The Fifth Dawn

CHAPTER 15

Glissa tapped Ellasha on the shoulder and jerked her head toward a shadowed alcove they had just passed.

“What is it?” the leonin whispered.

Glissa didn’t say anything, but swung the heavy pack off of her shoulder and held it up meaningfully, looking from the bag and down the tunnel ahead. When the leonin just stared at her blankly, she decided to risk a few words. “This place. Too empty. It’s suspicious. Want to consult the head.”

“Good point,” Ellasha replied softly. “I expected light resistance on the way in, but I would have thought that once we got here it would be crawling with nim. Maybe this is just a little-used passage,” she added with a shrug. “I shall stand watch in the tunnel. Let me know what you learn.” The skyhunter took a couple of steps and leaned cautiously against the corner of the alcove, well hidden from anyone who might come down the hall but with a clear line of sight in either direction. Her ears cocked forward, scanning for the heavy, clanking footsteps of nim warriors.

Glissa could easily see why Raksha had trusted Ellasha as second-in-command on this mission. She certainly fought with a ferocity and dexterity Glissa had never seen, but the skyhunter’s composure was nothing short of heroic.

The elf girl flipped the pack open with one hand and clamped the other over Geth’s mouth. She raised a claw to her lips, and was satisfied when the severed head did not sound any kind of alarm, when she uncovered his mouth. Geth’s head crinkled his leathery brow and whispered, “What now?”

“Don’t talk unless you’re answering me,” Glissa whispered. “Where are they?”

“Who? Your kitty cats? Beats me. They were all alive when I went in the bag. What did you do to them?”

Glissa silenced Geth with a glare. “The nim. The last time I was here, the place was crawling with them.”

“Yeah, funny, isn’t it?” Geth said evasively. “Strange to be in the needlebug nest and not find any needlebugs, eh?”

“Geth, I’m going to step on you.”

“Okay, okay,” Geth hissed more loudly than he needed to. “Fine, no fun for Geth, just stick Geth in the bag….” Glissa’s eyes narrowed, and he hurriedly added, “All right, all right. Your leonin was on the nose. Yert’s sent almost all of the nim forces to the front lines. He thinks this is the perfect time, with the Golden Scrub away and his cousin in charge. The peace offer was nothing more than nim-waste.”

“Really,” Glissa said. “You’re sure it’s not to lure us into a sense of complacency before springing the trap?”

“You know, you didn’t used to be so paranoid,” Geth said. “I miss that innocent little elf girl who begged me to spare Yert’s life. That sure worked out well, didn’t it?”

“Answer the question,” Glissa said, struggling to keep her anger in check.

“Honestly? You might be right. I wouldn’t put anything past Yert these days,” Geth’s face took on an uncharacteristically thoughtful cast. “But you know, that’s what I would have done. You’re a fool if you don’t expect that.”

“Right,” Glissa muttered. “Great. Anything else?”

“Yes,” Geth said. “Duck.”

It took Geth’s warning a half-second to sink in, and if she’d waited any longer her own skull would have joined his on the floor. A nim claw slammed the rusted tunnel wall with a clang and a shower of blue sparks. Glissa dropped Geth’s head and let it roll into the corner, then spun in a crouch, drawing her sword and readying her weary muscles for another fight.

The nim loomed over her, blocking her from the hall and Ellasha, wherever the leonin was. Since she hadn’t warned her, she feared the worst for the skyhunter.

Glissa tried the same move that had worked before. With a yell, she jabbed upward with her sword, hoping to impale the nim through its relatively soft underbelly. The creature had taken her by surprise, however, and her strike was off. The hulking zombie caught the blade easily in one crustacean claw and wrenched it from her grip, then grabbed her roughly by the arm in another claw and jerked her to her feet. So much for her good shoulder.

The nim lumbered around slowly until it faced four more of its hulking, beetle-like kin. A pair of large, gray, ghoulish-looking humans that looked like mountains of necrotic muscle held Ellasha firmly between them, one holding a massive knotted hand over her muzzle. There was something about these humans that didn’t seem quite right to Glissa. She had seen animated corpses and things like the nim that were a result of the necrogen’s effect on those same zombies. She’d seen the towering monsters that Yert had once been tasked with controlling, the reapers. However, she’d never seen humans that looked both dead and alive. There was something familiar about the feral look in their eyes, but she couldn’t put her claw tip on it.

Whatever they were, Glissa was fed up.

“Well?” Glissa shouted. “Is this how you welcome invited guests, Yert? Because I have to say, I like Geth’s approach better. At least he didn’t play games!”

“A game, is it?” a cold voice called down the corridor. “I assure you, Glissa, this is very much the real thing.”

At that, the two large gray humans holding Ellasha stepped aside and Glissa got her first look at Yert since leaving the young keeper to Geth’s not-so-tender mercies. The elf girl hardly recognized him.

The young human’s pale skin had become the same sickly gray as his henchmen. He appeared taller, as well, perhaps an optical illusion created by the majestic black robes that hung from his wiry frame like folded insect wings. As Yert raised his hands to pull back his hood, Glissa saw the tips of two black spikes, like dewclaws, on the underside of Yert’s wrists.

“Geth?” Glissa called back toward the alcove. “Let me guess. You fed Yert to your vampire, didn’t you?”

“Seemed like a good idea at the time,” Geth’s head called from the shadows. “I blame you, you know. If you hadn’t crippled-”

“That thing still speaks? I guess I should not be surprised,” Yert said. “Mercy will be your downfall, Glissa.”

Yert sent a fist across Glissa’s already battered jaw. “You overestimate your importance to me,” Yert said. “Memnarch may want you alive, but I would just as soon open you up and feast upon your innards. I’ve learned elves have a tangy taste you just don’t get in humans. I think it’s those special spices you grow in the Tangle.”

Glissa opened her mouth to retort, and as fast as lightning, Yert’s right palm was pressed against her cheek. She froze. The black spike tip was less than an inch from her jugular. “For now, just a taste,” he hissed.

She felt a pinch like a needlebug sting as Yert’s feeding spike pierced her neck. Within seconds the loss of blood began to make her dizzy, and she already sensed red unconsciousness flooding her vision. If she didn’t do something to stop him, she would be drained and dead within a minute. Nonetheless, she didn’t dare try to wriggle free. Yert could tear her throat apart with the spike.

“Help,” Glissa gasped.

She’d never felt more pathetic, she thought, as she grew more and more delirious. The mightiest hunter in the Tangle has walked into a snare hidden in plain sight. She should have known that Yert’s sudden reappearance was too strange, and that there had to be something else to it. She should have remembered the vampire. And what vampires could do to the living, if they really wanted to.

Yert suddenly screamed and jerked the spike free. Glissa felt warm liquid running freely down the side of her neck. The blackness would take her in seconds. Already everything was growing hazy. She felt a hand press over the wound and heard a voice-Yert? — muttering a few words in some bizarre, guttural tongue big on glottal stops. The flow of blood stopped, and Glissa’s vision cleared almost instantly. She spun free of the vampire’s grip and stepped back cautiously.

Yert held one palm into his forehead, and straightened with great effort. “Yes,” he said to the air, “I won’t do it again. Please, make it stop.”

Something was hurting Yert badly, something that Glissa couldn’t see-but that mystery would have to wait. The other hand was still extended, covered in red blood. Her blood. And she took that sort of thing personally. Before she could think better of it, she slammed a fist into Yert’s face, sending him stumbling back into the wall.

“Seize her, but do not kill!” he cried, still clutching his head. “The Guardian commands it!”

That explained his sudden headache, Glissa guessed.

Ellasha took advantage of her captor’s distraction to bring her legs up and kick off the nearest wall, sending the gray brutes slamming into ironstone with a crunch of snapping ribs. As the pair hit the tunnel floor, Glissa noted twin sets of black spikes on the ends of their wrists. These two weren’t human, either. Yert had been busy. If this kept up, humans were going to become extinct.

“Run!” she shouted to Ellasha. “Still have to find Bruenna. I’ll catch up.” The leonin commando leader nodded and headed down the tunnel at top speed, narrowly evading the grasping claws of the looming nim.

Glissa feinted right, causing a nim to stumble against the pair of vampires before they could recover from Ellasha’s blow, then dashed back to the alcove. She scooped up Geth’s head, which shouted “Hey!” as she stuffed it into the pack, then set off after the leonin as fast as her legs would carry her. As she passed the last slow-moving nim, she snatched her sword from the zombie’s claws.

The tunnel behind her exploded with clanging footsteps as the nim gave chase. Glissa could make out Ellasha up ahead through the pervasive necrogen, and hoped she could keep pace with the fleet-footed feline. As if reading her mind, Ellasha looked back and paused, bouncing on impatient feet.

“Thanks for waiting,” Glissa said breathlessly as she joined the leonin. Together they set off at a dead run into the heart of the Mephidross. “You’re one … fast cat.”

“Not … a cat,” Ellasha said, “and you run … like a pixie.”

“Elf,” Glissa replied.

“Mush moh moo moh, mish mimsn’t my maulf,” Geth added.

“I actually believe it’s not your fault, Geth,” Glissa said. “Now you’re going to prove it by getting us to Bruenna and out again.”

“My mate moo.”

“I hate you too,” Glissa said.

“The tunnel forks ahead,” Ellasha said, stopping short. “Ask it which way to go.”

“Might,” the head said from inside the pack.

“Right?” Ellasha asked.

“Right,” Glissa said.

They set off down the tunnel Geth had indicated, followed by an army of nim and three very angry vampires, one of which was beginning to wonder if an alliance with Memnarch was really such a good idea.