Bones of the Empire (55 page)

He let the army march on a few more hours, but he could feel the group getting more spread out over time. They were tiring quickly and more people were lagging behind. There would be no possible way to keep them marching the two or more days they would need to reach the far side. From there, they had another half day’s march to the temple.

“We are losing the young, old, and weak,” whispered the Turessian who had doggedly remained at Raeln’s side. He had kept several young Turessians running back and forth, reporting back every few minutes on the status of the army. “We must find shelter soon or the wolves—or worse—will begin picking off our numbers. Leader, are you even listening?”

Raeln sighed and came to a stop and surveyed the area around them. It was as good as any he had seen, providing no shelter and likely not quite enough room for the whole army without one or more of the sheer stone peaks separating them.

Pulling the bedroll of his back as the army slowly trickled into the area, Raeln went to spread out his bedding, only to have the tusked monster suddenly lurch into motion.

Snarling, the creature shoved the white bear wildling aside with little effort and lunged. Raeln braced himself for the attack, even as the rest of the Turessians nearby raised their hands to incinerate the creature. It stopped when it reached him, and Raeln raised a hand to keep the wizards from striking. Coming closer with far more care, the beast grabbed Raeln’s arm gently, though he wondered if it could have ripped his entire arm off if it decided to not be so kind.

The two of them stood perfectly still, staring at each other. Raeln heard and felt a dozen or more people fanning out to get better angles to strike. They were being cautious, given the strength of the tusked creature and the fact that it already had a clawed hand on Raeln, but he could hear weapons being slowly drawn. The white bear wildling’s remaining teeth were bared as he waited right behind the creature, his eyes on Raeln for a sign of whether he was to attack or not.

Making bug-like clicking noises, the creature pointed at Raeln’s bedroll and then kicked it aside. It growled softly before pointing off a little to the right of where they had been walking originally. When Raeln did not reply, it pointed at his bedroll again and then in the same direction.

“It wants us to go that way and not rest here,” Raeln said.

Those around him lowered their weapons slightly. The bear did not ease his stance at all.

“Give the order. We’re marching a little longer. I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt once.”

The creature let out a noise akin to a dove’s cooing and then released Raeln. It put Raeln’s sword and belt in his hand and then walked the way it had indicated, seemingly oblivious to the many people on the verge of attacking it. When Raeln did not immediately follow, the creature stopped and stared at him with its huge black eyes.

Though a little shaken, Raeln motioned for the others to stand down, which most of them did. One of the orcs resisted a little longer before grumbling and sheathing her weapon. From the edge of the fog, Raeln spotted Ceran, whose hands steamed as though she had been ready to hurl flame at the creature. Faint movement revealed Yoska, slipping his gleaming knives back into his jacket.

Raeln took a deep breath to steady himself and then set off after the creature, leading the large group into the fog. The hulking beast took them around several more of the tall pillars of stone and then down into another smaller ravine, where Raeln could hear running water.

Cries from behind Raeln brought him to a stop. He could hear shouts of “wolf,” and flashes of magic in the fog let him know the other Turessians were doing all they could to hold off the animals.

Almost immediately the massive creature stopped and turned, its ears twitching. It let out a long shrill whistle, and the explosions came to a stop, as did the shouting.

Seconds later, one of the young Turessian runners came up to Raeln, panting as he slid to a stop. “Three are hurt, battle leader,” the boy said, watching the monstrous creature nervously. “Wolves…large and black. We brought one down, but the rest escaped.”

Raeln nodded and thanked the child. He searched the area slowly, wondering if they were getting themselves into a trap. But stopping halfway down the slope would be suicide and cost them a great many of their people. He hurriedly motioned the group on, and they followed, the giant leading them again.

They reached the bottom of the slope relatively quickly, and the fog lessened as though they were beneath it, allowing Raeln to see a large village spread out along the basin. Cramped-looking huts dotted much of the area, right up to the edge of a small steaming lake, over which much of the fog seemed to hang. Spread across most of the open area, dozens of the bearlike tusked creatures stood watching as Raeln and the others made their way toward them. Many of them clutched small fuzzy—and somewhat less moldy—versions of themselves as they stared in horror at both Raeln and the nearest of the Turessians who followed him. Many picked up spears, though they did not appear ready to attack. Instead, they watched the one leading Raeln. It motioned at the others to lower their weapons, which they did reluctantly.

Then Raeln realized there were others beyond the creatures in the valley. Near another slope out of the village, huge mounds of decaying human corpses lay, the ground around them covered with dried blood. Many were torn apart, their limbs tossed unceremoniously back onto the pile. Some continued to move and groan, though most of them were too broken to move.

“Quite a battle here already, no?” Yoska asked, sounding out of breath as he came up beside Raeln. Ceran hustled along behind him, unable to quite keep pace. Raeln looked past them, trying to find Dalania, but she had not come with them. “Ceran say Turessians never come out of here alive. Is not so surprising now that we look around.”

Raeln nodded and followed close behind the creature leading them. “These things hate the Turessians. They have no idea what to make of me. I’d be willing to bet they’ve been picking off Turessians for generations…” Raeln stopped at the side of a cage made out of wood, stone, and even bones on the shore of the lake. It held a single robed man.

The man looked up at Raeln, allowing his tattoos to be seen before sneering and spitting near Raeln’s feet. He shook his head in dismay as several more Turessians joined Raeln at the cage. “Dorralt thought you might come this way,” the man said, grinning madly. “This was just the reserve we had waiting. We are coming again with a force twice as large—”

With a grumble, the creature that had been leading Raeln reached into the cage and tore the Turessian’s throat out, along with a good chunk of his face. The man slumped lifelessly, and the creature tossed the bloody fistful of flesh away. After a moment, the Turessian in the cage started to move, which honestly did not surprise Raeln at all. He had come to expect anyone serving Dorralt would get back up.

“You cannot kill me!” the Turessian announced as he sat back up, though he backed away from the creature. Then, with a spasm that shook his body violently, the man’s eyes glowed with a red light. Looking around, he stared at Raeln before laughing again. “Raeln. I see you found a way to get close, beast. I must give you credit. I had been certain the other army was your main force until now. No matter. I prepared for this. Even now I’ve got more than enough troops coming to greet you. I may not be able to exert my will here, but I will be sure—”

A second of the monstrous creatures walked over as Dorralt spoke, threw open the door of the cage, and grabbed the man. Turning and walking away while Dorralt shouted and fought to free himself, the creature dragged him to the lake’s shore. Once they reached the water, the creature hurled the Turessian into the cloud hanging over the lake. Raeln watched as the air rippled and tore the body apart. A faint shimmer of inky blackness appeared over the lake, then slowly faded away.

“That’s…” Raeln swallowed hard as he tried to put it to words. “That’s the same thing that opened near Lantonne. The mists came from it…”

Ceran finished for him. “That is one of the holes in Eldvar that Turess spent his final years trying to close, according to legend. None of us had believed one could be so close to the temple. I cannot imagine how anything could survive so close to one this long. There will be none of the glowing mists here unless something drastic happens to that tear between worlds.”

Turning his attention back to the creatures that filled the village, Raeln began to understand. Whatever they were now, they had likely been something else many generations ago. Being close to the hole near Lantonne had been enough to kill dragons. This hole was small. Living their whole lives near it had possibly warped and twisted these people—who were maybe once actual bears or wildling bears—into what he saw now. If it were true, the wolves that had attacked at the entrance had probably been dire wolves at one time.

“Did that actually kill him?” Raeln asked, pointing at the cage and then the rapidly fading darkness over the lake.

The tusked creature stared at him, not understanding.

“Is this how you’ve been fighting them?”

The bear-creature chittered something and walked away. It passed a group of similar creatures that were throwing the broken zombies into the same hole in the air over the lake. For all appearances, that was how they disposed of their enemies, and Raeln could not dispute it being effective. Nothing actually hit the lake. The black spot in the air pulled in everything they threw at it. If a thrown body came up short, black tendrils shot out from the hole, grabbing it and pulling it in.

Raeln watched in amazement at the calm routine of the bear-things as they cleared away the fallen. This was apparently nothing new to them, judging by their behavior. He was so entranced by the ease with which they were getting rid of the enemies that his own forces had struggled against that he almost did not notice as his guide came to a stop beside another of the creatures. Unlike most of the others, this one’s hides and ragged clothing were trimmed with white fur and the occasional feather.

“Hello?” Raeln offered, unsure what to do as the creature eyed him. He looked over his shoulder at Ceran, who shrugged and backed up a step. Even the white bear wildling appeared uneasy. “We just want to rest before passing through to attack the Turessian temple.”

The bear-creature made a soft growl noise and drew a stone dagger. When the people behind Raeln tried to react, more of the creatures closed in on them with spears. Everyone froze where they were, with Yoska holding both of his knives ready and Ceran with her hands up, prepared to unleash magic on the creatures. Behind them, the Turessians were all held tightly by more of the bearlike monsters, though the unmarked people were mostly ignored, leaving them free to draw their weapons and watch Raeln for a cue. The vast majority of the army was still coming into the valley and likely had no idea what was happening.

The creature in front of Raeln beckoned him forward and made a motion with its free hand toward his arm. Unsure what else to do, Raeln raised his hand, which the creature grabbed roughly in its powerful paw. Slashing at Raeln’s lower arm with the knife, the creature sniffed and eyed the wound with suspicion. Raeln forced himself to remain calm, knowing any battle with these things would end badly for both sides.

Soon the creature huffed and nodded, releasing Raeln’s arm. Their guide them pulled him aside, as another grabbed Ceran and tugged her toward the one that had cut Raeln. The creature with the knife made the same gesture toward her arm that it had for Raeln.

“They’re checking us,” Raeln said, getting a surprised look from Ceran. “They want to make sure we’re not like Dorralt’s undead. It waited to see if the wound closed.”

“That’s all?” Ceran asked, smiling. She quickly offered her arm to the lead bear-thing, and it sliced a thin line across her skin.

After about a minute, the creatures pushed her, Yoska, and one of the orcs toward Raeln. They were creating two groups—those who had passed the test or did not need to be tested, and those who had to be checked yet.

“This could take a while,” Raeln said, looking over the few dozen Turessians he could see nearby. There would be hundreds more, farther back. It might even take hours for the whole army to gather in one place. Patting at his bedroll, he asked the guide, “Where can we rest?”

Chirping like a bird, the creature led him to a huge open space near the village, but situated such that it was surrounded by the stone pillars on one side and the lake on another. There would be no way into or out of the area without going through the village. As they entered that part of the valley, Raeln’s bare feet felt softer soil, and when he studied the ground, he recognized the signs of a plow having been used there.