Don Bassingthwaite - The tyranny of ghosts

“Then sit down for a rest yourself. We need it too.” Geth repeated what Chetiin had said about the way ahead, then glanced at Tenquis. “Let me see one of the disks.”

The tiefling nodded and whispered a word. The embroidered lines of his long vest shifted, the bulging pocket with the shaari’mal reappearing. Tenquis extracted one of them and passed it over. Geth weighed it in his hand, examining it closely. There was no sign that it had ever been part of a larger, shattered whole. The purple byeshk was heavier than might be expected, but Wrath was the same. The symbols carved into the disk were similar to those on Wrath too. There would have been no denying the relationship between them even if he hadn’t felt the sword’s sense of familiarity.

Maybe, he thought, there was a deeper similarity. The sword had a memory and a kind of awareness. The Rod of Kings certainly did. Maybe there was an awareness in the disk as well. He frowned and concentrated on it. Hello? he thought at it.

“What are you doing?” asked Tenquis.

He felt his face grow warm. “Trying to connect with it the same way I connect with Wrath,” he said. He shook his head. “I don’t feel anything, though.”

“You couldn’t feel anything when you held the Rod of Kings either,” Ekhaas reminded him. “Maybe Wrath blocks the shaari’mal the same way it does the rod.” She held out her hand. “Give it to me.”

He twitched it back. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Tariic only held the rod for a moment the first time, and he was lost to it.”

“I’ve already touched one of the shaari’mal,” said Ekhaas. “Before we got them out of the floor. I didn’t feel anything then, but maybe it needs more.”

Geth looked around at the others, then held out the byeshk disk. Ekhaas took it and wrapped her hands around its notched edge. Her face creased in concentration. A moment later, the creases grew deeper. Geth felt a flicker of worry. “Ekhaas?”

She opened her eyes. “Nothing.”

“There’s magic in the disks,” Tenquis said. “I know there is. If I had time to study-”

From the ruins behind them came a sudden crash, like a heap of rubble thrown aside. The muted wail that had faded into the background of Geth’s awareness rose again with shocking, angry clarity. The shifter sprang to his feet and vaulted up to the top of an unsteady wall. Back toward the center of Suud Anshaar, a column of dust had risen in the moonlight.

Had risen and was being sucked back down. Geth cursed and leaped to the ground. “We don’t have time for anything,” he said. Ekhaas nodded and tried to return the disk to Tenquis, but the tiefling was already sealing the pockets of his vest again. She stuffed it into a large pouch at her belt. Geth hurried over to Tooth. The hunter’s eyes were open, though clouded with pain and staring in the direction of the wail.

Geth ducked under his arm and heaved him to his feet again. “Ready for another run?” he asked.

“Geth,” Tooth said weakly, “you saved-”

The shifter bared his teeth. “Don’t thank me yet.”

They set off at the fastest pace Tooth could manage, which wasn’t very fast to begin with and rapidly grew slower. The hunter’s breath was a hard rasping; Geth felt the rise and fall of Tooth’s chest against his side. The hunter’s face was hard with determination though. A rock turned under his feet, and the bandaged remains of his arm banged into an age-pocked column. His face turned pale instantly, but he didn’t cry out.

“Just keep going,” Geth urged him and started watching the ground ahead with greater care, trying to put the wails that echoed through the ruins out of his mind.

Ekhaas and Tenquis strode to either side of them-Chetiin had run ahead once more. Ekhaas looked back frequently, then finally said, “I think I could stop it again.”

“No,” said Geth flatly.

“I know a spell that makes the ground slippery. If I could cast it over a wide area, that construct wouldn’t be able to get any traction. It wouldn’t be able to move-”

“No!” Geth glanced up at her. “You took it by surprise. You can’t risk doing that a second time. I don’t want anyone getting within range of those tentacles again, unless we’re forced to stand and fight.”

Ekhaas’s ears flicked, but she nodded.

“Chetiin’s back,” said Tenquis.

Geth turned his head the other way and found the goblin emerging from a relatively clear path that might once have been a road within the fortress complex. “Tell me something good!” he called to him.

“You’re close,” said Chetiin, falling into step beside them. “You’ve covered more than half the distance from where we stopped.”

A wail from the pursuing construct broke the night, and in its aftermath, Geth thought he could hear the grinding of its movement. “How much ground do you think our friend has made up?”

“I saw it from on top of a wall on the way back. It’s found the spot where we stopped.”

Geth grimaced. Chetiin shook his head. “It’s worse. The varags are back. Marrow caught their scent.”

“Where are they?” asked Geth. “Have they figured out where we’re headed?”

“Marrow says it smells like they’re gathered over by the road where we entered. If we’d come back through the gates, they’d be waiting for us.”

“Grandfather Rat’s naked tail,” Geth muttered. He hadn’t thought much beyond escaping Suud Anshaar and the black construct, but returning to the road and getting out of varag territory had definitely been in his mind.

“Stay downwind of them,” wheezed Tooth. “Varags track by scent.”

His words turned into a ragged gasp. “Save your breath,” said Geth. “It’s going to be a race to get out of here. Ekhaas, can you sing that traveling song again?”

The duur’kala looked at Tooth draped over Geth’s shoulder, and shook her head. “I don’t think Tooth would be able to take the strain.”

Geth cursed under his breath. At his side, Tooth struggled to speak again. Geth could guess what he was trying to say. “No,” he told the bugbear, “we’re not leaving you. You’re staying with us.”

“No,” Tooth managed, but any further words were lost in a gurgle of pain as Tenquis forced himself under the bandaged stump of the bugbear’s arm.

“Sorry, Tooth,” Tenquis said between his teeth. His arm wrapped across Tooth’s broad back, overlapping Geth’s. He looked around the hunter’s body at Geth. “If we’re going to move faster, someone needs to help you.”

“It’s not going to work. Without an arm across your shoulders-”

Tenquis glared at him. “Do you have a better idea?”

He didn’t. Geth shut his mouth and tried to ignore Tooth’s moans of pain as he and Tenquis hurried him along. He caught a whisper of song and glimpsed Ekhaas’s hand reach up from behind to stroke the bugbear’s head. His whimpering eased.

“He still feels it,” she said, “but it’s distant and more manageable. Just be careful with him.”

“We’ll be as careful as we can,” Tenquis said.

The tiefling was already breathing hard and struggling to keep his grip on Tooth’s torso. Geth took a good grip on the arm that was draped across his shoulders, then shifted his hand on Tooth’s back and grabbed Tenquis’s arm. “Hold mine,” he ordered. He couldn’t see Tenquis around Tooth, but he felt his rough, thick-nailed hand clamp around his forearm. He squeezed. Tenquis squeezed back.

Chetiin kept himself a few paces ahead of them, hopping frequently up onto mounds and low walls to look both ahead and behind. Geth didn’t like the way he was starting to look behind more often than ahead. He knew for certain that he could hear the grinding of the construct’s advance. “How are we doing, Chetiin?” he asked.