fangs.

‘Halla,’ shouted a voice from behind, ‘move to your left.’

She removed her axe and swayed out of the way as Heinrich Blood fired an arrow over her shoulder, which struck the spider between its huge fangs. The creature slumped, gave another hissing gurgle, and flailed its legs. Oleff, Wulfrick and Halla stepped forward as one and drove their weapons deep into the spider’s body.

Falling Cloud darted past the dead Gorlan and threw a flaming torch towards their exit. ‘The way won’t stay clear for long. Get those people moving,’ he shouted, crouching down and scanning the cavern ahead.

Halla was breathing heavily and a little stunned. But now she knew that at least the ice spiders of Fjorlan could be killed, and she turned quickly to see how her column was faring.