Hand of the Hunter

CHAPTER NINTEEN

Ashiin had opened the portal for them, making slight variations to the rhythm of the drum. And instantly, Hweilan saw why. They had not stepped through the veil of water into the near-desert land of towerlike mountains. No. She knew these mountains.

"The Giantspires," she said.

She didn't know this particular valley, no. But that peak off in the distance… she knew those ragged edges. She'd seen them out her bedroom window her entire life. She was seeing them from the other side, which meant that she was many miles north of Highwatch.

"Yes," said Ashiin. "The Giantspires."

Hweilan waited for the warning to come-Don't think of running home, girl-or some such. But it never did.

"Close your eyes," said Ashiin.

She did.

"Can you feel it?"

She could. That grating on her nerve endings, as if tiny shards of ice filled her blood, and every pulse of her heart sent their jagged edges into her flesh. And the pulse, the steady drumbeat at the back of her skull. She had first felt it during her flight from Highwatch, and she had first realized what it was in the realm of Kunin Gatar.

"Jagun Ghen," said Hweilan, and opened her eyes.

"One of his minions, yes," said Ashiin. "You can sense it."

"Yes," Hweilan said, "ever since…"

She searched her memory. She had first noticed this new sense in the foothills with Lendri, after the fall of Highwatch. But in her visions in Kesh Naan's cave, she had seen Jagun Ghen break into Toril, possessing a young Argalath. And she had been around Argalath many times in her life. The man had always made her skin crawl, but nothing like this. This had begun…

"When Jagun Ghen began hunting you," said Ashiin. "This… sense, this pulse on your brain, bordering on pain, that is not from the Master, nor from you."

"You mean," said Hweilan, "Jagun Ghen is… is in my head?"

The thought horrified her, made her feel sick.

Ashiin shrugged. "Not like that, I think. He and his minions can sense you, but you can sense him. This connection goes both ways. If he could read your thoughts, I think you could read his. Can you?"

"No."

"Have you tried?"

"No!"

"Try now."

"What? Are you mad?"

"Think, you stupid girl. If he can sense your thoughts, do you think he'd balk at it? No. He would use every weapon at his disposal. Would you do less?"

Hweilan gritted her teeth. Ashiin had a point, and she knew it. As much as the thought repulsed her, if she could gain an edge…

She took a deep breath, released it, then closed her eyes. The pain was still there, the nagging pulse, and concentrating on it made it seem worse. She did her best to relax, to concentrate on that sense, growing stronger by the moment. But that's all it was-a sense of danger drawing nearer.

"Nothing." She opened her eyes and looked at Ashiin. "I can feel it coming, but nothing more."

"It is close?"

Hweilan looked around. The sun rode high in the sky, but it only made the shadows under boulders and in the cracks of the cliffside seem all the darker. Pines and underbrush grew in the valley floor. They swayed in the wind, and the shadows under them twisted and shifted constantly. Anything could be hiding in the valley. Hweilan shivered, and only part of it was from the cold.

"Getting closer," she said.

"You feel ready for this?" said Ashiin.

"No," said Hweilan. She remembered looking into the eyes of what she'd thought was her Uncle Soran, and then at Kadrigul. The former had gone toe to toe with Kunin Gatar, and the latter had ripped Lendri's heart from his chest.

"Good," said Ashiin. "If you felt ready, I'd know you're still a fool. The more important question: are you willing?"

Hweilan looked down at the stake in her hand. She'd carved the uwethla herself. They were rough, and she could still smell the charcoal scent of the burned wood. But she could feel the power in them. Dormant, yes, but still there.

"Yes," she said.

"You're going to need everything I've ever taught you to survive this," said Ashiin.

Hweilan closed her eyes again. She had learned much since she had last faced one of these monstrosities. The familiar pounding was much the same-still bordering on pain-but after so many tendays of training with Ashiin, she knew how to use the pain, not to deny it but embrace it and use it to fuel her will. Every drumbeat in her skull was a little stronger than the last. But rather than resist them, she opened herself, let her muscles relax, let the pounding send her blood and breath racing through her body.

"I'm ready," she said. But when she opened her eyes, Ashiin was gone.

Hweilan considered her options. She remembered how these things had tracked her before. No matter how far and fast she and Lendri had run, those things had always managed to find her again. She could sense them, and she had every reason to believe that connection ran both ways.

"No sense in hiding," she told herself. That left only one option: choose the battleground.

She had the knife Lendri had given her. Fine steel and razor sharp, but not much more. Then there was Menduarthis's blade. After their conversation, Gleed had taught her a few of its tricks, which might prove useful. But ultimately, all that was just decoration. If Kunin Gatar hadn't been able to stop one of these things, no amount of weaponry and magic would help. It all came down to the pointed shaft in her hand. Somehow she had to get that inside the thing.

Hweilan looked down at the bottom of the valley a few hundred yards below. What trees there were grew down there-tall pines with thick scrub at their feet. She could use them. Not to hide-she'd already decided there was no use in that-but she could use them to her advantage.

If she hurried. The drumbeat in her skull had taken on a sharper edge, each pulse piercing. The thing was close. Hweilan ran.

She made it to the woods and had passed the first trees when she saw her mistake. The thing was already there. Hweilan stopped and took a defensive crouch, Menduarthis's knife in one hand, the uwethla-covered stake in the other.

A dozen or so paces in front of her, crouching on a log, was a horror from her nightmares. Still vaguely human, the emaciated features and pale skin were being overrun by more bestial features-thick, coarse hair that stood on end off the back of her head; twisted sprigs that looked like half-formed feathers sprouted up the back of her arms and shoulders; thick fangs protruded from bloodied lips. The hand that had struck the log raked upward, dislodging more pieces of wood and ice, and Hweilan noticed that both hands and feet ended in claws. Still, there was enough left to suggest the woman that the thing had once been. It was the eyes that finally gave her away. One teary blue orb looked at Hweilan with nothing but a sad, pathetic madness. But the other… a blazing, fleshy jewel. A new eye-one birthed from some foul power. Still, Hweilan remembered all too well the day she had gouged it out.

"Jatara," she said.

The thing on the log cocked its head, and the blue eye blinked, as if with confusion or wonder, and then it said, "Ja-Ja-Jatara. Yes. Bits of her are still here. Little bits and bits. Very tasty. Not as tasty as you, I'd bet, I'd bet, I'd bite."

Jatara leaped. Not up into the air, but straight at Hweilan, like the loosing of an arrow.

Hweilan rolled to the left and came up again, swiping out with the silver steel of her knife as she did. But it cut only air.

The Jatara-thing had slid through the carpet of old pine needles and come to a stop against the bole of a tree. She crouched there, panting, both eyes locked on Hweilan.

The reek hit Hweilan and almost caused her knees to buckle. It was a stench that hit the mind more than the nose-the smell of a thousand years of burning rot.

"You killed muh-m-my brother," said the Jatara-thing, and in the words Hweilan heard both voices-Jatara's, drowning in darkness and fire, and the other.

"No," said Hweilan, and it was the truth.

"Saw him die," said the thing. "Watched him die."

"Yes," said Hweilan, "I did," and she brandished the stake in front of her. The uwethla carved into it flared, like slumbering embers fanned by a breeze.

The Jatara-thing hissed and its eyes closed to razor-thin slits.

"Going to stick that in me, are you?"

"Yes," said Hweilan, and took two steps forward.

"You can try," said the thing-and leaped again.

Hweilan tried to turn the spike of the stake into her foe, but Jatara was so fast-a blur of shadow in the air, and then the force of a battering ram hit her.

The stake flew from Hweilan's hand, and it was only a reflex brought on by pain that caused her other hand to tighten around the knife and keep it in her grip. All breath left her body in one pained gasp, and she felt muscles grind and tear against her bones at the force that hit them. Hweilan flew back-skidded against the rough bark of a tree, shredding the shirt off her back-then hit the ground and tumbled end over end.

She forced herself to move-again acting more by instinct than conscious thought-rolling away and pushing herself to her feet. The world rocked and shivered around her, and she had to force breath back into her battered body. Lights danced before her eyes, and she clenched her jaw so tight that she felt the roots of her teeth stabbing into her jaw and she tasted blood.

"I've been waiting," said a voice, and Hweilan realized it was coming from above her. The Jatara-thing had taken to the boughs. "Scouring these hard lands. Eating vermin. H-hunting for you."

Hweilan's eyes scoured the ground around her. Where was the stake?

"Searching," the voice continued, "sniffing every trail. But they all went cold. Where did you go, m-my little morsel?"

There! The stake was lying half-covered in pine needles just beyond a tree to Hweilan's right. She ran for it.

On the ground only a pace from the stake, Jatara hit the ground, landing in a crouch. "Wherever you were… you should've stayed there."

Hweilan dodged to the right, putting a thick tree trunk between them. She waved Menduarthis's knife in front of her and chanted, "Bi viekka okhadit! Bi viekka okhadal!"

The symbols in the knife flickered and then blazed, for a moment only, and as the light faded a wind whipped through the valley, making the boughs wave and causing the carpet of needles to erupt into the air.

Hweilan knew they would cause no real harm to the Jatara-thing, but it might prove enough of a distraction for her to be able to reach theClaws raked through the front of her shirt, shredding skin and flesh beneath.

A hundred combat lessons ingrained into her mind and body took over, and Hweilan reacted on a level deeper than conscious thought, back-stepping, counter-striking, side stepping, and lashing out with steel and fist. She felt her enemy's blows deflecting off her fist and forearm as Ashiin had taught her, and she felt her knife cut and pierce flesh. But the thing inside Jatara was relentless. For every blow that Hweilan landed, she avoided two and blocked another.

The wind summoned by the blade died away, and tiny shards of bark and wood and millions of pine needles settled to the ground like a dry rain. Hweilan jumped back and away from Jatara, and for once her enemy did not follow, but stood her ground, watching.

Hweilan's chest heaved. Her body ached. Blood ran down her shoulder and chest where claws had torn away her skin and bit deep into the muscle beneath. Her free hand that she had used to divert her enemy's claws and teeth throbbed with pain. She could feel hundreds of blood vessels in her skin and the flesh beneath that had burst and were turning her entire forearm into one massive bruise. She flexed the hand, and by the pain that shot all the way into her teeth, she knew that part of the bone had cracked.

"Gooood," said the Jatara-thing, and for a moment it closed its eyes and breathed deeply through its nose. "Fighting… fear… makes your blood run w-w-with… heat. Makes you taste so much m-more… sweet."

She charged again, her clawed feet raking through the ground, her talons outstretched before her.

Hweilan just had time to swipe the other knife from the sheath and pivot her body to one side.

The ivory-yellow claws almost missed her entirely. Jatara's right hand missed, but the left gouged a thick divot of skin and flesh out of her left arm. But Hweilan's steel struck as well-Lendri's knife in her right hand slicing up and into the tendons under Jatara's left arm, her left burying Menduarthis's knife between two of Jatara's ribs, then letting go, leaving it there, while Hweilan rolled and tumbled away.

Jatara shrieked, but it was half-laughter as she turned again to face Hweilan. Her left arm hung loose at her side and only gave a feeble twitch as she tried to move it.

"You think your steel can hurt me?" she said. "Hurt me really?"

Hweilan crouched and picked up the sharpened shaft of wood from the forest floor. "No," she said. "Not really. But this will. Really."

Jatara's eyes narrowed with suspicion. She watched Hweilan a moment, then looked down at the steel dagger protruding from her chest. No blood leaked from it. She reached for it with her right hand.

Hweilan whispered the incantation-"Dalvi batunik. Dalvi batunik dal!"

Although she couldn't see them, she knew the runes etched into the blade flared-this time not summoning winds, but calling upon the forces of winter itself, of cold and frost andThe Jatara-thing shrieked as the flesh around the knife-her dead heart, the muscles of her chest and arm, and the fist grasping the knife's hilt-froze solid.

Hweilan charged, the stake raised high. The Jatara-thing struggled-Hweilan could feel the power of fire stirring inside it, counter attacking the knife's magic, thawing the muscle and bone-but it was not quick enough.

Hweilan brought her fist down and buried the sharp point of the stake deep into the Jatara-thing's neck.

She stepped back, wide-eyed with triumphBut nothing happened. No sudden green flame catching in the uwethla. No nothingness suffusing into Jatara's gaze.

Jatara lurched forward-one quick step-and caught Hweilan with her one good arm, wrapping her in a crushing embrace around her lower back. She felt her body pressed in close to the dead flesh, and no matter how hard she struggled, she could not break free.

"Surprised?" said the Jatara-thing, and the charnel reek of her breath washed over Hweilan, and she had to choke back bile. Jatara leaned in close, like a lover sharing an intimate secret. "Oh, I searched for you so long… so long. Every trail ran cold. I'd be searching still, if not for… for what, hmm?"

Hweilan beat at the creature with her bruised arms and both legs, but she might as well have been trying to push over one of the nearby pines.

"What would you call it?" said Jatara, and she squeezed.

Hweilan shrieked. She heard her spine snap like a branch broken over against a knee, but she didn't feel it-couldn't feel it, couldn't feel anything below her waist. And then the arm was gone.

Hweilan fell to the ground. She had to force breath into her body. Panic was setting in-a primal reaction, for she could feel nothing below the new pain in the middle of her back. Her back. Her back! That monster had broken her back, like a child tired of an old plaything.

The Jatara-thing paced around her. A predator toying with its defenseless prey.

"You would call it treachery, I think," said Jatara. She pulled the stake out of her neck and brandished at Hweilan. "This, I mean. See it? See!"

Against her will, Hweilan looked at it, and despair and horror settled in over her. It wasn't the stake she had made. The engravings were there, burned into the wood, but there were subtle differences. Not true uwethla, but close imitations. And there was no power in them. She could feel their absence, just as surely as she could no longer feel her legs.

"Never never would I have found you," said the Jatara-thing, "without help. Your… friend? Brought me to you. Though I wouldn't call such a one friend. Would you?"

Hweilan's mind reeled, and she fought to remain conscious. Gleed's words-spoken to her so long ago-came to her again. Spoken about Ashiin… do not trust her. That one serves the Master. But for her own reasons. If she thinks you do not further those reasons…

"The end," said the Jatara-thing. "The end. You were the last. Oh not the last that your Master will try to send against my master. But the last who had a chance. By the time the next Hand is ready, it will be too late. This world suits us. All the hungers and lust and wanting… we will fit in quite nicely here. By the time your lord sends another, it will be too late. Finished. The end. And this?" She waved the counterfeit stake over Hweilan, then tossed it aside with contempt. "A fake. Yes?"

"That one is," said a new voice-and the air behind Jatara shimmeredAnd a hand lashed out, the symbols etched in the wood in its grip already flaring, and plunged into Jatara's back.

Jatara's jaw stretched, but it was the thing inside her that screamed-a sound of cracking mountains that filled Hweilan's soul as the being of hunger and fire was bound and trapped. Green fire spewed out of Jatara's eyes and mouth, and an inky, viscous fume leaked out of her ears. A final spasm shook the body, and then it fell, lifeless and free.

Ashiin stood behind it. She cocked her head and looked down at Hweilan. "I am thinking you have questions. Yes?"