Dusk and Ash (In Progress)

Chapter 9

By the time Thim'hal had led them to the outskirts of the Elmiari encampment, the woods were already burning, filling the forest with smoke and firelight. Once again, Durmhain felt death before he saw it. Then he heard it. Then he smelled it. Through the roar of the fire and dense screen of smoke, screams and the metallic scent of blood assaulted Durmhain as his Sithu'ae and the others halted in a copse of woods where Thim'hal waited. Beyond, only a few dozen yards away, battle was met, its climax reaching a feverish pitch beneath a wreath of flaming treetops. Dead littered the snow, crimson seeping into the frozen purity. The thought of absorbing the strands of life that arose from the bodies scattered around made Durmhain gag, both out of compulsion and disgust.

"Wait here, humans," Thim'hal said as he crouched low to the ground behind the dense brush to avoid being seen by a squad of Nithians flanking the Elmiari front.

Durmhain had to forcefully will his fingers out of the sweaty vice grip with which he had held onto the Sithu'ae's fur. Despite the freezing winds, the Sithu'ae had been a generous source of heat as they rode and Durmhain could see steam rising from her in the light from the fires and the moon that shone through the foliage. As Durmhain collapsed to the ground, he pulled his legs to his chest, shivering, sweat freezing on his face.

Mak'do and Ysli dismounted with slightly more grace, though they seemed equally reluctant to be re-exposed to the harsh elements. They knelt near Durmhain, neither of them looking him in the eye.

Thim'hal looked at the Sithu'ae surrounding him, all of them made grunts of assent. Then, he breathed in heavily. All around them, snow rose from the ground as the winds were pulled toward Thim'hal, whipping Durmhain's sweat-drenched hair about his face. There was a pause as Thim'hal reached his full inhalation.

Then, a roar erupted from Thim'hal that distorted the light around him. He suddenly glowed with a ghostly green light, the same as his eyes, but the light from the moon and torches faded to darkness around him. Durmhain's heart erupted painfully in his chest. He resisted for a moment and then howled with Thim'hal, as did the other Sithu'ae, Ysli, and Mak'do. The chorus resonated deep within Durmhain, past the shame, guilt, and anger as well as the thoughts and plans that kept his emotions at bay. The howl tapped into the darkness that he didn't even know existed. He felt it at the base of his spine and it traveled down his body and seemed to strike into the earth beneath his feet. Kunuum, rising from Durmhain's shadow, swirled around him and shrieked, pitching the dark melody into a crescendo.

The scream caught in Durmhain's throat as he choked and began hacking as he fell onto his hands. Glowing blood shot out from Durmhain's mouth and spattered onto the cold earth beneath him. Flickers of light from his blood illuminated the steam rising from it.

"Wha-?" Durmhain gagged as another coughing fit starting and more blood dribbled from his mouth.

"Take care of him," Thim'hal told a pair of Sithu'ae, one of whom Durmhain had ridden. She twitched their ears but snuffled and nodded. Thim'hal then leapt over the bushes he had hid behind, as did the remainder of the pack. Soon after, the screams of men spilled into the forest again, hounded by the snarls and roars of the Sithu'ae.

Ysli and Mak'do moved to follow Thim'hal, but the Sithu'ae who remained stepped in front of them. Durmhain's Sithu'ae pointed to him with her snout.

"He'll be fine!" Ysli almost screamed. "My bones are on fire! I must join the hunt!"

The Sithu'ae growled, baring its teeth.

Ysli said other things, and by their tone Durmhain could tell they were not compliments, but Ysli's words were lost to him as the world began to blur in front of him. Sound and sight came to him as if he were underwater.