Paul Kemp - The Hammer and the Blade

Egil snatched at Derg's shirt, held him precariously on the hurtling wagon. The Vwynn clambered over Derg and clawed Egil's arm, tried to bite it. The priest endured the attack and held on to Derg, whose one leg was dangling free, hanging in space.

"Nix!"

Nix stabbed at the face of the creature, once, twice, and it lurched back, lost its balance, swayed. Derg shoved at it, but almost dislodged himself in the process. A blow from Egil's hammer to its face finally ended it, sending bits of fangs flying and knocking the creature back onto the road.

"We're clear in front!" Baras said.

Behind them, Vwynn thronged the road. Egil assisted Derg back onto his perch.

"My thanks," Derg said to the priest.

Egil thumped him on the shoulder, eliciting a wince of pain from Derg.

"Two wounded on this side," Nix said.

"We're all right over here," the guard called from the other side.

"My lord?" Baras called over his shoulder into the carriage.

"We're all fine, Baras. Don't stop until we reach the ruins."

"Yes, my lord."

Nix sagged against the carriage, blew out a sigh. "You all right?" he asked Egil.

Egil winced with pain but nodded. "I'm all right."

Derg, however, was not. He did the best he could to stanch the blood flowing from the bite in his shoulder, but he was already pale. Yet the carriage could not risk a stop for fear of another Vwynn attack.

In time they could no longer see the mass of Vwynn behind them. Minnear rose as they rode onward, casting the landscape in sickly, pale green. The ruins thickened, towering, monumental blocks looming out of the darkness, the stone ghosts of a lost world.

It looked as though an entire city had been torn from the ground, jumbled in the air, and cast back to earth in a heap. Tumbles of stone suggested pillars, statuary, monolithic building blocks that dwarfed everything in Dur Follin save the Archbridge and Ool's clock.

"They say Ool had the building secrets of the ancients," Nix said, as they rolled past a bygone age.

"Seeing this," Egil said, grimacing at the pain of one wound or other, "I believe it. What do you say, Derg?"

Derg glanced at him, glassy-eyed, pale, and started to fall back. Jyme and Egil grabbed him simultaneously. Derg's eyes rolled. His head flopped back.

"Stop the carriage, Baras," Nix called. "Now."

"Don't stop," Rakon said.

"Derg needs attention. Stop the damned carriage!"

Baras looked over his shoulder, saw Derg, and pulled the reins. The horses pulled up, sweating, steaming. Egil and Jyme quickly lowered Derg to the road. Baras hopped off the driver's bench and came to his man's side.

"Derg!" Baras said. Everyone gathered around as Baras rolled him over. Rakon looked on from the carriage.

"What is it, man?" Baras asked, tapping Derg's cheeks. "Derg? Derg?"

Derg's eyes rolled and his mouth fell open, moved, but no sound emerged. Flecks of foam rimed his mouth. Nix kneeled beside him, touched Derg's face.

"Is it blood loss?" Baras asked.

"No," Nix said. "He's burning up."

"We cannot stay here," Rakon said from the carriage. "The Vwynn will be coming."

All eyes looked back down the moonlit road. Nix saw no Vwynn.

"Watch the ruins and the road," Baras said to his men. "Stay sharp."

"Check his wounds," Egil said, nodding at Derg. "The bite especial."

Baras hurriedly cut off Derg's tunic and pulled the man's makeshift bandage away from his shoulder wound. Gasps sounded from the men. The ragged, bloody oval of the deep bite wound was surrounded by skin that looked purple and gangrenous.

"The bite's poisoned," Baras said. "Shite! What do we do?"

"Get his mouth open," Nix said, and started rifling through his satchel. He soon found what he sought, a smooth, crimson-colored pebble of enspelled jasper, etched with a rune puissant against poison.

"I said we cannot remain here," Rakon repeated.

"We heard you the first time," Egil snapped.

Nix held the jasper pebble between forefinger and thumb. He'd been given it by a priestess of Orella after he'd performed a service for her church.

"What is that?" Baras asked.

"It should help," Nix said. He spoke a word in the Language of Creation and the jasper glowed with a faint light.

"Is there no end to the contents of that bag?" Jyme asked, and thumped him on the back.

"Oh, there's an end, and it's getting light in there," Nix said.

In truth, he had nothing magical left in it save his the crystal eye. He looked over to Egil, who watched intently. "No comment on gewgaws?"

"Is that the only one you have?" Egil asked.

"Yes," Nix said. "Why?"

Egil ran his hand over Ebenor's eye. "No reason. Go on. Give it to him."

Nix nodded, placed the jasper under Derg's tongue, and pushed his jaw closed over it. The gem flared, the flash lighting Derg's face from the inside out.

"I see movement," one of the guards watching the road behind called out. He crouched and peered off into the darkness.

"Me, too," said another. "There. I think."

"Shite," Baras said. Then to Nix, "Did it work?"

Nix frowned, opened Derg's jaw, looked under his tongue. The jasper was gone, consumed by the magic. "I… think it did."

"You think?" Baras asked.

"Sometimes it's hard to tell…"

"Look at the wound," Egil said, pointing.

At first Nix thought it was a play of the light, but it wasn't. The black and purple skin around the wound faded to pink as they watched.

"And sometimes it's not as hard to tell," Nix said to Baras, and winked.

"Orella be praised," one of the guards said.

"I also accept praises," Nix said, standing.

"Well done," Baras said.

"Agreed," Egil said, gripping Nix by the shoulder. "Now let's get out of here."

Egil slung Derg over his shoulder, mail and all, and they all climbed back onto the carriage. The horses, shaking from being overstrained, nevertheless lowered their ears, threw their heads, and started moving.

Minnear shone fat and gibbous over the landscape. With Kulven now new, the Mages' Moon ruled the sky alone. The mountainous wall of rubble loomed before them, growing taller as they closed the distance, stretching off into the darkness.

The road cut through the wall of stones, the rubble rising high to either side. The walls were thick, more than a hundred paces, and for a time it was as if they walked through a tunnel. No one spoke and the clop of the horses' hooves sounded loud, bouncing off the ancient stone wall. When they emerged from the tunnel of ruins, Nix gasped in awe for the second time that day.

The walls of rubble formed a circle, ringing a circular expanse several acres in diameter. A shimmering sea of dark glass covered the expanse, its smooth finish reflecting the night sky. The vault of night was at their feet.

For a long while no one spoke. Everyone stared at the shimmering, glittering spectacle before them. Jyme broke the spell of silence with a whisper.

"Gods."

"What is this place?" Nix asked.

Rakon threw open the carriage door and stepped onto the rock.

"It's a holy place," Rakon said. "The Vwynn will not come here. That's enough for now. Set camp, Baras. We'll remain here only a short time before continuing to Afirion."

"A word, lord Adjunct," Nix said to Rakon.

Rakon eyed him coolly, nodded. They moved to the side.

"What in the Pits happened back there?" Nix said. "With your sister? With you?"

Rakon's hooded eyes narrowed, the thoughts visibly turning behind them. "Did you… hear her? What did she say?"

"She said to kill you."

Rakon was quiet for a time, then said, "She won't do that again."

"What was that you gave her? Drugs?"

"My sisters are dangerous," Rakon said. "I told you that. You have nothing more to fear. Leave me now. I have work I must see to."