"Now you keep quiet, Bald," Gorb instructed. Bald obliged by falling asleep curled up in the gra.s.s.
"This is a sight," said Tauk, his voice cheerful, though his entourage looked tired and bore wounds. "A half-giant, a warrioress, an Engineer, and a very ill horse-sized wolf."
"This is Far Gaze, Mayor. Magician of the Mayors" Command," said Siel.
"Ah, I know the name. I have met him. No one told me he was a shape-shifter," said Tauk. "I"m glad you"ve lived through the night. For us, it was a near thing. We were singing songs one moment, surrounded by horrors the next. Hail, Siel."
She blinked in surprise she"d just once met the Mayor, in a crowded briefing from the Mayors" Command on the night she"d asked to join them. She"d not known he"d noticed her then, let alone memorised her name and face. She bowed low.
Far Gaze had finished shifting and now stood, his body naked and starved. He swayed on his feet, bowed low before the Mayor though Siel saw the sneer on his face then noisily threw up.
Said the Mayor, "Far Gaze, it"s good of you to have found me. You must know of the demon beasts that have come in the night. Is this what it appears: a planned invasion from beyond World"s End? Or are they sent by more familiar enemies?"
Far Gaze pondered the question at length, then laughed long and loud. The men to either side of the Mayor looked askance at each other. Tauk himself bristled. "I have lost fine men tonight, personal friends among them. I find no humour. Where is the Pilgrim?"
Siel, mortified by Far Gaze"s continuing laughter, quickly said, "The Pilgrim has left us, Mayor. Flown away on a drake, with Aziel, Vous"s daughter."
The Mayor"s face went ashen. "Vous"s daughter was in your possession? I see there is much to tell me. Where have they gone, and why?"
"They did not linger to tell us," she said.
"Then they took our hope with them," said a rider to Tauk"s left. "And we rode through this foul night for naught."
Stark naked, Far Gaze sat cross-legged on the ground among the wolf fur he"d shed. He wiped tears of mirth from his eyes but at last managed to speak. "I smelled much in the night. The wind tells me a huge force comes from the north and crosses the Great Road, still some way distant, but coming. They come to take your city, Tauk the Strong. And then High Cliffs, of course. They bring war machines, siege towers, trebuchets. War mages will come too."
"Those foul things will be weak in our city," said one of the men. "There is little magic."
"They will use their claws and teeth, and cast at you even if one spell kills them! An army like this has not come to wage death on such a scale since the War that Tore the World. But there"ll be far less death than that, for you haven"t nearly the force to make a contest of it. They mean to burn and poison the land outside your walls, where your food is grown. Occupying your city is not their instruction. All your people will be killed, their bodies thrown in ma.s.sive pits. The vanguard of that force will reach your city soon and test your defences. The rest is some way distant."
The men had been, throughout this, getting angrier and angrier at Far Gaze"s glee, which he still did not bother hiding. But Tauk"s face showed none of his thoughts.
"Meanwhile death comes from the south," Far Gaze went on. "It marches with no purpose and no named enemy. But it marches north. Do you understand? What we saw and travelled through on this night was just the scattered edge of it! You know of Strategist Blain"s men? The rebel faction he sent, to guard World"s End?"
"I do."
"More than ten thousand men. They are the Tormentors we"ve met! We learned what those beasts are: men changed by poisoned airs from Levaal South, or airs which become poison when they mix with ours. A ma.s.sive gust of this poison crossed the barrier. Not all Blain"s men were changed, but a good portion was. Several thousands! More Tormentors than were used to take and hold Elvury, you can be sure. Did all this fit Blain"s private plan? I know not. But it was not the Arch"s plan.
"Rejoice, Tauk the Lucky! You will only have to defeat the castle vanguard. They"ll have likely avoided the Tormentor swarm, as I judge your city shall too. But the castle"s main force is two days or more behind the vanguard. They will not be so lucky. And Tormentors will be an enemy they"re ill prepared to fight. Trebuchets, swords and arrows will not do them much good."
Siel"s heart sped as though it understood, though her mind had not yet grasped it. A wave of talk broke out among the men. "Do you mean to say ...?" began one.
"I laughed from unexpected joy, from relief," said Far Gaze, lying on his back with his legs akimbo. "It is a strange world. For the moment for the moment, mind you are no longer doomed. There is yet a battle to win against the vanguard force, which itself will test you. Get High Cliffs to send support, now! You must win, for the castle will soon lose most of its strength, as the Arch always meant it to do. But he meant it only after all Free Cities were ruins and ashes, and all your people dead!"
"Then we will have won," one of the riders said sceptically.
"No," said Far Gaze sitting up, suddenly more sober. "You"ll have survived just one peril. Your prize will be a land crawling with death, and a foreign world to your south about which we know nothing. You are close to the barrier. Vous remains on his throne, a G.o.d rising. He will need no armies, and you must hope you no longer matter to him. What"s more the dragons in the sky are on the brink of freedom, and they mean death to us all. You won"t know peace for a long time, if you ever truly do. For the Pendulum swings. You probably do not know what those words mean, and I doubt my explanations will mean much to you."
If Far Gaze meant to erase any sign of hope or optimism in the men, no spell could have done it swifter. "Will more poison come?" said Tauk quietly.
"Who knows? Forgive my laughter, Mayor, and my one moment"s relief, joy, hope. It has been the first I"ve had in a long while."
"You are forgiven, of course." The Mayor stared into the distance, thinking. "A question. Are you familiar with the spell which shares your name?"
Siel saw intense annoyance run across Far Gaze"s face; mages were never pleased to be asked to cast something, even by those who were their allies, friends or commanders. He said, "I know one version of it."
"I understand to cast it requires high ground. Take me to such a place, and cast it for me, if you will be so kind."
"If you ask me to look to the south, beyond the boundary, I will not! A greater mage than I was already corrupted by-"
"Calm yourself, I don"t ask that. I wish to look upon these lands. Will you cast it for me?"
Far Gaze spat. "Nothing would give me greater pleasure," he said angrily.
"Excuse me, Mayor. Have you Engineers?" said Gorb, who had been itching to speak for a while now.
"We do, as you must know. That one there sleeping, he is one of ours, unless he has acquired those garments in some other way. His clothes come from our city."
"A tattoo on his foot will reveal his origin," said another of the entourage.
"He is yours. But you might be happy the village I came from borrowed him," said Gorb. He held up one of Bald"s guns. "There were two monsters over in that field, back yonder. Got time for a quick show of how these weapons work?"
Tauk said, "There"s no time for that now, and we will not go near those creatures when we needn"t. I need to see with my own eyes what the magician has claimed."
"Of course," said Far Gaze with a sardonic bow.
"It is no insult, good mage," said Tauk. "But a wolf"s nose can"t be the basis of decisions I must now make. I will see with my own eyes how things have shifted, if indeed they have. Then maybe I will laugh along with you, for a little while."
3.
They rode half a mile east until they came to a suitable hilltop, then sighted a taller one further away and headed there instead, to Far Gaze"s silent fury. He and Siel gladly rode on horseback, but the entourage was not mindful of Gorb, who lagged some way behind them carrying the Engineer. They encountered no Tormentors on the steep winding paths through a dense glade filled with ferns.
(As they rode Siel could still not free her mind of the sight of that Tormentor staring at her. What had it seen? Enemy? Prey? Would some other happenstance mage one day look back from far into the future and see its spiked body swing around with alien grace, hear the rattle of its needles, and wonder the same thing?) They reluctantly left the horses tied to tree stumps when the path got too steep, then climbed a long-abandoned track through thick foliage and found the highest point they could. "Ready?" said Tauk.
"Where would you see?" said Far Gaze irritably.
"The land about, as far as you can take me. I have had this cast once before. It showed me many miles beyond, but the mage cooked himself in casting it. I could not eat meat for weeks after." Some of the men chuckled.
Far Gaze"s jaw clenched. "A very foolish mage that must have been, not to know certain limitations. I heard a similar tale, in which the magician accidentally cooked the ones he cast upon. Such things can happen. It is a shame."
"The Mayor meant no disrespect, good mage-"
"Shut up! All crowd in. My version of the spell is cast not on one person but over a small area, so several of you will be cast upon. This was once a hunting spell, used to confuse dangerous animals by ruining their vision. The tribes used it. My people altered it and made it more useful. I will be blind. All of you will have "far gaze". It is safe to speak to me during the cast but do not touch me. If you feel any pain, step away and keep your eyes closed till we are finished." He looked around the glade. There was no sign of recent human activity; the old path was grown over. "I am troubled this place is not safe. One of you stand watch. Go! We"ll soon be blind to our surrounds. Enough dithering, I cast now. Shut your eyes."
He sniffed hard for a minute or two, waiting for some ingredient in the airs. His eyes rolled back in his head; he began a low murmuring in a lost tribal tongue, almost a song, his resonant voice pleasant to hear. Seven of the Mayor"s men crowded in around him, along with Tauk and Siel, all smelling of the road, Siel acutely conscious of the Mayor"s closeness. She hoped he would b.u.mp into her, longed for his touch even if it were inadvertent. The road did that too made one ravenously h.o.r.n.y and she felt some of the other men standing much closer to her than they strictly needed to; the odd brush of a hand or elbow against her b.u.t.t or hip. Just now she didn"t mind that at all.
Soon Far Gaze"s voice was like a physical thing touching her inner mind, the feel of it pleasant despite provoking a need to squirm away. It went on for a while, then, as though the touch had hit on some key spot, all in a rush the hill fell away in a spinning lurch, to the gasps and mutters of the men crowding in.
From high above they saw the land they"d just ridden through, with occasional people and wagons moving along the roads. The land off road was dotted now and then with Tormentors, motionless or stalking along. "Take us further afield, if you can," said Tauk. "Hear me, mage?"
"He cannot answer you, but he hears you," said Siel.
Now whizzing beneath was the country they had travelled overnight, the road winding like a river. More abandoned wagons could be seen on their sides, sometimes in smouldering ruin, goods scattered over the fields, bodies abandoned. No Tormentors were here, aside from the occasional corpse of one broken in pieces.
It was as their sight flew near the Great Dividing Road and travelled along it many quick miles north that the Mayor drew a sharp breath. There was the horde that had been Blain"s rebel force. Each one looked small from the height of their spell"s vantage point, so that it looked like a repulsive swarm of insects crawling along. "What compels them onward?" one of the men said. "Whose order to march do they follow?"
"No one"s. They are wild creatures, not thinking ones," said another.
"Yet look, they all head north as though on some mission, obeying some order. The ones who don"t move have been distracted."
"Nightmare!" Siel said, suddenly realising. "It must be him, or the other G.o.d at World"s End, Wisdom!"
"Why do you say this?" said Tauk.
"The G.o.ds there were keeping things from crossing the barrier," she said excitedly. "Blain explained it to us. The G.o.ds must have somehow compelled these things to flee north, away from the barrier, so they would not cross back!"
"Surely neither you nor Blain can claim to know the minds of the G.o.ds," said the Mayor. "But whether you"re right or wrong-"
"Come back!" the watch-man shouted. "Danger! Come back!"
4.
Far Gaze ceased chanting. For a little while the world spun crazily around; there was a sensation of falling from high in the air even though their feet were planted. Each of them came to on the ground in a tangle of bodies. The man keeping watch stopped shouting.
When their sight returned it showed Far Gaze frenziedly hurling rocks at something on the overgrown path behind them. Siel was first to her feet. She reeled back from the lone Tormentor which, with ponderous graceful movements, tore apart the man who"d kept watch. The streaks and drops of blood its hands flung through the air made it seem like a composer making music it alone could hear. The thrown rocks bounced off it harmlessly.
"Stop throwing rocks and fight it!" said one of the men, scrambling to his feet.
"I am not casting combat spells," Far Gaze growled. "This is your Mayor"s fight. We are here against my wishes and I"ll not cook myself for you."
Four men stood with weapons drawn. They hesitated before the Tormentor, having learned in the night how ineffectual swords could be against their hides. One said, "Do something, mage, or being cooked won"t be your greatest danger."
A shape crashed through the curtain of ferns drawn about the down-hill pathway. Gorb emerged from the greenery with one of Bald"s guns in hand. "Great plan, leaving me behind," he said. He crouched on one knee, fired and sent a shot ricocheting over the beast"s head, bouncing through the glade behind it. He put another sharpened stone down the gun"s barrel, aimed more carefully and with a cracking sound the shot split a cleave in the Tormentor"s chest.
It went still for a moment then resumed playing with the almost-dead man in its hands, as if it did not realise it had just been badly hurt. The other men found their nerve and rushed at it. Their swords rang on its back but did little more than scratch it. The largest of them heaved his two-handed blade with an overhead diagonal swipe and cut off part of the creature"s foot.
The Tormentor tilted sideways, off balance. It turned the motion into a graceful sweeping reach for the man who"d cut it. He fell toward its spread hands.
"Down!" Siel yelled at the men. "Stay down! You are in the giant"s way!"
They did not get down. Gorb waited as long as he dared for a clear shot then chanced firing again. A part of the Tormentor"s head broke off and landed with a thump in the foliage some distance away.
The creature took a few steps then went still but for the curling of its spikes. More sword blows toppled its stiff body over. In the quiet that followed there came the creak, creak, creak indicating more of them nearby. "Hush!" Far Gaze said. "They"re drawn by our sounds."
"Do something, mage, or you will be named an enemy of my city," said the Mayor.
Far Gaze looked stunned for a moment, then laughed. "If I do nothing, no one will live to spread news of your city"s new enemy. No one but me, that is I can escape safely enough. So which is it, Mayor? Do you hate me or love me?"
"Enough!" Siel whispered fiercely, grabbing Far Gaze"s arm. "Help us! This excursion was not my idea either. I am willing to die in battle but not to those things."
"Oh fine! Everyone, listen. Lie down, stay low. Gorb, come closer."
"What do you cast?" said the Mayor.
"A spell that would shield us from the sight of men. But some animals can see through it, and it may not work on these creatures. There is no time for my other options. I gamble my life for yours, Mayor. I don"t have to do this. Remember it if we live! You are steeply in my debt. You personally, and your city. Do you agree?"
Tauk"s eyes blazed with anger. "I do."
"Good. I have made your word to me binding and if you lied you are cursed. All of you be utterly still, make no sound."
They lay flat on their bellies among the long stiff gra.s.s and dead leaves. The creaking sounds seemed to come through the trees around them, at times from where the path curved behind. Far Gaze began an urgent chant, till his low murmur sounded like wind blowing through leaves. Cold air pa.s.sed over them as though blown from the magician"s lips. "Hold your nerve," the Mayor whispered. Siel did not turn her head to see what had provoked his comment, but she heard the creatures coming. The air filled with their stink. She had an almost overpowering urge to watch them, to glean some sc.r.a.p of knowledge of the creatures while they didn"t know they were being observed. Dust from the ground went in her nose and made her want to cough. Creak, creak, creak...
Here came one stalking through their midst, by luck not bringing its feet"s pointed blades down on any of them. It paused by the corpse of the slain Tormentor. The newcomer was taller than the other had been, its arms so long its finger-blades reached the ground. Its head moved in a fast low swing as it peered at the corpse; its mane of needles faintly rattled. It went still.
Another came. Like black knives the long spikes of its feet sank into the ground close to Siel"s face. She tensed, expecting to feel the stab of blades sinking into her. Hold your nerve, hold your nerve, she thought. Did the magician"s spell work? They were not invisible to each other, and she could not be certain the Tormentors didn"t see them. One of the men would panic and run, she was sure. He would dispel the whole illusion ...
The two creatures stood close together and went still. Perfectly still, Lalie"s voice echoed, with an image of the hunters" hall and all its death. She shut her eyes as she all too clearly envisioned the same death spread over this ground they lay upon, her own remains indiscernible among the glistening red.
The minutes stretched out as though they were in the pull of the creatures" bent time. One of the two suddenly shifted, its limbs swinging in smooth arcs, its many hooks and spikes in a flurry of motion as though by these means it spoke an urgent message to the other. It stalked away down the path. The other followed.
Siel felt triumphant sweet relief for just a second, till yet another came from the path behind them. Her skin crawled as she heard it come close, closer, the heavy press of its feet indicating it was the largest of them yet. Then the man next to her hissed through his teeth in pain. She turned her head ever so slightly. One of its long dark legs had planted right beside her, the spikes all down its length curling. Two of its foot"s five long blades had gone through the wrist of the man next to her.
Its other toes tentatively explored the ground around it with gentle touches. Then finally, finally the creature"s foot lifted and it moved on. She could have kissed the man beside her.
The Tormentor went to where the others had lingered and stood still as stone.
There was noise of more of the creatures coming. Siel sighed deeply. Would the next one walk over her? Would Far Gaze"s spell break if their spiked feet trampled him?
Movement caught her eye then: a small hand waving. She heard in clear focus a tapping sound that had been going on for a little while now as though to get her attention. The hand came, it seemed, from the ground. As though ...
Tii"s face popped up. He looked back behind to where the lingering Tormentor now seemed engaged in a silent dance of its sweeping arms and head. Tii couldn"t see them through Far Gaze"s spell, but he knew they were here. "Tii!" she whisper-called.
"Hush," said the man who"d endured the Tormentor"s foot. His voice was quiet as a breath but she heard furious anger in it for her speaking after what he"d endured in silence.
Tii had heard her. "Hole! Back, not far! Come down?" he called.
"Take us?" she whispered as loud as she dared.