Robert Redick - The Night of the Swarm

Dastu let the second handful of earth dribble to the ground. When his hand was empty he looked up at Pazel. His eyes were bright and accusing.

‘You still don’t see it, do you? We’re trapped here. We’re going to die in this place. We nearly killed ourselves getting here and now we are mucking buried alive .’

Hercol and Ensyl came back to the group around the fire. ‘My mistress has not finished the dark journey,’ said Ensyl.

‘Not finished?’ said Big Skip. ‘What do you mean, by the Blessed Tree? Is she dead or not?’

‘Her body died,’ said Hercol, ‘but her spirit has yet to pass into death’s kingdom. She is holding herself back in order to help us. All this time she has lingered in some strange place between the lands of light and darkness.’

‘In Agaroth,’ said Ramachni. ‘The Border-Kingdom. I have walked those dark hills myself, long ago in my youth. Many linger in Agaroth, hoping to finish some deed in this world, or because they fear the next.’

‘Ensyl,’ said Thasha, ‘did Dri say anything more, in your tongue?’

‘Yes,’ said Ensyl. ‘She said he was furious that he’d been tricked by Erithusme.’ She glanced at Pazel. ‘You heard as well, didn’t you?’

Pazel nodded. ‘She said that Arunis had done everything he could to bring the Stone to Gurishal — until he learned that we could get rid of it there — and that now he’ll do everything he can to stop us from taking it to that island.’ Pazel looked at Ramachni, shaken. ‘He learned the truth here in the forest, didn’t he? Maybe with the Nilstone’s aid. And Fulbreech overheard. But what if he hadn’t? What if he’d died before we found him? We’d still have no idea where to take the Nilstone. Credek , we’d have no chance at all.’

‘What if Fulbreech lied?’ asked Lunja.

‘Excellent question!’ said Mandric. ‘That boy was more crooked than a back alley in Ulsprit. What if he decided to stick it to us one last time?’

‘I don’t think he lied about Gurishal,’ said Neeps.

The others looked at him. ‘Oh yes,’ said Dastu, ‘your famous hunches . Your nose for lies.’

Neeps glared at Dastu. ‘It’s not a blary hunch,’ he said. ‘Think it through. If you can’t reach the world of the dead from Gurishal, then what did Dri mean about Arunis being tricked?’

‘If, if, if!’ said Dastu. ‘ If that was really your crawly friend who spoke to us. If she has any idea what Arunis is really up to. If the sorcerer didn’t tell Fulbreech exactly what to say when we found him.’

‘Mage,’ said Cayer Vispek, turning to Ramachni, ‘now that the sorcerer’s body is burned, how much power remains to him?’

‘In this world?’ said Ramachni. ‘Not much, I hope. But I am troubled by that missing scarf; we must search the ruins again before we leave.’

‘There’s one more thing,’ said Ensyl. ‘Dri said that Arunis spoke the truth about the Swarm.’

Ramachni’s eyes darkened. ‘This much is true: that the Swarm is drawn to death, and grows stronger when deaths are numerous. It belongs in the Border-Kingdom, patrolling that great and final Wall, beyond which stretches the land of the dead. Where the Wall crumbles, the Swarm holds back the dead, lest they flood into living lands and despoil them. That is its purpose: a vital purpose indeed. But it was never meant to be in the living world, or to encounter living beings, and here its work can only bring disaster. It will fall upon death, immobilizing the souls of the fallen. But when it falls upon the living, they too shall die — and feed the Swarm. The cycle can only accellerate, you see: with each death, the Swarm will grow stronger. Unless we rid the world of the Nilstone, the Swarm will come to blanket earth and sky, and smother every living thing beneath its pall.’

‘But Ramachni, this makes no sense!’ said Bolutu. ‘Why should the Swarm have such power here? I have read many treatises on magic, including your own. The Swarm should be weak here in Alifros, if its power comes from elsewhere.’

‘Not while the Nilstone remains in this world,’ said the mage. ‘You see a dark sphere, Belesar, but the Stone is also a puncture wound, and it is through that wound that the Swarm’s power floods into our own.’

‘Where has the Swarm gone, Ramachni?’ asked Hercol.

‘Away in search of death,’ said the mage. ‘Like water flowing downhill, it will go where death is strongest — to some unhappy corner of Alifros beset by plague or famine — or war.’

‘War,’ said Thasha. ‘It all fits, doesn’t it? Arunis did everything he could to start a war between Arqual and the Mzithrin. And we made it easy for him, both sides did, with all our greed and hate and holy nonsense.’

She looked pointedly at the sfvantskors . Silence fell. The North, the humans’ battered homeland, was briefly, painfully present.

‘I think war is getting now,’ said Neda.

‘There you go again,’ said the marine.

Pazel lay on his stomach on a wide, flat stone, and Ramachni jumped up beside him and licked his ankle. A cool painlessness flowed from the mage’s touch into his wounded leg; soon the whole limb felt heavy and remote. Then Bolutu came towards him with a knife, and they made him look away. Pazel could not feel the touch of the blade, but he heard a faint slicing sound as Bolutu cut out the dying flesh. Afraid he might be sick, he forced his thoughts elsewhere.

‘Where is Myett?’

Bolutu frowned and glanced upwards. ‘She has scaled the tower anew. Ensyl plans to go looking for her. Be still now, let me work.’

He bandaged Pazel’s leg with scraps of cloth washed clean in the river, and Ramachni set a paw on the wound and spoke a few soft words. The delightful coolness grew stronger, but Ramachni warned him that the pain would return. ‘I would fear for your leg if it did not,’ added Bolutu.

‘The bite will heal,’ said Ramachni, ‘but the damage may be of more than one kind. The jaws of the flame-trolls are ghastly pits, and just what foulness lurked in the one that gnawed you I cannot tell. Of course you were not the only one bitten — Mandric and Lunja both need tending — but the fang that pierced your leg went especially deep. You must keep your eye on that leg for years.’

‘If I live to have such problems I’ll be glad,’ said Pazel.

But his words touched a deeper fear, resting like a stone in the pit of his stomach. ‘Ramachni,’ he said, very low, ‘Neeps is the one I’m worried about.’

‘He fears for his Marila, and their child,’ said Bolutu.

‘It’s not just that, Bolutu,’ said Pazel, glancing nervously at the rest of the party. ‘It’s the mind-plague.’

Bolutu started. ‘ Jathod , I smelled it! The sharp smell of his sweat, like lemon peel. I had forgotten what it was like.’

‘For Rin’s sake, don’t tell anyone,’ said Pazel. ‘Thasha knows, but no one else does. Not even Neeps has guessed.’

‘I know of his condition,’ said Ramachni. ‘We can discuss it further after you sleep.’

‘Can you cure him?’

Ramachni sighed. ‘Pazel, your friend is succumbing to one of the most powerful spells ever cast in Alifros. It has already destroyed the minds of every human south of the Ruling Sea. The spell’s caster herself proved powerless to stop it. Before I try to do what my mistress could not, I must have help. You know where I hope to find that help, I think.’

Pazel glanced at Thasha. He took a deep breath. ‘I know,’ he said, ‘but you’ve made a mistake. There isn’t going to be any help from Erithusme.’

‘We shall see,’ said Ramachni gently.

‘I don’t think you understand,’ said Pazel. ‘It didn’t work, she hasn’t come back. Thasha is still just Thasha.’