The Pilgrims

36

They set out through what looked like English countryside, with the occasional farmstead and patch of scenic woodland. They went largely off road, since the terrain easily allowed it, sneaking a look through the foliage at the rare people going by road. There was something secretive and hurried in the manner of most travellers they saw. Soldiers sometimes walked by in light chain mail, always in pairs, chatting and laughing: they alone seeming light of spirit. ‘Always this way in Aligned country,’ said Kiown. ‘People try not to stand out.’

‘Too bad we do,’ said Eric. Even Kiown dressed unlike any other natives, with his long black sleeves and pants nearly skin tight about his lanky frame.

‘Mmm, we do. But we wouldn’t dare walk around dressed this strangely if we had something to hide. We must be important, maybe even on castle business. You watch, if there’re any roadblocks, they’ll think that very thing as long as we stay calm.’

‘They’ll think we’re top secret castle crack troops?’ said Case.

‘You jest,’ said Kiown. ‘Such people do exist. You’d be surprised. They’re called Hunters; I’ve encountered them. And they strike terror in the common grunt. So shall we.’

They put good distance behind them without incident, stopping off road now and then to eat the more perishable of the innkeeper’s goods. ‘Worried about what he said of poisoned rats?’ said Case as they sat on boulders near a crystal-clear stream through which black fish sluggishly pushed against the current, ignoring the pebbles Kiown skimmed at them.

‘Rats? Nahh,’ he said, stuffing into his mouth a hunk of soft, flavoured bread. ‘That was just play. But he was pretty close to cutting my throat. Made me sweat, I tell you. Even though I had a magpie-slayer there to help.’ Kiown turned to Eric. ‘Let’s hear the tale again.’

Eric groaned, not wanting to relive that trauma.

Kiown patted his arm. ‘Reluctant, I see. How odd. I’m used to travelling with Sharfy. He squashes a fly, and it’s a four-hour saga. If he killed a magpie, the tale would never end.’

‘It’s as I told you. I just hurt it. Anfen finished it off.’

‘Hurt it with a sword? A crappy little standard-issue sword?’ said Kiown, an eyebrow raised.

He still hadn’t mentioned the gun. ‘Yes. What else, my bare fists?’

‘Mmm. Brave of you.’ His look clearly said he sensed something missing from the tale, perhaps thinking Eric had lied to impress him. Eric changed the subject. ‘Did you see the war mage last night?’

‘Heard it,’ said Kiown, wolfing down the last of his bread and crouching by the stream to refill their skins.

‘What’s the plan, if it comes back for us?’

‘Run. Scream in fear, too.’ Kiown pondered. ‘Odds it was here for you are most slim, O Eric, inn-finder. For had it been, you would right now be a steaming mound of cooked flesh.’ Kiown stood, stretched. ‘Night approaches! One more hour and we’ll make camp.’

Despite the day’s exertions, Eric and Case both struggled to sleep in the little enclave he led them to, with its piles of soft dry grass set up as though he, or someone, camped out there frequently. They risked a small fire, though no mage was there to keep its smoke and light hidden from prying eyes, and ate well of the innkeeper’s food again, not too mindful of dwindling supplies; Kiown could hunt game, he assured them, and they’d be able to buy more when they reached Hane.

Finally Case’s snoring began in tandem with Kiown’s, and Eric alone lay awake, trying not to think of the Invia’s dying scream, or the unearthly beauty of the others escaping skywards, one of those also wounded by his cruel weapon from another world. But the images wouldn’t leave his mind. They’d want to kill him, now; so be it. He just wanted to find the surviving ones and say he was sorry.

Giving up on sleep, he went to the enclave’s opening, leaned on it and gazed at the starless night. Then he saw something that took the breath out of him. In the distance, something huge moved across the sky. His first glance had taken it to be a massive bunch of clouds, but it was far too distinct, vaguely human-shaped and lit by its own glowing light. Two huge arms stretched out before it. A hooded face turned slowly left and right, sweeping across the ground below, and casting a faint luminescence like a thick beam of moonlight. It wheeled around, the tail of its hooded gown trailing far behind it, like a stream of smoky black cloud.

Eric’s heart beat fast, though the huge apparition was nowhere near them. Should he wake Kiown? He had to know what that was, whether he really saw it or whether he was mad. He shook the bandit’s shoulder gently. Kiown was awake, blade drawn in a second. ‘Eric? Yes?’

‘Look at this.’

‘It better be good,’ said Kiown, getting to his feet and yawning. ‘I dreamed of innkeepers’ daughters, and the things one might do to them.’ He peered out into the gloom.

It took a moment for the huge shape to reappear, for it had floated out of sight. Shivers went down Eric’s back as it turned back from beyond the horizon. ‘Look at that! Do you see it?’

‘That’s just Nightmare,’ said Kiown, yawning. ‘Haven’t seen him for a while. Year, at least. My, he’s a long way north. Well done, O Eric companion-waker. You’ve seen your first Great Spirit.’

‘That’s one of your gods?’

‘Yes, now let me sleep.’ Kiown staggered back to his dry grass bed, and was snoring seconds later. Eric stood watching for a good while after Nightmare had wheeled out of view, but the Great Spirit didn’t return.

They rose to a pale, cool morning, bundled up the piles of straw for the next secret travellers to come through, then headed back towards the road. ‘Are the other Great Spirits like Nightmare?’ Eric asked Kiown.

Kiown shrugged. ‘I’ve seen only Nightmare and Wisdom. Valour, no one sees him, but Anfen says he’s real enough. He’s not huge though, like Nightmare. Wisdom is. She flies around at night too.’

‘It sounded pretty evil from your talk of it,’ said Case.

‘Evil? Nightmare?’ Kiown frowned. ‘Does he roam around eating people like apples? He does not. Does he look scary? He does. Some think to see him’s bad luck, but that’s tosh. I’d be more worried about his worshippers, the creepy shits. Not half as bad as Inferno’s, but I wouldn’t go to their parties either.’

Late in the day they saw a roadside vigil manned by guards wearing Hane’s colours, orange with white bands. They were seen before they could go off road. Kiown said, ‘Easy does it, everyone calm. Case, wear the charm. Eric, wait here and look important.’ Kiown rushed ahead and had a quiet word with the soldiers, who listened, then waved Eric to come through without saying a word.

‘What did you tell them?’ said Case when they were safely past.

‘Trick with soldiers on watch is to pretend you’re on urgent secret business for their city. Just make something up. Watch duty’s boring, they like a good yarn. One or two harsh words about the state of their uniforms doesn’t hurt at all. Anfen taught us the right things to say to make em think you’re connected to the high-ups. Those chaps back there think they’ll get promoted for letting us through. Ready for another night in the wilderness?’

Case groaned.

‘Don’t worry, I know a good spot. Just a short climb. Pretty view.’

The climb was hellishly steep up stone steps winding around a tall pillar of rock. It had been built as a roadside lookout tower but abandoned halfway through. The result was a hunk of dark grey stone tall as an office building and about as wide at the top. The steps were wide and solid underfoot but had no railing to grasp. The Pilgrims clung nervously to the pillar’s wall, trying not to look down. Kiown laughed at them and bounded up two or three steps at a time.

There were signs of past campfires on the platform, as well as rolled-up mattresses of soft grass to sleep on, tied and weighted with rocks against the wind, again left as a courtesy by others who’d stayed here in secret. Old bones too small to be human were scattered about, presumably someone’s meal. Sometimes people stayed up there for weeks, Kiown said, despite the road running directly below.

Case — who’d been so exhausted halfway up the steps he’d deduced, in all sincerity, that Kiown was in the middle of a murder attempt — lay prostrate on the platform’s middle. Kiown whooped from exhilaration at the view. Eric found it funny: the sight of a Great Spirit was normal to Kiown, but a view from high up amazed him, despite being less remarkable than that witnessed by any window-seat aeroplane passenger. The road they’d been walking stretched in a long winding line into the distance. ‘That way’s the inn,’ said Kiown, pointing north. ‘See that flat space there? Blasted Plains. You were all the way over there, just a few days back. You only cut across one little part of its edge. It stretches further southwest, gets impossible to walk through. Elementals there too, and other nasties.’

‘Which way’s the castle?’ said Eric.

Kiown pointed in approximately the direction of the road they’d come by. ‘Right now, we’re about a fifth of the way to World’s End,’ he said, ‘which, I suspect, is where Anfen is eventually headed. And I suspect I know why.’ But he wouldn’t be drawn further on the subject.

To their immediate west was a cluster of round hillsides. From behind those, many trails of smoke wound skywards. ‘That’s the edge of Hane,’ said Kiown. ‘And there,’ he pointed beyond, where the fading daylight sparkled on a distant patch of what looked like ocean, ‘is the Godstears Sea. It’s where Anfen tried to send me. It’s a very big puddle. Tasty fish.’

From his backpack, Kiown pulled a tightly rolled-up blanket. ‘We’ll be snuggling up tonight,’ he said. ‘Gets windy up here. But we’re safe. Let’s eat.’

There was no wood for a fire, even had they wanted to risk one. Kiown traded jokes with Eric as night fell, obscuring the grand sweeping view. Drawing in the dust with his finger, Eric introduced noughts and crosses to Levaal. ‘Stupidest fucking game I’ve ever seen,’ Kiown muttered.

Some distant homestead lights could be seen for a while, but they were shut off before long. Case either slept early or pretended to. The shakes had returned to his hands from lack of drink, and he’d all but admitted Stranger was probably not going to show up.

It got windy up on that platform, but Eric went to sleep with his belly full, his mind at peace, and happier than he’d been since he came to this world.