Chapter 21: Looking Up
I have escaped. I climbed the wall. I am in the sunlight. The beautiful city of the mountainfolk stretches ahead. As I walk toward it, I hear a piercing cry. It’s Tärń’s voice! I swivel on my heel. Taken by a strange rush of adrenaline, I dash back to the crack and peer into it. At the bottom, the shadow that is Urud looms over the motionless Tärń. I scramble down the wall and seize her unconscious body. Grunting like a pig, I set my feet in the wall’s grooves and try to haul us both up. With shaky steps and only one hand, trembling with cold and fear, I slowly climb up the wall. I can’t do it. She’s too heavy. Suddenly, I see Æther’s head over the side of the crack. “Hullo! Want some help with that?”
Before I can respond, he swoops down, grabs Tärń, and swoops back out. Something slips from her hand. It’s an arrowhead-shaped diamond, shining dimly from within. I narrowly catch it and climb the wall with little difficulty. Redeemer paces around Tärń and breathes on her. That’ll take a while. Without warning, the flat top of the mountain explodes into a pillar of rock dust and shrapnel. From within, the scratching voice of Urud thunders in my eardrums. “Did I not tell you that you couldn’t hide? I am inescapable. I will overtake you and feed on you. You cannot escape. Flee anywhere, to the underworld, realm of the Lord of The dead, and I will seize you and drag you, screaming and kicking, to the abyss that is I. If you have the wings of an eagle, and rise to the realm of the gods, still I will find you and drag you back down, staining the earth with your blood.”
The phial in my pocket heats up. I take it out, and it blazes forth with incredible light. Urud cringes, but only for a moment. Then, there is a disturbance on the surface of its skin. Bumps swell up on its skin, rising to the size of houses. Then they break free, globs of black ooze. Then they hit the ground with a disgusting splat. From within, bones, human, dogs, bats, birds of prey, they assemble into fearsome bearers of the sword, the bones held together by tendons and ligaments of the black ooze. With a dog or horse by their side, and a bird of prey on their shoulders, the human skeletons walk forward with dry clanks. Tärń is slowly coming to, but she’s not in a position to fight. Äläd brands the hexagon into a few skeletons, and they fall backwards, shattering on the ground. But in a moment, they reassemble. Ever they tighten around us. Their spears are sharp and well crafted. I raise the elfstone, and it blazes forth. The skeletons shield their eyes, the black ties between their bones quivering and thinning. Then, one by one, they collapse. For a moment Urud almost seems impressed. Then she opens her great mouth. It stinks of death and blood. A great gust of wind comes from within. The gate of the mountainfolk’s city shudders. I have one shot at this. I grab an arrow from Tärń’s fallen quiver, and untie the arrowhead. Then I tie the elfstone in place of the head. Then I dash toward the wall, arrow in one hand, Tärń’s bow in the other. When I reach the ornate wall, I leap onto it. All my life I have been practicing climbing, but I still can’t compare to Tärń’s skill. I clamber up the carving, careful not to use the icy parts. My hands are numb and grip the ice poorly. Even so, through some divine intervention, I reach the top. I attempt to load the bow, but my hands are clumsy and fail to do it correctly. I walk carefully across the wall, to align myself with Urud. As I stop parallel, Urud lets out a breath. I slip one foot half over the edge, the rough underside gripping the surface. I lean forward, as not to be blown away. Urud’s roar ends faster than I was prepared for, and I topple off the side, off-balance.
(From Tärń’s Perspective)
My vision is blurry, but I won’t be held back. I hear Jöń’s muffled cry as he hits the snow, and I spring to my feet. Head rush. Clutching my head, I stumble around and finally my head clears. I rush to Jöń’s side. He’s unconscious, but alive. Lucky he landed in a snowdrift. As I look closer, I see that he has stolen one of my arrows and my bow, as well as broken his sword. I snatch up my bow and the arrow he holds. I see that he also took my elfstone and tied it to the arrow shaft. Jöń must have been trying to shoot Urud with this. That’s why he was on the wall. That’s the first good idea I’ve heard from him. I scale the wall with little difficulty, and aim at Urud. She opens her mouth. Time to kill this thing. I release the arrow, piercing deep into Urud’s throat. A spurt of black liquid streams out of the wound, coating the wall. I leap off onto the snowy ground as the creature begins to melt. Like an ice chunk, she shrinks, a puddle of black growing around the dying creature. Slowly, the liquid drains into tiny cracks in the mountainside, until there is nothing left. For a moment, it is silent. Then I hear a whining squeak as the gates scrape across the ground. They are opening. We stand there for a moment, unsure of whether we should enter or not. Then, three figures walk forward. Their eyes, silver and gleaming, look us over. They are, for lack of a better word, mammalian. The one on the right is more doglike, his long snout shaggy and wet. The one on the right is feline, with a more recessed snout. The one in the center is masked by a helm, though its voice is low and masculine. “Who are you?”
