Troy Denning: Faces of Deception

It was already retreating through the alabaster forest, belly scales clattering on the floor and Yago screaming in its beak.

"No! Stop!"

Of course, the Dweller did not obey. Atreus lurched after the monster at his best sprint, but even without aching knees, he was no match for the thing's speed. The creature pulled steadily away, growing fainter and fainter until it finally disappeared into the murk.

"Atreus, wait!" called Seema. "The Dweller does not need light, but we do."

Atreus turned to find Seema approaching with two buckets, a small aura of silver radiance hovering above each. He took one and set off through the alabaster maze, following the Dweller's wet slime trail to the mouth of one of its dark tunnels. Yago's voice was echoing up from somewhere below, alternately cursing the beast and screaming in anguished incoherence.

Atreus turned to Seema and said, "You don't have to come. In fact, I'd rather you didn't."

Seema raised her brow. "Why?" she asked. "If you are thinking that you will slay the Dweller…"

"Not exactly, but I've caused you enough trouble without getting you killed."

"Getting me killed would be the least of the troubles you have caused me," Seema said. "Besides, if I do not come, who will rescue you?"

Atreus nodded, more in thanks than consent, then stepped over a small rim of loose rock into the tunnel. The passage sloped down at a steep angle, with rough-hewn sides and a vaguely circular profile just large enough for the Dweller. Innumerable passes of the monster's slimy body had coated the walls in a chalky white powder that glistened brightly in the watery light and enclosed Atreus and Seema in a small bubble of glimmering radiance. Yago's screams continued to grow increasingly faint as his captor carried him deeper into its lair, and it was not long before the tunnel split into two branches.

"I hope you have a good ear for echoes," said Seema.

"We'll have other hints." Atreus stooped down and traced a line in the wet slime on the floor.

The tunnel became a warren of tunnels, then a maze, and still the Dweller continued its descent. Yago's screams grew sporadic and weak, but the slime trail remained fresh. They had little trouble following their quarry. Atreus lost all track of time and direction, and eventually the ogre's cries vanished altogether. Seema said nothing, but Atreus knew she was wondering the same thing he was. Had Yago finally died, or had the monster simply carried him beyond their hearing?

They followed the slime trail down into a tunnel so steep they had to sit on their haunches and kick their heels into the floor to keep from sliding. About halfway down, Atreus heard a low moan coming from a side passage.

"Yago?"

More groans, then came the pained answer: "No." It was the ogre's voice, weak and languid with delirium. "Go 'way-"

A terrifying, incoherent scream followed, and Atreus's first thought was that his friend was trying to warn him of an ambush, but if that were so, Yago would have said something simple like, "Watch out for the ambush." Atreus slipped into the side passage, trying not to gag on the awful, bloody smell of the place, then advanced with Seema at his back. Yago continued to groan, but it was impossible to say whether he knew of their presence.

They passed yet another side passage angling down into the mountain. Low animal sounds began to fill the tunnel, then Atreus saw a pair of red eyes reflecting the light from his bucket.

He stopped and whispered, "It's the Dweller. Stay back."

This time, Seema did not argue. She ducked into the side passage and watched around the corner as Atreus crept forward, his eyes averted to avoid locking gazes with the monster. He had advanced only a few steps when the glow from his bucket illuminated Yago's mangled form.

The ogre was lying in a pool of blood, holding one hand over his good eye. His mangled eye was dangling out on his cheek, and his wounded leg lay stripped to the bone from the hip down. The Dweller was holding him down with two tentacles and shuffling through his cloak with four more. Able to stand the sight no longer, Atreus raised his knife and started forward.

The Dweller raised its head. Atreus braced himself for its attack, preparing a slash-and-dodge defense, but the monster simply opened its beak. There was a great whooshing of air, so powerful that a breeze cooled the back of his neck, then the beast raised all six of its uninjured tentacles.

Atreus dropped his bucket and fled, flinging himself into the side passage just as a tremendous whumpf rolled down the tunnel behind him. A terrific impact spun him half around, and his entire flank erupted into stinging pain. He bounced off the wall and began to roll down the chalky floor.

A few revolutions later, Seema caught his arm and hauled him to a stop. "Atreus!" she cried. "How badly are you hurt?"

He glanced down and discovered that his whole flank had turned wet and red from his ribcage to his knee. He found Rishi's knife and cut away the tattered remains of his cloak, revealing a mass of raw and bloody flesh pocked with dozens of tiny punctures. From the bottom of many holes shined the colorful reflections of small gemstones.

"The Dweller must be frightened of you indeed," Gasped Seema. "To sacrifice its jewels-"

"I'd rather it had kept them," said Atreus.

He allowed himself a moment to test the strength of his savaged flank, then scrambled back into the main passage and advanced by the weak light of his overturned bucket. The Dweller was again snuffling through Yago's cloak, but it stopped and raised its head as he drew near. Atreus lifted his dagger and charged, determined to engage the monster before it had time to hurl some other surprise at him.

Instead, the Dweller let out a long, plaintive whistle and retreated, halting a few paces beyond tentacle range. Atreus stopped, astonished, and cautiously kneeled at Yago's side. The ogre's chest continued to rise and fall, but he seemed unaware that anyone was with him. Atreus took his hand.

"Yago?"

The ogre turned his head slightly, but continued to hold his palm over his good eye, protecting it from the Dweller. His orange skin had paled to a sickly ivory.

"Atreus… don't look." His voice was a bare whisper. "Don't want you to… to see what I let happen."

"Okay, I won't look."

"Good." Yago squeezed his hand. "Atreus… it got… got one of my eyes."

"No, it didn't."

"The eye is here, on your cheek," Seema said. She kneeled beside Atreus, then gently laid the eye back in its swollen socket. "It just fell out."

The ogre sighed in relief, then seemed to realize that something was amiss. "Hey, how you'd know?" He uncovered his good eye and raised his head, scowling. "You cheated!"

Atreus nodded.

"You see? I ain't so dumb after all," the ogre said, letting his head drop back to the floor. "And Atreus, I… I didn't really forget your mom's name."

"I know."

"It was…" The ogre winced. "She told me not to tell… no one. But I didn't know if she meant you."

"It doesn't matter," Atreus said. "You kept her secret."

"Yeah… I did."

Yago smiled, then his hand opened and fell away.

"Yago?"

Atreus pressed his ear to the ogre's chest and heard nothing-no heartbeat, no breath, no final groan.

The strength left Atreus in a rush. He slumped forward and stretched his arms across Yago's massive torso, embracing him in death as he had never done in life. It was not the ogre way of grieving, but there were no handy trees to mangle or walls to smash down. Besides, Atreus was a man, and there was no ogre name for what Yago had been to him-less than a father, but so much more than a bodyguard: Protector, drill-master, dutiful servant, loyal comrade, only friend.

Tears began to well up in Atreus's eyes. Yago would have ridiculed crying as a mark of weakness, but even growing up among the Shield-breakers had not made Atreus enough of an ogre to keep from weeping. He sat up and wiped his eyes, determined not to dampen Yago's body with tears the ogre would have scorned.