Soul Eater (11 page)

moon? But surely it couldn't be the dark of the moon already?Yes it could. With a shiver she realized that she had no idea how long she'd been underground. She stared at the shadowy bulk of the mountain. Torak and Wolf were somewhere inside, bound for sacrifice in the dark of the moon. Which was now.She had to find them. She had to go back inside.As her eyes grew accustomed to the starlight, she realized that she didn't recognize her surroundings. Before her the weasel hole was a circle of blackness, but she couldn't see the standing stone, or the Eye of the Viper, only humped snow and charcoal rockfaces. For all she knew, she could be on the other side of the mountain.Frantic, she felt her way forward--tripped--and pitched into a snowdrift.A very hard snowdrift, with something solid underneath.She got to her knees and started to dig.A skinboat. No. Two skinboats: both bigger than the199one the White Foxes had given them, and stowed with paddles, harpoons, and rope. The Soul-Eaters had thought of everything.Drawing her knife, she slit the belly of each boat. There. See how far they got now!From deep within the mountain came a roar.She ran to the weasel hole. There it was again: the unmistakeable roar of an ice bear. She remembered the murderous chant of the Soul-Eaters. A bear for strength.The roars fell silent. She strained to listen, but from the dark came only a warm uprush of bat-stink. She pictured Torak, alone against the might of the Soul-Eaters. She had to find him.She thought fast. On her way through the weasel hole, she'd climbed steadily upward. That must mean that she was now higher up the mountain than when she'd started."So head down!" she cried.She ran, plunging into snowdrifts, pulling herself out, but heading down, always down.With breathtaking suddenness she rounded a spur-- and there was the standing stone and the Eye of the Viper. She never thought she'd be so glad to see them.The Eye was shut, blocked by the slab that the Oak Mage had pushed across it. But maybe she could move it just enough to crawl in.She put her shoulder against it and heaved. She200might as well have tried to shift the mountain itself.Steam misted from the bottom corner of the slab, where it didn't quite fit across the cave mouth. She tried to squeeze through the gap. It would be big enough for Wolf, but was just a few fingers too narrow for her.As she stood before the Eye, the truth settled upon her as stealthily as snow. There was only one way back inside. The way she had come."I can't," she whispered. Her breath swirled eerily in the gloom.She ran back up the trail, and stood panting before the weasel hole. It was tiny. A tiny, cruel mouth waiting to swallow her.She put back her head. "I can't!"Moonlight hit her smartly in the face.She blinked. She'd got it wrong. It wasn't the dark of the moon. Not yet. There--riding above the clouds-- was the thinnest of silver slivers: the very last bite that the Sky Bear hadn't yet caught. She still had one day left. And so did Torak and Wolf.As she gazed up at the pure, steady white light, Renn felt new courage steal into her. The moon was the eternal prey: eternally in flight across the sky, eternally caught and eaten, but always reborn, always faithfully lighting the way for hunters and prey--even in the very deep of winter, when the sun was dead. Whatever201happened, the moon always came back. And so would she.Before she could change her mind, she raced down the trail to the Soul-Eaters' sleds, where she and Torak had hidden their gear. Luckily there hadn't been any fresh snow, so she easily found her pack.First she gobbled down a few mouthfuls of blubber, which steadied her a little. Then she packed more blubber in her food pouch for Wolf and Torak, stuck her axe in her belt, and crammed the rest of what she thought she might need in her medicine pouch. Then she raced back to the weasel hole.The breath sawed painfully in her chest as she yanked her parka and jerkin over her head and rolled them up as small as they would go. The sweat on her skin froze instantly, but she ignored that as she tied her mitten strings around the bundled-up clothes, then fastened the other end to her ankle, so that she'd be dragging them behind her. She allowed herself one final glance at the moon, and muttered a quick prayer of thanks.The wind burned like ice, but the unclean warmth of the weasel hole was worse. As she crawled into the blackness, panic rose in her throat. She choked it back down.You did it once, she told herself. You can do it again. She put down her head and began to crawl.202***She never knew how long it took her to find her way back inside. Back through the ever-shrinking weasel hole, back through that final, heart-stopping narrowness--then out into the forest of stone, where-- amazingly--the Soul-Eaters were nowhere to be found: only a flicker of torchlight, and a grim circle of red handprints on the wall that turned her sick with fear.Something--maybe her clan guardian wheeling far overhead--guided her through the twists and turns and sudden jolting drops, until she stumbled into a fetid stench, and the uncertain light of a guttering torch.She was in-a low tunnel with blood-colored walls and smaller caves branching off it, blocked by slabs of stone. From behind the slabs she caught the scrabbling of claws, and guessed that this was where the "offerings" were confined."Torak?" she whispered.No answer, but the scrabblings stilled."Wolf?"Still nothing. Groping with her hands, she made her way through the gloom.The torch went out, plunging her into blackness-- and she tripped over something lying on the floor.She lay winded, waiting for disaster to strike. When it didn't, she slipped off her mitten to investigate. Her203hand touched the softness of seal hide. It was a body in a seal hide parka, lying on the floor."Torak?" she whispered.Silence. He was either sleeping, or ...Dreading what she might find, she moved closer. If he was dead...Her mind reeled. His souls might be thronging the dark: angry, bewildered, unable to stay together without Death Marks. His clan-soul might have got separated, leaving behind a demon. A terrible thought, that her friend might have turned against her.No. She wouldn't believe it. Bringing her hand closer, she held it over where she guessed the face would be--and felt a faint warmth. Breath. He was alive!Abruptly she drew back her hand. Maybe it wasn't Torak. Maybe it was a Soul-Eater.Warily she touched the hair. Thick, short, with bangs across the forehead. A thin face, no beard; but scabbed, which could be snow-burn. It felt like Torak. But if she was wrong ...She had an idea. If it was Torak, she'd find a scar on his left calf. Last summer he'd been gashed by a boar, and had sewn it up quite badly, then forgotten to take out the stitches. In the end she'd had to do it for him, and he'd become impatient, and they'd bumped their204heads, and burst out laughing.Sliding her hand inside the boot, she ran it over the skin. Yes. Beneath her fingers she found the warm, smooth ridges of scarred flesh.Trembling with relief, she grabbed him by the shoulders. "Torak! Wake up!"He was heavy and unresponsive.She hissed in his ear. "Stop it! Wake up!"What was wrong with him? Had they given him a sleeping-potion?"Who's there?" a woman called gruffly.Renn froze.A faint glow of torchlight appeared at the end of the tunnel."Boy?" called the woman. "Where are you? Answer me!"Wildly, Renn groped in the dark for a hiding-place. Her fingers found the edge of a slab blocking one of the hollows, but it was too heavy, she couldn't move it. Find another. Fast.The footsteps came nearer. The torchlight grew brighter.Renn found a slab that she could just move, pushed it back--quietly, quietly--crawled inside, and pulled it shut.A thin line of light showed through the slit that205remained. She held her breath.The footsteps paused. Whoever it was, they were close.She turned her head from the torchlight, in case they felt her staring, and fixed her gaze blindly on the dark.From the back of the hiding-place, a pair of yellow eyes glared back at her.206TWENTY-SIXIn one horrified heartbeat, Renn glimpsed a beak sharp enough to slit a whale's belly; talons that could carry a reindeer calf to a cliff-top eyrie.Drawing in her legs, she shrank against the rock. The hollow was tiny: there was barely space for them both. Her weapons were useless. She pictured lightning-fast talons shredding her face and hands; the Soul-Eaters peering in at her ruined flesh, then finishing off what the eagle had begun."Boy!" called the Soul-Eater on the other side of the slab. The eagle hunched its huge wings and fixed its eyes on Renn.207She heard the scrape of a torch being stuck in a crack; the thin squeak of a bat."There you are!" said the Bat Mage. Renn froze. "Boy! Wake up!""So you found him," said another woman a little farther off. Her voice was low and musical, like water rippling over stones. Renn's skin prickled."I can't wake him up," said the Bat Mage. To Renn's surprise, she sounded concerned:"He took too much root," the other said scornfully. "Leave him. We don't need him till tomorrow."The eagle spread its wings as far as it could, warding Renn back. Back where? She had nowhere to go. She tried to make herself even smaller, and an eagle pellet crunched beneath her palm.The Soul-Eaters went silent. Had they heard?"What are you doing?" said the soft-voiced Soul-Eater."Turning him over," replied the Bat Mage. "Can't let him sleep on his back. If he's sick, he'll choke." "Oh Nef, why bother? He isn't worth--" She brokeoff."What is it?" said Nef."I feel something," said the other. "Souls. I feel souls, in the air around us."Silence. Again that high, thin squeak.208Renn blinked. The stink of bird droppings was making her eyes water and her nose run. She tried not to sniff."Your bat feels them too," said the soft-voiced one."There, my beauty," crooned the Bat Mage. "But whose souls? Could one of the offerings be dead?""I don't think so," murmured the other. "It's more ... No, it doesn't feel like one of them.""Still, we'd better check them."Terror settled on Renn like a covering of ice."Hold my torch," said the Bat Mage, her voice receding as she moved away.Renn heard the scrape of stone a few paces away, then the ferocious hiss of a wolverine."Well, he's not dead yet!" laughed the soft-voiced one.The Bat Mage grunted as she pushed back the stone.Another slab was scraped aside, nearer Renn's , hiding-place. She caught the squeak of an otter.One by one, the Soul-Eaters checked the offerings, drawing steadily closer to where she huddled. Her mind raced. There was no way out. If she bolted, they'd see her. If she stayed where she was, she'd be caught like a weasel in a trap. She had to stop them from looking inside. If she didn't, she was dead.A fox barked in the hollow next to hers. They were almost upon her. Think.209Only one thing to do.Screwing her eyes shut, she crossed her arms over her face--and kicked the eagle.It lashed out with an earsplitting klek-klek-klek--and .she felt a chill on her wrists as talons sliced a hair's breadth from her skin.On the other side of the slab, the Soul-Eaters stopped.The eagle shook itself angrily, and began preening its ruffled feathers.Renn cowered with her arms over her face, unable to believe that she was unhurt."No point checking that one," said the Bat Mage. "Though it sounds like she's hungry again.""Oh, leave her!" cried the other impatiently. "Leave the boy, leave them all! I need rest, and so do you! Let's go!"Yes, go! Renn pleaded silently.The Bat Mage hesitated. "You're right," she said. "After all, they've only got to live one more day."Their footsteps receded down the tunnel.Renn sagged with relief. With her fingertips she traced the zigzag tattoos on her wrists, and saw again Tanugeak's round, shrewd face. You'll be needing them, I think.It was some time later, and the eagle was becoming restive again, before Renn dared to move. As she210rubbed the feeling back into her legs, she heard someone stir on the other side of the slab. "You can come out now," whispered Torak.He still couldn't believe it was really her. "Renn?" he mumbled."Thank the Spirit, you're awake!" With her hair stained black, she looked eerily unfamiliar. But she was Renn. all right: showing her small, sharp teeth in a wobbly smile, and giving him awkward little pats on the chest."Renn ..." he said again. The dizziness seized him, and he shut his eyes.He wanted to tell her everything. About spirit walking in the ice bear, and getting trapped. About hearing Wolf howling--howling inside his head-and breaking free of the bear. Above all, he wanted to tell her how incredible, how wonderful it was that she'd made her way through the darkness, and found him.But when he tried, the bitter bile rose in his throat, and all he managed was "I'm--going to be sick."He got on all fours and retched, and she knelt beside him, holding back his hair.When it was over, she helped him stagger to his feet. As they moved into the torchlight, she saw his face for the first time. "Torak, what happened to you? Your lips are black! There's blood on your forehead!"211He flinched from her touch. "Don't, it's--tainted.""What happened?" she said again.He couldn't bring himself to tell her. Instead he said, "I know where they've got Wolf. Let's go."But as he staggered down the tunnel, she held him back. "Wait. There's something I've got to tell you." She paused. "The Soul-Eaters. They're not only after Wolf. They want to sacrifice you, too!"Then she told him a story that turned him sick all over again, about a chant she'd overheard in the forest of stone. "It's a charm that will give them great power, and protect them from the demons."His knees buckled, and he leaned against the wall. "The nine hunters. I heard them say it, but I never thought...." With a scowl, he snatched up the torch. "Come on. Not much time."Renn looked puzzled. "But--isn't Wolf here, with the others?""No. I'll tell you as we go."His head was clearing fast, and as he led her through the tunnels--trying to remember the scent trails smelled by the bear, and pausing to listen for sounds of pursuit--he told her of the message from across the Sea, which had prompted the Soul-Eaters to keep Wolf separate. Then he told her what he'd witnessed in the caves: The finding of the Door. The Soul-Eaters' plan for flooding the land with terror. The fire-opal.212Once again, Renn halted. "The fire-opal?. They've found the fire-opal?"He stared at her. "You know about it?" "Well--yes. But not much." "Why haven't you told me?""I never thought...." She hesitated. "It's somethingyou hear about in stories, if--if you grow up in a clan." "Tell me now."She moved closer, and he felt her breath on his cheek. "The fireopal," she whispered, "is light from the eye of the Great Auroch. That's why the demons are drawn to it."He met her gaze, and in the fathomless black he