A New Darkness (28 page)

I glanced at him, but in the gathering gloom his face was impassive. He seemed content to stand there, getting soaked to the skin. It was growing really dark now—we’d need lanterns soon.

But then, at last, the prince raised his hand and gestured toward the grave. In response, the magowie came to a stuttering halt, and the four warriors who’d acted as pallbearers stepped forward, two on each side of Tom’s coffin. There were two ropes beneath it, and using these, they took up positions near the grave and began to lower it down. They were having difficulty holding on to the rope, which kept slipping through their fingers.

The coffin wasn’t going into the grave evenly. At one point they almost lost it, but at last it splashed into the water at the bottom of the pit, and they pulled the ropes free. I saw now that the coffin was almost covered by the rainwater that had accumulated.

I was surprised when the four men then picked up spades and began to fill in the grave. The custom back in the County was for each mourner to throw a handful of soil over the coffin and then leave; the gravediggers only began their work when everybody else had left.

So, with lightning flashing and thunder crashing overhead, we all watched the men working: rain ran down their faces and dripped from the ends of their noses as they hastily threw sodden earth onto their wooden target.

Then I heard another sound—an eerie screech from almost directly overhead. I looked up, and the flash of lightning blinded me for a few seconds. When I could see again, I noticed that everyone else around the grave was now looking upward, shielding their eyes against the driving rain. Even the four men had stopped work.

There was a figure up there, high above us. I could make out wings—huge wings, compared to the slender body. It was the being we had watched hovering over us while the three magowie foretold the coming of a champion to defeat the Shaiksa assassin and lead humans across the river to victory.

It hovered there, but suddenly folded its white wings and dropped down toward us like a stone. When it came to a halt, it was less than thirty feet above our heads—near enough for me to make out the beautiful face shining with silver light.

But then I was distracted by another noise, which drew my eyes downward.

I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I wasn’t the only person now staring down into the grave. The casket was slightly tilted, and the sodden earth that covered it was sliding away to reveal the wet wooden surface.

Grimalkin hissed in anger and stared up at the winged being . . . but I was filled with new hope.

The coffin was moving.

Could it be that Tom was alive?

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

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Grimakin’s Notes

The Contents of the Glass Containers

T
HESE
are all biological, and in most cases held within some preserving material, usually a gel. Some are seeds; others animal (mammalian or reptilian samples plus hybrids).

Many are still alive, held in a state of suspended animation. I believe that, if planted, the seeds would grow. The same is probably also true of the animal samples. (I tested only three, which confirmed this.) They are all capable of development and growth, but into what I cannot say without further dangerous experimentation.

However, we know that the Kobalos have used dark magic to create many special creatures, such as builders (the whoskor, which maintain and extend the walls of Valkarky) and fighting entities (such as the haggenbrood). They may well use similar creatures in war. It could be that the dead haizda mage was preparing to create such entities locally and hide them within our borders, ready for a preemptive strike.

The First Animal Sample

I removed this sample (labeled
ZANTI
on the jar) from its gel preservative and introduced it to a growth medium (two parts human blood, three parts ground bone of sow, two parts sugar, three parts human spittle).

The sample was placed within the most powerful containment environment that I could generate—a large pentacle whose inner circle was fifty feet in diameter—in a meadow at least two hundred yards
from the nearest tree. I also protected the pentacle from prying eyes and intrusion with spells of cloaking and menace.

As I had predicted, the sample began to grow on the night of the full moon. At first the entities resembled small insects; they scuttled about on the grass. However, just before dawn, they burrowed into the soil; it was possible that they could not function in sunlight.

Soon after dusk the following day, they emerged again. After a while I noticed two things. They were fewer in number, and those that remained were somewhat larger, about the length and thickness of my index finger. It seemed likely that they were devouring each other in a process whereby only the fittest might survive.

This process continued for seven nights before I intervened. By then, just two of the creatures remained. Approximately human in shape, they were very thin, with spindly scaled arms and legs. The head of each was hairless but covered with black scales, and the small eyes were wide-set like those of a bird, allowing 360-degree vision. In height they came up to my shoulder, but the final victor might well have reached a height of at least eight feet.

I stepped into the pentacle and despatched both of them with my blades. Unlike the haggenbrood, which I fought in Valkarky, the zanti did not share a single mind and seemed unable to fight as a unit. Additionally, although their hands and feet were clawed, they had no weapons. No doubt their Kobalos masters will have crafted specialized weapons for them.

I think a lone armed and full-sized zanti would be a much more formidable opponent.

The Second Animal Sample

Experiment One

I placed the second sample (labeled
ZINGI
on the jar) into a growth medium identical to the first, and again used a pentacle for containment, along with spells of cloaking and menace.

The sample started growing immediately, even though the sun had not gone down. This suggested to me that they could function in daylight, which made them more formidable than those in the first experiment. My assumption proved to be correct: they were active throughout the whole twenty-four-hour cycle and never slept.

The creatures were small at first, but their original shape did not alter despite many subsequent growth spurts—again the result of devouring one another.

They were covered in brown hair, and each had six three-jointed, muscular legs. Their bodies were cylindrical and formed of three segments. From the first protruded what appeared to be a long, thin tusk; beneath this was a wide mouth. They did not have eyes or noses, and must have used other senses to locate their prey.

The first stage (devouring one another) continued until only five remained. At this point, each was about the height of a sheep, but perhaps three times as long.

Now they began to look elsewhere for sustenance.

The spell of menace should have driven off any creature that attempted to approach the outer rim of the pentacle. However, the creatures (which I have nicknamed stingers) somehow managed to summon their victims with an even more powerful force . The first of these were birds.

A large black crow landed on the pentacle where the stingers were confined. The first of the creatures darted forward and stabbed its tusk into the breast of the bird, which immediately collapsed, its legs twitching and its whole body suffering violent convulsions. Within seconds, the other four fierce entities had devoured it. Their wide mouths had double rows of needlelike teeth, which they used to tear the bird into small pieces.

Crows, wood pigeons, seagulls, geese, ducks, and magpies suffered a similar fate. They did not summon smaller birds. After that, it was the turn of rabbits, hares, and even a deer. All ignored the spell of menace and were drawn into the pentacle to their deaths.

Then, toward nightfall, the stingers became aware of me. They gathered on the edge of the pentacle, sharp tusks pointing toward me. I was filled with the urge to enter the pentacle. They were attempting to summon me to my death.

I was their new prey.

They did not get their wish. Only a fool enters a bear’s den when it can be killed from a distance. I countered their summoning spell, then used my throwing blades to slay all five of the creatures. They did not die easily.

My subsequent dissection of their bodies revealed the reason. Each segment had its own heart, lungs, stomach, and brain tissue.

Experiment Two

My findings prompted me to repeat the experiment. This time I caught one of the stingers early, when it was no bigger than a domestic cat. I removed and burned the foremost of its segments and waited for the result.

It was as I had predicted: the wound quickly ceased to bleed, and within forty-eight hours, the creature had regenerated its missing segment.

Once more I terminated the experiment.

The Third Animal Sample

I placed the third sample (labeled
VARTEKI
on the mage’s jar) in the same growth medium, and again used a pentacle for containment and spells of cloaking and menace to deter intrusion. But the containment was insufficient. From the very beginning, things did not go well.

The sample started moving immediately, so fast that I saw only a blur of motion. The entities went underground, too fast for me to count them.

I expected them to emerge, like the creatures in the other experiments. But only one returned to the surface, and it was still quite small—no bigger than a hare. I wondered if it had reached its maximum size. After all, it had no others of its kind to devour.

The vartek had a long tubular body, the top covered with black scales, a short thin neck, and a round head with elongated jaws, a wide mouth, and two bulging eyes. It resembled a monstrous millipede, with a multitude of long, sticklike legs.

Three days passed, and each night the creature went underground, tripling in size each time it emerged. I was puzzled. What could it be eating that made it grow so rapidly? I felt very uneasy and decided to resort to scrying. It is fortunate that I did so; otherwise, the County would have suffered many violent deaths.

I had less than twenty-four hours to prepare for what I had foreseen. I had only just taken up position close to the trees when the vartek erupted from the ground outside the pentacle. It was a deep burrower, evidently capable of tunneling through rock.

The creature was now about the size of a bull, but perhaps five times longer; however, I believe that it had not yet attained its full size. At rest, its long belly touched the ground. As it moved, it extended its legs, which tripled its height. When it opened its mouth, I saw that its teeth were very unusual. There were three rows in both top and bottom jaws, and they seemed to be able to move; the creature could change the angle of its bite and lengthen and shorten the teeth.

As it chased me into the wood, it projected a globule of thick brown liquid. I dodged to one side, and when the liquid splattered on the ground, it boiled and steamed, giving off clouds of noxious fumes and eating into the vegetation and the earth beneath. It was now clear to me that the combination of the acidic liquid and the moving teeth helped the creature to burrow, and that they could also be used as weapons.

But these were not its only weapons: three long tentacles sprouted from its back and whipped through the air toward me. Each had a sharp piece of bone at its tip.

I ran deeper into trees, luring the vartek toward the trap that I had hastily constructed. The previous Malkin witch assassin, Kernolde, had often used hidden pits filled with sharp spikes to kill her enemies; I did the same here. I leaped across the long pit I had prepared, and the creature fell in. Its head and part of its body were impaled upon the spikes.

Next I had to climb down into the pit and end its life. It was not easy, but I managed to kill it before it could struggle free. The scales on its upper body were hard and difficult to penetrate, but its underbelly was soft. Its bulbous eyes were particularly vulnerable to my blades.

On dissecting it, I learned that its food is earth and rock. I can only wonder at the final size it would have attained.

I believe that this third type of creature, the vartek (plural form: varteki), is the most formidable of the three samples I investigated. There could also be something far worse within the jars that I did not study.

In view of our approaching conflict with the Kobalos, this does not bode well.

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Glossary of the Kobalos World

Original written by Nicholas Browne Notes added by Tom Ward and Grimalkin

Anchiette:
A burrowing mammal found in northern forests on the edge of the snow line. The Kobalos consider them a delicacy eaten raw. There is little meat on the creature, but the leg bones are chewed with relish.

Note: I tried eating the creatures (which are hardly bigger than mice), and I definitely prefer rabbit. However, they are numerous and easy to catch, best eaten in a stew. With the addition of the correct herbs, the meal is tolerable.—Grimalkin