David Wells - Cursed Bones

Despite her desire to study the rest of the journal and the uneasiness caused by the eerie noises in the darkness, Isabel’s exhaustion caught up with her. She woke the following morning, stiff and sore from sitting up against her pack all night. She rubbed her neck as she stood up and looked around. The swamp was as quiet and dreary as ever.

She moved slower due to her sore muscles but still managed to reach solid ground just before nightfall. Rather than going ashore and risking the predators that lived there, she tied off a hundred feet from the swamp’s edge and slept on her raft. Alexander appeared when she woke.

“Were you watching me sleep?” she asked groggily as she stretched.

He just smiled with a shrug.

“Their boat is tied off a few hundred feet to the north,” he said. “They went straight to an overgrown structure on the side of the mountain and made camp just inside. Hazel has them up and moving like she knows where she’s going and that’s saying something because that place is like a maze.”

“How will I find them?”

“I’ll guide you,” Alexander said, “but you should probably get moving.”

“First, I’m going to move their boat,” Isabel said with a devious smile.

After finding their boat and rowing it to a thicket just south of where she’d hidden her raft, she headed along the edge of the swamp, reasoning that the vorash would probably do most of their hunting deeper in the jungle that covered the foothills surrounding the mountain.

Near where Hazel and her friends had come ashore, she picked up their trail and cautiously made her way into the jungle, keeping a watchful eye for any sign of danger, using Slyder to scout for her as well. Several hundred feet from a small stone structure built into the side of the mountain, now completely overgrown and barely discernable, Isabel stopped again to survey her surroundings through Slyder’s eyes.

Four creatures were sniffing around the entrance-vorash. They were even more frightening than Alexander’s description. They seemed to be searching the area but were unwilling to enter the structure itself. Isabel waited, watching them until they used their tentacles to pull themselves up into nearby trees where they concealed themselves in the foliage, lying in wait over the entrance.

Isabel weighed her options. She could try to fight her way through, but she doubted she could kill all four before they were on her, and even if she could make it to the structure and get inside, there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t pursue her. She settled on using the potion of invisibility she’d discovered in Hazel’s workshop, hoping it would work as expected.

After drinking the syrupy sweet liquid, she was pleased to see herself vanish from view. Carefully, quietly, she made her way toward the structure. The vorash were watching the area intently and were starting to become restless as if they sensed something nearby. She drew closer to the partially obstructed entrance; a large support stone had fallen across the doorway leaving just a small gap at the base.

Twenty feet from her objective, the vorash roared as one and she realized that the potion had run its course. She was visible again. The vorash were coming, all four of them swinging from their perches high in the trees overhead and reaching the ground far more quickly than she would have imagined.

She raced for the entrance, relying on speed driven by fear to help her reach the relative safety of the structure before the vorash reached her. A tentacle snapped out from the brush, hitting her across the shins, sending her sprawling on her face just feet from the entrance. She scrambled toward the opening, willing the pain shooting up her legs to the back of her mind when a viselike grip caught her by the ankle.

Rolling onto her back and swinging her sword wildly, she caught the tentacle of the creature just above the three-fingered hand, severing it and drawing a scream of rage and pain. Another tentacle struck her in the chest, knocking her breath out as she crawled backward, struggling desperately to reach the structure before the vorash reached her. The other three were nearly within reach when the first leapt into the air, coming down on top of her. She rolled to the side, slashing frantically with her sword, her blade cutting to the bone in the back of the monster’s leg. The vorash shrieked in pain and leapt away with Isabel’s sword still stuck in its leg.

She scrambled through the hole into the darkness but another tentacle grabbed her by the ankle, sending pain shooting anew up her leg, trying to drag her back into the daylight. She turned and plunged her dagger into the tentacle and it released her, the vorash howling in pain. Isabel scrambled backward into the relative shelter of the ruined building.

She found herself in a simple stone room that was once nothing but a secure entry hall with one door leading to the jungle and another leading into the fortress. Two tentacles pursued her into the darkness, flailing around near the entrance as she backed up to the opposite wall, muttering the words of her shield spell. As much as they wanted her, they didn’t seem willing to enter the structure to come and get her, a fact she was grateful for … the pain throbbing in her legs was threatening to overwhelm her. She was bleeding from the ankle and her shins were so bruised, she doubted she could stand.

Holding up her jar of glowing lichen, she peered down the corridor leading into the darkness for as far as she could see. When she heard the vorash making noise outside like they were feasting on something, she lay on her side to get a view through what was left of the door. Two of the vorash were savagely eating the other two, the one she’d seriously wounded with her sword and the one she’d stabbed with her poisoned dagger. The beasts were tearing their former companions apart and devouring them in chunks.

Isabel stifled an urge to vomit as she started pulling herself down the corridor into the darkness. Once she was several dozen feet away from the entry chamber, she stopped to rest, listening intently for any hint that the vorash would follow her. When the sounds of their cannibalistic meal subsided, she decided she was safe for the moment and drank the healing potion, knowing full well that she would be unconscious and vulnerable while it did its work, but also knowing that she didn’t have any time to waste. Her legs were too badly injured to carry her and she needed speed if she was to prevent Hazel from sacrificing Hector and Horace.

When she awoke, Alexander was standing over her.

“That was a terrible risk,” he said.

“Which part? Trying to get past the vorash or drinking the healing potion?”

“Both, but I guess I understand,” he said. “Two of them are still out there waiting up in the trees.”

“I used the invisibility potion and it worked,” Isabel said, “for about a minute, then I became visible again right under them. They almost got me. I’m just glad they don’t like the indoors.”

“Small favors,” Alexander said. “Looks like they’re using your sword as bait. I wouldn’t recommend going back for it.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Isabel said, removing her scabbard from her belt and setting it against the wall. “In fact, I might look for another way out of this place just in case they’re patient enough to wait for me here.”

“Probably not a bad idea,” Alexander said. “I asked the sovereigns about the ghidora. Malachi said it’s a stalker-demon sort of like a scourgling.”

“Dear Maker,” Isabel whispered.

“Once summoned, it requires a sacrifice for each target it’s given,” Alexander said, “and the one sacrificed has to have a link with the firmament, even a limited link like that of a sorcerer.”