Lady of Poison

CHAPTER 15

Trashing branches behind the portal, poised out of sight, fell on them as they exited the Nadir. Marrec was knocked over and rolled through the dirt. Pain lanced his side. His vision was filled with violently swaying tree limbs, leafless and gnarled, like a forest seen too close in a thunderstorm. He couldn’t see his friends. The cleric tried to stand, but a large branch smashed him face down onto the ground.

He heard Elowen calling to her blade Dymondheart and the sound of Ususi chanting, closer, behind him, maybe. Another effort saw him to his feet.

Constructions of leafless, interlocking branches, each forming a sinister humanoid shape, surrounded them. Faceless, their empty visages inspired terror all the more. The sound of their combined movement was horrible to hear: a rush of creaks, the dry saw of wood on wood, and a low roar like wind in the trees. Some were only three feet high, but others topped ten. One of these large ones again menaced Marrec, but he dodged the massive arm as it again tried to smash him flat.

An eruption of flame to his left and behind caused many of the creatures to flinch. He heard Ususi’s voice

“You twigblights don’t like that, do you? Just wait, I have more.”

Amidst the rushing, thrashing branches, he saw the mage.

Ususi stood in a self-created circular clearing littered with burning twigs and branches. The creatures outside the periphery seemed more interested in staying away from Ususi than closing on her. The portal mouth at Ususi’s back, from which he’d exited, was still visible as a dark void in the air. More of the creatures shuffled forward from behind the portal, skirting its edge. They had lain in wait, that was obvious. So much for his theory about their arrival being unmarked.

A knot of activity to his right and closer to the first arch drew his eyehe could see the gleam of Dymondheart as it rose above the branch tops of their attackers. Elowen was there, but where was Gunggari?

Deciding his friend could take care of himself, he rushed toward Ususi. Her magic was impressive, but his experience taught him that impressive magic often came at the price of a fragile body. Apparently, one of the large monsters had the same thought. Just as Marrec was about to reach Ususi’s side, a branch crashed down on the mage’s head. The woman fell like a puppet with severed strings.

“Ususi!” he screamed.

Justlance finally in hand, he drove its spear point into the dark heartwood of the creature, using all the strength granted him by his glovesit felt as if he could draw more or less strength as he needed. He realized at the same time that the reservoir of might offered by the Nentyarch’s gift was not without limit. He used up a great quantity of that strength with that thrust. The twigblight, as Ususi had called it, groaned like a live thing, its branches flailing randomly as it was felled. When it struck the ground, it shattered into hundreds of smaller unmoving pieces. Where its heart would have been were it a living creature, a double-handful of stinking mud burst and oozed. Marrec was reminded of the ooze creatures they’d faced within the Nadir. He realized that his strike for the “heart” of the monster had been a lucky strike indeed. He doubted his spear would have the same lethal effect on these creatures if he didn’t pierce the ‘heartwood.’

The still-burning splinters of the creatures Ususi had blasted seemed a deterrent to the other, smaller stick monstrosities. He stood, and Ususi lay, at the center of that safe zone. The dark portal to the Nadir remained open, only a step away, held open by the solidified mass of mud and ooze that made up the island on the opposite side. He considered pulling Ususi back through to get her out of harm’s way. That would mean leaving Gunggari and Elowen to their fate, something Marrec could not bring himself to do.

The creatures were retreating from him and his fallen comrade. They were concentrating their numbers where he guessed Elowen, and he hoped Gunggari, were standing.

The sound of Gunggari’s dizheri blared forth. Marrec grinned. The tattooed warrior was still up and around.

The twigblights surged forward, redoubling their efforts to win into the center of the knot of activity where Dymondheart flailed and the dizheri played. Without the press of monsters battering him, Marrec was better able to see the focus of their attention. Finally, he caught glimpses of Elowen and Gunggari together, fighting back-to-back. They were fighting furiously and would need a respite soon, but he couldn’t leave Ususi alone.

When chance gave him another glimpse of Gunggari through the thrashing limbs, Marrec cupped his hands and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Flee into the arches you’re too vulnerable out here.”

Gunggari darted his gaze toward Marrec. He nodded. Seconds later Marrec’s line of sight was again obscured, but the concentration of creatures surged forward under the first stone arch of Xenosi. The arches were too narrow for the whole mass of attackers. The twigblights were unable to maintain the ferocity of their assault, and those on the sides were forced to peel away. A great creaking crackled and popped through the air. Marrec wondered if the creatures were concerned that their quarry would escape or frustrated that their plan to ambush and overwhelm had failed.

Not all the creatures followed after Elowen and Gunggari. A handful turned back toward him, one almost as large as the creature he’d earlier vanquished with a thrust of Justlance.

He’d been saving one last spell of healing, holding onto it for a desperate situation. The current situation qualified, he decided. Without Ususi’s aid, he doubted his spear alone would see him through the conflict. That’s when the temptation thrust up from his subconscious, like a bubble of poisonous gas seeping to a swamp surface. He could call on his heritage; he could use his talent. He could end the threat then and there.

“No,” he uttered out loud.

It was too much. He’d sworn to himself…

Thrusting the thought from his mind, he bent and recited the spell of healing on the fallen mage. With Ususi’s magical arsenal at hand, there would be no reason to bring his talent into it, but the temptation, awake once more, settled into the back of his mind, waiting.

Ususi groaned, her eyes fluttering, when the bluish gleam of his healing magic faded from her skin.

“Up and at ‘em,” Marrec cajoled. “We’re about to have company. Why don’t you show them the hot end of a fire blast?”

Ususi mumbled something, then took Marrec’s proffered hand. He helped her to stand, but her grip was weak and shaking. His healing spell had brought her to consciousness, but he realized the woman was still hurt.

Her eyes widened, and she pointed behind.

Marrec whirled in time to see the last ooze man fly from the still-open portal mouth, its flapping wings spattering droplets of muck. When it saw Ususi and Marrec, it crowed in delight then croaked, “Anammelech is coming! Anammelech is coming!”

The twigblights, their courage restored by Ususi’s weakness, pressed them from the other side. They were only twenty or thirty feet away and moving closer with a determined step, if constructs of dead tree branches can be determined.

“Ususi, take them,” Marrec whispered.

He grabbed up his spear once more, and cast it at the screaming muckman. The shaft flew wide, missing the darting, yelling creature by inches.

Ususi steadied herself and began speaking. Her low tones climbed in octave, and with a rush she managed to force several sounds out of her mouth simultaneously. A wave of red flame was born from the path of her waving hand. The semicircle of fire grew in height and width and rushed away from her toward the returning twigblights. The fiery front broke over the creatures like a true wave. Marrec could feel the heat even from where he stood, as five of the creatures caught fire immediately, sending streams of oily smoke into the sky. The crackle and snap of burning twigblight was loud. The remaining three creatures danced away, apparently in full retreat.

“Way to go, Ususi,” he congratulated the mage. She graced him with another of her rare smiles.

The muckman continued its disturbing chant about the imminent arrival of Anammelech. It opened the distance between itself and Marrec, wary of Justlance’s sudden return to Marrec’s grasp.

Without warning, the creature exploded.

Ooze and odiferous mud splattered Marrec and Ususi. All that remained of the muck creature was a crater-like circle, its circumference formed by its remains.

“Well… that was convenient,” opined Marrec after a few seconds of examination.

Ususi studied muck crater, concentration wrinkling her brow. She said, “That was no accident.”

“You think it blew itself up on purpose?”

She responded, “The master calling home his familiar, perhaps.”

“Messy way to say, ‘here, boy,’ don’t you think?”

Ususi sighed, “Do you make a joke of everything?”

“Only when I’ve just escaped death by a nail’s breadth,” confided Marrec, grinning.

“You know, I have noticed you don’t always joke.

“Hmm?” Marrec raised an eyebrow.

“Most of the time you speak simply, even like a commoner, but every so often your speech lapses into a series of formal proclamations, like ‘Flee or perish!’ or ‘Now you shall meet the cruel end of Justlance!’ It is… interesting,” finished the mage.

Marrec opened his mouth to respond, but Ususi spoke up again, saying, “It is a habit I’ve been studying. It is my theory that you slip into that manner of talking when you think people around need the encouragement of a self-assured voice. Or you yourself need it. Anyway, it is a theory.”

Marrec’s felt his face warm. Ususi looked at him with one raised eyebrow, as if she expected him to cork off with a sample proclamation.

A gurgle and sucking sound drew their gazes back to the circular crater of ooze. The ooze was drawing back together.

Marrec said, “He’s returning, be ready.” He was almost grateful the creature was backit relieved him of having to comment on Ususi’s theory. He readied his spear.

Yet another blanket of stench erupted from the coagulating ooze. As it slumped back together, it seemed to grow in quantity. Soon there was no question that the ooze was somehow replenishing itself, growing larger and taller than the muck man had been. A half-formed arm reached forward, palm out. Marrec’s stomach twisted as he recognized a sort of dark mirror of himself summoning Justlance. In the half-formed creature’s hand a slender, weapon-shaped object blackened the air. Both he and Ususi recognized the weapon immediately. It was twin to the halberd wielded by fallen Gameliel.

Ususi whispered, “A blightlord comes. I am too tired to fight.”

“You were right about the ooze creature, almost. It called its master, not the other way around. It must be Anammelech.” He grabbed Ususi’s hand and they dashed toward the empty mouth of the Arches of Xenosi. “Let’s try to catch up with Gunggari and Elowen.”

Marrec glanced back as they passed from the sun into the tree-lined corridor framed by the arches. The blightlord was almost fully formed and already sliding forward on a layer of slime like an upright, armored slug. Then they were fully committed to the cool green hall under the trees, running over light-stippled earth.

He was surprised to discover that he couldn’t see very far at all along the length of the passage. Some sort of viridian mist greened out vision beyond more than forty or fifty feet, if that. As it happened, that was about the distance between each successive stone arch. Though the lane was strangely clear of growth, the forest pressed in on all sides, and vines grew thickly on the sides of each arch, and some few hung down beneath each stone span.

Like light, sound was also muffled in the lane, though he thought he could hear the sound of conflict far ahead If Gunggari’s tracking skill could be trusted, Ash and her kidnapper were also ahead. He tightened his grip slightly on Ususi’s hand and tried to speed up.

Ususi’s injuries came to the fore. A stitch in her breath soon became a gasp, and she stumbled. She said something in a language Marrec couldn’t understand. He was pretty sure it was a language he’d never heard before.

“What?” he asked, slowing a trifle.

“I can not keep this pace. My foresight has failed me. I know just the spell to speed me along, but I do not have it prepared.”

Marrec frowned but decided not to remind Ususi of his current diminished state of being unable to prepare any spells at all. It would only come across sounding petty.

Instead he said, “They are just a bit ahead of us. Just a little bit farther. I’d rather Anammelech catch up with us only after we’ve caught up with Gunny and Elowen.”

She nodded, conserving her breath.