SWORDS

v.

CTHULHU

Swift bladed action in the horrific world of H.P. Lovecraft

Edited by Jesse Bullington & Molly Tanzer

For Michael Shea

Introduction

by Molly Tanzer and Jesse Bullington

The title of this anthology begs a very good question: if a Norwegian steering a yacht square into Cthulhu’s face can’t take out the most nightmarish of H. P. Lovecraft’s eldritch creations, what hope should anyone put in a simple piece of sharpened steel?

Well, for better or for worse, there’s something about a finely wrought blade and a strong hand to hold it that inspires confidence, even when the odds are against us. Very against us, as is the case with the Old Ones. But long odds have never deterred a certain sort of swordsperson...

Mention a “Lovecraftian” tale and people often think first of stories focusing on academics puzzling over ancient scripts, or at least launching expeditions to gather information — even if it is information man was never intended to acquire. And yet, for as long as we’ve had the Mythos we’ve had action-packed, fantastical approaches to the telling of tales familiar to anyone who’s ever been excited by some sort of adventure starting in an inn. Somewhat predictably, Robert E. Howard gave us warrior-class protagonists battling slithery dark horrors; Clark Ashton Smith, rogues and wizards. C. L. Moore’s fiery Jirel of Joiry faced down horrors from beyond space and time; and even Lovecraft himself engaged in the telling of some tales of high adventure from time to time, most notably in “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.” The adventures of Randolph Carter in the Dreamlands are everything an adventure-loving reader could want, with our hero knowing when to fight, and more importantly, when to flee. While Lovecraft was less pleased with the overall effect of the tale, it undeniably set the stage for not only countless stories set in the Dreamlands but also hinted at the potential of setting Mythos tales in realms beyond the waking world — or at least our modern world, with its appalling lack of swords.

Even if Lovecraft had never dipped his dainty toes into the pool of “fantasy,” we would still have a compelling precedent for pitting the forces of cosmic horror against the sort of weaponry one usually finds paired with the addendum “and sorcery.” William Hope Hodgeson’s The Boats of the “Glen Carrig,” for example, of which Howie was a fan, has more swashbuckling encounters with obscene, eldritch monstrosities than you can shake a saber at. Then, of course, there is E. R. Eddison’s “The Worm Ouroborus,” which Lovecraft also admired, and which is one of the unsung progenitors of epic fantasy.

Looming — or perhaps more accurately, brooding — over the entire scene, however, are the Gentleman from Providence’s contemporaries, who penned far more accounts of eldritch action than Lovecraft himself, a good many of them historical or secondary-world. Robert E. Howard and C. L. Moore can obviously be credited with creating or at least codifying an entire subgenre of fantasy literature, their brawny brand inspiring countless films, comic books, and works of fiction (Charles Saunders’ Imaro being a favorite of both editors). Then there is the Clark Ashton Smith school of arch fantasy tinged with cosmic horror and human frailty, with which Jack Vance, Michael Shea, and even Fritz Leiber might be said to share a lineage.

Of course, none of this comes as a revelation to most fans of sword and sorcery; it could even be argued that part of what differentiates S&S from other branches of fantasy is the fatalistic pall of the subgenre. It’s not simply that sword and sorcery took off from the Weird Tales crew or that it often involves obscene rites and unspeakable horrors, it’s the amoral timbre of S&S that truly harkens back to Lovecraft, more so than “epic” or “high” fantasy — for whatever the battles won and glory earned, in the end the hours of mortals are brief and tragic, with the chaotic powers that lurk on the edge of mankind’s periphery never truly understood, and certainly never fully banished. Other forms of fantasy deal in absolutes, while sword and sorcery prefers to traffic in moral relativism and cosmic despair.

Swords v. Cthulhu is therefore the natural follow-up to Stone Skin Press’s previous action-packed mythos anthology, Shotguns v. Cthulhu. In that sterling collection, editor Robin D. Laws assembled fifteen modern masters to pen action-oriented Mythos tales of a modern or futuristic bent. Inspired by the quality of those stories, we began our quest to find fantastic (and fantastical) stories of derring-do and strength of arm, and settled... on twenty-two.

John Langan carves open our entry point with “The Savage Angela in: The Beast in the Tunnels.” Like the pulp alchemists of old, Langan fuses seemingly disparate elements into pure gold, though his reagents are (naturally) desperate action, epic monstrosities, and a melancholy sense of doom. Following this initial taste of the great inevitable is Michael Cisco and his “Non Omnis Moriar,” a sequel to Lovecraft’s own “The Very Old Folk,” set in Roman Hispania. Come along with us and follow a small party on an increasingly disquieting expedition into the Pyrenees to discover what befell the lost legion of Lovecraft’s tale. As with the best follow-ups to the master’s tales, Cisco doesn’t seek to one-up the original or explain away its mysteries; instead, he uses it as a springboard for his own brand of profound dread, both existential and intimate.

If the first two stories in the collection offer us different ends of the spectrum as to what Mythos-inspired fantasy can do, then Carrie Vaughn’s “The Lady of Shalott” lies on an entirely different plane altogether. Arthuriana and Lovecraftiana seem a natural fit, and yet while there are eerie threads woven into Vaughn’s story, at first the reader may overlook them for the broader tapestry, a piece that owes its tone to an unmistakable and less somber take on the Knights of the Round Table. As with previous masters of the field, like Clark Ashton Smith and Michael Shea, however, Vaughn proves that when properly executed, a deftly humorous piece can throw the horrors from beyond space and time into stark relief.

Having set the tone for the anthology, we next journey to a place where the real and the Mythological blur together, as A. Scott Glancy takes us high into the Himalayas in “Trespassers.” Glancy knows his way around an action set piece, but he also possesses a historian’s eye for detail, and brings together two unlikely bedfellows for a rousing yarn. Similarly, Remy Nakamura gets some eldritch chocolate in his historical peanut butter with “The Dan no Uchi Horror,” which recasts classic Lovecraft into a wildly different time and place. Imagine Takashi Miike doing to Lovecraft what Kurosawa did to Shakespeare, and you’ve got an idea for the feel of Nakamura’s dark, violent, and sensual samurai thriller.

Next, L. Lark transports us into a realm of sun-drenched mytho-history for “St. Baboloki’s Hymn for Lost Girls.” Her poetic prose recasts cosmic horror in the language of fable, and we find that by normalizing the weird our perception shifts from unsettled to sympathetic. Bringing us back north, John Hornor Jacobs splashes our face with cold seawater and presses colder steel into our hands. In “The Children of Yig” he transports us to a bloody vision of the Viking age, where a young woman with nothing to lose and everything to prove must hold her own against perils as extreme as any in the sagas.

In “The Dreamers of Alamoi,” Jeremiah Tolbert takes us yet farther afield, to a fantastical land that feels by turns firm under our feet and then fleeting as a curious dream. The result is pleasantly disorienting, but the longer we stay, the more the world solidifies around us, and very soon it coalesces into a frantic nightmare from which the only escape is to plunge ever deeper.

Just as we wake from the strangeness of Tolbert’s vision, newcomer Ben Stewart’s “Two Suns over Zululand” starts off at a gallop and never slows down, as Zulu warriors struggle to repel a deadly invasion — and not the one they’ve been expecting. With breakneck pacing and mounting dread, Stewart’s breathless story balances brutal action with keen characterization and cosmic horror.

After the heat and intensity of Stewart’s tale, you’ll want to join us in a strangely familiar tavern to quench your thirst, catch your breath, and relax with a game of chance: Orrin Grey’s “A Circle That Ever Returneth In.” At first, it seems like a cheeky diversion, but like all sport to be found out here in the outer dark, this game is rigged, time and space distorting along with the pages to deny us even the solace of death.

As we stumble in a daze from Grey’s story, we find ourselves back in the world we know, outside a tranquil abbey in medieval Germany. Here, Wendy Wagner welcomes us home with “Ordo Virtutum,” which introduces the famous abbess and visionary Hildegard of Bingen to another mystic — one who may seem familiar to certain pilgrims. Wagner’s tale is siege horror at its finest, and as is so often the case when survivors try to insulate themselves from what lurks outside, the chilling question is... how long can they hold out?

No compendium of Lovecraftian fantasy would be complete without a voyage to the Dreamlands, and Andrew S. Fuller’s swashbuckling “Black Moon, Red Sails” layers its sinister escapism with real-world terrors that eclipse any cosmic threats. Afterward, M. K. Sauer’s “The Thief in the Sand” similarly provides Mythos comfort food, while blazing its own path through the trackless dunes, as it spins its yarn of greed with an unconventional protagonist holding the distaff. From these distant sands we then journey to northern England, where Jonathan L. Howard drags us deep into the bowels of the earth for his “Without Within,” set during the English Civil War.

From this known place we travel to unknown stars. Set in an environment yet more treacherous, Jason Heller’s “Daughter of the Drifting” takes us to a realm mercifully undreamed… at least, prior to this tome. Melding crisp narration with an unreliable landscape, Heller forges a piece as haunting as it is downright weird.

Bouncing us back to Earth and back in time, Natania Barron’s “The Matter of Aude’” submerges us in the Song of Roland, that classic chanson de geste set during the reign of Charlemagne. No mere pastiche, Barron’s piece captures the romanticism of the original while subtly contrasting the hopelessness of a mortal in the Mythos with the lot of women in such antique tales, and indeed, history itself.

This somber reality is flipped on its ear in “The Living, Vengeant Stars” by E. Catherine Tobler, which gloriously breaks all the supposed thou-shalt-nots of Mythos fiction as it delivers epic battles, doomed heroism, and a conflict older than our solar system. Then, from the blackness of space to the blue of the open sea, we set sail with Carlos Orsi’s “The Argonaut,” which might have been called “Errol Flynn Goes to Hell.”

Out of these waters teeming with violence we crawl back to shore, only to find ourselves in the past — specifically, to Eneasz Brodski’s version of ancient Rome, in “Of All Possible Worlds,” a place very different from what we’ve seen in history books. There are gladiators and barbarians here, priests and legionnaires, but not of the sort we expect, and the dangerous atmosphere thickens with every page, like the pungent incense used in some unspeakable rite.

Much of Mythos fiction focuses on the unwinnable nature of the struggle against the outer dark, where victory is only ever temporary, and meaningless on the cosmic scale. Yet without some glimmer of hope, there cannot be much tension, something demonstrated by Laurie Tom’s Three Kingdoms-set epic “The Final Gift of Zhuge Liang.” Instead of ending with the death of hope, hers is a tale that opens in that dark territory, and builds from there into an action-packed tale of friendship standing up in the face of inhuman foes. Complementing Tom’s piece is “The King of Lapland’s Daughter,” a wildly different meditation on the nature of camaraderie and hope by Nathan Carson. His alt-history Lapland is a land at once familiar and alien, and offers no false promise of a better tomorrow for we who are doomed by birth and damned by the fates.

Finally, our journey ends (or does it?) with Caleb Wilson’s spectacular “Bow Down Before the Snail King!” When our curtain descends, it is over a scene of desperate battles and subtle wit, bizarre adversaries, and equally strange heroes. This sly yet melancholic elegy for our anthology has style to burn and a structure that will make all lovers of non-Euclidean storytelling sit up and take notice.

So, grab your humble cutlass, your iklwa spear, or one of legend’s greatest swords, and journey with us from ancient Rome to feudal Japan, from the Dreamlands to lands there are no names for in the tongues of men. Prepare to confront the horrors that lurk on the edge of our world, always watching, always hungry, and whatever you do, don’t forget your cold steel…

Molly Tanzer and Jesse Bullington, Autumn 2015

The Savage Angela in: The Beast in the Tunnels

John Langan

Her sword in a high guard (what the old woman who taught her to fight called the Horn of the Bull), Angela advances deeper into the tunnel. She steps lightly, but does not worry overly much about remaining silent. For one thing, the iron scales sewed to her leather tunic clink and rattle with her every movement. For another, the beast she is hunting appears able to hear the slightest sound. For a third, she wants the creature to know she is coming.

At least, she thinks she does. Magda, who began her training with a pair of hardwood sticks, used to ask her, “When are you most vulnerable in a fight?” It did not take long for her to demonstrate the answer: when you are attacking. Then you’ve committed yourself to whatever strike you are going to use against your opponent, and in so doing, exposed yourself to her counter — provided, that is, she is possessed of sufficient speed and knowledge. The lesson has served Angela well in more than one confrontation, and she has hopes it will once again. If she can provoke the beast to a charge, she will sidestep and bring her sword down on its skull.

As it so often does, her sword, Deus ex Machina, has an opinion on the matter. Wouldn’t a trap be a more sensible plan? She doesn’t hear its low, pleasant tones so much as she feels them, a tremor that starts in the weapon’s hilt and travels through the network of her bones to finish within her skull. Aside from its voice, and the intelligence behind it, there is nothing remarkable about the blade. It is a longsword, much as she trained with, its guard simple, its hilt wound in leather to improve the grip.

“A trap would be a fine idea,” she says. “What do you propose?”

A regiment of the King’s finest cavalry, the sword says, armed with their longest and sharpest lances. They lie in wait while the beast is lured from hiding. Once it’s in the open, they surround and skewer it.

“That might work. However, the process of organizing and implementing it would almost certainly expose Brum’s joyweed enterprise, and the money it provides him, so I’d put the chances of his majesty embracing such a plan at zero.”

Should you fail, he may have no choice.

“Should I fail, the matter will cease to concern me.” She shifts her guard from right to left, tries to allow her shoulders, her arms, her wrists to remain limber.

You’re becoming quite the philosopher.

“Hardly.”

The tunnel has descended steeply, which has made Angela’s progress slow, but also admitted enough sunlight to illuminate the passage. Now the ground levels, as the tunnel expands into a larger space. The cave’s walls are honeycombed by a score of openings, each the approximate width of the one she’s followed. It appears she’s arrived at a hub for the beast’s subterranean roadways. A few of the tunnels look recent, the entrances to them rough, rubble and earth scattered outside them. The remainder are considerably older, their thresholds worn smooth by years of use, the cave floor in front of them clear. Either the beast has been traveling these routes for a long time, or its family has before it.

Angela steps into the chamber. Its far side is difficult to see clearly, but there appears no trace of food, or scat, or treasure, any of the signs that she might have reached the creature’s lair. She would prefer to meet it here, where the light is adequate and the distance to the surface is relatively short. If she ventures into another tunnel, she’ll have to do so by torchlight, which will leave her one less hand for her sword, plus, there’s no guarantee of her choosing the right passage. She could spend no small amount of time roaming underground, to no effect.

When she hears the sound to her left, she’s almost happy. It comes from deep within one of the recent tunnels, a rumble and a clatter mixed with a metallic ring. With ferocious speed, it grows louder. As it does, the chamber floor vibrates underfoot. She hops back into the passage that brought her here, just as the beast crashes into view.

It brings with it a cloud of dust and dirt. She has the impression of sheets of metal, patches of dark fur. And size: the creature is at least as big as an elephant. It snorts and snuffles, wheeling around the center of the room. Angela switches her guard from left back to right.

Through the dust, she sees something like an enormous mole; although that’s like calling a shark an enormous goldfish. The thing’s forelimbs are tree trunks, capped with claws the length of her sword. Its eyes are almost comically tiny, but its snout flowers into a dozen thick, fleshy tentacles, each the length of her arm. Its hide is covered with thick, bristling fur — what is visible through the armor the creature wears. Its breast, back, and shoulders — its short legs — are covered by carefully fashioned bronze plates. Though battered and dim, the metal still bears traces of elaborate designs, looping figures and characters. No one mentioned armor, she thinks.

The appendages at the end of the beast’s nose flick through the air, drawing the rest of its blunt head after them, back and forth. They stretch toward her, and she knows she’s been found. The creature’s bulk swings in her direction. She has enough time to realize she’s in a bad position. If she’s in the tunnel when the beast charges, it will crush her. Her plan of attack momentarily forgotten, she leaps out of the passage and to the right. The creature barrels past her into the tunnel. Its bulk stoppers what light the tunnel admitted, plunging the chamber into darkness.

“I think we might have to go with the cavalry, after all,” Angela says.

Brum’s description of the beast did make it sound a bit smaller, the sword says.

Already she can hear the thing at the other end of the passage, turning around. She would very much like to run someplace, anyplace, but there is no place to go. Any of the other tunnels will have the same disadvantage as the one she just escaped. Nor is she fast enough to outrun the creature in the open cavern. She raises the sword directly overhead, shifting her weight onto her back leg.

When the beast erupts from the passage, spilling light into the chamber, she lunges forward on her left leg, slashing down and to the right, in the strike Magda called the Tiger’s Claw. She feels the tip of the sword slow for a fraction of a second, long enough for her to know it’s met resistance, before she sees red on the blade. The creature shrieks, spinning toward her, the tentacles that cap its snout thrashing. It rocks back on its haunches, readying another charge.

Before it moves, Angela does, the sword out to her right. The beast hesitates, which allows her to close the distance between them. By the time it registers her threat and starts to retreat, she’s swept the sword up in a chop. The Heron’s Wing severs one of the appendages flailing at the end of its nose.

Its last expression of pain was loud, but this one leaves her deafened, ears ringing. She ignores this, focused on attacking the rest of the tentacles, clearly a weakness. Her swings open wounds in half a dozen of them, spattering blood onto the cave floor. Screaming, the creature rises on its hind legs in a kind of crouch, lifting its wounded snout out of range and placing her within reach of its forelimbs and their great claws. The beast pendulums its left paw at her. She hops back, but has to use the sword to block attacks, first from the right, then from the returning left. The strength in the blows shudders the sword in her hands, threatens to knock it from her grasp.

She wants to retreat, move to a safer distance. Instead she slides closer, stabbing at the creature’s forelimbs with the Scorpion’s Sting. The beast yanks them away, straightening almost to standing, exposing the stretch of belly below its armored breast. She drives her sword in on the left and with a single smooth motion slices it across and out on the right. Blood vents over her as the beast’s belly falls open, spilling the mass of its guts onto the cave floor in a bloody mess. She hops back, loses her footing in a puddle of blood, and is unable to avoid the paw rushing at her.

The impact flings her across the chamber. She thinks she might miss the wall, land in the tunnel beside it. She doesn’t.

* * *

Dreams, Magda warned her, are no less perilous than waking life. The powers that hold sway over existence are at home in the shifting landscapes that sleep offers access to; indeed, there are some who contend that the powers are more comfortable in an environment that mimics their own mercurial natures. Not to mention, the dreamlands are host to a bestiary whose entries are as fearsome as anything Angela might expect to meet while awake. For these reasons, it was important to go into sleep armed, and to remain so for the duration of her stay. This part of her training Angela found surprisingly easy. Magda said this was because she was already halfway to dreaming, especially when she ought to be focused on her lessons, but Angela thought the old woman was impressed with her. A few minutes’ meditation, sometimes less, and she entered sleep, sword in hand. At first she equipped herself with the blade Magda kept on display in the hall, over the fireplace. When she obtained her own sword, she brought that. Within her dreams, Deus ex Machina has always felt surprisingly solid, which may be due to the fact that she was given it in a dream.

She has it with her now, in the fragmented world into which her collision with the cave wall has plunged her. The sword is silent, but it usually is on this side of waking. She is standing at the edge of King Brum’s field of joyweed, surveying the devastation that has been visited upon it, the fencing knocked down, the plants torn up and trampled, the watering tank and the system of pipes leading to and from it smashed. Although the scene is lit as if by the sun, the sky is dark, clouded with stars. At the center of the ruined field, a tall woman wearing crimson robes considers a younger version of Angela. The woman’s skin is the same as the sky overhead, as if she were a piece of it taken form. Stars flicker within her, a shooting star flares across her cheek. Her voice is pleasant, but it is cold, cold as a winter’s night. “What would you have of me?” she says.

“Whatever you would give,” the younger Angela says. The quilted jacket and pants she wore for her journey to this spot are torn, dyed with her blood and the blood of the things she slew on her climb here. She holds a bone saber she took from a creature whose face was an oversized, grinning mouth. The sword she carried when she set out on her quest broke halfway up the ziggurat whose summit was her destination, where she has found this woman, this power: the Pharaoh.

“What if I would give you nothing?” the Pharaoh says.

“I will take it,” the younger Angela says.

“What if I would give you death?”

“I will take that too.”

From within the folds of her robes, the woman withdraws a sword. Its blade appears to shimmer, as if liquid. Its hilt is gold, worked into the forms of snakes that appear to coil around one another. She holds it up for the younger Angela to admire. “This,” she says, “was one of my enemies. When I overcame him, I remade him in the heart of a dead star, thus. I renamed him, as well: Deus ex Machina.”

“I don’t understand what that means,” the younger Angela says.

“It is a private joke, in the tongue of an ancient land that also borders the dreamlands. Accept this blade from me, and you are of my house, now and forever.”

The younger Angela drops the bone sword and kneels, bowing her head and raising her hands, palms up. (She will awaken a long distance from the place where she lay down to search for the ziggurat in her dreams, her armor still in tatters, likewise the flesh beneath it, a plain longsword by her side.)

The Pharaoh vanishes. In her place stands Magda. She is dressed for instruction, in a tunic and trousers of coarse cloth, plain boots, her gray hair tied back. Her arms are clasped behind her. Her lips do not move. Instead her voice rises from the ravaged earth. “To treat with any of the powers,” she says, “is to court damnation. Those who seek their notice find it either in torment that carries on until long after the stars have dwindled to cinders, or in service that endures longer still. For neither is there the oblivion that is the balm of our suffering lives. Each forfeits that reward.”

Angela’s younger self maintains her position.

* * *

There is a time when she is walking, stumbling really, through a dark space, lit here and there by smears of furry moss that emit a pale green light. Her thoughts refuse to cohere for any meaningful amount of time. This may be due to the pain that stabs her head, her neck, her back, with every movement. It may be due to the ringing that keeps all other sounds at a distance from her ears. It may be due to the smell that clouds her nostrils and coats her tongue, the copper odor of blood and the earthy stench of shit.

But she has her sword, out in front of her in the guard called the Horn of the Rhino, and, though she cannot make sense of what the weapon is saying, she finds its tones soothing.

Light dances ahead of her — a torch, jammed into a crevice in the side of the tunnel she is moving through. Its smoky glow shines in the trail of gore at her feet, torn loops of intestine, bloody chunks of flesh and fur. As she approaches the torch, her mind begins to gather itself. She is tracking Brum’s monster; though there’s scant skill involved in following the creature’s lifeblood smeared on the floor. Mortally wounded, the beast has retreated to its lair. Should she find it living, it may be more dangerous still, made reckless by its impending end.

You could wait, her sword says. It can’t have much longer to live.

She shakes her head, wincing at the pain the motion sparks. “I’m not certain how much time I have before my injuries must be answered. Best to finish this quickly.”

On the other side of the torch, the passage feeds into a cave the size of a decent barn. Several more torches have been wedged into cracks in the walls. By their light she sees the creature, on its left side, its entrails a torn and bloody tail. It is dead. Relief pours over her, causes her to lower the sword.

“Is this your handiwork?” The voice is bright and clear as a horn sounded in a forest. The woman to whom it belongs steps from behind the beast’s head. She is tall, easily two heads above Angela, and her bronze skin is roped with muscle. Her tunic is the hide of something whose fur mixes with scales. Her long hair is braided with the teeth and claws of more animals than Angela can identify. In her right hand the woman holds a spear whose polished wooden haft ends in an equally polished blade. Her presence fills the chamber; she is the most vital, the most real thing in it. Angela knows her for a power, and acknowledges her question.

“It is.”

“This was the Lord of Those Who Dig Beneath the Soil,” the woman says. “His worshippers dwelled in cities built far underground. Upon occasion, he and I hunted together for the great worms that plagued his people. When their time passed, he remained, old and alone. I thought to hunt him myself, and end his solitude.” She allows the tip of her spear to drop, catching the shaft in her left hand. “I suspect your motives are not so pure.”

Angela is aware of the woman appraising her, the way a hunter might size up a lion she intends to slay. She squares her stance, lifts Deus ex Machina in a high guard. The sword twists in her hands, as if eager for the woman’s attack.

At the sight of the blade, the woman’s eyes widen. The point of the spear wavers. “What,” she says, “are you doing with that?”

“It is mine,” Angela says. “I received it from the hand of her called the Pharaoh, when she took me into her house.”

The woman pulls her spear up. “If you carry that weapon, then your doom is upon you already. It would be a mercy to spare you it with a thrust to the heart. For the sake of him you have slain, I refuse you that charity.”

Without another look at Angela or the remains of the great creature, the woman walks out of the cave. Angela gives her a wide berth, but keeps the sword pointed at her. It strains in her grip, like a dog struggling to be off its leash. She forces it to remain in position until it settles.

Once the woman is gone, Angela approaches the beast’s carcass. Its fur is clotted with mud and blood. Its mouth is open, showing yellow teeth the size of shields. The claws of its right paw drape its breastplate; the claws of its left splay on the cave floor. Angela considers the creature’s armor. Its edges are bordered by lines that cross and loop and twist like paths on a map. Its surface is embossed with figures that suggest moles and voles and other animals that dwell underground, engaged in some complex action, a dance perhaps, or a celebration — maybe a battle. Whatever it represents, like so much else, is now lost.

Angela circles to the creature’s back. The agreement she has with Brum specifies she bring him the beast’s head. She raises her sword. She tries for a single blow, but the task requires a second.

For Fiona, and for Orrin Grey

Non Omnis Moriar (Not All of Me Will Die)

Michael Cisco

A Sequel to “The Very Old Folk,” by H. P. Lovecraft

Propraetor Marcus Foslius Felix awoke on the kalends of November to find himself acting proconsul for Hispania Citerior. On being acquainted with the reasons for this change, his first act was to appoint Publius Rutilius Grumio legatus of the twelfth legion, and by noon a thousand men were already scaling the pathway Libo’s party had taken into the mountains. They found the spot where their horses had been tied, and did not like the way some of the hoofprints were scuffed, as if the horses had been dragged on braced legs. The dogs found a patch of soil soaked in blood, not far off the track, but no body. It was as if someone had been run down and killed here, and the corpse picked up and taken away.

The trail led, as expected, up a narrow way, folded into a notch in the mountain. Libo’s party had marched through here the night before, up into a dense, but small, stand of trees, and had not come out. Nor had they come back. A large body of men would have torn up and marked the loose, rocky soil of the slopes, but there was no sign that they had left the path. If they had been ambushed, where were their bodies, the blood, the cast-off helmets, the broken gear? It was impossible; they had gone into that copse of trees, they had not come out, they had not retreated, and their bodies did not lie dead beneath the trees.

Grumio sent word back to Pompelo and marched deeper into the mountains.

Four days later, he returned with six captives: all of them Vasco shepherds who looked nothing like the other kind of people, whom Libo’s party had been seeking. The most prominent Vascones contended with Grumio indefatigably to save the lives of these captives and eventually, by going to Felix himself, managed to win clemency for all but one, who was crucified for failing to give adequate warning to Libo and his men. The remaining five, all very much the worse for wear, were quietly remanded to the custody of their own families.

Grumio had been compelled to admit that he had not been able to turn up a single one of the other kind of people. He had not even managed to discover the remains of any of the bonfires that eyewitnesses had reported seeing on that night, burning on the mountain tops.

News from Rome: the senate, the magistracy, all of Rome was aghast, baffled. Filling so many vacancies in high positions all at once was too much like reordering the world in a dream. When they had appointed Publius Strabonius Libo to the proconsulship of Hispania Citerior, they had believed they were rewarding an excellent citizen, not sending him to his doom in an unknown land. Felix was commended for swift action. The failure of Grumio’s expedition elicited indecision from the authorities. In the weeks that followed, a tacit conclusion was reached in Rome: it had been a supernatural thing. It had been the work of those nameless, monstrous gods of the mountain people. By all accounts, the thing had been impossible. At a stroke, a handfull of savages had somehow contrived to wipe out a cohort of three hundred legionaries. Lucius Caelius Rufus, a quaestor. Gnaeus Domitius Balbutius, the legatus of the twelfth legion, gone with them. And Sextus Pomponius Asellius, one of his tribunes, well-liked in Rome. And Strabonius Libo worst of all, the proconsul himself. He had insisted on joining the expedition to the mountains, and vanished with his lictors, with all of them, leaving no trace behind. Sorcery alone could have done it. The senators visited the temples and consulted their diviners. New temples were endowed and old ones were lavishly reappointed.

In the meantime, Felix was officially appointed proconsul, and his selection of Grumio was ratified. A high bounty was placed on those mountain people. The tenth legion, Gemina, was dispatched to the province, and the twelfth legion moved its camp from Calagurris north to Pompelo, fortifying the city and attempting to reassure its people that they were still under Roman protection. In response to rumors that some of the Vascones were known to join the mountain people at their revels, Grumio imperiously summoned the leaders of the Vasco clans to appear before him at Pompelo and give a thorough accounting of all their households, ordering them to surrender any witches that might be among them. The Vascones balked both at this request and at his tone, but Grumio began making arrests shortly thereafter, and whomever he arrested, he crucified.

This response did seem to reassure the people of Pompelo that something was being done, even if it did outrage the Vascones. It also upset Tiberius Annaeus Stilpo, the aedile whose letters had called proconsul Libo’s attention to the problem of the mountain people in the first place. With Felix’s appointment, his propraetorship was open. Stilpo hoped to get it, but he was been passed over in favor of a new man. And now Grumio was rooting out all the witches that it had been Stilpo’s duty to find.

Ruin was looming over him, and the prospect of losing the confidence of the senate and the comitiae chased all tranquility from his mind and home. He decided to try to rehabilitate his reputation by conducting his own investigation, gambling on the possibility that a smaller, less conspicuous party of men, disguised as travellers, could turn up something that a legion of infuriated soldiers might have missed, or frightened away. If his own men discovered a village of those mountain people, then Grumio would march on it, get out of Pompelo, and stop doing Stilpo’s job. In his absence, Stilpo would take over, the tact and discretion of Stilpo would shine all the brighter for the contrast with Grumio’s harshness and indecorum, and the way forward would open again, or, at least, close no further.

He would send Lucius Hosidius Nicostratus, known in Pompelo as Nicostratus Tutor, who had been Rufus’ lictor. Nicostratus was a shrewd man; originally from Athens, he was well-travelled, and had a reputation for being a reader. He’d had his skull cracked defending Rufus from the attack of a madman and was still recovering the night Rufus disappeared, which is why he had not gone with the others. He was fit now, but was no longer a lictor, and made his living as a scribe. Apparently, he was waiting for something better to come along, or for a chance to get back to Rome, and start over. He had debts. Stilpo would pay them.

Tullus Durio was a retired gladiator who had come to Calagurris to open his own ludus. He was a little long in the tooth, but still stout and wiry. His reserves of stamina were bottomless, and nothing fazed him. For a consideration, he would be Nicostratus’ bodyguard.

Finally, they would need a guide. For this duty, Stilpo settled on Otson, a Vasco from the other side of the mountains, up near the border with Gaul. He had been sent south by his family to learn more about Roman ways, and had performed some miscellaneous services for prominent families, both Vasco and Roman, with whom Stilpo had dealings. He seemed like a reliable man, not quite a blockhead for all that he was a rustic, and he had been all over those mountains. Stilpo asked him what he knew about those mountain people, and he said he knew only stories.

“What stories?”

Otson paused, and seemed to steel himself to the recollection.

“There was a man whose name we no longer say. He was going to betray us to some of the Aquitani who were our enemies. He was caught, and we gave him to them.”

“To the mountain people?”

“Yes. Both my parents were there. He was bound and left at one of their circles. He was pleading for death. To make sure he didn’t escape, he was watched from a distance, from a hidden place. They said he was calling to them constantly, over and over, until the sun set. The watchers knew he was still there, because, when it got dark, two torches appeared, coming to the circle from the far side, and his calls became screams. Then stopped. The watchers said they heard the mountain people’s voices speaking, and that there was another voice, that was different. They wouldn’t say anything else about it, only that the traitor was gone that morning when they went to the circle again.”

Before they parted company, Stilpo said, with an attempt at sly joviality that did not suit him, “I have heard, Otsonus, that you have recently lost your dog.”

“Last week,” Otson said, looking a bit bewildered by the change of subject.

At Stilpo’s summons, a servant entered, accompanied by an unleashed dog who trotted along beside him.

“Accept this one, then,” Stilpo said, seeming pleased with himself. “His name is Teuser. May he be of assistance to you.”

Otson looked at Teuser carefully.

“He’s mine?” he asked.

Stilpo laughed.

* * *

December was nearing its end when they set out. They would ride as far as a certain hamlet in the foothills, then exchange horses for a donkey.

When Otson admitted he’d never seen a gladiatorial bout in his life, Tullus latched on to him and regaled him en route with repetitive accounts of battles he had either participated in or witnessed up close. He was a good storyteller, with zest for his subject and a surprisingly good ear for mimicking voices, but for the most part he was too technical to follow, so that it seemed like a blur of arms and legs, weapons, shields, elbows and butting heads swarming from his mouth in a baffling succession of decisive maneuvers and spectacular coups.

Meanwhile, Nicostratus glared at the mountains as they slowly approached, already searching them from where he was. The peaks were filmed with a meager snowfall and the weather was clear, if windy. The mountains continued docilely to look like mountains. He found it impossible to attach any special idea of menace to them.

The hamlet in the foothills he found surprisingly large. They would stay the night there. There was an entire house standing empty that was theirs to use, if they wanted it. Otson inquired how it was that they happened to have an empty house, and was told, a little sheepishly, that a family had been living there until early last autumn, when some ailment or other carried off every last one of them.

“We don’t want that house,” Otson said flatly.

Crammed in a corner by a heap of feebly glowing embers that night, Nicostratus remembered Otson’s refusal and regretted it.

The following day, they set out at dawn. A light morning mist burned off nearly right away and the sky deepened to pure indigo. They ate bread and honey, received more bread and some cheese to take with them on top of their provisions, and Nicostratus left thinking that they would have had that much less to eat, perhaps, if they had slept in that empty house.

By noon, they had reached the spot where Libo’s party must have tied their horses. There was the narrower path leading up, curving out of sight. They found nothing but the tracks of Grumio’s men, and those were nearly fully effaced. Teuser hovered near and scrutinized a patch of ground behind some brush that might have been what Otson called “the bloody place.”

They searched carefully, for an hour. Nicostratus discovered score markings on some of the tree trunks that he believed were made by ropes. There were notches, blackened now, but not very old, where the horses had yanked the ropes tight enough to cut into the bark so deeply he could fit the tip of his thumb into the groove, halfway to the first joint.

“A horse would have to throw itself forward with all its weight to pull that hard on a line,” he said. “You see how, eh — there’s no scraping? It only goes directly in, just here. It was a single tug, and it would have parted the rope.”

They kept the donkey with them when they climbed the path. It was too steep for horses, but, according to Otson, it would level off to an easier grade a bit past the bend.

A wind came up and rustled dead leaves in the copse when they saw it for the first time. The path cut neatly through it, in an unobstructed line right up the slope. The way was stony, but straight, and the slope above it was plainly visible not a hundred yards from where they stood. No one, even at night, could have gone astray on that path.

They kept climbing, assiduously scanning the ground, which was bare and innocent. They entered the copse with a sense of foreboding that could be attributed to nothing in their surroundings. There were dead trees, dead leaves, stones, a blank and traceless path, the slopes to either side, and the open space beyond that had engulfed so many.

They tied the donkey below the copse and began going over the place, inch by inch, turning over stones, brushing fingertips over the tree trunks, checking for broken branches. They spent hours in that copse and, once, Teuser gave a wild yelp and flashed away, running at full tilt down the path and out of the copse. Otson ran after him a little way, then gave up. Nicostratus hurried over to where Teuser had been when he cried, but found nothing. Otson came back, Tullus came over, and they all three pored over that ground, eyeing every piece of grit, even sniffing at the ground themselves, but found nothing. They resumed their search. Nothing.

As they were preparing to give up, Otson saw Teuser standing a few feet away from him, looking sheepish. He did not meet Otson’s eyes when he approached.

“This time you were afraid,” he said to the dog. “Be brave next time.”

They decided to have a little something to eat. Nicostratus climbed a short distance up out of the copse and seated himself on a stone. Otson understood and agreed; he didn’t want to eat in that copse either. They were refreshing themselves in frustrated silence when he stood up, peering intently across the gorge where the road bent below them.

“Do you see those rocks?” he asked, pointing across the gorge.

If the day hadn’t been so clear, he would never have been able to make them out from this far away; a small heap of rocks, high up there on the far side. There was a seam, or projection there; not a path, but a way, at any rate, and, almost hidden beside a boulder, that artificial heap of rocks.

“The top one,” Otson says. “Do you see how it curves out, toward us?”

Nicostratus couldn’t say he did, but the top stone was long enough and thin enough to look a little unnatural standing upright on top of a little heap of rocks.

“That’s how the witches mark their paths.”

“How do you know that?” Tullus asked.

“Because I know them,” Otson said, pointing. “The mountains up north. That’s where I come from. The witches light bonfires and meet their gods in caves, and they mark their paths with rock piles. I’ve seen them.”

“You’ve seen the witches?”

“No, the piles. And the fires. The witches I’ve only heard, never seen them. On the nights when they gathered, we could hear them down in the valley.”

Otson kept gazing at the heap.

“Their voices were very strange.”

They backtracked to a point below the place where Libo’s men had tied their horses, and turned off a little more toward the south. The sun was sinking now, but it was still only just beginning to wester, so that their shadows preceded them as they went. With no path, their progress was slow through the trees, but the ground soon opened out. They were climbing through dead brown brush and rocks along an irregular slope. Teuser darted this way and that, sniffing the ground curiously, but none of the men saw any tracks.

Then they reached a natural terrace and their going became much easier and swifter. The outer edge of the terrace was above the level of the inner, which made it harder to notice from below. Off to the left, they could look down on the copse. When they reached the rockpile, Teuser started scanning the ground. Otson knelt by the pile and pointed to the thin rock on top.

“Where I come from, they turn the curved piece toward the mountain, not away.”

The pile stood at the outer edge of a broad place in the terrace, where it folded back along the mountain almost due south.

“Over here,” Tullus called. “Look at this.”

Nicostratus inspected the medallion closely, holding it up in the light directly before the better of his two eyes. He rubbed away the dirt that clung to it.

“What is it?” Otson asked.

“This is from Emesa,” Nicostratus said thoughtfully. “In the East. It is a talisman of Sol.”

Otson peered at the medallion as Nicostratus held it out for him. “Isn’t that a mountain?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Nicostratus. “In Emesa, they worship Sol under another name — I forget what it is in their own language now — but I know it means ‘the God of the Mountain.’ You can see the writing.”

Otson squinted at the writing for a moment.

“Did any of Libo’s men come from there?” he asked.

Nicostratus looked at them both, momentously.

“Quaestor Rufus visited Antioch,” Nicostratus said. “That’s not far from Emesa. Perhaps he also went there.”

“Or he might have met someone in the one place who came from the other, and gave that to him.”

“Or perhaps, one of the soldiers?”

Otson began perusing the ground again.

“I think that was stolen from one of Libo’s men.”

Tullus squinted at the talisman.

“Here!” Otson called a moment later. He had found footprints in soft earth that lay in a little strip at the base of a low ridge and which was shielded from the elements by a boulder. There were a number of shallow depressions that must have been heel marks, and one distinct imprint of the pad of a bare foot, complete with the four dimples the toes had made. Otson put his hand alongside it, and they saw that the print was smaller than his hand.

Teuser sniffed at the prints and then began tracking. In only a few minutes, they had found a crumbled spot in the rock face that formed a fairly gentle, if rocky, stairway up. Otson turned in place, looking in all directions, when they reached the top of it, then pointed again. Nicostratus saw the second low heap of rocks at once. The shadow that lay beneath them on the slope made them seem to float there uncannily, just above the ground. Standing directly above the pile, Otson could see the first heap, which, although it was below them, was magically visible through what appeared to be a natural scoop in the ground. He drew an imaginary line from that pile to this, turned to see where it pointed, and at once found the next pile. Even in the dimness of the incipient dusk it leapt out at him, neatly framed between a protruding stone and a solitary tree trunk.

They retraced their steps along the natural terrace and found a place to camp. Nicostratus wanted to be out in the open, so they could see everything around them, but Otson pointed out that they would need a windbreak if they didn’t want to freeze. After a hasty meal, Nicostratus sat pondering the talisman they’d found, trying to reconstruct in his mind the long voyage it had taken to get here, the image of a mountain on one side of the world, found on another mountain on the world’s other side.

He awoke once in the night, for a natural enough reason, but he did not budge from his place, nor dare to move. There was motion outside the tent.

“Tullus! Otson!” he said quietly.

Otson awoke first. He looked at Nicostratus, then at Teuser, then snatched at his knife. He dug Tullus in the ribs and Tullus awoke with a start.

“Listen…”

Outside the tent, there was the sound of furtive movement. It was impossible to describe, just a sound of air moving deliberately, like panting, and a rustle that should have been nothing but wind. It did not move like wind. It was now here, now there. The donkey made a sound then, a very strange sound. Tullus got onto his knees and drew his sica, which glinted dully in the gloom. Nicostratus picked up the long stick he had been walking with. Tullus glanced at him and nodded, then at Otson.

They rushed outside all together. Something none of them could see, but that was like a puff of all too solid warm air, streaked toward the slope above them. Tullus ran after it, swiping. They stood listening a long while before they checked the donkey and went back into the tent. Tullus remained sitting by the opening with his sica in his hand until dawn.

When dawn came, Otson and Teuser emerged first into the light, and searched the ground outside for tracks. They found their own.

That day, they followed an invisible thread that linked one cryptic heap of rocks to another. Otson led them, becoming more obviously disconcerted as they went. The way was certain, but the landscape was not. It was only with increasing difficulty that he could identify even major landmarks, including mountain peaks.

“The farther we go on like this,” he said, “the more dependent we are on these piles to get us back.”

“It has to end,” Tullus said, and Nicostratus agreed. They would go on.

It happened when the sun was nearly overhead. Otson had reached the fifteenth heap of stones in the line, and was turning in place to site the next, when his eyes went wide and he shouted with surprise and alarm.

In order to make himself understood, after many failed attempts to say what had happened, Otson took Nicostratus by the shoulders and compelled him to do as he had done. Nicostratus approached the pile, raised his eyes, and turned in place… and it was like looking around the corner of a building. A whole other landscape turned into position before his eyes, as if the pile of rocks at his feet had been the corner of a vast wall, painted with a blandly benign landscape so expertly reproduced that he had mistaken it for the real thing. Now he was seeing behind that wall.

The terrain was riddled with cave mouths. The mountains must have been honeycombed with them. And there were much vaster structures of heaped rock, and rings of upright slabs. The light, too, was different. Unclean. It was like looking through an empty bottle of cloudy glass. The light had warps in it, and an actinic bite that he somehow could taste, like a dry bitterness in his throat. The sun overhead was transformed into a slanted nexus of steely knife edges, cold and venomous. Then, with a start, Nicostratus saw a black object standing motionless in the sky, perhaps half a mile away. It reminded him of a huge black kite, but it was bizarrely fixed in place, like a hole in the sky. The path was entirely distinct now, and it would take them in the direction of that black thing.

Tullus grunted when he observed the change, and Teuser went completely silent and sat down firmly in place, refusing to budge.

“That’s where they went,” Nicostratus said. “I’m sure of it.”

He had formed the idea that perhaps not all of Libo’s party were dead. The prospect of what they might be going through at this moment, if this was the way they had gone, was a strong incentive to find them.

Otson ventured out into the transformed landscape. As he passed by, from Nicostratus’ point of view, Otson almost immediately changed, taking on a bizarrely overcast sort of look, as if there were a dulling film over his image. He was as sharply outlined as everything else, with an even exaggerated clarity, but his appearance took on an artificial lifelessness in there. When he returned again, there was a brief instant when he seemed to loom out at Nicostratus, and then he was standing in the natural sunlight, himself natural again.

The animals took a great deal of persuading, but eventually all of them crossed into that other landscape. A new silence received them on the other side. The air did not move. They passed solitary standing stones with dubious, almost living shapes, and the sun seemed to be plunging toward the horizon more rapidly than it ought to. Nicostratus looked at his own hands in its sickening glare, and saw his own flesh grey as lead and the veins and arteries a curiously pronounced green.

That black thing in the sky watched them come. It shed a polluting radiance. Whenever he looked at it, a sharp aversion lanced Nicostratus’ eyes and brain, and yet he couldn’t stop himself from repeating the experience. They discovered what lay directly beneath the thing after they’d climbed a while. It was a colossal mound which loomed from out of a dense crowd of dead trees whose roots were hidden within a shallow tarn. The top rose high above them, but they looked down at the tarn, which seemed to cling to the ground, a little sideways. But now the glare from that black thing was intolerable up close and they hurried to gain the cover of the trees.

They all expected to have to wade in the water, but, as they followed the path, the tarn veered unnaturally away toward higher ground.

It was a relief to have that thick ceiling of dead branches between them and that black thing. Flat stone chimes were tied to those branches, and hung motionless and hushed in the dull air. There were no birds, no sounds at all except for some faint insect noises. The tepid air was pungent with dead leaves, moldy earth, stagnant water. There was no snow.

The clearest way took them around to the east side of the mound, overgrown with trees and dense brush that rattled. Neither Teuser nor the donkey would set foot on it, so they tied the donkey and left the dog.

The mound was covered in stone circles, only about a foot across, hidden everywhere among the brush. At the first turn in the slender path that led up toward the top, the opening appeared. It was a black hole about halfway up the mound, and a deadening flatness fell on them the moment they set eyes on it. The hole was round, and punched into the dead hulk of the mound like a worm hole in an apple. They all knew at once that it was the way in. They all knew at once that the black kite overhead had emerged from it, was tethered to it, and in communication with it. Nicostratus gazed at the pit, the tips of his front teeth rattling against each other, and suddenly Tullus was shouting, sprinting awkwardly back down the path, and sounding through his shouts came wild barking and the shrill screams of the donkey, and Nicostratus remembered the animals, and Libo’s horses.

Tullus was barrelling toward the source of the screams, whipping his cloak around his right arm and fumbling his small shield around with his left. He drew his sica and left the path, crashing down through the bracken. Otson flew after him, his bow in his hand. Nicostratus stayed on the path and followed it around — there was Teuser, barking, the whites of its eyes showing all around the iris. Nicostratus turned, but Teuser snatched his cloak in his jaws and held on, tugging him back. Nicostratus saw the donkey, lying on its side, legs thrashing in dead leaves, disappearing into the trees.

Otson appeared first, above him, and stopped, open mouthed, seeing what Nicostratus could not see from where he stood. Tullus lumbered heavily past Otson, saw what he saw, and kept going, his shield held out before him, raising his sica. Nicostratus ripped free of Teuser’s jaws and, with a sick impotence, closed in on the noise.

The donkey lurched and tumbled out of the brush before him, screeching and screeching, Nicostratus saw what had attacked it, and a howl that began in the pit of his stomach rose effortlessly up through his body to his throat. An enormous length, like a centipede as big as a fallen log, was softly weaving in silhouette through the trees, spangled with the ugly diamonds of corrupted sunlight shining through the dead branches. The thing swayed with a seeking, flexing mobility, fondling the ground with its stubs. A shaft from Otson’s bow flitted across the light. He couldn’t tell if the thing was hit or not, but the surprise freed him from his trance and he stumbled away, clutching his face, turning again to see Tullus closing with the thing, feinting with his small shield and brandishing his sica. Nicostratus could not muster the strength to beg Tullus not to get near it, not to touch the thing. Otson shot at it again, and the thing writhed like a flabby insect.

Tullus darted in then, bringing his sica down over the top of his shield. The thing reared up and seemed almost as if it were trying to embrace Tullus, then the sica darted at the body. The thing warbled, and flashed away, a weightless ribbon of shadow, vanishing into the densest part of the brush. Tullus stormed after it, charging, stopping, charging again, leading with his shield. Nicostratus was gibbering when Otson came over to him.

“Asellius,” he groaned. “Asellius! Asellius!”

The donkey stopped screeching. Tullus had cut its throat.

For a time, Nicostratus was out of his mind. He would turn his head now this way, toward the carcass of the donkey, seeing the bore-holes in its body, evenly spaced and round, and hideously bloodless, then recoil… then turn his head again. Otson tried throwing Nicostratus’ torn cloak over his head, but Nicostratus flailed at it in a paroxysm of fright. Then his madness abruptly left him.

The daylight was fading.

The sun was still in the sky, and yet a sooty, granular darkness was dimming the air, as if a vast insect swarm were creeping across the sky. It was like a swarm, too, in that it seemed to be living, aware, ravenously searching. That kite — it was calling that swarm to itself. Numbly, Nicostratus followed Otson into the trees. It was, he saw, the only place to go. Somehow they all knew they were liable to be seen out in the open, that something was coming, a gathering presence. Teuser was with them, and he was silent.

They were nearly at the top of the mound when Nicostratus thought he heard a whisper, almost behind him. He whipped his head around and saw nothing, but he knew something was approaching up the path. They all did.

They were being herded up the mound, toward the pit. While he feared what was coming behind them, Nicostratus knew that the pit was no refuge and that going down there would be the worst thing that could conceivably happen to him.

That swarming darkness dimmed the air like an impending storm, and seemed to arrange itself in the vicinity of the kite. Soon they would be groping along the path, and that foulness behind them was rising like flood water. Suddenly, Otson grabbed them both, each by a free arm, and then they all saw the tiny man, a dwarf, wrapped in rags, waving to them from between the trees.

They looked at each other. The dwarf was beckoning them frantically, retreating by fits and starts. He would wave, then point toward the ground, at something they couldn’t see behind some trees and heaped stones. After a few moments, he darted out of sight.

As fantastic a figure as this little creature might have been, seen under other circumstances, now its gestures and attitude expressed a humanity that drew them like a beacon. They blundered after the dwarf as passively as men in a dream, and found him standing just within an open burrow mouth beneath a big tree, camouflaged between two enormous projecting roots and a sort of makeshift blind of dead leaves. The dwarf was muffled up to his imploring, panic-brightened eyes, and waved at them again before scuttling inside. He seemed to have only one arm.

Tullus would go first, Otson last. Teuser had already darted past them all and into the burrow.

Nicostratus crawled on his belly after Tullus. Fading sunlight filtered into the burrow through small gaps among the heaped rocks that comprised part of the ceiling. The space inside was gamy with an acrid sickroom smell. Otson slithered in behind Nicostratus, and they huddled in silence against the wall of packed dirt, directly by the opening. The dwarf compressed himself into a tangle of exposed roots above them all.

A humming shiver rose up the mound. As they listened, the sound of wings descended to meet it. The burrow became a bubble of space in a torrent of unrecognizeable noise, an eerie, groaning hum that wailed and plunged like alien grief. The wind rose outside, and in the midst of that terrible sound came a discordant clatter of flat stone chimes and the eager clacking of dead branches together.

The mound shuddered. Otson had the despairing impression that it might be rising in the air. To Nicostratus, it seemed as if something enormous had landed on it, nearby. They were not alone on the mound, but the noise of the wind, the humming, the clamor in the trees, was like concentrated isolation. They were cut off from any world. A palpable weight seemed to batten on them, the near proximity of something massive.

The humming noise faded very slowly, like an army marching away. The tumult outside ceased more rapidly. With a wild feeling of relief they saw the daylight begin to brighten.

But the situation had changed. Although there were now distinct shafts of light streaking the burrow, that sense of weight had not departed with the noise.

The men looked at each other.

“Let’s go,” Tullus croaked.

The dwarf watched as Tullus, then Otson left. Nicostratus gestured to him to go next, but the dwarf only stared. Finally, Nicostratus pulled him down and thrust him through the burrow mouth, shoving him ahead. They would go together. He would bring this miserable creature with him back to town.

Once outside, he took the dwarf in his arms and, carrying him, followed the other men. The woods around him were as still as a painting. The sense of weight seemed to be centered on the pit above them, or to depend from the kite, and they hastened down the off the mound through the trees. Otson looked all about him as he went, looking for Teuser. The dog was nowhere to be seen. They were leaving, but they had no real idea what they were doing.

There was a greyish movement off the path. Tullus made an abrupt rasping sound in his throat. He flashed into the gloom the next instant, something grey, narrow and murmuring was descending, or stretching out, from the treetops…

Then, as if he’d blundered against some unseen obstacle, Nicostratus fell, and slid on one side along the ground. He was dragged all the way down to the base of the mound in a cascade of dead leaves, grating to a halt nearly where the trees gave out. There was no sound at all and the air was still when he rose, and he was not ready to call Tullus or Otson. He was not alone, because he had not released his grip on the dwarf. The rags had come loose and fallen away from its legs. The dwarf had neither feet, nor knees. The dwarf, Nicostratus realized, had not been born a dwarf. Unmistakably, both legs had been amputated well above the knee. Sandals stuffed with rags were imperfectly bound to the stumps, and he had been trying to keep up with them on those “feet.”

The dwarf was crawling, with its one arm, back toward the trees, helpless to prevent the rags from being dragged off his body. Nicostratus tried to gather him up again. The dwarf resisted, then his eyes suddenly went wide, staring. His eyebrows lifted, and then Nicostratus could feel the little body begin to heave in his hands. It convulsed. Soft, voiceless huffs came from the hidden mouth. The dwarf was laughing, silently, at him. He looked up into Nicostratus’ eyes then, reached out with the stub that was all that remained of his index finger and tapped the talisman from Emesa that Nicostratus was wearing around his neck.

Nicostratus set the dwarf down and snatched away the shredded remains of a quaestor’s toga that had concealed the face that now laughed at him, with sheared, toothless gums and the stub of a tongue, still pointing at the talisman he had brought west with him from Syria.

Somehow, he had hold of Nicostratus’ knife, and, still coughing voiceless laughter and staring at Nicostratus, he threw aside his rags and plunged the knife wildly into his own body again and again and again. Nicostratus shouted and lunged forward to prevent him, then froze when he saw the exposed body honeycombed with slippery pockets. Each one sprouted a wet black filament. The dwarf drove the knife urgently into his pulpy body, eyes popping, sweat running down his face, desperately probing with the blade for the spring of his own life. Then at last came a rill of thin, stinking blood, and he slumped forward, spasming.

The spasms did not cease. The ruin of that familiar face turned toward him again and the lips moved in a futile attempt to speak. At once with a strangled cry Nicostratus sprang up with a heavy stone between his hands and pounded with it wildly at the skull. It was like ramming at a stone with another stone. The body fluttered against the ground. It did not stop suffering. Nicostratus stared until something gave way inside himself. Then he ran from the thing he knew was somehow still Caelius Rufus.

* * *

Otson caught up with him on the path, not far from the first heap of stones.

“Where are you going?” he demanded.

Nicostratus turned to look at him, puzzled. He gestured toward the west.

“Back,” he said. “Back to town.”

“I didn’t find Tullus,” Otson said. “We were separated on the mound. He attacked something. I didn’t see it. You — you were gone.”

“Tullus?”

His tone threw Otson off. There was no sense of emergency.

“Tullus,” he said after a moment. “I don’t know whether or not he’s still alive… Aren’t you coming back with me?”

“I was waiting for you,” Nicostratus said. “Now, what is this about a mound? What mound?”

Otson’s brow clouded.

“You coward!” he snarled.

Open-mouthed, Nicostratus stared at Otson. His dumbstruck expression only made Otson angrier.

“You’re coming back with me!”

He seized Nicostratus. They struggled, then Nicostratus pivoted, throwing Otson heavily to the ground.

“Have you gone mad?” Nicostratus shouted.

Otson sprang to his feet and seized him by his clothes.

“You’re coming back with me!”

“Of course I am!” Nicostratus cried. “I’ve been waiting for you!”

“Not back to town, back to the mound! To find Tullus!”

“What Tullus?! I don’t know any Tullus! You’ve gone mad!”

Again Nicostratus broke free. The two men stood facing each other on the mountainside.

“You ran!” Otson said with contempt. “You left him.”

Nicostratus began to speak.

“— Don’t deny it!” Otson cried.

“You know I would not do a thing like that. I…”

“Don’t talk to me like a sober man reasoning with his drunk friend! I was there.”

“Where?”

“On the mound!”

“What mound? I’ve seen no mound!”

“We were there, we saw it, we all saw it. We just came from there. You saw the thing, Tullus attacked it. You called it Asellius. The dog held you back but you saw it.”

Otson snatched Nicostratus’ cloak and held it up before him.

“Teuser held you back and tore your —”

The cloak had no tear in it. Otson stared at the cloak. He stared at Nicostratus, who returned his gaze levelly, even coolly. Then he noticed that the talisman from Emesa was no longer around Nicostratus’ neck, and took a few steps back.

“Where is the talisman?”

Nicostratus opened and closed his mouth. He seemed genuinely at a loss.

“So you threw it away,” Otson said. “What will you tell them when you get back?”

“That we found nothing,” Nicostratus said, sounding genuinely perplexed.

Otson flung away from him then. His mind a blank, he made his way back toward the mound on his own, ignoring Nicostratus’ voice calling, falling away behind him. The mountains seemed to fold and refold themselves around him. The path quivered and swam back and forth through frothy turf and went on too far, but he couldn’t find the next stone marker. There was a sort of bare place where the stones might have been. He kept checking to see where the sun was in the sky, but it didn’t seem to draw any closer to the high mountain horizon. He couldn’t spot the black kite anymore.

Eventually he moved out into wide open plains of grass so green it looked black beneath a sun that was still no closer to the horizon, but which seemed to have drawn nearer to him, as if he were steadily walking into the image on the talisman. He had this feeling even as he crossed wide valleys, and forded broad, flat streams he didn’t know, and whose banks were lined with trees whose branches were adorned with flat stone chimes. Birds called with new voices. New tracks scored the muddy banks of the streams. The current plucked his bow off his back and swept it out of sight before he knew what was happening.

The light finally began to fail when, with aching legs and nodding head, he found himself surrounded once more by trees, and by those mountain people. They stood in between the trees like scrawny saplings, marking him silently as he went by. Silence, their eyes, and the gloom were smothering him, poisoning him. He reached for his knife, but it was already in his hand.

“Do not stop,” he told himself. “Do not let them near you. Keep going. Do not stop. Do not stop until you reach home again, where your own people wait for you.”

The Lady of Shalott

Carrie Vaughn

As far as she could remember, the Lady had never been outside the tower. She might have been born here. She assumed she had been born, but maybe not. Maybe she just appeared, her complete adult self, flowing red hair and porcelain skin, dressed in a gown of blue trimmed with gold, with no memory of anything outside these rounded walls.

All day, every day, she wove a tapestry set on a loom against the wall. She might have been weaving forever, and she didn’t know if she would ever finish. The cloth was filled with pictures: ivy climbing up an old stone wall, willows dripping into rivers, tangled rose vines, flocks of birds soaring in a blue sky. At least, she thought that was what she was making. She could only shape what her mind told her, not what she saw.

She knew one thing for certain, as firmly as she knew she had bones inside her skin and flesh: she must not look out the window set in the wall of her tower. She must never look outside, because that was her curse.

And what would happen if she looked out? She didn’t know that either.

* * *

A knight must do good.

Make a name for himself by doing good, by going on quests and such. Succoring the weak. Slaying monsters. Or all of them at once, if the opportunity presented itself.

Sir Lancelot found a task that might encompass all the fame and virtue he could wish for. If only he could be clear as to what this was actually about.

“A curse, you say?”

“On the tower,” the lowly swineherd replied, pointing.

“That tower there?” Lancelot asked, also pointing.

“Aye, that’s the one.”

Across the vale, past a river, down a glen, and nestled in the middle of a dense copse, the tall stone edifice stretched straight up. The top was crenellated, and a single window gazed out. The space was black, nothing visible within. He hoped there might be a maiden looking out, brushing her hair while humming with a sweet voice.

He had seen the tower from the road. It looked promising, so he asked around. Nobody seemed to know anything about the storm-gray tower, except that it was cursed.

“Does anyone go there?” Lancelot asked.

The swineherd scowled. “No. It’s cursed.” The grubby man looked the knight up and down, squinting, appraising. Encased in shining armor, Lancelot sat mounted on a powerful white steed, great sword secured to the saddle, all bedecked in bright colors and heraldry, but the fellow didn’t seem very impressed. Well, after all, this was the road to Camelot. Knights passed this way all the time.

“How long has that tower stood there? And who built it? What banner does it fly? What manner of folk travel to and from it? Are they armed?”

Clearly overwhelmed, the swineherd gaped at him.

“Then simply tell me this: How many men guard the tower?”

“None, sir!” the swineherd declared. “There’s just a maiden lives there, but she’s cursed!”

The knight brightened. “A maiden? Then she is a prisoner. I must rescue her and lift the curse!”

The swineherd gaped at him again and said, “I need to be going, sir.”

“Right then! I thank you!”

The grubby man trundled off, walking stick digging into the dirt along the side of the road. There were no pigs in sight.

* * *

Lancelot could not find anyone who knew the manner of this curse, so he assumed it was the usual: a witch, envious of her beauty, had locked the maiden away until some true knight might rescue her. This was going to be a good day, he decided.

* * *

The silk thread she wove with had always been there, piled in a basket by the loom. Sometimes in the evening, when the sun no longer came into her chamber, and her eyes grew too weary for weaving, she’d light her lanterns and sort the thread into colors and thicknesses, imagining what pictures she might make of them, what scenes they’d be best for. Then she’d gather them all up and sort them again, seeing different scenes and shapes this time. She’d stroke the fibers, brush the skeins along her cheek. They felt so rich.

Only rarely did she wonder where the thread came from and why she never seemed to run out, no matter how much she used or how long and ornate the tapestry became. She had never taken the whole thing down to measure it — the finished length of it was rolled up on the loom’s cloth beam, waiting. The rolled cloth seemed quite thick. Surely she’d woven enough and could finish — bind off the edge, pull it down, consider the whole of what she’d made.

But she never did. She kept weaving because it was all she had. She might throw all her thread out the window just to see what happened, but she never did that either, because doing so would require going to the window, and she did not dare look out. As long as there was always thread in her basket, she would keep on. She hummed to herself sometimes, but apart from that, all she ever heard were sounds that came in through the window. A breeze, maybe. Distant thunder. The music that she knew came from birds. She had seen a bird once — it flew in through the window and perched at the top of her loom. The drab little thing had brown streaked feathers and a black eye. But it made such beautiful sounds, warbling and trilling through its tiny beak. It only stayed for a minute or two, hopping back and forth, fluttering its wings, obviously distressed. When it finally took off and swooped out the window, she almost watched it go, almost looked out to see the sky that must be there. But she did not.

One morning, a new sound came from outside the window, something she had never heard before, and she could call up no image in her mind to match it. It was like the sound when she dropped a bobbin on the floor, wood and stone crashing together, but much louder. Like pigeons clambering on the roof. Like banging on a rug to clean it. Rhythmic, loud, like thunder but going on and on. And there was shouting. There were voices. Other voices, not hers. Outside the window.

She couldn’t ignore it, and she couldn’t look out.

It was the curse coming to life, and she curled up on her pallet with her arms around her ears, trying to block out the noise, wondering what she’d done wrong — she hadn’t looked out, not even once, not even to see the sky.

Once, she tried to cover the window to curb her fear that she might accidentally steal a glimpse. It was difficult, attempting to peg a blanket from her bed to the stone, while also not, again and always, looking out the window. She managed it somehow, but the air in the room grew quickly stuffy and smoky. With the sunlight blocked, she only had lanterns, and they filled her chamber with fumes. She had to leave the window open or suffocate.

Truly, she was cursed to be trapped here without knowing why. She wondered if she had angered someone, but she couldn’t remember who. She couldn’t remember how it had begun.

The noise stopped at dusk, but started again in the morning. When she tried to weave, her hands shook with every beat and banging. She left the loom to wash her face and brush her hair, to distract herself.

She had a mirror stored in the same little box where she kept her brush and knife and other essentials. The circle of polished bronze on a filigree handle showed her pink lips and blue eyes, locks of red hair framing her face. She did not know if she was pretty or not, because she had nothing to compare to. Moreover, she wasn’t entirely sure why being pretty was so important, but she thought it must be, or she would not have a mirror.

The mirror reflected back anything, which was how she got the idea that maybe she could hold it up to the window, then look at the mirror and not out the window.

Hunkering down, keeping her face and eyes well below the sill, she held the mirror up. Angling it back and forth, she tried to alight on some discernible image. Blinded herself for a moment by flashing a bit of sun into her eyes. But then, finally, she resolved a picture of blue sky and clouds. They must be clouds, the white smears and shapes. She angled the mirror again, panning it down, and saw trees. She knew all this, as if she must have spent some time outside the tower at some point. A great green carpet standing on tall posts of living wood. Trees, yes.

And then she saw men cutting down the trees. That was the noise, sawing and chopping with axes, the crashing as a tree fell through its fellows, ripping branches as it went. She couldn’t hear the words they shouted. Instructions, maybe. Warnings.

There were so many people, she was afraid. Who were they, what did they want, what were they doing to her tower, and did they know she was cursed? They were clearing a wide space and using the fallen lumber to build — ladders, maybe? Scaffolding? Whatever it was, a latticework of wood was taking shape below her.

She moved the mirror again, and the reflection showed her a new picture: a figure standing apart from the others, mounted on a pure white horse, observing. He was silver, his hair blond and gleaming gold in the sun. His jaw was square, his bearing noble.

A knight in armor she thought he must be, and he was beautiful. He was the moon and sun. Someone nearby spoke; he turned to the voice and smiled. She fell in love with him, just like that, without warning, without choice, without hope.

Now she truly saw the depth of her curse.

* * *

When Lancelot first went to the tower, he left his steed behind and crept forward carefully, sword in hand, waiting for the demons or ogres who must be guarding it. Nothing opposed him. The place might have been abandoned.

He shouted a hail up to the single window, but his voice fell flat, absorbed by the forest, and a chill went up his spine. Of course someone lived in the tower, how could they not? An abandoned tower would have been crumbling and covered in ivy. There would be ghosts and creatures nesting amid the broken stones. This was a perfectly serviceable tower. Only it was not attached to any castle, and he had no way of getting inside.

He must reach that window and rescue the maiden. And so he went to Camelot, to the chief castle builder, who suggested constructing a scaffold to reach that height.

It didn’t make quite as good a story, a knight seeking help from a castle builder, but he only had to think of that maiden trapped in the tower. He would do anything to help her, and so he did. Hired the castle builder, brought in all the workers and tools required, and got to work. The scaffold would be finished in a week, and then he could simply climb to the top and look within.

“But sir, my lord,” the chief castle builder said to him on the first day. “What of the curse?”

“Ah yes, the curse,” Lancelot agreed. “What of it?”

“The locals have been telling the men stories of the maiden in the tower, and of the curse laid upon her.”

“Do they say what the curse is? What will happen because of it?”

“Well, no…”

“Then that is why I must go up there.” He smiled at the window in the tower with great anticipation. “To rescue the maiden. That is her curse, that she is trapped in the tower.”

The chief castle builder furrowed his brow. “Sir, my lord — it is my impression that there is more to it, that she is perhaps trapped in the tower because she is the curse.”

Lancelot frowned. “How so?”

“Well, no one seems to know. My lord.”

“I’m sure this has all been blown entirely out of proportion.”

“You’re probably right, my lord.” The man went away to supervise the clearing of the forest and the raising of the next level of scaffold.

* * *

The Lady went into a panic. According to her mirror, the workmen below had built a third level on the scaffold. They were getting closer, and she wasn’t entirely sure what would happen when they reached her. She knew, absolutely, that she should not look outside the window. But what happened if the outside came in?

“No no no!” she muttered, putting the mirror away and pacing around her little room, tugging at her hair. Maybe they didn’t know about the curse. Maybe they didn’t realize the danger of what they were doing.

She ought to send a message. Maybe scrawled on a scrap of paper secured to the leg of a pigeon. A flaming arrow. However, any message she sent would require looking out the window to deliver it. This was terrible.

Her tapestry hung on its loom, showing mountains and forests blending into a scene of ducks flying above a silver lake, or how she imagined such things might look if she could remember seeing them. For the first time ever her heart ached, thinking she might never get to complete the tapestry, that she might never see it finished. Even though she still couldn’t imagine what she might do with it when it was finished. If it ever was.

She could send them a message. Find some way to tell that beautiful knight with his silver armor to stop building, to save them all. Maybe she could even find a way to tell him how much she loved him. Such a thing was absurd — he’d never even seen her. He would think she was mad, and maybe she was. But she had to try, and if she was going to send a message anyway, she ought to tell him.

Choosing several skeins of yarn and thread, she set up a makeshift loom, tying down the threads of her warp, stretching the warp and securing it to a weighted basket. This would be a band, like a girdle, with words crafted upon it: Stop, I am cursed, you must stop or we are all doomed. (I love you I love you I love you!)

She had to weave faster than she ever had, but the weaving also had to be clean and neat, so they could read the words she stitched. She had to do it before the scaffold grew any higher.

* * *

By the third day the scaffold was more than halfway up the tower, and Lancelot knew that very soon he’d be looking through the window. The anticipation was almost more than he could bear. Who was this maiden, and what had she suffered?

To pass the time, he rode to various settlements in the area, searching for more news about the tower and its curse. No one knew the details. But everyone was sure there was a curse, and that it was no doubt terrible.

This lack of information was frustrating.

In the middle of the fourth day, an object sailed out of the window. He’d left his horse picketed some ways off and was walking a circuit of the tower once again, searching for any detail he might have missed, when the thing fluttered down like a wounded bird. He was in just the right spot to catch it.

It was a woven band made of silk, slippery in his hand. The kind of favor a lady might tie around his arm before he rode in a tournament. It was black and red with hints of gold, a swirling pattern running through it, odd swoops and curls that drew the eye but that he could not follow. It might have been runes, it might have been some spell woven in arcane patterns. Between the colors and strange shapes, the thing hurt his eyes. The pattern seemed to writhe of its own accord.

It might have been a plea for help.

This must have been the meaning, surely. The maiden was there in the tower, she was real, and he would see her soon. This token she’d sent him was an omen, a sign of hope. Lancelot’s heart soared. Only one more day, perhaps less.

* * *

They did not stop building the scaffold, and the knight gazed up at her window — as she saw in her mirror — with such an expression of longing and assurance that her heart nearly gave out. She swooned, falling back upon her pallet. Oh, how she loved him! He must be the noblest knight in all the world!

And she wept, because she did not know what would happen next, and she was terribly afraid.

Her unfinished tapestry looked down on her, bright colors mixed with pale, swirls and patterns that she once thought made a picture, even a blurred one, of the world she could never see — what she thought she might see if she ever looked out the window. Now she saw that the picture she had woven was chaos, all abstraction: shapes and shadows, meaningless splashes of clashing color. The cloth now seemed to expand, mocking her, filling the room with the beautiful and terrible truth of her life, of her curse: none of it was real, and none of it mattered.

Only he mattered. The knight. He was perfect.

If she was cursed anyway, if the workmen and the scaffold came relentlessly closer, if they were so determined to ruin her by disrupting that boundary that encapsulated her life — why then, she would look out. She would see the knight with her own eyes and know the truth before the curse — whatever it was, whatever doom it held for her — came to pass.

First, though, she tore the tapestry from the loom, ripped apart every careful knot she’d made, sliced through it with her knife until the chamber was covered with a flurry of wool and silk. Fiber flew everywhere, a choking mess of it that made her laugh. The true worth of all her work, all this time, however much time it was. Colored bits of thread flashed as they floated through the air, catching bits of sunlight.

Then she fell to the floor and crawled. Her goal: the stone ledge of the window. The space within its arcing frame shone blindingly, the sun coming directly at her. She reached up, put her hands on the ledge. Gripped hard, pulled herself up, and looked out.

Where the images in the bronze mirror were blurry, wavering, uncertain, what she saw directly with her eyes was clear and sharp. The pale naked wood of the scaffolding, the brown and green tunics of the men working, passing to and fro across the newly made clearing around the tower. The brilliant blue of the sky — the blue thread she had been using to make skies was dull in comparison.

She passed over all this quickly, wanting only to see one thing, one solitary image: the knight in armor. He was tall; he was handsome. He stood with hands on hips, gazing upward. His smile was uplifting; his eyes shone with depth. She could see rivets and fluting in the steel across his chest and shoulders that she couldn’t see before.

Leaning on the window ledge, she gazed her fill of him.

She had a hope, for just a moment, that nothing was going to happen. The curse wasn’t real, and she wouldn’t be punished in any way for looking, as she always believed she would be. She leaned out the window to feel the sun on her face, a fresh breeze on her skin. She smiled, and then she laughed, because the world was beautiful and she was free.

The knight saw her and raised a hand in salute. She started to wave back.

That was when the skin of her hands split and red flesh spilled out in a ropey mass, dripping blood.

An earthquake rocked the land, shaking the tower, rattling stones from the walls above her. Clouds gathered, blocking the sun, turning day to night. And she thought — ah, so this is the curse. So this is what happens if I look out the window.

And the monster that burst out of her swallowed the trappings of her mortal self.

* * *

He saw her, and she was lovely. Because of course she was, being a maiden in a tower in need of rescue.

She waved at him, laughing, and his heart sang. This was a worthy maiden. Perhaps this was fate, and they were meant to be together. He cupped his hands and started to shout at her, to ask how she fared and assure her that all would be well —

And then things got very confusing very quickly.

The maiden vanished. Or something. She was, apparently, instantly replaced by a spray of blood and a glabrous mass of dripping tentacles, writhing out from the window as if reaching for the sky itself. They curled and gripped like fingers around the edge of the window and ripped, tossing the stones away. The tower cracked like a snail’s shell, and a massive, pulsing body oozed out. The thing was far larger than ought to have been contained by the tower that had until recently stood there.

It smelled of swamp and despair.

The chief castle builder came up to Lancelot, shoulders slumped, a defeated look in his eye. His men were running, screaming in terror. One of the tentacles grabbed one of the workers and thrust the poor screaming soul into what was presumably a mouth. It wasn’t entirely clear.

“I told you,” the chief castle builder said tiredly. “Cursed.”

“Huh,” Lancelot replied.

Well, he was here to either rescue maidens or slay monsters. He could no longer attempt the former, but at least he still had the latter. He drew his sword, which would have glinted nobly in the sun, but undulating black clouds had roiled in from every horizon and now covered the sun utterly. An unbreakable darkness fell upon the land.

Lancelot wanted to drop his weapon and weep uncontrollably, but that just wouldn’t do. He was a knight. Of Camelot. And he was here to slay monsters. This encounter would be legendary.

He gave his sword a swing, and it whistled as it sliced the air. He squared his shoulders, set his jaw, and knew that this was what he’d been born for.

One of the dozen — three dozen? three hundred? — gray and veined tentacles came for him, cracking like a whip, curling as if weightless, ready to snatch him and squeeze until he popped. But Lancelot was ready. With a quick lateral cut and a slash down, he separated the tip of the offending limb from the rest of it, and stabbed it where it lay writhing on the ground. The monster groaned, a bone-leeching noise that rattled the very earth. Thunder and lightning rocked the air continuously.

The next awful limb attacked before he could catch his breath, and he dispatched this one as well. His heart was proud, his arm strong, and his sword true. He turned to the panic that had erupted throughout the clearing.

“Men! Draw weapons! To me, to me!”

But these were workmen, not knights and warriors. Not a trained soldier among them. These were men who might pick up a pitchfork to defend a homestead from marauders, but they were not his vassals to call to some greater need of war.

Still, at his voice they paused at the edge of incipient madness. They looked at their hands and saw their tools, looked at Lancelot and saw his sword. And they saw what might be possible. They raised a cheer and turned to face the monster that was now sprawling over a great swath of countryside.

For a while they rallied. Axes, saws, awls, and hammers in hand, the workmen formed a line, slashing and stabbing until the thing’s fetid blood soaked the ground. The shattered stone of the tower seemed to melt in the acid ooze of it. More tentacles grew to replace the old, but for a time they seemed to keep ahead of the onslaught, and drove back the creature from whence it came. They learned to brace against its howls and screams. They somehow grew accustomed to the stink of its slime.

But the thing had an eye. A great, muddy, golden eye. And when it opened and turned its gimlet gaze upon him with all the power of its unholy origin — that was when Lancelot finally dropped his sword and screamed.

And then it was over. All of it.

Trespassers

A. Scott Glancy

“Rider approaching!” called out Havildar Thapa.

Captain Henry Conder, late of the Corps of Bengal Sappers and Miners, stood up from his collapsible camp desk and stretched. Recording the expedition’s progress could wait; Conder was intrigued that anyone could be so bold as to travel alone through the Kulun Shan. He did not for a moment think there was some mistake: his Gurkha Riflemen were unerringly precise in their observations and reports. It was one of the reasons he’d worked so hard to get as many as he could on this expedition. The Kashmiri Sepoys were sturdy enough, well trained and diligent, but even the lowest Gurkha treated his duties with all the seriousness of a regimental sergeant major.

Conder fished a pair of binoculars out of his rucksack and strolled to the edge of their camp. Havildar Thapa stood peering off into the distance without the aid of binoculars, simply shielding his eyes from the waning sun. Like most Gurkhas, Thapa stood just over five feet tall. Conder towered over him at five foot eight. Should some Uyghur bandit decide to pick off the officer from among the Gurkhas, Kashmiri and Balti of Her Imperial Majesty’s Expedition to the Eastern Chinese Turkestan, he wouldn’t have much difficulty sorting the white man from the Asiatics.

Havildar Thapa hadn’t bothered to unsling his Lee-Metford rifle yet, which told Conder the rider was still thousands of yards away.

“Where is he, Havildar?” Conder asked in poorly accented Nepali. Thapa, the five other Gurkhas, and the seventeen Kashmiri Sepoys under his command all spoke decent English, so speaking a few words of Nepali was an unnecessary, but appreciated, courtesy.

Thapa pointed back down the valley they’d been reconnoitering the past week. Conder immediately saw the flicker of movement. Bringing his binoculars up, Conder recognized the rider immediately. The giant man had stood out in Baron Savukoski’s party, even among the other Cossacks. Even at this range his size was apparent from how far down his legs hung along the flanks of the small, tough pony he rode. What had his rank been? Uryadnik? Senior Warden? It was definitely Baron Savukoski’s chief NCO, unless there was more than one sixteen-stone Cossack to be found in the Kulun Shan.

Before departing Srinagar, Conder had received intelligence that a Russian expedition had left Tashkent, a party of Cossacks and Tuvans led by the redoubtable Baron Arvid Erik Savukoski. The Finnish noble was well known among the cartographers striving to fill in the great swaths of nothing that occupied so much of the maps of Central Asia. Conder had enthusiastically read of Savukoski’s exploits in the press and various scientific journals, but his secret reports to the Russian General Staff strained Conder’s meager Russian. When a brace of Cossack riders arrived, carrying a letter of introduction and an invitation to bring their expeditions together for an evening of dinner, drink, and talk of empire, Conder could hardly have refused such an invitation, but it still stung that the Baron had found him first.

Baron Savukoski set a good table, even if the plates and cups were simple lacquered wood. The Cossacks roasted a goat for the occasion, seasoned with the last of their expedition’s spices. Both Savukoski and his Balto-German ethnographer, Otto Eichwald, presented themselves in worn but well-preserved officers’ uniforms. Conder contributed some sugar, tea, and his closely rationed brandy with which to toast the health of Her Imperial Majesty Victoria and Czar Alexander III. After dinner, conversation began with good-natured jabs concerning the inevitable clash of their empires, but ended with Savukoski revealing his familiarity with Conder’s published work for the Royal Geographic Society, and complimenting Conder on the thoroughness and precision of his observations. The next morning both parties assembled so that Eichwald could take a couple of exposures with his folding camera to commemorate the meeting of the two great explorers — a perfect tableau of worthy adversaries exchanging their respects during a momentary lull in the Great Game.

The crunch of boots on frozen rock signaled the approach of Conder’s Pathan surveyor, Malik Dost Khan. A Risaldar in the 1st Bengal Lancers, Khan had crossed the Pamirs with Conder three years previously, and scouted alternate approaches into Tibet just two summers ago.

 “Can you see who it is, Henry?” Khan asked in English.

“One of Savukoski’s Cossacks… the really big scoundrel. Do you remember his name?”

“No. Those brutes did nothing but sneer at the ‘moosulmanyes’ and stroke the pommels of their sabers.” The shared language of Conder, Eichwald and Savukoski had been French, which had left Khan out of the conversation. “You don’t suppose it’s another invitation to dinner?”

“As eager as I am for another lecture on the inevitability of the Czar’s Cossacks watering their horses in the Ganges, I don’t think that’s very likely.” Conder glassed the approaching rider again. The last time Savukoski dispatched a message there had been two riders and they had carried lances flying red pennants. Today there was only a single rider, and no such weapons were displayed.

“You sound certain.”

Conder lowered the glasses and looked Khan in the eyes. “When we broke camp I did the Russians a bad turn. I told them that the Tsang Pass was easily traversed. That we’d mapped it, and that it would cut two months off their march to the edge of the Talamakan Desert.”

Khan looked genuinely taken aback. “Do you think they took your advice?”

“We’ll know in a minute.”

Khan shrugged. “Well, I suppose someone was going to be the first to explore the Tsang Pass. Might as well be Baron Savukoski. Perhaps he discovered something he can name after his Czar?”

“Best case, he wasted a lot of time and had to retrace his route.”

“Worst, he found our elusive marauders,” Khan suggested. “Did you hope to use the Russians to flush them out?”

“No. Nothing so calculated,” Conder sighed. “I just got it in my head that I should make some effort to confound him, even just a little. We’re enemies, after all. Well, no matter. However their merry dance turned out, I suspect we shall be spared a second invitation to dinner.”

“That seems certain, Henry.”

The rider was finally close enough to make out details without the binoculars. The pony’s thick hair was caked in frost, its gait was short and rubbery, as if it had been run to exhaustion. The saddle pack seemed unusually light, with no bedroll in evidence, and the saddlebags were empty. As the Cossack approached, he swung his leg over the saddle and dropped himself into a purposeful walk, without appreciably slowing his mount. The huge man was armed to the teeth, although that was not unusual for anyone traveling in this brutal land. A long, slightly curved kindjal dagger was thrust through his silk belt. A guardless shashka saber hung from his left side. Carried barrel-down across his back was a cut-down Cossack version of a bolt-action Berdanka carbine. Strangely, his cartridge belt, slung across his broad chest, was empty of shells. His sheepskin greatcoat was torn and frayed, and spattered with fine black stains, as was his tall, shaggy kubanka hat. The man had come from a fight, the blood of his foes drying black where it had landed.

Havildar Thapa unslung his Lee-Metford and held it at port arms. Thapa stood more than a foot shorter than the Cossack brute, but showed no sign of hesitation as he stepped in front of him. The Cossack stopped and looked at Conder over the top of Havildar’s flat-topped Kilmarnock cap. Conder didn’t much care for the set of the huge man’s jaw, nor the sunken look of his eyes. The giant was unsteady on his feet, exhausted.

The Cossack pulled off his heavy gloves and produced a folded piece of paper out of the cuff of his greatcoat. He held it out and announced, so far as Corder’s limited Russian would allow, that it was a message for the “anglise kapitan.”

“Let him advance, Havildar.” Thapa reluctantly stepped aside; the Cossack shouldered past and held out the folded note. As Conder reached for it, his eyes dropped to the Cossack’s left hand, just in time to see him draw his long kindjal dagger. The captain rocked back, avoiding the sweep of the blade just beneath his chin, but he caught his heel and stumbled. The Cossack flipped the kindjal in his hand, from an upward sweep to a downward stab, and lunged before Conder found his footing. He would have been on top of Conder had Malik Khan not got both his hands around the Cossack’s forearm and wrist, turning the blade away. Thapa smashed the Cossack’s calf with the butt of his rifle. Roaring, the Cossack went down on one knee, and drove his right fist into Malik’s face.

Conder righted himself and went at the Cossack like a rugby tackle, putting the big man on his back. As the Cossack’s head struck the ground, Thapa delivered a second blow with his butt-stock, breaking the giant’s nose and spraying Conder and Malik with blood. The Gurkha NCO was drawing back his rifle when Conder waved him off.

“No! No! Wait! This man has a story to tell and I mean to hear it.”

Malik peeled the unconscious Cossack’s fingers away from his kindjal and tossed it aside. “Let’s hope you haven’t killed him.”

“Most assuredly not, Risaldar Khan,” said Thapa. “Had I meant him dead, his skull would be open.”

“Quickly, Havildar,” said Conder. “Let’s do something about his wrists before he gets his senses back.”

They didn’t move fast enough. By the time they had rope to bind the Cossack’s wrists and ankles, it took five Kashmiri Sepoys to hold him down.

When Conder and Khan rummaged through the Cossack’s possessions they found the man’s supplies were exhausted. He had no food for himself or his pony. His canteen was equally empty. No cartridges remained for his Berdanka carbine, but the barrel and action were fouled with burnt black powder. His kindjal knife and shashka saber had been recently oiled and sharpened, but their blades were chipped and bent from hours of hacking through bone and sinew. The Cossack wasn’t much better off than his pony, physically exhausted and on the brink of collapse. Conder didn’t care to think how much faster the Cossack’s knife would have been had he eaten in the last several days.

Even so, every attempt to examine the Cossack’s injury required the Sepoys to violently restrain him. He fought his captors until he collapsed. When the Cossack awoke after dark, he found himself on a blanket near the campfire, two Sepoys standing over him with rifles.

Conder thawed some snow over the horse-dung fire, sprinkling in a pinch of their remaining tea leaves. It wouldn’t be the strong brew of a Russian samovar, but he offered the tin cup to the Cossack. At first he received only a baleful stare, but soon the Cossack relented and permitted Conder to tip the cup to his bloodstained lips, and he quietly drank.

“Your name?” Conder asked. The Cossack said nothing. Conder’s Russian was weak, but he knew he’d spoken correctly. “What is your name, Kozzaki?”

The snarled response was something about how when Conder arrived in Hell, he could tell the Devil that Uryadnik Shkuro had delivered him.

“Why?” Conder asked, holding up the kindjal. The Cossack spit on the ground in front of him and launched into a tirade in something utterly unlike the textbook Russian Conder was barely familiar with.

“Did you follow any of that?” Malik asked, when the torrent subsided. He squatted nearby, one hand on the butt of his long Kyber knife, the other absently testing his swollen left cheek.

“Yes,” said Conder. “Something killed all the Russians and he blames me.”

The interrogation moved slowly and carefully, like a verbal autopsy, hampered by Conder’s Russian and Uryadnik Shkuro’s near total illiteracy. It was well past the witching hour when Conder felt he’d gotten the fullest account from Shkuro.

Exhausted by the ordeal, Conder knew he would not be able to sleep until he shared what he’d heard. He woke Malik Khan after helping himself to the last bottle of the medicinal brandy.

“Did you learn anything?” Khan said, struggling out from under his wool blanket.

“I sent those Russians to their deaths. That Shkuro fellow is the only survivor.”

“But there were over twenty armed men in their party.”

“Twenty-two. Shkuro knows of no one else who got away.”

“Could it be the raiders we’ve been looking for?” Malik asked.

“We’ll need to see what’s left of the Russian camp to be sure.”

“Then we depart in the morning,” Malik said casually, and rolled back under his blankets.

“There’s more,” Conder said. He uncorked the bottle of brandy and took a pull. He didn’t offer any to Khan, in deference to the laws of the Prophet. “The Cossack says they were attacked under cover of night. By dwarves.”

Khan sat back up. “Dwarves? What do you mean?”

“He used the work ‘karlik,’ the Russian for a person afflicted with dwarfism. But… the dwarves I’ve seen are bent, malformed creatures. Such hapless unfortunates couldn’t overwhelm twenty heavily armed Cossacks.”

“Perhaps he meant pygmies? I hear tell of such peoples in the Andaman Islands.”

“You are remarkably well informed, Malik. Yes, there are pygmies in the Andamans and in the Congo, but I doubt our illiterate Cossack ever heard of such things. Russian aristocrats are quite taken with dwarf entertainers, so perhaps ‘karlik’ is the closest equivalent in his experience.”

“Did he say how these dwarves fought?”

“Quiet. Moved well in the dark. Got inside the sentries and let loose volleys of heavy darts launched from something like a woomera or an atlatl. No musketry at all. The Russians didn’t even know they were under attack until someone was struck — and soon dropped. The darts were poisoned. Then the devils rushed the camp. Shkuro says they shot down plenty of their attackers, but those single-shot Berdankas were too slow. The Baron ordered the men to their ponies to break out of the ambush, but most of the horses had already been struck by darts; they collapsed under their riders. Shkuro carried another Cossack behind him for a while, but the man took a couple of darts. He lasted until first light and then died badly.”

“No rifles? Not even flintlocks or matchlocks?”

“Just darts, knives, and spears. Shkuro said they pursued him day and night. On foot, if you can believe that. They kept up with his pony when he walked it, gained on him when he tried to sleep. He spent all his ammunition keeping them at bay. Hasn’t seen them in weeks, but can’t be sure they gave up.”

“I take it you intend to pursue them?” asked Malik.

“It’s our first real lead on these invisible marauders.”

“Good. I look forward to it, but I’ll need a good night’s sleep if I am to kill so many kaffir,” the Pathan said, and rolled over to return to sleep.

The next morning Captain Conder addressed the assembled expedition. Having heard Conder’s intention to travel to the Russian camp and track the bandits down, the two Tibetan guides were unhappy but resigned. Their Uyghur translator, Qasim, was utterly despondent and could not seem to make himself useful or sit still. The seventeen Kashmiri Sepoys were hard-faced and grim. The six Gurkhas, however, seemed utterly indifferent. They packed their gear with the carefree cheer one would expect for a short walk to the creek for an afternoon of fishing. The Cossack remained under guard, hands tied, weapons secured.

The expedition moved with a dreary monotony, only differentiated from the days before the Cossack’s arrival by the knowledge that they were edging ever closer to a terrible danger. Shkuro had taken nearly two weeks to catch up with the English expedition, but he was just a single horseman. Moving twenty-nine men and sixteen horses meant a lugubrious crawl. The towering Kulun Shan were cold, dry, and devoid of trees. The ground was broken, rocky, and bad on horses. Conder marveled that Shkuro had avoided injuring his pony during his weeks in the saddle.

The journey left plenty of time for the men to ruminate on the impending threat. Save for the Gurkhas, the Cossack, and Conder, everyone else, even the Tibetan Baltis, were Mohammedans. Malik Khan read to them from the Koran at night, paying extra attention to those suras that exalted the struggle against polytheists and devil worshippers. Certainly, Malik assured the men, these savages could not be of the Umma, and killing vile poisoners would be righteous Jihad. His words had the desired effect.

At the end of each day’s march, Conder interrogated Uryadnik Shkuro about the conditions they would find as they backtracked his trail. Shkuro responded to Conder’s questions, but his answers were terse and guarded. Conder suspected the Cossack hadn’t yet accepted his ignorance of the dangers posed by the pygmy inhabitants of the Tsang Pass. On the third night Conder ordered the Cossack’s hands untied. On the fifth, he returned the Cossack’s weapons to him. Thereafter Shkuro answered the captain’s questions as completely as their limited ability to communicate would allow.

Yet what Shkuro told Conder didn’t make much sense, even accounting for the unevenness of his Russian. The Cossack described twin statues of dead, bat-winged dogs, carved from dark stone. He spoke of abandoned villages of stone huts, surrounded by rings of menhirs. He described the massive bones of unidentifiable animals. When Conder spoke with his Balti guides and his Uyghur translator, none of the men would admit any knowledge of such things, but the fear on their faces was obvious. Conder decided not to excite them further and kept the Cossack’s descriptions to himself.

On the sixteenth day of their march, Havildar Thapa announced the expedition was under surveillance. Without making any physical move to indicate the location of the observers, Thapa described their hiding place in terms that even an Englishman could understand.

“Excellent work, Havildar,” Conder said, blowing on his tin cup brimming with yak-butter tea. “Bring me some prisoners after dark.”

“Most assuredly, my Captain,” Thapa beamed. “A distraction would be most helpful during the approach on their position.”

“Yes,” said Conder. “I think that can be arranged.”

Several hours later, as the last traces of light faded from the sky, Gurkha Naik Rai launched into an uneven performance of “Garryowen” on his bagpipes, followed by a very credible rendition of “The Campbells are Coming.” Rai had just finished a fine performance of “The Minstrel Boy” when everyone in camp heard the screams. Seconds later Havildar Thapa blew the all clear on his whistle. Thapa and the four other Gurkha Riflemen emerged from the darkness, dragging two limp figures and prodding a third along at the point of their kukris.

“Any of them get away, Havildar?” Conder asked.

“No, my Captain, not a one,” Thapa responded cheerfully.

“Any casualties?”

“No, my Captain, not a one.”

“Excellent work, Havildar.”

“Thank you, sir. It’s always better to have music when we work.”

“Now,” said Conder more seriously, “let us get a look at — good lord, Havildar! Where are his clothes?”

Thapa’s smile dropped into a scowl. “This soldier must report that the enemy is clothed.”

Conder looked again. The prisoner’s exposed genitals were plainly obvious. The squat, dirty figure could not have been taller than four feet. The first thing that stood out was how black he was — his face, his hair, even his skin. Not naturally black, but stained with a kind of pigment, perhaps to make his naked skin less reflective for night fighting. Pale gray eyes shone brightly from his darkened face. His limp black hair was cut into a bowl that sat high atop his slightly oversized head, leaving the area above his temples and ears completely shaven. Conder was unable to place the man’s race, even under the illumination of an oil lamp. He seemed disturbingly Caucasian, only with deeply wrinkled features and skin that made him appear greatly aged. Around his neck hung necklaces of bone, and leather trinkets and fetishes, including a large leather pouch on a thong. As Conder stared, he realized that the pouch was made from the skin peeled from a human head, the eyes, nose, and mouth sewn shut to keep the bag’s contents from spilling onto the ground. Then Conder saw the seams. The pygmy was not naked. It was wearing the hide of a man, tanned and cured and sewn into a buckskin-like garment.

“Bloody hell,” Conder whispered. The pygmy sensed Conder’s revulsion and giggled in amusement. It sat on the ground smiling, blood running down its face from a gash delivered by the flat of Havildar Thapa’s kukri. The disgusting creature turned its bloodied head to smile at everyone in turn, and show the pointed teeth that adorned its too-wide mouth.

Filed, perhaps? Conder wondered. “Get Qasim over here. I have some questions for this… thing.” But the Uyghur translator would not approach. He sat by a low fire and kept his back to the prisoner.

“Qasim!” Conder called, but the man would not budge. Conder strode over and struck his best authoritarian pose. “Qasim!” he said in the Pathan tongue they shared, “you have a job to do.”

“No,” Qasim responded flatly. The blunt refusal in the face of the expedition’s leader left the rest of the men exchanging worried looks.

“Qasim, you’ll either do your job or you’ll lose your pay.”

“Take my pay,” said Qasim. “I’ll keep my soul.”

Besides Khan, some of the Kashmiri also spoke Pathan. Not wanting them to overhear, he waved them off. Conder squatted down next to Qasim and lowered his voice to a whisper. “You know this man’s tribe?”

“It is no man. It only wears the skin of a man.”

Conder took a moment. Out east, men took their ju-ju very seriously indeed. It was not something Conder could dismiss. “Do you mean its garment?”

“No. Beneath that skin there is no man. Only al-Shayṭān. Only Iblīs.”

“Is this a thing permitted to be spoken of?”

Qasim looked around, as if to ensure that no one was close enough to overhear. “It is not safe,” Qasim hissed. “There are things that hear their names if you speak them.”

“Then we won’t speak its name.”

“No. It has seen me. You spoke my name in front of it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Malik Khan interrupted. “That little monster can’t answer our questions.”

Conder leapt to his feet, fearing that one of his men had prematurely pushed a knife through the pygmy. “Did someone — ”

“No. This happened a long time ago. Come and see for yourself.”

Malik had discovered it while examining the teeth of the two dead pygmies to determine if they were filed or naturally malformed. In point of fact, they were artificially shaped. Prying the corpses’ jaws open, Malik showed Conder the more disturbing discovery.

“Their tongues have been cut out.”

Conder recoiled at the strangely empty mouths, ringed with triangular incisors. “And the live one?”

“The same.”

“Anything of note in their kits?”

“Not particularly. Crudely forged iron knives. A few darts covered in a foul-smelling paste. Their dart-throwers are carved from human thighbones. Their… clothes seem useless against cold. Their footwear is little better than sandals. They didn’t even have blankets. They must be impervious to the cold.”

“Did you find rations? They do eat, don’t they?”

“Some dried smoked meat. Hard enough that you’d need teeth like that to get through it. I fear that it may be… unnatural.”

“How do you mean?” asked Conder. He tipped out one of the dead pygmies’ small leather pouches onto the ground. Its contents filled him with revulsion. There were a number of feathers, glass beads, shaped stones, finger bones, dried human ears, and a mummified tongue. Upon giving it a second look, Conder realized the pouch itself was a human scrotum.

“I am going to execute that thing right now,” he said, standing and wiping his hands on his trousers.

“That would be good and proper, Henry,” Malik said.

Conder fetched his Navy cutlass from his tent. He had never done well on sword drills with the standard British Army officer sword, but the broad, heavy blade of the cutlass had proved brutishly effective more than once. He drew the blade and tossed the scabbard aside. As Conder approached the grinning pygmy, the creature thrust a hand into its pouch, pulled something out, and popped it into its mouth. Conder raised the cutlass to split the fiend’s skull.

“I welcome you,” the pygmy said in perfectly accented French.

Conder let the cutlass fall to his side. The rest of the party stirred in consternation.

“You have no tongue,” Conder blurted in his schoolhouse French, his thoughts forming words before he could stop himself.

“I have many tongues.” The filthy pygmy smiled, shaking his grisly pouch. With the eyes and mouth sewn shut, the upside-down visage adorning the bag looked twisted in agony. “I am pleased you have chosen to visit our sacred land of Leng. You and your kind bring rare gifts of bone, skin, and meat to the Unspeakable Lama of the Tcho-tchos. Such gifts would be nigh impossible to obtain without your steadfast efforts to deliver yourselves to our larders. The Lama is pleased by your offering.”

The trick was disturbing, but Conder had seen more inexplicable things performed by fakirs in the markets of Calcutta. At least, that was what he told himself. He was grateful that no one else in the party spoke French, but even if the meaning of the pygmy’s words were lost, the impossibility of them did no good for the men’s morale. Seizing the initiative, Conder asked, “What are you called?”

“I am the one who will enjoy shitting you out onto the cold rocks of Leng. What more do you need to know?”

“How many of you are there?” Conder continued.

“Enough that the meat of all your fellows will still leave our bellies wailing. But know that before you are divided among the faithful, the High Priest Not to Be Described will gobble your souls and vomit them into the mouths of the gods of chaos, like a vulture feeding her chicks,” the pygmy tittered.

“That’s very brave talk,” Conder said.

“We love death more than you could ever love life.”

“And yet you surrendered.”

“Because the Lama wanted me to tell you that before you die we will cut new holes in you in which to rut. We’ll use them long after you are dead.” The pygmy’s gray eyes sparkled with a nauseating delight.

Conder sighed, bored with the posturing. “I’ve quite enjoyed our conversation,” he said gently. “But I think the part I like the most about talking with you is that I’ll never have to do it again.”

The pygmy’s sardonic expression collapsed into a lifeless mask as Conder drove his cutlass down through the top of its skull, splitting the bridge of its nose. The mummified tongue the pygmy had put in its mouth rolled down its chin and onto the ground. Conder set his boot in its face and wrenched the blade free.

“This thing,” he roared in English, brandishing the bloody blade, “ate the flesh of men. It wore their skins. It boasted of abominations, as if we would turn and run. But we will not run. We are men of war. And what do men of war do with cannibals and man-skinners?”

“We tell them the Gurkhas are coming!” shouted Havildar Thapa, raising his kukri knife. “Ayo Gorkhali!” His five men followed suit and repeated the traditional battle cry: “Ayo Gorkhali! Ayo Gorkhali!”

Malik and the Sepoys drew their khyber knives and took up the takbir: “Allāhu Akbar! Allāhu Akbar!”

Even the Tibetans joined in. Only Qasim the Uyghur and Shkuro the Cossack remained silent. Qasim turned his back on the whole affair and hugged his knees. Shkuro simply watched the heathens cheering for blood.

The next day they entered the Tsang Pass. Along the way they found no bodies where Shkuro said he’d shot down his pygmy pursuers, nor did they find the body of the poisoned Cossack that allegedly fell from the back of Shkuro’s saddle. Not even bones were found. Shkuro could offer no explanation except to shrug and say, “Maybe they eat their own dead, too?”

Three days later they found the hounds. The two statues were mounted on titanic pedestals higher than the tallest man in their party could reach. The elephantine granite statues were an unwholesome chimera of Chinese fu-dog, Egyptian sphinx and jackal-headed Anubis, and Assyrian winged bull. Their lean and putrid forms were as realistically depicted as the artist’s crude ability could manage. The Sepoys lobbied energetically to pull them down with the horses, but Conder ordered them on. Time enough for that later.

Every day the expedition passed abandoned villages composed of round stone huts, like granite igloos scattered across the valley’s upper slopes. In their forlorn state they bore more resemblance to tombs than homes. The rings of menhirs and rough obelisks surrounding the ruins only compounded the impression of a vast cemetery. The carvings adorning the stones depicted horned figures engaged in unnatural acts of copulation and murder.

The unidentifiable animal bones the Cossack had mentioned were also in evidence. Although they bore some resemblance to the fossilized remains of flying reptiles Conder had seen in the British Museum, they were larger by orders of magnitude — and as bones, not stones, they represented a creature that had darkened the skies in Conder’s lifetime.

On the sixth day, sentries reported the expedition was once again under observation. Conder’s orders were to take no action against the surveillance. Show no sign of awareness. Let them get comfortable.

On the morning of their tenth day in the Tsang Pass, they came upon the wreckage of the Russian expedition. The site matched the reports Conder had read in Srinagar — inexplicably empty villages and vanished caravans. Clothing lay strewn about. Tools, weapons, ammunition lay discarded and smashed. The attackers had gone to great effort to ruin the Cossacks’ Berdanka carbines, splintering their stocks and beating their barrels against rocks. Even the Cossacks’ ponies and goats lay abandoned, stripped by vultures and scoured by ants. Yet no human corpses were found. Not even bones.

Shkuro set about scrounging for undamaged .42 caliber cartridges for his own Berdanka. Conder didn’t interfere. Looking about, he found Eichwald’s camera, an 1886 Improved Model Le Merveilleux, flattened, and the photographic plates smashed to shards. A leather-bound folio, perhaps Baron Savukoski’s expedition notes, had been burned in a campfire, its contents lost forever. Then Conder found a small crate marked опасность динамит, its contents scattered about on the ground. Most of the sawdust packing had blown away, but the sticks appeared dry and undamaged. A search produced no caps, but plenty of safety fuse. As to why Baron Savukoski had included dynamite in his provisions, Shkuro pleaded ignorance.

Conder called the men together. He explained his plan. Under the fading light of day, they moved as quickly as possible to the nearest abandoned village and made camp there. Campfires were lit inside the stone huts. No sentries walked the perimeter. The moon was dark. Conder passed the time converting a handful of .303 cartridges into passable blasting caps.

The pygmies did not keep him waiting long.

They were fifty yards from the camp when Conder fired the first flare from his Very pistol. The white star shell arced through the night, revealing hundreds of dark, slithering figures belly-crawling up the slope toward the village. Two things happened very quickly. First, the pygmies, to a man, looked up at their first sight of a burning magnesium shell, and their irises slammed shut to keep out the retina-scalding light. And second, Captain Conder gave the order, “Volley fire! Fire!”

Twenty-eight rifles roared in unison from behind the standing stones that surrounded the ruined village. Save for the single-shot rifles carried by the Cossack, the Tibetans, and the Uyghur, every man in the expedition was equipped with an eight-shot, bolt-action Lee-Metford rifle. The pygmies took the first volley in stunned surprise. They took the second volley in utter disbelief, having never seen rifles that could be reloaded so dizzyingly fast. As Conder ordered the third volley, the spell broke. Dozens scrambled to their feet to knock their dart-throwers. The swarm of .303 rounds punched fist-sized holes and left limbs dangling from shreds of meat. Dozens fell. Some managed to blindly hurl their darts into the night. They were answered by a fourth withering volley.

A moan rose from the mass of black figures struggling to their feet. A sound of disappointment, as from the mouth of a spoiled child who has found his parents’ largesse wanting. This was not fair. A stronger voice cried out among the pygmies, and they surged up the slope. Conder reloaded and fired his Very pistol as he roared the command, “Rapid fire! Fire at will!”

For the next three minutes the pygmies died. Perhaps they did love death more than the trespassers loved life, but after enduring two minutes of sustained fire, the pygmies’ love of death proved to be not entirely unconditional. The last minute before Conder called “Cease fire!” they shot the pygmies in the back as they fled. There was no pursuit in the dark.

Come daybreak, the men saw the full measure of their work. So could the vultures, which began to gather. Had anyone bothered to count, they would have found eight hundred and sixty-four spent shell casings scattered at their feet. Instead they walked among the wounded, finishing them with bayonets. No member of the expedition had suffered anything more serious than fingers singed on their rifles’ red-hot barrels. Even Qasim looked less hopeless.

Conder, Khan, and Thapa counted the dead and settled on a conservative figure of one hundred and seventy killed.

“They’ve had enough,” Malik Khan observed.

“I’ll be the one to decide when they’ve had enough,” Conder snapped. “Have the men pack up and fall in. We’re going to beard them in their den.”

The expedition was moving by 8am. Tracking the retreating pygmies was easy. Circling carrion birds marked where their wounded had succumbed or were too weak to move. Any still holding a guttering spark of life were bayoneted.

Two days later, the trail led to an almost invisible ravine. A quirk of the desolate landscape hid a narrow passage in what appeared to be a solid cliff. The expedition moved through in small groups, lest they be attacked from atop the high walls, but no one moved to oppose them until they reached the village.

They heard the cacophony from miles away. It came from another stone village, this one not abandoned. Hundreds of figures churned between the huts and standing stones, dancing, shouting, and flailing. They beat all manner of instruments constructed from the bones and flesh of men. Conder ordered Gurkha Naik Rai to deploy his bagpipes again. The effect of “Cock o’ the North” on the mob was like kicking an anthill.

They poured out of the village, down the slope, and across a half mile of open field. Conder looked at the force arrayed before them through his binoculars — he saw old men, invalids, women, and children. The women carrying infants were in the vanguard, howling like devils.

“Thank you, Naik Rai,” Conder called to the piper. “We have their attention. Please rejoin the rest of the ranks. Volley fire present at five hundred yards!”

The horde did not move particularly fast. They were under the guns for almost ten minutes, though the pace of the fire was slower. None got any closer than twenty yards, but none broke and ran. No one bothered to count the dead this time.

“By the most merciful, how could they throw their lives away like that?”

“To make us spend our bullets, Malik. Do a count. Let’s see what we have left.”

It came to just over forty rounds per man.

“The news is good, Captain,” Havildar Thapa announced upon completing the inventory. “We are unlikely to run out of enemy before we get a chance to wet our kukris.”

“Yes, but before you swallow that bone, you’ll want to measure your anus,” Khan scoffed at Thapa’s bravado. “Forty rounds per man is just enough for one more fight.”

“Yes, but they don’t know the state of our magazine,” Conder said. “So we push on, Malik. We push on.”

“Just as well. Old age is a time of wretchedness anyway,” Khan sighed.

Crossing the field of dead and dying, none felt any enthusiasm for dispatching the wounded. No one stopped to retrieve the squalling infants freezing on the cold ground, either.

Once past the village, they saw the fortress. It squatted, a massive, round, windowless dome surrounded, like the villages, by a concentric circle of rough granite menhirs. These were like the titan blocks of Stonehenge, dwarfing the gravestone-sized menhirs that ringed the villages.

“You see, Malik? Would God have spared that crate of Russian dynamite if He didn’t intend us to level that redoubt?”

Malik Khan did not appreciate Conder’s sacrilegious bluster.

As the expedition drew closer, the scale of the structure became apparent. It was the size of a cathedral, like the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and it was no fortress. There were no battlements from which to fight, no towers or windows to watch from, no murder-holes from which to shoot their poison darts. It was a dark gray dome, built from granite blocks the size of those that formed Cheops’ Pyramid. A single low, arched doorway lurked at the base of the dome. No one rushed out to attack.

“Announce us, Naik Rai,” Conder called to his piper. “Try ‘The British Grenadiers’ this time.”

The Gurkha’s performance produced no reaction.

“They seem less interested in using up our ammunition,” Khan observed.

“Then we go in after them.”

The two Tibetans, Qasim, and two of the Kashmiri Sepoys were posted at the entrance to ensure a line of retreat and to guard the expedition’s horses. They fueled and lit a trio of kerosene lamps, and Conder, his revolver and cutlass in hand, led twenty-three men into the stygian vault.

The narrow corridors turned and twisted in an unpleasantly biological manner, as if the great dome were a mummified corpse rather than a stone labyrinth. The walls inside were painted with frescoes, wet paints applied to wet plaster, preserved by the dry and the cold, and shielded from the sun and the wind. The scenes depicted in the brilliant pigments were nonsensical madness. Leviathan spiders, whose webs spanned valleys, devoured horned men, who in turn burned the spiders’ webs and crushed their egg sacs. Black ships, like triremes or galleys, rowed through the sky, landing to disgorge bloated pale horrors that herded the horned men aboard their ships, disappearing into the sky with them. Oceans and islands were depicted, despite the Kulun Shan being perhaps the most inland spot on Earth. Reptilian horrors wheeled through the painted skies, and great cities guarded foul pits that led deep into the Earth. There was more to see, but then the pygmies began to attack.

Conder kept to the widest passage with the tallest ceiling, presuming that it would lead to the center of the structure and present some keystone the dynamite could be applied to. Side passages were ignored, and, as soon as the party passed, hidden defenders emerged and attempted to take the hindmost. In the first attack, six knife-wielding pygmies managed to strike down Sepoy Ahmad and Sepoy Hasan, before succumbing to bayonets and black powder. Hasan’s wound in his shoulder blade did not appear mortal, but the wavy asymmetrical blades carried by the pygmies were covered with a tar-like substance. It was a matter of minutes before Hasan began sweating profusely and complained that he was too weak to carry his pack or lift his rifle. In ten minutes he collapsed and could not rise again.

“Poison,” Shkuro grunted to Conder in Russian. “One hour, maybe two.”

Conder explained to Hasan and the man grimly nodded his assent. Malik spoke a prayer over the man, and Conder put him out of his misery with a round from his Webley revolver. They divided Hasan’s ammunition. It did not sit well with the men to leave him, but Conder assured them they would remove the dead when they withdrew.

The close, lightless corridors removed many of the expedition’s advantages, but they used their firepower to kill scores of the naked maniacs. And yet every black-powder cartridge gone was as sand through an hourglass. In the confusion, Rifleman Rana was slashed across the chest by one of the wicked knives. Wishing to avoid the fate of Sepoy Hasan, Rana drew his kukri and threw himself into the pygmies crowding the corridor before them. Not wanting to shoot their comrade, the rest of the men waded in with bayonet and kukri, and within seconds the floor was slippery with blood. The second rank of Sepoys tried to place a bayonet through the heart of every wounded pygmy, but one managed to stab Sepoy Hussain in the calf before Conder could put a round through its eye. Hussain limped forward into the fray to sell himself as dearly as he could with his last minutes.

Cutting, stabbing, and shooting their way forward a foot at a time, they forced the last of the pygmy warriors out of the corridor and into a huge domed chamber, like a blockage forced from a pipe. Conder barely had time to register the details, since the battle did not slow, but he noted the round chamber was hundreds of feet across and was dominated by a great, yawning circular pit at its epicenter, surrounded by six rude stone altars. Directly across from the entrance, on the opposite side of the pit, was a raised dais, atop which squatted a strange and unnaturally proportioned golden throne bearing a huge, misshapen figure swathed in a voluminous, cowled yellow silk robe. The yellow hierophant did not stir, so Conder ignored it in favor of firing his Webley through the spine of the pygmy on his left, while hacking at the pygmy on his right.

As the fight spilled out across the chamber, the advantages of the rifles returned, even as the pygmies were able to bring more fanatics to bear. These zealots wore the newest and most uncommon skins to denote their rank and prestige. Conder recognized the visage of Baron Savukoski pulled down like a mask over the face of a gray-eyed monster. Conder blew out the back of its head with his Webley.

The pygmies scattered as they were pushed back; some threw themselves at the foot of the dais and waved their hands in deliberate and meaningful ways. The Sepoys shot them down from across the room, splashing their blood across the hem of the disinterested hierophant’s yellow robe. Risaldar Khan set into his opponents with his Kyber knife, reserving his own Webley for anyone who looked to be remotely bothersome. Shkuro, with his long reach and longer saber, passed his blade over the guard of pygmy after pygmy, striking off the tops of their heads. The Sepoy impaled pygmies on their bayonets, kicking the dying off the ends of their blades. The Gurkhas’ kukris scattered fingers and opened throats. Rivers of blood ran between the flagstones, winding ever closer to the lip of the yawning pit.

It took a few seconds for Conder and the others to realize they were alone among the silent corpses. No, not quite alone. One remained on top of the misshapen golden throne, quiet and unconcerned, swaddled in silk. A shape stirred under the sea of yellow. It was not the shape of a man, nor a primate, nor even something with bilateral symmetry. It sloshed and slithered under its yellow shroud like a mound of greasy serpents. Conder and the men watched as its sleeve parted, and a long, undulating tube, carved from a large bone or tusk, emerged from the folds. Pallid snakes coiled around the tube and slipped one end of it beneath the High Priest’s mask. The sound that flowed out of that tube was an atonal wail fit to wake the dead. Which was exactly what it did.

The first to stir was one of the pygmies. Sepoy Shah put his bayonet through its ribcage to finish it off. Instead, the pygmy grabbed the barrel of Shah’s rifle with its remaining hand and would not release it. Shah discharged his rifle and blew it off the end of the bayonet, but that didn’t stop it from sitting up again. Conder stepped up and struck its head off with his cutlass. All watched in speechless horror as the headless body struggled blindly to its feet. More rose. Rifles fired. The bullets did nothing but disfigure the lively dead. Even their former comrades Rifleman Ran and Sepoy Hussain were struggling to their feet. The devout called for God. The sacrilegious muttered profanities. The Cossack did both.

Conder could feel the panic rising in the men. Even the Gurkhas were at a loss. Any second he expected someone to break ranks and flee into that lightless corridor littered with the likely stirring dead. Were the hundreds they slaughtered out on the field before the village also rising?

The flute! The dead rose when the flute sounded. It was insane, but it was a straw to grasp at. Pointing his cutlass at the figure on the throne, Conder roared “Put a volley into that devil! Now!”

Everyone fired. Conder and Malik emptied their Webleys. The yellow silk erupted with gouts of something too thick and blue to be blood. Bullets smashed the flute to bits. The thing on the throne pitched forward, rolling down the steps. There was a glimpse of something pale and wet before it dropped into the pit and vanished. The flute was silent, but the dead still advanced, teeth gnashing.

The melee was joined. Kukris opened throats and bellies. Bayonets and rifle butts pushed the advancing dead back. Meat and bone were sundered, but the enemy came on. Then the Cossack struck the head off one of the pygmies and kicked its flailing torso in the chest. The corpse spun around and stumbled blindly into the bottomless pit.

“Into the pit! Force them into the pit!” Conder shouted above the din. The Gurkhas struck off the fingers and hands of the corpses, while the Sepoys speared them on their bayonets and ran them off the edge and into oblivion. Sepoy Rassoul was dragged screaming into the pit by the corpse he was trying to maneuver into it. The corpses remained silent as they were hurled in. Everyone could still hear Rassoul screaming when the last corpse was sent in after him.

And more corpses were shambling into the great hall. Looking around, Conder took stock of his men. Malik and the Cossack still stood, as did Havildar Thapa and four of his Gurkhas. Eleven Sepoys remained. Every uniform was tattered and covered in blood. How had it all gone so wrong? He’d led his men to their deaths and worse.

“Risaldar Khan! Take the men and cut your way out. Don’t fight them. Just get past them. Get to the horses and get clear. Rifleman Pun, put the case of dynamite by that wall. Leave me a lantern and I’ll catch up with you when I’m finished.”

“Henry! There’s no time for that! We have to go now!”

“That’s an order, Risaldar! Do your duty, damn you!” Malik was taken aback, but ordered his Sepoys into an arrowhead formation to force the corridor.

Havildar Thapa stepped forward. “Permission to assist the Captain!”

“No! Go now!” Conder knelt by the case of dynamite Pun had placed against the wall behind the golden throne.

Thapa pulled up his bloody left sleeve. A gash from a knife split his forearm. The skin was already darkening. “I cannot go far. So I shall not go!

Conder immediately felt both relieved and guilty that he would not be dying alone. “Very well, Havildar. It’s your time to spend as you like.”

Suddenly all the Gurkha Riflemen were shouting, volunteering to stay. Conder knew the obstinacy of Gurkhas in the face of danger. There was no time to waste arguing. He’d need every hand to keep the dead from snuffing out the fuse.

“Make yourselves useful! Rifleman Rai! I should very much like to hear ‘The Minstrel Boy’ again before I die!”

“With pleasure, Captain Conder!” Rai beamed, as he unslung his bagpipes.

“Everyone else, get out now!” Conder began prying the lid of the case of dynamite with the blade of his cutlass.

Shkuro shouted from across the hall. “Your name, Englishman? What is it?”

“Captain Henry Tobias Conder,” he yelled over his shoulder.

The Cossack nodded, tapped his chest and answered “Uryadnik Bogdan Timofeyevich Shkuro.”

As Shkuro turned to leave with Khan and the Sepoys, Havildar Thapa called out, “Wait, Captain! Did you tell the Russian what I asked you to?”

No, he hadn’t. Thapa had first made his request when the troop of Cossacks had towered over his Gurkhas as they’d posed together for Eichwald’s photograph. Conder shook his head at the man’s priorities, but would not deny Thapa’s last request. Conder stood and yelled in Russian. “Bogdan Timofeyevich! My Gurkha Uryadnik wants your Czar to know that he and his men are very short examples of the Gurkha people! Back home they are all much taller!”

“Truly,” the Cossack said without a trace of irony. “A race of giants.”

And then he was gone.

Neither man ever saw the other alive again.

The Dan no Uchi Horror

Remy Nakamura

Takeda Inochinomi, Arakage’s daughter, knelt in the mud. In final position for seppuku, the point of her tanto dagger hovered, ready to strike. The blade quivered, swaying with her breathing like an edgy viper.

Honor. This was the way of the warrior. Her father’s way. He died with such honor. She served as his second, beheaded him with a powerful stroke. Ended his agony as his intestines spilled over his tanto. In her mind’s eye, his head came to a stop, glaring at her. Honor, his eyes rebuked her.

Night crept closer, the forest bleeding shadows, heavy rain and the altar-like mountain of Dan no Uchi conspiring with her pursuers. So close to her uncle’s monastery, and she had no light. She could barely see her weapons — her naginata, a bamboo bow, a nearly empty quiver — just an arm’s reach away. The lead scouts would catch her first. Perhaps the half-demons could see in the dark. Or track her like hounds. No choice. No hope.

She focused her mind inwardly on the image of Amida, washed with gold. She mouthed the mantra, Namu Amida Butsu. Praise Amida Buddha. Inhaled smells of rain, wet earth, and damp decay. Her hands steadied, but then her father’s head replaced the Buddha’s, blood oozing, staining the statue’s lustrous neck. Honor.

She looked up at the apparition that seemed to hover before her, glowing in the deepening night.

“Honor,” she whispered. “If you had honor, we’d have died fighting. Side by side.” Her words flowed with measured force, parrying his look of condemnation. “If you had honor, we’d have built a mound of corpses around us with our blades. The priests would sing of our last stand, father and daughter.”

The gruesome vision began to fade.

“If you had honor, your daughter would not be kneeling half-naked in the mud, with no light, no second to end her suffering.”

She opened her hands. Dropped the knife.

The ghost was gone. Hot tears mixed with cold rain. She wiped them away. Pulled her kimono back up over her arms and chest. Tightened her sash. Groped in the dark for her dagger.

“I could be your second!”

Inochinomi stood, tanto pointed outward. A girl’s voice.

“I’ve never chopped a head off.” Same voice, different location. She turned to face it. Strained to listen through the wind and heavy rain. It sounded like a girl. “Not a human’s head, at least. Certainly not a woman’s!” Cheerful.

“Who are you?” Inochinomi asked. Strove to keep her voice calm. Spoke with authority. “What are you?”

“Sounds like you’re not going through with it. Shame. What kind of sick mind dreamed up seppuku, anyway? Maximum pain, gutting yourself like a fish. This is honor?” Amusement.

“Answer me,” Inochinomi demanded.

“Careful now, I’m handing you your naginata. They’ll be here in moments. Down the path. Can’t you smell them?”

The handle tapped Inochinomi’s left shoulder. She gripped it. Relaxed into the familiar heft and texture. A lifeline for a drowning warrior. She had to trust this stranger. At least for now.

“Ready yourself,” said the girl. “I’ll help you see.”

Inochinomi hesitated.

Then waves of stench assaulted her senses, punching through the rain. Excrement, bile, and rancid meat. The reek sparked memories. Her brothers and cousins speared, dying. Her family’s retainers screaming. Her father’s hasty preparations to gut himself, calling her to his side. Handing her his katana.

The stink of hell. Of her family’s demonic assassins. And through the rain, the sounds of bestial sniffing, of claws on slick grit. Inochinomi assumed battle stance. Gripped her naginata with both hands. Faced the darkness.

“Shut your eyes,” the strange girl shouted. A clack, the smell of burning sulfur, a flare of sparks. Inochinomi caught a flash of a girl clad in white, like a ghost, before she shut her eyes tight.

Several explosions followed. The pops deafened Inochinomi, the flashes painfully bright even through her eyelids. She swept her gaze from pitch-blackness to a geyser of green sparks. In the distance, a beast fled, panicked, its impossibly tall rider bouncing wildly. In the mud, another horse-beast screamed and writhed, something burning, sizzling in its guts. This horse had slime-skin and the teeth and claws of a tiger. Its masked rider scrambled up on strangely jointed legs. One of its long, ape-like arms reached for its waist, and Inochinomi heard the metallic rattle of chains.

The devils stank like a battlefield in the sun.

Inochinomi tried not to gag. Ignored the taiko pounding of her heart. She wanted to rage. These assassins had destroyed everything she loved. She controlled herself. Buried memory. Forced out even her desire to live. There was only her opponent, this battle, this moment. Her naginata was a part of her, the pole a part of her arms, the blade her claws. She advanced.

When the demon whipped his weighted chain to catch her pole sword, she was ready. Feinted, flicked her weapon out of the way. Followed with a rapid swipe to the creature’s chest. It staggered back, then fell. She skewered the hellish being, leaning into the weapon to finish it off.

She nearly let go when serpentine things burst through the chest and waist of its black garb. Eel-like appendages grabbed desperately at the pole arm. She chopped the body until the writhing tentacles quieted. As they stilled, the round-toothed lamprey mouths at their ends rasped one word in unison:

“Oneechan.” Big sister.

As the eerie green flare sputtered out, the bodies of both demonic rider and steed dissolved into gelatinous masses, sticky with mucus. Inochinomi’s vomit mixed with the foul remains as the rain fought to wash both away.ˇ

* * *

The strange girl produced a pitch torch from a waterproof woven basket she wore strapped to her back. It struggled against the rain and dark to cast a feeble flicker.

“The devil that escaped will be back,” Inochinomi said as she gathered her weapons. “With others.”

“I heard the chain,” the girl said. “It wanted you alive.” She sounded intrigued.

Now that Inochinomi had light within reach, she wanted to take it and run. She took a deep breath. “I’m in your debt.”

“Call me Mizuko,” the girl said, lighthearted. Unfazed by the attack. And the stench.

“Mizuko,” said Inochinomi. Water-girl. “Strange name for one carrying so much fire.”

“The people of Dan no Uchi used to produce most of the fireworks in this region,” said Mizuko. “People buy the ones from the capital now, but the villagers keep making them.”

Inochinomi took the offered torch.

Mizuko was a young woman, about Inochinomi’s age. She wore the white tunic and trousers of a yamabushi, a mountain ascetic, as well as the tooth and claw, bone and beak rosary of the itako, a blind medium. Mizuko poked at their attacker’s melting corpse with a thin staff. She squatted. Scooped mucus into a small lacquer box. Wiped her hands in the mud, then stood.

Inochinomi shuddered, but guided the medium’s hand to her shoulder. Mizuko thanked her.

* * *

They plodded up the slope toward the ancient monastery of Dan no Uchi, and the village that spilled around it and over the edges of the tableland. Mizuko spoke in whispers. Dan no Uchi, Within the Altar or Platform, got its name from the mountain’s abrupt, wide summit. It was as though some old god had beheaded the mountain, perhaps to create a giant table for feasting. Or an altar for sacrifice.

Inochinomi peered into the darkness for her pursuers. The torchlight transformed the forest, so that they were surrounded by clutching, wavering, limbed shadows. Mizuko looked more ghostly than human. Black hair unbound, wild and free. Pale skin, almost glowing against the night. White robe, plastered against her slim chest. Feet hidden.

The forest appeared to be slowly devouring the village. They first encountered the skeletal remains of huts, then homes consumed from within by weeds and from without by close-growing branches. Vines smothered even a crossroads statue of the Bodhisattva Jizo.

The monastery itself was lit, a fortress against the night.

Mizuko halted her careful shuffle. “I’m not welcome here,” she said.

“I’ll tell him you saved my life,” Inochinomi protested. “How will you get home?”

“Dan no Uchi is my home,” Mizuko said. “I’ll be fine. But you, samurai, you’ll be in danger at the monastery. Please, come with me!”

“I’m sorry,” Inochinomi said. She wanted to follow. She could not. Instead she brought Mizuko’s fingers up to touch her face. They stayed that way for a long moment.

Mizuko slowly brought her hand away. She followed the tip of her staff into the night.

* * *

Big monks guarded the high, backlit gate. She noted two archers, arrows nocked. Nerves on edge. The gate opened. She entered the brightly lit courtyard, squinted. Nearly two dozen lanterns burned.

The worship hall stood open. The man-sized statue, washed with gold, shone serenely, brilliantly. For all of Dan no Uchi’s remoteness, this hollow lacquered Buddha was famous. Holy. Namu Amida Butsu. Hope returned. Hell could be stopped here. A middle-aged man stepped into her line of sight.

“Uncle,” she nearly shouted, but checked herself. Then, “Abbot Uesugi.” She bowed low.

“Inochan,” he stepped forward. Navigating around her weapons, he embraced her mud-splattered body. She must reek of travel and fear and battle with the unholy. He looked sad.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Sorry?” How could he know?

“Your father is dead. Why else would you be here, alone?” His shoulders slumped. “And I fear that soon we will all be dead.”

“Uncle, what do you mean? You have the best fighting monks in the domain. And you have him,” she said, motioning toward the central altar. Wind buffeted the twin pillars of incense smoke.

They stood, gazing at the shining Buddha. The old abbot finally spoke.

“Even the Bodhisattvas and ancient kami cannot stand against old gods who were here before them, and who will be here when they have rotted, and the memories of their memories have evaporated.”

She stared at him, felt hope bleed out.

Seeing her expression, he sighed. “But I’m not powerless against such. Old knowledge runs in our family. Your father knew that when he married my sister.”

He refused to elaborate, but called for an initiate to lead her to the guest chamber.

* * *

The rain stopped the next day. Inochinomi told her uncle and his assistants what she could of the ambush on her father’s garrison, and her narrow escape. She did not speak of her father’s hara-kiri.

No one exhibited the calm she expected of holy men. Agitated monks hurried around Inochinomi, preparing for attack. She knelt in the great hall before the statue of Amida Buddha. She tried meditating, but her skin prickled. The cold dry air choked, oppressed. Even Amida seemed to peek nervously between his eyelids, the stains in the wood like streaks of sweat and tears.

When night finally came, the courtyard was again bright with lantern light, and the walls and gates had been reinforced. Twenty-seven seasoned sohei, warrior monks, paced about in breast armor, naginata and iron clubs at the ready. Seven more stood on the walls, nervously plucking at their bowstrings. Others knelt in yellow robes, grinding rosaries between their palms, chanting sutras.

She cornered her uncle. “Where would you like me? I’m the equal of any man here.”

He gestured to a far corner of the monastery. “There are two secret exits there,” he said. He cut off her protest with a gesture and continued angrily. “I’m risking the lives of my followers to protect you. You will do as I say.” His face filled with sadness, affection. “My sister’s daughter. Find the itako. I don’t like her, but if we fail, she may be your only hope. I fear weapons won’t stop this foe, Inochan.”

* * *

Inochinomi woke to a tremendous crash. From her hiding place near the escape route, she could see that the gate and the surrounding wall had exploded into splinters. Screams and snarls filled her ears. Death marched ahead of a group of masked devils. Lanterns burst before their advance, warrior monks hurled this way and that by some invisible force. Cold fear poured into Inochinomi’s heart.

The courtyard became a scene from a hell scroll. Burning wood. Cooking flesh. That hatefully familiar stench of rotting corpses. The terrified cries of dying men. Desperate shouted orders. Beastly growls and whimpers. Tentacles and ape-like arms grappling with iron staffs. Strangest of all, the path of destruction leading to the main worship hall, as if an elephant from distant India trampled friend and foe alike.

The line of chanting monks fell to that unseen force. Their bodies were thrown or smashed, blood spreading into yellow robes. Her uncle stood alone in front of Amida. He trembled, but recited words of power. Then he pointed and shouted a mystical command. The air shimmered in front of him…

Then he shrieked, interrupting his own incantation.

Inochinomi was certain that she had died, that she was in the worst of the Five Hundred Hells. Through the blurred veil of the abbot’s spell, a demonic juggernaut roared. Sprouting out of a mass of elephantine legs, writhing tentacles, and remora mouths was a torso topped with an oversized human head.

The hell-thing snarled in pain. Slime-covered tentacles caught the abbot. He struggled to continue his chant. The demon-beast slowly turned. A moment before the foul creature battered the statue of Amida with her uncle’s body, Inochinomi caught a brief glimpse of its hideous face. She saw what must have so terrified her uncle.

That monstrous face had Uesugi features. Her uncle’s high forehead and thin lips. Her mother’s light brown, almost amber eyes. Features Inochinomi shared. She collapsed to her knees, the revelation like a physical blow. The creature faded from visibility, but continued to stomp through the courtyard, slapping the ground with her uncle’s corpse. Her chest grew tight, and no breath seemed to bring enough air.

Reflexively, she began to chant. Namu. Her uncle’s head cracking on the statue. Amida. The creature’s familiar face.

She stopped chanting.

She breathed, deliberately. She felt for the hidden latches in the rear wall. Crawled through the small gates. Pulled her weapons through. She was outside the monastery.

“Inochinomi?” Mizuko’s quiet voice penetrated the haze of night and shock. Inochinomi felt a small, rough hand grasp for hers.

* * *

Even without her sight, Mizuko was an expert guide. She led them through the starlight, along crisscrossing animal paths. When Inochinomi asked where they were bound, Mizuko simply said, “home.” Inochinomi wanted to run. Far, far away. But they would find her. She knew this. Maybe even seppuku was no escape. Perhaps they could follow her into death. Find her hiding in hell.

The gray of dawn diffused slowly into the forest. The world seemed ethereal. Balanced halfway between dark and light. They descended a narrow, steep path into a glen. A tall, thin waterfall fed a clear, rock-lined pool. The mist penetrated Inochinomi’s nose and mouth, clearing the lingering stench and smoke. At the water’s edge, Mizuko put down her staff. Undressed.

“What are you doing?” Inochinomi whispered. “There’s no time.”

“This is my haven,” the wild medium said. “We’re safe here. For the moment.” Her feet slid into the pool. “I wash and meditate here every morning, summer or winter. You should join me.”

Mizuko walked under the waterfall, fingers entwined in a mudra of power. The gray light and white water washed over the young woman. Her pale skin shone. In this sanctuary, she seemed not of this world; no mere peasant mystic.

Inochinomi stripped her stinking, travel-stained clothes. Stepped into the water. Gasped as if struck. Hesitated, then moved forward. When she reached Mizuko, the shaman smiled, then stepped to one side. Inochinomi stepped into the flow. The cold water both pricked and numbed her flesh. Her breathing quickened, like a small, frightened animal’s. She tried to copy the medium’s gesture, but Mizuko felt for Inochinomi’s hands. Gently stacked one on top of the other. Palms faced up, collecting the purifying water.

When she emerged, Inochinomi could not stop her arms and knees from shaking. “I’m so cold,” she said, teeth chattering.

* * *

Ordered chaos reigned in Mizuko’s hut. Claw and shell rosaries hanging from the low ceiling. Drying mandrake and ginseng root. Talismans of crow feathers and fox paws. Columns of smooth river stones before a tiny statue of Jizo. Clay pots of herbs and incense in a corner.

Mizuko rolled out rice straw bedding on the dirt floor. Sat the shivering Inochinomi down. Wrapped her in blankets. Mizuko added wood to the central pit. Stoked buried coals into a warming fire. The medium spooned Inochinomi a hot porridge of millet and mountain vegetables. They shared a cup of weak tea.

Mizuko removed her robes. Joined Inochinomi under the covers. Pressed her warmth against Inochinomi’s icy skin. Rubbed heat back into her flesh. Back into her heart.

Mizuko gently pushed Inochinomi onto her back. Straddled her. Touched her with lips and fingertips. Hair and scalp. Forehead and eyelids. Cheeks and lips. Making slow progress down her body.

Inochinomi forced herself into this moment. She cut off her past as if with her naginata. Sliced away memories. Home. Father. Mother. Cousins. Brothers. Gone.

She struck at her hopeless future. So many fears. Death. Dread. Demons. The unknown.

She cut them down. Stepped over them.

Eyes closed, she took in the world. The rising crescendo of their breathing. Mizuko’s fingers moving within her. The hint of saltiness on Mizuko’s lips. The sight of this spectral, holy mountain woman above her, hair wild, skin pale. The umami aroma of the earth and damp forest. Sweet herbal smells within the hut. The musk of Mizuko’s skin and her own sex. She arched into Mizuko’s rough hands. Then, in one motion, Inochinomi flipped her lover over and made violent love to her.

* * *

Inochinomi awoke alone. Steam rose from a black iron kettle. The sun was high above the smoke hole.

She found inexplicable things in the hut. A badger’s head. Well-worn figurines of fish and squid with the features of men. Foreign scripts carved into wooden blocks.

Someone approached. She put these down. Picked up her tanto.

Mizuko followed her staff into the hut.

“You slept well,” Mizuko said. She smiled. Nervous. “I spoke with a woodcutter. Your enemies are still in the monastery. They’re not looking for you.”

“Not yet,” Inochinomi said. Did Mizuko seem frightened? “I should leave. Soon. I’m a danger to you, your village.”

Mizuko said nothing. She selected a bowl. She counted her pots and baskets. Pulled herbs from this one, a powder from that, rubbing and sniffing each. She mixed these with hot water. Knelt before Inochinomi, holding it out to her, an offering.

Inochinomi took the warm bowl. She was leery but dismissed it. Mizuko had saved her, cleansed her, healed her. Made love to her. She sipped carefully, then drank deep. Bitter, but immediately soothing.

Mizuko turned her head. Listened carefully.

Inochinomi wanted to slip back into the bedding. Her body felt heavy. Sleep. Rest.

She made to spring out of bed. Stumbled instead. Fell to her knees, then struggled to the door.

“Why?” she slurred.

“I have to protect my village, samurai.” Mizuko’s voice was deep with sadness. “I’m sorry.”

Inochinomi stopped at the doorway. Through blurring vision, she saw two strong peasants step cautiously out of the surrounding forest. She slumped to the ground.

* * *

Inochinomi woke, gagging. The stench was familiar, stronger. The charnel smell of putrefying corpses. Vomit.

She lay on her side, on worn wood. Rough rope bound her wrists.

A demonic choir rumbled chants. The higher pitch of a woman’s voice wound around their syllables, bound them. Set Inochinomi’s teeth on edge.

With effort, she opened her eyes. She faced the monastery courtyard. She was on the raised veranda of the worship hall, one high step above the ground. A dozen of the half-demons worshipped, kneeling on blood patches in the gravel. They rocked their bodies in rhythm to the deep bass of the chant. Their waist tentacles protruded, swaying like catfish feelers.

From a wide gap in the center of the courtyard came the lowest voice. The wood vibrated, as if the building trembled to hear it.

Mizuko had been her last hope.

“She betrayed me,” she said. Surprised.

“Poor blind girl had no choice,” a woman spoke from behind her. Cheerful. “I killed a family each hour until she delivered you.”

A figure in red-lacquered armor stepped over Inochinomi. Squatted low. Hair wild. Smiled with her uncle’s broad smile.

“Inochan,” the woman said. “You’re with me now. Good morning!”

“Mother,” Inochinomi said. Like a curse. Takeda Yonomi.

Her mother held the other end of the rope that bound her. She yanked Inochinomi up to a sitting position. Mother bent over daughter, face close. The unholy monotone continued, a slow heartbeat.

“You left us,” Inochinomi said.

“I swore I’d come back for you. Mother keeps her promises!”

“You came back to kill me.”

“To kill you?” Her mother’s brow furrowed. “Never! Dear Inochinomi, daughter of my womb and breast, how could you even think such a thing?”

“You killed everyone! Sent assassins after me, and that giant hell-beast!”

“Assassins? Beast? Oh! You mean my sons!” She laughed.

“Your sons?” Inochinomi felt the blood drain from her face.

“Inochan, meet your half brothers,” her mother said with obvious pride. She gestured behind her. “You can’t see Little Brother, of course. He’s stuck halfway between worlds, but that will change. Soon!”

Inochinomi recoiled. Tried to slow her panicked breathing, to calm her racing heart.

Her mother leaned forward and grasped the back of Inochinomi’s head with subtle strength. Their foreheads nearly touched. Mother’s pupils half-hid muddy irises. Her armor had the bite of stale sweat.

“Inochan, Inochan,” she said, wide eyes filling with tears. “How I love you.” Her grip on her daughter’s hair tightened painfully.

“Inochinomi, Daughter,” she whispered. “You’re getting married today! And not to a mere man, but to a great kami, one older, more powerful than Amida and Amaterasu!”

Repulsion, fear, anger exploded within Inochinomi. She aimed the crown of her head into her mother’s nose and launched herself forward. They fell from the veranda to the courtyard. Her mother, still gripping Inochinomi’s hair, twisted in mid-air so that Inochinomi took the fall, landing on her back. The closest demon shifted its position, continued its drone.

Yonomi landed with one foot on each side of Inochinomi. Her mother leaned over her, blood dripping from her nose onto Inochinomi’s face.

“Oh, that’s my daughter!” She laughed again. “My lover will be so delighted!” In spite of Inochinomi’s panicked struggle, Yonomi grabbed her daughter with inhuman strength.

“My darling little child,” her mother said. She carried Inochinomi back into the worship hall, a mother carrying a child throwing a tantrum. “It’s all right. You don’t know anything yet. I didn’t understand, and I summoned him, offered my body to him.”

Yonomi shuddered, sighed. “Such pleasure,” she breathed. “Such pain. Unfortunately, I’m done now, Inochan. I started too late… But you! You’re still young. You could raise an army. He —” she motioned her head toward the altar  “— requires consorts to seed the world with his children. Maybe someday he’ll come all the way through himself. But until then, you could unite and rule Nippon under the Takeda banner!”

Yonomi dropped Inochinomi on the floor before the golden statue of Amida. Her mother threw the rope over a ceiling beam. Pulled on the rope, raising Inochinomi painfully by her wrists. Tied the other end to a support column. Inochinomi stood before the altar, stretched toward heaven, like an offering.

“The children grow fast,” her mother said. “Little Brother grew up fastest of all! Don’t worry, we’ll find other consorts to help you. You’ll birth a swarm in no time.”

Her uncle’s worship hall had transformed into a temple of nightmares. The dying sunlight poured blood-red into the room. On the floor, a series of calligraphic circles. Old Hànzì from China. Sanskrit from further ago still. Strange symbols with animal heads. Staring at them brought vertigo. The statue of Amida wore Yonomi’s brother’s blood. Blackened cheek. Splatter across its chest, like a sash. Disturbing scripts appeared to crawl across its face and hands and feet. No longer serene. Tortured.

She turned away from the horror. Her hideous half brothers prayed behind her in the courtyard. Her weapons lay heartbreakingly close, on the veranda. Her mother meditated within a smaller circle. Knelt over burning incense. Cupped the smoke with her hands. Drew it toward her face. Inochinomi inhaled a thread of the bitter smoke. Her head spun, and the room seemed to expand and contract at the same time.

The largest circle contained only Inochinomi and the bloody Buddha. Animal terror hovered on the edges of Inochinomi’s mind.

Breathe. A strand of smoke snaked past her face. Hold. When it moved away, she breathed again. She all but hung from the ceiling. But her feet were free. She could step, hop.

Her mother began to chant, eyes closed, face ecstatic. Liquid, hissing syllables rose above the bass pulse from the courtyard. Together they summoned and seduced. Inochinomi’s heart beat faster. Blood in her head and groin throbbed. She spun to face the statue.

Under its carved wooden robes, Amida’s skin began to ripple. The torso expanded and contracted. Yonomi’s voice crescendoed.

The not-Buddha opened its eyes. The Void stared out at her.

Inochinomi stared back. She could not look away.

“Namu Amida Butsu,” she said. A eulogy.

There was no past, no future. There was only this moment, a rope, and her enemies.

She turned, took two short steps, and launched herself into the air above her mother. Seizing the rope above her bindings, she swung back around. At the end of the rope’s arc, she hooked the statue’s head with her feet. Pulled herself closer. Gripped the idol powerfully with her thighs. If she could, she would smother it. Crush it to dust.

She heaved it off the altar. The hollow statue lifted with surprising ease. But when she started her backward swing, its weight yanked her down. Rope bit into her wrists. Wrenched her shoulders.

She dragged the defiled idol into her mother. It scraped within that smaller circle. The statue fell forward into Yonomi’s entranced embrace. Her mother lay back. Wrapped her legs around it. Arching into it. Inochinomi looked away.

Suddenly, bright flashes lit the darkened hall like multicolored lightning. Explosive pops and cracks in the courtyard. The battle cries of peasants. Acrid gunpowder smell.

Voices. “I understand. Cut her down and untie her.” Mizuko issued commands. A middle-aged peasant man cut her rope with a sickle. Worked at her knot. Leapt into the courtyard, yelling, waving his sickle.

“Samurai, my people are dying,” Mizuko said. “If I bring the great demon fully into this world, can you kill him?”

No apology. No gratitude. Only this battle. Inochinomi rubbed her wrists.

“I think so,” Inochinomi said. She retrieved her weapons. Stood on the veranda, between what remained of Yonomi and the battle. “But what about my mother? She stopped chanting, but —”

“No time!” Mizuko shouted. She clasped bone and claw between flat palms. Beads of blood dripped along the rosary. In the courtyard, invisible tentacles tore a farmer in half. The man who had helped cut Inochinomi down lay crushed, chest flattened under an invisible foot.

Inochinomi cleared her mind.

Mizuko began her incantation. The air shimmered. The louder she chanted, the more the hell-beast solidified. It turned to face them.

From that giant abomination sprouted a hideous version of her uncle’s face. Her mother’s face. Her own face. It bellowed. Charged them. Stampeded peasant defenders and one of its masked, devilish brothers. The earth shook.

There was only her breath. Her enemy. Her arrow. Time stopped.

Inochinomi let the arrow fly. It flew into that tunnel of a mouth. The beast stumbled to a stop. A shriek.

“Mother,” it gurgled. “Father!” Barely words.

A second shot to its left eye. She dropped her bow. Leapt in with her naginata.

“Yog Sothoth,” it shrieked. “Help!”

She butchered the beast. Took her time.

Mizuko called for her. Inochinomi climbed back up the temple steps.

The idol was gone. Her mother wrapped her arms and legs around a statue-shaped nothingness. Deeper and darker than the blackness between the stars.

It called to Inochinomi. Seductive. She took a step forward.

Then Mizuko’s cold hand grasped hers. Firm. Inochinomi closed her eyes, returned the grip.

More fireworks exploded from somewhere behind them. Their world flickered as the Void collapsed in on itself. Her mother lay still. Her face frozen. In extreme pleasure. And pain.

“She had no more life to give,” Mizuko said. She nudged the frozen corpse with her foot. “Just her own.”

Inochinomi turned her back on her mother’s corpse. Still held Mizuko’s hand. Rainbow sparks poured into the courtyard.

Dan no Uchi burned. It had been an ugly village, but it died beautifully.

For Inochinomi, there was only this moment.

St. Baboloki’s Hymn for Lost Girls

L. Lark

The flowers come first, and then the monster.

This is the first thing Naledi is taught, even before her mother’s name. Four days after her birth, Naledi is carried to the mission church beyond the grove of marula trees. Young monkeys watch from low branches, cheeks stuffed with fruit. The church has battered white walls and a stained-glass window above the pulpit. A bare nail juts from the place where a crucifix once hung.

Ona, Naledi’s mother, drips rainwater onto Naledi’s eyes and tongue through a root, singing the hymns of St. Baboloki and the high god Midomi. She uses a cactus barb to prick Naledi’s finger and smear a dollop of blood onto the white altar cloth. It spreads through the fibers in the shape of a moth.

Ona wraps her palm around Naledi’s small foot.

“I hope you never see the flowers,” she says, while Naledi’s laughter bounces against the rafters.

* * *

Naledi grows too quickly for her skin. By the time she is thirteen, she can easily pluck hairs from the heads of the men of her village, but her body feels tight and too warm. Even her hair seems to grow in every direction, reaching like the limbs of a skeleton tree. Naledi’s size makes her feel formidable, even when migrating giants appear on the low plains. Once, she swung her knobkerrie at a bull elephant positioned between her and the well.

Naledi does not remember her father. Her mother claims she has none.

“I swallowed the seed of an ebony tree and you grew inside me. I carved your club from its branches. You and the knobkerrie were born together,” Ona says, showing Naledi how to polish the wood with palm oil. Ona teaches her how to fish and weave a basket and interpret the warning huffs of baboons, but Naledi speaks to the insects all on her own.

“Little darling,” Naledi says to a bee, running her index finger over its honey-yellow tuft. Static bounces between them. “Why do you sing so loudly today?”

Naledi is tending to the nets gathering tilapia in the river. The water is thick and filled with plumes of dust, but spiked dorsal fins carve through the current. Bees zigzag between the tall grasses.

“We can finally smell the flowers,” the bee says, and flies from Naledi’s palm.

* * *

The desert has spread to the edge of their village. Naledi can see a sharp designation in the ground where the water dries out, green and gold, like a world divided. Naledi does not venture into the desert. Its sky is low and colorless, and the insects are too quiet. There are centipedes beneath the rocks, but they only whisper soon soon soon.

In the orange fog of June, Ona wanders into the dunes and does not return. Naledi waits with her toes cresting the hard line of sand, but her mother does not reappear. Ona’s husband joins Naledi at the village edge, humming the song of St. Anthony, patron of lost things. After four days, Naledi realizes she will be alone forever.

Naledi flees into the forest. Overhead, monkeys toss fruit pits through drying leaves. She has heard the hymns of St. Baboloki sung by white missionaries, smashing mosquitoes against their arms, but Naledi has never spoken their words herself. She finds a quiet space beneath the ebony tree, and uses the knots in its trunk to guide her prayers like rosary beads.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry,” a butterfly sings above Naledi’s head. “Your mother will be spared.”

The following day, the flowers come.

* * *

The flowers are hardly the width of Naledi’s palm. She is learning how to pluck the feathers from a guinea fowl when they arrive. The midday sun has reappeared between low swaths of clouds, and the insects are warming themselves on exposed rockbed.

“What’s that?” Naledi asks, pointing to the red blossom atop her aunt’s thatched roof. Thaney is twenty. She does not have a husband, and seems to mistrust the men who bring her salted meat in leaf wraps. Once, Ona attempted to explain Thaney’s curse, but Naledi had been distracted by flies singing a conquest ballad over Ona’s beer jugs.

Thaney has cropped hair and three fingers on her left hand. Ripped away by a hyena, she claims, but Naledi watches Thaney sloppily sever the head of a bird and thinks otherwise. At times Thaney’s shadow appears as that of an enormous dog.

“You’ve been practicing with your knobkerrie?” Thaney asks, without looking to see what Naledi is indicating. This is normal. Naledi thinks that her gift of speech with insects does not extend to human beings. Words seem to fall from her mouth garbled.

“No,” Naledi says, because it is the truth. She has no idea what Thaney hears instead.

“That’s good, Nal. Finish with this bird and have some figs by the river.”

Naledi does, and takes the knobkerrie with her. It is a slender rod topped by a knob of ebony. Naledi has only ever used it to slaughter her aunt’s birds, but the right strike can fracture a man’s skull.

“Why do you hide your face?” a butterfly asks, landing on a reed by Naledi’s side. Its antennae stretch toward Naledi, as she presses her feet into mud. Flower bulbs are pushing through the soil, but Naledi cannot see the scarlet of their petals yet. Her heart feels like a knob of rotting fruit.

“My mother is gone.”

“We told you, she is safe. The Adze will be with us soon.”

“What is the Adze?” Naledi asks, but the butterfly is captured by a draft and flung into the scrublands.

“Wait,” Naledi calls, but nothing responds. She can smell men returning from the plains with slaughtered springbok on their backs. It is a day like any other day, but her mother is missing, and the earth feels like it is bubbling with pressure, like a vein.

Naledi uses the end of her club to carve an X into the mud. Around her lines, the new plants quiver, but none sink back into the earth.

From the distance, Thaney calls Naledi’s name over the wind. By the time Naledi arrives home, flowers are blooming across their village like a flood.

* * *

Thaney sacrifices one of the birds that evening and spreads its blood over the door of their home. Naledi goes hungry, picking at strands of cooked pumpkin. A fly sticks to pulverized vegetable matter on their tabletop, but is too panicked to respond to Naledi’s questions.

“Stop buzzing, girl. I know your mother warned you not to speak to things that can’t answer back. You should be praying.”

“I did pray. When I pray, nothing talks back,” Naledi says, and Thaney stares as if Naledi has spoken a foreign language.

Naledi’s mother warned her of no such thing. Naledi’s mother had been able to tell the week’s weather by the flight pattern of pied crows over the field. Her mother had once transformed into a flock of sparrows to avoid an angry buffalo rooting through their garden.

“What is the Adze?” Naledi asks, scraping a tendril of pumpkin from beneath her thumbnail.

“Did you hear that word from one of the men? I’ve told you not to follow them into the bush anymore. It’s old hunters’ talk. There were other gods, before the saints came. To speak their names now is blasphemy. Eat your food,” Thaney says, although they have no more food.

In the village it is always hot. When Naledi wakes the next morning, her sweat leaves an outline of her body in the sheets. She had been dreaming of a single point of light weaving between trees. Outside, crocodiles belch up the day’s first meal. The breeze smells of stomach acid.

Naledi leaves the latrine to discover flowers are sprouting from cracks in the earth. Petals drop from tree branches. Blossoms are stacked atop other plants like a conquering army. The neighbors are standing in the path leading to their home, knee-deep in red. Their goats seem unfazed.

Thaney emerges from the house, carrying Naledi’s knobkerrie. She is wearing a white dress that ignites in the sun.

“Have you prayed today, Nal?” Thaney says, swinging her eyes back and forth, like a hunter who has heard a snap in the darkness. She holds the knobkerrie toward Naledi, and Naledi’s hand reaches out unbidden. “Go to the church where your mother baptized you. Spill some blood for Baboloki.”

Naledi stumbles onto the trail that connects their home to the mission church. The path is obscured by flowers so bright they seem to exude heat. The people of the village line Naledi’s trail, hands flattened across their brows, squinting into the vast plane of opened blossoms.

The chapel is, for the most part, unused, and blockaded by a sheet of climbing vines. Once, a reliquary containing St. Baboloki’s molars had been tucked into the niche above the altar. The crucifix and the relics are gone now, and Naledi does not know if the ground remains sacred with the source of its power missing.

Naledi pushes in the door with her shoulder, remembering that curses are always transferred through the palm. Inside, a man is seated in the northeastern pew, curved forward piously. He wears a pith helmet like the white men on the coast, but his skin is dark like the sky after lightning.

He does not unfold when Naledi takes a step into the building. The chute of light from the open door halves the interior of the chapel. She moves sideways into the darkness.

“Sir,” Naledi calls, but the man in the pew takes a long moment to turn. In the contrast of the chapel, his eye sockets are filled by yawning gulfs. Two flies knock against the bridge of his nose.

“You can come pray, if you like. Although, I’m afraid once the flowers bloom, it means the Adze is already on her way.”

“The Adze?” Naledi says, watching her bare foot move forward into the dust. The crown of her hair brushes the chapel’s ceiling.

“The Being of Light, the Six-Legged One. What’s that you have, girl?”

Naledi transfers the knobkerrie to her left hand, so she may wipe the sweat from her palm.

“My mother made it. It’s just a trinket.”

The man in the pith helmet stands, and Naledi sees that he matches her in height, with arms that seem to swing unhinged against his sides. She does not recognize his face, but his suit reminds Naledi of the European generals who pass through on their climb to mines in the foothills.

“No one has ever told you about the Adze? Insects love to gossip.”

“I’m just here to pray, sir. You should leave out that window.” Naledi says, thinking of the way Thaney flinches at the sound of shouts in the night. Naledi wonders if the flowers are blooming inside them too, like a bundle of poison in their bellies.

“But you’re here to pray to me, aren’t you?”

“Don’t play,” Naledi says. “Out the window, please.”

“Your choice, little seed,” says the man in the pith helmet. He disappears a moment later, but it is as a swarm of flies that hum radiantly in the pink light of the stained-glass window.

“Wait,” she calls, watching the pith helmet drop between the pews and roll full circle. The flies briefly hold the shape of a man before being swept away. The knobkerrie feels heavy. It drags Naledi sideways as she moves toward the altar, shoulder pressed against the chapel wall.

Naledi retrieves the pith helmet. Two flies have been flattened against the rim. She scratches her forearm, unsure of whether or not she feels the swelling lump of a bite beneath her nails. Outside, a herd of springbok grunts in alarm, and flowers tumble in through the open window.

Naledi puts the helmet on, so she can use her hands to pray.

The Adze arrives before Naledi can finish her affirmations. Naledi knows this because the calls of the springboks are briefly silenced, and then the roof of the chapel breaks open.

Or rather, it is knocked away by a hooked claw at the end of an enormous leg. Naledi glances up to see a phosphorescent blue underbelly, protected on three sides by a thick carapace. She ducks beneath a pew and watches the segmented body slowly pass, as splinters of the chapel tumble down. A support beam grazes the edge of her helmet.

Naledi waits for the chapel to stop trembling before pulling herself toward the knobkerrie, which has rolled to a stop against a leg of the altar. Naledi’s limbs feel poorly constructed, as if their connective tissues have snapped. Her breath sounds like a rock tumbling down a well.

“She’s here, She’s here,” two wasps sing, as Naledi climbs over the ruined chapel wall. The great thing has started downhill, and Naledi can no longer see its arched back over the summit.

“What was that thing?” Naledi says, surprised by the sound of her own voice.

“The Being of Light. The Great Pollinator. Eater of Flowers.”

One of the wasps settles upon Naledi’s shoulder, but she swats it away before it can sting.

“Why did it come here?”

The wasps move around each other counterclockwise.

“You should have let Baboloki tell you,” they say in unison.

In the valley below, there is screaming.

* * *

“You can talk to the saints,” Naledi’s mother tells her, four days before she flees to the desert. “They listen, even if they don’t always answer.”

“Why won’t they answer?” Naledi asks. She is hammering goat meat with a mallet while her mother stirs vegetable relish. Earlier, Naledi had been plucking pods of tamarind from their neighbor’s tree. Tomorrow morning she will wake early to soak the lentils for supper. Naledi’s life revolves around food. Her hands smell of earth, always.

“The saints were once human too. They have their own whims. They are distracted easily. One might argue it’s not in one’s favor to attract too much of their attention. But sometimes, if they’re feeling helpful, you might be able to bribe them.”

“With blood,” Naledi says, staring into the mottled meat below her.

“Blood, sometimes. Gold. Herbs. But women like us, we can be more — creative.”

Naledi wishes she had asked her mother what she’d meant, but she’d been served a basket of fried bread, and her mother had let her taste a glass of home-brewed beer. Naledi had fallen asleep drunk, with a pleasant effervescent feeling in her stomach.

“Baboloki! I have your helmet,” she cries now, because she can think of no other offering. The Adze has left behind a trail of trees like broken fingers. A springbok lies flattened along the riverbank. She runs in the direction of the village, following enormous claw-shaped footprints.

“I have the knobkerrie. I have blood. Answer me.”

The swarm of flies floats above her head, unimpressed.

“I can bring you fish. I can bring you a goat. I’ll bring you the Adze, if you just answer me.”

The flies grow in density until they are able to form the silhouette of a human. After a moment, Baboloki’s features emerge from the mass.

“Did you say the Adze?” buzzes St. Baboloki.

Naledi did, but she does not admit it. There had been long, oiled hairs jutting from the Adze’s legs. She cannot remember if she had seen its hooked jaws or only imagined them, strong and sharp like those of a dung beetle.

“Do you want your hat or not?”

“No, no. It looks better on you, and the Adze is the only thing this village has worth offering,” Baboloki says. His body has mostly reformed from the swarm of flies, but his hands still dissolve into humming points. “Sacrifice the Adze, and I will bless this land so that flowers may never grow here again.”

“I don’t know how to kill it,” Naledi says.

“You and the knobkerrie were seeds together. Do what a seed does,” says Baboloki. For a moment, his dark eyes reflect the volcanic red of the blossoms. Naledi had been afraid of the Adze and its long, clicking limbs, but there is something dark and nasty in the hollow of Baboloki’s smiling mouth.

“I will extend the protection of the saints,” Baboloki says, before he tips Naledi’s pith helmet over her eyes, knocks a knuckle against the forehead, and then scatters, droning.

* * *

It is not difficult to catch up to the Adze. It moves slowly, pausing to slurp up great mounds of earth. The long barbs on its tongue spear through flowers in the soil. Naledi watches it crush the first three huts at the edge of the village. The air is filled with the snap of wood and bones breaking. Naledi’s knobkerrie feels heavy in her hand, and electrified, like the wetlands after a lightning strike.

“Wait,” Naledi calls after it. “Listen.”

The Adze blinks. Its eyes reflect every facet of the landscape, and for a moment Naledi is filled with vertigo.

“Um, hello,” Naledi says, noticing the soft patch between the Adze’s armored chest and head. She thinks it is very likely that she will die today. Naledi pictures her mother stoking fire over a fallen tree, and wonders if death is the same as wandering into the desert.

“Hello,” says the Adze, as it scoops up more flowers and several goats with its tongue. A hoofed leg slips from its mouth. Around them, men and women with bundles in their arms disappear into the bloodied dust.

“I was wondering if you could answer something for me.”

The Adze drops an antenna toward Naledi’s face and tips the lid of her helmet. Naledi feels as though she has been pushed backward out of her body. The Adze’s buzzing vibrates her teeth.

“If you hurry. The flowers will not be at their ripest for long.”

“Why did you come here, large one? We’ve never seen anything like you before.”

“I go where the flowers go,” says the Adze, and steps forward, trampling a garden. Yams pop up from their tombs.

“There must be flowers elsewhere,” Naledi says. The Adze’s throat wobbles in the soft gap between plates.

“Not as lovely as these,” says the Adze, and it plunders forward into the village.

Naledi lunges after it. Her arms link around the Adze’s fifth leg. She scrambles up, using the hooked rungs of its exoskeleton. The knobkerrie swings from her belt, and she can feel bruises forming before realizing her hip is being struck.

“Stop it. You’re itchy,” the Adze says, as Naledi pulls herself toward its head.

Below them, villagers flee their trembling homes. Naledi sees an arm crushed beneath the Adze’s forked claws.

“You stop it. You’re destroying my home,” Naledi says. They are still a mile from Thaney’s house on the hill, but the flowers have grown heavy and tall, and they droop onto the rooftops. The air is dense with yellow pollen that clogs Naledi’s throat. She imagines it settling in her lungs, and flowers bursting from her open mouth.

Naledi attempts to wedge the knobkerrie into the soft stretch of tissue that connects the Adze’s body to its head. It rears, sending her sliding along the ridges of its abdomen. Nectar pours from the gap between the Adze’s jaws.

“Please don’t do that,” the Adze says, as Naledi scrambles to deliver another blow to its neck. The knobkerrie bounces as if hitting rubber.

The calluses on her palm feel as though they’ve been whittled away. The Adze flicks an antenna in her direction, but Naledi only feels the rush of air that follows. A plan forms in her mind, whole but vague. All hunters attack at the throat, Naledi knows, and she has seen the Adze’s soft trachea expanding and contracting from the ground.

“Listen,” Naledi calls, scrambling toward the Adze’s head. One of the antennae slices through a cloud. “You’re going too fast. You’re going to run out.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, small thing. The flowers always come back,” says the Adze. It flings its antenna back again, and this time Naledi is able to wrap her arm around it. Sensory hairs scrape Naledi’s stomach. What pollen shakes into her mouth tastes like fruit rind, neither sweet nor bitter, but unquestionably unpleasant.

The Adze wags its head and Naledi falls backward. The sky and flowers briefly mix into a shade of violet. The knobkerrie is bound to her hand tenuously, as if a static charge is all that keeps the wood against her palm. She swings anyway, hoping that if Baboloki has blessed her, then he has also blessed her hands, and they will move against an enemy as if magnetized.

She delivers a blow to the Adze’s throat, but it doesn’t react, except to say, “You’re still around? I thought we had parted ways.”

The pink tongue again unrolls from the Adze’s mouth, as it moves beyond the shattered remains of the marula grove. An escaped bird collides with the Adze during panicked flight. Feathers stick to the nectar on Naledi’s skin.

She lunges for the tongue as it returns to the Adze’s mouth. Naledi is dragged up, catching a protrusion of the Adze’s lower jaw. There is the red of the flowers and then there is darkness that stinks of compost.

We began as seeds, Naledi thinks. She swings thoughtlessly into the softness of the Adze’s mouth, even as suction pulls her downward. The club connects with something spongy, and a moment later daylight thrusts in. Naledi drags herself toward it, but the knobkerrie falls from her palm and tumbles into the darkness of the Adze’s throat.

The Adze retches, sending Naledi rolling forward. Her body swings toward the Adze’s eye, fist ready. It connects, sending octagonal lenses flying from the center of the impact. The Adze stumbles and Naledi falls with it.

Flowers tumble from the sky continuously, like raindrops.

The great creature drops sideways onto the riverbank, and the baboons screech with their heads thrown back. Naledi lands atop its neck. Something viscous and pink splatters against her cheeks. The buzzing briefly lulls, and the world falls silent, aside from the creak of swamp grass bending in the wind.

Then something spears through the Adze’s carapace from the inside. They are branches, growing in intervals as though obeying the pulse of a heart at their center. Their bark is black as the knobkerrie, black as Naledi’s corkscrew hair, and they spread across the Adze’s body, sending fractures through its shell.

“Are you there?” Naledi whispers, watching flowers spill from the Adze’s mouth. Her hands are still attached to eyelashes, but her feet wobble with the Adze’s labored breaths. The branches grow, and their shadows spread across Naledi’s skin like fissures. She does not know if the knobkerrie has grown roots as well, but the Adze’s body feels anchored to the ground and steady, as Naledi’s never will.

St. Baboloki is hovering over the water. His swarm weaves through the reeds in three strands, like a braid. Naledi thinks the sun might be setting. The light in the sky is orange and searing, and the Adze’s shattered eye looks like it has been set aflame.

“Baboloki!” Naledi calls, as the flies settle upon her bare arms to examine a patch of dried blood shaped like a butterfly.

“You did it,” hums the swarm. “I’m impressed. I’ve never seen anyone attack the Adze before.”

“It’s just an insect. It’s just — it was an old thing, wasn’t it? It only wanted the flowers.”

The Adze’s limbs reach for something that does not exist. After a moment, Naledi feels it still beneath her feet. She looks up to see vultures gathering atop the newly formed tree. Hyenas chatter and bark in the bush.

“You destroyed a thing which destroyed. Have you done it in my name?” Baboloki says, drawing back from Naledi and forming itself into the shape of a man. It plucks the pith helmet from her head and drops it atop its own.

“I suppose,” says Naledi. She pictures her mother, mashing lentils with a round stone. The image comes unaccompanied by context or emotion. In the memory, Naledi’s mother sings the hymns of Baboloki, but Naledi cannot recall the words. She nods. Her arms weigh like roots burrowing into the earth. “She always said the flowers would come, and then the monsters.”

“It is a lovely sacrifice, I must say. One of my favorites.”

“Take the flowers away now.”

“Of course,” says Baboloki.

“You go away too.”

“Unfortunately, as a saint, I am always very much here, in the same way I am not here.”

The Adze is still now, but exudes heat like a ghost pulling itself from a body. Naledi does not understand Baboloki’s statement.

“My mother said the flowers would come first, and then the monsters. The Adze was only hungry. You are — ”

“A saint, I assure you,” Baboloki says, and Naledi watches his dark skin fracture into insects once more. They drop the pith helmet atop Naledi’s head and prick her arm twice before dispersing into the flowers. Twin bubbles of blood grow in increments with her pulse. The flies devour the flowers in great swarms, but also the still bodies of trampled springbok and people. Thaney’s home on the hill is untouched, but Naledi does not see people emerging from their closed doors. There are only baboons, stealing vegetables from abandoned gardens and screeching into the windless afternoon.

Naledi scrubs her arm with a closed fist to keep the smell of the flowers from lingering. Her blood joins the Adze’s.

After a moment, Naledi adjusts the pith helmet to block the barbarous sun of late afternoon. She breaks a length off the knobkerrie’s tree and swings it into the palm her of left hand. Alongside the Adze, moths appear to sing a funerary ballad. Naledi started as a seed, but now she is a branch marked by ruts and crosshatches.

Naledi follows after Baboloki, like a hunter tracking the herds.

The Children of Yig

John Hornor Jacobs

Grislae bent her back to the sea.

The face of the ocean was dead and still. Mist hung about the longship Reinen and drizzle fell in gauzy streamers. No breath of wind stirred the sails. It was warmer here in the south, and what land they could see, flatter, the barest ink stroke on the horizon.

Oars creaked as Heingistr’s company strained. Hoensa, Rill, Svebder, Uvigg, Snurri — the blooded men who did not row — watched the shore as it slowly passed.

“The shape of the land is familiar,” said Hoensa, squinting his eyes against the gloom. “We raided what farms we could find, five winters past, but the ones near here we spared for future plucking.” He slapped the bulkhead. “Our shields were wet from plunder and we could let these pass.”

Grislae sank her oar into the water and pulled. She had found her rhythm among the men from Heingistrhold. At first her hands had blistered, but only a little, since they were accustomed to plow and rope and the labors of the farm.

At the covered stern of the Reinen, over a small touchwood brazier, huddled Urtha and Wen — wives to Hoensa and Rill. The women would not let their husbands raid without their company. Their cooking. Their guidance. And because Heingistr did not meddle in the affairs of husbands and wives, he allowed this, as his father had before him. Indeed, it spared him from eating what his men might cook.

Urtha scowled at Grislae’s garb when she boarded the Reinen, noting her helm, her boiled leather tunic. Her sword.

“You are Ordbeg the Boy-Lover’s daughter, are you not?” Urtha said, as Grislae hung her shield over the gunwale. The shield had been her father’s, but she’d repainted it.

Svebder and Snurri chuckled. Grislae looked at the women. They called her father “Boy-Lover” in derision, because he would not kill children. Last Imbolc he was coughing blood, and by the Festival of Eostre, he was dead, his incessant retching so odious, the end came as a relief. She didn’t weep. She swore she’d never pick up another hoe or scythe another hayfield. She dug his grave, placed him in it, and built a cairn. It was her last spring sowing. Her father’s sword and shield and wealth she kept, and placed nothing in the grave with him. Then, back aching, she drank as much mead as her belly would hold, sitting in the dim silence of their farmhouse — leagues away from Heingistrhold and any other soul — and drew Ordbeg’s sword from its scabbard and watched the firelight flicker down its length.

To Urtha she said, “I bear his shield, sword, and helm. Not his name.”

“Nor his hair,” Wen said in a fruity voice, looking at Grislae’s pate.

“Nor what hung between his legs,” Urtha said, squinting.

Grislae shrugged and ran a hand over her stubbly head. The incessant itching of lice had driven her to take a knife to her once long locks, as she had not the inclination to waste silver on lye. She’d found she liked the fierce look of her shorn head. And that the young men from the neighboring farms had stopped leaving loaves and flowers by her door, which was just as well. She would never wed.

She crossed her arms in front of her and frowned at the two women. “I have come to raid. Heingistr has not a problem with it. Have either of you?”

Wen only frowned but Urtha, the wide-faced leader of the two, said, “I’d warn you to stay away from our men, but I imagine they’d rather fuck sheep than bed with you.”

Grislae smiled. “That hole in your face would be the perfect arsehole,” she said, as she unslung her sword and stowed her bindle, “if it wasn’t for all your teeth.”

There was a moment of quiet. Wen looked shocked. Urtha scowled at Hoensa, her husband, for support. Hoensa shrugged and looked back toward the shore.

“Rill would rather fuck sheep than just about anything,” Uvigg said, and the still hush of the sea was broken by the laughter coming from the longship.

“There,” Heingistr said, jabbing a thick finger into the mist. “Marshes. There will be a channel. And beyond, farms.”

Grislae bent her back to the sea.

* * *

The channel opened into a sheltered bay where they moored the Reinen that night. No lights from home fires nor watchmen’s torches shone in the dark, and the mist pressed too close to spy any smoke breaking the heavens, or stars peering through.

“Snurri, Hoensa, take one of the new ones — Grislae — and scout.” Heingistr nodded his head inland. The men began unlimbering a goat from the hold of the Reinen, and Wen and Urtha whetted their knives. Snurri cursed and belted on his sword, put his helm on his head. Hoensa’s eyes glittered.

“No shield,” Snurri said to Grislae as she took up her gear. “We move fast and it will only slow you.”

They made their way inland, walking swiftly and crouching low. The men moved easily, familiar with each other and their rhythms. Grislae kept up without much struggle — her time on her father’s farm had kept her fit and strong — but was alarmed by the amount of noise the men made as they moved through the forest: snapping limbs underfoot, grunting, cursing under their breath.

Grislae moved in almost absolute silence, lightfooted. The land rose, and she passed through cut forest and into fields. It was warm, her skin beading with sweat.

They came upon a farm, low slung and dark, no smoke coming from the roof.

Snurri, sweat streaming into his beard, whispered, “We will wait here, and watch.” He hopped over a fallen log and kneeled behind the low brambles between the farm and where they crouched. Before Grislae and Hoensa could join him, he cried, “Ach!” Flailed and rolled on the ground. When he rose, he stomped like a maddened horse. “Snake! Gods protect me!”

“Odin’s eye, you’re one big fucking baby,” Hoensa said. He peered at the house. “Sound a battle horn next time.” He drew his sword and looked at Grislae. “If someone was there, we would know it by now, thanks to Snurri. Let’s take a look.”

Hoensa moved forward, what meager light cut through the dark, cloudy sky glinting off his helm. Grislae followed, drawing her sword. After a moment, the shaken Snurri lumbered after them.

The farm had a thatched roof, wooden walls, and rough-hewn timber shutters. The door was open. Entering, the three were swallowed in darkness. A thick matting on the floor of the farmhouse cushioned their steps. Only the faintest intimations of rooms were apparent to them. Grislae smelled more than saw the cold hearth on a far wall. The scent of bread and meat told her it had been occupied but recently. But there was another smell, an old smell, sour and stinking of death, mingling with the odors of farm life. From all around came a rustling sound too, and that put her on edge.

“I have a fire steel and striking stone,” Grislae said, moving toward the back of the room. The close air was hushed, but there was a light susurration, as reeds stirring in the breeze.

Snurri, hulking in the darkness, said, “I don’t like this place. There are no people here. They will have taken their wealth wherever they have gone.”

“Let us see what we can see,” Hoensa said.

At the hearth, Grislae removed the fire steel and stone from the pouch at her belt and struck a spark. The flash revealed a bundle of kindling hay near the wall by the hearthstone; she soon had a small fire burning in the sooty hearth. She stood and stepped away from where the shifting yellow light spilled across the farmhouse, the brilliance blinding after their long trek through the night.

Through her watering eyes, the floor shimmered. Snurri gave a small exhalation, “Uff, dip me in sheep piss.”

“What, Snurri?” Hoensa asked, hearing his tone. “What is it?”

“The brood of Jorgumandr,” Snurri said with a curiously flat inflection. “Snakes. More snakes.”

Hoensa and Grislae blinked away tears, peered at the floor. It shifted and gleamed in the fickle yellow firelight. As Grislae watched, it writhed and wriggled in a lazy expanse. Looking down, she saw many small snakes strike at her high boots with their vicious mouths.

“Ergi! These damned serpents!” cried Snurri, whipping his hand about as if to rid himself of a fly. He began stomping indiscriminately, and Hoensa joined him. The small fire crackled in the hearth, the floor rustled, and for a long while there was naught but the sound of the men’s heavy breathing and bootfalls as they crushed the snakes.

Grislae grabbed the remaining cord of kindling hay and stuck one end in the fire. Then, sword in one hand and flaming straw bundle in the other, she shook out her legs and moved. “The door,” she said. “There is nothing here but vermin.” Raising high the makeshift torch, she turned around in a circle. Everywhere, every open bit of floor, shimmered and writhed. “You will stomp all night and never kill them all. Come.”

It took a moment for the men to stop. Snake-fear and kill-lust kept them stomping the writhing mass. Grislae shrugged. She left the farmhouse, entering the sodden night. Hoensa and Snurri followed. She was reaching to set the thatch roof on fire when Hoensa placed a hand on her arm and said, “I think not. There are other farms full of fat children, food, and gold. Best not to warn them Heingistr’s company is here until we are upon them.”

“I am bit,” Snurri said, holding up his hand. When they said nothing in response, he patted his body from collar to crotch. “Ach, I can feel them slithering all over me.”

They moved away from the farm, taking a muddy road that led beyond the house and beside a furrowed field. The mire sucked at their feet. They had reached the far tree line when the light of torches filtered through the trees.

Doughty men with ruddy faces carrying axes. Farmers, all. They tromped down the road, speaking in a round, fluid language Grislae could not make out. Their hushed tones were agitated; something had disturbed them.

Crouched behind a mossy rock jutting from the forest mulch, Grislae readied herself to strike. Hoensa, who had hidden himself behind a thick oak, held up a hand — Wait.

The farmers neared. Snurri, poised behind a log, withdrew his sword. Grislae gripped hers tighter.

Hoensa shook his head and pointed back to the farmhouse. He mouthed, No. Wait.

They let the farmers continue on, passing a few paces away, unaware that the company of the North hid so close.

When the farmers had crossed the field, Grislae said, “Why did we let them pass? We could have killed them and taken their gold.”

“I’ve killed scores of farmers and they never carry gold. They hide it away in their houses and will not yield it until you put a blade to their son or daughter’s throat.” Hoensa shook his head. “We’ve raided these shores for generations. These would not be out here in the dark, unless some greater fear than that they hold for us was not pushing them on. I would see what it is that frightens them so.”

Snurri sucked on the back of his hand. “Would that we had found a mill or hamlet, killed the men, fucked all the wives and daughters, and took their livestock and metal. Not this. The countless brood of Jorgumandr and thrice-cursed farmers.”

“Stop complaining, Snurri,” Hoensa said. “We will circle around and see what we can see.”

They stayed beyond the tree line and made their way around the field and into view of the farmhouse. The farmers were clustered outside the door, arguing. One of them pointed inside and gave a blistering speech in their bubbling language, but one word was prominent, due to its hard sounds and angles: Yig.

Soon they came to agreement, and the farmers set their torches to the thatched roof. Within moments the house was burning. Light spilled out, illuminating the field, the forest, and the spot where Heingistr’s scouts watched.

“It must be those wretched vermin,” Snurri said. He sucked at the back of his hand again. “What is yig? Snakes?”

“I don’t care what it means.” Hoensa stretched, swung his sword experimentally. “Let us kill who we can and take the others as slaves. And find more farms to raid. No?”

Grislae nodded, gripping her sword.

The Northerners fell on the farmers from behind as they watched the house burn. Snurri let forth a terrible scream as he ran, so by the time Grislae came near, the men had turned to face them, startled. Hoensa’s sword took one in the arm, deep, and the man fell. Hoensa wheeled toward the next man, who raised his axe.

In the shifting yellow light from the burning roof, Grislae found herself facing a burly farmer whose expression lacked sufficient fear to suit her. He whipped his axe in a tight circle, but she rocked back on one leg, letting it pass, and then sprang forward in the wake of his missed blow. She spitted him through the belly, and once his face showed the death-fear, she smiled and ripped the sword free, turning to face the others.

Snurri clubbed a man in the face with the pommel of his sword, dropping him, and Hoensa had killed another. The last farmer bolted into the dark and Hoensa sprinted after him.

“They are strong but none of them know how to fight,” Snurri said, and sucked hard at the back of his hand. “You did well, Boy-Lover’s girl.”

Grislae ignored him. The farmer he’d clubbed stirred and moaned through a bloody mouth. She stripped one of the dead of his belt and tied the moaning man’s hands as Hoensa returned, breathing heavily.

Snurri and Grislae looked to him and he nodded. “They will be alerted by mid-morn at the latest, when their men do not come home to their soft beds. Let us take this one back to the boat and hear Heingistr’s words.”

They roused the battered farmer, bound his mouth, and marched him back to the Reinen. Heingistr, Wen, Urtha, — Hoensa’s wife — Rill, and Uvigg waited for them. Soon the other new men roused from their slumber on the Reinen’s decks, coming to join them by the fire on the shore.

“We saw the light,” Heingistr said. “You must have good plunder to have burned the first farmhouse you came across.”

“We did not burn it,” Snurri said. He waved a hand at the new slave, who had collapsed on the shore near the fire. A pot hung there and the smell of goat stew lingered in the air. “This one and his friends did the burning. The farmhouse was overrun with snakes.”

“Snakes?”

“Countless snakes,” Snurri said, and looked to Grislae and Hoensa for support.

Hoensa nodded. “There were many.”

“I am bit,” Snurri said, holding up his hand. It had swollen like a sack of barley soaked by rain.

Heingistr’s face remained impassive. “Uvigg, your father took a slave woman from this region. Do you know their tongue?”

“Some,” Uvigg said.

“I would put questions to this man, and then you can take him to the hold.”

Uvigg unbound the captive’s mouth and gave him water.

“He’ll be shitting teeth for a moon,” Hoensa said.

Heingistr questioned the toothless farmer about nearby holdfasts and villages. There was a fortress, far inland, ruled by a lord named Risle with a crowing cock as his family sigil, but far enough away to not be a concern. Closer there were farms, but the real prize was a mill five miles inland. Quickly, Heingistr and company decided on a course of action — to leave with enough men to take the mill, the miller’s fat wife and daughters, and all of their grain and gold, and be back at the Reinen before the tide turned. Many of those newer to the company grew excited. Urtha kissed Hoensa fervently, and Heingistr began sharpening his axes.

“What of this thing they kept saying?” Grislae asked. “This yig?”

Uvigg put questions to the captive in his language. The man raised his hands as if warding off a blow. Uvigg withdrew a knife, and with a casual motion picked at the dirt under his own fingernails, and repeated his words. The slave answered haltingly.

“Some local haunt, maybe? It has been long since I’ve spoken this tongue, and truly the man’s accent is fucked beyond repair. He’ll eat soup for the rest of his life,” Uvigg said. “Some sort of serpent, like Jorgumandr, except not so fierce, nor so divine. He spoke of the ‘children of Yig,’ and ‘Yig’s retribution.’ All sheep shit, in my judgment.”

Snurri stirred. “Maybe it is their name for Jorgumandr.”

“These people do not worship the same gods as normal folk. They have their wounded man and their mother and the sightless ones and the forest,” Uvigg said. “They know nothing of Valhalla and Yggdrasil. They are blind.”

“But fat,” Heingistr said. “And we will take what is theirs. Hoensa, ready the men.”

“Grislae will come too. She handled herself as well as Snurri, at least,” Hoensa said.

“That is not a high sheaf to hide in,” Rill said. Snurri bristled.

“She split a farmer without hesitation. A big fellow,” Hoensa said and gave Grislae a nod.

“Then she is with us.” Heingistr turned to her. Pulling a knife from his belt, he cut his forearm and cupped the blood that ran there. He slapped Grislae, a big open-handed blow, catching her mouth, cheek, and ear in his massive hand, sending her reeling. She sat down forcibly, motes of light swirling at the edges of her vision. “Get up, Ordbeg the Boy-Lover’s girl. You are blooded now and one of my company. Get up,” he said, and taking her arms, raised her from the ground, the stag-faced prow of the Reinen behind him, looming.

She tasted the blood on her face, some of it hers, streaming from her nose, some of it Heingistr’s. The eyes of the company were upon her, blooded and unblooded alike.

“My name is Grislae,” she said. “I put aside my father and his name.”

Heingistr remained still and everyone was silent except for the soft moaning of the captive.

“So it will be, Grislae No-Man’s Girl,” Heingistr said. “So it will be.”

“Grislae,” she said.

There was a long silence where the men waited expectantly for Heingistr to react to her last words, to see if their company’s leader would take it as a challenge. A big grin split his beard and he extended his hand still mired with blood.

“You will shoulder many names in this world, Grislae,” he said. “As long as your sword strikes and your heart remains true, you are one of my company.”

She gripped his forearm in friendship. For the first time in her life, Grislae was happy. The feeling was so foreign and short-lived, she was only aware of it once it was gone.

* * *

Of the thirty-three in Heingistr’s company, they left a third with the Reinen, Wen, and Urtha, and took twenty-two inland to raid the mill. Heingistr was concerned that the burning farmhouse might draw others, and so men were needed to guard the longship. Grislae and Hoensa led them past the farmhouse, Snurri staying behind to tend his greening, unusable hand.

They followed the road away from the smoldering farmhouse and inland, past sucking muddy fields and dark forest. The wind picked up and the clouds cleared, leaving gashes that allowed the milky half-light to filter onto the face of the land.

At the first farm there were two women and a boy. They boy tried to fight them with a cudgel, so Uvigg killed him. They bound the women and left three men at the house to take what spoils they could from the premises. The rest of the company moved on.

They found a small river — one that, Uvigg told them, ran into the marshy bay where the Reinen was beached — and followed it south. Two more farmsteads they came across — one, rich with livestock and grain, where three young men and a girl fought them when the door was kicked in. The girl, no more than thirteen, chose to defend her home with a butcher’s blade, so Grislae ran her through. The girl looked surprised once her widening eyes fixed on Grislae’s face, and she pawed at Grislae’s breasts as she died, as if looking for some kind of succor there. The rest of the farmer’s sons, and the other daughters hidden in the cold room below the kitchen, they took for slave stock. The men of Heingistr’s company looked at Grislae with new eyes.

The next farm was empty, possibly alerted by the screams and shrieks of their neighbors. They left four men to round up with the scattered flock.

The sky lightened. Soon the sun would rise.

Thirteen men and one woman moved inland, toward the mill. The sky bloomed in the east and illuminated the water vapor in the air, shining through the trees like the golden fog of Valhalla.

The mill was guarded by men bearing axes, cudgels, and a single rust-eaten sword, doubtless their families and other precious things barricaded inside. Svebder had unlimbered his bow and feathered two of the men before they knew Heingistr’s company was upon them. In the blood-spiked rush toward the mill, Grislae found herself yelling wordlessly. She killed two men, taking one through the throat as he swung a hammer at her — she received some of the blow on the meat of her shoulder — and speared another through the back as he grappled with Hoensa. It was over quickly, and she came out on the other side with a calmness she’d never known, as if all the wheels of heaven had locked and the braid that was her fortune and destiny were complete.

The men rousted the miller, his wife, sons, and daughters, killing only the one girl who dared to fight back. Grislae found a horse, harnessed it to a wagon and brought it around for the spoils. By daybreak, the wagon was heavy with grain — and some metal — and on its way back to the Reinen. They reached the ship unmolested, loaded slaves and spoils into the hold, and were back into the waters of the marsh and approaching open sea by midday.

Spirits on the Reinen soared as the sails bellied with wind and the sea spray dampened beards. “Hale we went forth, and hale we returned, heavy with plunder and the blessings of Aesir and Vanir!” Heingistr shouted at the shore, exultant. “We have come to this fat shore, all the high holy gods protect us!”

As if in answer, Snurri moaned. A fever had settled upon him, and he slumbered heavily, cradling his hand to his chest. When he woke, he would dip the bloated green hand in a bucket of saltwater — the old remedy. It did not seem to work. “We are cursed by Yig,” Snurri mumbled, eyes cloudy. “It will be the death of us —”

“Shut up,” Hoensa told the delirious man. “You are snake-bit and addled. Do not speak of these southern gods.”

“ — the children of Yig — ”

Hoensa snatched the bucket of saltwater and dumped it on Snurri’s head. “Clear your mind, man. We are to sea.”

“ — cursed, we are — ”

Heingistr said, “Put him below, where his delirium cannot poison our good cheer.” He slapped the mast and looked to the men of his company. “We are heavy! This shore is rich and ripe!”

Wen and Urtha, with Hoensa’s help, moved Snurri into the hold, near the livestock. They looked wan and dejected when they returned.

“The ravings of the ill and infirm do no favors to the brave,” Hoensa said, as he stepped on the deck and took a deep breath of salt-spiced air. The wind was up and Reinen’s sail full, the shore passing at a good clip.

Urtha, shaking her head, said, “I will tend him, and the slaves. I am afraid for him.” She paused, looking to the distant shore.

“Snurri bears a tattoo of Jorgumandr on his chest, the great serpent eating its own tail. He told me once that the völva seer saw his doom in a serpent’s mouth, so his father tattooed him there,” Hoensa said.

“Loki’s brood,” Urtha said, pursing her lips as if tasting something bitter. “Inconstant and wicked.”

“We shall see. Snurri is strong, if nothing else,” said Hoensa, looking toward the feverish man.

“And stupid as rocks,” Urtha said.

Urtha joined Wen at the covered stern of the Reinen and spoke with her softly. The seas were high, swells pitching the longship. Some of the men chanted the Glymdrápa in rough but strong voices, laughing as Fjolnir fell into the mead and drowned:

The seas grew, and Heingistr brought the Reinen in to shore, to find port and send out scouts. “When the seas are high, the North is nigh,” he said, looking at the shore, avidly.

Beneath them the livestock bleated and the thin moans of Snurri filtered through the air-grate. His breath had taken on a rasp, as if the fever had settled in his lungs, and Urtha gave Hoensa worried glances when she came up from the hold.

They paced the shore for two days, until the swells let up, and finding a river, made their way up it until the water was barely brackish. They moored her on an old pier, half-rotten — despite the livestock hold, the Reinen’s draft was shallow. They set up camp in the burnt-out ruin of a fishing hut; victim, possibly, to one of their or their cousins’ forays. Heingistr sent Grislae, Hoensa, and an unblooded lad named Knut to survey the area. They found farms and a small village with a moss-covered church, all within a half day’s walk of the Reinen — it was still morning, and so they set forth immediately.

With the full company save the wives and Snurri, they took the village, killing all the men and the women who fought. Any boys and girls old enough to labor in the field, or bed, were taken as slaves. Grislae felt the exaltation of war and battle as she came into the hamlet and heard the screams of the villagers, pleading. She killed a woman in her home — a farmer’s wife who hid something in her cellar. She heard muffled weeping from below as she stood in the dim house over the woman’s body.

Grislae found the trapdoor and went down among the crocks of butter and sacks of grain, where she found two chubby, red-cheeked children. She dragged them out into the street and put them to the sword for all of the company of Heingistr to see, and the gods as well. The raiders found a wagon and drove it to the stone church, killing the high priest and his servants there, and taking their gold.

“We do not burn! We will return one day,” Heingistr laughed, as he came through the church’s shattered door, carrying a chalice and a cross. It was late afternoon and the slanting golden rays made the spoil and slaughter seem kissed by the gods. “Kill the goose, take the eggs, one day another goose will make its home in the nest.”

Spoil-weary, they trudged alongside the pilfered wagon, leading a string of slaves back to the Reinen.

“The spring planting was especially hard on Willa and the children, after the late freeze,” Uvigg said to Hoensa, who walked beside him, axe in hand. Uvigg patted the slats of the wagon trundling beside them. “So my share of this will be a great boon. The boys grow tall and thin now that their manhood is in sight, and we can buy a cow and some goats to keep them in milk and cheese.”

“They’ll be raiding with us soon enough,” Hoensa said, resting a large hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“Yes!” Uvigg said, smiling. Then frowned. “Though Willa won’t like being left alone with the girls during the summer months.”

“Leave the boys behind and bring her.”

“We have spoken of that — she was always fierce and deadly with bow and blade. But she would not shame her sons by leaving them behi —”

Uvigg gurgled and pitched forward, feathers and arrow-shaft protruding from his throat. It took but a moment for Hoensa to bellow warning and heft his axe. A great cry came from up the path, and men with shields and swords raced down a hill toward them.

The blooded company of Heingistr was hard to surprise and fierce in battle. But many of their number were unblooded. At the first sound of attack, Grislae’s sword was in hand. She crouched, keeping her legs flexed, waiting for the first man to come near enough to kill. No farmers, these men — they bore shields with a scarlet rooster crowing; the men of Risle the captive had spoken of. Accoutred in boiled leather, the soldiers carried steel blades instead of farm implements.

The captives — boys and girls all — cried miserably in their foreign tongue, no doubt pleading to be freed.

Arrows filled the air like maddened wasps, buzzing and hissing. Grislae felt a flashing burn across her cheek, and raised her hand to find that half her ear was gone, ripped away by an ill-aimed arrow and further torn by scarlet fletching. Before she could register the bright pain, a man with a bristling mustache leapt forward, swinging a longsword. Grislae parried with her own, but the blow shivered her arm, wrenched her about, and she fell sideways upon the earth. She scrabbled away on all fours, levering herself with one hand and digging the other into the ground with her fist, still holding her sword, the man fast behind her. She scrambled under the stolen wagon and was up and crouched, ready to strike on the other side when the man rounded the corner. She put her blade in his groin and then ripped it away, cutting red roads in his flesh. He fell, pumping blood.

The next man she took from behind, as he exchanged overmatched blows with Svebder.

Grislae moved on, looking for others to kill. Blood surged in her, her cheeks hot, the ruin of her ear forgotten. She moved easily, her sword an extension of her arm. A terrible finger to point out those to be received by Hel.

Outnumbered. Other Northern raiders must’ve visited these shores, Grislae surmised, and recently. The company of Heingistr was overmatched. But still fierce. There was a moment when the soldiers drew back, and Heingistr, bleeding freely from his chest and arm, rallied his men. Those who remained clustered tightly around the stolen wagon, and as the remaining soldiers mustered the courage to attack, they were met with angry cries and angrier blades.

When Heingistr fell to his knees, the company broke, abandoning the wagon of spoils. Hoensa grabbed Heingistr, despite the man’s stature, and pulled him away, off the road and into the wood. Grislae came after. One of the soldiers marked their exit and followed.

Grislae met the soldier in the wood. He bore a shield and sword, a helm, a studded leather tunic and gauntlets. Bright eyes and an exultant expression, now that the company of the North was routed and their spoils lost. A smile spread across his face like pitch upon the water; he said something in this country’s bubbling, liquid language, gloating. Before he could finish, Grislae stabbed him in the throat, and whatever else he might have said was lost in blood. He went down, wrenching her sword from her hands as he did.

He fell, lying face up, hands at his throat. Grislae stood over him, looking down. Placing her boot on his face, she pulled the blade from his neck and spat on his face when it was free. The gob of spittle landed on the man’s open eye. He did not blink it away.

Turning, she rejoined Hoensa, shouldering Heingistr’s weight to flee to the Reinen.

* * *

It took hours to get back to the longship. Soldiers combed the forest and the shore. It was only the evening fog that seeped from the earth and the river’s surface that saved them. Many times Hoensa and Grislae had to hide in the dark, holding their breath, ready to muffle Heingistr’s moans, as men bearing torches searched for survivors of the company. But the light from the soldiers’ own torches blinded them. Grislae and Hoensa were able to slip away and move downriver without incident, bearing Heingistr between them.

It was raining by the time they reached the burnt-out fishing hut and pier where the Reinen was moored. Urtha looked at them with a terrified expression, her constant companion Wen nowhere to be seen. Wen’s absence struck Grislae. She did not like the woman — nor Urtha — but she’d grown accustomed to her presence, and seeing Urtha without her disturbed Grislae in ways she could not puzzle out.

Once, when Grislae was a girl, her father took her to the Midsummer festival in the woods outside of Heingistrhold, and she became separated from him, lost. As she wandered through the trees, standing like silent sentinels around her, she felt a tugging at her stomach, as if some invisible tether drew her onward, and found herself standing at the mouth of a cave. The air was thick there, and she felt a sinking dread, as if the world was worn thin, frayed. In the darkness of the cave mouth, something crouched. Something beyond her ken, beyond all ken. She felt as if at any moment all of creation would unravel and some great horror would stand revealed. It was only when some of the men from Heingistrhold found her, paralyzed with fear, that the feeling dissipated.

As Grislae looked at Urtha, and the Reinen beyond, she felt that way again.

“What has happened, husband?” Urtha asked. She had banked the fire while they were gone.

“Great misfortune,” Hoensa panted. “We were attacked by soldiers. Many of our men drink in golden Valhalla. But for now we wait for whatever survivors make it back to the Reinen. I will keep watch here. Take Heingistr on board and tend his wounds.”

“Nay,” said Urtha. “I will not. The Reinen is cursed! It teems with serpents. And Snurri, he is…”

“He is what?” Grislae asked.

“He is changed,” she said. “Wen entered the livestock hold and she—” Sobbing took her.

“I do not care if Fenrir himself is on board. If we stay here, we will die,” Hoensa said. He drew his sword and watched the dark line of trees wreathed in fog. “While I would welcome a warrior’s death, I would not have you hurt, Urtha, my love. And I won’t abandon what men might make it back here. We will wait until we cannot wait anymore. Go to the Reinen.”

“No,” Urtha said. “I cannot board the ship again. You do not know —”

“I will take Heingistr,” Grislae said. She cared not for the arguments of man and wife. Her ear was on fire now she had the opportunity to consider herself. It throbbed and oozed blood that ran in a dark slick down her neck. She sheathed her sword and, bending, lifted Heingistr’s full weight onto her shoulders, an oxen carry. He did not moan or make any exhalation as she did, though he was still warm. Once on board, she would determine if he still lived. He was a great weight, but no match to her will. She carried him down the pier and aboard the Reinen.

The longship’s deck was empty, devoid of man. Or snake. Grislae carried him down the length of the deck to the covered stern, where she started a touchwood fire with stone and steel in the sheltered cooking brazier, warming water to wash his wounds and her own.

From the shore, there came the sound of men calling to one another, and a cry. The thin yellow light of torches drew shifting lines through the fog. Grislae raced to the side of the Reinen, where the lusty company of Heingistr had disembarked only hours earlier. There, on the shore, lay the bodies of Hoensa and Urtha, heavily feathered with arrows, and joined together forever in death. Hoensa died, at least, with steel in his fist.

Turning, Grislae sprinted back to the stern, drawing her sword as she ran. She cut the anchor line just as the arrows began to fall. The sound erupted like giant rune stones being cast upon a mead-hall table. Rolling underneath the covered cooking area, she watched as a deadly flight of arrows impaled the deck, the oar benches, the gunwales, the upright oars, each one quivering. Crouching, she grabbed a shield from the Reinen’s bulwark, and holding it angled toward the shore, Grislae sprinted to the Reinen’s prow before another flight of arrows could fall. Her sword fell upon the second anchor line, severing it clean, and she threw herself against the gunwale facing the shore.

A long moment passed. The longship Reinen did not stir in the river. Grislae felt a scream building behind her breast, a yelp of frustration and rage. She held it back with clenched teeth. There were cries of men from the shore, and another vicious rain of arrows.

“Fuck you, you fucking sheep!” she yelled, allowing some of the titanic anger in her to spill out. Just a little. She had so much more to give. The shield clattered on the deck as she snatched an oar from its mooring hole, half-crawling toward where the pier met the Reinen. On her knees, one foot braced upon an oarsman’s bench, she peeked up, planted the long oar on the soft wood of the pier, and pushed. Her body thrummed and creaked with stress and inaction. “Odin,” she said, but could not be sure it came out as words. Torchlight came from the burnt fishing hut. There was a cry and another flight of arrows fell. Thunk thunk thunk thunk.

Almost imperceptibly, the Reinen moved.

More arrows flew. But these were different. They rose burning, trailing oily black smoke. The soldiers of Risle had wrapped their arrows with pitch-soaked rags. And now the Reinen was itself feathered with fire. More cries came from the shore, and the clomp of many boots sounded on wood. Torchlight neared.

The distance between the Reinen and the shore grew, bit by bit. And grew further as the Reinen was caught in the faster currents of the river.

More burning arrows fell, but hissed as they were extinguished by the river. Soon the husk of the fishing hut, the soldiers of Risle, and the accursed shore all diminished, disappearing in the fog. The muffled cries grew faint. Then there was only silence, the sizzle of burning pitch arrows, and the gurgle of the river as the Reinen floated downstream to the sea.

“Grissssslay,” Snurri called from beneath her. “Grissssslay. Come.”

Grislae turned slowly on the empty deck, listening with her sole remaining ear.

“What has become of you, Snurri?” she asked.

There was a long silence. She moved to the prow and reclaimed her dropped sword.

“Snurri, I would have an answer,” she said. Some of the bulwark was beginning to burn where the arrow had ignited it. Her first inclination was to draw up a bucket and extinguish the spreading flames, but Snurri’s voice made her pause.

More silence, but for a rustling and the crackle of flames.

Grislae returned to the covered stern. Touching Heingistr’s neck, she found no thrum of life there, no stirring of his blood. Grabbing a handful of acrid-smelling touchwood, she stuffed it into her tunic and picked up the jar of oil the women had used for cooking. Her sword held in her off hand, she slowly descended the narrow wooden stairs into the belly of the longship.

It was dark in the Reinen’s hold. Crates of spoils, casks of provender, and barrels of fresh water lined the hull walls. The slaves they had taken were all missing, along with the goats. Firelight from the deck fell in patches through the grating, illuminating a shifting, undulating floor that was all too familiar to Grislae. Snakes. Countless snakes, writhing and churning in a mass, falling into the bilgewater below and slithering up again.

“Snurri,” she said. “What has become of you, Snurri?”

“At firssst, I thought it a cursssse. But now, I realize, a blessssing. I am become…” Snurri’s voice came soft and low. Something moved in the darkness. The longship Reinen pitched slightly, as if a great stone had been rolled from one side of the hold to the other. The stench of fish and the familiar scent of death from the shadowy interior of the ship, along with a wet, scraping sound.

Then it came into the light.

Five times the size of a man, it was naked save for scales, and devoid of all hair and human features, like a once jagged stone left in fast-running water and smoothed by the current. Snurri, or what remained of him, truncated in a great serpent’s body, disappearing behind him, into the dark. Of his torso, the musculature and bones had been wrenched about in some gruesome transformation, so that his arms flared out like a cloak’s hood caught in wind.

The worst was his head. It had grown large, tremendous, and distended in a slick, hairless wedge, creased by a great, gaping maw that smelled of freshly split flesh and old death.

“Grisssslay,” it said. “I am become… wondrousssss.”

The thing slithered forward and raised its head. Its mouth opened wide. Grislae saw the vicious maw was lined with countless teeth and wondered how the thing could vocalize at all. It was a mouth to get lost in, a mouth to fall inside and find yourself shat out into Hel.

“You are about as wondrous as a piece of shite,” she said.

Its great head reared back at her words. “I am the offssspring of Yig! The child of wondrous Yig!”

“You sorry fuck, I do not spare children,” Grislae said, and hurled the jar of oil at the thing. It shattered, sending viscous fluid everywhere.

Snurri lashed forward, his serpentine maw open, his body a single scaled spring. Grislae was ready. Leaping to the side, she drove the point of her sword into the thing’s eye as far as she could. The serpent whipped about, thrashing violently. The wedge of its head smacked into Grislae’s torso, and she was knocked back, hard, onto her arse. She crab-walked backward, scrambling up the stairs to the deck.

The arrows’ flames had grown during her time below. Smoked teared her eyes. She pulled the touchwood from her tunic, set it alight and tossed it down the stairs into the hold. Flames and heat whooshed out of the opening as the spilled oil caught.

The Reinen shifted and pitched as thunderous blows shook the hull of the longship.

“We are the Children of Yig!” the serpent Snurri cried. “We are the sumptuous brood! We are —”

“Good and fucked,” Grislae said, and turning, she dived off the Reinen.

The current was swift, and she found herself borne away from the longship. Despite her weariness, she swam clear to shore, pulling herself out of the water and slumping on her back in exhaustion. She was at the point where the river became bay, and would eventually become sea.

The Reinen was a torch upon the waters. The sail, bundled against the mast, caught fire, and for a moment, in the conflagration, Grislae thought she could see a great serpent’s head worming its way into the world above… Then something exploded, perhaps more touchwood or oil in the hold, and the serpent was gone, replaced only by tongues of flame, licking at the night sky.

She watched it until the light of the Reinen was gone, lost upon the bosom of the sea, and all was dark. A fitting funeral for Heingistr, a Northern lord.

Then, exhausted though she was, Grislae rose and looked inland, into the fog. There were corpses out there in the dark, corpses she had made from the bodies of men. If she hurried, if she could beat the sun, they would still be there, and one of their dead hands, she knew, held a sword.

Her sword.

The Dreamers of Alamoi

Jeremiah Tolbert

The madman whistled an unfamiliar tune as he walked past the tangle-choked fields, along a road in little better shape; before the plague, it had been surfaced with polished brick. Bricks that the dreamers hadn’t pried up or that hadn’t been chewed into gravel by the weeds and weather.

The guide followed close behind, scheming again.

The madman paused to light his pipe and take a preposterously deep drag from the tight-packed bowl. He inclined the stem toward his guide, exhaled blue smoke.

The guide shook his head. “The last time left me stumbling for hours.”

The madman shrugged. “I had hoped for the amusement of a repeat performance. Ah well. How far now?”

The guide squinted. “Another dozen leagues before it’s too dangerous to continue.”

“Too dangerous for you, perhaps,” the madman said, unveiling his madness again.

When they first met in the traveler’s inn a hundred leagues distant, the madman had said to the guide, whose name was Tog: “They call me Garen the Undreaming — among other, less flattering things. Those men told me you know the way to Alamoi.”

Indeed, Tog had not seen Garen rest since they had set out from the inn for Alamoi, although Tog required sleep, so it was possible that Garen had only waited to bed down until after Tog. Suspicious of the claim, Tog had only pretended to sleep one evening. Through slitted eyes, he had watched the madman drink from a wineskin, wave his hands in some elaborate pantomime, and mutter to himself for hours.

The novelty of it wore thin and Tog had drifted off, but not before he decided that it made no difference whether the assertion was true or not. Garen was mad in either case. He was especially mad if the claim was true; immune to sleep he might be, but immune to the effects of deprivation he was not.

Mad as he was, what harm to lead the man toward the city, knock him on the head, and take from him the curious bag of belongings he carried on his back? No harm to Tog anyway, and that was all that really mattered to him.

“Do you often meet travelers on this road?” Garen asked.

Tog made out the shapes of figures in the dawn mist, slouching toward them. He touched the polished antler hilt of the bone knife at his belt, reassuring himself of its presence.

“Never.”

Garen shifted his pack from his shoulders, dropped it in the dirt, and began rummaging through it. Objects clattered and thudded inside. Tog leaned in to glimpse the contents.

“Really?” Garen said to the air. “Yes, very well. I’ll find it.”

Many of the objects Garen carried with him were unrecognizable to Tog, made of bone, mountain glass, flint, and even the rare bit of copper or bronze, colored deeply as Garen’s own foreign skin.

Garen took the wooden handle of a bronze blade in his palm, and Tog felt relieved that the madman had armed himself, but then Garen set it aside and continued to dig. The approaching figures had resolved into the shapes of two men and a woman wearing the heavy fur cloaks of hillfolk when Garen clucked like a pleased hen and withdrew a fist-sized cloth bundle fastened closed with jute.

The pack contained treasures, as Tog had suspected, perhaps worth countless nights in the brothel tents. He would have it, if the hillfolk didn’t ruin everything.

“Not the kind of folk interested in trade,” Tog hissed. The hillfolk had spotted them and their pace picked up to a brisk jog. The men carried stone-tipped spears.

“Keep your mouth shut while I work,” Garen hissed, and then called out, “Well met, travelers.”

The hillfolk slowed, exchanging glances. Tog had known some who were honorable, but far more who were brigands and thieves; clever, and deadly with their spears. They rejected farming and civility, living as the old people did, by the fruits of their arms. Many found it easier to survive as bandits than to hunt game on the flinty hillsides where they dwelled.

“We are not travelers,” the woman said. “I am Theam, and these are my brothers. Who are you, and what brings you to this plague-wracked place? Few travel this road now but the dreamers.”

Garen touched his right thumb to his forehead, a customary greeting. “I am Garen, and I travel to the Shining City. This is my guide.”

“Tog.” He half-bowed.

The woman laughed. “You can’t hope to escape the teeth of such a powerful dream. If we allowed you to travel another league, you too would be cutting stone blocks from the hill quarries and dragging them into place, again and again until you collapse, rest, and rise to cut and labor again.”

Tog began to speak out against their lie, but Garen silenced him with a glare. “You have seen the dreamers of Alamoi?” Garen sounded impressed.

“I have,” she said, nodding. “Their work teams wander into our hills to gather stone for those twin blasphemies.” She thrust a thumb over her shoulder.

Garen nodded. “Perhaps you can solve a mystery for me, then. With the fields untended and all commerce departed, what do the dreamers consume for sustenance after these seven years of labor?” The question had bothered Tog as well, and many travelers had their theories, mostly gruesome.

“The dream sustains them,” Theam said. “They do not require food or drink.”

The madman forlornly shook his head. “What a pitiful existence! A life of constant labor and no pleasure. Myself, I prefer an inversion of that imbalance. Thank you for the knowledge then.” He paused. “I see your brothers grow tired of talk and are ready to kill and rob us, but I must forestall that, I’m afraid.” Garen unfurled his closed fist and offered the bundle to the hill woman.

Theam’s eyes widened, and the men began to speak rapidly in their guttural tongue. After a moment of hesitation, she took it. One of the men said something angrily, and pointed his spear toward Garen. Theam slapped him open-palmed across the face, hard enough that the man’s nose dripped blood.

“I recognize the craftsmanship,” she told her brother in the dream tongue. Then, turning to the madman, “How did this token enter your possession, flatlander?”

Garen laughed. “I found it tucked in the belt of a dead man leagues and leagues away from here. I honestly had no idea what it was, but a voice on the wind told me to give it to you. A token, you say?”

The hillfolk shifted uneasily. Not even hillfolk wished to be in the presence of a madman for any longer than necessary. Tog nearly smirked.

“Of passage,” she said. “We will honor it as we must, or the Rutk of the Raven Eye will punish us. But if you continue down this road, you will dream or die.”

“Sadly, I must.”

“A shame your possessions will be lost with you. Go, then, but know whatever it is they construct within… it nears completion. Better to flee this place as we do.”

Garen took up his pack and began to walk down the ruined road, once again whistling the foreign tune. Tog stepped to follow, and found the hillfolk’s spear-tips at his belly.

“One token. One passage,” Theam’s taller brother snarled.

Garen shrugged. He avoided Tog’s desperate gaze.

“You cannot leave me to these beasts! I led you faithfully as promised!” Tog shouted. He made to draw his knife, but the hillmen’s icy stares chilled the anger in his blood.

Garen continued on his path, making no sign of awareness even as the hillfolk’s spears plunged about their gory work, and Tog screamed curses for the day he had met Garen the Undreaming.

* * *

Garen left stories in his wake like petals from a dying flower. These tales served as a trail that the needful could follow in order to hire or press him into service. Always they found Garen in one of a few locales: within brothels, where tawdry pleasures of the flesh could satisfy a short while; within a mead hall or winery, where strong drink could tamp down his madness for a while longer; or finally, within a temple or sanitarium, where sacred rites or ancient medicines might soothe his fractured mind a while longer still.

Meldri and Besthamun found Garen locked away in the deepest meditation pits of the goddess Sebun’s holiest temple, in the port city of Tauk.

A bribed eunuch led them through the labyrinth of dimly lit passageways. “The acolytes have subjected this one to eighteen endless days and nights of humming meditations. They believe the proper tones will align Garen’s soul shards and restore his ability to slumber.”

“For our sake, we hope they’re unsuccessful,” Meldri muttered. Besthamun frowned, but Meldri spoke the truth. If Garen were to be cured, he would not meet their needs.

The servant tittered, stopped at the entrance of a cell. He seemed held at bay by the hysterical laughter coming from within, rising above the steady tones of three acolytes.

“This wretched creature has no soul shards left to align,” whispered the eunuch. “But he made a generous enough offering to the Temple for a year of treatments.”

“I hear a little bird outside my cage,” the laughing voice cried from within. “Come in, little bird, and sing me a better song.”

The eunuch scurried away. Besthamun gave serious consideration to following, but they had traveled too far to turn back in this moment, and she steeled herself to enter.

As they did, the humming ceased, the air suddenly dangerously empty, as if the silence might swallow them all. The small stone cell was lit by a single candle, nearly spent. The acolytes rose to their feet, saying nothing as they brushed past the scholars and went into the catacombs.

A single disheveled shape remained within the cell, squeezed into the farthest corner, as if trying to disappear into the flickering shadows. The figure might have been a man, or might have been a loose bundle of sticks and rags. He was made of elbows and knees, long-limbed, thin. Long, dull black hair hung in tangles, hair from his scalp and face mingling into one tangled, rat-gnawed mess. Within the tangles burned sea-gray eyes that seemed to Besthamun to reflect more light than the candle gave off.

Besthamun cleared her throat. “Esteemed one, we offer our most humble apologies for interrupting but —”

Garen sighed. “I welcome it; I grew bored of their incessant noises six days ago, but couldn’t think of how I might say as such without insulting their cult of mysteries. One thing I know about cults: they do not take to being insulted.” Without warning or pause, he scrabbled across the room to the scholars and stood with the tip of his broad nose brushing against Meldri’s. He sniffed.

“I know that perfume. You’ve journeyed from the Salt Coast.” He squinted. “By your plain manner of dress, I make you for scholars of the Great University of Kamtun Jai.”

Meldri took a step back. Besthamun glared at him for daring to insult Garen thus, but continued her entreaty.

“ — We have a task that requires your unique person to complete, and wish to employ your services.”

“I visited the University once. They threw me out, said I was not worthy of their knowledge.”

“The mad cannot grasp enlightenment,” Meldri said with a sniff.

Besthamun considered striking her brother, but worried what the act of violence would incite in the madman. “Apologies for my brother’s insult. He is jealous of the offer we make to you.”

Meldri sneered. “We studied a dozen summers before we were allowed within the Library of Dreams. What could this one hope to learn without proper study?”

“No insult taken,” Garen said, lips twitching with the faintest smile. “Go without rest for as many years as I, and see how sound your own mind is.” He took a step back from Meldri and stretched his long limbs.

“And what must I do to gain access to your library? No doubt you believe it might contain hints regarding my affliction — or, at least, you would like me to believe so. May I borrow your knife?”

Besthamun hesitated, but she retrieved the small knife of mountain glass from within the folds of her robes and offered it up. Garen began hacking away at his beard. “Go on,” he said.

“Have you, in your travels, heard of the city of Alamoi?” she asked.

He did not hesitate. “No.”

“It was a great city, ruled by a masonic order which mastered secrets of working stones that some say predate the last Ice. Half of the great walls from the Placidine Sea to the Jaggared Mountains were built by Alamoi masons.”

Meldri continued when Besthamun paused, unwanted tears forming in her eyes. “Some call it the Shining City; the polished stone used in its construction reflects the light at sunrise and sunset brilliantly. It was a beacon of civilization once.”

“What happened? Plague?” Garen continued to hack away at his hair. His angular face slowly emerged from the chaos. Besthamun was surprised to find herself admiring its shape as the blade revealed it, as if carving his chin from a block of softstone.

Meldri nodded. “A dream plague fell upon the city and it did not pass. Even now, the residents of the city labor under the dream. Reports of travelers say that new constructions rise above the city.”

“And what do they work to assemble?”

Besthamun frowned. “We don’t know. It is impossible to approach close enough without falling to the dream. Nothing good. That much is certain.”

Garen finished trimming his beard and returned the knife, which Besthamun gratefully stashed away.

“You wish me to approach the city and document what I see; to learn the nature of their project. I’ve performed such tasks before. For one such as me, it is simple. As boring as the acolytes’ humming.” Already, it seemed his attention was wandering.

Meldri laughed. “Oh, no; not only that. We want you to destroy the edifice.” He turned away, spoke over his shoulder in a great show of disrespect. “Sister, this man is a waste of time. He could never accomplish our task, it is plain to see.”

Garen’s gaze snapped into focus, and Besthamun shifted uncomfortably under the madness of it. The madman grinned broadly, and Besthamun decided then that no, he was not so handsome, not with a face that could ever wear that terrible expression.

* * *

The gates of the city were open wide. Instead of streets and structures he beheld a great goat, dead from thirst, mouth hanging open and thick tongue lolling in the sand — this, a flashback from his childhood. It faded quickly with another pull on his pipe.

Of course the gates were open. What use would it serve to close the gates when any attackers would fall under the dreaming far before reaching the unmanned wall? A cool breeze blew down from the mountains, carrying a sadness that Garen could not shake. A bone-weary loneliness took hold of him as he passed through the gate and into the broad, well-paved avenues of Alamoi. The streets were as empty as the sentry posts, the windows of surrounding buildings still shuttered against the night the plague fell.

“Begone, spirits,” Garen whispered. The lonely melancholy passed as the words left his lips.

As he’d approached Alamoi, he’d gawped in awe at the pair of towers that dominated the cityscape, rising story after story higher than the next tallest building. Scaffolding clung to them like scabs, and the tiny figures of workers scurried here and there upon their surfaces.

At first, he thought it only another hallucination that the two towers seemed to bend toward one another at their peak, but the vision did not waver. Realization arrived late: these were not two towers, but instead the opposing sides of an arch. Closer now, he could make out the ropes and pulleys lifting an enormous keystone into the heavens. It inched upward as he watched.

The dreaming construct would soon be complete. What would happen then was a great mystery, but not one Garen was eager to solve.

He hurried down alleyways and squeezed between abandoned buildings, looking overhead to orient himself. In this harried state, he nearly missed the shadows that gathered to follow his steps.

The mind of Garen was a nigh-constantly distracted one, but with many nights of training he had honed his observational senses, his deepest, truest mind alert to danger and discrepancy without intentional thought. A prickling of the skin at his nape drew him back to the moment, and with careful side glances he made out the shapes that followed him. They were small and narrow-limbed, soft-footed, naked save for those who wore tangles of rags about their waists.

Children. The dreaming must have overlooked those too small to be of use in its endeavor. In the absence of parental discipline, they had turned feral.

Sensing that they had lost the surprise, the urchins rushed in; they wielded flint knives, crude axes, hammers, and other discarded, broken tools.

These survivors had not been nourished by the dream, Garen saw now. A vision of truth flooded Garen’s mind as he broke into a sprint.

First they had scavenged, but stores quickly ran thin. The half-starved children had learned to hunt the small animals first — cats and other abandoned pets. Soon they exhausted these reserves too. The remaining animals too cunning, the dreaming workers proved easier prey.

What Garen had made for rags were bundles of human scalps and tanned hide; trophies of successful hunts. The taste of dreamer flesh had twisted them past salvation or reason, Garen a morsel of curiosity they risked their lives to taste.

The vision spurred him swiftly forward, but more attackers whooped with wordless battle cries; soon Garen was cut off by another cohort. Too harried to find his blade in his pack, he leapt toward the nearest wall and began to climb, driving his fingers into the narrowest chinks between the stones. He cursed the Alamoi masons who fit the blocks together so well, and his nails cracked and bled. The children lapped at the splotches he left behind, shoving one another to get at his juices.

These drippings and his vertical flight stymied them briefly; they milled about below. A boy nearly twelve winters by the look of him — taller than the rest, with more muscle, and eyes like burning coals — made frantic gestures and grunted at the others. He cuffed a smaller girl behind the ear, and, chastened, she began to climb, a snarl upon her chapped lips.

Garen gained the clay-tiled roof just as the girl grabbed his ankle. A swift kick sent the child sprawling down onto the others in a heap. Their shouts of dismay warmed him against the chill breeze.

Garen pulled at a tile, and it came up easily enough, offering good heft. He pelted the children, cackling with each satisfying thwack of clay against urchin flesh. The pack suffered only a little of this before fleeing back down the alleys.

“You die anyway,” the oldest boy grunted over his shoulder before following the others. “They finish soon.”

* * *

“No, no, no!” Meldri snapped. “If you combine the essences in that order, you’ll ignite the fats of your own flesh and burn like a candle.”

Besthamun’s pale fingers scooped up the vials and returned them to the case. “Again, from the beginning.”

“I don’t understand why you can’t concoct the mixture ahead of time,” Garen said with a sigh. They had been at this for three days, and the complex steps of the mixture’s alchemy had eluded him.

“The final compound is unstable. A stray pebble in your sandal could cause it to ignite as you carry it,” Besthamun said softly.

Garen took her hand into his. “I burn already, in spirit. What does it matter to me if my flesh does as well?”

She tugged her fingers free and turned away so he could not see her stinging tears. It was nearly certain that she sent him to his own demise with this task. While she had enjoyed his company in her bed these past nights, she could not convince herself that their time together would be anything other than a brief respite before his inevitable doom.

Garen began again, pantomiming the steps to properly combine the elements and essences of the kit. This recipe had come from the deepest recesses of the Dream Library; its mere existence had been the subject of whispers among their fellow scholars, and the scrolls containing it had nearly combusted in the sunlight — a trap laid by the mad thing who had dreamed the notes and then scribed them faithfully. The recipe itself contained many false steps and dangerous combinations. Such dream knowledge, even when functional, was always counterintuitive and dangerous to use, holding its own logic.

Being unable to dream had made Garen unfamiliar with its peculiar non-logic. Even so, Besthamun did not doubt that Garen would master the formula. Every night, after their pleasures, he threw aside her furs and stepped naked out into the cold night air to practice.

She doubted any knowledge could escape Garen’s grasp for long; despite the fits of madness he suffered when not presented with a task or goal, his mind was one of the sharpest she had ever encountered. It hungered to understand. In these days, Garen was still more ignorant than wise in the ways of the world (a skillful lover, admittedly), but if he survived into his twilight years, his mind might solve some of the deepest philosophical questions, such as the nature of the Dreamers that visited the plagues upon humankind — from whence did their slumbering nightmares emit? Questions no ordinary scholar could contemplate for long without turning mad, but Garen was already lost. It would only be a matter of degrees for him.

Meldri leaned in and whispered as Garen mimed taking the flame to the tincture of aumsblood. “He nearly has it.”

She nodded, and held a finger to her lips.

With a flourish of his right hand, Garen completed the final step. Sweat dripped from the tip of his broad nose, and his blouse was soaked through.

“How was that?” he asked.

“Satisfactory,” Meldri said with a sniff, but he could not hide his excitement, his eyes sparkling in the light of the alchemist’s flame. Their plan might yet work!

“I say we celebrate,” Garen said, and he took Meldri into his arms and kissed him deeply, breaking only to nibble upon Besthamun’s neck.

“I suppose you have earned a brief respite from your training,” Meldri murmured.

* * *

Garen sweat under the high mountain sun, relentless in its drumming beat on his copper skin. He threw aside his cape of furs and used his elevated vantage point to survey the territory he must cross to reach the base of the archway.

Mangled, magpie-pecked corpses of those that had fallen from the scaffolding littered the ground below; the living paid these dead no attention. Beyond the field of corpses, a maze of ladders and platforms coiled around the stone foundations like paper snakes. These teemed with the dreaming workers now, but after a moment of watching, Garen could see that the tide of humanity had reversed: the dreamers now climbed downward. A crowd of hundreds milled just below the keystone, which was swinging into place atop the arch.

Now Garen drew his blade from his pack and clenched it between his teeth. His mouth tasted as metallic as blood as he climbed down to the street once more. He kept a careful eye on the shadows for the urchins, but saw none; a strange energy in the air grew taut, and even the feral children must have been able to sense it. Perhaps they had fled the city ahead of what came next.

A dozen empty-eyed, slack-mouthed workers shuffled past the entrance to Garen’s alley. He flinched back, but they paid him no mind. He stepped out and followed, keeping a small distance from the rear of the pack. He did his best to match their gait and unseeing stares.

Once the pack merged with the larger crowd, they began to sway in place, as if leaning to and fro to a tune only they could hear. A dim memory of a song with a matching beat played itself in Garen’s mind, and he nearly shrieked to silence it. He didn’t wish to recall whatever that was now, a memory of a time when he too had been exposed to a dream, and returned from it lacking some deep, fundamental piece of himself, the only survivor in an entire village of dreaming dead.

He shook away the audial phantasm and pushed his way through the crowd, hundreds of half-naked bodies now, shoulder to shoulder, pressing ever inward to seek the shade of the supports. The heat from their bodies drew more sweat upon Garen’s brow. His heart raced, somehow certain that they were watching him with their mindless gazes, but had determined him harmless.

It was only when he took out the vials given to him by Meldri and Besthamun that they reacted at all. In one mighty voice they screamed long and shrill, nearly tearing the tissue of Garen’s ears. All of the dreamers, at once. Garen took up his blade and turned to put his back against stone, but the dreamers did not turn to face him. Instead, their sightless gaze was directed skyward, where the keystone had been fitted into place.

The tenseness in the air snapped. A chill gale blew inward to the arch, followed after a moment by a hot breeze, damp, fetid, like the exhalation of some great beast. Garen nearly retched at the indescribable stench.

Bodies rained onto the paving stones from the scaffolding, first one, then another, then dozens, falling and cracking onto the stone-lined streets. Flocks of magpies and crows swooped forward to dine on the fresh meats, fluttering, glossy-black wings blanketing the gore from Garen’s eyes like a feathered eclipse. Garen tore his gaze away and went to work. He hurriedly formed compounds and solutions by rote. Now his only thoughts were of Besthamun and Meldri.

* * *

“What harm does it do to let the dreamers build?” Garen asked. The three of them lay in a sweaty tangle of spent limbs in Besthamun’s bed.

“The dream plagues are the dreams of Them — those titans and gods from before language and song, the horrors banished outside by the first fires and spears. In their eternal slumber, their dreams twist the wakened and reshape those that they touch. Their dreams cause great horror and tragedy, but mostly they pass quickly,” Meldri said.

“Mmm.” Garen nodded, tap-tapping his chin against Besthamun’s shoulder.

“The dream in Alamoi has never passed,” Besthamun said. “Our mentor, the Great Blind Scholar Trikilin, studies ashamani — dreams of purpose. There are half-written records of other purposeful dreams in the Library. Each was an awesome calamity, greater still than any war or famine. There are stories of the banished demons building exits from their prisons. If they were to return, the world would drown in blood and fire.”

“I’m merely surprised you would be so eager to destroy your home,” Garen said.

Besthamun sat upright. “How do you know this?”

Garen shrugged. “Try as you might, you can’t hide the accented lilt in your speech.”

“We thought you knew nothing of the Shining City,” Meldri said, tone hurt.

Garen chuckled, hand on Besthamun to draw her back to the bed. “I study dream plagues in my own way; of course I know as much as I can about your city. But I had thought it useless in my quest.”

“We were pressed into Trikilin’s service as children by our father, a master architect,” Meldri said in a far-off tone. “We left before the plague took hold. Sometimes I dream that I am walking the streets near our home again. Of the way the stones felt warm beneath your feet, even after the sun had set.”

“I miss the smells of mountain grubs and rock sparrow eggs frying in the stalls along the marketplace,” Besthamun whispered.

“In my dream the people become monsters. They tear down Alamoi, brick by brick, devouring each stone with blackened maws.” Meldri began to sob.

“We will see it destroyed by our own hands and our people freed from the dream’s service,” Besthamun said, taking her brother’s hand. She stared at Garen, who shrugged.

“I will do my best.”

Later, after Meldri had drifted off, Garen said: “You don’t expect me to survive.”

Besthamun rolled to face away. “I suppose not. The detonating compound will only give you moments to find shelter, even if you live long enough to formulate it. But… you are clever.”

He laughed.

“Perhaps the most clever man I have ever met.”

“Maybe so. But if you really cared about me as anything other than a tool for your plans, you wouldn’t send me to my death.”

“I’m not forcing you to go.”

He sighed. “I would give anything, even my life, to dream again. Aside from the fits of madness, one does not feel… real?… after so long without dreams. This talk of saving the land from the calamitous dreaming of old gods; none of that matters to me.”

“You will still attempt the task?”

“Of course. Perhaps I will surprise you with my survival. And if not, I hope that in death even I can dream.”

“I hope so too.”

* * *

A thunderclap brought Garen back to the present. A swarm of pink-hued abominations spilled from the space below the arch, a swarm buzzing louder than the screaming birds, their shapes writhing, unnatural. Beyond them, through the arch, in a space that had never known light, something immense lurked, a presence with no recognizable shape. Garen knew it to be the Dreaming One, the thing banished. It approached, heralded by its servants. Its path was not yet fully paved, the invisible door still swinging open. Garen still had time.

He took the last triggering essence of the explosive compound in his fist, blade in the other, and screamed his defiance to the heavens.

The winged servants dived at him. The dreamers raised their fists and howled. Attackers struck from all directions.

Despite his madness, Garen had the luxury of time. He had studied many subjects, but first among them was the martial forms. In this he was a practiced scholar. Now his mastery was apparent, though no sane mind could witness it. In each movement he accomplished precisely what was needed for his knife to sunder limb from torso, head from neck. He spun into the writhing horde of dreamers and laid waste to any who dared come within his considerable reach.

Still an endless number pressed him, their blunt teeth and splintered nails rending his skin, his spilled blood a gory rain that speckled the air. Despite his mastery of the knife, he could not resist such great numbers for very long. Each swing took him farther from the nearly completed chemical mixture. He carved a path to escape — a gap in the crowd that could close at any moment — and then he flung the final element back at the mixture-filled vial that lay at the foot of the arch.

It shattered against the beaker, and the mixture inside flared white.

All sound, all vision extinguished. For the briefest of moments, Garen thought he had fallen asleep at last, and his every weary muscle relaxed.

Then chaos, terrible heat, and so much screaming. Above it all, the roar of stone fracturing, toppling, collapsing, the archway coming down heavy block by block, repeatedly thudding into the earth and rippling the courtyard like an unending earthquake.

Garen felt his body thrown clear of the collapsing arch. His ankle fractured when he landed, his ribs badly bruised at the very least, but he still clung to his dagger. The bodies of the dreamers had sheltered him from the worst of the explosion. Now his ears sounded with ringing temple bells, his skin numb and unfeeling. He was certain that he was dying, but the ringing began to fade and the numbness gave way to agony.

The winged harbingers screamed in horror at the collapsing arch. Their movements shifted; another plan seemed to form quickly, as if they shared a common mind or purpose. Iridescent wings beat rhythms of despair as they swooped low, snatching up the scattered dreamers of Alamoi. Garen watched, dumb with fright, as the servants tore at the scalps of their victims, peeling back flesh and bone until a pink slithery mass of brain was exposed. These organs they plucked like imperfect rosebuds and stored in the featureless gray canisters each carried in slings upon their abdomens.

One servant drove for Garen as he scrabbled away, unable to stand and too terrified to turn his gaze from the slaughter. He swept out with the bronze blade, but the servant had suddenly never occupied the space he thought it had, and his weapon did not draw its ichor.

One of the servant’s claws pried the blade from Garen’s hand. The others snatched him up and lifted him spread-eagled into the air, and still other limbs poked and prodded his skin. Garen let out a long sigh and went limp. His fate was sealed; why should he fight it? The horror of what he was witnessing dulled, and all he experienced felt somehow familiar.

How long the examination continued, Garen wasn’t certain, but suddenly the servant cast Garen roughly aside. He landed on a pile of stones, the breath knocked from his battered lungs. Their writhing harvest complete, they flew away into the blue sky, disappearing into pinpoints, and leaving behind shimmering pools of blood and skull-rent corpses on the ruined courtyard floor. The archway was no more; nor was the tunnel of space it had heralded. The Dreamer remained locked away. To what purpose they turned now, Garen would never know.

After some time, Garen made it to his feet, despite his ruined ankle. He was no longer tempted to look back on the carnage. Not all of the dreamers had been harvested. Some were stirring here and there, and he did not look forward to the explanations they would demand from him when their senses fully returned. He made as much haste as possible, limping to the road he had followed into the city, and following it back into the valley. He crawled, scampered, and hopped for six days without rest, pausing only to scavenge a tree limb as a makeshift crutch. On his sixth day of flight, Garen collapsed at the doorstep of a traveler’s inn in a dreamless coma. It was the closest thing approaching sleep he had experienced in more years than he could remember.

* * *

When he recovered, he spent some months tracking the flying, brain-stealing horrors. He felt somewhat responsible for their escape into the world, but he found no trace of them. With such wings, they could have traveled the Thawed Lands and into the Ice Wastes beyond.

Garen did eventually collect his reward from the University, but that was not a journey without peril. The tale of it is another story for another time. Suffice it to say that the Library of Dreams did not contain the answers that he sought; only more questions, ones that led him further into madness and despair.

For many more years, the events in Alamoi troubled Garen; in particular, his encounter with the winged servants of the Dreamer. When their plans to free the Dreamer had failed, they had turned to harvest, but for what purpose? What did it mean for who he was, what he was, that the creatures had not collected the pinky innards from his skull?

He could only conclude that whatever the servants had required, it was merely represented in the flesh of the organ, and not the flesh itself, which certain practitioners of medical traditions had assured him he possessed — his head was not hollow. No, something beyond the pink meats had been their true goal. Whatever it was, Garen the Undreaming did not possess it.

Two Suns over Zululand

Ben Stewart

“You are certain that the item we seek is in the midst of that?” asked Lwazi. He and his companions — four fellow warriors and Mandlenkosi the Sangoma, resplendent in his headdress of feathers and bones — looked down at the swirling chaos that surrounded Rorke’s Drift from their vantage point atop a nearby hill. The British had erected makeshift barriers around the station’s few buildings using crates and mealie bags, and the fighting around those bulwarks was savage. Shot after shot spat from the defenders’ rifles, cutting down charging men by the dozen, and yet the Zulu attack did not falter. Each fallen warrior was replaced by two more rushing forward to add their spears to the assault.

“The Englishman is in there, of that I am certain,” replied Mandlenkosi. The little Sangoma shook his staff, causing the bird skulls tied along its length to rattle, and pawed at the ground with his bare feet as he hopped in a small circle. He tasted the air a few times with his tongue, and then nodded in satisfaction. “No doubt about it. The man called Rafferty is in there, and the idol of H’aaztre is in his possession.”

Lwazi crouched down on his haunches and thought carefully for a moment. In doing so, the towering Zulu — who was the best part of a head taller than the largest of the other four warriors — brought himself almost to eye level with the diminutive witch doctor.

“It would seem wisest to wait until the battle is done before trying to root him out,” he ventured, but Mandlenkosi shook his feathered head.

“No, Lwazi. The idol has already been away from the Cave of Spirits for too long. The birds of the sky tell me that three days have passed since Rafferty arrived at this place. The Sangoma of the nearest kraal, who knew Rafferty from when the white man prospected for gold nearby, says he passed their huts four days ago. Given the distance to the cave, I fear as many as six days have passed since he found the idol — H’aaztre will have noticed, and H’aaztre will have spoken to him, Lwazi. We cannot risk waiting any longer.”

Lwazi stood to his full, impressive height again. He was already dressed for war, clad only in a loincloth with no ornamentation adorning his muscular frame. His fellow warriors were likewise ready for action — their spear-blades were freshly sharpened, and their faces betrayed no fear at the thought of the task that faced them.

“So be it,” said Lwazi. “We shall return with the idol within the hour. We will not fail you, Mandlenkosi.”

“See that you don’t, Lwazi — of all the horrors you have faced for me in the past, this is truly the greatest. If you do not retrieve the statue, then the death and destruction of King Cetshwayo’s war with the British will be as insignificant as the bite of a horsefly. If the two suns rise over Zululand, then there is no hope for our people... or any other people of this world. Go now, and may the Amatongo guide your hand.”

* * *

 “Usuthu!”

Bellowing the feared Zulu battle cry, Lwazi and his hand-picked warriors charged through the gun smoke and over the bodies of their fallen brothers toward the British defenses. Running barefoot so as to be unhindered by clumsy footwear, they covered the distance at a remarkable speed. They had chosen to disregard their traditional shields to further improve their pace — the bulky oval frames of wood and ox-hide would have been an unnecessary burden, and besides, they were little use against the bullets that buzzed about their ears. Each man carried only his iklwa, a short, stabbing spear named after the sucking noise the blade made when pulled from a foe’s flesh, and a stout knobkerrie club in his belt.

Their destination was the hospital block, the nearest wall of which formed part of the station’s western defenses. According to Mandlenkosi’s mystical intelligence, Rafferty had arrived at Rorke’s Drift dehydrated and ranting three days earlier, so it seemed reasonable that he would have been accommodated in the hospital. Fortunately for the Zulus, the volume of British fire from that quarter had lessened as they approached — most of the rifles had been withdrawn from the loopholes knocked into the building walls, and defenders were falling back to reinforce other parts of the barricade. Noting the behavior of the British, and the black smoke that was starting to rise from the hospital roof, Lwazi urged his men to quicken their pace.

“The hospital is ablaze!” he yelled over the gunfire. “If they evacuate that building, our quarry is lost!” The warriors redoubled their efforts, sprinting to the utmost of their capabilities. Lwazi was only a young man, much younger than those that followed him — some of whom even wore the umqhele headband woven into their hair to signify they had earned the right to take a wife — but still they followed the young giant without question. Not only did they hold the utmost respect for his remarkable martial prowess, they knew that when it came to the dark ways of the Sangoma, it was Lwazi that was the true veteran, given his history of serving the mysterious Mandlenkosi.

Lwazi was the first man to the barricade and he flew over the stacked mealie bags like a leaping springbok. The British had almost completed the retreat to their second line, but two red-coated white men still remained in the area behind the barrier, and both raised their rifles to their shoulders at the sight of the towering Zulu. One managed to discharge his weapon and the ball flew past Lwazi’s head, so close that he heard it sing as it sliced through the air. Phumlani, the second man to the barrier, was not so fortunate, and died instantly when the round took him squarely in the chest as he mounted the wall of burlap sacks.

Thanks to his lengthy stride, Lwazi covered the twenty yards to the shooter before the Englishman could consider reloading or employing his bayonet, and with a cry of “Usuthu!” the Zulu plunged his iklwa into the man’s chest. The second white man abandoned his attempts to clear the jammed round from his rifle breech and lunged forward with his bayonet. Lwazi grabbed the barrel of the rifle with one powerful hand and yanked the man off balance. The unfortunate soldier died swiftly from a single spear-thrust into his exposed throat. Lwazi felt no pleasure at killing the Englishmen — they may have been at war with his people, but they were not his true enemies. His real nemesis in this battle was altogether a far more complicated and dangerous foe than the military might of the British army.

The four remaining Zulus wasted no time in mourning their fallen companion but went directly into the building in which they hoped to find the man known as Rafferty. On entering the hospital they were met with thick clouds of black smoke.

“We must be quick,” called Lwazi. “Check each room — if he is here, we must find him.”

The first few rooms contained little but empty beds and burning sheets — the building looked completely abandoned. Lwazi offered a silent prayer to his ancestors that they had not arrived too late — if Rafferty had escaped them, the consequences would be unthinkable. But Lwazi’s prayer was answered when Sizwe, the oldest man among them, cried out that he had found something.

The other Zulus raced to Sizwe’s side. The room in which the gray-haired veteran stood was as yet untouched by the spreading fire, but black smoke still hung heavy in the air.

“There, Lwazi,” said Sizwe, pointing with his iklwa at a wooden linen cupboard in the corner of the room. “Something moved in that box — I heard it banging around.”

Lwazi threw the cupboard door open — huddled among the sheets and pillows was a small, thin white man with prematurely graying hair and the tanned skin of an Englishman who had spent a decent span in the African sun. The man was naked, and sat shivering and twitching in a tight ball, but Lwazi doubted he was cold or struck by the poison of the mosquito. More likely his ague was related to what he clutched to his chest.

The idol was only a small thing, less than a foot tall, and fashioned from a dark hardwood. The carving depicted a roughly humanoid shape, though it was difficult to tell if its indistinct outline was due to the skill of the craftsman or because the figure was intended to be appear swathed in heavy robes or a hooded cloak. The idol’s left arm was extended forward, and its outstretched hand held a small tube about two inches long, carved from some kind of bone, decorated with an intricate pattern of swirling lines carved into its surface. Upon seeing the effigy, Lwazi took an involuntary step backward — he had found the dread idol of H’aaztre, and the terrible stories that Mandlenkosi had told him of that foul object were more frightening than a whole regiment of British riflemen.

Lwazi quickly marshaled his courage and pointed his spear at the naked man.

“You are the man called Rafferty, yes?” he asked, using the English he had learned as a child from the missionaries. The shaking man did not answer, but his eyes flicked up to Lwazi, as if noticing him for the first time. Those eyes were wide and filled with terror. Sizwe stepped forward to seize the statue, but Lwazi halted him with a gesture.

“Careful, Sizwe… we don’t know what foul curses that thing has worked on him,” he said in Zulu. “If he feels threatened, he could react in unpredictable ways.” Switching to English, Lwazi turned back to Rafferty. “Give me the idol, friend. I have heard talk of you from the people of the kraals you visited over the years, and I know you are a good man who always dealt fairly with the Zulu. Our nations may be at war, but we need not be. Give it to me and we shall leave you in peace.”

“I only came looking for gold,” whimpered Rafferty in a faltering voice. “I was mining for metal, but the charges blasted into that cave… it spoke to me, you see… it made me take it…”

“Hand it to me and we shall take it away,” replied Lwazi. He tried to keep his tone friendly and calm, but he was all too aware of the battle that raged around them and the rapidly spreading fire that would soon consume the building. “Then you shall be free of it, yes?”

“Oh no… I can’t. It won’t let me, you see? It whispers to me all the time, and I can’t block it out… it has shown me such sights… I have seen the terrible emptiness, the black chasms between the uncaring stars… I have seen the great lake… it tells me the Byakhee are on their way to take me there… I shall see the city with my own eyes… ”

Rafferty trailed off and broke into fits of ragged, body-racking sobs. He screwed his eyes shut and tears flowed freely down his cheeks.

“The man’s mind is broken,” muttered Sizwe in Zulu, and Lwazi was inclined to agree. Deciding that no amount of cajoling would convince Rafferty to hand over the artifact, he cautiously reached out to take it from the Englishman’s trembling arms.

The instant Lwazi’s fingers brushed the idol, Rafferty wrenched it away, twisting his body to hide it from the Zulu’s grasp. His head snapped upright and his abject weeping abruptly halted. Moments earlier, Rafferty’s eyes had been pits of despair — now they were nothing even remotely human, transformed into two bright yellow orbs, like chunks of amber.

“By his Sign shall you know him!” he screamed, his voice reverberating unnaturally around the small room. “The Feaster from Afar wishes to receive me! The heralds come to transport me to the Nameless One’s majestic presence! Iä! Iä! Hastur n’ah Hali! Ygnaiih, thflfthkh’ngha! Iä Yogge-Sothothe!”

The inhuman syllables that tumbled from Rafferty’s mouth were accompanied by an earsplitting whistle that emanated from the bone tube clasped in the effigy’s hand, as if it were being blown by unseen lips.

Lwazi’s spear tumbled from his grasp. He was forced to clap his hands over his ears to try and block out both the piercing whistle that drove into his brain like an iron spike and Rafferty’s chanting, the strange words making his skin crawl and stomach churn.

“Yogge-Sothothe y’bthnk! N’grkdl’ly eh-ya-ya-ya-yahaah! Iä! Sh’tak erklos!”

His warriors were similarly affected. Two fell to their knees under the terrible onslaught, and Sizwe stumbled into a bed and was sent sprawling to the floor… but the floor he landed on was not the smooth wooden planks of the hospital, but gray stone covered with a thin layer of fine black sand. All about them the room shifted and faded. The walls and ceiling disappeared, revealing a landscape that resembled no part of Africa, or anywhere else on Earth. The Zulus and Rafferty now stood on a sandy plain, a few miles from a vast, irregular cluster of huge, cyclopean towers that loomed against a deep yellow sky. Some of the towers were taller than the highest mountains of Zululand and yet were unfeasibly narrow for their height, and possessed curves and angles that should have been impossible for a construction of stone. This forest of bizarre monoliths stretched across the perfectly flat horizon as far as they could see, and in every other direction there was naught but an endless expanse of desolate desert. The landscape was illuminated by two ominous black discs that hung high above in the yellow sky — with mounting dread, Lwazi recognized the twin suns that were the mark of H’aaztre’s demonic realm.

As he stared at those baleful, alien suns, a flicker of movement caught Lwazi’s eye — four shadows broke away from one of the taller towers and soared through the sky like birds on the wing, growing larger as they drew nearer. The terrible whistle and chanting persisted, but the approach of what could only be enemies spurred Lwazi into action. Gritting his teeth against the sounds assailing him, he snatched up his iklwa and tried to rally his men.

“Sons of Shaka! The enemy comes! We must be ready to fight!” Lwazi called out as loudly as he could, but his voice was lost among the cacophony of the bone whistle and Rafferty’s foul paean.

“Yogge-Sothothe ngh’ aaa! Iä! Iä! Radagastrask cetos sihn! Ceddi-ak tribh Azathoth!”

The young warrior had no time to try and rouse his companions again, for the creatures of H’aaztre were almost upon them. They were of roughly human shape, but there was an insectoid quality to their black, chitinous hides, while their long necks and hideous heads owed more to a foul crossbreed of vulture and lizard. Huge, leathery, bat-like wings carried them aloft, and as they swooped down toward the beleaguered Zulus they brandished wicked claws from the end of each malformed limb. Lwazi threw himself to the side to evade the creature that plummeted toward him, but the other Zulus were still incapacitated by the mind-wrenching shriek of the bone whistle and easy prey for H’aaztre’s demons. As Lwazi regained his feet, he was splattered by a fountain of blood and viscera as one of the monsters drove its claws into Sizwe’s stomach and ripped the veteran warrior in half. The other two Zulus fared no better, and were torn to bloody ribbons by the bat-winged horrors before they even had a chance to fight back.

Having to watch the gruesome deaths of such fine Zulu warriors was the last spark Lwazi needed to ignite the ancient fires that burned deep in his indomitable soul. At that moment all distractions fell away. He no longer heard the whistle or Rafferty’s profane liturgy. It did not matter that he stood before an alien city beneath twin suns that no human eyes should behold. He did not care that he faced twisted demons that served an evil deity which had been feared by his people and their forebears for millennia. All that mattered was that he was a Zulu warrior, a proud Son of Shaka, with his iklwa in hand and enemies before him.

“USUTHU!”

Lwazi’s first thrust drove his spear straight into the chest of the creature that had slain Sizwe. The iron blade shattered its carapace, splashing purplish gore from its belly to its vulture-like neck. Lwazi’s left hand snatched his knobkerrie from his belt, and he slammed the stout wooden club into the snapping, fang-filled protrusion of the creature’s maw with a bone-crunching thud. The thing crashed to the ground in an ungainly tangle of limbs and wings, surely dead, and its fellows flapped a few yards away from the enraged Zulu, howling a weird, undulating cry as they went. Perhaps the creatures were not used to their victims fighting back, and so were surprised by Lwazi’s onslaught, but no human reactions could be read on those otherworldly faces. If they were caught off guard they quickly rallied, and with fangs and claws bared, they swept down upon him.

Lwazi met the charge head on, chopping his iklwa downward like an axe while thrusting his knobkerrie forward. The razor-sharp edge of the spear sheared through the left wing of one of the demons, slicing the appendage clean off at its shoulder, and the outstretched bludgeon crunched into the center of its torso. The monster was sent sprawling in the black sand by the thrust of his club, spraying more purple blood from its ruined wing. Lwazi was confident the beast would not rise again, but by focusing his attack on one opponent he had left himself open to its kin. He managed to parry one claw swipe with the shaft of his iklwa, but another raked across his ribs, leaving three deep, bloody runnels in his flesh.

His instinctive reaction to the pain was to lash out, and in doing so he rammed his spear-point into one of the monsters’ elongated necks, almost severing its head. Lwazi hopped backward and adopted a defensive posture to face off against the last of the creatures. The proud warrior did his best to ignore the searing pain in his torso, in the same way he was blotting out Rafferty’s chanting and the bone whistle’s malevolent shriek. The Englishman was now a good twenty yards from where Lwazi stood, still clutching the idol of H’aaztre to his chest as he continued his incantation. The last of the flying fiends was between Lwazi and Rafferty, and, judging by its stance, the Zulu reckoned it was trying to protect the wooden statue and its bearer… but then the thing’s hideous head swung toward the distant city and it once again let loose with its bizarre, wailing cry.

Lwazi followed the creature’s gaze, and to his despair he saw dozens of black shapes slip free of the dark towers and soar into the yellow sky — reinforcements were on the way, far more than he could hope to overcome. But then he realized that the winged horde was the least of his concerns — some of the towers were moving. At first he thought that a cluster of about a dozen of the tallest structures had begun to collapse, but he quickly understood that they had in fact started to writhe and squirm against the horizon with an undeniably organic movement. Those towers were alive, like the gigantic appendages of some unspeakably huge nightmare that lurked just over the distant horizon — a nightmare that had now awoken.

“The Feaster from Afar comes!” screamed Rafferty, his jubilant voice crackling with madness. “Ngh’h’yuh! Hastur Iä! N’ah Hali yaa!”

Lwazi knew all was lost. H’aaztre’s demons would be upon him in seconds and would tear him apart in a terrible frenzy. Even if he could fight them off, there was nothing that any mortal creature could do to withstand the gargantuan horror that had begun to rise beyond the horizon — surely now there was nothing that could stop that awakened devil from passing into the realm of man and wreaking unspeakable evil across Africa and all the lands beyond. Lwazi knew he had failed, and just as Mandlenkosi had feared, the two suns would rise over Zululand.

Yet even here, where all hope had fled, Lwazi could not countenance any course of action that did not involve him fighting with all of the strength in his mighty sinews, of selling his life as dearly as he could. The scream that burst forth from his lips was not one of the traditional Zulu war cries, but something much more ancient and primal that sprang from the core of his very being, as he spun his iklwa around in his hand so that he held the weapon with the blade pointing downward. The winged legions swooped down to attack, but Lwazi ignored them and leapt forward, toward the last of the original four monsters that had slaughtered Sizwe and the others, drawing back his iklwa as if he intended to hurl the spear rather than stab with it. The creature threw back its wings and surged forward to meet the Zulu’s charge, just as Lwazi let his spear fly. The demon jinked to one side and the iklwa darted harmlessly past its shoulder, but the evasion had been unnecessary — the monster had not been the spear’s target. Lwazi’s aim was true, the iklwa thudding into the wooden idol cradled in Rafferty’s arms and shattering the bone whistle into a hundred shards.

The whistling instantly stopped, replaced by an even more nerve-wrenching, discordant noise — anguished screaming the likes of which Lwazi had never before heard. Lwazi had managed to block out the whistle and the chant during the battle, but even he could not close his ears to the earthshaking screams of pain and frustration that poured from the entity that lurked beyond the towers. Lwazi collapsed to the ground and wrapped his arms around his head in agony, feeling as if his brain would explode from the sheer pressure of the noise that assailed him. The flying creatures were not immune to their master’s woes, and they too howled in torment, clawing at their own faces as they fell from the sky to break upon the hard surface below. The young Zulu added his own cry of pain to the tortured chorus, but his comparatively puny voice was lost among the unimaginable suffering of a mercifully forgotten god… but then there was nothing but silence.

Not quite silence, though. As he slowly opened his eyes, Lwazi began to notice other sounds that must have been drowned out by H’aaztre’s scream. The first was his own ragged breathing and the frantic pounding of his heart. Next he realized he could hear the crackle of burning wood, the pop of gunfire, the war shouts of the Zulus, and the screams of the dying… all sounds that would have been a terrible onslaught on the senses normally, but they were nothing to that which Lwazi had just endured. That he could hear the battle at all could mean only one thing — the Zulu staggered to his feet and was amazed to find himself back in the hospital room at Rorke’s Drift. All around him lay the ruined corpses of his comrades, hacked to bloody lumps by the claws of the winged devils. When they stood before the city of H’aaztre, the four warriors had been far more spread out, but now reality had reasserted itself, the bodies lay close by Lwazi’s feet, just where they had been before the bone whistle had sounded. Rafferty too was where he had been before the statue had worked its vile magic, sitting in the linen cupboard mere feet from Lwazi. He still clutched the effigy of H’aaztre to his chest, but now the carving had an iklwa protruding from it, the blade buried several inches deep into its body. There was no trace of the bodies of the creatures Lwazi had slain, not even a splash of their purple blood. Nor was there any sign of the fragments of the shattered whistle.

Not daring to touch the statue itself, Lwazi picked up the idol of H’aaztre using the spear, as he would meat spitted on a cooking skewer. Rafferty did not try to prevent him from taking the idol this time, for the Englishman was quite dead. Moments earlier, Rafferty’s eyes had been two balls of blazing amber; now he had nothing but two empty, bloody sockets, as if the eyes themselves had burst under the pressure of the forces that had been channeled through his mortal body. He lay slumped against the side of the cupboard, with his face still contorted by the pain that had consumed him during his final moments. Lwazi offered a quick prayer to his ancestors that whatever remained of Rafferty’s soul was beyond the reach of foul H’aaztre, and then he slipped away through the burning hospital to return to the Zulu lines.

* * *

When Lwazi finally found Mandlenkosi, squatting alone beside one of the many night fires in the Zulu encampment, the old Sangoma barely looked up at him. He simply nodded from the thing impaled upon Lwazi’s spear to the flames. Lwazi did not need any further prompting to drop both the carving of H’aaztre and his iklwa into the fire. He then sat down beside the Sangoma to watch the accursed item burn, along with the trusted weapon that he feared might be tainted by the idol’s evil.

“Should have done this a long time ago,” muttered Mandlenkosi. “Some of the other Sangoma insisted it was still a holy item, even if it was dedicated to a fiend like H’aaztre, and so should be preserved… not all Sangoma are wise men, eh?”

Lwazi did not reply. He was too busy watching the fire lick around the dark wood. The flames that touched the figure’s surface danced and flickered in different shapes from those that sprang from the normal fuel — here and there Lwazi could make out shapes that resembled the impossible structures of the alien city, or flecks of ash that fluttered like the bat-winged killers leaving their lairs to spill the blood of terrified mortals. Some of the flames even twisted and writhed as if mimicking the immense tendrils of the dark god himself, reaching out to try and drag the world of men into its unearthly domain beneath twin suns…

“I’ll fetch some more wood, shall I?” said Mandlenkosi, springing to his feet with a rattle of bones and trinkets. “Looks like that thing will take quite a while to burn.”

Lwazi nodded. The carving would indeed take a long time to be consumed, and he was determined not to take his eye off it for moment. He would sit by the fire as long as it took to make sure that nothing remained — only then would he be confident that his foe was defeated and that the twin suns would never rise over Zululand. Only when a lonely yellow orb crested the mountains to the east and the effigy of H’aaztre was nothing but ash and dust did he leave the fireside.

A Circle That Ever Returneth In

Orrin Grey

As you sit at your usual table in a dark corner of the Jeweled Remora in Lankhende, greatest metropolis in the West, you spy three unusual figures making their way into the establishment: a Sell-Sword, a Cutpurse, and a Doll Mage, by the look of them. They order their drinks and take a table near the hearth, though it is the Year of the Fly and the night outside is sticky and close. Perhaps they hope to disguise their voices with the crackling of the fire, for they are holding what appears to be an animated conversation, but one that their hunched postures and furtive glances show they would rather not share with outsiders.

You are not just any outsider, however, and Nathor of the Guild once said that your ears were keen enough to detect a flea breaking wind. You edge closer and cock one of those impressive ears toward their conversation. You are not disappointed.

They speak of a treasure, a jewel. They call it something that sounds like the “Shining Trapezohedron,” but you’re unsure what kind of stone Trapezohedron is, so it’s possible that you may have misheard. Regardless, it sounds quite rare and, as rare things often are, quite valuable. It seems that each of the three possesses one portion of a riddle, map, or clue meant to lead them to the jewel, but there is some disagreement as to how these tidbits should be shared. Each one believes their portion to be the most pertinent and therefore of the most value, which in turn should, to their thinking, award them the greatest share of the bounty.

Fortunately, before the conversation can turn violent enough to draw the attention of the entire tavern, the Sell-Sword dashes her drink to the floor, calls her compatriots some choice epithets, and all three of them angrily go their separate ways. Sensing a rare opportunity, you slip out of the Jeweled Remora and into the smoky streets of Lankhende after them.

If you follow the Sell-Sword, refer to passage I.

If you follow the Cutpurse, refer to passage II.

If you follow the Doll Mage, refer to passage III.

  I

The Sell-Sword has made her camp in the swampy mangrove forests that surround the walls of Lankhende. Though you keep a safe distance and stay in the shadows, still she must detect you, for she stiffens and places her hand on the sword at her hip as she calls you out. Knowing when you’re fairly caught, you step out with your palms held toward her, to show that you’re unarmed. “You don’t look like much, and you came alone,” she says. “You’re either very brave, or very foolish.”

“Any reason I can’t be a bit of both?” you ask.

After digesting that for a moment, she laughs a surprisingly unguarded laugh and tells you to start a fire while you explain why you’re following her. Once a couple of lizard-bats are roasting over the embers, you tell her that you know she seeks the Shining Trapezohedron — saying a silent prayer to all the gods of Lankhende that you pronounce it correctly — and that you know of someone who can help her to find it, if she’s interested in sharing the wealth.

She is, and she tells you her name is Vlana. You tell her your name, and lead her to the lair of the Seer with Many Faces, in a ruined temple high atop Mount Grond, the strange lone peak that stands to the south of Lankhende.

At first glance, the Seer appears to be a statue of greenish stone that sits atop a raised dais, human in shape but with numerous arms radiating out from the trunk of its body, its head carved with faces on three sides, the one turned toward you as you enter contemplative, serene. Each of its many arms has an upturned palm, and in each hand rests some strange object: a golden carving of the sun, the skull of a bird, a trio of ordinary pebbles.

Seeing that you haven’t completely misled her, Vlana places before the Seer a scrap of faded leather or hide onto which someone has drawn — or more likely tattooed, for on closer inspection the scrap appears to be of flayed skin — a portion of a map. For a moment there is silence in the temple, and then there is a sound like the grinding of ancient machinery, a loud clank that is equal parts metal and stone, and the Seer moves, each arm switching positions slightly, and the head atop its trunk rotating so that a facade of terror is suddenly presented to you.

“I know what it is you would seek,” the Seer says, its voice an echo coming from somewhere deep in a cave, “and on your life I warn you to turn back.”

Neither you nor Vlana can be dissuaded, and the Seer seems to sense it, for there is another grinding clank, another repositioning of arms and head, and now the visage that faces you is a mask of wrath. “Then go, but fairly warned. Your path will take you through the city of ghouls, to the throne of the Yellow King. There you will find your prize, and though you will return to Lankhende time and again, it will not be in your grasp.”

The road to Ghulende is a long one, and on the way Vlana teaches you the art of the sword. Her own blade is longer and of finer craftsmanship than the short one that hangs on your belt. She tells you that it is named Heartseeker, and that she forged it herself, as all warriors of her tribe must do before they can truly enter into adulthood.

As you draw nearer to Ghulende, the land becomes drier, the trees short and dead and twisted. Gravestones line the road on every side, canting off at odd angles. They are memorials from every era of the world’s history, and every nation with which you’re familiar — and many with which you aren’t — and you wonder if they’re drawn to Ghulende like iron to a lodestone.

The city itself looks as if some great metropolis like Lankhende was dashed to pieces by a giant hand. Gone are the cyclopean walls, the towering buildings with their many windows for trysts and burglaries. Here the walls lie in rubble, the towers rise a few stories and then terminate abruptly. It is a ruin, and what better place than a ruin for ghouls to dwell.

You have never seen a ghoul, though the old ladies in your village told you tales of them when you were a child. They were said to have skin and organs so translucent as to be virtually invisible, so that they appeared as living skeletons. They were also said to eat only human flesh, and that while they were generally content to feast upon the dead — for dead flesh was considered by ghouls the more succulent — they were more than happy to render living flesh dead, should the opportunity arise.

Before you have a chance to ask Vlana if she has ever seen a ghoul, you are suddenly presented, from every rubble-strewn alley and leaning doorway, with vivid evidence of the truth of your elders’ tales. At a glance, the ghouls that surround you, clutching in their bony fists odd weapons of blackened iron, would look exactly like human skeletons up and wandering about. The only thing to mark them out — besides their ambulation — is that instead of the white ivory shine of human bone, their skeletons are the green of tarnished copper.

One near the front of the pack barks something at you in what you assume must be Ghulese, but to you is simply nonsense. You glance at Vlana, but while she registers no more comprehension of the words than you do, she seems to understand the situation perfectly, for Heartseeker is already in her hand.

If you stand and fight, refer to passage IV.

If you turn tail and run, refer to passage VII.

  II

Though you believed that you knew Lankhende like the palm of your hand, no sooner are you out the door of the Jeweled Remora than you’ve lost the trail of the Cutpurse. You have ducked into a dark alley to collect your thoughts, when you feel the cold kiss of a dagger pressed to your neck.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t slice your throat,” the Cutpurse says from behind you.

You tell her enough to convince her that you know what she’s looking for and can help her get it, and she agrees to take you with her. She says that her name is Samanda, and that she has in her possession a clue that tells her where to seek the Shining Trapezohedron. There’s only one catch: in order to reach her destination, she has to travel to the bottom of the Western Sea.

You lead her to the strange hut of the Seer with Many Faces, built high in a tall tree in the swampy forests that surround Lankhende, accessible only by climbing a series of rickety platforms. As you both scale the trunk, you marvel at Samanda’s agility, her sure-footedness never wavering once, even as you ascend the highest and most precarious ledges.

The Seer sits in the dark, where an owl, a bat, and a toad also crouch. Shrouded from head to foot in tattered robes that prevent you from seeing what sort of body it might possess, the only defining traits of the Seer are its iron claws and the masks that float in a circle around its hooded face. They pass before it in a slow dance, first one and then another, now the snarling face of a devil, now the leering expression of a lecherous old man, now the innocent visage of a child. When you tell the Seer what you seek, a voice speaks to you from the mouth of the owl. “You should return to Lankhende,” the voice says. Then another voice speaks from the lips of the toad, “No good will come of what you seek.”

But neither you nor Samanda can be dissuaded, and the Seer seems to know this immediately, this time speaking from the mouth of the bat. “If you insist upon pursuing your quest, then you will need a way to survive the ocean floor. Take these two stones,” it says, and one of the iron claws reaches out, presenting two unremarkable-looking pebbles, “and hold them in your mouth. So long as you have them, you will have no need to breathe at all. But I warn you, lose them for even a moment, and you will be lost.”

Before you step into the ocean, you each pop one of the pebbles into your mouth and try to hold your breath, but realize immediately that, just as the Seer promised, you no longer feel the need to breathe at all. Your lungs no longer inflate and deflate, you no longer feel any tightness or pressure in your chest. You simply are.

It also doesn’t take you long to realize that you can’t speak well with the stones in your mouth, so you go over the plan then and there. Samanda tells you that the Shining Trapezohedron is guarded by an entity known as the Yellow King. “Maybe a man, maybe a monster, possibly a god, but certainly something that we can rob.”

As you step into the sea, the water feels cold and briny around you until you are completely submerged, and then, suddenly, it is as if the water isn’t there at all. The temperature turns normal, your movements are no longer sluggish, and you silently thank the Seer with Many Faces for its intervention on your behalf, though past experience has taught you that such intervention seldom comes without a price.

The bottom of the ocean is a remarkably beautiful place, more verdant and strange than any non-aquatic garden. You pass coral reefs as vibrant as any flower, tenanted by fish and eels and squid in every color of the rainbow. As the ocean floor drops away from the land, translucent serpents and fish that glow with their own inner light swim by you in the depths.

Finally, at the bottom of the sea, you come to a sunken city. It is a nameless place, built before men, and its massive carvings show cephalopods and crustaceans and things with the heads of dolphins. The steps you ascend to its shattered columns are larger than any steps humans would ever have carved.

At the top you find yourselves in broad and strangely angled avenues, now covered over by barnacles and other sea growths. Ahead of you, what looked to be paving stones suddenly rise up and skitter forward on spindly legs. Enormous blue crabs with eyes that glow in the dimness of the sea bottom, their pincers poised for destruction. One of them rises up near Samanda, reaching out toward her with its gargantuan claw, and you have to make a decision.

If you go to her aid, refer to passage V.

If you leave her to her fate, refer to passage VIII.

  III

The Doll Mage spends the night in Lankhende before leaving the city alone the next morning, without contracting any mercenaries or bodyguards to assist in her journey.

You trail her for most of the next day, and it is only as night begins to fall that you suddenly feel the strange sensation, the invisible tugging that seems to come from within your muscles. Once, you had a wound stitched up by a barber after a particularly fierce battle, and though pain and booze had numbed your senses, you still had been able to feel the tugging as the thread was pulled tight. This feels like that, and you realize that you can no longer move. Then you do move, but not at all in the way that you had intended.

Your motions jerky, you stand up, step out of your hiding place, and walk out to where the Doll Mage has made her camp. She sits, smiling up at you pleasantly. “I know you’ve been following me since the Jeweled Remora,” she says, “but you seemed capable enough at it, and I thought you might prove useful.”

You see that she is holding a doll, a tiny effigy of cloth and wax, and you notice with a start that it looks like you. “I’ll give you leave to talk,” she says, “so that you can tell me whether you’d like to assist me by choice, or if we’ll do this the other way.”

She pulls out a black stitch from across the doll’s mouth, and suddenly you find your voice. You tell her that you’ll happily help her of your own volition, especially now that you know the alternative.

She tells you that her name is Ivrian, and that she has the first part of a riddle that is supposed to help guide her to the Shining Trapezohedron: “A destination that few men seek.” You take her to cave of the Seer of Many Faces, the only person you know of — if person it can indeed be called — who may know the rest. The cave is long and damp, and at the back of it the Seer waits in a chair that seems to have grown up from the stone of the cave itself. The Seer appears to have been formed from shadow or tar. Only its face is visible, and that is a mirror, in which each supplicant sees only herself.

“A destination that few men seek,” the Seer says, “but that all men find. That is your riddle, and the answer is death, for death is what awaits you if you persist in your folly — but only for the lucky among you, for the riddle is itself a lie, and in the lie is the answer you desire. For some unlucky few, death is a destination that is never found, and they persist forever in something worse than death. If you go to where those unfortunate souls languish, you will find your prize, but I warn you against it, for the pursuit will cost you dearly, and success more dearly still.”

But neither of you can be dissuaded, and from the Seer’s cryptic remarks Ivrian discerns where you must head: the Forbidden Plateau.

The journey is long, and on the way she explains to you the nature of her magic, teaching you how to make the effigies of wax and cloth. “We are all just puppets, really,” she tells you, “dancing on something’s strings. Our passions, our desires, the burdens that we carry. A doll mage simply learns how to pluck those strings.”

The Forbidden Plateau waits at the top of three thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine steps; a place that grows thick with fungus and mushrooms the like of which you have never seen. Huge beds of fungus, in purples and blues and greens, mushrooms that stretch up taller than trees, raining down glittering spores from the gills on their undersides. At first it is beautiful, until you notice the bodies, dozens upon dozens of corpses lying amid the fungus, with fungus grown up around and through them, mushrooms sprouting from their eyes, their mouths. The bodies of all those who have visited the Plateau before you.

Before you arrived, Ivrian warned you that you must not eat even a bite. “Once you eat of the fungus,” she told you, “you do not die, but you also no longer live. The fungus becomes your body, and only your bones remain.”

As you pick your way carefully among the fruiting bodies, toward the far end of the Plateau where a distant temple waits, you find your stomach growling. The fungus looks so delicious, and in spite of the evidence of your eyes, you can’t quite believe Ivrian’s story. One bite, after all, could never do so much harm.

If you eat of the fungus, refer to passage VI.

If you refrain, refer to passage IX.

  IV

Over the course of your travels, Vlana has impressed you with her skill with a blade, and you assume that your best chance of survival is at her side. You draw your own, shorter sword and stand back-to-back as the ghouls surround you. The one who previously spoke barks something else in Ghulese, and Vlana shouts back at him a choice insult about his parentage. Then, in one quick motion, she steps forward and severs his bony head from his shoulders.

It is an odd sight, to watch the ghoul’s head come off. Because the muscles and tendons that connect the bone are invisible, it is like watching the sword part air, and then the skull seems to simply decide that it no longer has any interest in the body, and rolls away. The blood of the ghouls must be as transparent as their flesh, for there is no visible spray. The body simply stumbles, and then falls to the ground.

“They can be killed!” Vlana shouts, and then the battle is joined.

You fight as swiftly and as fiercely as you know how, your sword arm improved by Vlana’s schooling over the recent days. But you are nothing compared to her. She carves through the ghouls like a shark through minnows. Heartseeker flashes, and bony limbs and skulls leap free of their bondage and scatter across the ground.

Unfortunately, you haven’t the leisure to sit back and admire Vlana’s handiwork. Two ghouls approach you at the same time, wielding wickedly hooked blades. You parry each one, but they force you backward, until you feel a column against your back. With nothing else left to do, you duck, and the ghoul’s black blade bites into the column above your head, while you stick your sword into the invisible guts of your other opponent, snatching up his weapon even as it slips from bony fingers. The metal tingles under your grasp, but still you use it to slice the throat of your other foe, and you feel a spray of cold blood strike your face, though you cannot see it.

Panting, you turn back to Vlana, and you see only a street strewn with the dead, though it is difficult indeed to tell a dead ghoul from a live one, except by the places where they’ve been hacked to pieces. Casting about, you spot Vlana, lying where she has fallen, pierced through and through with various ghoulish weapons. You walk over to her body, but she is already gone. There is nothing left for you but to heft Heartseeker and continue on through Ghulende to the throne of the Yellow King.

The throne isn’t difficult to find. It stands at the far end of the city, alone on a raised platform next to a vast black chasm that splits open the earth. You encounter no other ghoulish interference, and when you reach the throne, you have no doubt at all that you’ve arrived at the right place.

The Yellow King himself looks at home among the ghouls who make up his court. He appears as a plague corpse, wrapped head to foot in winding sheets, with a crown of candles upon his brow. In his left hand he holds a scepter, topped with an object that can only be the Shining Trapezohedron. The gem is nearly black in color, striated with bands of red, and as you gaze at it, the world seems to tilt beneath you for a moment before you pull your eyes away.

With Heartseeker in your hand, you feel braver than you otherwise might, and you advance on the Yellow King with your shoulders back, your head high. It is difficult to make out any expression on the corpse-gaunt face, but it seems to you that he smiles as you approach.

He doesn’t speak, but simply holds out the scepter, offering you the stone. You sense a trap, but you have little fear of this gaunt creature after those you have just faced, and Vlana’s sword in your hand steels you. You reach out and take the stone from the scepter, and even as you do, the Yellow King seems to wither further, his bones turning to dust, his flesh crumpling inward, until only the winding sheet is left, and then even it blows away into the chasm.

You have attained your goal, and the Shining Trapezohedron is now in your grasp, but even as you touch it, you feel seized by a compulsion at once to gaze into it and to cast it into the abyss.

If you cast the Shining Trapezohedron away, refer to passage X.

If you gaze into the Shining Trapezohedron, refer to passage XI.

  V

You’ll need Samanda to retrieve the stone, and as you interpose yourself between her and the crab, she nods to you and slips to the side, making her way down the boulevard and toward the center of the aquatic city. The claw that was meant for her you block with your sword, but there are other crabs rising up all around. Without thinking, you open your mouth to call out for her help, and the ocean rushes in. You snap your jaws closed, tasting the brine of deep sea water.

At the other end of the street, Samanda’s ankle is caught in the grip of a gigantic crab. Desperately, you swing your blade at the claws that surround you, but they are too many. As you fight for your life, you see the magic pebble slip out of Samanda’s mouth and drift away through the water, you see her body go limp as she floats instead of falling, the water once more granted its power over her.

As the crabs close around you, you wonder if drowning would perhaps be a more pleasant end than the one that you face, but unfortunately for you, you aren’t given the choice.

You have died.

  VI

When Ivrian isn’t looking, you break off a piece of the fungus and pop it into your mouth. The moment you do so, you wonder why you waited so long. It is the most exquisite flavor you have ever tasted.

By the time Ivrian realizes what you’ve done and comes to stop you, you hardly notice that she is even there. You try to explain to her, around mouthfuls of fungus, that you have never before known happiness. You hold the fungus out to her, and she strikes it away, and you’re only distantly surprised to see part of your hand break off with it. Ivrian is surprised though, or disgusted, or maybe terrified. You find it hard to tell what her expressions mean anymore, but she flees. Still, you are untroubled. You know that she won’t get far. You are the Plateau now, the fungal beds that spread across its entire length and breadth, and those like you won’t ever let her reach the Yellow King.

You lie back in contentment, as you feel the hyphae begin to grow through you. It will be a long time now before the pain begins, and longer still before it ever stops.

You haven’t died, but you’ll soon wish that you had.

  VII

Deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, you hope that you can make your way to the throne of the Yellow King while the ghouls are busy digesting Vlana. As she rushes into battle, you turn and dart between two verdigris-colored skeletons and into a dark alleyway.

The alley you have chosen for your escape leans perilously, and once you’re inside it, you find that it is plagued with sudden switchbacks, so that in no time at all you’ve lost your way. The fog causes the sounds of clashing steel to echo and re-echo, sounding at every moment like they are just around the next bend, or over the next wall.

As the sounds of conflict fade, you take a few tentative steps forward, and peer out from a ruined archway. Before you, the fog discloses a grisly scene. Several ghouls lie strewn about the street, looking no different in death than they did in life, but the vast majority of the throng are gathered in the center of the road, tearing pieces from Vlana’s fallen body.

Apparently, your flight has taken you in a circle and returned you back again to the place from whence you departed.

Heartseeker has fallen from Vlana’s grasp and lies outside the ring of feeding ghouls, and you step forward to lift it, but even as you do, you feel a clammy hand fasten around your wrist, and the ghouls who were waiting on either side of the archway are suddenly upon you, pressing you to the ground, their cold teeth sinking into your warm flesh.

You have died.

  VIII

As more and more of the enormous crabs rise from the city streets, you realize that you didn’t sign on for this. You’d apologize to Samanda if you could, but your mouth is full of magic rock. Even as you dart past her, the claw of the enormous crab fastens around her waist, and the pebble is squeezed from her mouth. You take comfort in the knowledge that she’ll probably drown before the crabs can tear her apart.

The crabs are surprisingly quick for such huge beasts, and several times you have to deflect snapping claws with the blade of your sword. At the end of the lane, a creature so massive that it makes its brethren look regular-sized rises up before you, the entire end of the street yawning upward into a gargantuan blue carapace. Your blade licks out and slices off a wavering eyestalk, and then you’re stepping atop the monster even as it levers itself upward, and using its height to boost you onto the avenue above.

You find yourself in a broad thoroughfare lined with cyclopean pillars that must have once reached to the heavens, if this city ever existed above the waves. At its far end, you see the gates of some temple or fane. As you pass through, you discover that the interior is not an interior at all, but that some ancient cataclysm has rent the building, destroying the roof and bringing down most of the walls, so that the temple is now open to the sea and to a massive chasm that splits the seabed behind it. Here you find the throne of the Yellow King, and the King himself asleep upon it. Samanda was right when she hypothesized that the King might not be a man. What lies upon the throne is an enormous worm, fat as a maggot, its yellow flesh the color of infection.

Next to the throne is a heap of gold and jewels, and atop the heap the treasure that you seek, what can only be the Shining Trapezohedron. Black and shot through with red, it seems to call out to you, and you slip noiselessly across the temple floor toward your prize. You had believed that you might need Samanda’s skills to steal the stone, but it seems now that you may be stealthy enough after all, and you reach the pile of treasure without the King so much as stirring.

You reach out one shaking hand, close your fist around the Trapezohedron, and as you do so, you hear a sound behind you, a sound out of place in the soundless depths of the ocean. You turn, and you see that the worm that is the Yellow King terminates in a human face, and that face is directing its mocking laughter at you, and you realize that, while you’ve gotten what you came for, you’ve also fallen into a trap.

If you cast the Shining Trapezohedron away, refer to passage X.

If you gaze into the Shining Trapezohedron, refer to passage XI.

IX

You fight the unnatural pull of the mushrooms that surround you, and follow Ivrian through the strange fields of the Plateau. As you near the temple steps, however, you notice that the fungus seems to have shifted slightly. Each time you look away, the topography has changed when you look back. Before you can point the phenomenon out to Ivrian, one of the corpses tears itself free from its fungal bed and lunges at you. Your sword comes up and slices off an arm. The sensation is oddly repellent, not the clean bite of a normal blade cutting normal flesh.

All around you, the bodies within the fungus are rising up. Mushrooms in vivid blues and greens and purples burst from their bodies as they clamber, shamble, or even crawl toward you, and you know, even as you try to fend them off, that the fungus is what controls them, what makes them move, and that gives you an idea.

“Ivrian,” you shout, “their bones are still intact!”

And she, to her credit, sees what you mean immediately, plucks a fingerbone from the putrefying mass of the arm you just hacked off, and from it begins fashioning a hasty doll. In moments, one of the fungus people is fighting at your side, and shortly thereafter another has joined it, and then another.

The creatures are not formidable in combat, too slow and too soft, but they cannot be slain as any living foe can, by cutting off a head or stopping a heart. No matter what you do to them, they keep coming, and even with your reinforcements, you know that you won’t last long. You turn to Ivrian, to tell her that one of you has to make it to the temple, just in time to see two of the creatures hauling her down. You slash at them, reducing them to quivering masses, but by the time you reach her, it’s too late, she has already swallowed the fungus they jammed in her mouth.

She presses half-made dolls into your hands and tells you to go to the temple, that she’ll hold them off as long as she can. You consider trying to argue, but already her skin is taking on an unhealthy grayish tinge, and so you take the dolls and run.

The temple steps flash under your feet, and you don’t stop until you are beyond its golden doors, and those doors shut firmly behind you. You see that the temple is only a facade, that within it is open to the elements, and the back wall of the chamber is not a wall but a cliff that drops off into a gorge that seems to go down forever. Between you and the cliff there sits a golden throne, and upon it reclines the fattest man you have ever seen. His flesh hangs over itself in massive folds, like an avalanche of a person, a mountain of flesh that cascades ever down and down. Covering his face is a mask of yellow silk, and to either side of him stand guardians in golden masks, holding curved golden swords. In one of his massive hands, he holds what must be the Shining Trapezohedron, a black stone striated with red that seems to pull you toward it.

The Yellow King holds out the stone, as though inviting you to come take it, but as you start to move forward, so too do his twin guards. You glance down at the sword in your hand, and then at the dolls that Ivrian gave you. Hastily you begin shaping one of the dolls, pressing into its face a piece of gold prized from the door at your back. You hear the footsteps of the guards coming closer, and you use the doll as Ivrian taught you. When you look up, one of the guards has turned stiffly and cut the other down.

You smile in triumph as the guard whose strings you now hold turns and advances on his former master, and the Yellow King is silent even as the guard cuts off his hand so that the Trapezohedron rolls free. It is only as you pick it up that you realize why this came to you so easily. The moment you touch the stone, you feel its power, feel it drawing your gaze, gathering up your strings as readily as Ivrian ever did, and you realize that you are the puppet, and that you always were.

If you cast the Shining Trapezohedron away, refer to passage X.

If you gaze into the Shining Trapezohedron, refer to passage XI.

  X

Realizing that the Shining Trapezohedron is something more than a jewel, some cursed and terrible artifact that can bring you only doom, you raise your arm to cast it into the chasm behind the Yellow King’s throne. At least, you intend to. But while the signal races from your mind, it never seems to reach your hand, which stays where it is, gripping the stone tightly.

You understand that you are no longer in control of yourself. That you are a puppet, being pulled by strings that you cannot see or imagine. Though your will screams against it, you turn your gaze toward the stone in your hand.

Refer to passage XI.

  XI

You cannot resist the pull of the stone, and inside the Shining Trapezohedron you see at first only swirling clouds of red and black. Then the clouds part, and you are looking into the past and the future. You see yourself entering the Jeweled Remora in Lankhende, taking a table near the hearth, in spite of the heat and closeness of the night. There you meet with your companions, and you speak of your quest for the jewel. You keep your voices lowered, but a stranger watches you avidly from the shadows.

From the depths of the stone, you hear a voice at once strange and familiar, reciting a rhyme that stirs dim memories that seem to come from another life: “… and much of Madness, and more of Sin, and Horror the soul of the plot.”

Ordo Virtutum

Wendy N. Wagner

Hildegard leaned on her walking staff and picked her way around a mound of rubble. Mud and heaps of fieldstone covered the whole knoll of Rupertsberg, obliterating the pleasant hill where she’d chosen to build her new priory. The cost of construction, she supposed. At least the monks’ house was completed, its thatched roof and whitewashed walls in proper order, the whole structure cozy and inviting as it sat on its sandstone outcropping above the Rhine. The river’s waters whispered to themselves as they hurtled over their rocky bed, as if the river were still talking about the man it had brought to the Benedictines.

“It’s only a few more steps, Mother Hildegard.” Sister Richardis took Hildegard’s elbow.

Hildegard eased free of the girl’s grip. “I am well enough, Sister. Do not trouble yourself.” She looked around. The green of the untrammeled ground here at the edge of the construction site compelled her with its peace and viriditas — its lively green energy. She wished she could absorb some of that green to help her shake off the effects of her latest illness. She needed to be strong for her nuns. She had brought them to Rupertsberg to help them focus on the beauty of God’s creation, and now their strange guest threatened her hard work.

She took the last few steps toward the monks’ quarters and rapped on the door. It flew open, and Marten’s pale, nervous face peered out. He was only nine, and while promised to the service, was not yet a novice. She smiled at the boy. “Bless you, my child. Is Brother Arnold or Father Justin available?”

He shook his head hard. “Father Justin was called back to Disibodenberg. And Brother Arnold is resting.”

“I am awake now,” a reedy voice grumbled. The monk nudged the boy aside and gave Hildegard a solemn bow. He was as much in awe of her as the boy these days. “Holy Hildegard. How may I be of service?”

Hildegard waved Richardis inside and then followed her within the humble cottage. The space felt warmer and more homey than their own — but of course, this house was completed. The nuns’ more expansive quarters still awaited a real floor.

“Brother, why did the builders do no work today? I saw them arrive in the morning and their cart is still here, but there is no sign of them.”

Brother Arnold took a step backward. “I did ask the man.”

Hildegard brought her walking stick down with a thump. “Asked who?”

“The man from the river,” Marten interjected. He took a quick step behind Brother Arnold, eyeing Hildegard’s stick.

 “The man from the river.” Hildegard sank onto the bench beside the fireplace. Yesterday, the workmen had pulled a stranger out of the rapids, tending him as best they could, but they had finally called for Hildegard in the night, and when she walked into the little infirmary, she’d seen something in the stranger’s sharp gray eyes that made her wish she could turn her back on the man. She felt for the rosary on her belt and squeezed its familiar beads. God had warned her that before this place would be her sanctuary, it would first be her greatest test. And now she knew the test was begun.

“He claims he is St. Rupertus returned, and the local men have gathered around him.” Brother Arnold dropped onto the bench beside Hildegard. Save for his cheerfully round belly, a legacy of his more comfortable life at the abbey in Disibodenberg, he was a small man, no taller than Hildegard. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

Sister Richardis knelt before Hildegard and clasped her hands about the older woman’s. “I told you this place was trouble, dear Mother. Our visions…”

The nun’s hands trembled around Hildegard’s. Hildegard took a deep breath. Sister Richardis had become her dearest companion, her helpmate, her friend. She would not let this sweet young woman be harmed by anything. She would not let harm come to any of her nuns.

She forced herself to her feet. “St. Rupertus and his mother, the wise woman Berta, joined our Lord many long years ago. Anyone who claims otherwise is a liar.”

“But he says he is Rupertus!” the boy blurted. “And he can do things!”

Hildegard’s lips thinned. “What kinds of things?”

* * *

Three workmen stood outside the makeshift infirmary, their weather-beaten faces sullen and coarse. They stepped forward as the nuns approached, closing off the path. “No one disturbs His Holiness,” the one said. He held a long hoe in his hand, the sort stone workers used to spread mortar, and for the first time Hildegard realized how intimidating a weapon a simple hand tool could be.

She raised her hand in benediction. “Bless you, my son. I am here to check on my patient.”

“No one disturbs His Holiness.”

“If it weren’t for my help last night, the man would be dead. Now step aside.” She took a step forward.

The man’s tongue flickered at the corner of his mouth as he thought over what she said and then spat on the ground. The phlegm glistened, yellow and thick against the mud-worn ground. “Just you.”

Hildegard glanced at Sister Richardis, whose freckles stood out against her fair skin. She held herself bravely, but everything about this situation clearly made the young nun uncomfortable. Brother Arnold and Marten waited farther back on the path. Hildegard returned her attention to the workmen. Only the speaker looked at her. The other two stared at Richardis like hungry dogs in front of a fresh kill.

“Fine. Just me.” She leaned close to Richardis and whispered in her ear: “Take Marten and go warn the other sisters. No one is to leave their quarters. Bar the doors. I will rejoin you as quickly as I can.”

Then Hildegard drew herself up to her full height and strode past the men, her chin high and her shoulders squared: the image of confidence. They could not hear her heart pound in her chest as she passed.

She pushed open the door of the building that, when complete, would house the priory’s kitchen, and crinkled her nose at the scents that flooded out: the strong musk of working men and the sharper tang of medicinal herbs, all of it underwritten by a pungent and foreign smell that was something like hot tar. Stepping inside, she saw the man from the river sitting up in bed, now clad in a close-fitting tunic of homespun.

“I see you are awake.”

The man in the sickbed waved to her. “Mother Hildegard. How very good of you to check on me.” He spoke in cultured tones, his accent suggestive of the far north. If he was the reborn soul of St. Rupertus, he had traveled far since his time as the mystic hermit of the Rhineland.

“You are my patient.” As her eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room, Hildegard noticed the four workmen of varying age crouched on the floor around the sickbed. They looked as ill-mannered as the lot outside. “I need a moment alone with you.”

The men looked up at her, their eyes flat and unreadable. As far as Hildegard could tell, those orbs held no intelligence, showed no sign of thought at all. She gripped her walking stick tighter.

“Go,” he commanded. “She will not trouble me.”

They stood as one, and she waited until they had filed out the door before she crossed to the false Rupertus’s side. “You know I have hired these men to build my church. They should be working.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “You speak as if such worldly pursuits are of any interest to me. These men are like the two of us: they seek to honor God.”

“They honor God with their labor, not sitting on the floor staring at you.”

“You too shall sit and stare. Sit, Mother Hildegard. Sit and see my wonders.”

He sat up straighter in the bed. All the weakness and illness she had seen the night before had vanished. She had never seen such vitality in a man. She leaned against the wall, the small hairs on her arms and neck prickling. Despite his mundane appearance, some inner sense warned her Rupertus was nothing like an ordinary man.

He stretched out his hand, palm up, spreading his fingers as if holding an invisible ball. His eyes focused intently into space. A sound began, a tingling, whining buzz that she felt more than heard. It made her skin itch and crawl.

A faint purple glow appeared over his palm.

“A cheap mummer’s trick.”

He laughed, but did not take his gaze away from the purple gleam. A sheen of sweat appeared on his upper lip.

The purple light intensified and became a ball of colored fire, bright enough that Hildegard had to squint against its brilliance. A wriggling black line appeared in the heart of the flame. Her lips began to move in a silent Hail Mary. This. This was what God had warned Hildegard of in her visions, what Sister Richardis had dreamed about. This man and whatever was worming out of that purple fireball were part of her ultimate test.

The buzzing climbed in pitch until it was the scream of a mason’s auger, chewing into her ears and her mind. Her eyes screwed themselves up against the searing purple light. A black tendril burst out of the purple flames. It stretched itself long and then it flapped and writhed, and the buzzing grew louder, and suddenly the purple light was too bright to stand. Hildegard threw her free hand over her burning eyes.

The room went dark.

It took a minute for her eyes to see again in the lesser light of the tallow lamps and the fading sunlight coming through the shutters. The man who called himself Rupertus chuckled.

“What do you think of my little friend?”

Hildegard focused her dazzled vision on him. Some thing sat on his palm. The creature was no bigger than a sparrow, or perhaps a magpie, and crouched atop a cluster of black tentacles. Two scabrous wings flapped slowly behind it, holding up its sloppy body, which was too fat and bulbous to balance neatly on its slender tentacles. The surface of its breast suddenly rippled and pulled open to reveal the damp surface of an eye. Its pupil lolled about for a moment and then settled upon Hildegard. Its iris was as coldly gray as Rupertus’s. It blinked again, and then the moist tentacles scuttled up Rupertus’s arm.

Rupertus stroked the eyeball-creature’s wing and let it settle on his shoulder. “What does your god think now, Mother Hildegard?”

“Get out,” she commanded. “Get out of my priory.”

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood upright. “Your god’s time has come to an end. You’re welcome to join me, little nun.”

Hildegard pointed her stick at the door. “Go.”

“You’ll regret this,” he said, in the same mild voice someone might use to inquire about the weather. He stepped out the door and closed it softly behind him.

The room smelled more of tar than ever.

* * *

Hildegard rapped on the door of the nuns’ quarters, harder and more frantically than she intended. She forced herself to draw a deep breath and call out: “It’s me. Mother Hildegard. Let me in, sisters.”

A rumble sounded. Then the door opened a crack, and Marten’s small face peered through. “Is it really you?”

“In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, I swear I am the Mother Hildegard, once anchorite of Disibodenberg and now leader of this group of sacred brides.”

He opened the door a little wider. “Demons can’t speak the holy tongue, can they Mother Hildegard?”

She pulled him to her in a sudden hug. “I hope not, my child.” She pushed him inside. Richardis hurried to shove a heavy chest back in front of the door.

“We’ve heard things outside, Mother,” she whispered. “Like the sounds of beasts in the night, but much worse.”

“Demons,” Marten whispered. The young nun beside him, Diemud of Cologne, bobbed her head in agreement.

“What of the man from the river?” Richardis asked. She moved to the large trestle table sitting before the fireplace, and the other nuns joined her on the rough-planed benches. Just a few days earlier, the biggest concern of any of these high-born women was the number of splinters rubbing off the surface of these coarse benches — and now they feared demons and their own hired laborers.

“Is he really St. Rupertus?” Sister Ancilla, the oldest of the nuns, hugged a piece of firewood defensively to her chest. Her eyes were fixed on Hildegard, begging her for a comforting reply.

Hildegard shook her head. “I’m not sure why he would claim to be the good saint, other than to appeal to the memories of the local people. But there is nothing saintly about this stranger from the river.”

Ancilla added her wood to the fire and stirred up the flame. For a moment, the ten nuns sat in silence, each too caught up in her own fears to ask any more questions. Their anxiety filled the room like a chill mist.

Hildegard stood. “Sisters Ancilla, Richardis — perhaps you can prepare a simple meal for us. Marten will help. I must pray for guidance.”

Richardis nodded. Before they had arrived at Rupertsberg, none of them knew much about cooking, but circumstances had forced them to learn. Perhaps such hardship had been good for them all. Hildegard could only hope so.

She went to the straw mat in the corner of the house’s main room and dropped to her knees. The murmurs of the women’s work did not distract her from her purpose, and soon her mind dropped into the peaceful place where she had so often found God’s words. She let her eyes sag shut and floated there, outside of time and trouble, feeling only the wonder of creation buoying her up.

Little by little her senses returned to her. Grudgingly, Hildegard brought her awareness back to the room, where the nuns now sat sipping soup. The smell of turnips and onions made her stomach growl. The hand of God rested on her for one last moment, and then she was just herself again.

Little Marten helped her up. While she had been lost in prayer, Brother Arnold had joined them. Another trunk was piled in front of the door, too. Hildegard took her place at the end of the table and took a few eager bites of Richardis’s stew. Pins prickled inside her knees from such long kneeling.

“It’s been quiet the last few minutes,” Ancilla said. She went to the fireplace and poured hot water into a copper bowl, sending up the scents of rosemary and thyme. She dipped a cloth in the infusion and held it out to Brother Arnold.

Hildegard put down her soup spoon. “You are injured.” She hadn’t seen the gashes running down the right side of his face until he turned to take the cloth. The edge of his pink cheek was marred with dark blots of clotted blood.

“They burst into the cottage. I got away, but they followed me.”

“Who?”

Brother Arnold squeezed his eyes shut tight and clamped the cloth over his wounds. “The workmen.”

“They’re not men anymore,” Richardis spat. “I barely got the door shut on them. Their fingers are like claws, their faces like beasts’.”

Hildegard forced down another bite. She needed the strength. “The man from the river is like them,” she said. “Long ago he was a man: a man named Robold. The father of St. Rupertus.”

“But Robold died when Rupertus was only a child,” Richardis exclaimed. The lives of the local saints provided the material for popular songs and nursery tales around the region. All the nuns knew the stories. “After his death, Berta raised Rupertus to be a good and Christian man.”

“Yes,” Hildegard agreed. She pushed aside her bowl. “Robold fell into the river Nahe and drowned. I saw him go below the water in my vision.”

“But he’s not dead any longer.” Sister Richardis rubbed her face. “I wish I could remember my nightmares when we first came here. I know they had something to do with the dead and their return to the Earth, but my mind was not made to hold such horrors.”

“This resurrection is a mockery of the one promised to us all by the Lord. Robold’s life was given back to him by something that does not belong in our Creation. He has returned here because this place is somehow sacred to him or some infernal being.”

“A demon?” Brother Arnold shook his head. “ Could he be a demon?”

“I believe he is possessed or in servitude to such a foul creature.” Hildegard looked around the table. “Sister Richardis knows that God warned me this place would be a great sanctuary to all women who wish to serve Him — but only after we had faced a great test. This is the test. I don’t know what Robold plans to do here, but I do know that we cannot allow him to take Rupertsberg from us. The fate of all people everywhere hinges on us today.”

These were peaceful men and women of God. They looked back at her with blatant terror, for none of them were fighters. Not a one of them had trained for anything more dangerous than embroidery or cheese-making or playing the psaltery. But God’s ways worked themselves out on a scale far larger than human reason, Hildegard reminded herself, and she had an idea, given to her by her enemies. Because these weren’t just peaceful men and women of God. These were members of the Benedictine order, and though they did not know it, they possessed all they needed to face this evil.

Outside, something howled with a voice colder and crueler than a wolf. The forests of the Rhine and Nahe river valleys were places with dark legends and terrifying tales, and Hildegard knew every person in the room was now recalling them. Her time with God had made her certain there was truth in such tales. She had to show them that they belonged in a different kind of story.

She slapped her palms down on the table. “We are Benedictines. We are an order of virtue and holiness, a force of good in the world. And we shall not let these demons shake our faith.”

Marten stood up from his seat beside the fire. “God is with you, Mother Hildegard.”

She looked around the table and saw the fear fade from their eyes. “God is with all of us.”

* * *

“Can you go now?” Sister Guda hissed in pain. “Your heel is digging into my shoulder.”

“Have strength, Sister,” Hildegard encouraged her. Guda’s already florid face flushed darker. Sister Richardis slipped over the windowsill and disappeared into the darkness.

“I’m next,” Marten piped. He scrambled up onto the bench and then onto Guda’s broad shoulders. He hesitated only a moment before going over the edge.

“I mislike sending him out there,” Brother Arnold whispered.

“You next, Sister Diemud.” Hildegard gave the youngest of the nuns a squeeze on the shoulder. She turned back to the brother. His cuts had begun to scab, but they looked swollen and red. They would soon need a poultice lest they become septic. “They’re the only ones small enough to get through the gardening shed window,” she reminded him. “We need weapons.”

The workman’s hoe had inspired the idea. Benedictine rule decreed that all communities must strive for self-sufficiency, and Hildegard’s first order of business building her priory had been the establishment of a large garden. Just as importantly, she had made sure her people had all the necessary tools to maintain an orchard and small farm.

“I am a man of peace,” he began, but Hildegard hushed him with a wave of her hand.

“At times, peace must be defended. Today we will be warriors of God. Tomorrow, we can repent.”

“If there is a tomorrow,” a sister whispered, and someone else shushed her.

Hildegard felt for her rosary. Her parents had given it to her before she had been shut away as an anchorite with Sister Jutta in Disibodenberg, a lifetime ago. It had been the only dependable comfort in her childhood. Loneliness had subsumed her in that quiet, closed up place, and it would have eaten her alive if she hadn’t had God by her side. His words had given Jutta a reason to educate the little girl. His words had changed her life.

She rolled a bead between her fingers. Time and hard use had worn it smooth. Sometimes she still felt like that young girl, cloistered from the world. How little she knew about things like weapons and fighting. She could only pray she was doing the right thing.

Silence lay over the priory’s muddy grounds. She tried to envision where Robold and his creatures might be, but nothing came to her. Construction had torn open the entire hillside, gouging open pits in the ground for harvesting sandstone and the usable remains of ancient ruins. Outside of this house, the other completed buildings were far too small to contain a group of any size. She closed her eyes and listened hard, her lips moving in silent prayer.

“Mother Hildegard! We’ve the tools!”

Marten’s voice came from far away. Hildegard opened her eyes and saw the others already moving around her. She squeezed her eyes shut again. She had seen something for a moment, a tiny hint of a vision. But now it was gone.

“Mother, hurry!”

She followed Ancilla out the door. The nuns’ temporary quarters sat on the flattest flank of the hill, and the ground here was much trammeled by carts and workers. Above, the night sky hung heavy, the clouds swollen and black over the distant gleaming of the stars. Nothing interrupted the priory’s stillness save for the slight clinking of her nuns distributing hoes and scythes and loppers.

Hildegard’s preparations had served her nuns well. There were tools enough for all. As Sister Richardis stepped forward with her small hand scythe in one hand and a sharp trowel in the other, the clouds pulled away from the nearly full moon and gleamed on the makeshift weapons. Demon or not, Robold’s creatures wouldn’t care for a face full of good steel.

“Mother Hildegard. I see you’ve come out to enjoy the night air.”

Hildegard turned to face the man from the river. He stood on the other side of the broad work site, balanced on an outcropping of sandstone, with a mass of tentacled things crawling about his shoulders. His followers had dressed him in their garb, but he wore their cast-off hose and tunic as if they were ermine and cloth-of-gold. He grinned down at her, smug and certain.

“Robold.” The man stiffened when he heard his true name, but the grin did not slip from his face. “You and your creatures are not welcome here on God’s land. Be you gone.”

He leaped down from the stone. “This was my land long before it belonged to your Christian church. My wife and my puling son may have tried to undo my work here, but the god I serve will see my labors completed.”

“How virtuous,” Hildegard said. She nodded to her left and her right. “But you see, my order has taken charge of this land.”

Sister Diemud snapped the blades of her lopper together.

A squelching and rustling came from behind Robold, and she saw the men who had once been her hired workers. Their skin clung tight to their bones, their eyes like burnt-out hollows, and their teeth showed as if their lips had receded into their faces. These wizened creatures were men no longer, but mere husks.

Robold had done this. She could feel his power drawing at her own life force. If they did nothing, he would drain the viriditas from all the land, just as he drained it from the men who so adored him.

“Sweet merciful Jesus,” Brother Arnold whispered beside Hildegard.

And then the sky rippled. Behind the dark clouds and the rich blackness that lay between the stars, a light pulsed. It was nearly purple, almost like the light Robold had called up in the infirmary, but it was like no purple Hildegard had ever seen. It strove against the firmaments of heaven, stretching them thin as it strained toward the wicked man from the river.

Hildegard closed her eyes. She had seen this before, moments ago in that hint of a vision, but once before even that. God had shown her the nature of Creation, its beautiful shape and form like an egg cradling wonder instead of yolk. She had not understood the things that strained toward it from outside the universe God had built, but now she did. There were other gods in other creations, and they would swallow her own unless she stopped them.

She opened her eyes again. Robold’s creatures had crept closer, but her nuns held firm. No one moved.

“What do we do, Mother?” Richardis whispered.

“We fight,” she ordered.

Sister Richardis darted forward, trowel and scythe gleaming in the moonlight. Her blade caught the nearest man-husk in the throat and ripped through it with a sound of tearing vellum. The creature stood motionless for a second and then crumpled to the ground.

“Ygnailh ygnaiih thflthkh’ngha Yog-Sothoth!”

Robold’s shriek cut the air and the sky exploded.

Hildegard’s feet went out from under her and she hit the ground hard. She twisted around and saw the shriveled hands that gripped her ankles. The rest of the skeleton pulled itself out of the ground, using Hildegard as a ladder.

The dead were joining Rupertus’s workmen even as things unimaginable burst out of the sky. All around her, women screamed. Sister Ancilla leaped over a fallen man-husk and slammed a hatchet into the skull of a newly mobile skeleton. Hildegard scrabbled for her fallen walking stick and smashed the legs of the skeleton clambering over her. The thing tumbled off her.

She jumped to her feet. Her heart lurched in her chest and she knew her fragile body was being pushed beyond its means, but she managed to bring up her stick and send the skeleton’s mummified head flying. A cool wind gusted against her back, and she whirled around.

Dozens of wings flapped in a vortex of roiling tentacles, and at its heart was Robold. Tendrils of black oil curled about him, sliding up and down his human body and seeping under his skin. Whatever powers had brought him out of death, they had transformed him and subsumed him. Black inky splotches rained down out of the sky, but Hildegard kept her eyes on the stranger from the river. He had brought this to her land. He was the one she needed to destroy.

She raised her stick above her head. “Glória tibi, Dómine.” She closed her eyes and opened herself to the power of God. “Laus tibi, Christe.”

“Credo in unum Deum!” a small voice shouted, and she knew it was Marten, brave little Marten, and all around her she heard the others take up the cry.

She lowered her staff and stared into the writhing heart of the thing that had once come out of the river. “I believe in one God,” she said, in the simple German that was her native tongue. “And it’s not yours.”

A lance of emerald fire burst from the tip of her walking stick. Viriditas: the pure green glory of life, and the cleanest manifestation of God’s glory. She focused it on the unclean being in front of her and watched it burn off a thick black tentacle.

“Enough!” Robold shouted, and slapped her aside with a black-dripping limb. Hildegard slammed into the wall of the nuns’ house and lay still, her head spinning. Robold’s oily ichor hissed as it seared into her skin.

“Hildegard!” Richardis screamed. She raced toward Hildegard. Her veil slipped back on her head, revealing her golden hair. Her habit rode up to show her strong white legs. She looked like a queen out of one of Hildegard’s visions, all her power drawn from seemly virtue and the love of God’s creation.

A creature of wavering mist and black twisted bones slammed into the young nun, driving her down into the mud. Its horrible snarl rose up above the chaos of shrieking and chanting and the man-husks’ mindless gurgling growls. Richardis shrieked in pain.

Hildegard pulled herself upright. She had to get to Richardis. Had to protect her. Her heart raced and stammered in her chest.

“No!” a voice cried out, and a slight figure threw itself at the creature of bone and mist. Something crunched horribly.

“Marten,” she whispered. She saw her stick now, lying just a few feet away. She lurched toward it. A tentacle lashed out at her but overshot her wimple, and dropping to her knees, she grabbed the staff. “Get away from her, fiend!”

Green light again flashed from her staff, piercing the bundle of smoke and bones and illuminating it with the fury of summer lightning. The creature howled in pain. For a moment, time seemed to stop, and then the beast exploded in a blast of ash and soot.

Hildegard crawled toward the spot where Richardis had fallen. Her hand came down on something soft and warm and she pulled back in disgust, only to realize it was not some foul creature, but only Marten’s slender leg. She shook it. “Marten?”

The boy did not move. She crawled closer to his face, his cheek pressed into the mud. He didn’t move. “Marten?” she whispered again.

“Mother Hildegard?”

The cracked voice was not the boy’s. “Richardis! You’re alive!”

“Watch out,” the younger nun warned, and Hildegard sprang aside just as a claw-tipped hand raked at the air where she’d been.

Robold laughed. “It’s almost over, my little nun. The veil between worlds has parted, and my god will be here soon.”

His voice sounded human enough, but the rest of him had been subsumed in the evil he had brought forth through the tear in the sky. The stench of hot tar boiled off him, and black oily goo dripped from his every limb, uncountable as they seemed to be. Wings and tentacles and purple pincers wriggled and snapped all about him. His own gray eyes were lost in the cluster of leering orbs.

Hildegard squared her shoulders. Marten had trusted her to do the right thing. Now she had to trust God.

“By the spirit of God, I shall cast thee out.” She raised the staff one last time and opened herself up to the power of her faith.

Viriditas.

She floated in a sphere of perfect green. The breath of the trees and the grass and all the lovely green things of the world passed through her body, warm, gentle, and full of the sweetness of creation. The spirits of many beings wafted past her: fir trees and edelweiss, clover and mint, timothy hay and honeysuckle and plants she could not even name: all this and more. She was borne up on the emerald vision of God’s flora, one with all of them, green in and out.

“Go!” she roared, and the breath of the plants rushed out with the word.

Green.

Green.

Green.

Skeletons burst into flower. Husk-men crumbled into puffballs and morels. Robold’s sick and alien form went stiff. His eyes widened. For an instant, they shone back at her, the gray melting into pools of emerald. He opened his mouth to cry out and a clump of ferns burst out of his lips.

Thunder shook the entire hill. Hildegard turned her face up to the sky. Lightning, ordinary white lightning, flashed across the purple tear that ran between the stars. The sky shimmered for an instant. And then it went right, black and cloudy.

The world smelled like rain.

Water poured from the sky, sluicing away the remnants of Robold’s creatures. Hildegard’s nuns stood silently. They could only stare around themselves, wondering at all they had seen this dark night.

“It was the boy,” Brother Arnold said. “He sacrificed himself for us all.”

“It was God.” Hildegard blinked back tears. “It was all of us and it was God.”

She turned her gaze to the strange tree that now grew beside her, its branches as twisted and contorted as an octopus’s tentacles. A clump of ferns grew out of its center. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen such green and lustrous ferns.

Thunder rumbled again, the comforting sound of a world returned to order.

Red Sails, Dark Moon

Andrew S. Fuller

Jinny woke to the taste of saltwater and the feel of warm sand against her body, nudged by a strange tide. Fine, dark green granules fell from her brown skin as she sat up on the unknown shore. She admired the crescent beach with its perfect cerulean waves lined by a deep gingko jungle, the ragged detail of distant slopes whose peaks were lost in crawling clouds, and the tall black towers rising just beyond the bay’s far point.

Where she’d washed up from, she could not recall, nor any previous detail outside of her name. This loss troubled her deeply, but briefly, as the extravagant view and open air brought her release. She wandered freely along the shore toward the thin angular structures.

Her eyes followed the graceful pattern of breaking surf out to the rolling sea, where she glimpsed enormous dark twisting shapes beneath the surface, and the occasional green face staring back with lucent eyes from a curling wave. Strolling away from the foamy breakers, she heard a pleasing trill among the whispering trees. The resonant song drew her toward a dazzling plumage within the swaying leaves.

Suddenly a group of cats circled her legs, their soft gray and black striped bodies weaving between her feet. A dozen swift felines pressed her away from the bewitching feathers and dripping serrated beak, steering her into a straight path between water and trees. Satisfied with her direction, they leapt away into the shadows and the sun’s dim glare.

With each passing scene of eerie coastal landscape, Jinny had a disquieting sense that she did not belong, and hoped that in the city ahead she could find passage to a place where she might.

The spires grew before her, and though her feet felt no fatigue, she looked back and saw a hundred miles had passed, and many days with them.

As beach became road, she saw cottages and mills on the outskirts, and many colored sails billowing along the horizon, until she rounded the bay’s point and the harbor city came into view, proclaimed dylath-leen in carved letters on a weathered wooden sign.

Tapered buildings of stained stone and flickering windows arched over narrow streets that wound up the hilly cove, their shade layered in that of the basalt towers and settling dusk.

Loud songs both melodious and crude drew her to the pier-front boulevard, where men of three dozen hues and statures loaded and embarked on graceful crafts; the tongues of their chants were unfamiliar to her but the mosaic of lyrics formed prodigious sagas in her head. Passengers and laborers alike moved oddly, loping or rolling about, some on fewer than two limbs, others on more.

Spiced and malted aromas from the dilapidated taverns churned her sudden hunger, and she followed the newly lit lanterns along the promenade to the raucous bustle of the tented marketplace.

Passing by the canvas stalls, her mouth watered at the hanging six-limbed meats cured and charred to a perfect saffron orange, spectral filigreed stalks whose steam rained sweet crystals, and luminous, leaf-wrapped mushroom caps. A castaway with nothing to her name, she hugged her ribs tightly and found a clutch of prismatic nautilus shells in her frayed pockets. With these and pointing gestures she managed to barter a bowl of dismal soup and a small mug of, if she interpreted correctly, moon-wine.

The beverage made her giddy, and she perused the crowded bazaar, admiring many curiosities, unafraid to handle gleaming jewelry for aberrantly shaped limbs, peculiar garments, or sinuous carved statues whose faces blurred and shifted at her touch.

At the last tent, she was drawn to shining cardinal gemstones arranged on an onyx table. A closer look displayed intricate facets and peculiar runes floating within the rubies that filled her with unease. Then an unpleasant odor made her step back. The proprietor held up one of the ruddy gems and smiled at her, his mouth beneath the shabby orange turban opened broadly like a wide wound filled with soot and spiked teeth.

She tried to hustle away, but several more men in wrapped headgear blocked the market aisle, surrounding her with their moist, rotting pungency.

She ran between tents into the nearest alley, banging on cold doors, then running harder, hurdling and sliding and dodging through alcoves, careening into moonlit walls, trying to escape the footsteps behind her that rang like hooves on the cobblestones.

The alley emerged at the pier, and she stood before a baneful dark ship. Its tattered obsidian sail and bulbous pitch-black hull tainted the nearby shadows. The pestiferous stench from the vessel made her gag and weaken. The moon-wine took hold, and her knees hit the dock as the footsteps clattered forward.

She managed to kick one of the aggressors; a leg bone snapped to the accompaniment of a warbling scream. The impact of his head on the wharf dislodged the turban, exposing two curved, bony horns.

Night embraced her fully as they dragged her aboard.

* * *

Next Jinny knew, the sea whispered coarsely against the ship’s hull beneath her head. The stench was even worse here, rank and thick, like the inside of a carcass. She breathed through her mouth and lifted herself into a corner by gripping wrought metal bars. Dull light through small round portholes showed only vague outlines of a few cellmates.

In the gloom beyond the cage, thick gray bodies hunched over oars, their globular limbs pulling and extending like draining mucus. They rocked forward into a moonbeam, divulging eyeless faces with short, flush tentacle mouthparts.

The beasts rowed harder, surging the galley forward, and she staggered to the porthole, pushing someone aside. She lost all of her meager meal through the small opening. Holding the circular window frame, she breathed the salted spray and gazed at the rolling waves and ancient sky of unfamiliar stars.

As they passed between two great hexagonal stone pillars, the ship lurched and lifted hard under her, and she fell back with her cellmates. The pull pinned her to the floorboards, but she strained to stand, returning to the window. The ocean waves diminished far below, and so shrank the distant seaport lights. It is like birds see, she thought, as even sharp-toothed mountains shriveled and flattened. Soon the thick white brume of clouds swirled and surrounded them. The milky haze gradually darkened and finally relented to an immense, limitless field of black with stars brighter and crisper than she’d ever known. The curving horizon constricted behind them as a deepening chill settled through the ship.

Jinny gasped as a thin hand touched her ankle. She saw the other prisoners huddled together, and left the view outside. For warmth, she nestled against smooth skin, wooly hide, scaled and husked bodies, as the moon’s face burned ever brighter through the porthole.

* * *

A roaring crash tilted the entire ship and they tumbled across the cage. From above came shouts and clattering metal, footfalls stamping across the deck, squeals and yowls among wet chops and meaty thuds. Some of the blind glob creatures left the oars and half-rolled, half-flowed to the far stairs, drawing curved clubs from their folded gray bulk.

The hatch opened above them, and in rushed a vicious blur of slashing longswords and hissing torches. Within the frenzied combat Jinny saw male and female attackers of many skins, but also horns and hooves, hound-like postures, and swiping paws. Their fury felled most of the spongy beasts and turbaned men, and drove the remaining few against the hold wall. In the quiet that fell over the ship like a departed storm, a single pair of booted feet echoed across the deck and descended the stairs.

Her enthralling movements whispered in dark leather and scales, the red-haired woman strode with authority to the cage, flicking black blood from her triangular blade. A gaunt, cloudy-winged creature perched on her right shoulder, larger than a bat, sable-skinned and faceless, with inward-curving horns and a barbed tail. The woman removed her gloves, uncovering pale white hands spotted with a ruby ring, and wiped bloody grime from her face. Age and measure showed in the creases around her eyes, but their green irises shone fiercely.

“Now, my friends,” she said, scanning their faces through the bars with a smile both dauntless and comforting, “come up and see the show.”

With a single strike of her sword’s pommel she shattered the lock on the cage. While one of her crew stepped forward to whistle and grunt translations in at least three languages, her emerald eyes caught Jinny’s, and her grin curled to one side.

“Well, we ain’t seen one like you in some time.”

“What you mean, Miss?” Jinny said, keeping her gaze low.

“That’s Captain Bloodrose you speak with,” her translator barked. He resembled an upright hairless dog with rubbery skin, long teeth, and carrion breath.

“It’s fine, Richard,” the captain said, then to Jinny, “I mean human, my dear.” The winged creature nuzzled her spiral curls.

Slowly and gently, the prisoners were helped upstairs.

The ship’s deck had become an abattoir, strewn with severed limbs and pulpy chunks in dull greasy blood, among the bodies of turbaned men and bulbous creatures. Another ship, sleek and crimson with sharp red sails, groaned against the moon-beasts’ captured vessel. The gibbous moon was large and closer now, while the green-blue globe was contracted far behind.

Some of the turbaned men had surrendered and removed their headwear and robes, revealing hirsute bodies with short tails. She saw some of their kind among the Bloodrose crew.

The four surviving gray-blobbed beasts were encouraged with swords and spears to balance themselves on the starboard railing. Jinny understood now that they owned the dark ship.

Captain Bloodrose and her crew lined up across on port side. “I give you a choice,” she called to the captured villains. “Jump or be pushed. We’ll see whether you fall to your moon or back to earthen ground.”

Her translator began and she lifted a silencing hand. “They know what I say.”

One of the moon-beasts made an obscene gesture with his nebulous arm.

The captain’s face immediately churned with anger. At the snap of her fingers, the black creature took flight from her shoulder. It tucked in its diaphanous wings and dived at the gray beast. Its claws tore off a warding arm as its sharp tail pierced the tentacled face. Then that face was ripped off for good measure.

The ruined gray body fell away.

“Thank you, Emalee.” The flying creature returned to her.

It took only a moment for the other beasts to decide. Their plump, amorphous forms tumbled overboard.

“The rest of you may join my crew, for you cannot stay here. We take turns at the rigging and the work. We may get you home to Leng soon, or never.”

They boarded the Arkham Rose, unhooked grapples, and threw oil and torches back over. The black galley listed and rolled aflame into the dark infinity beyond the planets.

“And you, my dear…” Captain Bloodrose placed a hand on Jinny’s shoulder, then removed it just as lightly. “You may choose between the crew bunks, or my quarters.”

* * *

The captain’s spacious cabin was finished with exquisite hardwood walls, displaying dozens of weapons. Curved and angled blades etched with obscenely elaborate patterns and inhuman symbols, fearsome hooked axes, worn stone clubs, curved bows crafted from mingled woods, dozens of knives each a different honed shape, and some oddly twisted implements not forged for a five-fingered hand. They all exhibited nicks and scrapes from heavy use.

Captain Bloodrose seemed engrossed in polishing her battle blade, so Jinny stood in waiting, as night’s chill settled on her skin. She worried at the choice she’d made.

The painting hung over a map-filled desk caught her attention. She studied the brushstroke detail of the single tree in the harvest field, where something sinister seemed to wait, and she looked away.

The captain hung her sword and sat heavily at the desk chair, as her gaunt pet flew over to an iron perch by the window. She tried to tug off a boot, and was unsuccessful.

Jinny knelt and assisted. She paired the footwear together against the wall.

The captain sighed. “Here I was trying to be so alluring.” She undid her hair tie and curls fell past her shoulders.

“You look fine, Miss.” And she meant it.

“I’m sorry — what’s your name, young lady? And where are you from?”

“It’s Jinny, Miss.” She still could not remember anything before the weird beach. “I can’t…”

“Georgia, by your accent, or maybe Louisiana?” The captain rubbed her feet.

“I don’t know such places you say, Miss.”

“You should, I think. We’ll work on that.”

Jinny frowned. She looked back at the painting and was startled to see it now depicted carnivorous-looking mountains. Unearthly fires burned on their slopes, around which ominous figures danced.

“Richard painted this for me,” the captain gestured. “Like all my crew, he had a very different life before joining us. Come now!” She stood and pulled Jinny upright, rubbing her cold arms. “You’re freezing! You need a hot bath.”

“I’ll warm some water, Miss.”

“Now, you must call me Captain out there. In here, you can call me Pyrena. Or if you get cross with me, Pyrena Coccineous Meredith Rose.” Then she barked at the door. “Richard!”

Soon the ghoul brought buckets in his powerful paws, and filled the clawfoot tub in the corner.

“Miss Captain… Pyrena, have you been to the moon?”

“It’s my aim to do so. I’ll need more ships to get there.”

“It always looked far away and colder than ice.”

“True. In fact you cannot breathe upon it at all, nor in the gulf of space between.”

Before she could ask more, Pyrena held her gaze and said, “This is one of the ways, Jinny, that we know we are dreaming.” Without looking, she pointed again to the painting. It now showed a verdant garden with a primeval arch crumbling over a yawning, murky pit.

Pyrena Rose fetched a drying cloth and sendal robe from the closet, and turned away while Jinny dressed. Then she led her behind a folding partition to a gossamer canopy bed. “You sleep here and I have a sofa.” She paused, pulling back the covers. “Until — or if… you should ever like me to join you.”

Jinny felt a warm sensation she was sure she’d not felt before.

“We’ll start your training tomorrow. No telling how long you’ll be here.”

“I’d like to stay, Miss. Miss Pyrena.”

“I’d like you to. There aren’t many women here.”

The fine threads of the bed sheets glowed gently, and Jinny slid deep into their celestial sensation.

* * *

She woke in horrendous pain, elsewhere. The skin on her back roared with a deep, itching fire. The air was different, muggy and plant sweet. Mosquitoes whined and bit. Someone touched a damp cloth to her forehead and sang softly of a sweet chariot. And Jinny slipped again. Away.

* * *

The tremolo song of seabirds and rhythmic waves against the ship’s keel eased Jinny awake. Sometime before dawn they’d settled back into terrestrial ocean. The gaunt creature huddled under its wings in the morning sun. The captain was absent, so Jinny dressed in the folded clothes and boots laid out for her. She noticed the unrolled maps and sat at the desk, trying to ignore the painting above it showing a stalactite city hanging in an umbral cavern.

She studied the hand-inked papyrus filled with jagged mountain coasts, reclusive islands, boundless deserts, and swirling seas labeled in script with names like Sarnath and Xur, Hatheg Kla and Inganok. The continents and islands remained more or less consistent across the maps, but among all the renderings, one location was not fixed. The land called Leng seemed to move.

The cabin door opened to a panting hooded figure. “The captain is ready for you.” Richard lowered the cowl and huffed.

Out on the deck, crew scurried like insects among the ropes and spars. The captain and two of her officers stood by the center mast below the largest sail.

“Good morning, crewman Jinny.” The captain’s expression was devoid of warmth. “Up the ratlines with you to the main top.”

Jinny did not know what she meant, but followed the captain’s steady glance upward. Her stomach dropped.

She climbed the rigging very slowly, shaking with terror. Once she reached the crossbeam, she looked out in every direction, where an occasional massive shadow moved beneath the cobalt surface. She remained aloft until she could let go of the mast and stand freely on the yardarm, balanced against each wave and gust.

She learned the parts and areas of the frigate, from mizzenmast to bowspirit, from headsail to escutcheon. She learned to reeve a rope, gybe a sail, and lash a trice. She learned, and became less afraid.

* * *

When she returned exhausted to the cabin, the captain smiled pleasantly and threw a naked sword at her, point first.

Jinny closed her eyes, flinching from the expected pain, but then she felt the sword handle tight in her hand and opened her eyes.

“Good,” Pyrena said. “I thought you had a thing about you. Few can do this.”

“But how did I…”

“Don’t think on it. Just be as you want, and will events to be. It doesn’t always work. But it can in this place.”

Jinny’s confusion became frustration. “And where is this place?”

“You remember what I said last night?”

“That we’re… dreaming. Tell me, will I ever wake?”

“That may be up to you.”

Jinny gripped the cutlass firmly, swung it to a controlled stop.

Pyrena attacked with her blade. When Jinny parried the slashes and thrusts, Pyrena snuck a solid elbow into her cheek and swept her legs.

“Don’t assume it can be easy, that you’ll wake up whenever you want.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Decades. More than I remember. Probably in a coma hooked up to life support. I have two daughters. Now, stop asking questions.” She nicked her blade edge over Jinny’s forearm. The blood came immediately. “There is real pain here.”

Jinny’s training began in earnest with the wooden bō staff and many bruises. It would finish with the knife.

* * *

They followed the Southern Sea trade routes and prowled the Zar coast near the Forest of Parg until the lookout spied black sails in the fog. They doused lamps and slid in fast through the white mist, ramming the Arkham Rose’s rostrum into the black ship’s forecabin.

They boarded in a wedge formation. Jinny watched from the far quarterdeck as Pyrena danced through the swarming ruckus, swung and cut in graceful fury, slashed, ducked and rolled among the fray, delivered knee strikes and headbutts, spun and pierced. The captive Leng servants fought hard, and at each scuffle she stepped back to let them flee or surrender. Those who charged again she cut down, the moon-beasts flowing up malodorously from below.

One of the toadlike creatures felled two of the mercenary crew, oozed over the railing, and advanced on Jinny with an onyx club. Its tentacled face writhed angry red as its form stretched, looming taller. At the last moment Jinny lifted the bardiche axe from behind her and cleaved the gorger from soft skull to softer belly. Her heart thundered.

When the battle was won, they hauled crates from the ship’s putrid hold. Captain Bloodrose pried off one of the lids and they gasped at the many thousand glinting rubies. Then they dumped the crates into the frothing brine.

“Why waste so many jewelstones?” Jinny wondered aloud. “You could buy an armada.”

One of the Leng women, now a boatswain holding a gory spiked war mace, overheard. “Not everyone the moon-beasts take to their bleak satellite become slaves. Each terrible gem is fashioned from the blood and essence of a stolen life.”

After dinner, Jinny searched the ship for the captain, and finally climbed high above the mainsail to find her in the crow’s nest. Wordlessly, she lifted Pyrena’s hand bearing the ruby ring and held it to her own chest. Then she embraced the woman. Annoyed, Emalee flew off. Jinny held Pyrena firmly until the sobbing ceased, and into the night.

As they sailed past Hlanith into the Cerenarian Sea, Jinny gently turned Pyrena’s head, arms reached back around her neck, and their lips sealed together, trembling at first. The warm ocean wind tried to part them, but they pulled closer as their yearning hands and tongues revealed and fed their starved passion.

Barely able to pause their ardor, they descended the rigging. Once behind the locked cabin door, they slowly undressed each other to unwavering eyes. They embraced again in the canopy bed, as excited touch provoked warming skin and roused thrilling breaths. Three times Jinny’s pleasure peaked, and three times she cried out in intractable joy.

She tried eagerly to return the bliss, and with Pyrena’s patient instruction, found success.

* * *

Long after the launch of Pyrena’s purring snore, Jinny found herself awake. She untangled their limbs and stood nude by the window in the nocturnal sheen, scowling at the moon. Thinking there would be no answer, she whispered, “You said two daughters, but only wear one ruby.”

“Well, Emalee is with me every day.” Pyrena sat up in bed.

Jinny turned and tried not to stare.

“She’s only seven years old.” Pyrena gestured at the winged creature on the perch. “She visits her father when our travels take us near Oriab Isle.” Then her smile faded and her voice filled with sorrow. “Before her, there was Babette.” She touched her red jeweled ring. “Babette was taken on her thirteenth birthday. I lost her in the market crowd in Dylath-Leen. I searched for hours and came to the docks just as they pulled her wailing aboard a black ship.” Her forest eyes burned brilliant with tears and resolution. “Two years later they tried to sell me a ruby in the same marketplace. The stone screamed to me. I stole it and ran.”

“And her father?”

“I was pregnant when I arrived here. He never followed.”

Jinny returned to bed, her body shaking with fury. “Pyrena. I will help you to change the tide.” But even after her lover’s breathing calmed, she did not sleep.

* * *

They trained and sparred for hours each day. In time, Jinny learned not just to swing, but a dexterous flow with many swords: epée, cutlass, spadroon, and hwandudaedo. She learned to spin and hook the crow’s bill pickaxe, strike fast with lathi sticks, make sing and snap the qijiebian chain whip, and hurl from bow to stern the barb-tipped sibat spear, planting it squarely into a penny’s face. The weapon with which she forged the strongest bond was the forward-curved panabas axe; it became an artful extension of her arm, and of her emboldened will.

Captain Bloodrose’s bedside cabinet contained many lewd implements that Jinny also learned to wield, from the clockwork resonating slender (in both manual and wearable forms) to the undulating mollusk glove, from the incandescent feather to the pulsing lambency baton. On one voyage Pyrena diverted their course to the cultured city of Celephais, where she procured a few customized items from her favorite shop.

On the days that followed those late nights of pleasure, the combat training seemed doubly fierce.

* * *

On her twenty-firstraid, boarding a black biota cargo ship east of the Sunken City, the two war dames of the Arkham Rose swung each other by the arm into the melee, placing themselves back to back and laughing as they traded foes, when Jinny noticed the sparse crew, many of whom fled overboard. The exchange finished quickly.

It took the mauls of two crewmen to break the lock on the hold. Before the latch was lifted, the hatch erupted open and a giant shaggy beast roared onto the spar deck.

Covered in dreadful black fur and serpentine scales, taller than three men, it brayed glottal rage at the sun through a vertically split mouth of gnashing yellow teeth. Whipping two powerful arms that ended in four taloned claws, it rent a sail and bludgeoned a dozen fighters, sending them rolling across the deck in a volley of snapping bones.

They tried to drive the brute back with spears and atlatls, but the behemoth stormed across the deck, great claws scraping the planks.

All the other crew fell away, and soon Captain Bloodrose found herself trapped against the railing. She looked up at the monstrosity, and swapped hands with her sword. With a thunderous downward fist it crushed the captain’s left arm against the stout wood in a spray of blood and splinters. The captain staggered to one knee and dropped her weapon, panting weakly.

Jinny slid between them, slashing her blade into the giant fiend’s crotch. When the monster convulsed forward, she cut again, two-handed, and severed the terrifying head into the sea.

* * *

The pulverized bones of Pyrena’s hand were beyond healing, and she did not cry out or weep when they sawed it off at the forearm, nor when they applied the searing hot iron.

When the sweats abated, Jinny stood before her partner and took a deep breath. Her feelings became a maelstrom inside her. “Captain, I request to stay my nights in the bunks among the crew.”

“It’s ‘Captain’ now, is it? If that’s your wish.”

“I don’t want the crew seeing me different.”

“Is that all?”

“I… don’t want to become soft.”

“These are all choices. What do you really want?”

“You were showing off today. You could have died.”

“I saved my good arm. What is it you want?”

“I want my own ship. I want to sail you to the moon and hack it to pieces.”

“I’m very proud of you, Jinny.”

* * *

Jinny was on her way to speak with the captain about building a fast corvette when she saw her invite one of Leng women to her cabin, and heard the lock turn. Jinny stood on the deck of the ship for a long time, reminding herself of her choice, and barricading the tears. Then she relieved the wheelman at the helm. As the sun set behind the endless waves, Emalee glided in to perch on her shoulder.

When they acquired a second ship, Pyrena gave its command to Richard, despite his nocturnal proclivity.

* * *

Jinny spent more time with Richard, listening to his grunted poetry. She stayed up all night with the men and women of Leng, downing mugs of zoog rum and bellowing sea shanties of old Sarkomand with the natives of Parg. She read most of the ship’s library, from the expansive Pnakotic Manuscripts to the living fables of Vemoqi and the Crystal Leaves erotica. She spent hundreds of hours at the forecastle hearth with the old serpent man Ophidian Drake, until she could forge a blade folded with ebon ore from the Peaks of Thok. When finished, the honed steel coruscated darkly even in the high sun.

* * *

For a seven-year campaign, they raided, fought, and pillaged. It took that long to build a loyal company and fleet of a dozen vessels. They slew many. When they finally chanced upon the elusive plateau of Leng, none of the native crew wanted to depart.

Jinny’s skill with a blade was now unmatched. In all those years, she could not remember sleeping. When they finally launched the crusade for the sinister moon, she captained her own craft and an elite guard of cats.

“Onward now!” shouted Admiral Bloodrose from the bowspirit of the Arkham Rose. “We leave Kadath far astern!” She thrust forth the iron point of her hooked hand.

The thirteen red ships sailed through the basalt pillars and lifted from the ocean waters, past the horizon’s cliff, they rose into the cold breadth of space, their figureheads aimed at the moon.

They would lose many, but once the lunar beasts were conquered, they would be free to sail beyond, to anywhere, into new dreamlands.

Jinny adjusted the jib of the New Orleans, and made calculations. Her palms were damp on the wheel. She was alarmed to see the commander’s ship had broken formation and slid alongside hers. Just yards away, the admiral was looking only at her, puffing on her pipe. Jinny did not recall her smoking, but the aroma was very familiar.

A flash of sadness crossed Pyrena’s face, and she smiled tearfully. “So soon, my love…” she said, her face shrinking away.

She dwindled with every surrounding detail, losing vividness and color, out of view.

Jinny realized herself falling, away from the ship and the moon, ripping through dark and light, silence collapsing toward nothing.

All was gone, replaced with something new.

* * *

She woke on a dirty cot in a humid shack.

“Oh, Jinny,” said the black woman dabbing her forehead, “the fever all broke now.”

She staggered out into the yard, and was assaulted by the scene. The colonial white columned house surrounded by draping magnolias and live oaks, the song of cicadas, the smell of fresh tobacco leaves, and the branding scar on her calf. The awful familiarity of every sensation rushed back, as reality petrified around her.

The white-suited man on the great wraparound porch stood from his wicker chair and stared at her, removing the pipe from his mouth. Seeing Mr. Hightower’s face, the burning lacerations flared on her back. And seeing his mischievous young son Trevor standing next to him, she remembered the missing silver butter knife and every one of the thirty lashes and why she would no longer work in the house.

Jinny howled at the sky and the hidden moon. Let them think her mad.

* * *

She worked every day in the fields from sunrise to sunset, where blisters became calluses, her arms grew hard and weary, and the true world annealed. The scars on her back closed and settled to a distant gnawing.

She fell to exhausted sleep each night, but could not find the key to her dreams. The coast of the Six Kingdoms eluded her; no more did she smell the spindrift of the Cerenarian Sea, or feel the rise of the main deck beneath her feet. When she wept, she kept it behind her eyes.

Time got on, until one day in the spring, when Jinny cultivated the tobacco seedbeds at dusk and a wide shadow passed over the field. The workers all looked up in fear as a black galleon slid impossibly across the face of the rising full moon and swept around out of the sky to ground among the crop rows. The overseer fell from his horse and scampered away toward the big house with the rest of them, every soul on the plantation quaking with terror… save one.

Jinny dropped the hoe and took up the overseer’s fallen machete and pistol. She advanced on the reeking dark warship as the gangplank lowered to the earth.

She would paint those black sails a hot glistening red.

The Thief in the Sand

M. K. Sauer

Her execution was not set for dawn, as she had hoped, but rather at midnight — the coolest part of the day. She was to be a spectacle — something she had tried hard to avoid since she was a girl — to keep the denizens of the sandy desert capital occupied with gore and grandeur, instead of the scorching heat of the midsummer drought.

The palace, so barren and stark on the morning of her sentencing, was now lavish with expensive silks the color of the clarion sky set against the harsh orange of the surrounding sands. They twisted in the wind; an effusion of fabric that threw shadows across the polished floors. So many torches were lit that she had to blink in the half light to see her accusers. They stood before her like a row of statues in lavish, serpentine clothes, and looked down on her prostrate, ragged form.

Her last sight of this earthly realm would be the faceted jewels inlaid in the stone floor, while waiting for a wicked curved sword to slice through her neck. She wished the shadows didn’t show the silhouette of the executioner quite so clearly. She could feel the greedy eyes of a thousand spectators settling on her back.

“Last words?” the hooded swordsman asked, his black eyes gleaming with the promise of a swift death.

“Mercy,” she responded in a parched voice. Her lips cracked and even the blood dripping from the cuts felt sluggish in the midnight heat.

“Mercy! Mercy!” A few wailing voices took up the chant until her ears rang with their cries.

“Where was your mercy for the victims of your deft fingers? How many lives has your unscrupulous thievery ruined?” The shah’s disinterested voice carved through the sounds of a thousand people rearranging themselves. His large beard and necklaced chin moved with the practiced fluidity of one who had sent many to their deaths. Rings around his fingers tinkled as he fidgeted on his pillowed and perfumed throne. One of his sons yawned, as another picked at his nails. She was nothing to this mighty ruler, this deity of the desert.

“Mercy! Mercy!” the cries continued until the word no longer made sense to her ears.

“Still,” the shah returned, finally sitting up in his throne to give a proper look to his people, “even a thief deserves a respite, as the gods decree.”

Why the crowd wished to see her spared baffled her until she saw the shining ladle coming toward her. The entirety of the crowd became silent — so much so that she wondered if perhaps she had gone deaf. The water, straining against the edge of its container, had ensnared all of the hungry eyes and taken their voices. A single drop spilled and a thousand throats groaned with fevered anticipation. They didn’t want to see her live — mercy meant water, not life. They ached for even a glimpse of it on a faraway platform that might as well have been the heavens, it was so distant.

A glimmer of hope pulsed through her for the first time since being caught.

She felt a shift beneath her skin: a tunneling, excavating force that made her limbs rigid and begin to tremble. Her dry lips opened like leaves greeting the rising sun as another hooded man brought the small mouthful of water to her shriveled maw.

She wished she could taste it — how long had it been since she had tasted water? But before any reached her tongue, a million squirming parasites burst through her taste buds and pores, crowding to get a single drop to power themselves into a hurtling frenzy. A small explosion of worms rippled down her throat and spread to the very corners of her body. She felt her flesh spreading open — revealing the innermost tissues and delicate organs to the biting air for a brief second — before the whole world folded and she was heaved elsewhere.

The sky was no longer a caliginous cerulean, but a stormy miasma of sick-looking, pale green clouds and clawing creatures careening through the atmosphere. A large tentacle the thickness of five men abreast lazily dropped from above and laid waste to a desiccated landscape in exasperated fury. It was searching for her. As soon as she had shifted into this dimension, she had felt it begin to look for her. Six more tentacles threw themselves from the clouds as she appeared.

She had to escape quickly. It had been too long since she had appeased the creature, and it wanted her blood. Not too different from the situation she had just left, she mused, calculating how long before the few sips of water burned through her system. As soon as the precious liquid was absorbed, she would be stuck in whatever world she happened to be in. Pushing herself outward, straining at the very bonds that separated the two dimensions, she oozed her way back into the palace, an arm’s length away from the shah. A brush of a tentacle whiffed by her dark hair before collapsing into the spaces between worlds.

Her reflexes had been sharpened by her years on the streets and she drew the decorative sword at his side and pointed it at his throat. Dull as it was, it was still sharp enough to cut him open — especially as the rush of escaping the creature rocketed through her tendons and muscles, strengthening every part of her.

Within seconds the court erupted, and the thief could feel the numberless eyes on her again. Many recoiled in fear at her now green and scaly skin. Gills had formed around her jawline, her eyes were large and bulbous, unblinking in the torchlight, and webs had taken over the spaces between her fingers.

“Djinn!” the astonished shah choked out, as she drew her arm back to strike a blow that would take his head.

A sword clanged against hers. The vibration set her bones to aching, but she held on, only to be met with the grim face of one of the previously bored princes — the one who had been picking his nails. His eyes were alive now. His entire body reverberated with frantic intensity.

The prince let out a bellowing war cry and brought his sword down for a glancing blow across her face. She blocked, but the very end of his sword glanced off her brow and drew a small line. Thick blood crawled rather than dribbled down her face. As she turned to launch her own attack, she crushed the few escaping worms with her palm.

This needed to end quickly — only a few seconds more before all of the water was used up and her strength would falter. She swung downward — such a long and unwieldy weapon compared to her sharp daggers — and almost cleaved into the prince’s shoulder before he rolled out of the way. Scanning his movements, she knew where he intended to stop and allowed herself to slip into a gap between dimensions. She barely missed the crushing weight of a large, squirming tentacle before landing exactly behind the prince. Her sword was at his throat before he could do anything.

“Weapons down,” she barked to the guards who were just now coming to his aid. Their fight must have been done in mere seconds. Time became a sluggish, gargled thing when she traveled. The palace guards paused, weapons still drawn, but not daring to move. The prince’s panicked noises finally drove his father out of his stupor.

“Do as she says,” he whispered, and the clangs of dropped weapons echoed throughout the halls. He turned to speak to her with lips ashen and drawn. “Please, don’t hurt him.”

She thought of him seconds ago, a king in all domains, secure in the knowledge that only death could touch him, but that his death would be further away than any other. She wished to see him grovel, to know the pain that plagued her, but even the cleverest of traps could be reset, given enough time. The stalemate would have to be broken.

The prince wriggled in her grasp and she could feel his rising hysteria. It was like holding a small, writhing worm that couldn’t understand the difference between flesh and dirt in its need to hide itself away.

“If you promise to leave my son alive, I can tell you the location of the Ma’ah Steed.”

The prince gasped and struggled to rise.

“Father — no! We have been pursuing the Steed for years!”

“Your life is more important than any trophy or glory.” The shah seemed to have shrunk in stature as his aged hands stroked his graying beard.

“More important than the welfare of our people? The Ma’ah could sustain our kingdom with water for the next fifty years!”

“We will find another way. We always do,” the shah said, in a resonating, peremptory tone that banished all argument. “One such as you —” he gestured to her webbed fingers as all traces of the parasites burrowed back into the depths of her body, “ — one with your abilities would benefit greatly from the powers that the Ma’ah Steed is said to possess. You are familiar with the Great Water Horse of the shifting sands?”

“I am,” she croaked. “A hundred thousand drops of water for a hundred thousand years for the man who can capture and tame the water beast of the sea-sands. Even in my faraway childhood in a faraway place were such tales told.” She looked at her now normal hand, seeming to try to see through the layers of skin and muscle to the bone, before speaking again. “I accept your offer, but I require three things if I am to leave without violence: my weapons, a flask of water — a mouthful will be enough — and your son.”

“What?”

“The word of the shah is law, but what is your law to one such as me? I require your son so that I know you will not pursue me in the desert after I leave. I will need no map, no faulty directions, if I have something precious of yours to ensure my continued survival. I promise not to harm a single hair on his body and to return him to you whole after we find the Great Ma’ah. With these conditions, I will leave peaceably, never to return to your kingdom again.”

“The word of a thief carries no great weight either, I am afraid.” The sigh escaped from deep within his chest and fell, heavy, into the room. A small light crept back into his eyes as he rose to greet her grim face. “But I accept. Now, release my son.”

She nodded and threw the sword to the ground, taking a step back. Servants scrambled noiselessly to find her belongings and to assemble a suitable pack of clothes and provisions for the prince. The thief slunk into the shadows, disguising the unsettling feeling in her stomach that would not go away until she could make her way to the winding sands outside of the capital. The prince argued in a low voice with his father that distracted some, but most of the harried glances carried her way were piercing and swift. No one dared look her in the eye, lest her tainted being somehow slither over to them. She had to check to ascertain that her skin was, indeed, its normal dark brown and her curly black hair no longer touched by green or webbing. Their gaze was heavier than it had been at the glistening drops of life-giving water, and it unsettled her; she wished once again to be alone.

Within twenty minutes she had an escort of fifty guards in a phalanx to the wall. At the gates, the prince pressed his forehead to his father’s, heaved a gravid goodbye, and then accompanied her past the border. Once she was on the other side, her small daggers and a sloshing flask were chucked over the stone wall to land in the sand at her feet. As she strapped on her belt and adjusted everything, she raised a tattered piece of black cloth to cover her face from the rising sun, leaving only her eyes exposed. The parasites didn’t like the beating orb any more than she did, and they pulsed with displeasure.

“We’re leaving now? As the sun begins to boil?” the prince asked in disbelief. They were his first words to her.

“Every servant was bustling within the city by the time we left. Many more than required to find my belongings and to equip you for a journey. The shah intends to go after us under cover of darkness, despite his promises otherwise. I intend to put as much distance as I can between them and us. So, the faster you lead me to the Ma’ah, the faster you can find your father’s men and be back home. He will see that the word of a common thief holds more honesty than a rich man’s.”

She gestured for him to walk in front and into the blazing fury of the sunrise. Slowly, he plodded westward and began their journey to find the Great Ma’ah.

As the sun grew, their steps became thoughtful and paced; the parasites inside of her delved deep, trying to find some solace from the burning heat. The prince fared no better, but he dared not ask for them to stop.

Relief came as the sun began to sink, and she looked back to see their winding trail of footprints slowly being eaten by the ever-present, wind-fueled dust devils. The city was a small dark spot below the mounds of the hills they had crawled to the top of around midday. Flashes of shining light off spears and helmets greeted her as she ordered the prince to stop and build a fire. He obliged, happy to sit and engage in something else other than staring at the orange horizon, sun-blind and burned.

Once the fire crackled, illuminating their faces and keeping their hands warm from the encroaching chill, the prince found a satchel of food in his pack and began to peck at the rations. After a few bites he looked at the thief, and then, with downcast eyes, offered her a small piece of dried meat. His hand lingered in the air for a few moments until he took it back and scoffed.

“You don’t eat?”

“This is all I need,” she replied, opening the flask at her hip and quickly draining it of its contents. As soon as the water passed her teeth, she grabbed the shocked prince and dragged him, screaming, into the other, chaotic world.

Once there, the clouds thundering and the sky an even darker shade of torturous green, she stayed still, holding the struggling prince in her scaled arms. Large tentacles burst out of the sky and plummeted toward them, until they blotted out the haunting, ethereal light. They grabbed hold of the proffered prince and drew him into the low clouds, until she could no longer hear his shrieks. The small piece of dried meat fell to the ground as she slipped back to the fire.

The prince was sitting across from her, his eyes blank as if they were clouded with cataracts. His jaw was slack. A faint bit of drool pooled before staining his shirt. She rose, leaving the inert prince there. His only movement was a fluttering protrusion that was slowly growing somewhere within his torso, just barely visible through his clothes.

Taking only the flask filled with water that had been provided for him and furtively hidden, she went westward in the direction they had been traveling all day. The army sent after them was hidden in the folds of the sand dunes, but she knew that their small fire would reveal the prince’s location and he would be reunited with his father, not a single hair out of place.

The Great Ma’ah awaited her and the parasites she carried. She was positive she could find her way to his slumbering presence from the prince’s directions. The thief set off in the soft sand under a full moon and a clear, cloudless sky.

Without Within

Jonathan L. Howard

It was unconscionable, and — he felt — a personal attack on his reputation and thereby his honor. Yet he held his temper, and instead communicated his great rancor to Stephen Hensley with a glowering stare of unmistakable threat.

“This is a simple matter, Master Hensley,” said Major John Bell with dangerous deliberation. “I surveyed the breach myself. The length of fallen wall provides its own materials and pattern; there is naught of brain necessary but that it be put back as it was.”

This was not quite honest; the mine had shattered many of the blocks of stone that had formed the base of the city wall at St Mary’s, and replacements would have to be found, likely by commandeering them from elsewhere within York. That was a trivial matter, however, and if some worthy woke up one morning to find their doorstep gone, then they were still getting off very lightly indeed.

The breach in the wall had been a matter of contention to the Parliamentarian forces even before the city had surrendered to them. The walls were far too well constructed for artillery to bring them down. Instead, the engineers under Bell’s command had excavated a tunnel leading under the wall at St Mary’s with the intention to breach there and simultaneously at a similar mine at Walmgate Bar, allowing an overwhelming force to swarm in and take the city. It had been slow, dangerous work, with the possibility of detection or collapse at every yard of the way. Yet Bell’s men had managed it, and he had been proud of them for it. Aye, even of Hensley, who now stood sniveling before Bell’s desk.

In olden times, the wall would have been collapsed by setting a fire in the tunnel to burn away the heavy timber supports the engineers had brought in to prop up the foundations they had themselves dug away. These days, gunpowder did the trick more effectively, and allowed better timing of the exact moment the breach would open, allowing the attackers to be in position and ready to take full advantage.

That had not occurred on this occasion, however. The St Mary’s mine was completed comfortably in advance of the one at Walmgate — largely the effect of the ground being stonier there, Bell conceded. Sergeant Major General Crawford of the Eastern Association under the Earl of Manchester expressed impatience, and one of his subordinates took this to mean they should press ahead with what was available to them. On the 16th day of June, the year of our Lord 1644, this fool took it upon himself to fire the charge.

Crawford had only six hundred men available to take advantage of the collapsed wall, the merest fraction of what was required. They entered the city, but Royalist defenders sallied from the nearby abbey postern gate and flanked the attackers from behind. Half the six hundred were killed or injured. Crawford claimed he had just discovered that the defenders had detected the Walmgate tunnel, and had successfully flooded it; he feared they also knew of the St Mary’s tunnel. That didn’t seem likely to Bell; the Royalists seemed to have been surprised by the breach, which argued against Crawford being right. It did not, however, preclude the possibility that he had acted in good faith. The Earl had taken him at his word, Cromwell less so.

After all their efforts, Major Bell was privately furious that the mine had been tossed away in such a manner. As it was, York eventually surrendered after most of the defenders marched out to join Prince Rupert in engaging the Parliamentarians. All they got for their trouble was slaughter at Marston Moor, before Rupert remembered pressing matters in the south and abandoned York to its fate. Sir Thomas Glemham was left as governor, looked at the sorry state of the forces left to him, and opened negotiations.

A month to the day after the disaster at St Mary’s, the Parliamentarians marched into the city at Walmgate, St Mary’s Gate, and Micklegate.

And here was Major John Bell, a month after that, trying to patch up the hole in the wall in whose creation he had been instrumental. It was a strange life, and not always an enjoyable one.

“The men don’t like the hole,” said Hensley. He had a shapeless cloth cap in his hands that he kept wringing incessantly. It was unseemly for a man of Hensley’s seniority, chief foreman and master of works.

“They helped make it,” said Bell. “Why would they show so much animosity to it now?”

Hensley stared at him.

Bell kept his anger in check. “Why are they so afeared of it, I mean? ‘’Tis just a hole in a wall.”

“Not that hole, Major,” said Hensley. “The one beneath it.”

The major’s eyebrows lowered. “They helped make that one too.”

Hensley shook his head, a desperately unhappy man caught between two intractable forces. “Not even that hole. The one beneath it.”

“What do you mean, a hole beneath a hole beneath a hole? You’re talking a child’s drivel, Master Hensley.”

“There is a tunnel not of our making below. The powder explosion damaged the bricks lining it. When we started the repairs and were clearing out the rubble, it collapsed altogether.”

Bell’s anger abated somewhat, and his thunderous brow admitted some curiosity. “Another tunnel? A counter tunnel?” Perhaps Crawford had been right after all; perhaps the defenders had been mining toward his tunnel with the intention of flooding or collapsing it.

“I... ” Hensley looked even unhappier. “I do not think it so. I believe it is an old place.”

Bell looked closely at Hensley; the man was sweating. It was a warm August day, sure enough, but Bell was sure that Hensley had not been showing any distress at the heat when he came into Bell’s temporary office of works in the ancient abbey’s hospitium.

“God’s teeth, man,” he demanded, “are you frighted, too?”

They were interrupted by the sound of footsteps ascending the wooden stairs outside the door, frantic and clumsy. No sooner had the unexpected visitor reached the head of the stairs than they were thumping open-handedly upon the door.

Major Bell started to call “Come in!”, but the door swung open before the first word was out of his mouth. Lindle, one of the foremen under Hensley, stood there. Normally a phlegmatic, somewhat dull man, he was wild-eyed and panting.

“The tunnel collapsed! It took Archer!”

“Took?” Bell climbed to his feet, plucking his jerkin from the back of his chair as he did so. “What mean you by that? It fell upon him?”

Lindle looked from Bell to Hensley and back again, as if realizing he had said the wrong thing and meant to repair matters. “Aye,” he said, but he sounded unconvinced by his own words. “It fell in upon him.”

* * *

By the time Bell arrived at the works, the other sappers had already dug the unlucky Archer out and laid him prostrate on the trammeled grass. Bell was relieved not to be able to see any blood beyond a few scratches, and no obvious injuries, but the group standing around Archer was sullen and quiet, and Bell suspected the man might have suffocated before he could be rescued. He was surprised, therefore, to see Archer stir.

“Give the man some air!” barked Bell. “Back away! Let him see daylight!” He knelt by Archer as the circle of men loosened. “Are you hurting, lad?” he asked more gently. “Are you in pain?”

Archer said nothing. His head lolled this way and that, and his eyes opened to show little but the whites. His mouth worked slowly, as if trying to speak.

“He’s mazed,” said one of the sappers behind Bell. “The hole’s had him. He’s mazed for good.”

Bell turned on the speaker in a fury. “Shut your damned mouth! I’ll have none of that superstition!”

That quieted them all, for “superstition” and “papistry” were the same in Bell’s vocabulary, and it wasn’t wise to be identified with either in his eyes. Bell was in the ugly state of having both sympathy for the king, and a loathing of what Charles had come to be. Charles had been corrupted and the kingdom defiled by the wiles of the Catholic harlot Henrietta Maria, this Bell knew to be true. With heavy heart, he had turned his back upon his king.

Quelling his anger, Bell turned back to Archer. “Archer, lad… can you hear me? Are you with me?”

“Did I… ” Archer’s voice was barely a whisper. His gaze wandered until it found Bell’s face, but barely focused on him at all. “Is it out? I tried to stop it. Is it out?”

Bell frowned. “Is what out? The tunnel collapsed on you, Archer. You’re lucky to be alive.”

“The tunnel collapsed…?” Archer sighed. His eyes closed slowly. “Good… good… didn’t think I was strong enough. Managed it, then… good… ”

Bell regarded Archer curiously. Did he understand the man correctly? In any case, if Archer was saying what he seemed to be, it was better the men didn’t hear it. They were like lions under fire, but the first hint of deviltry, and they would just as easily turn into old women.

They were behind schedule as it was, and Bell was tired of making excuses to My Lord Fairfax. The new governor of the city doubted the Royalists would try and retake the city, but if they did, he had no wish to defend it with a gaping hole in the wall. Every few days he would inquire as to the state of the repairs.

The truth was that Bell’s men had done too good a job of demolishing it in the first place, but they could hardly admit to that. So, Bell had a well worn rondo of reasons to trot out: the site was being made safe; the materials they gathered were unsuitable or inferior; they’d been commandeered for urgent work elsewhere.

The last was the truest: Bell and his engineers had done any number of small civil works, mainly to repair houses and shore up properties damaged during the hostilities. The York folk had been glad of the end of the siege, and Fairfax had gained a gold coin reputation for refusing to allow the rabidly Protestant members of his army to strip the city’s churches of their gilt and ornament, and to put out the stained glass of the minster cathedral. Thus, the occupying army was regarded favorably by the locals, and Fairfax was keen that long would that goodwill persist. Repairing a roof here and buttressing a wall there was thereby smiled upon by Bell’s superiors.

But all the goodwill within the city walls could not hide the gaping hole that might let in those without.

Bell had a litter made up, and Archer was transported back to the hospitium, where a bed was made for him on the bottom floor. Once he had ordered one of the boys to fetch an army surgeon (he certainly didn’t intend to pay a fee if he could avoid it) and ushered the rest of the men out of the door, he returned his attention to Archer.

“Archer? You may speak freely now. What happened in that hole?” He hesitated, then added, “Did you bring on the collapse yourself, lad? Did you do something to the props?”

Archer’s eyes were almost shut. “I did, aye. I put the mattock butt to the prop and levered it. All my weight. Did I do it?”

“You did. But why? We’ll just have to dig it out again.”

Archer’s eyes opened wide and he stared up at Bell with naked horror. “No!” He grabbed Bell’s sleeve. “No! You must not, Major! It mustn’t be opened again! Bury it! Bury it deep!”

The fear was unmanning Archer, making him whine like a child. Bell had seen suchlike before from men under fire or frighted by oncoming pike and sword. That a man usually as bloodless as Archer should find such bane in a pit in the ground was passing strange.

“This hole, you’ll be talking about the one that opened up under the tunnel we made, is that it?”

Bell’s measured tone seemed to reassure Archer. He fell silent for some moments, recovering his wits. Then he said, “It’s old, in there. The air even. It didn’t smell bad. Just old. Old as Noah.”

Bell considered; it was no secret that the city had a Roman history. Why, hadn’t Constantine, the first Christian emperor himself, gained his laurels there? It was not beyond belief that the sappers had found some ancient Roman cellar in their excavations. Bell’s men were countrymen by and large, and prone to a countryman’s fancies. He may have cowed them with his disgust at the very mention of the supernatural, but that didn’t mean they’d stopped believing in it.

Bell could now imagine the sequence of events, from the discovery of the old cellar or whatever it was, through the excitation of the men’s imaginations, and so to the womanish hysteria. He had some experience in dealing with such nonsense, and as soon as the surgeon came to tend to Archer, he would shame the men back into work by showing them what a gaggle of fools they were.

* * *

The sappers were at first blush surprised and then mutinous about returning to the hole to clear it. Bell was an old hand at commanding men who did not seek contact with the foe with enthusiasm, however, and had already settled on the strategy to use. First, he almost offhandedly mentioned how important fixing the breach was to My Lord Fairfax, who was popular with the troops. He leavened this statement of regret with a passing reference to mutiny and what happened to mutineers in that happy time.

Leaving the men’s clearly very active imaginations to envisage how unpleasant it must be to finish one’s days kicking the air before an audience of grim-faced comrades, Bell moved swiftly on to what a simple job it was, and how, when the fearful chamber was reopened, he himself would willingly be the first man in.

Here he smoothly moved into his third dialectic mode, by mocking a hypothetical bunch of wan cowards who could not bear the terrors of a shallow hole. The men grew quiet, and seemed shamed by the time he finished talking. He decided the time was right to shift from the oratorical to the practical.

“We start now,” he said, hefting a spade. “I’m tired of excusing listless work to the governor. This time tomorrow, I want the foundation excavated and surveyed, ready for repair.”

The men watched him start digging at the loose earth where the collapse had brought in the sides of the crater made by the exploded mine. The day was wearing on, and they knew the task would take them into darkness. Hensley told one of the lads to fetch brands for the evening, for they would surely need them. Then he gathered the other boys and set them to carrying earth in baskets to the spoil heap. Slowly and unwillingly, the men took up their tools and joined Bell.

* * *

The work was slower than Bell anticipated. It wasn’t purely through the reluctance of his sappers, although there was certainly plenty of that. The hole itself was awkward to work in, and the soil kept shifting as they went, sometimes eradicating the last half hour of excavation. Bell presumed the newly discovered secondary chamber was the problem, but he still had not clapped eyes on the damnable hole, so it was all supposition. Certainly the digging did not go smoothly. More than once, he had a sense of the malevolence of inanimate objects when small setbacks dogged their way every other minute.

The brands were lit, and work continued beneath a darkening sky late into the evening, the flickering light and stink of burning pitch being no strangers to men used to mining their way under enemy fortifications. It brought with it an association of hovering danger, however, and their low spirits sank further.

Presently, they touched upon the supports they had themselves placed there during the earlier part of the repairs, and Bell knew they must be close on to where Archer had been caught by the accident. An accident he had deliberately caused, Bell reminded himself.

Hensley cleared the men out so he could inspect the site more closely, and went down into the hole with a brand, one of the younger lads holding another behind him. He muttered and swore under his breath, and none could be sure if it was in dismay at the ruin of their work or at being in a dank pit at gone midnight.

Bell squatted by the breach to observe their progress. There was little to be seen but the yellow light of the brands and the shadows they cast. Hensley and the boy were little more than silhouettes themselves, despite being barely three yards down. Bell squinted and wafted the fumes from the pitch torches away. His eyes watered and he blinked hard to clear them.

“The earth is soft here,” called Hensley. “There’s a sink; I can see a wee valley in the soil where it’s drained dow…”

A pause and the light moved sharply.

“It’s subsiding, Major! Back, boy! Get out!”

Bell saw the nearest silhouette resolve into the lad as he turned and crawled up the incline toward him. Behind, he could see the other brand clearly now, but Hensley himself was little more than a fragmented chiaroscuro of jagged moments.

“Move yourself, lad! The floor is shifting!”

Then Hensley’s light was gone with a growl of ruffled flame.

Bell reached forward and grabbed the boy’s outstretched hand, pulling him clear to sprawl on the raw earth behind them. Bell’s attention was purely on the hole.

“Hensley!” he bellowed into the void. “Answer me, if you’re able! Hensley!”

There was no reply.

Bell was not a man given to vacillation. He shrugged off his coat and snatched the torch from the boy’s shaking hand. Without a second’s further deliberation, he descended into the pit.

Decisive was Major Bell, but not impetuous. He went slowly, testing the way with his heel as he went. In a moment he found himself at the edge of an open sinkhole, perhaps four feet across. Immediately he lowered himself onto his chest and lay prone at the hole’s perimeter, testing below the lip with his hand. It seemed solid enough, and that would have to do. If Hensley was buried in soil and unable to escape, every passing second would sour what breath remained in his lungs until it poisoned him.

Bell crawled forward to look down into the void.

“Hensley! Can you hear me, man?”

Only silence.

Bell looked back up the tunnel entrance. The man were milling around there, fearful and useless. The sight sparked fury in his breast.

“God’s teeth, what a damned crowd of old wives you are!” he roared at them. “Rope and lanterns! A man’s life is in the balance! Green! Ryder! Owen! Ready yourselves! Boy!” He glared at Hensley’s torchbearer. “Come back here and bring that brand with you!”

More afraid of the major than the dark hole, the lad quickly climbed down to join Bell.

“Cast your light into the hole,” ordered Bell. “Throw it in.”

The torch flared as it fell, and came to rest no more than a pike’s length beneath. In its uncertain light, Bell could make out stone walls, and a mound of earth directly below the breach. He narrowed his eyes and looked as far hither and thither as he might. This was no cellar, he concluded; it was a tunnel. An old, old tunnel. He had studied the city’s stonework enough to know the medieval style well, and even the Roman. This looked a great deal more like the work of the latter.

“Where is that rope?” he demanded, and then without waiting for an answer, crabbed himself sideways over the edge of the hole, hung there awkwardly by his upper arms and then, trusting to providence more than good sense, he let himself fall.

* * *

The stonework was ancient, but the floor was earthen, and the second thing Major Bell noted were the tracks.

The first was that Hensley was missing.

The earth mound was bedded on a layer of worked stone, the section of the tunnel’s arched ceiling that must have been weakened by the breaching explosion and subsequently collapsed during the repair works. The soil had spread out and to Bell’s eye scarcely seemed deep enough to bury a child, never mind a full-grown sapper.

By the time he was surveying the tunnel floor, a cry of “Heads below!” was halloed down, followed on the moment by a tail of rope. As Green descended, Bell called up to Owen: “Send my regards to Captain Harker and ask him to attend with a detachment of men. Make sure My Lord Fairfax is informed that we have discovered a tunnel here, one that has been used but recently. We are starting a search of it. When you’ve sent the messages, gather arms for we four, pistols if you can find them. My sword hangs by my coat.”

While Ryder climbed down to join them, bringing Bell’s sword and a pair of crowbars as weapons for himself and Green, Bell examined the soil floor by the steadier light of an oil lantern. The tunnel hadn’t simply been used, he could see; it had been frequented. Tracks led back and forth, creating a slightly hardened path in the earth, a path disrupted by the collapse. The tracks milled around the untidy heap of soil and fallen stones.

A flattening in the top of the pile showed where it had been struck by some weight: Hensley. It was plain to see where he had rolled down to the tunnel floor. The marks led southeasterly, in the general direction of the old Roman fort that had once stood more or less where the minster cathedral now loomed.

“Major,” said Green from the far side of the heaped debris.

Momentarily fearing the worst — perhaps he had missed Hensley’s body in his initial search — Bell joined Green. It struck him then: perhaps finding Hensley dead there wasn’t the worst eventuality. Perhaps the worst was what those damnable drag marks in the earth were suggesting to him.

That suggestion only grew in strength when he saw Green’s discovery. A pitch brand, very deliberately extinguished by being thrust into the loose earth.

Owen reappeared then at the lip of the hole above. “Major, Captain Harker is leading a patrol. I sent horse after him, but there’s no way to know when he’ll be fetched.”

Bell snorted vexatiously. “And My Lord Fairfax?”

“Has been informed, sir. I am waiting on his pleasure.”

“I regret we have no time for his pleasure. Master Hensley is missing, and may have been taken by Royalist sympathizers. Have you the weapons, at least?”

Owen brought down cavalry sabers with him, no pistols being found. Seeing his men there, filthy-faced with blades thrust into waistbands, Bell felt more like a pirate king than an officer of the Parliamentarian army.

“Green, stay abreast of me, Owen at our backs, and Ryder to cover the rear. Steady pace.” He looked deep into the darkness of the tunnel ahead and ignored his misgivings. “Advance.”

The small party moved off into the gloom of the ancient tunnel.

* * *

Aspects of the tunnel’s geography confused Bell. In the first instance, the end of the tunnel behind them must, common sense said, be close, for otherwise the tunnel would wind into the river. Bell had surveyed the area carefully for weaknesses during the siege; he was as sure as the nose on his face that no tunnel opened into the river. At least, not at the surface. Perhaps in Roman times it had been more shallow?

It also perplexed the major that a lengthy Roman tunnel had gone undiscovered. He was unclear how long ago the Romans had been in Britain, but they were in the Bible, so he guessed at somewhere around the first year AD. Since then, the Norse, the Saxons, and the Normans had left their mark on the city and raised many buildings. How had none of them ever found the tunnel?

This was answered when Ryder pointed out some markings on the wall the others had missed as they passed. It was a strange, godless series of scratches into the stone, angular and alien. Bell had seen similar before, though.

“That’s Norse. Seen suchlike up in Northumberland.”

That answered Bell’s question, at least a little. Perhaps the tunnel entrance opened into the home of a family of Royalists, who used it secretly. In principle, Bell did not mind this hypothetical family. A civil war is a strange thing, with odd enmities and unexpected sympathies. But they had Hensley, and that meant the major’s mercy was paper thin. If they had harmed one of the men under his command, they would be punished. If they had killed him, Bell would string them up himself.

He was steeling himself for such a judgment when the tunnel abruptly ended.

* * *

The chamber was more than a shrine, but less than a temple, and Bell could not understand the purpose of it beyond it being a place of pagan worship. The tunnel opened into what he gauged to be the southwestern point of a circular chamber five or six yards across. The brickwork was Roman, and also the simple stone altar, he guessed. Probably some of the bones too.

The sides of the chamber were stacked with human bones like an ossuary built by a madman. He’d heard the papists liked to make such things. The bones were old and untidy, ancient scraps of desiccated meat visible hanging from femurs and tibiae, humeri and radii. Scraps of cloth and even armor were visible here and there.

Other discarded items lay in an untidy pile by the entrance. Helmets Roman and Norse, Norman bernies, and swords from Plantagenet times. Armed men had come here, and they had died.

“Major,” said Green quietly, “mayhap we should go back? Wait for the captain?” His knuckles showed white on his sword’s hilt as he spoke.

“Not yet,” murmured Bell. It was difficult to speak much above a whisper in that chamber. “We still don’t know what befell Hensley.”

He saw Ryder glance at the skeletal remains and draw breath to say something before thinking better of it.

“I’d do it for any of you,” said Bell. “We never leave a man behind while I have a say in it.”

“He can’t have come this way, though,” said Owen. “There be no way out.”

This was also true, or seemed to be true. The tunnel through which they had gained entrance was also the only egress. Yet the drag marks in the soil indicated this direction right enough. Bell frowned; the floor being slabs of stone, the dry dust upon them was not enough to hold sufficient indication of Hensley’s fate, lost among the comings and goings of whoever else used the place.

“There’ll be a concealed door,” he said. “As the papists use to hide their plate and idols. Needs be we must find it.” He set the men to searching the chamber carefully by quarters. They set to the task diligently though poorly enthused.

It was Bell himself who made the discovery, having given himself the quarter farthest from the entrance, to lead by example. The slab-sided altar was a far better prospect than the piles of bones, and Bell approached it cautiously.

As he did so, he saw that he had been wrong about it being an altar at all. Its position upon a low dais and the shadows cast by the men’s lights had served to obscure the altar’s surface, until Bell grew close and realized that, in truth, it had no surface at all.

He’d seen Roman coffins before. During the siege, they’d turned up a couple on the Mount, a low rise to the west of Micklegate Bar. It seemed the rich Romans of York had been buried in great slab-sided sarcophagi that — viewed from the side, in poor light — might well be mistaken for an altar. Those coffins had lids, also of stone. This one had none, and the suspicion wiggled in Bell’s mind that perhaps it had never had one.

He climbed the two low steps formed by concentric ovals beneath the coffin and looked into it, holding his lantern high and away from him so that the light fell without shadow. The lack of ambiguity in what he saw made him wish he hadn’t been so assiduous with the light.

Hensley lay there. Quite dead, and curled in a ball like a frightened child. It was not the dreadful wounds in throat, torso, and limbs that appalled Bell to the merest fraction, as much as the expression on the corpse’s face. Bell had seen enough of violent death on the battlefield for it to retain little ability to shock or horrify. This was something else again.

Hensley’s eyes were open and rheumy already, the cloudy glassiness of death settled on them with unnatural rapidity. They were wide open, as was the mouth, settled in a scream that never reached expression. Bell had been hard after Hensley from the moment he fell, and the distance from the breach to the chamber could not be more than two hundred and fifty or three hundred yards, at most, of silent, stone-lined tunnel. A shout would have been heard easily enough, never mind a scream.

Hensley, then, had died rapidly, although not rapidly enough for Hensley. His very last quick second was struck upon his face, and would be until the worms took the flesh from him.

And yet, he could not have died with such alacrity, for there was blood aplenty, and dead men do not bleed.

They do not bleed, yet Hensley had bled a quart or more into the coffin, a tide of black that was creeping from beneath the cadaver as Bell watched.

They do not bleed, yet Hensley was bleeding.

An oath stronger than most escaped Bell’s lips and drew the attention of his men. “What is amiss, Major?” said Green as he reached Bell’s side. Then he looked into the coffin and had no words at all.

The blood covered the floor of the coffin, and then began to fill it. Pints. Gallons. More than any man might contain. It rose around Hensley and submerged him in its tide, a darker shade of red than blood had any right to be.

Green stepped away, and Bell wished he was able to do so too. But he could only stare as the coffin filled. The last he saw of Hensley’s face, he could have sworn the eye still above the rising meniscus rolled in its socket to regard Bell. The lips moved, the flood pouring smoothly into the open mouth, but Bell never understood what Hensley was trying to say, even if it had ever happened; Bell found many reasons to deny his memories afterward.

Then the blood swallowed Hensley altogether. It rose until it was at the very edge of the coffin’s lip, and there it halted, as if by a spigot closing.

Bell stood, transfixed as if the stone beneath his feet had bled through his boots and into the flesh of his legs from sole to thigh. He could do naught but stare into the reflection of his own face cast into the dark mirror before him. His face was shadowed by the lantern held high, and he sought the humanity he knew to be within his own visage as a counter to the thing he had witnessed. In a moment, however, his reflection was gone, and not even the light shone back.

A breeze blew through the chamber, strong enough to make the torches growl and the lantern lights flicker. It blew from the surface of the blood.

“Deviltry,” croaked Bell. He said it often enough as a formula for the common wickedness of men, but this time he meant it. He stepped back, crushing the realization that the blood — if blood it was, or had ever been — was no liquid, but rather a gateway that flowed and eddied. If that realization ever became a thought of consequence, it would shoulder aside the columns of his wit and bring down the temple of his reason. Therefore, he ignored it, blinked it aside, and filled the space where it had briefly stood with thoughts of God, duty, and family.

“Deviltry,” he said again, louder now as fear and the fear of fear performed its usual alchemy in his heart and turned to anger.

In such a state, it was hardly surprising that he and his men had completely forgotten why they were searching the chamber in the first place. They were reminded when the hypothetical concealed door became a reality.

Beyond the coffin, the curve of the wall from the floor to a man’s height was plastered and whited. Along the edge of this alcove, a dark line formed and widened.

Owen saw it and cried a warning. Quickly it became clear that the whole section of the alcove was moving to one side. That it did so in short shoves, to the sound of stone grating against stone, indicated that it did not do so by the exercise of some subtle mechanism, but rather by the application of main force driving the wall along concealed runnels.

An opening widened, admitting naught but darkness. Bell moved back, almost relieved to have someone to face. Whatever godless citizen or citizens of York maintained this place, whatever apostates clinging to vile paganism might emerge, they would suffer immediate punishment for what they had done here and the foul murder they had committed upon Hensley.

The wall stopped moving and all was silence but for the breathing of the four men.

What stepped through into the light was not alive, but nearly. It was not dead, but nearly. It was ancient. It might once have been a man.

It regarded them through eye sockets filled with something too darkly red to be blood, too fluid to be flesh. There was no sense that it had any sort of presence at all in the way that a human possesses, no more than a statue or manikin or a child’s dolly does. Instead it presented the air of being an artefact or a puppet, made from old flesh and animated by a puppeteer a long, long way away. It wore scraps of armor scavenged from those it had caught and slaughtered down the years, an ancient Roman helmet on its head.

Afterward, Bell — when he allowed himself to think about the events of that night at all — would imagine how the Romans must have discovered the site and started erecting the fort of Eboracum there. How they had encountered the thing and, unable to destroy it, had drawn it into their pantheon, if secretly. They had sacrificed to it too. The construction of the tunnel and the chamber made more sense in that thought.

But had they truly never realized that their sacrifices were not to some local monster, but to something else? Something that lurked and writhed, almost visible through the pane of the dark blood? Bell would curtail his thoughts there, for that glimpsed image was never quite successfully driven from his memories. Sometimes prayer sufficed to calm his soul. Sometimes hard liquor.

He hardly knew how the sword got into his hand. In response, the thing slowly drew a straight-bladed sword that could not be a year under two centuries old. It looked blunt and mottled with rust, but there was fresh blood on it all the same.

“Owen, Green,” Bell murmured, “we are going to make a fighting retreat to the breach. Ryder, you’re fleet. Run like the Devil himself is at your heels. Get two barrels of blasting powder and short fuse them. Stand ready to light and drop them into the tunnel. Do y’understand me?”

“Sir?” said Ryder. “I can’t abandon…”

“You’ll do as you’re told. Go.”

Ryder hesitated at the command, but swallowed his reluctance and disappeared into the tunnel. They could hear the slapping of his boots on the soil floor for long seconds. The thing heard them too, and advanced.

* * *

“Owen, to my right. Green, to my left. I’ll draw it on. You wound it as and when you can.”

Bell only hoped that it could be wounded. As he put his lantern down by the tunnel entrance, and the men flung their brands aside to illuminate the chamber in a nightmare of low lights and high shadows, Bell took a moment to weigh their opponent. It was manlike, but whether it had ever been a man he sorely doubted. It was more in the nature of a device in the form of a man, as though some ancient corpse had been the pencil sketch and the final shape the inking of an artist who had never seen a man and allowed new fancies into the design. It seemed wet, but this was the strange ichor that had taken Hensley, an unblood that flowed as it willed and formed the strings by which the unseen puppeteer made sport of mortal terror. Bell could see it flow and ebb in the place of muscles across the skeletal frame and found himself so fascinated by its actions that he almost failed to grasp their import as the sword rose and swept down.

Green’s cry saved him, and he brought his saber up in a clumsy block. The thing was no swordsman, and the blow was as without guile as the stroke of a butcher’s cleaver upon the insensate flesh of his trade. It struck his blade square and he was preserved. Still, it was powerful, and Bell fell back with a shout.

He shook himself; he was a better swordsman than this, to stand amazed while the godless creature sliced him like mutton. With a new shout filled with wrath rather than astonishment, he pressed forward. The thing failed to defend itself effectively at all, and Bell felt joy as his sword found a gap in his opponent’s rusting cuirass and drove through its heart.

But the thing had no heart, and raised its sword once more. In a moment of terrible clarity, Bell saw the thing’s withered skin and saw it was crossed with centuries of scars where men at least as worthy as he had struck blows upon that abomination, and yet it still walked. Men at least as worthy as he, who now formed the ossuary around them.

He felt despair, but only for the merest moment, for despair is the death of a fighting man, and no one who knew John Bell would regard him as anything aught.

“Forget thrusts, men,” he ordered, “they trouble it not.” The imagery of a butcher’s shambles occurred to him again at that moment, and the spirit of war brought a smile that was half snarl to his face. “Hack it to pieces.”

Owen was the first to obey as Green harassed it on its flank. He leveled a scything strike at the nape of the thing’s neck and roared as he did, one cry amid the many that three of the combatants in that eldritch skirmish gave throat.

The thing switched attention from one man to the other as easily as if it had eyes in the back of its head, and with astonishing speed brought its massive blade up to block Owen’s attack. His saber did not break, which was a miracle in itself, but a chip of good steel flew wild, and he was momentarily stunned by the shock reverberating from the clash. In that moment, the thing twitched its blade as if it were a feather and opened Owen from chest to shoulder. He screamed, more in surprise than pain. That would come later, Bell knew. If they survived.

There could be no victory in this fight for them. Bell could see that now. How many of the dead there had encountered the thing in groups of three, or four, or more? Given time, it would triumph over a regiment. That was if they played the game on its terms, of course. If Ryder had obeyed with alacrity, a game new to the thing was about to begin.

“Green! Get Owen back to the breach and get him out! You as well! I’ll slow it as much as I may.”

Green knew better than to disobey a direct order in combat. He ducked around to reach Owen, now leaning against the tunnel wall, pale and gasping, and half carried, half dragged the man toward the dim light of the brands above the tunnel breach, leaving Bell with the thing.

He knew he would not see the dawn. The knowledge gave him a clarity he only ever felt under fire, and he was satisfied that this was the last emotion that he would ever experience. Better this than to die an old man, toothless and confused.

For its part, the creature seemed confused by the loss of two of its opponents. Its head, the helmet rocking loosely across the hairless skull, swung this way and that way, before settling its gaze once more upon Bell.

“Aye,” said Bell, too at peace with his imminent extinction to offer house to anything as base as animosity. “Just you and I now. Lead on.”

The monster, however, did not wish to lead on. It looked at Bell with an expressionless countenance, yet with an air of curiosity. Then it spoke, and its voice was as empty of life as the gulf between the stars, and the syllables that came from a mouth without tongue and a throat without cords were too primal, too sophisticated for Bell to even guess at their meaning.

The words came, and the peace he had felt was stripped away to leave him naked and freezing before a truth too simple to be denied. A lifetime of faith was swept away as childish fancies. Before him was no puppet, but a priest of the one truth, the vicarious embodiment of it, the undeniable proof of it. No faith was necessary. No faith could ever prosper in the mind of John Bell ever again, an intellect sterilized of such fancies by the awful light of true revelation.

“Iä… Zschekerith… H’ethkyicin mu… ech Lloigor mar’Zschekerith… Zschekerith mu fhtagn…”

* * *

Bell had no memory of running, yet he must have. He had no memory of the explosion of two barrels of powder. He had no memory of being pulled from the sucking earth, and the touch of pulseless hands around his ankles that tried to pull him back into the churning soil. These he only recalled in dimly remembered nightmares for the rest of his life.

His first clear memory after that night was a day and a half afterward, when he awoke in his own bed in the hospitium, Captain Harker surprised in the act of leaving as Bell stirred. Harker called for the surgeon to attend immediately, before resuming his seat by Bell.

Harker told him how long he had been unconscious and raving, although he forebore to mention some of the dangerously blasphemous things Bell had said. Instead, he told Bell that Fairfax had attended him for an hour the previous day and had been very concerned by the major’s accident.

“Accident?” said Bell through cracked lips. “Did they not tell you of what we encountered in the tunnel?”

Here Harker had frowned at the prospect of an unpleasant duty to perform. “The powder brought down this tunnel you speak of, and the workings that led down to it. Your man Ryder who set the charge, he didn’t escape in time. I am sorry, sir.”

“But… the others. What of the others? Owen?”

“He was sorely injured, and never awakened. Green was smothered in the collapse.”

Bell was filled with horror. What he had seen in the chamber was well nigh unbearable, but the thought of no other trustworthy witness surviving to corroborate his memories was a sharp additional wound.

The captain was still speaking. “I am truly sorry, Major Bell. We’re searching the city for your attackers. They will be brought to justice, I assure you.”

Bell looked at him blankly.

“Royalist sympathizers, probably, or perhaps just common criminals. Whatever the case, they will not escape. Your foreman gave us good descriptions.”

“Foreman?”

The door opened and both men looked to the newcomer. Harker nodded, for he saw Hensley there. Bell screamed, for he did not.

Daughter of the Drifting

Jason Heller

Waves of mud from the Ocean Amorphous tugged at the hobnails of my boots as I trod the shore that morning. The soil undulated nauseously beneath my feet. It wasn’t a large quake. I trudged on.

The stench of rot, fetid and heavy, rose from the squelching sea. No gulls wheeled in the sky above its gray-brown swells; no fish wriggled in them, save for the lungfish that trawled its murky floor, occasionally to emerge, squinting in the dim light of the violet sun like an internal organ thrust into the cruel air.

I had partaken of such a creature the night before. Lungfish could only be eaten raw, as fire caused the meat to sublimate into a noxious vapor, and pickling it produced a mucus nigh on poisonous. Choking down its oily flesh, I had pondered my path thus far.

It was not a comforting path to retrace, nor an easy one. The small islands that comprised this world shifted constantly. There were no continents of which to speak, or islands so large they couldn’t be trodden across in a day. They roiled constantly, like blobs of sludge in the glutinous soup that was the Ocean Amorphous — the body of water, if indeed it might be called that, that encircled the world. One often awoke after a haunted sleep, adrift on a clump of slime and flattened ferns; it had been, just the night before, the promontory of an entire island. People lived upon these clots of muck, fought over them, died for them, only to have them dissolve and drift away before each sunrise.

It was a world that afforded no constancy, but my path was difficult to contemplate for another reason. Like the lungfish, I did not belong here. My body — its piebald skin, its pendulous breasts, its robust hips — was native to this filthy hell, all too true. But my spirit had long ago been hurled across the cosmic void and back by the hand of a Great Old One, whose immeasurable, skull-bejeweled hilt protruded from my eternal soul like some scabrous and cancerous growth.

My path, deformed as it was, had been prescribed by the arc of the Blade of Anothqgg.

* * *

My name is Y’vrn. I am a daughter of the Drifting. It was on the eighty-fifth day of the month of Ornuary, in the two thousand and eleventh year since the world was set Adrift, that the Blade of Anothqgg — as deftly as it had pierced the flesh of untold multitudes in battles both ancient and yet to come — entered my own life.

I know not why I remember the date. I do not linger on the past; sentiment, as L’kmi once taught me, is the swain of bloodshed. Of what consequence, he used to instruct, are the mawkish chalk-marks of the chronologist to a blade that can slice into eons long forgotten as keenly as it cleaves the dim mists of the future? Not that I was a woman — at least not at that tender age — apt to contemplate the finer points of philosophy. All the points that concerned me could be found at the ends of sabers.

Many blades had come by me over the course of my brief life. I’d even accommodated a host of them in my belly, my arms, my thighs. My many scars, tawny across my dappled skin, marked my history; they were the fossils of my intimacy. Swords, perhaps, were the only lovers I sought, not counting a quick fuck in the oozing mud-rain after battle. Or on the caked, quaking shore of the Ocean Amorphous, sludge mingling with the spent juices of our union. Like lovers, blades were neutral, utilitarian, to be wielded however one’s will might bend them. They could be friends or foes, stolen or won, relations or strangers.

None, however, was stranger than the Blade of Anothqgg. It came into my hands the way so many had before: I slew its owner, my lover. I plucked its hilt from the wilted worms that had been his fingers, even as his manhood — which had, only moments earlier, displaced flesh inside me — pulsed with the ebb of his final heartbeats.

That owner had been L’kmi.

His death, like our lovemaking, had come swiftly and with passion. Our nakedness only added to our savagery. But I had learned everything he’d had to teach, and more. He was no match for me. I knew his tricks; I knew his stance; I knew his every flinch and instinct. He knew mine, too, but he had failed to heed his own maxim. Sentiment killed him long before I did.

Gripping his sword for the first time, I noticed that it was not common. Moonlight shone through the greasy clouds, crackling with sparks, and each flash of luminescence was refracted from the steel in a different way. It was solid, surely, but it seemed to dance like a flame. Despite the fact that I held it in my hand, I was unable to tell how far it stood from my eyes. When I stared at it directly, its image writhed and blurred like a lungfish clambering back into the mud, caught by the corner of my eye and then gone in a blink. But when I looked away, the sword became more vivid, as if my mind projected the reality of it outward rather than the other way round.

It was then that my soul screamed.

The blade didn’t move, yet it entered me. It fractured like glass, everywhere at once, filling the air and the hidden space around the air that I had never before seen, or imagined, or imagined I could imagine.

The pain could have split the sun.

A voice came. Somehow I heard it over my own howl.

“You are neither the holder nor the wielder of this, my Blade,” it thundered and whispered and purred and ululated in a billion languages all at once. “You are but its Sheath. You will hold it in your soul, quenching its thirst for death, until I have need of it.”

I no longer felt confusion or pain. Or more accurately, I was no longer able to recognize them. It was then I realized the truth: L’kmi was no fool. He knew what I was, and he had trained me regardless, and he had led me to kill him, to release him from this curse.

I stared in bemusement. How L’kmi — an average swordsman in practice, truth be told, better at thinking about killing than killing — could gain such a weapon in the first place, I have never come to know. Perhaps ownership of the blade doesn’t pass from the strong to the strong, as it does in battle, but from the weak to the weak, like a plague. What that speaks about me, I don’t care to speculate. All I can state without doubt is this: that night my soul became the Scabbard of that dread Blade, forever to incubate its unimaginable mass like some teratoid fetus inside me.

* * *

If tracing one’s own path across the Ocean Amorphous was difficult, tracking another’s was even more so.

Or so I could only hope. I first caught wind of the woman following me — for it was clearly a woman — a week prior. Her boat must have been at least as swift and silent as mine, but her musk was unmistakable. Since then, I had barely slept. Not that sleep has come easy to me over the years since I became the Scabbard of the Blade of Anothqgg. My soul had been thrown countless times across the dimensions untold, strapped to my master’s hip as he waged war with other Great Old Ones, in a war that I had come to understand was an uprising against their masters. The Gods had Gods of their own, and to them Anothqgg was as puny as I was to him. I could gather little of this from my vantage; as my body slumped in a kind of stasis on this stinking world, I was flung elsewhere and otherwhen, my spirit shuddering in ecstatic agony each time Anothqgg sheathed and unsheathed his Blade. Each time, he asked me, “Do you receive this Blade unto your soul? Answer me now, for every time I commit slaughter with it, you must agree to let it return to its Scabbard before it can be so quenched. You may refuse, of course. But then you will remain here, in the void, at my behest, adrift for all eternity.”

What choice did I have? This wasn’t a window into death, a reprieve from my burden. This was everlasting nothingness, to be endured awake and without hope. Each time Anothqgg posed this conundrum of me, I assented. No torment could have been worse.

When I did return from his battles, which might have lasted seconds or centuries, sleep eluded me as much as did tranquility or succor. I was alone, more alone than alone, my only reason for existence to serve as a functionary — nay, a function — of a being beyond my perception or comprehension. The irony was not lost on me: I was the Blade’s Scabbard, yet I was a stranger to it, and it to me. When I caught sight of the hilt, I could see the many skulls — some human; some horned; some grotesque, bulbous sculptures of bone that might have only come from the ossuary of the netherworld — that encrusted it. For all I knew, it wasn’t a sword at all, but the tusk or toenail or eyelash of some vast, gargantuan entity that dwarfed even the Gods of the Gods.

Such thoughts churned through my brain as I set the trap for my pursuer. Exhausted from constant flight, parched from drinking half-filtered mud, subsisting on steamed ferns and the repulsive pulp of the lungfish, I halted for the night and devised an elaborate web of vines in the clearing around me. As I did so, the ground quivered. Nearby, the bottomless mud of the Ocean Amorphous burbled and slurped. Was the Drifting to take hold tonight? I pushed the thought from my mind as I finished tying and concealing my apparatus. I squinted at it from one angle, then another. I wove the trap according to the arcane geometries I had observed, if never fully understood, as my soul had dangled from the belt of Anothqgg on some quasar-strewn battlefield. These geometries were impossible to devise according to the calculus of this flattened plane, but I relied on brute cunning to construct an admittedly paltry facsimile, just enough to render my trap invisible — that is, assuming my pursuer was not able to exist in more than one point in space and time simultaneously. Perhaps I would be so blessed.

Satisfied with my handiwork, I leaned against a large stone, smoothed by the millennia of the Drifting, and dared to let the tremors lull me into a trance. The opal moon shone down, mottled as if by disease. What lies upon that moon, I wondered, and beyond it? Was it a thing, or a lack of a thing? A globe or a hole? Were moon and sky perhaps made of some similar viscous liquid, like a yolk within the white of an egg? If so, could it somehow be hatched? The cosmos itself, that is? Was Anothqgg himself the hen? Or the fox come to poach? Or the mother of universes who devours her own young? My mind swam as I beheld that orb, that orifice, white within black. Positive space became negative, and negative positive. A profound throe of disgust sickened me to the marrow.

My loathsome reverie was cut short by the suck of footfalls in mud.

There was no posturing, no blustery preamble. I leapt to my feet, my hand on the hilt of the Blade. My master slumbered, so it was mine to draw into form, its only intersection in this dimension. As such, it appeared almost common, save for the shimmer it caused in the air around it.

“I am Ili, the Sheath of the Sword of Pnthai,” the woman intoned. Her voice was hoarse, her hair yellow and wild, her limbs sinewy and thin. Her face was contorted in spasms of barely checked excruciation. For a moment, my heart clenched in harmony with hers. Another Sheath? Here, in this world? The things we might share with each other! The tales we might tell! The pain only the other could understand… Sentiment, all of it. I held my breath until my ribs ached, crushing the softness inside me.

She stared at me with eyes like flint, then went on with her ritual incantation: “I will take your hair as my trophy, your skin as my tapestry, your innards as chum for the demons I will tame. I will please my master with you, and by doing so become her Squire.”

A grin curled my lips. “You will take my blade, aye. The length of it. And if you are lucky, you will die before you glimpse it twice.”

With that, the ground heaved. The stone I had leaned against a moment before flew into the air. A wave of mud broke over the shore and drenched us both in the sour stench of the sea.

So it began.

* * *

Some swords ring like bells when struck. My blade and that of the challenger Ili clashed like cities being pitched against one another. She brandished hers with the poise of a champion; I held mine like a beast with a bone.

Mud drenched us. Each time I came close to scoring scalp or severing limb, the quaking earth shuddered, and I lost purchase. The island around us squirmed in the throes of some topological mutation, no longer beholden to the laws of geology. Ili did not taunt me, nor I her. The peals of our blades were proclamation enough.

Near my feet, a geyser of fetid slime erupted. Boiling and blinding, the rust-red gout of fungoid scum made me drop my guard long enough for Ili to clip my breast with her blade. The pain bit into me like the teeth of a living thing. Twisting out of the way, I saw that it was more than a mere nick. Like the Blade of Anothqgg, her sword intersected the space around us in eldritch ways. The incision widened, as if the strike were still happening, as if the moment had slowed down and refused to move on. I collapsed, a kind of fire coursing across my chest. A river of mud opened just before me, as if mocking my wound.

The Blade of Anothqgg skittered from my hands and plunged into it, disappearing from sight.

I raised my arms in feeble defense. Ili stood over me. The point of her blade hovered above my forehead.

Her eyes bored into mine. There was no triumph in her gaze. Only pain, the anguish that comes from one’s soul being strewn through the cosmos, infected by the violation of a lance so holy as to be unholy.

But was life not worth living? Even after becoming the Scabbard of the Blade of Anothqgg, I had loved. Hesitantly, true, but not without pleasure. I had even laughed. It was a bitter, blackened laugh, but perhaps more hearty because of that. Death might free me — who knew? The Great Old Ones worked in unfathomable ways — or it might consign me to an even grimmer fate. I was not yet ready to know.

I grasped her blade. It bit into my flesh. Its vibrations thrummed through my bones. Blood seeped down my forearms, first in rivulets, then in streams.

Ili’s lust was not sated. I could see it in her eyes. Tortured yet unable to veer from her destiny, she tightened her grip. Slick with sweat, a tendon along the side of her neck fluttered elegantly. It was beautiful. Even here, even now, I could know beauty. It came as a revelation to me, and I gasped at the enormity of it, larger and grander than the pulsars I had seen extinguished in uncounted skirmishes between the Great Old Ones.

Ili, however, stayed her hand. Her gaze left me. The ground rumbled and palpitated around us. A force whose puissance overrode our petty squabble seized us, and we both turned our heads as the soil blossomed like a flower.

Out of it came Anothqgg.

I cannot describe him. I would not if I could. With a wave of his hand — I call it a hand, but it was the tip of some serpentine appendage I have no words for — he sent Ili’s head whirling off into the wind, a spume of melted skin and skull.

With the same appendage, he reached into the river of mud that now flowed mightily through the dissolving island. From it he withdrew his Blade. In his hand, it looked nothing like it did in mine. It stretched from his hand to the heavens, in all directions at once, in directions that no coordinates could name.

He offered it to me.

Out of instinct I reached for it.

Then I stopped. I was not in the void, on the battlefield of the Great Old Ones and the Ones Even Older and Greater. I was here. Home. How I loathed it. How it sheltered me now.

I looked around and laughed. It was not a desperate laugh, nor the cackle of the mad. The Ocean Amorphous seethed. Along the horizon, innumerable islands evaporated into palls of oily haze. The planet could not support the weight of Anothqgg, or even the terrible clangor of his voice. Pandemonium danced above me, a swirling storm of desolation as wide as the sky. It seemed to open into the cosmos, which glared down like an exquisite, crystalline eye.

The moon cracked and fell into it.

My home was dying. And in its death, it knew beauty.

I drew my hand away from the Blade. “I am a daughter of this place, this filthy hell, this abscess of putrefaction. I would fight over and die for it, a hundred times over,” I screamed into the hissing maelstrom with labored breath. The storm swallowed the pitiful chitter of my voice. Yet it echoed, and those echoes grew, spiraling outward, elongated and distorted, crawling across the chaos, until my soul emerged, squinting in the dim light of the violet sun like an internal organ thrust into the cruel air.

“Then so you shall,” came the voice of Anothqgg.

He pushed his Blade into me. Not my soul, but my flesh.

As I bled, so did the world. The bedlam fell to mute silence as the atmosphere dissipated around me, leaving no medium for the roar to traverse. The sea poured skyward, a colossal pillar of mud emptying out into infinity. With it, I began to rise.

At last, I belonged.

The Matter of Aude

Natania Barron

It did not take long for the thrill of Aude’s grand scheme to wear off. Once she passed through the high gates of Aachen, disguised as Turpin’s clerk — she had taken the name of Milo — relief quickly found itself replaced by a nagging concern that she would be recognized. Or even worse, that Turpin would betray her.

The bishop had done her a great service in going along with her ruse, but he never would have done so had she not persuaded him with a great and powerful secret. That, and the fact that the Heavenly Mother, the Queen of Heaven, had appeared to her in a dream and told her to keep her brother Olivier from harm. That seemed to carry weight with Turpin.

Aude had always felt a special kinship to the Mother of God, but now all else felt obliterated. Let the men have their Christ the King. She knew the Queen of Heaven spoke to her in ways none of them would ever understand. And now she had a purpose: to save her brother.

Roland was not far ahead of them; she could see the black curls at the nape of his neck, just below his golden helmet. Her betrothed. The man she would spend the rest of her life with, should he return from this bitter war with the Saracen king, Balan. The man she was expected to have children with, to raise a brighter generation, once peace was restored.

But Aude was not concerned that Roland might recognize her. They had spent such a small amount of time together, she was fairly certain he would not know the difference between her and the twenty thousand-odd men in their retinue. He had a habit of finding other things to look at when she was near him, anyway. Theirs was a union of rank and reputation and she was not blind to it, even if she played it so.

No, Roland would not be the challenge. Olivier was.

And Olivier was not only her challenge, but also her reason for leaving courtly life. It was all due to their king, Charlemagne, sending Olivier to fight a giant. A creature known as Fierabras, who was rumored to be the deformed son of Balan himself.

As she brooded over her brother’s doom, the bishop looked sidelong at her, his narrow gaze taking her in once more. If not for those sly, shifting eyes, he might have been a handsome man.

“You don’t look as nervous as I expected,” said Turpin, leaning over and speaking softly. “Perhaps there’s more of your brother in you than I imagined.”

“I am not afraid, not of the fighting,” she said, keeping her voice low. “The Queen of Heaven has guided my steps and kept me safe, even when I doubted.”

“You should consider trying it on, then, fear,” Turpin said, his smile turning the tip of his beard up just slightly.

“I only want to be close enough to Olivier to help him, when I learn how I may do so.”

“Yes, so you said. The Queen of Heaven will be fighting on your side — who can be against you? You, an ugly girl in a monk’s habit.”

She said nothing and continued forward on her unhappy donkey.

* * *

The travel was treacherous and long. Aude had never been in the company of so many men, nor been privy to their strange practices. In the evening they sat together under the stars and sang hymns and drank wine. As the night deepened, the hymns turned to songs of a more lascivious nature. Roland was most often the instigator of such ribaldry, much to Aude’s embarrassment. He also drank more than he should, making a fool of himself in front of the other men. When the sun rose, it appeared that the previous night’s madness was forgotten, and Roland, while puffy in the face and ragged of voice, was back to his stalwart self.

One such morning, after four days of traveling down through Burgundy, Roland and Olivier’s voices rose without warning outside Turpin’s tent. Aude awoke from a dream where the Queen of Heaven was showing her something in a pool, a kind of scepter or stick, but she could not see it clearly. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she looked for Turpin, but he was nowhere to be seen, having enjoyed himself overmuch the night before. Aude hid her face at the sound of the tent flap opening.

“Oh, it’s just the clerk,” said Roland, making to leave immediately.

“Wait. Perhaps he knows where Turpin’s gone off to,” Olivier said.

Aude had been prepared for such an occasion, and bowed her head so that the monk’s hood she wore obscured her face even further.

“Why is he flinching like that?” Roland asked Olivier, not quite quietly enough to be polite. “Show us your face, boy.”

“He’s disfigured, if I recall,” Olivier replied. “Twisted by God and cursed to walk scorned by man. But blessed to have been taken in by Bishop Turpin. No matter. Milo, is it?”

Aude nodded and muttered, “Yes, lord.”

“Do you know the whereabouts of your master?” Olivier pressed, poking his head further into the tent.

Aude shook her head. “No, sir.”

“Probably face down in some pretty tits —” Roland began.

Olivier cut him off. “If you see him, Milo, please let us know.”

Aude nodded her head vigorously and waited for them to leave. Roland owed so much to Olivier, and he never could see it. It made her wonder what it would be like when she was Roland’s wife.

She let out a long breath and tried to get a better look around the room for clues to the bishop’s whereabouts.

It was rare that Aude left the tent without Turpin, but when she glanced out the tent flap and noticed the soldiers tearing down and preparing for the next day’s march, she couldn’t help but take a look for herself. Immediately she was taken by just how dirty everything and everyone was. Having spent the majority of her life at court in Vienne, and until recently at Aachen, she was used to an existence that demanded a certain level of cleanliness. Clothing was spotless, faces were clean, manners were polished. Expressions were guarded and conversation was highly regulated.

But here, the men were not just dirty, but scarred and wounded. Their horses were scarred and wounded. They were loud, they spoke in Latin and all dialects of Frankish, and swore in even more tongues.

It was an exhilarating, terrifying world, especially without the guidance of Turpin.

“You’ll give yourself away if you gape at them,” came the bishop’s voice from behind Aude. He smelled of stale ale, and something fouler.

“Roland and my… and Olivier were looking for you,” Aude said under her breath. “They came in on me.”

“Beyond rude,” Turpin replied. He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his robe, then spat.

“If Olivier had seen me —”

“Your ruse would have been up. Smile, princess, and don’t look so dour. We’re due in Hispania in but a week’s time. And then you may enact whatever plan you’ve devised to dissuade your brother from fighting the giant. You do have a plan, do you not?”

Aude frowned and said nothing.

Turpin said, “Well, then go prepare the asses. We’ve a long road ahead. Use the time to think well upon your plan, so I can be free of my oath to you, you treacherous little mouse.”

* * *

The smooth green fields and woods of Burgundy grew steeper faster than Aude could believe. With the sea to the west, it had felt like an endless stretch of emerald, with breezy fields and farms. But within a day, mountains appeared to the south, great and jagged and dark against the horizon.

Turpin indicated that beyond those mountains was Hispania. But before they could reach it, they had to move through the treacherous mountains, not knowing when or where Balan’s forces would meet them.

Aude had imagined the meeting would be a great clashing of swords. She expected at any moment that out of the hills would pour a host of screaming pagans, eyes wide and faces covered with hideous markings. Such were the stories she had heard at court.

So it was with surprise that she heard there was not only a messenger from Balan within the camp, but that he was drinking with Roland and Olivier as they spoke of their plans for the next night. Turpin was hesitant to bring her along when he was summoned, but she insisted, pressing the point that she needed all the intelligence she could gather before confronting her brother.

It was stranger still when the messenger from Balan was not only a woman, but also his daughter, the princess Floripas. Aude imagined she would look much like the rest of the women she knew at court, but was shocked to see the tall, short-haired figure dressed fully in mail. The mail was narrower than a man’s armor, but it would have been difficult to deduce she was a woman by that alone. Only her face and the jewels at her ears gave her away.

The twelve peers greeted Floripas as if she were one of their own, embracing her and kissing her cheeks, even though she wore the colors of her pagan father and her surcoat was embroidered with idolatrous symbols.

“What news does Balan send us, then?” asked Roland, once they had all gathered in the king’s tent. Even though Charlemagne had not yet arrived — he was lagging two days behind his troops — it still felt a great sin to Aude to entertain a woman in his majesty’s quarters, and a pagan at that.

For the moment, Roland held the highest place around the table, and Olivier sat to his right, with Turpin on his left. Beside Olivier was Floripas, and Aude sat back behind the bishop, given simple gruel to eat from a wooden bowl. The other knights who joined them had better seats and a better supper, but it was just as well, because Aude still had a good ear to the conversation at the head of the table.

“My father, King Balan,” Floripas said, her voice tinged with only the slightest accent, “is well. But confident. He has a new regime around him, the one I wrote you about.”

“The yellow monks, you said,” Olivier replied. “The ones from the East.”

“I’m not convinced they are from the East,” Floripas said. “It seemed a little too convenient, especially considering father’s connection to Persia. But the more I’ve delved, the less I trust them. My father is enraptured by their words and promises, and Fierabras…”

“The giant,” Olivier said.

Aude felt her heart in her throat and she shoved down another mouthful of gruel. It had burned in the cauldron but the acrid taste distracted her from her fear.

Floripas frowned and shook her head. “My brother was a fosterling. He was raised in the house of my uncle Monar, a duke of some wealth and standing in the Cordova. I haven’t seen him directly, but we exchange letters, and I have heard the tales.”

“Olivier will best him, I have no doubt,” Turpin said, shoving a large chunk of venison into his mouth. It dribbled down one side of his face and into his bushy beard. “Giant or no.”

“Some things can be worse than giants,” said Floripas. “I shouldn’t be saying as much, and really it is only because of my love and affection for Gui…” She gazed down the table to where Sir Gui of Bourgogne, her paramour, sat with eyes burning with adoration. Theirs was a star-crossed love, indeed. “But the last correspondence I had with my brother Fierabras, he was frightened. He is but a boy, really, but he is intelligent, logical. He spoke of the yellow monks, of their strange hold on him, their rituals. Like you Christians, we are a god-fearing people, and the way he sounded…”

“Surely no monk could frighten a giant,” said Roland, his tone dismissive and unimpressed, as it so often was among those he deemed beneath him.

“But that’s the thing of it,” Floripas said. “My brother was not born a giant. He is cursed, and it is a dark, strange magic. I know the yellow monks are somehow involved. I am ordered to come to you here and throw down our challenge. The danger is greater than you or I can even understand.”

That night, Turpin was late again to the tent. Aude was waiting up for him, as she usually did, reading her psalter and doing her best to open herself to the Heavenly Mother’s understanding.

“Do you believe the Queen of Heaven can abandon us?” Aude asked Turpin, as he ruffled around in his bedroll for something. A bottle, most likely.

The bishop snorted. “That presumes that she gives a shit about us in the first place.”

Aude stared at him, unable to form any cohesive response. “I mean… when I left court. When I bribed you. I felt as if the Queen of Heaven had given me a gift, for once. She had not done so when Charlemagne took Vienne, nor when Roland took my brother. I expected the way to be… clearer.”

“You could talk to your brother, Aude,” Turpin said. He found his bottle, and sampling its contents, belched. “Isn’t that what you came here for? To get time with him alone? To convince him to let Roland do it instead?”

“I thought the Queen of Heaven would give me a sign. But being here, seeing all this… ”

“I warned you, Aude, did I not?”

“How is your lie worse than all these lies?” asked Aude.

“Because God has cursed me beyond those stinking men out there. He has found it fit to burden me with a need for blood, just as He has cursed me with my desires,” Turpin spat. Then he buried his head in his hands. “I can no more stop fighting than I can stop loving him, Aude. And since I cannot, I am yoked to this. This! You and your skulking have put me here in a position subservient to a woman. A woman so ugly she can pass for a scrawny boy — a woman so meek and mild, she can’t formulate a damned plan to speak with her damned brother after being given nothing but time for a fortnight!”

He had never shouted at her so, and Aude shrank back into the corner. When she had confronted Turpin about his affair with Maugris, the enchanter, he had been aloof and surprisingly even-tempered, only taking a little coaxing to allow her to accompany him to Balan’s lands. But now she could see what he had been hiding beneath all along.

* * *

Either the bishop did not remember the harsh words he’d paid her the night before, or he pretended the same, for the next morning it was as if nothing had transpired between them. After they had washed and prepared for the day, Turpin indicated that they were expected to ride along the perimeter and survey the sparring ring for the next day, when Olivier would fight against Fierabras.

Reluctantly, Aude saddled her donkey and took up behind Turpin. Roland was at the front, addressing everyone in his strong, high voice, while the rest of the peers took up their ranks. Floripas had left at some point in the night, and Aude tried not to think what might have caused Gui to smile so broadly in spite of the austere news and impending doom of their beloved Olivier. She blushed in spite of herself, though.

The scarlet tents of Balan’s army were visible even without much in the way of travel. They had taken up on the opposite bank of the Deva River, their neat tents more square than the rounder sort favored by Charlemagne and his paladins. Aude thought they looked like blood streaking across the foothills.

“You don’t speak much,” said a familiar voice behind her. It was her brother, Olivier, resplendent in his armor and smiling in the cool morning air.

Aude glanced up at him, just out of the corner of her cowl. “No, sir.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m glad that Turpin has someone to watch out for him. Though I daresay you probably didn’t get what you signed up for,” Olivier said with a laugh.

That laugh. It took her a great deal of resolve to focus on the task at hand and not reveal herself to him.

“You’re not afraid?” she asked him, keeping her voice as low as possible. “About tomorrow?”

Olivier glanced behind him, and then looked forward, his shoulders falling. Aude knew what that meant. He was indeed afraid, but he had no desire to admit such shameful thoughts.

“I will do what my king requests of me,” he said at last. “Good day to you, Milo. And thank you again for your service to Turpin. I hope I see you back at court when we are all better rested and once again in the world of sense.”

* * *

Turpin did not return the next night, and after two hours of unanswered prayers Aude rose to leave the tent and look at the stars. She was cold and afraid, and the words of Floripas lingered with her. She envisioned little yellow monks hoisting bloody spears, goading forward a giant that was not always a giant.

It was unusually still in the camp. Most nights the ribaldry was palpable in the air. But perhaps now that the paladins and warriors had reached their goal, they were simply preparing in ways she could not imagine. There would be a great battle of brawn on the morn, a champion on each side of the Deva River, and only one could be victorious.

The thought of her brother dying made her cut short her muttering prayers. She rifled through Turpin’s things nervously, hoping he wouldn’t return drunk and irate, and then she finally came across what she was looking for: a small box filled with clay bottles. Poison. Turpin claimed it was a coward’s weapon, and that he only used it to coat the mace he fought with. But Aude knew if she was going to kill someone, she couldn’t do it with steel.

She took a small vessel with a mushroom pressed into the clay and tucked it into the folds of her habit before stealing out into the night.

Aude walked silently through the shadows, toward Olivier’s tent. She wanted one last look at him before she committed to this madness. She pressed her eye to the gap in the flap of his tent… and gasped.

Her brother sprawled across the bare chest of a tall woman. It was a tableau she never could have imagined. But there Olivier was, naked to the skin, one hand still curled around the woman’s ample breast. His lashes were dark against his cheeks, and there was much more hair upon him than the last time Aude had seen him out of his armor. The dying embers of the brazier lit their skin every now and again, but they slept in the sated way of lovers… or so she supposed.

Part of her was glad that her brother was not the saint she imagined him to be. It had been a year since Charlemagne’s invasion of Vienne, and a long while since the siblings had had time to speak to each other of their loves and desires. Roland always needed Olivier more than she did, it seemed.

It was not without tears that Aude pulled herself away from her brother’s tent and began the slow progress in the dark toward the Saracen camp, knowing her only chance was to confront the giant. His tent would be easy to locate, since it was apparently the largest of all, and it would not take her long to ford the river and then blend in among their people. She kept as quiet as a ghost, and no sentry nor hound detected her presence as she approached.

Men moved about between the tents, singing and talking in a strange language she could not recognize. But she couldn’t spend all her time dawdling and wondering after their speech. The sun would be rising soon enough, and her brother’s fate was still in her hands.

Aude made steady progress, winding her way through the camp. Unlike the haphazard layout on the other side of the river, the Saracen camp had a precise grid plan, with each of their square structures placed in neat rows of nine. The result was long alleyways between the tents, which helped Aude considerably in navigating her way without drawing attention. Moving fast, she used the shadows to her advantage, crouching and glancing around corners before proceeding.

Fierabras’s tent was taller than the rest, but it was guarded at the front by two yellow-robed monks, their heads down. Aude doubted she could get past them without causing a commotion.

She felt around the side of the tent for any weaknesses in the canvas, and found a loose lace. Swallowing her fear, Aude pulled the fabric open just enough to see inside.

The tent was dimly lit, but empty. No giant. Not even giant-sized furniture or clothing or armor. The room was decorated in a foreign fashion, to be certain, but there was nothing gargantuan about it.

Relief flooded her body, and she almost collapsed in tears. It was all a ruse, and she would not have to endure the loss of her brother.

That hope evaporated, though, when she felt a hand clamp over her mouth and the pressure of a knife at her back.

“Be silent,” said a harsh whisper in her ear, in accented Latin, “and they won’t kill you.”

Aude didn’t have time to realize just how curious that statement was until she was pulled into another tent, two rows over, and turned around. She found herself staring at a young man, perhaps no older than her thirteen years. He would be handsome someday, perhaps, but he was mostly teeth and tousled hair. There was a familiar look to his face though, especially about the cheeks.

In the struggle, her hood had fallen off. She had cut her hair to her shoulders and tied it back, but not gone so far as to tonsure herself. While Turpin may have found her far from feminine, the look in the young boy’s eyes gave her reason to doubt she had convinced him.

“You’re not a monk,” he said, and he sounded disappointed. Then he grimaced. “You’re… you’re a girl.”

She got a better look at him and at last she could place his face. Floripas. This must be her brother, Fierabras. “Well, you’re no giant,” she said, summoning all her strength to get the words out. She was still shaking.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Fierabras said, folding his arms across his chest like a petulant child.

“Perhaps not,” said Aude. “Little does, these days.”

“They told me you’d be skulking around. The yellow monks. But… you’re not what you’re supposed to be. What, the Franks are so starved for clergy they’re allowing women in?”

“No, I came here disguised.”

“It’s not a very good disguise.”

“No, I suppose not. But I had a good accomplice. Mostly,” Aude said. “I escaped Aachen in order to keep an eye on my brother. You might know his name.”

Fierabras did not miss a mark. “You’re Aude of Vienne, then. Roland’s betrothed.”

He even said her name correctly, switching for a moment to Frankish.

She nodded.

The recognition of her status changed him utterly, and he took a deep breath, shaking his shaggy head. The more Aude looked upon him, the more tired he appeared. The dim light of the tent cast even deeper shadows on his face, perhaps, but there was a weariness there far beyond his years.

“And you’re Fierabras. The giant,” Aude said.

“Not right now, I’m not,” Fierabras said.

“What do you mean by that?”

He produced a wooden stool and she sat.

Fierabras sat on another stool and took her hands in his, and to her surprise Aude did not recoil. His fingers were warm, slightly callused. He wore two rings, both elegantly wrought and worked in gold. Tired though he was, he must be just as frightened as she.

“They worship a god… a strange god. These yellow priests, the ones that guard my father Balan. Their deity has no name, or else they tell us his name cannot be spoken. My father has been utterly bewitched by them.”

“But what has this got to do with you?” Aude asked. Her stomach felt slightly queasy, and she was having a hard time concentrating on his eyes without blushing.

“The yellow priests, they make me change in here. The great tent is a decoy, so if assassins come in the night they find it empty of the monster,” he said. “They keep me in here and make me use that.” He pointed to a leaden box by the door. “Once the sun rises, I cannot exit the tent until I am changed. There is a scepter in there, topped with an ancient paw from some beast of old. I do not know. They say I am the right age. The child of a king, and… virgin. And when I take the scepter, I change, become the monster. I am lost to rage and a dark fury, as if I can see into the eye of all creation and it’s just a black, roiling void of chaos.”

“And your father approves of this torture?”

“I assume so, but I do not know. I haven’t seen him in months. Floripas thinks he may be ill, or ailing, but the priests keep him from us. Do you know how many men I’ve killed?” Fierabras’s eyes filled with tears.

“I’m sorry. I want to help. I do not want my brother to number among your casualties.”

“What could you possibly do?” asked Fierabras.

“The Queen of Heaven came to me in a dream,” Aude said, feeling the story spill out of her before she could stop it. “I was so afraid when I heard that Olivier was going to fight you, but She spoke to me so loudly and so clearly — She told me I was to find a way to convince Turpin to take me, and I did. She said I would find the heart of the poison, and I thought that was quite literal, but now I see it’s you. You are at the heart of this poison.”

“I cannot abide by your gods,” Fierabras said.

“But where have yours led you? To these priests who corrupt your body and turn you murderous?”

The young man shook his head, letting go of Aude’s hands. “I want to be free of this.”

“I think I know how I can help,” she said.

“What do you mean?” he asked. “I am trapped here.”

“Stand up.”

Fierabras did as she asked, and they stood eye to eye. Aude untied the rough monk’s habit she had worn for weeks, and let it fall to the ground. She revealed to Fierabras her naked body, thin and weak as it was, and not yet made into that of a woman. Turpin was right. She looked like a boy.

Outside, the sound of soldiers mustering could be heard. Aude noticed the light in the tent brightening ever so slightly. The sun would rise soon.

“My father was Bertrand de Vienne, a king. I never met him, but was raised by my uncle Girart at court. Charlemagne fought for seven years against Girart, until they were reconciled and joined together,” Aude said in a clear voice. The heat of her blushing turned her skin red, but in the gloom of the tent it was unlikely Fierabras could see. “I am a child of a king, and I am pure. I can take the scepter in the morning, and you can escape to our camp in the confusion, dressed as a monk. Find Bishop Turpin, and give him this.” She took the ring of betrothal from her finger and gave it to Fierabras, who accepted it with trembling hands.

“But what if they find you out?” asked Fierabras. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“I am asking for the only chance I can find to save my brother, the path my Queen of Heaven has placed before me.”

Aude put her hands on either side of Fierabras’s face, and felt his tears stream over her fingers. Then he kissed her gently on the forehead and took off his own rings to give to her.

“I will meet you back at the Frankish camp when this is all over.”

“Aude… ”

From outside the tent they heard someone address the prince.

“Go, before they find both of us in here.”

Then he said, “I’m so sorry.”

Aude trembled as she watched Fierabras dress in the monk’s habit and then slip out the back, glancing one more time at her before vanishing.

Horns sounded in the distance. Olivier’s horn. There was just one more thing to do.

* * *

The scepter was smaller than she had imagined, barely the length of her forearm, and encased in a coffin-like leaden container. The rod was made of a dark metal, the sides rough, as if it had been scraped into being from a larger piece of ore. Upon the end was, as Fierabras had said, a shriveled hand. More like a claw.

A voice at the door commanded something in a language Aude didn’t understand, and in her fear she reached out and grasped the scepter. As she did, it grasped her back.

Aude had expected a sensation of growing, but it was far from that. The little talons of the scepter dug deep into her hand, piercing through skin and wiggling in between her bones. The pain traveled up her arms like liquid ice in her veins, stopping just short of her heart.

Then she was ripped in half. Part of her swelled and grew and filled with fury, she could sense that on the edge of her mind, almost as if her being had transformed into a second melody to the song of her soul. But there was no true consciousness there, just an awareness of its rage and fury. The giant.

Her mind, her self as she knew it, was pulled down into a separate plane of existence. This raw, black world smelled of loam and mold — the roiling chaos that Fierabras spoke of with such fear. If she concentrated hard enough, she could see through the mist a gathering of shadows, the one that was now her body and the approaching army of the Franks. And Olivier, too. His sword, Hauteclere, glittered brightest of all. For only a moment, though, before the blackness thickened.

* * *

Olivier had not been prepared for such a sight, in spite of Floripas’s warning. Upon seeing the giant, he wished that Roland had been selected for this task, and then hated himself for such a thought. Roland had the stomach for this sort of thing, for these hulking beasts and horrors out of Revelation.

A giant it was, surrounded by yellow-accoutered monks, all humming in a low chant. It rose close to twelve feet high, with sloping shoulders covered in boil-covered skin, pock-marked, and the color of curdled milk. From its mouth emitted an unholy stench; Olivier found his eyes watering through his visor. Sulfur, perhaps. This giant who was once Fierabras had but one eye, black and pupil-less, and Olivier could never tell where it was looking. He suspected that it got on better by scent than by sight, anyway, the way it sniffed the air with its huge muzzle, somewhat more like a pig’s snout than a man’s face. Coarse brown hair covered its body, across its oddly sunken chest and down its vast, muscle-corded arms. For all its mass, it still moved with surprising agility.

Olivier was not a born warrior; unlike Roland, who was at his happiest when he was hilt-deep in a Saracen. For Olivier, fighting required intense focus. Every step he had to think. And he had never been faced with such an adversary, let alone one ringed by nefarious, pagan priests. The more they chanted, the more difficult it was for Olivier to concentrate.

* * *

Olivier. She could sense him now. Even brighter than Hauteclere. Because she was hurting him — or the beast her body had become was — and he was hurting her. With every blow, the blackness in which she found herself shuddered, and for a moment she could see through.

It would pass. It would have to pass. She had to find the source of the rage, and save Olivier. She could already smell his blood.

Aude was fumbling through her mind in the roiling darkness when she sensed someone else. One of the yellow monks. He materialized before her like a candle in the shadowed void. Part of Aude knew that such brightness ought to be a relief, but though it was golden yellow, there was an off-ness to its hue that made her afraid. It was more frightening than the darkness.

“You are not the prince,” said the yellow monk, though the voice was in her head. “How dare you interrupt the ritual.”

“Where are we?” she asked.

“In the eye of the beast. A world within a world. How came you to this mystery?” he asked.

Aude knew the monk’s presence meant danger, but it also meant something else: an ebb and flow. She was not trapped as she had imagined. If they had both entered the eye of the giant, as he said, she could escape it. She could travel.

“I came here of my own volition,” she said. “I am here to save my brother.”

“Your brother is nothing but vermin to the Nameless,” said the yellow monk.

“But the Queen of Heaven has sent me, and given me purpose,” Aude said.

In that moment she conjured up the image of the Queen of Heaven as she had always imagined her. Not the mild mother to Christ, but the reigning and rightful queen, the bride of God Himself. Terrible and bright, her eyes kindled with holy fire and her hair streaming behind her, a great crown on her head made of the firmament. Part of Aude understood in that moment that She was greater than any mortal could comprehend, that She was older and more powerful and more terrifying. That all of Aude’s own prayers had gone deeper and farther than she had ever imagined.

The churning darkness around her seemed closer to that version of the Queen of Heaven, the one she was understanding now for the first time.

“I see,” said the yellow monk, and then he dissipated.

Where he stood was a patch of light. Aude, what was left of her, followed it. As she moved, it moved. One step, another. The strange yellow light illuminated little as it bobbed ahead. But it was better than being trapped in the dark.

* * *

There was blood in his eyes. Olivier lost track of time, of his many parries and blows, of how many times he had fallen. But the beast, this giant named Fierabras, did not relent. He could wound it, draw its blood, but only water came out of its wounds. And that fetid stench. And sorrow and blackness. There were others watching — Charlemagne himself had arrived, eager for the spectacle, and Roland besides, and Turpin and the other peers — but where?

* * *

Aude came upon two figures then, in this world between worlds. One had the form of a woman, but in her face shone a thousand eyes, and from her swollen belly grew a thousand legs; a baby goat suckled at her breast. The other was a king, ensconced in a pillar of yellow flame. Behind him there was more to behold, tendrils reaching out like the arms of a starfish, hungry and wanting.

“You have come into his domain, child,” the woman with a thousand eyes said.

Aude heard her voice and remembered it. The Heavenly Mother. Her Queen of Heaven.

“I followed your path,” Aude said, her voice no more than thought in the void.

The flaming king flickered and expanded, then retreated again to the same size as the woman. “You have interrupted.”

“I saved a boy who was afraid,” Aude said. “I am here to help my brother.”

Fear was no longer something she was capable of, her body still transformed and infused with rage. She held onto that rage, even through the dark void between her soul and her flesh. She could smell the blood, her brother’s blood.

“Death is coming on the wings of war,” said the crowned pillar of fire. “You may spare the life of your brother, but it does not come without a price.”

* * *

The monster’s blow came so fast — so unpredictable and wild — that Olivier did not have time to react. And he was too tired, even if he had wanted to make a show of it. How did Roland manage this, day in, day out, always pitted against the greatest and the grandest warriors?

Olivier felt certain that his name would not be remembered in any song, an unremarkable warrior beaten to a bloody pulp, while fat, jaundiced king Balan looked on and Charlemagne grunted in disgust into his beard.

He struck the ground and was lost.

* * *

Aude gasped to see the figure of her brother appear, floating before the yellow figure in the fire. The king had no face, but he was smiling.

“I will spare him, but you must give me a boon,” he said.

The Queen of Heaven agreed, though she said no words.

“I will do anything,” Aude said.

In this darkened realm, Aude saw the dripping blood on her brother’s brow, sensed the pain. But the rage did not go away. The beast on the other side of her mind was closing in to destroy this brilliant man, at all costs.

“You are bound to the man Roland,” said the burning king, as if discovering a great secret. “You are promised to him. Pledge your bond to me, and link your life to his, and I will give you power over the beast.”

“And I will take you, when the time comes,” said the Queen of Heaven. “And you will rise at my side, a suckling child among the thousand eyes.”

Aude hesitated. Roland was the greatest of all the peers, but he was forever in the path of death. Such a pact would tie her forever to his fate. And the heaven she imagined… Well, none of that was worth it if Olivier lay dead by her hand.

She would be consigned to a fate of madness, of eternal vigilance. Olivier would live.

“What must I do?” asked Aude.

The Queen of Heaven turned her eyes upward. “You need only to say the words. You know them. You have always known them.”

The vision of Olivier intensified, and Aude saw his eyes see her and know her. But he was looking up into the face of the giant, and that was madness.

* * *

The beast stopped mid-blow and Olivier fled back from the dream of doom. Above him the beast fell back, raising its shaggy head to the skies. It said something incomprehensible, and seemed to gasp and cry, and then: “I relent! I give myself to the Heavenly Mother, and bind myself and my betrothed to the Nameless. I relent.”

Then it fell.

* * *

Aude awoke to the familiar sound of Turpin clearing his throat. She reached up, and he grabbed her hand.

“I saw her. I saw the Queen of Heaven,” said Aude.

“You need to sleep.”

Aude was changed. There was another thing inside of her. A promise that burned like acid. That would be there until it was released when, upon the field at Roncevaux, Roland would be cleaved into two. She saw it. She knew it.

“Your brother would like to see you,” Turpin said.

“Does he know?”

“Yes, Fierabras told me. We managed to spirit away… the creature… you… your… whatever it was.” He was sweating more than usual. His voice sounded broken, afraid.

“Then he is safe. Good,” said Aude.

“Balan’s forces retreated as soon as the giant fell, but his son and daughter are among us now. Fierabras says he has been healed of the affliction, the yellow priests have vanished, and he has dedicated himself to the Mother of God and Christ Almighty.”

Her body was once again her own. Bruised and tattered, her skin felt boiled. But it was still hers. “The scepter?”

“Fierabras has kept it. He says it no longer works.”

“You knew?”

“I suspected. I have made my blood oaths too, Aude.”

Every breath burned, but it was her own pain. Her own lungs. The promise she had given still seared at her, but she suspected in time she would become accustomed to it.

Aude looked up at the ceiling, admiring the bright paint. Her old room. The room she had left as a meek child. Now she was not only a woman, but also a changed creature. Forever bound to Roland in a way he would not understand.

“Aude… what happened?”

“I told you. The Queen of Heaven saved me, and I saved my brother. And you saved me too. Go home. Take Maugris in your arms and tell him you love him, and forget about me.”

“Aude… ”

“Thank you, Turpin. I’d like to sleep now. For quite a while, I think.”

And she closed her eyes, opening them in her dreams to a thousand more.

The Living, Vengeant Stars

E. Catherine Tobler

Sleeping upon the ancient Camorian ice shelf with the northern winds ghosting down the mountains, Elspeth Ernine was warmer than she should have been, given the dark man enfolding her from behind. She tried to elbow him in the ribs, but he didn’t have ribs. He had a mouth, a terrible gaping hole, and he pressed it against her ear as the others in the party slept undisturbed.

Soon, he whispered, and Elspeth shifted away from the voice even as he wormed closer, darkness made damp and corporeal. Within a fraying dream, he showed Elspeth the next place he meant for them to go, a temple shattered into and across a river churning with gelatinous masses of entrails and eyes. The stench of the place enveloped her as the dark man did.

Had killing the invisible horror of S’tya-Yg’Nalle not been enough? Never enough, the dark man said, and Elspeth understood the enormity of what he wanted of them; saw in the far distance the colossal, tentacled beast slumbering beneath green waters, bound to the prison stones with chains as thick as tree trunks. This was the goal. These others paved the way, weakened the Great One as he slept unknowing. Why should I serve any longer? the dark man rasped.

Elspeth flinched at the touch of the dark man’s not-hands on her arm, and shifted in her roll, to come face to almost-face with him. From her side she drew Feymal, the blade said to have issued from the unknowable depths of Holy Wood, seemingly wrought for her hand alone. She pressed its lustrous edge against whatever darkness served as his throat. They needed no words — touching was forbidden him. She would fight for him, because alone she could not overcome the horrors of Lowenhold Prison, the place that bound her sister. She would go for her and her alone, slaying whatever horror she must to get there.

In a dissipating cloud of ink, he withdrew from one world and into another. Elspeth’s gray eyes flicked open to regard the cold, flat sky above. Snow blew down, soft flakes that would never amount to much more than a slippery layer of challenge to the morning’s journey. She had no desire to leave the warmth of her sleeping roll, but watched as Beryl Ghostsign did, feeding the meager breakfast fire.

“Have you dreamed?” Ghostsign asked.

“I dreamed.” Elspeth withdrew the crumpled scroll from her leather bodice. She pushed herself up on her elbows, to spread the map before her. As had happened before, the route they were to take had been marked by her dreaming self, showing a path across the ice shelf.

“The River Tayl,” she said.

Ghostsign exhaled her complaint into the chill morning air; Elspeth silently shared the sentiment. The river might be in a warmer region, but was known for its swamps and insect-laden air. Ghostsign shoved the remains of their leaf-wrapped rabbit into the coals and rocked back on her heels.

“It must be done.”

Elspeth watched her gather her gear, their three other companions beginning to stir from their sleeping rolls. They had been a much larger party not long ago, but monster by monster, they had lost members. Elspeth could not help thinking they had been culled, winnowed from an awkward bunch of primarily fighters to a select group of women who were masters of their crafts. Had the dark man planned it this way?

The others knew of him — he had appeared to them all in the tavern a fortnight earlier, promising wealth and adventure if they took up his quest. The quest was death, plain and simple, and though the women had not known each other beforehand, they had grown to like each other well enough. Each was something to behold, possessing battle techniques Elspeth had not encountered prior to this adventure. She longed to know each woman better, but this was absurd. If they were all to die, what was the point? Perhaps, she decided, that was the point — to know their ways before they were lost to the world. To preserve and keep what they knew, to see some part of them carried into the inscrutable future.

Elspeth knew she could not be alone in having a secondary reason for making the arduous journey — people were rarely so single-faceted, and this kept her vigilant; any could turn for reasons none knew. They knew not of her sister, and Elspeth wondered whether they would think her judgment compromised if they knew she sought a treasure other than gold. But a person who wanted wealth or power? Such a person could never be trusted; Elspeth learned that the day her parents sold her.

Winseris, their keen-eyed archer, rose from her sleep, barely rumpled from the hours spent abed. She dragged her fingers through her long fall of black hair, her face porcelain-pale in the cold morning. The cold did not disagree with her, Elspeth thinking her some great winter queen of old.

“You dreamed?”

Her black eyes rested upon Elspeth and Elspeth nodded. Elspeth showed her the map, and Winseris sneered at the path, an expression strange and uncommon upon her queenly features.

“And what horror shall we find there?”

Of the monster they sought, Elspeth knew little. “I saw only fragments, a black figure in the swamp, hundreds and hundreds of bodies writhing in the mud.” As she spoke the words, sickness washed through her and she bent her head between her knees. Disturbing images assaulted her mind, as if once she had thought on the thousand figures — the thousand young — she could not put them aside. They were hideous, bent and struggling to rise, pushing themselves from the mud as if being born from it. Elspeth retched until Keelan Basher pushed a waterskin into her hands.

The dwarf was perhaps the kindest of those left, but there was something of her Elspeth could not quite fathom. For no reason Elspeth could discern, the dwarf held herself back in battle — dwarves were said to be fierce, and Basher was, but there was something she had not quite given herself over to, something yet beneath the surface.

Elspeth drank until her thoughts and stomach calmed. She pushed the horror out of her mind, focusing on chewing her paltry share of the rabbit Ghostsign had warmed for them. Nanrin, who could summon the strangest things from the earth, gathered the last of their campfire into a conjured jar of rippled glass. Elspeth thought it should have smothered out in the jar, but it burned bright and warm, guiding them as they crossed the ice shelf, heading for the tundra just beyond.

The ice shelf was a place Elspeth would not soon forget, and not only for the beasts they had encountered and the god they had slain. She loved to journey, and the barren land was breathtaking, no trees to spoil the even line of the white horizon, only deeply blue and plunging cracks to show any change in the ground ahead of them. The crossing was slow, and when they reached the shelf’s jagged edge it became slower still. Their descent took the better part of a day, twilight coating the sky and fresh snow spitting down from meager clouds, deepening the chill that clung to the ice shelf. It loomed behind them yet, strange and pale as the moon rose in the sky. The moon was as pale as ice itself, its light throwing all into harsh lines. Elspeth wanted to make camp, but saw in the near distance the first tangle of trees that gave away the River Tayl. It was said to be the longest river in all the world, and the foulest.

In the moonlight the trees resembled men hunched to the ground; they called to mind the misshapen form of the dark man, scrabbling for things he could never hold, even as riches spilled from his fingers. He had too many hands and so did the trees. Elspeth allowed herself a shudder as she looked at them, the other women striding past when she paused. She could not say yet where the shattered temple lay; only when an inky arm slithered past her and pointed — illuminating the part of the river cloaked in deepest shadow — did she know. She said nothing to her companions, only angled her steps where the dark man had indicated; one by one, the women altered their course to align with hers. The objections began.

“We are in no condition to face — ”

“ — should camp here and plan a way for — ”

“The fire begins to sputt — ”

“We face what comes,” Elspeth said. Only Basher had not complained, and Elspeth looked at the dwarf. The smaller woman’s face was split by a fierce grin.

“Tonight then, you shall give in? Whatever it may be, Keelan, I am here.” The dwarf’s smile deepened, and Elspeth nodded. “We shall not lose another tonight. We need all who remain.” She could not believe they might assault Lowenhold Prison with fewer than five; perhaps there would be a way, perhaps the prison would not be so daunting… she laughed softly at her own foolish hope.

“She begins to lose her nerve,” Ghostsign said.

“It is not that,” Elspeth said. “Only — ”

She stopped, eyes upon the wooded riverbank. She came to see they were not trees at all, but living, breathing creatures. They were black and rough, twisted as live oaks would be, and perhaps the mud did anchor them, but there the resemblance ended. Each struggled to free itself from the swamp’s mud, but their limbs were new and weak. As wolf pups might, they snapped ugly mouths when their fellows swayed too close.

The wreck of the temple became visible as the horde of newborns parted. The old stone was coated in mud, looking as though it had been pushed from its foundations by the creatures’ struggle. Within the temple they would find it — her? Elspeth did not know, did not care. If slaying this thing brought them one step closer to the prison —

The thing, such as it was, emerged unbidden, uncalled. A thousand-thousand shrieking tentacles pushed out from the temple’s ruin, stones cracking like shells as the beast clawed its way out. It would have made even the ice shelf seem small, more and more body unfolding itself from the temple and spreading into the sky.

As the great creature reached into the silver moonlight, the young screeched their welcome. Their own tentacled limbs writhed like a field of grass in the wind; under the moon’s light the effect was dizzying, and Elspeth drew Feymal. She met the thousand-eyed gaze and called the beast by the name the dark man had woven into her dream.

“Shub-Niggurath!”

With a sound of thunder, Shub-Niggurath forced itself wholly free of the temple, stone avalanching down as the beast thrashed into the sky. The shrieking globe of it blocked out the moon, and where its tentacles didn’t end in mouths, they were barbed and dripping with rot from its long nesting beneath the river temple.

Elspeth raised Feymal and Shub-Niggurath laughed, a repulsive sound that poured its way into her ears as boiling oil. Elspeth believed her brain would be eaten from her skull, and dropped to her knees, even as Nanrin also fell. The jar of fire shattered and in the wet of the swamp the flames hissed out, leaving them in moonlight’s chill. Winseris let fly with arrows, and though the barbed and poisoned missiles plunged into countless fanged mouths, Shub-Niggurath’s laugh only deepened, as though these wounds did not carry pain or death.

Elspeth had no way to reach the floating beast, so high had it risen above the temple ruin, and so began where she could: on the ground, with its young. Feymal cut hungrily through the tender boughs. Everywhere a limb fell, blood coursed to deepen the ebon foulness of the river. The shrieking deaths of its young brought Shub-Niggurath from the sky.

It swept over the temple’s scattered stones and Elspeth charged to meet its hideous mass. She leaped sideways, from fallen stone to fallen stone, dodging the drooling, fanged mouths of Shub-Niggurath. When the first mouth caught her shoulder, hot and fetid, Elspeth reeled backward, slicing up and out with Feymal. The sword’s bright edge severed the tentacle, though the mouth clung yet to her flesh. A bright trail of sour blood arced upward against the night sky.

It was then that Elspeth saw Basher, charging the furious Shub-Niggurath, screaming “Iä! Iä! Iä!”

Basher launched herself into the insect-laced air as if born to the sky — not a dwarf at all, but a sleek, flying animal of the clouds, and so it became, as Elspeth watched the way the compact dwarf body changed, the way the body released what it had held. One form folded aside so the second, a glorious shadow dragon, could emerge. The ink-cloud dragon clawed itself into the sky with silver talons, obsidian wings unfurling behind. Basher’s tail whipped foul and forked into Shub-Niggurath.

But Shub-Niggurath would not go quietly; even spiraling down to earth, it lunged screaming for Basher, enveloping the dragon with its endless tentacles. Basher was swallowed, wings collapsing as if broken at the root, tail lashing the air, while Shub-Niggurath folded and consumed her. Elspeth’s wonder turned to horror, even as Winseris and Nanrin advanced, arrows and bright ropes of flame directed at the boundless creature. Ghostsign, too, leaped across fallen stones and severed tentacles, slashing any limbs within reach. It was the pattering rain of warm slop from the onslaught that got Elspeth moving. Feymal screamed its death song between Elspeth’s sanguine palms, ravenous for the tender curve of Shub-Niggurath’s belly. The blade cut and pulled, until the fiend was split down its center, surrendering itself and the bloodied wreck it had made of Basher.

Elspeth coiled a shaking arm under the dragon’s jaw, but could not haul her free, even as the others told her no, stop. She sank sobbing into the steaming viscera and prayed that Basher might yet breathe, but the dragon, the dwarf, hung dead in Elspeth’s arms, the ruin of the monstrosity streaming from Basher’s shadowed scales.

In the wake of Shub-Niggurath’s death, its young fell silent. Elspeth pushed away from the dead and stood dripping blood over the field of young; they were not dead.

“Burn them,” Elspeth told Nanrin. The witch conjured a fire from the depths of their fourfold grief, enough flame to enshroud the thousand young and burn them from the face of the world. The fire sparked on the greasy surface of the wretched river, sending a ribbon of flame north and south.

The scent of death still hung in the air as they marched south in a single, gore-drenched line along the still burning River Tayl. The dark man appeared beside Elspeth, and though she kept her eyes forward, she felt him, as oily and hot in her ear as Shub-Niggurath had been. She watched as he opened a portal in the world, cutting one place into another. Following the River Tayl, it would be a long walk to Khyber Bay, and an even longer walk to find a ship that might carry them — where? She thought the question, and he only laughed, barbarous and cold.

The portal — a gate? — shone like a collection of iridescent, globular coins, and none save Elspeth took note of it. One moment the party followed the burning river, with the cries of the dying young in their ears. The next, it was Holy Wood they approached, the ground cracked and desert-dry beneath their boots. Still dripping blood, Feymal trembled in Elspeth’s hand, as if it knew the land that had birthed it, and the sword sang to unleash horrors anew. Holy Wood — so named, though no tree marred the horizon as far as one could see — was said to be as distant from all things as the stars were distant from the world. Unreachable by any but the most faithful, the desert was home to a black pit where it was said the one true god did live.

Elspeth knew Holy Wood put them closer to the Dunegall Sea, from whose tossed blue-gray waves the dismay of Lowenhold Prison rose, ebon shards thrown from heavens that had never known starlight. In the dark of her mind, Elspeth felt the slither of waterlogged tentacles and saw the ratcheting open of an ancient eye, amber and upon her. She did not look away, only kept advancing until the atrocity bowed its head.

Before her Holy Wood yawned, black and vile, countless horrors crawling from its darkness. The star that fragmented itself into Lowenhold had landed here first, a fist in the dry earth, an immeasurable breach from which none had returned. The beasts had made the desert their plaything, shitting the dust to mud, lobbing handfuls of wet at one another. They were goblins and sprites, mischief and mayhem.

“There,” Ghostsign said, and leveled a finger at the largest of the creatures rampaging in the dirt.

A winged serpent slithered its way through the chaos toward her. Elspeth supposed she should have been in awe that these creatures existed, that they drew the same air she did, but she saw these beasts as she saw the dark man: only as a means to an end. The dark man cared for none of them; saw in them only the means to his ascendancy.

“Yig.” She growled the name. In its great arching wings, Elspeth saw only the wreck that had been made of Basher, and she charged with a fiendish scream. To her he was but a lock that, once removed, would see them closer to opening the prison gates. He was a thing to be cut open and bypassed, nothing more.

In her rage, Elspeth had no clear notion of where the other women were; they were vague impressions, arrows whispering past, flame and other spells brightening the dusty air, but her focus was the serpent. She danced in close, a sword’s length away from the beast.

Instead of taking to the air, the god-serpent used its wings to buffet Elspeth before she could strike. She was swept from her feet into the foul wet of the ground, where the snake fell upon her, lunging with his poison-fanged maw.

Elspeth drew the beast closer — wrapped her legs around its writhing length and plunged Feymal through its scaled, quivering belly. With one hard upward pull, she cut Yig from belly to jaw, coating herself in a warm shower of blood. The two halves of the serpent flailed in death’s final confusion, then collapsed on either side of her drenched body.

It should not have been so easy, Elspeth thought, and her heart hammered. She looked for the next assault, but heard only the distant shriek of that imprisoned aquatic monstrosity — as if it knew the locks were being undone. This cry echoed in her own bones so thoroughly, it was a surprise to feel a new blade against her throat, to look into the eyes of the archer Winseris and discover murderous intent.

Winseris had not changed so much as she had finally become herself — much as Basher before her. The regal costuming was discarded, Winseris’s black mouth overflowing with glassy, needled teeth running with blood. Elspeth pushed herself backward and away, nicking her throat on the blade, and scrabbling upon the hard, cracked ground as Winseris advanced.

Elspeth kicked a foot into Winseris’s chest, into her jaw, but the creature transformed under every assault. Winseris was as water, rushing past stones in its path, and if not around, then over. Elspeth could see nothing but crimson waves of changing flesh through which Winseris sank. Feymal struck, but did not strike true; everywhere Elspeth tried to counter, Winseris flowed in another direction. If she split around Feymal’s sharp bite, it was only to reassemble herself on the other side.

Gradually Elspeth became aware of the stark light of Holy Wood’s dust-clouded sky, visible through Winseris’s bloodied body. The sky was unveiled entirely, Nanrin standing at what had been Winseris’s feet, drawing her off Elspeth with hands cloaked in fresh blood. She fed their former ally into a conjured jar, the sides of which did not allow Winseris passage. Winseris pooled in the bottom as fanged and gnawing ichors, unable to escape. Nanrin sealed the jar with a spoken spell, Ghostsign lunging for the conjurer’s injured hands once she had finished. But it was another spell that eventually stopped the bleeding; Nanrin appeared to suck the blood back into her body, so quickly did her hands run clean.

Elspeth eyed Ghostsign and Nanrin, and they returned her stare. All was quiet, and Elspeth waited for them to turn on her, the way they no doubt waited for her to turn on them. Around them the dust swirled, the beasts having crawled back into the hole that was Holy Wood, and for long breaths none of the women moved. When Elspeth picked up Feymal from the dust, Ghostsign rocked forward on her knees, and Nanrin lifted her hands, though they shook with exhaustion.

Elspeth reached into the neck of her leather bodice to withdraw a sweat-soaked cloth. She wiped the sheen of blood from Feymal as she said, “You realize we have been betrayed?”

The breath seemed to go out of Ghostsign entirely, while Nanrin lowered her shaking hands. Elspeth let this idea sit with them as she cleaned her blade. The wind moaned low, lifting more dust, settling it, only to lift it once more.

“The dark man?” Nanrin asked. In her lap, within the jar, Winseris spun in furious circles, unable to escape. Nanrin slapped the glass side and Winseris sank into resigned stillness.

“Who else?” Ghostsign snapped, her expression as hard as Elspeth’s must be.

“Why would he place such a creature within our own party?” Nanrin objected. “He needs us to do his killing —”

“Does he.”

It was question and statement both, Elspeth confident she had the way of it now. “Who cut S’tya-Yg’Nalle from stem to stern?” she asked them. “Who rendered Shub-Niggurath into debris? Who decimated that vile serpent?” She pointed at the wreck of Yig only steps away from their present huddle.

“You?” Ghostsign spat the word, no question as to who she thought was the better fighter. “You think this is about y —”

Elspeth offered Feymal to Ghostsign, the other fighter sneering at the weapon balanced on Elspeth’s flat palm. “Take the blade.”

Ghostsign closed her hand around the grip, but rather than pluck it from Elspeth’s palm, found herself only able to knock the blade to the ground. It lay between them, a compass needle pointing toward the distant, churning sea. Elspeth looked at Nanrin.

“And you.”

Nanrin tried, but could not lift the blade. Magic made her hands glow, by turns hot and cold, but nothing she did would bring the weapon into her hands. It moved in the dirt, but little else.

“The riddle resolves within its name,” Elspeth said, wrapping her hand around Feymal’s hilt, lifting the blade as easily as she ever had since she had first found it in a heap of discarded weapons. “At the point of a bad death. It is about Feymal, said to have come from the very star that broke the world in this very place. And Lowenhold?”

“A prison made of those same star shards,” Ghostsign whispered. The hostility drained from her, but in its place rose despair. “Then we are of no consequence. Our abilities, in the end, are nothing.”

“And this dark man — he wants Feymal?” Nanrin asked.

Elspeth shook her head, a slight motion that sent dust swirling. “He cannot hold the blade. He wants what every man wants — power — and would wrest it from those who possess it.”

“And the treasure?” Ghostsign came to her feet, staring down at Elspeth and Nanrin, hands on her hips. “A lie?”

“How many have perished in this quest?” Elspeth stood alongside Ghostsign, studying the woman’s face. Her features were worn by sun and wind alike, by knife and fist and whip. The understanding was clear within Ghostsign’s eyes, Nanrin less quick to comprehend.

“What are you saying?” Nanrin clutched the jar to her chest, fanged and bloody Winseris rousing to flail at the glass once more.

“Treasure is of no consequence to the dead,” Elspeth said. Nor would a sister be, she knew, and ached for the loss of something she couldn’t fully explain. Was it truth or lie, that sister?

She turned, sliding Feymal into its scabbard. They had no choice but to follow her — they could die in this desolate place, or travel beside her to the underwater prison where the great slumbering god slept, where the dark man would ask that she kill it with the blade made of the stars.

The jar shattered on the ground.

Winseris flowed free and died in vicious flame.

One woman fell into step behind Elspeth, and then the other, and they walked away from Holy Wood as they had walked away from every other place the dark man had brought them to — in a single, bloodstained line, through a portal that swallowed them, that tasted and carried — and knew.

Elspeth felt the portal between this place and that as a living thing, a creature that knew what they were, what they meant, what they planned. The gate was old, older than even the stars that had birthed Feymal, and it reached without hands for the sheathed weapon — thinking to slip it from Elspeth’s side when it was not in her hand — thinking it could take, could... conquer? No, the gate knew it could not.

The gate —

— knew what had been —

— knew what would be —

The gate knew, and Elspeth curled her hand around Feymal’s grip. In that instant, the gate vomited them into the flooded lower chambers of Lowenhold Prison.

The air was cold as contempt, illuminated by the lingering gate. It shifted, no longer a doorway, but as great a beast as they had seen in the many worlds they had visited. Golden, malignant globs of light whirled in a storm of barely contained chaos. It did not advance, but stood as watchman, streaming its foul light into the drowned catacombs of the prison’s basement. The water gleamed with a slick sheen, while the star-stone caverns emitted all the colors of the night sky. Deeper within the stone sparked colors Elspeth could not name. The colors resembled planets in miniature, worlds she could scoop out and hold but never actually reach. As she watched these worlds, everything she had known about the outer world was blotted from her mind; the prison was the only thing she knew, the prison and its prisoner. No sister, she thought, there was never such a thing. The prison was all — the prison and its singular, solitary prisoner.

Ghostsign and Nanrin did not move, the water lapping at their hips. Every pathway angled further down, the water growing deeper against the tunnel walls. Elspeth wanted to call out for her sister — even as she knew there was no such person — and a bellow from within the prison’s bowels forestalled her. Every wall quaked with the roar, fissures marking the stone as though the ancient assembly would at last give way. The gate trembled as if with laughter.

“Did you dream this place?” Ghostsign whispered to Elspeth.

When had she not? She eased her grip on Feymal to unroll the scroll. Its aged face now showed the prison, a path mapped in gleaming gold. It snaked to the left, curving downward and around, leading them through the loops and whorls of star-stone that confined the great beast.

Say his name, the dark man rasped in Elspeth’s ear.

“He needs no courting,” Elspeth murmured, wading through the water and into the mouth of the first corridor, Feymal still sheathed. The dark man did not leave her side, as loyal as a hound as the trio moved ever downward. Since time immemorial, he whispered; now is my time, no messenger, me.

The gate also followed them, sending ripples of light down the corridor as the women advanced. They said nothing, Nanrin’s hands curled into tense fists, Ghostsign already having drawn her sword. Elspeth held only the map as they went down and down, feeling the weight of that ancient and amber eye upon her. He watched in his underwater prison, not asleep nor quite awake, and it was no surprise to her when, from beneath the prison walls and into the corridor burst great lengths of tentacles and suckered limbs. Not even this place could entirely restrict him, even in his dreaming.

The water bubbled and burst, fiercely green limbs striking the women to their knees. As neatly as the Great Old One took them down, he did nothing to maim them. Still Elspeth did not draw Feymal, but dived into the blackened waters, swimming through drowned corridors until she came to the massive chamber fashioned to hold this creature of the stars.

He was awful and beautiful all in the same instant, extraordinary and enraged, chained within a submerged star-stone cell. Eternities of thrashing monster had worn the outer stone walls thin, but still had not broken them. He strained at the chains holding him and loosed a fresh bellow at the sight of Elspeth pushing herself to her feet in the chest-deep waters of the entrance. She drew Feymal, and the massive god flinched. Feymal glowed with the light of the stars, inundating the chamber with a staggering brightness it had not known for eons.

Within this clear, clean light, Elspeth watched planets move through the walls, planets the god-beast might have once taken in hand and traveled to…

The idea of anything beyond this room was absurd, the prison the whole of the world, and Elspeth turned, seeking the dark man who had brought them here. What game did he play with these worlds, taunting the shackled god with worlds that did not exist. The prison was the whole of the world, the whole of the univ —

Say his name, the dark man hissed.

Elspeth said nothing; it was the imprisoned horror who shrieked a name within its dreaming, a name that clawed its fiery path into Elspeth’s heart: Nyarlathotep. Elspeth felt the power of that name.

“Nyarlathotep.”

She spoke the name three times, and as before, the name engulfed and pervaded Feymal. As though the sword had been given new purpose, it lunged and took Elspeth with it. But not toward the chained behemoth — it was Nyarlathotep that Feymal sought. Within her hands, Feymal was the living, vengeant stars, the thing the imprisoned god knew best, having been confined within the same star-stone for so very long.

Crafty as he was, Nyarlathotep could not outdance Feymal. There was no place to hide within the chamber, so brightly did the room glow with the light of every star that had ever been. And when, in the end, Feymal pierced Nyarlathotep’s battered form, it was a new sun’s heat and flying sand that coalesced around him; it was the sudden and swift prison of a far-distant pyramid — standing as proof that other places existed, that the prison was not the whole of the world.

“Not the whole of the world,” Elspeth said, as she sagged to her knees.

This fact remembered, it pervaded every bit of the chamber and the two figures it still held; the walls screamed with planets, comets, the naked universe spread before them for the taking. At the sight, the Great Old One rammed himself into the side of his cage and at last spilled free through cracked star-stone. He stretched in his freedom, and punched countless tentacles into countless planets.

And the gate — the knowing gate — spilled itself over him, through him, to carry him into the stars and away. Elspeth stared at the churning waters, the false memory of a sister creeping back into her thoughts. Later, when she had found a fire and a loaf of bread, she might allow herself to long for it — but not now, not as she searched every waterlogged chamber of the prison. Not as she found every room and corridor empty of even Ghostsign and Nanrin.

Had they existed at all? An unfamiliar ache engulfed Elspeth’s heart as though they had, but she could not say. Standing within the ancient chamber of star-stone, Elspeth recalled Basher spreading her wings across the sky, and so spread her own arms, reaching for the planets within the walls. Nine glowing orbs slid into her hand, as heavy and sure as Feymal in the other, and then —

how they loved to journey — this alone was truth

— they were gone, and the certain darkness claimed Lowenhold’s empty walls once more.

The Argonaut

Carlos Orsi

How I became a stowaway in the cargo hold of Beldur Reis’ corsair ship, sleeping on the old, rotting shelves once used to transport slaves, eating rats raw, and drinking rainwater that passed through cracks in the deck above, has no bearing on what follows. Suffice it to say that I was there when they attacked a Maltese vessel, which needs must remain nameless. The battle occurred at night, in the rain, by the blaze of torches and flashes of lightning. I don’t know why cunning old Captain Beldur decided to engage under such conditions. Perhaps he was compelled by what I found later.

The blasts, the clangs, the screams — all that I heard, as expected. I smelled smoke and gunpowder, scorched flesh and fresh blood, all the scents of battle any man with naval experience might anticipate. What I had not expected was what came after the fighting died down — silence. Deep, disturbing human silence. I could hear the rain pelting the deck. I even imagined I could listen to the spilt blood running, slowly mixing with raindrops in rivulets. I heard some small fires crackling.

But there were no voices. No cries or shouts or cheers, no songs, no roars. Not even footsteps. I waited, keeping myself awake all through the night. First, the rain stopped, and the thunder. Then the thin moonbeams that filtered through knotholes in the planks above started to fade, replaced by caustic, razor-sharp slivers of sunlight. It was time for breakfast, the first rat of the day, but I didn’t know what to do. There was no perceptible sign of human life on the deck over my head.

The ship started to heel. Ever so gently at first.

Beldur’s vessel had been a slave ship before circumstances forced the captain to become a corsair for the Pasha in Tripoli, so the upper shelf of the cargo hold where I hid was poorly insulated and leaky — human cargo has a higher tolerance for unwholesome humidity than spices and wine casks. And things trickled down, of course, so there was always one or two feet of black, stinking water pooled at the very bottom of the hold. Now, as the ship moved in the ominous silence of the morning, I heard its splash. It unnerved me, that small, dark pond. It seemed almost pregnant.

I climbed down from the old slaves’ compartment, dropping into the hold proper. I landed close to the pond, my unshod feet slipping on the slimy planks. From there I moved among the crates, peeking inside them to see assorted pieces of iron, silver, and bronze, exquisite pottery, jars of scented oil sealed with wax — one of them cracked, exhaling an enticing perfume — and a few smaller boxes containing jewels and gold. For a moment, the silence of the ship felt welcome — if everybody else was dead, everything here would be mine. The thought produced a taut smile, but the pleasure did not last. In my heart I knew that until I found myself free of the ship and whatever had befallen her, I was no better off than before, with but torn breeches and an ancient cutlass to my name.

I climbed the stairs out of the hold, quietly as I could, and took a deep breath. Maybe I should wait longer? A full day, perhaps two, before I risked exposing myself? Old Beldur knew me from long ago, and if he still lived, I was sure I would be even less welcome on his ship than a random stowaway. But the silence, insistent, stubborn, was too much to bear…

I opened the trapdoor, slowly at first, but what I saw made me throw caution to the four winds, and I jumped up onto the deck.

It was empty. And clean. I don’t know if the word “clean” conveys the whole truth. No, it obviously doesn’t. There wasn’t anything above the deck, on the deck, even lodged between the planks — no smirch of blood or oil caught in the wood. Nothing. The rough, dull planks had become polished, and ground as smooth as the lens of a spyglass. I could see a shadowy reflection of myself slither on the deck’s surface as I moved upon the strangely flattened, glazed boards. There was no one in sight, and no barrels nor baskets nor any of the other countless objects that clutter a working vessel, nor any part of the ship itself much above the height of a man — incredibly, the ropes, the sails, and even the masts themselves were all gone, leaving only short, planed stumps where they had stood. What bits of metal remained, like some cleats, were smoothed and sanded so finely that it was painful to look at them in broad daylight.

I went to the aftcastle, for unlike the masts, it remained. The cabin’s door was missing from its hinges and nowhere to be seen, and there was nothing inside the quarters. No maps. Not the captain’s table. Not even the captain’s bunk. The bulkheads had become wooden mirrors, weirdly reflecting and distorting my image, just like the deck. I recalled words quoted by some Christian I’d met years before —“things dimly seen, as in a glass, darkly”— and shuddered. The distortion made the image ripple and crimp. For a moment it seemed that there was someone else behind me. I turned quickly, but there was nobody.

Leaving the cabin, I finally directed my attention to the other ship — a massive, shadowy presence that loomed by our side. I recognized the design and the pennons. It was a vessel of the Knights Hospitaller of Malta, probably on its way to Spain. Grappling hooks kept both ships tied to one another. This explained the heeling, a movement that was getting more noticeable at every minute, despite the empty, becalmed sea.

The hooks and chains keeping the vessels moored together were highly polished, shining like sterling silver. There was not a soul in sight, but the Maltese ship still had its masts, sails, and ropes. Perhaps there were people there, too, despite the silence — always the silence, broken only by the creaking of the wood and the rustling of something I thought was the wind — but the air wasn’t moving.

Whatever force had cleansed the corsair’s deck had also removed the ropes and nets the pirates must have used to board the Maltese vessel, so I had no choice but to cross over by dangling from the thickest of the taut chains and pulling myself along, hand over hand. It was a nauseating experience, every link of the chain a burnished mirror that disfigured my reflection and lanced my eyes with shards of sunlight as I tried to keep my gaze off the dizzying drop to the sea below.

Having sails and masts, the other ship also had shadow and shade on its deck. It was only when I hauled myself over the rail and found myself cooling under a flapping sail that I noticed how the intense morning sun had stung me during my investigation of Beldur’s ship. It had been my first exposure after too many dark days in the slaves’ hold.

I also realized how thirsty I was. And hungry. These sudden, mundane concerns got the better of me, and I started scouting the vessel in search of food and fresh water, ignoring much of everything else: I hardly took notice of the corpses sprawled across the deck, the blood caked on every surface. Whatever strange event had cleansed Beldur’s ship hadn’t worked on this vessel of the Christian Knights of Saint John.

Stepping into the dim coolness of the aftcastle’s cabin, I discovered a jug of wine and a large bowl of grapes and pomegranates, most of them still fresh. The officers of the Order had lived well, I surmised, peering out the door at their hacked bodies… bodies that begin to stir as I drooled pomegranate juice and redder wine. As I gawped in the doorway, two of the mutilated corpses, for dead men they surely were, began to rise and move… shambling… walking…  away.

The unholy scene left me numb. It was as if an icy fist had closed over my entire body. For a moment I felt an absurd, trite relief that the pair of dead knights hadn’t come after me but instead moved away down the deck. Not for a moment did I doubt that they were dead. My stomach had clamped. I couldn’t eat any more, pomegranate seeds spilling from my slack mouth. There were more corpses on the deck, but as I watched them closely, they didn’t move.

Should I race for the chains and try to climb back to Beldur’s ship before I was seen? What if the dead men changed course and saw me? Or others began to move? Should I hide? Where? Questions flew like arrows through my mind, but my only palpable physical reaction was to draw my cutlass from my rope belt, gripping it so hard my knuckles went as white as the dead men’s flesh. When I heard a woman scream, I jumped.

At the far end of the deck, the revived knights, in their shredded black cassocks and ripped chain mail, were looming over a slight figure I hadn’t seen before… and as I watched the pair descend upon her, I heard the unmistakable wet thud of steel cleaving flesh.

Intent as they were on their quarry, the knights did not hear me approach. The tip of my cutlass slid into the back of the closest knight’s neck, gliding through a rip in his mail. There was no spurt of blood, but the head fell forward, now attached to the body by nothing more than leather-like skin and a strip of tendon. He collapsed.

I had a quick glimpse of the woman, white-skinned, bloodied, splayed on the deck, and then the other knight was right on top of me.

There was a grayish-green tint to his skin, and he moved with unnerving precision and silence. He held a longsword and knew how to make good work of it. My situation was dire: you cannot safely parry a longsword with a cutlass, so I ducked once, stepping back, and ducked again as he pressed his attack, the sword whipping over my head. As he raised the heavy weapon for another swing, I darted under his raised arm, driving the cutlass into his midsection with all my might.

My blade scraped along the edge of his mail instead of pushing through, and he did not even grunt… but the force knocked him backward, and I jumped right in. He tried to bring the sword down on me, but he was still off balance and I got hold of his wrist. Pulling myself forward, I pressed the cutlass into his face and used my full weight to punch the steel through his cheek. The skull broke and split like a rotten pomegranate. For an instant, I thought that the battle was surely mine — but then darkness shot out of the ruined face.

The darkness was a tangle of tentacles and tendrils, all black and viscous, fluid but nonetheless solid… or was it? As it brushed my skin, I felt the darkness for what it was: the absence of light, pure and simple, a devouring emptiness that could never be satisfied. It clung to me, strips of nothingness around my arms, grabbing my head, covering my mouth just as I locked my jaw tight, trying to force itself in past my pursed lips. It immobilized the arm that held the cutlass, and all I could do was to roll on the deck, wrestling impotently against the spreading darkness that stretched up toward my nose, ears, and eyes…

I felt dozens of pinpricks across my limbs and face, as if the oozing pitch were growing thorns as we fought; thorns, or teeth. And then eyes were staring back at me, rounded, darker patches of midnight, coalescing like blisters on its mass, moving, rolling, dissolving, and reforming. My breath had turned sour in my chest, the pressure of the thing prying my lips apart. I felt dizzy and tired. A mass of tendrils on my face smothered me even as they tried to squirm inside my mouth, while others encircled my neck, crawling up toward my ears. Then I felt chill, a heart-numbing cold that I believed was the touch of death… and was free.

The darkness had recoiled, and melting quickly into a gray haze, dissipated in the still air. The corpse remained motionless, its face open in halves as some carnivorous flower, a yellow mist flowing slowly from the gap. The pale girl was standing in front of me. “Shoggoths cannot stand a virgin’s touch, that’s why they need the corpses,” she told me, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. “You did a good job bringing that one out. Now get up. I’ll need you to get to my husband.”

She was tall, with ash-blond hair and hazel eyes, and wore nothing but a loincloth and a seashell anklet. In other circumstances I might’ve considered her beautiful, desirable, but at that moment all I could think about was her sweetly familiar smell — I knew that scent, but from where? This sudden preoccupation drove away even my puzzlement as to the fact that she seemed quite unharmed, despite the longswords I had seen bite bloody gashes into her milk white skin before I could reach her attackers.

“Who are you?” I asked. “What’s happening?”

“You may call me Alia, and I was a prisoner in that other ship,” she said, pointing to Beldur’s vessel, “and he is still a prisoner here. Will you help me to get to him?”

I felt strangely detached, as if I were two people, one living through the events of the last few hours, the other watching everything from afar, aghast and fascinated. Her nonchalant manner brought these two together, making the horror and insanity of it all seem very present and very real, and I grabbed her by the shoulders, burning for answers. “Were you in the corsair ship last night? Do you know what happened there?”

She shrugged, and realizing how firmly I had seized her, I released the woman, but she just echoed my question: “What happened there?”

“Didn’t you see? The deck, like a mirror… ”

Silence. Then I recalled the emptiness, the vacuity I’d felt as the hungry darkness that had hid in the knight had slowly consumed me. Perhaps the same devilish thing had been set loose on Beldur’s ship, gulped in everything down to the lowest speck of dust, turning the ship into a shining desert?

“Were these demons, these… shoggoths… there?”

She looked at me, seeming a little puzzled, her head cocked to the side. “Why… yes, of course.”

 I picked up my cutlass and one of the longswords. “Your husband is near, you said. Let’s find him.”

I am not usually keen on meeting strangers aboard ghost ships, but the thought of having another able-bodied man around was reassuring. Supposing he was indeed hale, and not a mangled, tortured husk, but I chose not to focus on that possibility.

“I know where he is.” She pointed toward the forecastle. “They were trying to keep me from going there.”

We walked slowly up the deck. I was apprehensive, watching the scattered corpses closely: the lack of blood in the two knights I’d fought and her mention of the dark devils “using corpses” left me with little option but to imagine that any of the dead bodies around, sailor, warrior monk, or corsair, could spring to its feet and attack. At any moment I expected more shoggoths to come slithering from the shadows.

She stopped abruptly, some three steps behind me. “I cannot go on. There is a barrier here.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, looking nervously around the stained, sunlit deck. “There’s nothing here.”

She pointed to a line etched on the planks at my feet, an almost imperceptible curve that went all the way from starboard to port. “I cannot cross these, not while the book remains open.”

It was too much. Fighting real monsters was bad enough. Having to deal with what I thought were imaginary barriers and silly taboos was unbearable. I was almost frantic, and screamed: “What are you talking about?”

“I am a consecrated virgin and wife. I cannot cross this… this… line. Not with the book open. My husband, he… you must close the book.”

This made no more sense than anything else she had told me, but I also saw that there would be no use arguing: there was sweat on her brow, and her eyes were wide, staring ahead at something only she could see.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll go for your husband, you just wait here.”

The words had barely left my lips when I was struck by an intense feeling of foreboding. Was this a trap? Was she sending me toward… what? Should I dare to turn my back on her?

Alia shook her head.

“No. None should wake him up but me. He looks for me at night, in his dreams. His dreams are powerful, but we can only touch after the closing of the book and the undoing of the barrier.”

“You are Christian, yes? I respect your religion,” I said, even if I knew very little about the exact beliefs of Christianity, or how they lived in Christian countries. But I’d heard something about married virgins, or virgins married to the Christian God, or giving birth to God or to proxies of the God, or whatever, and I thought I understood part of her misgivings. “But whatever your beliefs, we are wasting precious time. If your faith won’t let you walk over lines on a ship, I’ll go there myself and free him, and you can pray this thing out later… ”

There was a flash in her eyes — was it fear? hatred? — and I imagined her spitting, casting a curse on me. Instead her emotion seemed to pass, and Alia said, “You shouldn’t go alone. What if there are more shoggoths? They can hurt you, but remember they cannot stand my touch.”

Yes, the virgin touch. I hadn’t forgotten that. I felt the ship lurch under my feet — the heeling was getting worse; I got the impression that the vessels might crash into each other at any moment — and it added to my already intense unease.

“I guess we should close this ‘book,’ then. Do you know where it is?”

“I believe I can feel it… ” She stared past me. “It is also out of my reach, sorry.”

She pointed toward a dark space in the forecastle’s shade, under an ugly wooden-sculpted falcon that supported one of the ends of the balustrade above. It was some fifteen paces to the right of the brig’s door.

I walked nervously toward it, shivering as I stepped over the line scratched into the deck. As I approached, something rustled in the dark place; there was a tent in the shadow. My heart quickened, but it wasn’t another walking corpse or a shoggoth, just an old man, wearing heavy purple robes and a matching skullcap. He stepped into the sunlight and addressed me in Greek. I signaled that my understanding of the language was poor, and he switched to Arabic.

“I cannot let you come any closer, son. You are under her spell.”

“I’m with the woman because we were the only two living people here,” I answered, not at all liking his use of the word “spell.” “Now there are three of us, and I don’t see why I should prefer one to another.”

“But you will let her go to her husband?”

“That was the idea,” I said, glancing nervously back at Alia and considering: am I bewitched? Then I remembered my recent exasperation, and I thought it unlikely. “I’m not one to stand between a husband and wife.”

“So, I cannot allow you to pass.”

My patience was wearing thin. Any moment I expected another shoggoth to erupt out of the darkness behind him. I wondered if the strange old man was a wizard, perhaps the demons’ conjurer. I felt the weight of the sword in my hand, the cutlass in the other.

“I don’t see how you would stop me,” I said warily.

His lips twisted in a melancholic smile. “There is a curse on my bones, seaman.”

I stepped past him, ready to shoulder him out of the way if necessary. As I did, he drew a dagger from the sleeve of his robe and jumped me.

Alia cried a warning, and I was already half expecting an attack. I whirled as his arm descended, the dagger glittering like a white tooth. My cutlass caught him on the wrist, and his hand, still clenched around the hilt, spun away in a spray of blood. Sending the sword point into his heart was a matter of moments.

He teetered, then toppled, but before his body hit the deck came the sound of a tree splintered by lightning, and a rending of flesh, and then I had before me a monstrous thing. It was not unlike a giant insect, but built, somehow, around the old man’s corpse.

His bones had been cursed, all right: the legs of the creature were made from his suddenly overgrown ribs, and the space where his right hand had been was now occupied by a hooked stinger of contorted ivory, the two bones of the forearm entwined into a single hooked point. His skull was bursting out from the skin, dull teeth falling out to make room for needle-sharp fangs, the neck elongating, coiling, crawling.

I attacked, but the bone hook parried. The obscenely wide jaw lunged at me, and I dodged the bite, clipping it aside with my elbow. The impact hurt. Then the hooked stinger came in low, and I had to jump aside, falling back. Falling back wasn’t good, the thing quick on its rib-legs, and vicious.

The head bobbed menacingly at the tip of the neck, which obscenely stretched further and further from its disgusting body. I got the impression that it might soon be long enough to coil around me, and when next it darted in, I tried to sever it with the longsword. It deflected the blow with the thick chitin of its forehead, the skull as heavy as any shield. My arms were aching, and the stinger constantly menaced me. The monster creaked like an old wheel in need of oil, but its movements were quick and eerily elegant.

I threw my cutlass at it, and the monster easily twisted its head to follow the whirling blade, ready to use its skull-shield to deflect it if necessary. In doing so, however, it took its eyes off me for a moment, and a moment was all I needed. Now gripping the longsword in both hands, I lunged forward and slashed at the exposed vertebrae. I managed to cut clean through the neck, decapitating the fiend, but even as its head fell to the deck, that terrible stinger arced down to impale me. I threw myself out of the way, my feet slipping out from under me as I narrowly avoided the attack. As I landed on the deck beside the grotesque severed head, I saw new bone pushing upward from the fleshy stump of its neck.

Yet this horrific development did not distract me for long, since I was now between its jagged rib-legs. They danced frantically around my body, trying to impale me. Without much alternative, I thrust the sword up into the belly of the old man, which had become the nucleus of the creature. The pointed legs went wild, jabbing at me as I wriggled beneath them and kept cutting. Thick, oily innards began falling from the wound I had carved, gelatinous blood raining upon me, and suddenly the whole mass collapsed, folding inward on itself like a dying insect, and I rolled away to avoid being crushed.

I rose shaking to my feet, exhausted but alive. The stench was unbelievable, an acrid rot, more vegetable than animal, that made me cough.

“The book,” Alia called plaintively from her vigil on the far side of the so-called barrier. “Go to the book. Close it.”

Thinking dark thoughts about her lack of concern for her savior, I moved toward the shadow of the falcon-carved balustrade. Now that my eyes were out of the sun I saw more distinctly the small tent of purple cloth erected in the falcon’s shadow, and ducked inside. There was barely room to stand, and the only furnishing was a small bronze tripod supporting an open book. It wasn’t very impressive: quite small, just a little bigger than the palm of my hand, with wooden covers. The pages were of thick paper, covered with geometric drawings and a text that employed some Arabic characters but was not actually that language at all.

Never one to waste time, I reached out with the tip of my sword and flipped it closed, and was immediately assaulted by a perfume — a sweet scent that drowned even my own foulness. It was the same musky bouquet that I had noticed on Alia, and now I remembered where else I had smelled it — it was the same perfume that had leaked from the broken jar in Beldur’s ship.

I didn’t want to have anything else to do with that book. I stepped out of the tent and saw Alia striding toward the brig, no longer bound by the barrier that had kept her away. The already heeling ship lurched starboard with an ominous creak. I nearly went tumbling, but Alia didn’t stumble. I called to her, but she didn’t slow, looking back at me with a rapturous expression and calling out, “I think it best that you leave now.”

I had the same impression, but after all I had witnessed, I was too curious to just flee without some answers, so I followed after her. She raised her eyebrows, doubtful, but said nothing more. Her fingers brushed the heavy door of the cabin and it flew open. Instead of darkness, a green-gray light shimmered within the doorway.

The perfume that came from her hair, her body, was now overpowering. I had the strange idea that the scent was not upon her, but of her — that she was naught but perfume herself, imprisoned in the jar like a jinn until the clay had cracked, freeing her.

As I imagined this, the nature of the perfume seemed to change. Before, its sweetness had been enticing, relaxing, but now it made my skin creep and my hair stand on end. It was not that the scent had changed into something unsavory, for it was still quite a pleasant smell, but rather that its power touched a chord in my brain. This chord reverberated with ultimate dread, with unlimited fear. All around me, the ship was groaning and trembling like a hurt animal.

And just like that, I ran to the railing and jumped into the sea. My desperate flight hardly seemed of my own volition, but more as if a puppeteer of horror had taken control of my soul’s strings with an irresistible hand.

My weary arms and legs churned the deep blue water, swimming frantically away from both the cursed Maltese ship and the polished wreck of Beldur’s. Then I heard a terrible crash and crackle, and unable to resist, looked back the way I had swum. As I watched, eyes stinging from the brine, both vessels burst open like rotten fruit. And then… and then I believe I saw Alia’s husband. The word that occurred me, the only word that still comes to mind when I think of it, is Argos — not the mythical ship of the Greeks, but the other one: the dragon with one thousand eyes.

“He looks for me in his dreams,” Alia had told me, and it was to dreams that I fled then, my mind rejecting any world that would allow such horror. I had assumed that the demons, those “shoggoths,” had eaten up everything on the deck of Beldur’s ship, but as I took sanctuary in the realm of nightmares, my fevered brain provided other explanations…

There is now very little to add. I awoke on a beach, upon a small island, and the curious people I found there and how I ultimately escaped them is the subject of another tale. But there is one final detail: when I came to on the sand, there beside me was the little book, and it was once again open — a dagger shot through its pages and spine, keeping the covers apart, an amputated, skeletal human hand firmly clasped around the hilt. I stared at the book, remembering my fight with the purple-robed wizard, and his words... then I clambered to my knees, then my feet, and walked away, leaving book, knife, and hand to be reclaimed by the hungry surf, to rejoin the accursed skeleton in the deep.

Of All Possible Worlds

Eneasz Brodski

My heart plummeted to my sandals.

“Titus…” My throat tightened, strangling my words. “This isn’t what I was expecting… ”

The Ludus Matutinus trained and housed the Bestiarii gladiators, as well as the animals they slaughtered. In its stables, I gazed down at a wretched human form chained in a dusty cart. A stunted thing, barely four feet tall, with knobby joints and not a single hair upon him. His wrinkled skin was scrawled with tattooed lines, cutting him into odd segments. He was the furthest thing from a horned, six-legged bear I could imagine.

“You promised me a horned, six-legged bear,” I protested. I could see Titus’s face grow dark, and fear crawled up my spine. If I could make him laugh… “He’s ugly enough, but Gracus was really excited about that horn thing —”

Titus’s open hand struck below my temple. The pain wasn’t as bad as the humiliation, the knowledge that he could do what he wanted with me.

“You forget your place, Marad.” He spit out my foreign name. “There weren’t any giant bears. This barbarian wizard will do.”

He would not do. Gracus had charged me with procuring beasts for the games. All damn year I’d been waiting for that bear. The legion had returned with plenty of regular, boring animals, but the horned bear was to be the centerpiece. I’d promised Gracus a monster battle.

“I can’t pay for this,” I said, avoiding Titus’s eyes. Looking lower. He was clean-shaven, as befitted his station, and my own salt-and-pepper beard felt all the more damning in contrast. He stepped forward purposefully, one hand resting on his sword’s pommel, the other pressing flat against my chest. He pushed, following as I retreated, until I was up against the stable wall. His breath assaulted me, inches away.

“You’ll pay full price,” he rumbled.

“Guards!” My voice broke, the bastards were standing right there. They marched over but didn’t lift a hand to restrain him. It didn’t matter that Gracus paid them to protect me. In the weighing of Roman Centurion versus Jewish Slave, there was no contest.

Titus grinned and ran his hand down my chest, to my belt, and slipped his fingers into my money pouch. I turned my face aside, praying my bladder would hold. He fished out several denarii.

“I’ll be back for the rest.”

A moment later he was gone, and I was sliding to the floor, trembling. The so-called wizard in the cart wheezed out laughter. I glared at him. His mocking eyes met mine, a glimmer of madness flashing behind them.

“Go ahead and laugh,” I muttered. “You’ll be dead soon enough.”

* * *

I gave the diminutive barbarian to Balthar to put into one of his dwarf fights. I regretted it by the next morning. With his flattened head and hunched form, the savage looked more like a poor Scythian monkey than a human. He couldn’t be blamed for his insult any more than an animal could.

The festivities were midway through their first day. The morning’s beast shows were over, but I stayed at the Colosseum, waiting for the noon spectacle. I had a duty to watch the barbarian die, the way I watched each of my animals die. Someone should witness their passing, and mourn it. Someone should counterweigh those cheers.

When the tattooed form of the savage was thrust onto the arena floor, it was with two dozen other dwarves, all armed with tiny stilettos. Opposite them stood two gladiators, one armed with a spear and shield, the other with a massive battle-axe. It was to be a slaughter then.

“I am sorry,” I whispered toward the old barbarian. He couldn’t hear me, of course; this was for my benefit. I spoke these words to every animal I sent to its death. “You must die so that I may live. I don’t ask your forgiveness; this is the way of life. But know I wish this world was different.”

As the savage stumbled out from the overhang of the Colosseum’s walls and saw the open sky above him, his mouth curled up into a shit-eating grin. As the dwarves charged forward, he fell back, fingers tearing at his leathery skin. My eyes darted to the melee. The first gladiator stepped directly into the oncoming tide of dwarves, swinging his battle-axe double-handed. It sheared the head from the first small man, cleaved through the torso of a second, before embedding itself halfway through the ribcage of a third. The gladiator roared as he jerked the axe loose, splitting the small body like a log as it came free.

Darkness flickered at the edge of my vision. A shadow swooped through the air, movement where there should be none. I strained to look at it but there was nothing to focus on. An inexplicable presence descended to the savage’s side, and as it touched the sand, it finally resolved into a discrete thing with surfaces and heft.

Its body was that of an ox-sized crow, but bare of any feathers. Black skin stuck tightly to jutting bones. A jagged beak took up the entire face, its upper mandible curving down from the top of the skull. The wings consisted of long arms webbed to the body in the manner of bats. Cricket-like legs folded beneath it.

The Colosseum grew still. Even the gladiators gaped at this intruder. With a shout of glee, the barbarian wizard hopped on the monster’s back, throwing his arms around its neck. It leapt upward with a beating of its wings, a deafening squawk piercing the sky.

Bellowing a challenge, the first gladiator sprang forward and hurled his battle-axe overhand. It spun over the mass of dwarves, and crushed one monstrous wing at the shoulder joint. The beast screamed and spiraled to the ground. The impact threw the wizard from its back. Thick black liquid spilled from the wound, and the perfume of rotting corpses filled the air.

The monster was immediately back on its feet. It pounced, clawed wings flashing, and crashed into the unarmed warrior before he could react. He toppled backward, and sinking its talons into his stomach, it kicked out, disemboweling him. A roar of delight from the crowd. The second gladiator was already charging.

His spear skewered it, plunging between neck and shoulder, into the body. He withdrew the weapon as the monster reared up, screaming. A lunging thrust and the spear pierced up under its beak, into what would be the brain in any normal animal. Black oil rolled down the shaft, dropped in gooey clumps to the sand. The thing shuddered, then collapsed to the Colosseum floor.

The stadium erupted in cheers. I grabbed the nearest guard.

“Get that wizard!” I hissed. “Get him out of there right now. He mustn’t be harmed!”

Nearby I saw the Emperor stand, then point down at the monster’s corpse. A demanding motion. It was being retrieved for him. Its nightmarish essence seeped into the city’s air. I doubted he would be satisfied with only one such performance — my life depended on how fast I could get that wizard to the healers.

* * *

A decade earlier. Back in my home village, before the failed uprising, before I’d left my sick faith. Dozens of men around me, jostling, shouting. A stone gripped in my hand. A hole in the center of the crowd, twenty yards across, empty but for a single weeping man. We churned around him like a boiling sea, hurling abuse, hurling hatred. Stones lay about him.

Ehud. I had slept with him years ago. I had loved him for a while. I should have known he would be found out. A stone flew from the crowd and tore his ear open. It bled black.

He looked up, snot running down his face, eyes swollen. I knew he couldn’t see me through his tears, but his gaze seemed to catch mine. My chest constricted. It was too hot, too tight. Rabbi Tzuriel caught the look. He looked at me, then back at Ehud. Glanced at the rock held unthrown in my hand. Something troubled his eyes.

I stepped forward and flung my stone at Ehud. It caught him in the mouth, split his lip. Dark syrup poured from the gash, and now Ehud’s tears came clouded and oily. The sweet smell of decomposing bodies filled the air, his cries broke into crow-like squawks. I bent down, grabbed more stones, hurled them one after another, blindly.

And I was sitting up, in my quarters in Gracus’s estate, gasping for air. The sky outside was still dark. I threw aside my soaked sheets, leaned over, and vomited on the floor.

Somehow the dream was even worse, twisted like this — Ehud’s execution melding into the monster’s slaying. The sweet stink clung in my nostrils. I squeezed my eyes tight and let the sickness flow through me.

* * *

“The Emperor demands another monster,” I told the wizard that afternoon. It had taken me all day to find another barbarian slave who could speak his language. She worked as a scribe and had been educated by Roman teachers, yet she sat by his cot in reverence. His hip had been shattered in the fall.

Even with his face taut with pain, his lips still curled in contempt.

“He says you don’t have the stomach to gather the components he needs for the summoning,” the girl translated.

“Try me.”

A wry grin broke over her face. “The Reverend Elder is new to slavery,” she said. “He doesn’t realize how quickly the Romans warp us into mirrors of themselves.”

I did not appreciate being included in her sentiment.

* * *

I visited Aurelius that evening, at the Temple of Somnus. As Gracus’s Dispensator I received a small personal stipend, and if I was frugal I could visit Aurelius twice a month. Therefore I was very frugal.

It seemed the whole damn city was in the temple, everyone there pale and harried. By the time Aurelius was ready for me, I’d seen enough people pass through to fill half the Colosseum.

“Is it a holy day?” I asked him. Aurelius shook his head, his blonde curls bouncing lightly.

“Just a lot of supplicants today. Nightmares flooded the city last night.” He smiled at me and took my hand. “Don’t worry about it. How are you?”

I drew him close, ran my other hand through his hair.

“Better now.”

It didn’t last, though. The evening was marred by the lingering, cloying stench of the monster. After I finally spent myself inside Aurelius, I left sick with disgust. The entire city stank of that pitch blood.

I tossed in bed all night, my skin crawling with every breath. When the sky lightened, it came as a relief — I could give up on sleep and distract myself with work. I left for the apothecaria to buy the wizard’s components.

The air outside was thick; I had to push my way through it. The sun filtered down heavily, dulled to diffuse amber. Those on the streets shambled along, exhausted. The eyes I met were tired, half-lidded pools. Everyone labored to breathe the sticky atmosphere.

I pulled myself from one alchemist to the next, listing the vile components without apology. Everyone turned me away with revulsion. One man cursed me as he chased me out. As the shadows bled toward the horizon, I finally received a calculating look from a dark man with wet coals for eyes. He named a ridiculous sum, his lips barely moving. I accepted.

I had barely left the apothecary when a strained voice yelled my name.

“Marad!”

I turned, saw a slave of the Ludus barreling down the street. He waved for me desperately.

“Marad! Wait!” He almost collapsed at my feet, panting, but forced his words out regardless. “The animals. They’re loose. All. All of them.”

I left him in the dirt, running as fast as I could back to the Ludus, bowling past shouting pedestrians. Gasping minutes later, I rounded a final corner, and saw the crushed masonry where elephants had careened into a building. Carts lay strewn about in splinters. The screams of the injured choked the streets, and in the mouth of a nearby alley a tiger gnawed on a bloody arm. Oh God. This meant my death.

Could I risk going back for the coins I’d accumulated? It was a stupid thought. Of course not. I should have planned ahead, should have hidden something outside the city. Now I’d have to flee with only what I had on me. But if I could evade capture, then survive until I made my way to another city, I could have a life again. I’d heard there were places in the Empire where a literate, numerate slave would be accepted without questions.

I would never see Aurelius again. That hurt like a dagger. But it beat torture and execution. I turned to flee.

A hand clapped down on my shoulder. Titus’s rough, sneering voice. “Leaving so soon, Marad?” My heart stopped.

I sat up in my bed, gulping the air, heart pounding in my chest. Wet sheets tumbled to the floor. The sun had cleared the horizon, and filtered through a dull sky into diffuse amber. The air was thick, sluicing reluctantly down my throat. I groaned as I flopped back onto my cot. None of it had happened. I still had my life. I waited until my trembling subsided before getting to my feet.

* * *

The wizard began his ritual that night, chanting hateful, buzzing words that filled the Ludus into the early hours. His translator assisted him, burning incense, slathering him with wine and blood. My heart beat unnaturally fast in their presence, my skull itched behind my eyeballs. I didn’t ask what the stillborn was for.

They paused to rest several times, and on the third such occasion I broke my silent vigil. “How much longer?” I demanded, spurring a guttural exchange between the two slaves.

“Four days, maybe five,” the girl translated. “He’ll have to be taken to the Colosseum for the final casting, on the last day.”

Days? I had expected hours. That incessant chanting still echoed in my mind.

“Why so long?” I asked.

“God’s mind encompasses all things.” She answered me directly, without referring my question to the wizard. “We must work hard to get His attention.”

“This is your religion?”

She regarded me silently for a long time before answering.

“These are the broken shards of my religion. This is what remained after the Romans ground it against reality.”

Rumor from Jerusalem claimed that my former faith was splintering as well, but I wouldn’t miss it. I left them to their work.

* * *

The days kept growing heavier, the sky more oppressive. Its blue dome sank down onto the Earth, squeezing us beneath its weight. A faint scent of rancid honey coated every breath. In the Colosseum the cheers were forced; plaintive cries of defiance against a wilting world.

I slogged through the afternoon miasma, on my way to Somnus’s Temple. It had only been four days since the wizard had nearly escaped on his flying monster, but I had lived through ten. Six of them ended abruptly, in terror and disaster, and I found myself back in my bed, the day undone. It was a grinding existence. I wondered if I would receive some shock at the end of this day, and have to live it over from the beginning.

“Aurelius,” I greeted him, once I was at the temple. I couldn’t recall the trek through the sweltering streets. “You’re a priest of Somnus. How can I tell if I’m awake, or just in a vivid dream?”

“If you have to ask, you must be dreaming,” Aurelius assured me. “You’re dreaming right now.”

That wasn’t the answer I had expected, and doubt crawled over my skin. I needed some proof. “How can I tell? How would I know, if you weren’t here to tell me?”

“Marad, all of existence is a dream. Dreams are the only things of substance. Wakefulness is the illusion.”

Of course. What had I expected from an adept of the god of sleep? I bit back disappointment.

“Ah. Well, thank you.” I paused. “Aurelius, how long has it been since I last came to see you?”

Aurelius raised one eyebrow, so alluring in pose he looked like he’d been carved from stone. A spark of desire flared, the faintest stirring in my groin, in rebellion against the constant smothering gloam. “I don’t keep track,” he replied, “but probably too long.”

That’s actually not what I had meant, but if I could escape into him for an hour, I was more than willing.

Later, lying in each other’s arms, discussing our past lovers, I felt Aurelius suddenly tense. He pulled away and locked his gaze to mine. His eyes were wide with fear.

“Marad, no. Stop. You’re waking up.”

“What are you talking about?” I looked around the dim cell, confused. Nothing had changed.

“Oh gods. I told you you’re dreaming. The world is in your mind. When you wake it’ll cease to exist. I’ll die. Please. I don’t want to die.” His voice trembled. I took his shaking hands in my own and noticed he was less substantial somehow. Less there. Panic ran down my spine.

“How? Tell me what to do!”

“I don’t know. Try, hard. Sleep as long as you can. You’re killing us all.”

“Aurelius? Am I supposed to never wake up? Never see the real world again? I’ll die. I’ll starve.”

“Then you never should have dreamed me to life in the first place! Don’t go, oh gods, please!” He was blubbering now. He curled his head down into my chest, terror contorting his body. The world grew thin, everything began to fade. “I don’t want to die!”

I held him tight as he disintegrated, horror gripping me. What could I do? I couldn’t sleep forever. I had no choice.

“I am sorry,” I whispered into his hair, now pale platinum. “You must die so that I may live. Please know I wish this world was different.”

My eyes snapped open. The night was cold, the stars unimaginably distant through my room’s slit window, and I was alone. I shivered under my blanket.

* * *

As the sun rose, I hurried to the Temple of Somnus. A porter bumped into a solider as I walked, and the large legionnaire lashed out, smashing the man to the ground. Nearby, haggles over prices turned into shouting matches, voices rising to scream obscenities. The entire city teetered, dipping in and out of violent outbursts. Every nerve had been frayed down to its raw, bleeding quick.

At the temple I received glares of hatred when I asked if Aurelius was in. Of course he was in, where would he go? Was he safe? Everyone was safe; was I implying the temple couldn’t care for its own? All right, but could someone make sure he existed? What kind of fucking fool question was that?

Finally someone was sent to check. Yes, Aurelius was fine, he did actually exist, and could I kindly fuck off? I turned away, lightheaded. Good, everything was good. I even caught a distant glimpse of him as I left. It had been another dream.

This was the final day of the festival. Today at noon, the wizard would summon his monster. The arena would be roofed with netting, and the fight should last no less than half an hour. Every luminary of the Empire would be there.

Back in my writing room, I looked over the day’s schedule, noting which animals were to die, calculating how much replacements would cost. The final day was always the most extravagant.

The sound of heavy footsteps behind me. I turned to face them, but a hand on my shoulder shoved me away, pushed me against the desk. I felt a thick body press into me from behind.

“I’ve come for the rest of my payment,” Titus growled. My entire body tightened. His stench made it hard to breathe. “The wizard is a hit. I hope you’ve been keeping my cut safe for me.”

My fingers grew cold. He wouldn’t care that I didn’t get any extra money for a popular fight, and no matter what I offered him, I was sure it wouldn’t be enough. “I can’t,” I croaked. “Gracus only gives me so much. If I give you more —”

Titus’s hand shifted to grab my throat. He kept me pinned against the desk with his hips. I felt a firmness rising from his crotch.

“Did you just tell me ‘no’?” he whispered, his lips brushing my ear.

His word against mine, a citizen versus a slave. Keeping as still as possible, I grasped for the money pouch at my belt, overturned it on the desktop.

“Take what you want.” My voice came high and strained.

“Like you could stop me.” He held me down across the desk, pushed my face into the wood. He pulled up my tunic. I squeezed my eyes shut and grabbed the edge of the desk. Not today, not again. I heard him spit.

I gasped at the first thrust, then bit down on the pain. More than anything, I didn’t want to cry out. It would draw the guards, and I couldn’t take the burning shame of them watching from the door as Titus used my body. Couldn’t take their fucking pity on top of everything else. A whimper slipped from my lips with the next thrust, and I wanted to stab my lungs to silence them. It would be over soon.

I found I was squeezing the handle of my thin desk knife. It was small, but sharp enough to repair worn quill nibs with the slightest touch. I gripped it until my knuckles turned white, and as another small cry forced its way from my mouth, I heard in it an echo of the monster’s scream. The stench of decay filled my nostrils again, gagging me. I convulsed, and when Titus yanked my hair, I lifted my shoulder and swung my fist back, flailing desperately behind me. Warmth spurted over my hand, so welcome on my freezing flesh. I heard a choke, Titus came free of me, his pressure pulling away. I looked back.

A face caught between shock and confusion. A puncture in his neck drained his life down his chest in a bright red river. He stared at me, mouth moving but no words coming out. A staggering step back, and then he crashed to the floor. He lay still in widening crimson.

This had to be a dream.

* * *

Above the Colosseum, the winged monster shrieked and swooped. I watched from the tunnel entrance. I hadn’t woken up yet. I kept expecting to wake up. A gladiator’s throat erupted into a red geyser, the beast leapt back into the air.

I had drawn the curtains of the writing room, then chained and locked the door. Changed my clothes, taken every coin in the building as I left. I would run tonight, if I hadn’t woken up, if this was real. I would be missed too soon if I left before the grand finale. I fingered the desk knife under my belt. It was my favorite possession now.

The wizard’s translator stood beside me in the tunnel mouth, watching her elder’s masterpiece perform. Thick ink dripped from the monster’s wounds as it soared through the air. And… it wasn’t falling right. It slanted and curved about, sliding on surfaces unseen and immaterial. It fell into disquieting patterns, forming orderly lines on the sand. Unease spread over me. The lines shifted at the edges of my sight, but when I looked to them they hadn’t changed. Slowly a black sigil came into existence, carving away the world it was engraved upon. At each vertex lay a dead gladiator, blood spilling into the sigil’s center.

The air over the symbol trembled. The thin shell of substantiality that gave weight to our world cracked. From within the hidden depths between things, a force of pure Prima Materia reached out. Tendrils of formless void spilled from the confines of the sigil, caressed the walls of the arena, and all they touched dissolved into nothing. A far section crumbled into a landslide of broken masonry and broken bodies.

The Colosseum erupted into bedlam. The free men and women of the Empire routed for the exits, trampling the weak underfoot. I stood, watching. It felt like looking into Titus’s eyes as he died, the same leap of joy in my chest. This well-deserved decimation would hide my disappearance when I fled tonight. I smiled as the screaming crowd rioted.

Except the antithetical force flowing from the sigil looked to be overflowing the bounds of three-dimensionality itself. It billowed out, an infinite hunger that would swallow everything and continue outward still. This was no beast. This was universal annihilation. Fear gripped my guts.

“The sleeper awakens,” murmured the barbarian girl beside me.

“When… when does it stop?” I stammered.

“Soon. Our reality ends when God awakes and shakes off this dream, chases the nightmare of this world from His mind.”

A jolt of realization. Finally comprehension, and suddenly I couldn’t feel anything but claws of panic piercing my body. I had done this. I dashed into the tunnels, sprinting for the chamber beneath the arena’s center, directly below the heart of the sigil. The wizard’s final summoning room.

The halls leading to the room were a charnel house of dismembered corpses and loose viscera. I couldn’t imagine what force had done this. I grabbed a spear from the body of a guard that looked to have been turned inside out, and bolted past a splintered door.

The wizard inside hung in the air, suspended by nothing. His skin had split along every line that had been tattooed onto him, turning him into a patchwork of flesh. I didn’t hesitate, simply charged and thrust my spear straight through his chest. It burst from his back, and he sagged to the floor. The ground shook as another section of the Colosseum collapsed somewhere above us. Screams continued unabated.

“You’re too late,” called the young voice behind me. I turned to see the barbarian translator slowly approaching. “It is time for God to rejoin His world. The real world.”

I felt the terror of the Aurelius from my dream, the one who didn’t want to be extinguished. Everything was ending.

“Why?” I demanded. I looked back to the wizard sprawled on the ground, spear jutting from his chest. “This world has existed for eons. We could have eons more if you let him sleep!”

“This world is broken,” she replied. “The root of all interaction is violence. The only law is the use of force. You try to hide it under a veneer of justifications and proclamations, but even civilization is just the most powerful deciding what violence to inflict.”

She stood beside me now as I looked down at the wizard. There was something about the lines of split skin on his body that warped my vision. I followed one with my eyes and it ran concave, but when I looked at it in whole it presented as convex.

“Every comfort and laugh is bought with the pain of others. Every meal is born of the flesh or the toil of the vulnerable. This world must end. May the next dream be less of a horror.”

The red lines in the dead barbarian’s skin came together to create an eldritch scrawl, and I realized they mirrored the sigil above us. They pulsed with a malevolent beat. I pulled my knife from my belt and crouched over the wizard.

“Fuck your theology,” I spoke. “I want to live.” I pierced the wizard’s skin where two lines met and slashed upward, deforming the sigil. Something in the substance surrounding us shivered.

“No!”

The barbarian translator tackled me, smashing me to the ground. Pain spiked through my rectum as I landed. An elbow dug into my eye, fingers clawed at my hand gripping the knife. I heaved my legs up wildly.

It was just enough to throw her off balance, and the elbow slipped from my face. I surged upright, or tried to — the crown of my head connected with something hard and I felt a crunch as the girl’s nose broke and spurted blood into my eyes. I yanked my head back, my skull blossomed in agony as it cracked against the stone floor. We were both worthless in combat, but her fingers had come loose when her nose had broken, and I at least had some idea what to do with sharpened metal. I jabbed wildly into her side, over and over, frantic and blind. Somewhere after the eighth puncture she slid from me. I rolled over, wiped blood from my eyes, lunged back to the wizard’s body. I slashed wildly at the red sigil etched into his flesh, breaking that blasphemous sign. The light in the room bent bizarrely, the darkness wavering. Slowly the solidity of the world began to return. The ground ceased its shaking.

To my left the girl hacked wet coughs.

“Only delayed… ” she gasped. “God cannot sleep forever. Why prolong this hateful… hateful… ”

I pulled away from the wizard’s flayed corpse, put my back to a wall, and slipped the knife back into my belt with shaking hands.

“We will find a way. With the right knowledge and magic, we can leave His mind.” My words rang hollow in my ears.

She gurgled. I watched the young girl I’d murdered twitch, and bitterness twisted my face into a grimace. She wasn’t wrong. The final arbiter was violence. How else could a physical world work? But I didn’t want to die. I crawled to her side, took her hand, and I did the only thing I could do.

“I am sorry,” I recited. “You had to die so that I may live. I don’t ask your forgiveness; this is the way of life. But know I wish this world was different.”

The Final Gift of Zhuge Liang

Laurie Tom

Zhuge Liang was dead, and with him, Shu Han’s greatest hope of a unified China. The prime minister’s star trembled in the night sky instead of falling to Earth with the death of the great sage. Zhuge Liang had promised that it would remain until the Shu army had withdrawn, so their enemies would not know of his passing.

But that was small comfort for Jiang Wei, who entered his mentor’s tent to pack Zhuge Liang’s possessions for travel back to the river lands. Outside, Yang Yi marshaled the soldiers in accordance with the prime minister’s final wishes. No banners of mourning would be hung, or the soldiers of Cao Wei in their fortress would know that the Sleeping Dragon now slept for good. The Shu withdrawal would be quiet, orderly. Once they were safe, then they would mourn.

The tent flap opened again and Ma Yun stepped inside. He clasped his hands and gave a slight bow. “I thought I would find you here.”

“Did Yang Yi send you?”

Jiang Wei outranked Ma Yun, but the two had become friends over the six years and five expeditions that had made up Zhuge Liang’s attempts to pacify the north. Though others were contemptuous of Ma Yun and his oddly light voice, the soft timbre of a eunuch, Jiang Wei knew better. Ma Yun had been born a woman, but considered himself a man.

“No, I am simply concerned about your wellbeing,” said Ma Yun. “My men are helping load the carts, and they do not need my oversight for that.”

“Then you should rest. We’ll be marching soon.”

Ma Yun knelt beside Jiang Wei and said, “We will both rest when your work is done. Do you think I could sleep when you do not?”

Jiang Wei sighed, but handed his friend a lacquered box. “Still stubborn,” he said. “As soon as Sima Yi realizes we’ve abandoned camp, he’ll lead the Wei army in pursuit of us. The prime minister’s star will have fallen and they’ll know that he’s dead. We need time.”

“You’ll think of something. You have been his student these past six years. There is no better strategist to succeed him, and you know these northern lands better than anyone.”

Six years ago Jiang Wei had been an officer in the Wei army, until a paranoid commander had suspected him of collaborating with Shu. After he had fled for his life, Zhuge Liang had been the one to offer him refuge and gave him a position in his army. Now, at the prime minister’s final request, it would be Jiang Wei’s duty to pacify the land he had once called home.

“You could always dress a wooden figure in the prime minister’s clothes and stick it in his carriage,” said Ma Yun. “Wheel it around, and from a distance Sima Yi might think that the prime minister is still directing the battle.”

His voice was playful, but Jiang Wei could almost take the suggestion seriously. Sima Yi’s greatest weakness was his tendency to overthink the traps Zhuge Liang had laid for him. That was why the Wei army remained safely ensconced in their fortress rather than facing Shu on the battlefield. Even the prime minister’s attempts to insult the tactician’s honor had failed in the wake of Sima Yi’s paranoia.

Which gave Jiang Wei an idea.

“What about this? When we withdraw Sima Yi will follow us, like a wolf after the deer. He will expect a rear guard, but he will not anticipate an ambush, not when he sees the prime minister's star fall. We’ll only leave enough men to draw him out, while the rest of the army pulls back.”

“If he takes the Wei army out of the fortress, a single division is not going to be able to fight them all,” said Ma Yun.

“He won’t know that. The prime minister was a master of ambuscade. If the men fight like the entire army is at their backs, Sima Yi will think we faked our retreat to draw him out. He’ll run if he believes the prime minister is still alive.”

They could catch them in the Xiagu Pass. The Wei army would have to narrow itself to get through, and there was an overlook covered with trees that would hide ranks of archers and footmen. Give the commander enough doughty horsemen to charge through the Shu side of the pass and the Wei vanguard would feel like the whole Shu army was pressing down on them.

Ma Yun grinned. “I see why the prime minister thought highly of you. Who else sets an ambush when they’re running away?”

“Yang Yi would have to approve.”

“He would gladly do so, and lead it himself.”

And he was Ma Yun’s superior, which meant if Yang Yi led the ambush, then Ma Yun would be among those who stayed behind.

“It’s a worthy gamble,” said his friend. “If it meant the rest of the army could escape safely, I would hold off all of Wei alone. And I trust your strategy. Few men have ever outsmarted the prime minister, and you are one of them. That is why he has entrusted all this to you.” Ma Yun indicated the whole of the tent’s interior, but that wasn’t entirely true. Jiang Wei would not replace the prime minister in political affairs, but in war the campaign plans would fall to him.

“Will you notify Yang Yi that I wish to see him?” said Jiang Wei.

Ma Yun clasped his hands and bowed before standing. “Yes, Commander.”

Yang Yi was more of a minister than a warrior. Logistics was his strength, but he had good subordinates beneath him, men like Ma Yun, who could be trusted with their own judgment on the battlefield.

Jiang Wei picked up a heavy set of books from beside Zhuge Liang’s deathbed, surprised by how the very touch of them gave him a sensation of age and decay. They shouldn’t have lain so long beside a dead man. They were so old they had been written on bamboo slats rather than paper, and the script was antiquated, in the Qin style. These were not the prime minister’s own works.

The word Leng was inscribed on the first slat of each of the books, followed by a volume number. Jiang Wei unfolded one to find a treatise of some sort, something that the prime minister himself must have studied, but he could not ignore a feeling of wrongness about it, of something vile seeping from the bamboo.

Zhuge Liang could read the stars better than anyone. He could call on the wind, the fog. Perhaps this was where he had learned such things.

The book described terrible ceremonies, demons that Jiang Wei had never heard of, and obeisances that must be made to such creatures. He did not think the prime minister would have dabbled in such arts, but perhaps his enemies might. Zhuge Liang prepared for many things, and did not leave anything to chance when adequate foresight would provide.

That was why the Shu army, although half the size of the Wei, had managed a stalemate on the Wuzhang Plains.

Still, the rituals and symbols disturbed Jiang Wei, and he did not know this land of Leng from whence the books had come. They placed it far to the west, beyond the barbarian lands but before the palace of the Queen Mother of the West. Though Zhuge Liang had not left these books specifically for his successor, if he was to serve as the inheritor of the prime minister’s will, then he would have to understand these as well.

It was not until he felt a hand on his shoulder that he realized he had spent more time reading than packing. Yang Yi had arrived, his lined face written with as much concern as the gray that streaked his beard.

“The prime minister would not expect you to rise immediately as general in his place,” said Yang Yi. “Give yourself time to study. After all, he entrusted you alone with his strategies, and not until his final hour. He knows even you will need time to read them.”

Jiang Wei bowed his head, ashamed, not because he had been found idle, but because it had not been Zhuge Liang’s stratagems he had been reading. He folded the book back. “I understand,” he said. “I only pray that Heaven does not find me inadequate.”

* * *

Over the next few nights they left the cooking fires lit, as though the camp was still full of soldiers, while the Shu officers led the army out in stages by cover of darkness. Jiang Wei took the rear guard. His soldiers were seasoned veterans. If Yang Yi’s ambush failed, Jiang Wei’s men would still allow the bulk of the Shu army to escape, but it would be costly. He couldn’t let it come to that.

At daybreak the day after their departure, his scouts came to him with word of Sima Yi’s pursuit. By now they had reached the Xiagu Pass and Yang Yi’s men were in position, Ma Yun among them. They would see the Wei vanguard coming on horseback soon. Jiang Wei would slow the rear guard on the other side of the pass, forcing Sima Yi’s eager soldiers to push through the ambush to reach them.

Let the Wei tactician think that he had caught up to his fleeing foe.

But as the sun crested the mountains, Jiang Wei did not like what he saw. A gleam on the high ground of the pass. Though swords must be sheathed and arrows still in their quivers, it was not impossible that some errant soldier’s spear had caught the light, and if he could see it, then Wei could as well. If it came to Sima Yi’s attention, then the Wei army would not enter the pass, and Yang Yi did not have enough men to take them head-on.

In retrospect, he should have considered the sunlight, the time of day Sima Yi would catch up to them. Jiang Wei knew immediately what Zhuge Liang would have done to correct this mistake, but he was not the prime minister. He didn’t have the power.

But he knew a little now. The second volume of the books from Leng discussed the fog.

He ordered a soldier to the wagon that carried the materials bequeathed to him by the prime minister, and the man returned with the book placed in a satchel. Jiang Wei verified that it was the right volume before slinging the heavy bag over his shoulder. Now he just needed a suitable view of the battlefield.

Jiang Wei called over one of his lieutenants and said, “I have a few preparations of my own before the Wei vanguard reaches the pass. I should be back shortly, but if I do not return before the ambush begins, I need you to take your horsemen to reinforce Yang Yi.”

Some of the men cheered, believing that he would pull off a stunt equal to that of Zhuge Liang, but Jiang Wei knew better. He was not his mentor. But Shu had done much for him, given him a home when his own had cast him out.

Jiang Wei would do what he must.

He rode his horse to an outcropping on the southern side of the pass and carefully dismounted, holding his bladed spear. The bamboo slats clacked as he unfolded the centuries-old script and laid the book at his feet. Jiang Wei drew his knife and prayed for his parents’ forgiveness, as he had no animal that he could sacrifice in this moment of need.

In a patch of dirt he drew what the book called the Sign of Qi, written with the character for air or vapor. The sign itself did not match any word he knew and the sight of it made him shiver. There was a strangeness in how the lines came together, making angles where there should be none. He could look at a portion of it and it was just a symbol, but to look at the whole invited a sinister impossibility.

Jiang Wei sliced the fat part of his hand with his knife and clenched it into a fist, squeezing drops of blood on to the Sign of Qi.

In the next moment, mist writhed from the shadows of the peaks and sloughed down the mountains as a thick cloud. It hid Yang Yi’s men from the Wei army below, and a moment later, hid the rest of the world from Jiang Wei.

Then the howling began.

Their voices did not sound like any wolves he’d heard, and he could hear the sound of feet slapping against stone and dirt. For beasts, they did not seem interested in hiding from their prey.

Jiang Wei could barely see the ground beneath him, and sidled close to his horse, but the mare reared and screamed, eyes rolling white, and nearly kicked him as she plunged back down and galloped into the fog. It was not like her. He looked at the sign he had drawn, blood filling the crevices in unnaturally even measure, except where a single stamp of his mare’s hoof had ruined it.

He wasn’t sure if that changed anything, any more than he had expected that the fog he called would cover him as well. It was thicker than what he remembered seeing around the overlook where Yang Yi’s men were hidden, and he had an eerie suspicion that the fog around him was different. He had not fully read the books from Leng.

Jiang Wei lifted his spear and swept it ahead of him. If there were wolves, he would not be easy prey. He carefully retraced the path he had taken, and when his spear did not touch anything, he knew the way was clear.

Ahead of him, something smelled. Oily, like burning fat. A moan broke through the fog, followed by a soft cackle and the squelching of something wet. Jiang Wei did not remember signs of anyone else on his way up the mountainside, nor did the noise-maker seem particularly intent on remaining hidden. Uncertain of his — or its — allegiance, Jiang Wei crept toward the shuffling and smacking, taking care to prod the air with his spear so he would not walk into something he could not see. The fog had been so dense at first that he could not make out anything past arm’s length, but as he grew closer to the sound, he could see it thin. A little more of his spear came into view, then more.

Shapes formed in the mist. Hunched and bony, and clothed like beggars in old silks, they squatted around a pile of soiled clothes that they picked at with clawed, red hands and canine teeth. Slop dripped from their jaws, and they lapped it back up with long, sinuous tongues.

The pile moaned, and as Jiang Wei neared, he saw that it was still human in shape, though soft, as though the flesh would not hold to the bones. The air no longer smelled solely of fat, but of blood as well. And the silk hat that sat atop the head of the quivering mass, the feathered fan that lay beside the body... He recognized them both.

“Prime minister!” Jiang Wei shouted.

It should not be possible. Zhuge Liang was dead. Jiang Wei had seen the placement of the body in its box himself.

He did not know what the creatures were, pale-skinned with the bodies of men and the faces of wolves, but he charged at them. It did not matter if it was six against one, not if the prime minister was alive.

The group scattered, howling, some of them on two legs, others on four. Jiang Wei had heard of beasts of such advanced age that they became demons, but despite their silk robes and the jade pendants he now saw hanging from their throats, these creatures did not give any appearance of wisdom. Just savagery.

He caught one with the blade of his spear and it writhed away with a hiss. Out of the corner of his eye he saw another leap at him, and he bludgeoned it with the butt of his weapon. His spear gave him a good reach — he often wielded one from the back of his horse, and any part of it could be used to attack or defend.

Jiang Wei dodged a slavering pair of jaws, and impaled his next assailant in the soft of the belly. He stepped back, pulling his weapon free and letting the whimpering creature fall. He had no time to rest. The tassel around the base of his spearhead bobbed and wove with every strike, blurring the movement of the blade.

One of the monsters grazed him. He could feel the blood run along his upper arm, in the gap between his forearm and shoulder guards. It felt hot, painful beyond what it should be. There had probably been filth in that creature’s nails.

And these monsters had been tearing with them into his mentor.

He didn’t know how long he had been fighting, but they kept standing up. Nothing stopped them. Not slices across the throat, holes in the gut, nor broken bones. Jiang Wei panted, feeling his head swim. If these were men they would be dead by now, but if they took just a moment’s rest, they gathered to their feet, little more than winded.

Then one of them sat back and gibbered at him as though it expected he would understand.

Jiang Wei did not let it continue. His spear buried itself just beneath the creature’s collarbone.

One of the other beasts howled, and he wrenched his spear back to block it, only to feel the blade catch. The jade pendant...

He raised his left arm and felt the creature’s crushing jaws bite down on the leather forearm guard. Jiang Wei gritted his teeth and heaved the spear with his right arm, hard enough to break the cord. He swung it over his head and jammed the point down into the monster’s back.

The wolf-thing let go of Jiang Wei and he flung it away from him. He turned to the others, but their eyes were not on him, instead watching the one who had spoken, who now scrabbled at the dirt with its long nails to grab at the fallen pendant. Triumphant, it gathered its trinket in its hands.

Jiang Wei smashed it with his spear.

“I’ll do worse,” he said.

The creature bared its teeth but did not attack, and now the others gave him a wide berth, restlessly padding from side to side.

Shoulders heaving, Jiang Wei was not certain he could live up to his words, but the pendant had obviously meant something to the wolf-thing, and if fear of losing their own pendants would encourage the others to reconsider, he was more than willing to shatter the next one to come within reach.

His enemies seemed to reach the same conclusion. They bounded back into the fog, eyeing him as they fled. The speaker shook and curled its lips, then turned its head in disgust and loped into the void.

When he could no longer hear their footsteps, Jiang Wei turned to the crumpled mass behind him.

“Prime minister!”

Jiang Wei had seen men disemboweled and mutilated on the battlefield, but never anything like this, where the very flesh had turned to sludge, and Zhuge Liang was still alive!

“Your student, Jiang Wei, is here,” he said, kneeling by his mentor.

He wanted to help him, but he wasn’t sure how. The prime minister lay face down, and his liquefying body could not be explained by wounds alone. Maybe there was something in the book he’d used. Jiang Wei had left it by the Sign of Qi, but the fog was thinning now. He would be able to find it shortly.

Battle cries rang in the distance. The ambush must have started.

His mentor murmured something Jiang Wei did not catch, so he set down his spear and steeled himself as he gripped Zhuge Liang’s shoulder. The flesh slid beneath his hand.

“Hold on. I’ll turn you over, prime minister. Shall I prop you up? I see a place you can rest.”

There was a sound he thought was assent, and he carefully lifted his mentor. The prime minister’s face was wasted, his cheeks hanging loosely from his skull, but Jiang Wei could still recognize him. He supported Zhuge Liang’s head and shoulders as he dragged him to a steep slab of stone, and tried to ignore the wet trail they left behind, the sticky dampness that seeped around his hands and into the crevices of his armor.

“You can rest here,” said Jiang Wei. “I’ll go look for my horse, and if I can’t find her I’ll go get the men... ”

“You are kind,” said the prime minister, “but what you see is no longer all of Zhuge Liang. This is only his spirit. His body is where it should be.”

“Even so, I am not leaving you to those creatures.”

The prime minister looked at Jiang Wei with eyes that could no longer see, as though someone had taken sand and scratched the color from his irises.

“I do not want you to delve further into the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan,” said Zhuge Liang. Jiang Wei did not recognize the word Hsan. It did not sound Chinese, not in any of the dialects he knew.

“I did not tell you of them because I do not want you to pay as I have. This old fool was fine with the coming of the ghouls. It is payment for a true understanding of the books.”

“Why?” Jiang Wei demanded. “Why would you do such a thing? You were already a great scholar when our First Ruler came to you, when we were still one empire beneath one emperor!”

“Jiang Wei... you know the size of Shu Han. Wei has always held the power. We could only win by out-thinking them, by using powers they could not match, and when we could, by winning over talented officers like you.”

It was not right. Jiang Wei did not know what hurt more, knowing what his mentor had bargained with, or what he had been willing to sacrifice. He squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head.

“These powers do not care about Shu,” said Zhuge Liang. “They are beyond the wars of men, but they will use us when it suits. They have already taken most of what they wished, and when the fog lifts and you are no longer beside me, they will take the rest.”

“Prime minister,” said Jiang Wei, his voice ragged. “Am I not to follow you? Is not the campaign in the north my responsibility now?”

“Would you do anything for Shu, as I have?”

Jiang Wei swallowed. “I do not know enough, and perhaps I do not wish to, but I used one of the books to call this fog, even knowing that the consequences might be dire, because I wish to protect our people.”

“Pull me up,” said Zhuge Liang. “Take me to where you wrote the sign.”

The fog was almost gone. Jiang Wei slipped an arm around the prime minister’s sagging back and draped one dripping limb across his shoulders to help support him. Together they walked. It was not comfortable, feeling the sloughing body of his mentor seep against his skin, but he would not complain.

“The Wei army is still there,” said Jiang Wei when they got to the overlook.

A part of him wanted to disbelieve. He thought the fog together with the ambush would have been enough. Only the prime minister had been able to command the elements.

“Sima Yi has often had good intuition,” said Zhuge Liang. “It will take more than a little fog to make him disbelieve the stars.”

“What more can we do?”

“You can set me down and return to your soldiers. You are leading the rear guard, are you not?”

“The rear guard should have already engaged. If Sima Yi has not retreated by now, many men will die. Though I can run to join them, I do not think that I alone could change the tide of battle. Prime minister, can you not do one more prayer? Use me as your hands if you must.”

“There is not enough of me to serve as a proper vessel,” said Zhuge Liang, “and what I did to myself I cannot ask of you. Those things you fought were once men, and if you follow this path as long as I have, you will become either them, or me. It is not enough just to read the Books of Hsan. To master them one must partake of another human’s flesh. It is a most unholy thing.”

Zhuge Liang spoke calmly, as though the matter truly was that simple, when it wasn’t at all.

“There was always flesh in abundance on the battlefield,” the prime minister noted wryly. “But there are no enemies close by you now, and I know you are not the kind of man who would slaughter his own. For both those things I am grateful.”

But Ma Yun was fighting down below, if he was still alive. Jiang Wei sagged to his knees, Zhuge Liang sliding down along with him.

“Then I will have failed,” said Jiang Wei.

Zhuge Liang shook his head. “No more than I. But I can make you an offer.” The prime minister twitched, struggling as he shifted to better face Jiang Wei. “My spirit flesh will soon be gone regardless. It is not what the books desire, but it will be enough to allow you to command the elements, just this once, for a short while.”

It was anathema. The very thought made Jiang Wei’s stomach churn.

“I asked you before,” said Zhuge Liang. “Would you do anything for Shu?”

Jiang Wei swallowed. “I would.”

“Then lay me down and pull back my robes.”

“How much?” asked Jiang Wei as he set down his mentor and tried to keep himself from shaking. His hands trembled as he loosened the prime minister’s sash and uncovered his pallid torso.

“Four mouthfuls. You must not be meek, and do not waste what you take.”

Jiang Wei wanted to turn away, but knew he could not. He had asked for this. He wanted to protect Shu, to give Ma Yun and Yang Yi a fighting chance, to save the lives of men who would otherwise be called to battle.

But still... His mentor’s pale flesh was thick and viscous, like congealed gruel. It would come away easily in his mouth even without a predator's fangs. Jiang Wei wanted to close his eyes.

He did not.

He bowed his head and tried not to think anything about the texture, the taste, only caring that each mouthful went down, and that his stomach did not reject it. This was Zhuge Liang’s sacrifice, and Jiang Wei was going to make the most of it.

On swallowing the last bite he felt sick, and hot, like he was burning, and he did not know if his earlier injury had caught up to him, or it was something in the spirit flesh.

“Now, remake the Sign of Qi,” said Zhuge Liang.

Jiang Wei did not see him anymore, did not see anything except the sigil carved in the dirt and the roiling battle in the distance. He traced it again, clearing the damage done by his horse, and cut himself without hesitation to feed the sign with blood.

Then he stood, and through the haze of heat, felt powerful, as though the prime minister was rising at his back, surrounding him, enveloping him. He didn’t need to restore the fog.

Jiang Wei spread his arms and called on the wind, blasting away the remnants of the fog and sending it hurtling northward up the canyon and through the Xiagu Pass. The gale was so strong that he could see the tiny figures of soldiers turn to face him, and in the back a rider madly wheeling about on his horse. Sima Yi.

The Wei tactician laid eyes on him, the figure on the overlook, and then turned, shouting and waving to fall back. A roar rose up from Yang Yi’s men as the Wei army fell in after its commander.

Jiang Wei wanted to smile, but he was burning, and was not certain how much of him was still standing. He needed to go back, though. He had promised Zhuge Liang that he would continue the campaign in the north, after the Shu had rested, after they had time to mourn. Jiang Wei staggered away, not seeing, only dimly aware that he had taken a horse on the way up and that he probably should look for it.

* * *

When he came to, he found himself riding in the crowded confines of a carriage. He struggled to sit up, and peered out the window. The white banners of mourning hung from the standards of nearby soldiers, and he knew that he was with the Shu army. They had withdrawn to safety. And riding beside the carriage was Ma Yun.

His friend smiled on seeing his face and brought his horse close. “You are awake! Thank Heaven!”

“You found me?” Jiang Wei asked.

“Your soldiers went looking when your horse came back without you. They said you were feverish and rambling. Was that you up on the hill? People are going to be talking for years about how a living Sima Yi ran from a dead Zhuge Liang.” Ma Yun chuckled. “I didn’t think you were going to take it seriously when I suggested putting up a wooden figure. Or did you yourself dress up as the prime minister?”

Jiang Wei looked away. “What do you think?”

Still, he was glad to see Ma Yun, to know that his dearest friend had survived.

“Probably you,” said Ma Yun, “but I’ll tell everyone that it was a wooden statue. It makes for a better story. But tell me, how did we get that wind and fog? I thought only the prime minister could call that.”

There were supposed to be no secrets between them, but Jiang Wei had never been entirely upfront with Ma Yun. He could not help wondering what his friend had been like as a woman, what made him want to live as a man, but he never asked. He sensed Ma Yun would not appreciate the intrusion, and Jiang Wei valued him too much to risk it.

So, he could not tell Ma Yun this either. At least his friend was alive. Jiang Wei wanted to believe he had saved him.

“That wasn’t me,” he said. “It was the prime minister’s final gift.”

The King of Lapland’s Daughter

Nathan Carson

I

The elder women of Kvenland peered at King Mauno through the smoke of torchlight and veils of grey braids. Their looks were shifting: one moment stern, the next ripe with disdain. The windblown skin around those eyes was cracked as the polished hide they wore which shone wherever two furs met and iron fastens failed. Those eyes saw a weak king planted where a strong queen had sat a fortnight before.

For his part, Mauno at least feigned ignore the body that ruled his hall. He had only collapsed into power of late, the first man to rule Kvenland in living memory. His focus was squarely on the exotic figure of the bishop before him, garbed in cloths and markings that still felt anachronistic, even alien in the northern wastes. Henrik’s words oft promised pots of gold, but there was something of the serpent in him.

Mauno spoke.

“Henrik, comfort me. I cannot allow my grief to undermine our defenses any longer. My queen was lost to us in her campaign to the north. She sought to protect our people, yet the only soul to return was a young shieldmaiden who babbled of ‘haystacks with blades for hands.’ So frozen was she to her steed that both bled out when we finally prised them apart.”

He shifted on his hardwood throne, swathed in rich brown furs. Red-jeweled rings on thick gold bands circled his fingers, which dug into the grips of his seat. Black pitch and bird bones were the only ornamentation on that throne.

“I sent our own village priest to do battle on the mere. Neither has he returned. The Jötunn are restless. They stir and stumble south, and our kin are in their path. Pray tell me once more how your One God can smite them!”

The bishop smoothed his raiment and raised both hands, palms forward.

“Your Majesty, it is no frost giant incursion. These are damned things from beneath the soil. Stay your sword. I need no army to command them back from whence they slumbered. Only provisions, an escort, and this…”

Henrik drew one hand to his neck, caressed and polished the silver cross on the end of his onyx rosary. Mauno placed a palm on the hilt of his great sword.

“You shall have warriors too, Henrik. This evil must be sent away. Cast it off the edge of the world, and soon. I will follow if I must. Go now, and Ukko be with you!” Suddenly his sword slid from its sheath and aimed at the firmament.

Henrik winced at the pagan blasphemy, crossed himself and stole a glance at the tiny disc of solid grey sky that beamed down from the chimney in the center of the roof above. A gust of torch smoke blotted it out; now the ceiling was nothing but rafter and shadow. The great wooden skeleton was a shelter for the surviving leadership of Kvenland. Henrik turned and exited the building’s ribcage with an entourage of hefty, bearded warriors, marching face first into the howling cold of morning. The ruling women watched them go, eyeing their firm and muscular legs.

Mauno’s gaze returned to the throng of women that flanked his court.

“It will not do,” he said. “The bishop will fail. We need a wizard. Who among you can find one?”

There were gasps, then silence and discomfort. Eyes darted, but none made reply.

“Father, I can fetch you a wizard,” said Princess Aili, stepping forward. Even in the shadows of the hall her golden hair seemed woven of summer sunlight.

Mauno’s ringed fingers clutched more desperately at the throne. Chipped nails chiseled at embedded bird beaks.

“This troubles me, Daughter, but in truth comes as no surprise. I would dissuade you, but I have spent half a lifetime with you. And with your mother. I have learned better. Take my personal guards. Bring the wizard to me. The fate of our people cannot be left to the false god of the invader. Henrik may collect taxes and bribes as well as any Birkarl — but I fear the power he wields does not extend beyond the bridge of his nose.”

“I will not fail you, Father. I would avenge my mother, our queen, as readily as you. Sooner, given my way.”

Then, turning to the court before her, “Hounds and horses! I’ll need you four and no more. We return with the wizard or sleep forever in graves of snow!”

But as she clutched the white fur cloak tighter around her strong young frame, Aili knew it would take all her wiles to convince Tähti to stand before Mauno.

II

Tähti’s bodice was laced tight in soft brown leather. The room was vault black save for the crawling runes. Sigils flickered like candlelight over every hand of wall, ceiling, and floor. A single lantern hung from a taut chain. It was the only stable object in a room that swam in darkness and firefly symbols. The blackness ebbed and rocked like a ship on autumnal tides or the stretching of a moonlit beach seen through a glass bottle bottom.

Tähti stood deep in concentration and ceremony. But that focus was broken by the sound of hoofbeats. A thick tapestry riddled with dark constellations stitched into velvet voids was drawn aside. Ice wind fled within the tower window in search of warm life to extinguish. Tähti watched Aili dismount her steed, a bodyguard at each shoulder. Both gripped cruel axes on hefty wooden poles. These two men crept out of sight in either direction. Tähti was unsure which emotion to embrace — the annoyance, the amusement, or the dagger-tip of danger. The tapestry fell back into place, slicing off the wind’s tendrils from its great invisible vastness.

Aili approached the narrow portcullis of the tower. Pale stone rose out of the groundsnow. It looked like a bleached skull with a lantern jaw. The thick wooden door behind the barred maw of the tower swung aside, but the metal gate stood fast.

“Princess Aili. You were not expected for another moon. But if you come again in friendship, then I am more than happy to extend my hospitality to you. And to your sneaking soldiers.”

“Shush, Tähti. Cannot your welcome be sincere? I have longed to see you again.” With that, Aili approached the bars, gripped them with her gloved hands, and kissed the wizard. The cold of the metal gate made her cheeks flush even as her lips bloomed with warmth and the taste of herbs and incense.

“Such sweetness,” said Tähti. “Call your dogs in from the cold. I shall welcome the three of you.”

Inside, the guards eyed Tähti with suspicion. They were clearly upset at marching in the front rather than scaling the icy back wall. Such is the folly of warriors, thought Tähti. There was a fire in the courtyard. Hot lingonberry mash, hard bread, soft cheese, and mulled wine would occupy the men while Aili held court in the tower proper. As the princess ascended the ladder, Tähti gave her rump a pat from below. A gloved hand swatted down in response, but Tähti caught it, twisted and released it in one swift motion.

In the starry chamber, Aili removed her gloves to massage her wrist, while Tähti lit an array of black candles. A small flame erupted straight from one curling fingernail. The smell of molten wax brought Aili pleasant memories. This parlor trick had impressed on her last visit. In the warm upper chamber, she clutched her robes close even as Tähti’s cloak seemed to disappear with a quick wrist flick. Next came the eyelock, and the embrace. And Aili’s robes fell unbidden. The kiss reignited the bonfire between them.

Then she broke away.

“This is not what I have come for, Tähti! Not this time. My king has need of one such as you. And you are all that I know.”

Tähti scoffed. “Since when has a king in Kvenland had any say over its subjects? Let alone an exile such as I? I cannot be bothered. My work here is of greater import than you can imagine, my dear Aili. Come without escort next time, and I will show you many wonders. My, how fair you look... ”

 Tähti’s bare hand brushed Aili’s cheek, when a distressed manscream issued in the window from without.

This time Tähti tore the tapestry from the hooks on which it hung. Aili stepped into the wind and saw one of her soldiers down below locked in dire combat with… what she could not say.

“Blast you, Aili. You did not warn me of the third man. I have defenses… ”

In the instant Tähti flicked the cloak back from nowhere to shoulders, Aili had already pulled on her gloves and rushed down the ladder.

Outside in the scattered snow, all three warriors were engaged, circling something that shambled along. An axe was embedded in its curdling side. But the only blood on the ground was red and all too human. One warrior held a withered forearm close. The hand looked shriveled, as if caked in salt. His gaze skewered Tähti with mistrust and hatred.

Another greataxe was lost to the creature’s moldy torso. But nothing seemed to slow it. The wound belched forth a bubbling liquid that froze in the air and fell as grey lumps into the white snow. Those lumps crawled together, fused, and disappeared into deeper drifts.

Aili stepped forward, bitter, determined. “Bring me my broadsword!” she called. One of the warriors sprinted toward the horses and promptly returned with her weapon.

As the fiend loomed over her men, she drew cold steel and flung aside the scabbard. Her first swing lopped off a chunk that would have left any man counting his life backward from three. She whirled for a second swing, knees bent, using the ice beneath the snow to her advantage. The great blade sunk, stuck, hit something harder than bone. Then a grey tendril snapped out and caught her wrist. The supple reindeer hide of her glove sizzled and smoked.

Tähti stepped between the mindless servant and Aili’s ponderous troop, raising arms in the air and chanting in a language that rang of dust and sunlight unknown for thousands of leagues. The creature’s body grew swollen and took on a slight glow from within, then gradually fell into submission. First Aili was released. Then the weird thing crept back into winter, leaving two crossed axes and a broadsword piled in a smooth ring of tundra. Tähti’s arms lowered.

Aili picked up her weapon. Tähti’s gaze lingered on the fresh notch in its blade.

“Curse ye, witch,” said the wounded man, glowering through clenched yellow teeth and gums that seeped blood.

“None set eyes on my watcher without uttering a cry of warning,” Tähti replied. “Such is its glamour. You should have told me there were three of you.”

Aili rubbed her wrist again, dropped her blackened glove in the snow, and gave a grim nod. A moment later, a dazzling head blow robbed the wizard of consciousness.

“Aye, but there were four of us,” said the wounded man to Tähti’s crumpled form.

“The last only kept his voice because he is mute.”

III

Mauno slept little but did much dreaming. His life had been so simple for so long. Hedda was strong, wise, beautiful. Her temper was fierce, but such was the fate of one who married a queen. He always healed — or scarred. It mattered not. Though at times she seemed far more apt to trace his scars than humor his words and desires.

The loss of her was so fresh. Too great to bear. Yet the alternative was to admit the weakness of his programming — to relinquish all and live a cold life of toil. No, it was far better to stand ready. He had watched her long enough to mirror her will.

As the dream died, he watched her ride into the northern wastes once more... then woke in a fit to a knock.

“Come,” he said as the tail of Hedda’s horse disappeared into the ceiling.

“Qu… Majesty, Princess Aili returns.”

“With the wizard?”

“She rides with five horses and five men.”

By the time Mauno was dressed and escorted to the great hall, Tähti had begun to stir and murmur. But the incantations were silenced with a crack to the jaw from the wounded man’s one good hand — a hand that now seemed doubled by the strength of its phantom twin. Tähti’s vision dissolved momentarily into a gyroscopic star field, then contracted into focus on the uninviting dawnface of Mauno.

A torchbearer stepped closer to Tähti as the examination began. A robust villager called Lalli tore away Tähti’s cloak.

Mauno leered with scorn at Tähti’s slender kneeling form. Breasts bunched into a form-fitting corset. Two lean arms with long nails were pinned back and bound. A cascade of jet-black hair ran down the full-length gown, tattered and frayed, above slender black boots.

“I ask for a wizard, and you bring me a witch?” Mauno shouted.

A guard handed him a mug of black morning tea, which he took and held steaming below the new white strands that striped his autumnleaf beard.

“Which are you, then? ‘Tis a wizard we need. Speak now.”

“Which do you fear most? For that is what I am,” Tähti answered, eyeing the one-handed man warily.

The blow came, just as expected.

“Father!” Aili strode before Mauno, still dirty from the night’s long ride. “Tähti is a wizard, and you would do well to woo this magic to aid our cause.”

Just then, the door to the hall burst open, and rays of firstdawn beamed in. A silhouette stood in the doorway. Its shape left no question — the headpiece worn by Bishop Henrik was unique in Kvenland. He stood for a second, shadow against blinding sun, then collapsed in a heap.

* * *

Henrik came to in a seat near the throne, but not on its dais. Mauno was keen that the bishop’s hat should not reach higher than his own head. It was superstition, but also something Hedda might have done. He’d mused about having the hat stolen or destroyed, just to put an end to the matter. Then Henrik regained enough of his senses to begin to babble.

“… all die. Nothing means anything. Haystacks… not haystacks. Those were its toes!”

Mauno stood. “Bishop. Where is your company? Did your One God intervene?”

Henrik looked around the room in confusion, his face a canvas stretched over a ruined frame. Finally, “The Beast! It has come for your Godless lands. Only I will survive. You soulless barbarians will be swept beneath it. Engulfed! So I bore witness in the north. The Sami showed me glyphs… ancient carvings. A whole village gone. So much blood. Not haystacks… Mountains with blades for toes!”

He looked around, begging for understanding and finding only a room full of vicissitude from those who had just begun to put faith in his cross and his beads and the lies that he believed. Scowling worst of all was a pagan girl, on her knees, dressed in black, hands bound at her back.

Tähti spoke. “You are mad, priest. As all who gaze upon the Old Ones are.” Then turning toward the throne, “Mauno. I’ll forgive your insolence once. Return me to my tower. I never trusted your queen to leave me unmolested, either, so I hid away, I studied, and I learned much. I would have kept that knowledge for myself had your daughter not thawed my heart.”

Shock grounded through the room, quick as lightning.

“In defense only of Aili and myself, I have woven magicks that keep all your people out of sight. But every instant I’m away, that veil collapses, and blind eyes turn toward you. As long as I remain here, we are all in peril.”

Mauno was silent. Considered. Decided.

“Strip the witch!”

One warrior grabbed Tähti’s hair. Another cut the black gown off with one long knifeswipe. Tähti’s tiny nipples were revealed. And well below them, something resembling a penis. And below that…

“Abomination!” cried Bishop Henrik, slowly recovering a semblance of nerve.

“So it is a wizard you’ve found us, Aili. This is an ill omen.” Mauno shook his head.

Aili stood stunned in silence.

“Kill it!” shrieked Henrik.

“Good Lalli,” said Mauno, addressing the strapping farmer who had proven his fealty. “Take Henrik to the lake and clean him up. Make him eat something.”

“My King. What of this book the witch brought?” asked Lalli. He was tall and strong, rippling arm muscles gleamed in the morning torchlight. The strength of the fields was in him. His harvest kept them from eating bark by winter.

“Burn it,” said Mauno.

“No!” Tähti screamed. “It… it cannot be undone by fire. There is only one way to be free of the magic in that book. Heed!” Tähti’s lip was split. Blood trickled down cleft chin.

Lalli flipped through the pages in the black leather volume. “It is nonsense. Gibberish from the Arab lands with perverse depictions of Pohjola etched inside.”

“And how would you rid our hall of this evil, witch?” asked Mauno.

“There is but one way. Set it in stone, wrap it in skins, cast it afloat. Only then will its evil latch onto another,” Tähti lied.

“Let it be done,” said Mauno. “As for this thing… I side with the priest. Slay it in the snow. Let its blood not touch the floor of our hall.”

At this, Aili regained her composure. Queen’s blood coursed through the princess’s veins. She stamped before the throne, faced her father, found her voice.

“Mauno! This is my prisoner. Her life is not yours to take.”

The King squirmed on the seat he had barely begun to warm. He glanced at the elder women. In those eyes he observed only contempt. A sliver of his soul missed his wife more in that moment than any that had yet come. But no. Weakness would not do. He rose and spoke, with sneering lip and shoulders slumped.

“Take it to the cellar and toss it to the bats. We must prepare for war. Death comes to our kingdom today!”

Tähti began to protest, but another swift blow brought silence. Then the wizard was dragged away, and Mauno left the hall with an escort and a simulacrum of pride.

Aili stood alone. She gazed up at the chimney as the sootsmoke sucked through it and gold light burned a halo around its edges; then she found her heart and raced outside to the prison cellar.

IV

Tähti sat bleeding in the frozen straw. There was no seeing the bat dung in the darkness, but neither could it be ignored. The stones of the cellar were built around a natural cavern in a hillside, choked in withered ivy and packed with ice. Only a thin sheet of daylight ramped in from the sturdy wooden door, alighting dust particles ached from bat bowels. Then the light departed and all was darkness; already the sound of clashing blades and hopeless fear was resounding from the village outside.

“Tähti,” came Aili’s voice in a fierce whisper.

“What trick is this, Princess? You capture me by force then come to gloat? You sold my fate as surely as you sealed that of your people.”

“My father is a fool, and mayhap you are too. But no matter — my heart still lies with you.”

“You… don’t reject me? You have seen… ”

“Yes. And I only love you the more for it. I would never be parted from you, Tähti. But our world is ending here. Please, come to my aid. I need you now.”

In the darkness, Tähti limped to the door, stumbling over old bones, and nearly retching from the smell.

“Then free me, Aili. I will do what I can to save us.”

“I have no key.”

Silence. Then, “Do you have a knife?”

“Yes.”

“Aili, to do this, I will need blood.”

A moment later, Tähti heard Aili take in a deep and sudden breath. Then a knife blade soaked in Aili’s blood issued through the slit in the door.

“Stand aside, brave princess,” said Tähti.

As Aili backed from the doorway, Tähti saw the strand of light return, stronger now as the sun rose higher in the midmorning sky.

Aili heard a chanting from within the cellar. Then her eardrums compressed as thunder clapped. The wooden door burst into charred rubble from an eruption of crackling blue energy. As the smoke dissipated, Tähti staggered out cold and naked, blinking in the daylight. Aili wrapped her great white cloak around them both. As the warm fur touched their shoulders, she gave Tähti a little pat on the rump. Tähti leaned her bruised head on Aili’s warm, forgiving shoulder.

The two stole to a nearby hut and found winter garb for Tähti. Aili bound her own knife wound with care. Then she stowed supplies in a bag and whistled for her beast. The herding dog obeyed and rushed to her side, and the three crept toward the village outskirts. None were watching. All bodies raced toward the hillcrest to watch the End come.

It was as the Bishop said. There could be no word but Mountain for that which slowly dozed its way across the landscape. Each minute it grew larger and cast its shadow longer. Where warriors crossed its path there looked to be a scuffle of brambles and blood, then nothing. Where sheep stood in its way, bones crunched through reddened wool, then nothing. And still it lurched on, misshapen patches of hillside, flesh stretched wide over the bulk of crumbling castles, eyes of inhuman size popping wide and rolling blind behind thick cataracts of mucous. It was Old. And it was Hungry. Or perhaps it knew nothing of senses, only destroying out of its own unearthly nature.

Mauno sat on horseback, in armor for the first time. A battalion of warriors rode or stood beside him.

“Where is the bishop?” he called.

“Slain, your majesty!”

“By what?”

“By Lalli. On the ice. I saw it from afar. I could not tell you why.”

“I believe I can,” said Mauno. “No matter. We shall not have reinforcement from his God. Muster your forces. Let Ukko fill our swords with thunder. Blast! How can men battle such a thing as this?”

It lumbered onward, now cracking the ice where Henrik’s body lay in a pool of frozen red. As the surface crumbled, his body fell into the water, bobbed, then sank out of sight as the lowest reaches of the Great Thing descended deeper toward the lake bottom.

“Now!” cried Mauno. “While its blades are below the waters! Archers! Send this thing back to the north and over the edge from whence it came!”

Arrows flew, for all the good they did. The archers may well have fired at the sun or the moon. And still they fired more, wasting shaft after feathered shaft.

Then, before it had reached the near side of the lake bank, the mountain stopped still before a tiny figure. There stood Lalli with a small bundle of furs in his hands, raised high above his head.

“This evil from another land I give to thee, vile thing!” bellowed Lalli. He set his parcel in a small skiff and pushed it into a channel of water between broken sheets of ice. He pressed until the water was chest high and gave the skiff a final shove, then turned to race back toward his farmland and his people. He hoped to rid the land of two evils that day.

By the time he reached Mauno, screams and moans were erupting from the villagers. For the mountain had resumed its dread crawl. Heedless of warning, it roamed onward. More and more ice broke until the causeway that reached the nearby fjord was breached. Bits of ice bobbed and flowed toward the only route of escape; as did the skiff, which cut a sharp path straight to the lake’s outlet, as though guided by invisible oars. Dark clouds bunched causing the afternoon sunlight to fail. Snow began to fall.

V

It took hours for the village to fall silent. Tähti and Aili surveyed the wreckage from the far side of the lake, watching the Old Thing’s peak disappear into the eastern horizon. The setting sun bathed the ground in magic hour glory beneath dark grey skies. Every crushed home and smeared body was vivid for that moment, soon fading into dusk. The sun crept further behind earthly mountains that had never thought to sever roots and hunt madly after human flesh. Aili’s herder whimpered.

“It sees all save us.” The Princess wept hot tears into her cold palms. “Why do we yet live?”

“For years I’ve dreamed and seen beyond, Aili. Our old ways were stories for children. And the new myths woven at the world’s belt are no better. There is but one truth. We are all doomed if such things as we have seen awaken from endless slumber and march upon us.”

“The snow shall bury this land,” said Aili. “We must go south toward hope.”

“Yes. But first, into the fjord and after that book,” said Tähti.

Aili, wracked with grief, could only nod as she unwrapped the coil of rope that moored their boat to a post on shore. She was a woman of Kvenland and knew well how to row. Her oar strokes cut the blackening water and sent them toward the outlet. The dog turned circles in the boat, not knowing where to look or cower.

Tähti scanned both banks in case the skiff with the book had been snared before it could escape. Then the current caught them and there was no more need to row. Aili settled next to Tähti with the herder huddled at their feet. They shared a fur cloak once more, hands wandering in search of comfort. The princess reached down and gave Tähti’s member a squeeze.

“I feared our trysts would have to end when it came time for me to continue our bloodline,” said Aili. “But now I’ve seen that the Queendom can live on. And with a wizard at my side.”

Their boat entered the chasm of the fjord, destruction in its wake. A quest for knowledge unknown lay ahead. And warm love spread fire within.

* * *

By night, the fjord was moonlight silent and bitter cold. They would never have survived the chill if not for the dog, Tähti’s flame, and their frantic coupling. The waters slowed; even time seemed frozen. As the moon drifted to its apex, illumination flooded down the great chasm, a pupil-less white eye trained on its unseeing self, mirrored in the black water.

Up the great rock walls on each side were clustered formations of glowing globes. At first they looked like honeycomb refractions of lunar beaming. But with each league they drifted by, the reliefs in the stone seemed more purposely, madly carven. Finally, the frieze was complete, telling a story of time and space beyond measure. Tähti reeled, knew too much. Aili closed her eyes. Then the boat stopped.

Icewhite craquelure faded into pure ivory ribbon that paved the fjordbottom-rivertop as it snaked around the next curve of crevasse. Fifty yards farther down the ice sat the skiff, the stone bundle within.

Tähti stood and began to climb out of the boat. Aili grabbed a sleeve and pulled Tähti forcefully back inside. “What is it?” she asked. “Why have we risked all for this one thing? I would like to live and love and build anew. With you.”

Tähti struggled to put into words how the hideous scrawl of ink had curled like wriggling black maggots into deepest brain recesses. “It is the Kuolledien Kirja, the Book of the Dead. You understand?”

She nodded. And shuddered. “But what should the dead want with us?”

“These things were not dead, but forever sleeping. For aeons. With this book, I… my dreams. I didn’t, couldn’t have known… But there is more knowledge still. I will close the gate!” Tähti leapt onto the ice. The dog followed, slipped, found its footing, and padded forward.

Distraught as she was, Aili was still a queen’s daughter. Her intuition screamed danger of magnitudes unimagined in her scant privileged years in Kvenland. There was only one choice, since she held no fascination for death. She picked up the oars and began to row upstream, away from her love and her horror. The muscles in her arms rippled like rope. She wondered why this course was more difficult than losing her entire village scant weeks after mother’s final crusade. Her tears froze to her face before she was half out of sight.

Across the ice Tähti moved carefully from floe to floe, eventually choosing the same path the dog had taken. A step away from the skiff, the ice began to crack. Tähti froze in place, barely breathing. The dog gave a garbled bark. Its echo throughout the fjord seemed to chip away at what semblance of reality remained. The bubble surrounding this cosmic evening burst at once, and two things happened:

Aili saw a smoldering pyre float toward her, remnants of father Mauno’s funeral skiff, which must have been following just out of sight the entire night.

And far above at chasm mouth slopped the Great Thing. Its immeasurable flank collapsed over the fjord wall, crashing down through the ice to the bottom. Yet still flesh and stone and grass and gross yawning eyes kept coming.

The resulting wave flipped Aili’s craft, and she dived bodily toward Mauno’s buoyant resting place. As she soared through the air, she saw Bishop Henrik’s corpse floating by just under the surface, a rosary in its frozen grip. Finally, Aili landed hard on her father’s pyre, gasping for the wind knocked from her, culling life-giving warmth from the dying embers.

Rolling up from the ash, she saw Tahti standing far across the ice, the black book raised skyward. She heard the chant skipping like a stone over the water. “Yog-Sothoth” was all she could decipher as words come from a human throat.

The rest of the bodies followed Henrik’s downstream. Now the waters were choked with silent gliding corpses.

The dog howled again. By now its face had elongated into a white cone ending in a stretching tentacle, a strange thing in the moonlight. A wall of Old One crept forward toward it like a waterfall of gnarled sinew and stench. In a lurching tide of catastrophal scale, Tähti went under. An eyeblink later, Aili joined her lover. Unknown to all, she had been queen of a dead race for a matter of seconds.

Bow Down Before the Snail King!

Caleb Wilson

Storks

There were only a dozen storks. But on that murky midnight, with the fire burning low and blue from the stink of vanished cities that bubbled up from beneath the plains, there might as well have been a hundred.

Charops’ drab leather outfit was somewhat beak-resistant. Not enough to make her comfortable; the horror birds were known carriers of pestilence, so filthy that their diseases bore diseases. She jumped over the furrows of fallow civilizations, stabbing wildly with her long Strategist’s knife. It was a versatile blade, but better suited to the considered application of force ten times what was needed, measured stabs in the back, and the trimming of extraneous lines from contracts than to fending off a clacking, hissing, disease-ridden flock.

Ichneumon the Weird was stumbling along somewhere behind Charops. Certain stork bait, unless the Weird could get her shit together — which made Charops furious, or maybe that feeling was sadness.

A stork exploded as a slightly larger than life-sized pink stone statue of a stork appeared inside it, displacing feathers, guts, and bone. The bloody statue hit the grass, and Ichneumon stuttered out some quavering mixture of glee and agony. That was one way to do it.

Kobius, the man-at-arms, bared his teeth and growled. He whirled a spear as he ran, slapping it up and down, the haft bouncing like a branch in a gale, gore arcing from the blade. He was wearing stork plumes on his hat, and Charops wondered, as she gasped for breath, if he had found them already detached from their original owner. Either way, it seemed that the storks had taken offense at Kobius’ choice of attire.

As for Loron, whose skimpy linen robe seemed so ill-suited for travel outside the courts and couches of Zend... Loron leapt along lightly as a dried leaf.

May we all age so gracefully as Loron.

The Municipal Expedition

Loron, that notorious old poet and flatterer, had found evidence of a treasure hidden in the south. As was the right of every citizen of Zend, Loron petitioned the King’s Vizier to launch an expedition of recovery, with any proceeds to be split evenly between himself and the crown. The Plaster Eminence granted Loron’s petition, though she must not have thought highly of his chances. If she had, she would have authorized a bigger expedition.

The municipal companions were Charops, a Strategist of low rank but high promise; Ichneumon the Weird, whose unsettling presence meant she was sent away from Zend as often as possible; and the man-at-arms Kobius. Kobius had survived the flock of storks they met two weeks south of Zend, but not the sting from the invisible asp he stepped on five days later. His corpse lay beneath a cairn, unless jackals had found him. Charops wondered how long it would be until she forgot his name.

Four weeks south of Zend and Havernar, the expedition finally arrived at the dry river valley marked on Loron’s map. According to the map (according to Loron, who refused to show anyone else the map), the “Hall of the King of Snails” was tucked away at the far end.

Charops felt the weight of the plains behind her as a haunted presence, stretching north many leagues to the mountains that guarded the cradle of civilization.

Ghastly thought: when they were done here, they’d have to cross the plains again, in the other direction.

Hieroglyphs

Loron had disappeared along the tree line to their left. Charops was more interested in two mossy pillars of stone, almost hidden behind the laurels.

“That’ll put a pause in their parade. Blood under my sandals. Ah, a gate, until... ” said Ichneumon. She was wearing her customary outfit of red brocaded cloak, red smock, red shoes with long, curled toes, and red skullcap. Short yellow braids stuck out from under the cap.

“A gate until what?” Charops asked. Ichneumon’s conversation tended to suffer when she was distracted. “And where’s Loron?”

“The statue just splitting. I really didn’t know it would just... the ankle would just crack. And that it would all start to fall. Sorry. I mean, these pillars used to be part of a gate.”

“Until... ?”

“Until history. Sorry about the screaming. I think he’s over there.”

Ichneumon gestured vaguely, and a moment later Loron stuck his head out between the trees.

“It’s this way. The map is quite clear. Are you coming, or are you coming?”

“Hey, hieroglyphs!” said Ichneumon, pointing to carvings arranged inside a vertical cartouche on the pillar.

“Can you read them?”

Ichneumon scraped back moss with her fingernails. “Sure. Old Lesathi. The name of a plant. I think. The statue had hieroglyphs carved on its face, you know. Impossible to drop that.”

“What plant is it?”

“Never heard of it. I don’t know if it has a name in Zendian. It would be something like... shell oak? It might not actually be an oak. Might not be a plant at all.”

“I’ll be over here,” called Loron, “waiting for you at the hall, which is where you’ve been hired to take me, which is marked on my map — ”

“Yes. A moment,” said Charops.

“— waiting, impatiently —”

Strategist and Weird forged between the pillars into a choked clearing where the sun shone over mounds of greenery, a battlefield where nature had long since triumphed. The air was still, hushed as the dreams of graveyard statues. There had been a town here, or something like a town, but the buildings, all unbuilt by history, weren’t buildings any more, just sunken foundation holes, or corner stones and shed roof tiles hidden under quilts of vines.

Charops didn’t see much to catch her eye at first. But a lot that’s worth seeing must first be uncovered. Like this: a wooden wagon lay beneath the weeds. The boards were worm-eaten and soft with rot. Charops poked at them with her boot.

“Look, the wheel has been removed,” said Charops.

“Interesting,” said Ichneumon. “Not in itself, I mean — wagons are boring — but the decomposition, or lack of it; I mean, this wagon can’t have been here for all that long or it would have rotted away completely. A decade, maybe? He was just flattened, you know, blood came shooting out his sleeves, you know? Ah, damn, I mean to say, considering that the rest of this place is antique, it’s interesting. The wagon. Everything was sliding into the pit. I mean, I’ll bet nobody’s put old Old Lesathi hieroglyphs into stone in five hundred years. Except Weirds in the Folly.”

Charops saw another shape, longer and lower than the wagon, also hidden under the vines. Ripping back the vines like she was yanking the blankets away from some bedchamber indiscretion, she revealed a fallen obelisk of stone.

“Ooh!” Ichneumon bent over the obelisk and its more extensive hieroglyphs, while Charops sat on the edge of the wagon and considered the overcast sky.

Ichneumon was muttering to herself.

“What do they say?”

“There was a town here, or perhaps ‘outpost’ is the better word. It was founded... ”

Ichneumon counted years and dynasties, moving her lips slightly. Ichneumon the Weird was less horrifying than most of her colleagues, at least in Charops’ opinion. Most people who weren’t her great friends and traveling companions didn’t share this opinion. Her eyes had the eerie blankness exhibited by anyone who made a practice of fooling the universe into doing magic. Charops knew it made mundane calculations difficult, when each instance of magic produced over a whole lifetime of chicanery had to be remembered, lest the universe take everything back and the Weird’s soul was set to burning like a rancid candle, as all the magic she’d ever performed was reversed in a split second.

“Four hundred and eight years ago. Or seven, or nine. Depends on —”

“Don’t worry, doesn’t matter,” said Charops. “And apart from that?”

Ichneumon ran her forefinger over the stone. “They were concerned about... the ‘flow of time.’”

“Meaning what?”

“Can’t tell. Here’s it says ‘shell oak’ again. The way the pit just opened up beneath them, it was like, like a wound. Like a sword cutting through parchment. Sorry. Ah, it seems this place was called Shell Oak Landing.”

“And what do you mean, ‘concerned about’?”

“They keep mentioning it, is all,” said Ichneumon. “Ah ha. Loron’s map was accurate. Separate from Shell Oak Landing is the Hall of the King. It’s farther along this way. And there; I think that heads down to what used to be the river. Choked on water, the water was like iron, like a chain of iron, a metal eel sliding down his throat. Says here, a ‘sacrificial’ hall.”

“Sacrificial.”

“That’s what it says. The Hall of the Snail King. ‘Sacrificial’ might have some other connotation here.”

“Not really too many things that word can mean,” said Charops.

“No.”

“Bearing some connection to this ‘shell oak,’ whatever that is? What exactly are we walking into here?”

“... Hieroglyphs are pretty ambiguous,” said Ichneumon.

Epigrams

Ichneumon smiled suddenly.

“What’s funny?”

“I almost forgot,” said the Weird. She pulled a scroll from one of her dozens of pockets. “I found it in Loron’s pack last night. Might be... oh, the statue, it just exploded out of the stork’s lungs, it starts the size of a pea. And in the end, it’s bigger than the stork.”

“Let’s see.”

Charops unrolled the scroll. At the top was written “The New Epigrams of Loron,” and below that were further lines of Loron’s flowing script.

“Ah,” said Ichneumon, “could be better than I thought! It’s not murder, is it? Self-defense, isn’t it? The whole town buried under ash, but I rang the bell first. Fair warning. Uh, let’s hear them.”

Charops read the first epigram out loud.

Ichneumon said, “Maybe he’s gotten tired of being a flatterer?”

Charops read another.

Ichneumon said, “Who are these people?”

“Rich people. They’re his patrons. They were his patrons.”

And surely these weren’t the sort of commemorative verses they had in mind.

Ichneumon grinned. “The weasel!”

“Actually, I’ve met Aurigula,” said Charops. “He might be even more unpleasant than Loron.”

Charops frowned.

Ichneumon laughed. “That’s... fairly accurate. Backward into the edge of the altar, so her spine snaps. Hey, keep reading. Is there one about me?”

“Yes, don’t worry,” said Charops.

“What do you think?”

Ichneumon laughed and laughed. It was not a sound that would reassure anyone about her general claim to humanity.

“When we get back, I’m going to invite him to tour the Folly of the Weirds,” she said. “Are there more?”

“Here’s a sort of, well... ”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t wondered what’s under that mask of hers,” said Ichneumon. “I think I’m starting to warm up to our genius.”

“And, ah, the last one. Ouch.” said Charops.

“Hmm,” said Ichneumon. “Now that’s not very subtle. The statue’s arm, stone, you know, black granite, chopped down, just smashed him. It wasn’t what they had in mind, but they had to let me in after that, right?”

A strange feeling was coming over Charops. “These weren’t written by someone with any intention of rejoining Zend’s social life.”

If Loron wasn’t planning on going back to Zend, what did he want out here, in this pit of nowhere?

Ichneumon shrugged. “Some people are just asses, though, right? Pardon the blood.”

Charops let go of the scroll and it rolled itself up. She rubbed her chin, thinking of the venomous quill that had written such words. Some people are asses, and some asses kick their masters. Sometimes they have a reason, and sometimes they don’t need one.

Shell Oak Landing

A path led through the foliage, away from the obelisk. It was long abandoned, but for decades, not centuries. They passed a row of ancient statues, men, women, children, all bearing snail shells in place of heads. The statues’ arms, where they hadn’t been snapped off, were raised, pointing ahead. Ichneumon made a scoffing noise.

The trees stopped, leaving a margin between the leaves and a narrow stone facade built into a cliff. The facade was shaggy with lichen, bulging outward where stones had shifted. There were no windows, only a doorway leading inside.

Just within, Loron pored over his map in the light of the doorway. He looked up as Charops and Ichneumon arrived, his countenance sagged and flushed from decades of wine-soaked decadence. He rolled up his map.

“Well, this is it. Open it, will you?”

Charops lit a torch and saw what he meant: this cramped entry would have led farther inside to a much larger room, but for a sturdy metal grating set opposite the outer door. The grating was rigged with chains that ran up into a pair of shafts in the ceiling. To the left side was a squared beam, on which was set what appeared to be the missing wheel from the wagon back below.

“Ah, yes,” said Charops.

“Er, no,” said Loron. “I’m more keen on what’s inside.”

“A defensive portcullis.” Charops touched the grate gingerly. “Very solid.”

“But the turn-wheel is on the outside,” said Ichneumon.

“Exactly,” said Charops. “Why?”

“Something dangerous inside,” said Ichneumon. “To which they wanted access, and which they didn’t want to get out. Don’t slip. Viscera.”

“Right,” said Charops. “A treasure guardian? What’s your information say about it?” she asked the poet.

“Ah... It’s dead now!” announced Loron. “It must be. If there even is an it. Which I very much doubt. And if there is an it, an it besides the awesome and fabulous treasure that we know is here, because” — he slapped his map tauntingly. “I feel confident you can kill it. Just open this grate, will you? I’d do it myself but I don’t have your… brute strength.” He leered.

Charops turned the wheel. It cracked, black rot puffing out from the joins. She added a bit of strength and the spokes all snapped at once, like a kicked ribcage. The whole contraption came falling off the beam, swinging uselessly in a tangle of rusted chains.

“Hell!” said Loron, leaping backward like a young goat. “What’d you do that for!”

“Are you curious why I haven’t insisted already on seeing your ridiculous map?” asked Charops. “It’s because I think you, and it, are equally full of shit.”

Loron smiled, bug-eyed. “Of course I am. But the map is accurate.”

“Don’t tell me about your map.”

“The map was drawn and annotated by an Imbian exile a decade ago,” said Loron. “He found this hall, having recently been abandoned, so quickly that the owners could not take —” He pursed his lips. “Very sneaky.”

“I said don’t,” said Charops. “Do I look like the kind of person who would say the opposite of what she really wants? A cheerless sour cherry like me?”

Loron dropped his satchel and searched frantically through it for several seconds, then stopped with a hitch and leaned casually against the grating.

“Jokes, my dears. Silly, foolish japery, nothing more. Satire! No offense intended. Now, how are we going to get... through... here?” He pinged a yellowed fingernail against the metal.

The Hall

Ichneumon crouched beside the grating and whispered a curse that made the stones and bars forget that a ninety-degree angle was square. Wavering on her hands and knees, her face pale and flushed in blotches, she found an impossible gap between the angles. She forced the gap wider, like feeding medicine to a wolf. Sweat dripped from her fingertips. Ask her just then what was ten times twelve and she couldn’t produce an answer.

“Hurry, you rancid old rutabaga,” Charops told the poet. “No offense intended.”

After Ichneumon rolled last through the gap and shakily regained her feet, the world slunk back into place. Charops averted her eyes; it was always embarrassing to see the world ooze back, like it was ashamed, after such a casual denial of its immutability.

“This is it,” said Loron. “The Hall of the King of Snails.”

A sour empty room, beneath the cliff. The roof was supported by an octagonal column that split into innumerable vaults, up in the shadows. There was a bracket for a torch, so Charops put hers into it and lit another. The walls were lined with boxes and crates, decayed apart to reveal... not much of anything. Charops kicked through what was basically trash. There was nothing heavy, and heavy meant valuable when it came to treasure.

She turned to Loron: “There’s nothing here, now are you hap— ” But Loron wasn’t where he had been. She turned further and saw the old goat running across the floor toward the still-shadowed rear of the room. The hall was bigger than she had thought on first entering. She followed him, the flicker of flames casting poor light ahead of her. It felt like she was tracking something in a bad dream it would have been wiser to wake from. Glancing back, she marked the red of Ichneumon’s robes, where the Weird was still slumped against the central column, looking likely to collapse at any moment.

A bark of laughter emerged from the darkness. What was that hateful old man up to?

The Snail King

Charops found Loron at the far end of the hall, climbing up into a throne carved from a soft gray-green material like soapstone. Its lines were curved and its substance slippery, and Loron was having trouble getting into it. Charops saw little harm in letting him sit there for a few moments, before yanking him down and beating out of him what, exactly, he had expected to find here.

Loron finally seated himself, his thin legs bouncing like a child’s. From his satchel he pulled out a flimsy crown. The metal was either green itself or was scaled with verdigris. Loron placed it over his greasy white curls and faced Charops with a nasty smile that snapped into existence like the springing of a trap.

It was a ridiculous little crown, with two bulbed horns at the temples like, ah, thought Charops, yes — like the eyestalks of a snail.

Loron pointed at Charops, opened his mouth. Say something stupid, Charops commanded him silently, and Loron’s false teeth flashed in the torchlight.

“Bow down before the Snail King!”

Charops blinked. She looked behind her, a faint smile on her lips. She could picture Ichneumon rolling her eyes, but where was the Weird? Ichneumon had shinned up the column, like a child going after a coconut, a ball of flickering light around her from the torch she was holding between her teeth. There were further hieroglyphs up the sides of the column. Nothing like hieroglyphs to drag the Weird out of a muddled stupor.

“Bow down!”

Charops gave her attention to Loron, cocked an eyebrow.

“You heard me! You would not want to test my powers, Strategist!”

What powers?

“Master,” cried Ichneumon, “over the flow of time!”

Weeks later, after Charops and Ichneumon had made it back to Zend, unaccompanied by their ward, they were finally able to untangle the confusion. They tracked down the Imbian exile who had visited the Hall of the Snail King, whose map and account Loron had stumbled upon. Loron had misunderstood the matter terribly. The Snail King was not master, but sacrifice.

Craquelure

The grinding of a stone slab, snapping up and open in a second. From behind it came a squelching sound. It grew louder. Loron faced the opened slab, face and neck frozen. Shadows pooled out, and with them a rotten odor. Charops tried to snatch up her knife. Her arm flopped like a dead thing. She released the torch from her other hand, saw it flick down toward the floor, strike the stone, then bounce back up, revolving like a spinneret. A black hump presented itself in the shadowed doorway, then pressed out beneath the slab. A bulging snail shell, half again Charops’ height, came gliding over the stone toward Charops and Loron.

Shell Oak, inexorable. Two soft, sticky horns, long as Charops’ arm, guided its way. On the end of each was a bulbous black eye. It wanted Loron first. Its shell swayed as its foot, a glistening mat of black and yellow muscle, propelled it over the uneven floor. The snail was moving without speed, but Charops found that she had no speed either. The flow of time had turned to mire, all that was frantic and alive, all the hop and squiggle of the “atoms” spoken of by the Weirds, leached away in the presence of the giant snail.

There never was any treasure to be found in the hall. No kind of treasure, except that coveted by a glacial alien mind. Fear, flesh, souls; all three, churned up into a piquant slurry.

A few months later, Charops and Ichneumon lay on adjacent couches, the air stratified in the pleasure den like sedimentary stone: at the bottom was a layer of clear air, above that, a smoky haze, and above that, a glittery, crystal-hued gas. It was the kind of evening where Charops kept crouching for clarity, and Ichneumon craning up toward oblivion.

“What was it, though, I mean, I keep wondering, from your closer vantage, a whirlpool, you know what I’m talking about, what did you see, exactly, when you looked in its eyes? Madness? Some bizarre soul?” Perhaps Ichneumon had breathed too deeply of the exhilarating crystalline gas.

In a convulsive gesture, Charops sank her fingers in around the perimeter of a sour peach and then ripped the pale lavender flesh apart.

“Of course not,” she said. “Souls are invisible.”

“What, then?”

Charops considered the strangely dry peach pit in her hand. Tufts of pinkish flesh clung to the pit, which was ridged and grooved like... Like... You could follow those grooves down forever. Well, no.

“I saw... rest. Time. Seconds, minutes. Enough time to finally rest. Hours. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an hour before. I always thought they were invisible too.”

“You can rest now. There’s time. Gods, the way... Hours of it.” Ichneumon drained a flute of wine green as grass. “We’re resting now. The way his skull melted. Right now.”

“Yes,” said Charops. “It almost does seem like that, doesn’t it?” Ages passed, then: “You probably know what I keep wondering. Why weren’t you affected by it?”

“Dear,” said Ichneumon, “I have so many things on my mind, I can’t concern myself with that kind of nonsense. Time can’t actually be slowed like that, so I just ignored the fact that it seemed to be.”

Its foot rippled as Shell Oak advanced. It reached the throne, horns drawing inward for protection. The shell tilted backward as it bowed up and over. The brutal wedge of its foot folded over Loron, and the erstwhile Snail King emitted a muffled shriek as the snail backed up, dragging him with it. Loron vanished under the foot. Trickles of blood crept like flickering fingers toward the torchlight.

Shell Oak turned, elegant as a ship, toward Charops. Its horn was extended, wet like some horrific gland. Charops’ voice: “Ichnuu-u-u-u-u-maaaaahhhnnn — ”

A reek belled before Shell Oak, carried not by a breeze but an envelope of air that moved with it. The shell green and black, ornate with craquelure, shaggy old growth, and old filth. In the hollows where the shell rode away from the foot was a dark red wetness.

Years later, just after Charops betrayed the city of Zend to its doom, she remembered this moment. She remembered every stab in the back, every backdated execution order. Standing over the abyss, the bricks of the shattered towers still bouncing down the walls in their clouds of dust, screams still rising, she wondered if she were a monster. Why do monsters devour their prey? She was not a monster, because monsters only eat when they are hungry. She was much worse.

She thought of Shell Oak, tricked away from its homeland. Transplanted by desperate priests from the southern coast of Lesath, carried north on barges along rivers that had long since dried up, and for centuries sheltered and fed at the distant landing, because the normal human reaction to Shell Oak was Get It Away! Shell Oak was like Charops. It didn’t crush its prey because it was hungry. It had a strong, if dull, intelligence. It wanted to know what happened to things when it crushed them. And its foot was also its mouth, so... If it could, Shell Oak would crush the world just to satisfy the itch of curiosity. Curiosity: Charops wondered what had happened to old what’s-her-name. A weird one, for sure, though the name refused to come to mind. Charops’ mind was in terrible shape. The only old companion she could remember by name was Kobius, whose bones by then must have been spread for miles across the plains...

Shell Oak glided over Charops’ left foot. She sank to the ground beneath the weight. Her leg was under it now, pressed between stone and its greasy bulk. It slid forward over her right leg, which Charops had flung to the side to avoid being crushed. She could not avoid it. The soft edge of the foot rolled up her body. She felt her skeleton creak, her innards compressing, distorting.

The light was gone. Pressed blind between planes of glue and of stone, Charops found Loron’s arm, ripped loose and stuck to the snail’s lubrication. The slipperiness of its foot allowed her to move sideways, and, once she got her hands and wrists at the right angle, to crawl onto her hands and knees. There was a gap under the snail’s foot, but the slime was drowning her, and there was something caustic in its composition. Eyes closed tight anyway since there was nothing to be seen, the flesh of the snail heaped up over her like a grave mound. From her hands and knees, Charops began to press upward, moving into the snail from beneath. Not a gap, a mouth.

Charops unfurled upright past knobs of bone, directly into Shell Oak’s gullet. What had been black was now laced with gray. Not a good sign. Her fingers, burning and weak, found Loron’s crunched and shattered body, and she climbed up it like a tree. She was standing now, snail flesh pressing in on all sides. It was not fierce, there was no strength to it, yet it was unavoidable as a flood.

Her fingers closed around her knife and she began to stab. Not a stratagem in her mind. The corpse of Loron was pressed into her arms as close as a lover, and now she felt him struggling against her. He wasn’t dead, his lips were at her ear, he was whispering something to her, and she struck at him, so slowly, near paralyzed, her hands a mess of blood and slime. Loron was dead. She was dancing with a puppet of chance.

Think, think! But there are some problems you can’t think your way out of.

Weird

There was a reason Weirds and Strategists always traveled in pairs. From some other world there came a knocking. The darkness split and there was air again, and light, a rupture opening in the congealed slime that was the snail’s innards. Charops’ heart was thundering now, she could feel each beat, time dripping and sputtering like ice-melt. She stepped up out of the broken shell. Shell Oak was dead, the slow creep of time released from its glue. Ichneumon stood still for a second, one hand flung to the throne to keep her from keeling over.

“The statue, it just fell apart,” she said. “I weakened it, I did that, I know that, but I didn’t mean to, and I didn’t know he was the Head Weird. I didn’t mean to crush him like that, the blood, I didn’t mean any of it. I was only eight. It’s not easy to become a Weird, you know. You have to force your way into the Folly. I didn’t mean to kill him.”

The ground in a circle around Shell Oak, stretching out ten feet on each side of its shattered shell, was black with soot. A web of charred marks. Charops wiped ooze and ichor from her eyes, and then collapsed.

“I weakened the shell. I let a little anger into it. Sorry if it was too much. Was it too much? Are you all right?” Ichneumon leaned in close over Charops like a doctor observing a corpse that can no longer bite, her red clothes splattered with slime.

“No.”

Recommended Reading List

The following is by no means an exhaustive survey of the field, but simply represents some favorites of both the editors and contributors. The cosmic horror elements range from the fleetingly light to the overt and overwhelming, with the one common element being they are all worth checking out.

Comics

Berserk

Claymore

Conan

Heavy Metal

Oglaf

Orion

Rat Queens

Red Sonja

“Sword of the Reanimator” by Junji Ito

Fiction

Far Away & Never by Ramsey Campbell

The Necromancer Chronicles series by Amanda Downum

Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology edited by Milton J. Davis and Charles R. Saunders

The Night Land by William Hope Hodgeson

Nameless Cults: The Cthulhu Mythos Fiction by Robert E. Howard, as well as plenty of individual stories, such as “The Slithering Shadow” and “The People of the Black Coast”

The Heretic Land by Tim Lebbon

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series by Fritz Leiber

“Masquerade of a Dead Sword” by Thomas Ligotti

The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft

The House of Cthulhu by Brian Lumley

The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton

The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock

Jirel of Joiry by C. L. Moore

Sword and Mythos edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula Stiles

A Land Fit for Heroes series by Richard K. Morgan

Imaro by Charles R. Saunders

In Yana, The Touch of Undying, and the Nift the Lean books by Michael Shea

The Collected Fantasies 1-5 by Clark Ashton Smith

Darkness Weaves, Bloodstone, and Dark Crusade by Karl Edward Wagner

Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

Magazines

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Innsmouth Free Press

Strange Aeons

RPGs and Board Games

Carrion Hill (Pathfinder Module)

Cave Evil

Chaos in the Old World

Cthulhu Invictus (Call of Cthulhu supplement)

The Complete Dreamlands (Call of Cthulhu supplement)

The Dying Earth

Swords Against the Outer Dark

  Video Games

Black Knight Sword

Bloodborne

Crawl

Darkest Dungeon

Demon’s Souls/Dark Souls series

Diablo series

Dragon Age series

Eldritch

Heretic/Hexen series

Inquisitor

Lords of the Fallen

Planescape: Torment

Shadow of the Colossus

Author Biographies

Natania Barron is a word tinkerer with a lifelong love of the fantastic. She has a penchant for the speculative and has written tales of invisible soul-eating birds, giant cephalopod goddesses, gunslinger girls, and killer kudzu, to name just a few. Her work has appeared in Weird Tales, EscapePod, Steampunk Tales, Crossed Genres, Bull Spec, and various anthologies. Her debut novel, Pilgrim of the Sky, was called “... a lush, dreamy fable — both vintage gothic, and modern mystery ... lovingly laced with magic and darkness from start to finish” by Cherie Priest. When not venturing in imagined worlds, she can be found in North Carolina, where she lives with her family.

Eneasz Brodski lives outside Denver with his wife and their two dogs. He was raised in an apocalyptic sect of Christianity, which has heavily influenced his writings. He produces a podcast of Rationalist fiction at hpmorpodcast.com, and blogs at deathisbadblog.com. His short work has previously appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, and he is currently working on a novel based upon this very story (“Of All Possible Worlds”).

Jesse Bullington is the editor of the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated anthology Letters to Lovecraft, and wears the influence of the Gentleman from Providence on the pages of his fiction. Under his own name he has published the weird historical novels The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, The Enterprise of Death, and The Folly of the World, and under the pen name Alex Marshall he has released A Crown for Cold Silver and A Blade of Black Steel, the first two volumes in his epic dark fantasy trilogy The Crimson Empire. He has published numerous short stories, some of them Mythos-themed, as well as various articles and reviews; a full bibliography can be found at jessebullington.com.

Nathan Carson is a writer and musician from Portland, Oregon. He is a founding member of the internationally touring doom metal band Witch Mountain. When not on the road, Carson’s byline can be found in Willamette Week and Noisey. Decades after discovering Lovecraft through the early eighties roleplaying scene, he has recently sat on panels at NecronomiCon, Cthulhucon, Bizarro Con, and Living Dead Con. His weird fiction has been published by Word Horde and lauded in Rue Morgue. A debut novella, Starr Creek, will be published in 2016 by Lazy Fascist Press.

Michael Cisco is the author of many novels, including The Divinity Student, The Great Lover, and The Narrator. His stories have appeared in The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases, Blood and Other Cravings, Lovecraft Unbound, Black Wings vol. 1, and Aickman’s Heirs, among other titles. His latest novel is Animal Money. Michael Cisco lives and teaches in New York City.

Andrew S. Fuller grew up climbing trees and reading books, later dabbling in archery, occult studies, paleontology, theater, and heavy metal. His works include fiction in the magazines On Spec, Crossed Genres, Daily Science Fiction, The Pedestal; the anthologies FISH, Bibliotheca Fantastica, and A Darke Phantastique; the novelette The Circus Wagon; and the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival awardee screenplay Effulgence. He’s edited Three-Lobed Burning Eye magazine since 1999. He lives and writes in Portland, Oregon. You can find him online at andrewsfuller.com and Twitter @andrewsfuller.

A. Scott Glancy had played the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game for decades before co-authoring Delta Green, a gaming supplement that marries the gritty spy thrillers of John le Carré with the cosmic horrors of H. P. Lovecraft. He joined Pagan Publishing in 1998 to work full-time developing new Call of Cthulhu products. Delta Green remains his first love. Little is known of Mr. Glancy’s career plans prior to his joining Pagan Publishing, save for his cryptic references to the collapse of Soviet Communism as “the day those drunken Bolsheviks fucked my employment plans into a cocked hat.”

Orrin Grey is a skeleton who likes monsters. He’s also the author of Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings and Painted Monsters & Other Strange Beasts. His stories about monsters, ghosts, and sometimes the ghosts of monsters, have appeared in dozens of anthologies, including The Best Horror of the Year, and he (ir)regularly writes about horror movies and other nonsense at orringrey.com. When he was a kid, he read every Choose Your Own Adventure book he could get his hands on. This may have had some effect on him...

Jason Heller is the author of the alt-history novel Taft 2012; the Goosebumps tie-in Slappy’s Revenge; and the Pirates of the Caribbean tie-in The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook. He’s the former nonfiction editor of Clarkesworld and won a Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine as part of that editing team. His science fiction/fantasy/horror short stories have appeared in Apex Magazine, Farrago’s Wainscot, Sybil’s Garage, Expanded Horizons, and others, and he’s the co-editor of Hex Publishers’ Cyber World anthology. He’s a 2009 graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, and he writes about genre fiction for NPR, Clarkesworld, and The Onion A.V. Club (where he’s a Senior Writer). His writing on speculative fiction has also appeared in Weird Tales, Entertainment Weekly, at Tor.com, and in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s The Time Traveler’s Almanac. Jason lives in Denver with his wife, Angie.

Jonathan L. Howard is the author of the Johannes Cabal, Russalka Chronicles, Goon Squad, and Carter & Lovecraft series. He is in no way haunted by horrors beyond the Abyss, and there are perfectly good reasons why he is usually to be found sitting in darkened rooms, speaking in a buzzy voice. He just doesn’t care to go into them right now, that’s all. He lives near Innsmouth with a pack of Deep Ones. He lives near Bristol with his wife and daughter. He did live in York for ten years and nothing supernatural ever happened there. Except that one time.

John Hornor Jacobs is the author of Southern Gods, This Dark Earth, The Twelve-Fingered Boy, The Shibboleth, The Conformity, The Incorruptibles, and Foreign Devils. He makes his home in the South of America. You can learn more about him at JohnHornorJacobs.com or on Twitter @johnhornor.

John Langan is the author of two collections of stories, The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies (2013) and Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (2008), and a novel, House of Windows (2009). With Paul Tremblay, he has co-edited Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters (2011). Forthcoming in 2016 is a new collection, Sefira and Other Betrayals. He is one of the founders of the Shirley Jackson Awards, for which he served as a juror during its first three years. He teaches classes in creative writing and Gothic literature at SUNY New Paltz. He lives in upstate New York with his wife, younger son, a trio of ambitious dogs, and a trio of suspicious cats.

L. Lark is a writer and artist living in Portland, Oregon, who is prone to daydreaming and sunburns. She especially enjoys writing about ghosts, old houses, and all manners of eldritch abomination. Links her to projects and publications may be found at l-lark.com.

Remy Nakamura grew up in Greece, the United States, and Japan, near the graves of young people felled by spear, handgun and atomic bomb. He has dressed a body in burial clothes and handled the burned bones of his grandfather. He writes about foodie zombies, mushroom maidens, and Prohibition-era witch hunters. He is currently trapped in the terrifying suburban mass of Orange County, California, just a few miles from the so-called "Happiest Place on Earth."

Carlos Orsi is a Brazilian writer and journalist. His horror and sf short stories have won some of the major awards for speculative fiction in his native country. In English, his work has appeared in places as diverse as Crypt of Cthulhu and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. He lives in the state of São Paulo with his wife Renata and Violet, a big, mysterious cat that probably hails from Ulthar.

M. K. Sauer lives in Boulder, Colorado, where she owns a coffee shop and spends entirely too many hours of the day caffeinated. She received a degree in Russian Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Believing that everyone should have at least one party trick, she has finally decided that hers is talking about Stalin for three hours straight. She has self-published her novel Star-Crossed: The Confounding Calamities of Byron the Cad and Marietta the Zombie; you can find it on her website mksauer.com.

A resident of the dark and frozen reaches of northern England, Ben Stewart is an aspiring writer who cites the pulp greats like Howard, Lovecraft, Wagner, and Burroughs as his main influences. He is an inveterate geek with a love of Japanese kaiju movies, superhero comics, and miniature wargaming, but despite this he’s somehow married with three kids. Ben has had a handful of his short stories published in various anthologies, though his ultimate goal of actually completing a novel-length work still eludes him.

Molly Tanzer’s debut novel, the steampunk weird western Vermilion, was an NPR Best Book of 2015. She is also the author of the British Fantasy and Wonderland Book Award-nominated collection A Pretty Mouth, the cocktail-themed collection Rumbullion and Other Liminal Libations, and the historical crime novel The Pleasure Merchant. She is also the co-editor (with Nick Mamatas) of the forthcoming flash fiction and cocktail recipe gift book Mixed Up!, due out in late 2017. Molly lives in Boulder, Colorado, where she mostly writes about fops arguing with each other. She tweets @molly_the_tanz, and blogs — infrequently — at mollytanzer.com, where her full bibliography can be found.

E. Catherine Tobler has never banded together with other lady fighters to put down or accidentally free an ancient evil — unless it was on a D&D board. Her fiction has appeared, among other places, in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and on the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award ballot. You can find her online at ecatherine.com and @ecthetwit.

Jeremiah Tolbert is a writer, web designer, and sometimes photographer. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with his wife and son.

Laurie Tom is a third-generation Chinese American. She was introduced to the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms via the video game series, and only read the book much later. She apologizes to Zhuge Liang for never defeating Wei in the Northern Expeditions, as her player avatar had other ideas. Laurie’s fiction has appeared in other anthologies, including Streets of Shadows and The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk.

Carrie Vaughn is the author of the New York Times bestselling series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty. She also writes for young adults (her novel Steel was named to the ALA’s 2012 Amelia Bloomer list of the best books for young readers with strong feminist content), for the Golden Age superhero series, and other contemporary fantasy novels. She’s a contributor to the Wild Cards series of shared-world superhero books edited by George R. R. Martin, and her short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. She’s a graduate of the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop, and in 2011 she was nominated for a Hugo Award for best short story. An Air Force brat, she survived her nomadic childhood and managed to put down roots in Boulder, Colorado, where she lives with her fluffy attack dog, a miniature American Eskimo named Lily. Visit her at carrievaughn.com.

Wendy N. Wagner is a Hugo Award-winning short fiction editor, as well as a writer. Her short stories have appeared in over thirty publications, including the anthologies Cthulhu Fhtagn!, She Walks in Shadows, and The Way of the Wizard, and the magazines Farrago’s Wainscot and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. She is also the author of Starspawn (August 2016), the sequel to Skinwalkers, both Pathfinder Tales novels. She lives with her very understanding family in Portland, Oregon, and you can keep up with her at winniewoohoo.com.

Caleb Wilson’s stories have appeared in Weird Tales, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Ironic Fantastic, and Horror Without Victims. He also designs and writes interactive fiction. He and his wife live in Illinois.

Published by Stone Skin Press 2016

 Stone Skin Press is an imprint of Pelgrane Press Ltd. Spectrum House, 9 Bromell’s Road, Clapham Common, London, SW4 0BN.

 Each author retains the individual copyright to their story.

The collection and arrangement Copyright ©2016 Stone Skin Press.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

978-1-908983-17-6

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