The Shield of Weeping Ghosts

Chapter Fifteen

Snow, lit by the eerily silent lightning, painted the path before Thaena. She and the fang pushed through the wind and piling snow. The first of three guard towers along the west wall was hidden by a storm that slowed their march to a crawl. Duras forged a path just ahead of her. There had been a silence between them ever since their conversation in the central tower. It was a silence she was loathe to break, but she feared giving it room to grow. Between the thunder and the wind she had excuse enough not to probe the subject for now. Love or no, she could not justify stopping to mend their misunderstandings.

A feeling of dread grew within her with each step. She felt out of time and in a place she did not belong. The same could be seen on the others' faces. The alertness of the impending threat seemed overshadowed by a growing paranoia. She had tried to attribute this to the presence of the durthan or the absence of Bastun, but she had been touched by the shadows of this place and felt the madness that hid in its walls.

The northwest tower, a tall spire of unassuming architecture, loomed in the distance.

Despite its cursed reputation, she had never suspected the Shield to be much more than as Duras had described it-just an old castle. As an extension of Rashemen's defenses it served a vital purpose, but the city itself made its strategic value to an enemy almost negligible.

Squinting through the snow, she could barely see the outline of the first guard tower coming into focus. After a few more steps, she paused, reaching out and grabbing Duras's arm. The procession stopped and Anilya approached from her side. Thaena held up a hand to shield her eyes from the snow, peering at the figure that stood before the tower doors.

He came closer, and she found the eyes she had seen on the bridge, ice white and full of a dull, glowing power she could not describe. He spoke, but she could not make out the words. Duras raised his sword. Syrolf walked alongside him, shouting something in his ear.

Lost in the figure's compelling eyes, Thaena barely noticed that all the sounds around her had ceased. Anilya shook her shoulder and she did not respond. Duras turned, reaching for her and saying something, but she did not hear him. Only a gentle wind filled her mind. She knew the cloaked warrior did not see her. He looked through her and through all of them. His whispered spell was meant for another, some other time, but it found her all the same.

She stumbled to her knees, wanting to weep without knowing why. The man seemed so like herself in those moments, lost in time and doomed to wander the unknown, trying to make the world fit into neat little rows that fell apart and unraveled no matter how hard he tried. The magic that held her sat like a weight in her chest. Her senses screamed for her to stand and lead her men, but her limbs would not obey.

Duras and Anilya moved sluggishly to stand before her. The fang rushed forward with swords drawn. Flakes of snow, so swift just moments before, tumbled gently between her and the gaze that held her, crashing around her like boulders. The figure, this royal warrior of iced armor and regal bearing, gestured like a general in battle and turned with a skull-like grin on his suddenly shifting features. A lump formed in her throat as his eyes were lost and he disappeared inside the tower.

Blurs of movement caught her eye at the tower's top. Several night black gargoyles sat in hunched poses on the crenellations. Their skin, so like the color of a clear evening sky, shimmered in the falling snow. Pale, white eyes fixed like sickly stars between long, curving horns. They trembled in place, as if reality fought to remove the nightmares that roosted in its firmament. She struggled to recognize that she was in danger, but she could not focus through the trance that gripped her.

Anilya's hands danced on the air, twirling in the motions of magic. The fang charged as one of the beasts took wing, followed by another. Duras grabbed her shoulder, tried to bring her to her feet. He shouted words that were lost in her mind, stretched into syllables that bounced off one another into obscure, distant sounds. All she could hold onto was the image of ice blue eyes staring at her through the storm. She felt her mind crumbling.

Black wings flapped overhead, their color broken by brief slashes of sharpened steel as the battle erupted. Thaena watched as they dipped and rose, disappeared and reappeared elsewhere. One of the durthans sellswords fell screaming, a beast pinning him against the stone. It lowered its indistinct face to the flailing man, its horrible visage melting into smoke and shadow to engulf the warrior's head. The screams were muffled. The flailing arms slowed and fell still.

Thaena rubbed her hands together in frustration, tying her fingers in knots-a habit she had not indulged since she was a child. Tears rolled from her eyes and spilled into the corners of her mouth. Her mind struggled to escape, trapped in a labyrinth of magic and false emotion. Snow, swords, and shadowy wings overwhelmed her senses. She recoiled in horror and sadness. The part of her that fought the spell, that knew what was happening, used her voice to scream. Spells slid among her thoughts with a slippery grace, swimming through the cracks of nonsense she could not banish.

Random memories of childhood asserted themselves. She recalled running through the forests with her friends, finding insects and birds, identifying them to give names to the beasts in her world. Few butterflies visited Rashemen, save in the spring, and she did not remember any of them with wings as large and black as the creature that Duras fought a mere stride away.

They are not butterflies, she told herself. I am in danger. We are all in danger. I have to help.

Then the cold eyes overwhelmed her moment of clarity, and again she felt small and confused.

"I wish Bastun were here," she whispered. "Bastun would know what they are."

Bastun stepped out into the howling wind, cloak pulled tight against the bite of winter, but no such chill came. He leaned into the gale, averting his eyes from the multitude of blinding flakes, and carefully crossed the bridge. Warmth spread throughout his body, and he feared the poison was not yet done with him, but there was no pain. Curious, he continued his crossing, loosening his cloak and marveling at the comfort he felt in weather known to kill the unprotected.

Once again, he gazed upon the strange ring. No Rashemi would need such protection from the winter-not that they would admit anyway. The old vremyonni bore the ring for some other purpose, something that nagged at his thoughts as he crossed the bridge.

A knot of dread rested in his stomach at the idea of rejoining the others, and he slowed. The Breath was a secret he was bound to maintain. Though he had taken the oaths as a vremyonni, there was no lack of wisdom in keeping the Shield's secrets safe. The durthans presence was proof enough of that. His stride quickened as he contemplated how best to explain his absence. At the halfway point of the bridge, the warmth he felt was pierced by a chill at his back.

Looking over his shoulder he stared through the tower door. The darkness within the tower shifted and trembled, shreds of it licking outward into the snow. He became suddenly aware of the drop on either side of him and the distance back to the west tower. Edging his feet along, he kept a wary eye on the spirits, who had slipped through the walls and were following him again. His heart raced and his breath quickened. The children had not approached him very closely since he had gained possession of the Breath, but as his path would take him toward the Word, he feared the spirits might become bolder. The power between the two artifacts had taken every life, cursed every soul within the city to unrest.

Measuring his steps, he kept one hand on the Breath, counting on its presence to ward off their madness. Whispers and voices came to him on the wind. The spirits' bright eyes regarded him from within their shadows, shaking and turning as if agitated. The voices grew louder, and he realized he was not listening to the children.

Shouts rang out from somewhere to his left. Through the snow he could see nothing, but the familiar hiss of blades being drawn from leather scabbards was unmistakable. Words of magic drifted in and out of focus. A man'scream pierced through the ivory haze.

Preparing to dash the remaining distance, he took once last look behind him and paled. Smoky tendrils reached out from the doorway, flowing in and out of the snow and along the sides of the bridge. Through his boots he could feel the structure vibrating. Backing away from the tendrils' advance, he tried to think of anything that could stop them. A single voice interrupted his racing thoughts, whispering forlornly through the fog of sound that surrounded him. Most of what was said escaped him, eaten by distance and wind, but one pleading word reached his ears and sent him into a dead run for the west tower.

"… Bastun…"

The vibration in the bridge increased, and he pumped his legs as fast as he could. The snow ahead of him shifted as cracks spread through the structure. He stumbled, swearing an oath against King Arkaius and the magic he had wrought. The familiar sound of crumbling stone erupted behind him, and he cursed the paranoia that had drawn him to the Breath in the first place.

He felt one stone shift as his foot left it and he ran harder. With a held breath and a prayer he jumped.

Far below he heard the shattered bridge crashing to the ground. As his stomach slammed against the landing outside the tower and the air was forced from his lungs, he threw his weight forward. His legs swung over the edge, but he had enough purchase to pull himself forward and regain his footing.

Sounds of battle echoed from the door on his left, and he followed them. Torches flickered dimly in the storm. Men screamed and shouted oaths through the whistling wind, but Bastun's eyes first rested on the thrashing blot of darkness kneeling on the ground just yards away. A living gargoyle torn from night's fabric, the thing shook its victim, feeding and shaking the last vestiges of life from the body. It began to detach itself from the finished meal, its face featureless save for two wide eyes glazed over with death.

The eyes had haunted him from drawings found in dusty old tomes of vremyonni lore. The wings stretched out and shook-just as he had once imagined they would-as the embodiment of all his childhood fears raised up from his memory to regard him with hunger and a blank black visage. A nighthaunt.

He reached to his pouches, his stores of components and crafted magic, as the beast crawled over the drained corpse.

"Where is Bastun?" Thaena's whisper reached him and vaulted him into motion. The nighthaunt shuddered and pounced.

He abandoned magic and raised his staff, the axe blade blazing to life as he slashed at the thing. The creature changed its direction, twirling in flight with a grace that had nothing to do with wind or wing. Overbalanced by the swing, Bastun fell forward as the nighthaunt's tail whipped his shoulder. He spun with the strike, gasping at the burning touch of the creature even as he rolled into a crouch. He caught a quick glimpse of the others far down the bridge before turning to defend himself again with the axe.

He struck the nighthaunt's wing, feeling it tear through, but the leathery hide mended itself even as it was wounded. It turned and circled, preparing to dive again. Bastun ran, chanting and drawing a tiny bead of tree sap from his pouch. Following the forged path through the snow, he searched for signs of movement in the air.

In a blink it appeared before him out of thin air, rushing forward with gangly arms outstretched. At the last moment he fell flat on his stomach, enduring the pain of claws scratching at his back as the nighthaunt passed over and circled for another strike. Kissing his fist with a prayer to the Three, he hurled the tree-sap bead into its path.

He lost sight of the bead in the snow, but the nighthaunt's circle faltered. It shook its arm as tendrils of the sap grew, entangling its horns and wrapping around its wings. It fell from the air, writhing against the substance to disappear beyond the wall's edge. With a sigh of relief he rushed toward the others.

Screams came to him through the storm high overhead. The creatures were said to on occasion feed while on the wing. Over battlefields and cursed places, dying beyond sight of ground or salvation, their victims fell as a grim, silent rain. He shivered to imagine such a fate.

Closer now he could see the battling shadows through the snow. Thaena's cries drew him to his left. He found her on hands and knees, struggling to stand. Something caught his foot and he tripped, falling on his right shoulder. The body of yet another sellsword lay beneath him. Pushing himself up, his aching limbs straining to keep moving, he watched as a nighthaunt dived for the ethran.

Duras fought valiantly barely a stride away from her, unable to see the looming threat. The spell poured from Bastun's lips on reflex. It was fast, and he had no time to think. Thaenas head turned. She had pulled off her mask, baring the face he had not seen in almost seventeen years. The woman that looked upon him was the echo of the girl he had known, the despair in her eyes crushing him in its intensity.

Magic coursed through his arm, and flashes of light appeared at his fingertips. Motes of blazing brilliance flew from his hand and into the nighthaunt s path. Its eyes blinked, and it shook its horned head to avoid the light that popped and burst in its face. It turned and wheeled away, swiping at the clinging bits of arcane illumination that followed. Though harmless, the spell had been enough for the moment.

More light exploded from his right, and he found Anilya defending her men. Rising to one knee he watched the dtfrthan making slow progress toward Thaena, and fear brought him to his feet. She had not yet seen him, and the spell he brought to mind would put her deception to rest alongside the nighthaunts' victims. The Breath hung heavy at his side as if more substantial in the presence of one who sought its power.

A thud shook the stones beside him. Flinching and raising his axe, he stared at the body of a sellsword, legs bent at odd angles, face buried in the snow. The hairs on Bastun's neck stood on end, and he whirled in time to catch sight of the nighthaunt before being tackled to the ground. The axe flew from his hand as cold claws found his throat.

Instinctively he held the blank face back, his hands slipping on the nighthaunt s slick, leathery skin. He kicked and squirmed in its grasp, gripping the curling horns and twisting to get away. Beating wings churned snow into his eyes, and the things long tail whipped around his ankles. Blinking, he managed to see Anilya kneeling close to Thaena, waving her hands in the midst of casting.

"No! Thaena!" He yelled, but the nighthaunt held him fast and pushed with unnatural strength on his chest. He fought for air and strained to hold back the unraveling pit of darkness that erupted between the creature's horns. The pale eyes became pools of shadow, bottomless and hungry. Fine threads of curling black mist stretched and brushed through his mask, tracing thin lines of pain on his cheek. He could feel himself being drawn into the swirling vortex.

He turned his face away, squeezing his eyes shut. Desperate, he let go with his left hand and fumbled through the snow for his axe. The darkness drew closer, drawing the energy from his body. He choked as the emptiness touched him. His flailing hand found nothing, and he groaned before brushing against hard metal pinned against his leg.

Grabbing hold of the object he tugged and pulled it free from beneath him. Swinging blindly he connected with the nighthaunt's head. Bits of horn broke away and bounced off his mask. The shadows disappeared, and his spirit rushed back from the edge of the nighthaunt's dark hunger. Opening his eyes he met the glazed orbs of the beast and swung again, the wavy blade of the Breath biting through wing and shoulder.

The nighthaunt panicked, releasing his throat and legs and kicking away. Bastun followed, stabbing the ancient blade into the creature before it scrambled out of reach. The beast crawled over the side of the wall and disappeared. Turning back to the battle, he found Thaena gone, but he heard her voice calling out to charge the guard tower.

In the place where she had been Anilya now stood. The durthan faced him with sudden interest in her eyes, her gaze lingering on the Breath before turning to join the others. Her figure became a blur through the snow, silhouetted against the madly dancing sparks of torches in the distance.

Somewhere in the battle, Thaena began casting, sending bright beams of light flashing through the darkness and burning the circling nighthaunts.

Bastun shoved the Breath back into his belt and forced his legs to move, stumbling through the snow and trying to catch up. He knelt to retrieve his staff and lit his way along the wall, following in the deeper paths.

The figures ahead disappeared, one by one, into the white wall of the guard tower. The storm shoved him from left to right, wind screaming in his ears. The dancing lights blinked out, leaving him nearly blind beyond the reach of his staff s illumination. The slamming of a heavy door resounded like an executioners axe against the block. He passed lifeless figures lying in the snow, but not as many as he had feared-and most were of Anilya's band.

Through the chaos of the winter storm he heard the faint beating of wings. Glimpses of flitting shadows gave him strength, and he quickened his step as much as his aching body would allow. He imagined them circling overhead like giant vultures, licking their wounds, angry at the feast lost in the tower and hungrily eyeing the lone wizard picking his way toward escape.

The tower wall appeared through the windy murk, its door firmly shut. He threw his shoulder against the door, wincing in pain when it didn't budge. He beat on the door with his staff. No answer came from within. Placing his back to the tower he summoned his axe blade and kicked the door.

The nighthaunts landed on the wall, shaking their horned heads in excitement as they crawled nearer. Half a dozen of the beasts appeared, their bodies like holes cut from the cloth of reality. Voice ragged and throat raw with cold, Bastun managed to summon the words of a spell. A burst of scintillating colors lit the scene and scattered the creatures, buying him a few more moments. He slammed his fist into the door in anger. To break it down would mean death for the fang within. And Thaena.

Turning, he planted his feet solidly and prepared to die fighting, assuming a stooped battle stance and flexing muscles fraught with pain. Sensing his resignation the nighthaunts' wings shivered and drew tight, like the hackles of wolves smelling prey with nowhere left to run. One lunged forward, eager to feed first. Bastun roared and raised his axe, but rough hands grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him backward.

He fell, flailing into the tower as the door slammed shut behind him. Claws raked on the door outside as he was spun around and shoved against a wall. Torches blinded his eyes and his axe was snatched away. A strong arm held him tight, though he had no strength to resist. Blinking fiercely, the blurry shape in front of him came into focus slowly, revealing the runic tattoos and snarling visage of Syrolf.

Bastun froze as torchlight glistened on the cold edge placed against his neck.