Illyan Daughter Page 5

  Chapter Four

  The first hint of danger was a cry that echoed across the open skies, waking drowsy men and women from their sleep. Liss was startled from dreaming—her mind instantly alert as she fumbled for weapons and armour in the darkness. Like her father, she made sure she always knew where everything was placed.

  “Wren?”

  “Here, girl.”

  “Is Vik asleep?”

  “Yes.”

  “Stay with her. I’m going.”

  The fires had burned low, granting little light. Liss surveyed the camp, hearing sounds that she could not place but which her memory told her were not exactly as they should have been. She saw the bulk of her father’s frame approaching out of the darkness, armed men shadowing him.

  “We’re under attack,” he said bluntly.

  “How?”

  “They’re in the camp. Not many, I think, but enough. I’ve seen the dead.”

  He spat.

  “You rouse people, Liss, make sure everyone’s awake, I want no more lost in their sleep.”

  She nodded. There was no honour in such a death. Moving at speed, she darted between tents, waking those and biding them rouse their companions. She kept her voice low, not wanting to invite attack while she had this vital duty to perform. Half hoping she would chance upon some of them and be able to prove herself. In the near darkness, the campsite seemed an unfamiliar place, with every deep shadow potentially hiding an assailant.

  “Halt.”

  She could just make out the man who had entered the walkway before her.

  “Liss Crowfeather,” she called.

  “What news, girl?”

  She recognised the man now. It was Drew, Pallan’s mate.

  “I’ve seen nothing but our own slumbering people.”

  There was a sound in the darkness behind him, like someone heavy and menacing moving quickly. Liss raised her axe instinctively, squinting into the shadows. She saw Drew turn abruptly. He took a step, his body swallowed by the night. She heard the crunch of a large blunt weapon crushing into vulnerable flesh. He cried out and there was a terrible, squelching, crushing sound, followed by a silence that was infinitely worse. Liss gripped the handle of her axe—unable to see into the darkness beyond and knowing that whatever had struck him, must be aware of her presence. Sweat slickened her palm and she wondered if she could keep hold of her weapon without wiping the moisture away. She hardly dared move or breathe.

  “Where is my knowing now?” she wondered. “I can feel the lust of others, but not their malice, it seems.”

  She strained and tried, not even knowing how such a thing might be done, but hoping enough might suffice. She could feel nothing beyond her and her ears told her nothing of the invisible foe. Only when her opponent moved did Liss have some sense of it. Heavy footsteps charged towards her, furious and fast, tearing up the ground. They could see her, but she had no way of knowing where they were. Precious seconds passed as indecision froze her. She leapt sideways just in time, feeling something vast brush past her. She had fallen into one of the smaller tents and it had buckled beneath her, making it difficult to escape. The footsteps turned; there was sniffing, snorting and only then did Liss realise that her opponent was something inhuman. Using her axe, she cut into the tent, making an opening through which she could fall, clattering through household goods as she groped frantically for the way out. Until she had light to see the monster, her only hope was to keep at a safe distance from it. Behind her, it too crashed through the folds of the tent, dangerously close. Liss ran for her life, trying to head for the edge of the camp and lure the fiend on her heels further away from the others. She wondered if it had come alone or if there were more creatures marauding amongst the tents. It seemed to Liss that she was perfectly aware of everything, the texture of the ground beneath her boots, the shadowy forms of tents, the first hint of dawn light touching the sky and offering hope. She knew exactly how far it was behind her, either matching her pace or finding its limits improbably akin to her own. Perhaps it was playing with her. She was close to the edge of the camp now and, so long as they met no one else, she might persuade it beyond the intermittent barricades. Once they were out in the open it would have all of the advantages. Fit though she was, Liss could not run forever and the thing pursuing her showed no sign of wearying. Her only hope was to be able to land a fatal blow before it crushed out her young life.

  The campsite was protected by an intermittent wall of wicker and wooden fences, easily carried from site to site as needed. They offered only limited shelter but protected the exposed tents to a degree and were useful for bowmen. It had been a long time since Math had encountered an attack he could not shake off easily. Liss leapt through a gap between fences and ducked behind one, her axe raised in the hopes of at least wounding her foe. There was enough light now that she could make out the forms of the defences and, as the great beast broke through, she brought her weapon crashing down. The force of her blow sent painful shock waves through her arms. The axe had not bitten into the hide at all, but the beast was turning, ready to attack again. She could see its gore-splattered tusks, its vast and powerful form and the bristly hide that had resisted her assault. Its breath steamed in the chill air as it eyed her, considering the final charge that must destroy her. Liss straightened her back and gripped her axe firmly. She was determined to die facing her fate with honour. Her legs were shaking and she wanted to run, but there was no-where left to go and she was exhausted from her long race through the camp. The beast backed away a few paces, preparing itself for the charge.

  In a final, desperate desire to preserve herself, Liss grabbed the top of the narrow defence and swung herself upwards. She clung precariously to the top. The creature had launched its attack and the thunder of its vast, cloven feet as they pounded into the earth made her shiver. The force of the impact tore down the wicker, sending her crashing towards the ground. Winded, she lay still, expecting at any moment to feel the weight of it smashing into her skull and obliterating all else. In the distance, she heard voices and the running of feet. Perhaps there was another one loose. Drawn by the sound, the monster sniffed at the air and sloped off.

  Shaking and bruised, Liss struggled to her feet, ashamed to realise that she had saved herself by feigning death. She set off after the beast, determined that she must redeem her honour. The light was growing bright, making the going easier. Around her, battered tents flapped on their ropes and the normal trappings of life were spread as though their camp had been turned over and shaken. The vast creature was running again, trampling all in its path. Liss struggled to keep pace with it, seeing it bearing down upon a group of waiting men. They had long poles before them. With a terrible splintering of wood, the creature threw itself upon their position, breaking poles and bones with ease. Some of them held out to fight it, their blades hacking ineffectually against its tough skin. Liss threw herself into the melee, bringing her own axe to bear in the hopeless fight, feeling blood splatter on her face as men and women around her were gored and squashed before the enraged forest-dweller.

  She never knew who brought the flame, but a torch prevailed where nothing else had. With the smell of singed flesh in their nostrils, they held it at bay and then, as more material was set ablaze, some instinct other than one prompting destruction caught hold of the monster’s mind and it turned, fleeing back into the dark, green forest depths from whence it came.

  ~*~

  “It looked more like a giant porker to me,” Leaf said.

  “No porker I’ve ever seen. The thing must have stood to my shoulder, if not more,” Flash argued, waving his hands to indicate height.

  “It had tusks, but I heard there were wild ones in my grandfather’s day that had the same,” Math mused.

  “I heard that too,” Leaf responded, “you hunted them with hounds.”

  “I don’t know of any hound that would stand to one of those monsters,” Gron piped up. It was the first time he had spoken in over an
hour.

  “No,” said Math.

  They fell back into uneasy silence. A lone creature had cost them seventeen of their people—one of Math’s own men amongst them. It seemed impossible to believe.

  “Your girl acquitted herself well,” Gron observed. He had lost his own daughter in the onslaught, but none of them alluded to this.

  “There could be more. We are too close to the forest, there’s no knowing what else might be in there,” Flash had said as much a dozen times already, but found himself no closer to convincing his leader of the danger they were in.

  He found it peculiar. Only a few days previously, Math had been the one lecturing on the dangers of such terrain, but now that the worst had happened, he seemed remarkably untroubled.

  “I only saw it from a distance. It looked a real beast,” Math said.

  There was a thoughtful look in his eyes, one that those closest to him knew to fear.

  “Blades did not break its skin, you say? But fire makes it fearful. Nothing is immune to harm, there must be something that can kill it.”

  For the vast majority of the time, Math was a good and cautious leader. Flash and Gron had served with him when he fought for his cousin. However, they remembered the times in his youth when wild schemes had drawn him into deadly gambles. Sometimes, boredom got the better of him and then there was no knowing what he might do. The price of Math’s entertainment could prove high indeed. Flash was about to try and challenge this latest madness before it could take hold, when he saw a figure approaching.

  “What is this?” Sena asked boldly as she came closer to the fire.

  “No concern of yours,” Math replied dismissively.

  Sena was neither hunter nor fighter and sometimes this inclined him to show her little respect. Her face was smudged with dirt and her clothes were torn. There was blood on her tunic.

  “Everyone is accounted for. Seventeen buried, another dozen badly hurt, countless with slight injuries. This place is cursed, we should be on our way.”

  “He will not listen to reason,” Flash answered Sena.

  “Surely you don’t mean to stay here?”

  “I have never seen the like of it before,” Math remarked by way of an answer.

  “Best we strike out into open country once more. I concede, what you said not two days ago was right, we should not come so close to the forests,” said Flash.

  “It would be a different matter in daylight, if we were not caught off guard,” Math added.

  The silence around him was absolute as his followers realised the full implication of his words.

  “This is madness,” Sena breathed.

  “It is never madness to better know the thing that threatens you.”

  Math’s voice was icy.

  “Leave here and it will not threaten us, it belongs to the trees, not the plains,” Flash tried.

  “Do we know that? Do we know how clever it is, or what it is capable of? Do we know that it will not follow us?”

  His questions were met with silence. None of them had answers. They knew it was possible he was right.

  “At least go out into the camp, make yourself seen. Everyone is afraid,” Sena implored, turning her large eyes on Math is an attempt to cajole him.

  “That I will do. We stay. That is my final word. We may move on in a few days, but I will not have our injured rattled in carts, I don’t want to lose any more people.”

  Chapter Five

  Beyond the swathe of shorter scrubby plant-life, tall and graceful trees reached their branches high into the sky. The air was somehow softer and moist in comparison to the realm of the plains only a short way beyond. Closer to the ground plant life flourished, vivid with greens and browns, speckled with tiny living beings with fur, feather and scale.

  Math led his nervous riders forward, his face deeply marked with thoughtful attention. The pressing in of dark leaves, blotting out the sky, made him edgy. Every tree could potentially hide a threat and the dark pools of shadow hinted at dangers beyond imagining. He had done nothing but think about the forest and the murderous beast it harboured. Math could not tolerate his own fear, could not bear the notion that anything might have the power to prove him a coward. He had to face the demon of the trees and his own memories of bloody conflict hacked out amidst their shadows. War in woodland was a brutal, dangerous thing, never to be forgotten. When trees defeated lines and formations, before you even found the enemy and every trunk disguised a fatal trap. Those last hopeless battles, when they had been pushed back into The Ream Forest, had been the worst by far. The sight and smell of trees was enough to bring it all back in hideous detail. Math gritted his teeth, cast an eye back over the small company who followed trustingly on his heels and turned his attention to the task in hand.

  The path left by the monstrous creature they sought was easy to follow for a time, but then it melted away into a thicket and there was no trace of where it went thereafter. Used to plains and open sky, the horses were skittish, shying at the slightest noise, resisting every attempt to guide them. Math knew his quest was a futile one, but it might serve to alleviate the fear and doubt that riddled his company like a disease.

  Riding near her father, Liss watched each patch of shade with deep mistrust, wondering what he meant to do if they did find the monster. Having faced the thing herself, she did not think they could fight it, even in greater numbers. Math had not listened to her council. She watched the older man carefully, trying to guess at his thoughts. His face so seldom showed any real signs of expression that it was never easy to divine what occupied his attention.

  They rode in careful silence, the only sounds were the crushing of horse’s hooves into brush and undergrowth, the soft breathing of beasts and riders and the occasional cries of birds. It was hard to measure time without any sense of where the sun lay in the sky. One tree looked much like another to those who did not know how to read their subtle language and the heavy undergrowth remained a constant impediment to the horses’ progress. They found hidden ravines and looming, moss-encrusted boulders, the openings to dark caves and narrow animal paths that disappeared into rioting plants. From time to time, small things rustled the dry leaves on the forest floor, but of more sizeable beings there was no sign. The passing of her father’s small company made sufficient noise that anything wishing to avoid them could do so easily. Equally, anything that hungered for their blood would find them all too easily. The dense canopy of clustering leaves obliterated most of the light, making Liss feel closed in and troubled. She was an alien to this landscape and feared the secrets it might keep. It would be only too easy to be lost forever in this place where you could never see clearly beyond a few dozen paces before you.

  After what seemed like many hours of riding, they broke through the dense cover. A steep earthen embankment rose up before them, like the edge of a fortification. It stretched away in both directions, suggesting a place of impossible size or perhaps some ancient defensive wall that once divided kingdoms. Sliding down from her horse, Liss clambered up the side of the thing, digging her fingers into the short grass to get a better purchase on its slippery surface. Two strong lads, Gos and Blade, followed behind her but she paid them little attention, caring only that she should be the first one to reach the top. Having started first from the very front of their party, she had a considerable advantage in this. Agile and determined, she scaled the bank, pulling herself over its remarkably even top a little before the other two achieved the summit.

  Standing at the summit, Liss took a moment to smile down triumphantly at her watching father. Looking from right to left she could see a broad swathe of flat ground, wide enough that four horsemen might comfortably have ridden abreast along it. It stretched as far as the eye could see—a hundred paces, perhaps, in both directions—before the forms of trees swallowed it up completely. It was relentlessly straight and definite as it plunged into the distant gloom of the deep woodland. Its purpose and origin was entirely beyond her grasp. Never in
her life had she seen anything akin to it. Turning, she contemplated the view beyond, finding it much like the riot of tress, trailing, climbing plants and thrusting boulders they had already seen. There was another grassed slope down to the normal ground level of the wood and beyond it she could see nothing of note. The place made her nervous, although she could not have said why. It made no sense to her.

  “What do you see?” her father called up.

  “Nothing,” Liss replied. “It stretches off both ways as far as I can see and there’s nothing different on the other side.”

  Gos and Blade had separated, each walking away down the broad, flat top. Both moved slowly, as though mistrusting the ground beneath them. Liss watched them both, turning her attention from one to the other. Nothing of note happened to them but, when they returned, she could see that the experience had spooked them. It was not something any of them would speak of.

  This high, inexplicable place was not what they had been looking for but there seemed to be no-where else to go. It drew a line, separating them from the rest of the forests and it seemed to Liss like a barrier that should not be breached. Whatever lay beyond it was not for them; she felt that keenly. If they ventured further, it would swallow them whole and leave no trace that they had ever passed. How it would consume and destroy them, she could not imagine, but the sense of it was so powerful that Liss wanted to turn and run from it.