James Enge - This Crooked Way

"What's that smell?" Morlock asked again.

"You really want to know?" Roble asked. "I thought you were just putting Naeli off."

"I really want to know."

"A sort of cat-beast attacked us while you were over the hill. Actually, there was a regular pack of them, but when Bann speared one they all seemed to be frightened of its blood: it's got a pretty pungent stink, as you noticed. Anyhow, then they ran away."

"Where's the corpse?" Morlock said.

Roble pointed at the west end of the camp. Morlock didn't stir from where he was standing but, looking over at the body, said, "A snake-leopard. We must move at once."

"They're not so fearsome," Roble protested. "And if-"

"Why, Morlock?" Naeli called over, interrupting.

"They are the skirmishers of the spiderfolk. Look!"

Naeli and Thend went together toward the dead snake-leopard. It was hardly leopard-sized, somewhat larger than the predatory tree-cats in the woods surrounding Four Castles. But it wasn't really a cat: instead of fur it had the mottled scaly skin of a lizard, and its mouth hanging open displayed the forked tongue of a snake as well. Its slashed throat dripped greenish yellow blood. Wading in the blood were pale bugs, eight-legged like spiders, lapping up the still-warm fluid with long dark tongues.

"Those are newborns," Morlock said. "They grow taller than Roble. And they prefer red blood. The adults will be here soon, led by the snakeleopards."

"We'll put a pad under your backpack's strap," Naeli said to Thend. "That'll be a better bandage than anything we can tie on."

Moments later, they were on the move, headed east.

The Kirach Kund: a trench dividing the longest mountain range in the world into two unequal halves. The Whitethorn Range lay to the west, running all the way through the Wardlands to the perilous seas off the Broken Coast. The Blackthorn Range lay to the east, running beyond knowledge-some said it went to the eastern edge of the world. At the heart of the Blackthorns lay a kingdom ruled by the dragon-taming Khroi.

Everyone feared the Khroi, and when they decided they had to cross the mountains (Thend was never sure when they had decided that, or why) Morlock recommended that they follow the western edge of the Kirach Kund. The Khroi feared the spiderfolk, and something about the mountains themselves, though Morlock never said what.

Now they were fleeing from the spiders toward the Khroic side of the pass, and Thend knew they were nearing it when they topped a rise and saw, smoking in the valley below, the outstretched form of a dragon.

This was alarming at first; even Fasra, who hadn't a lick of ordinary sense, looked concerned. But the dragon was obviously dead: a big steaming trench had been eaten out of its side; most of the smoke came not from the dragon itself, but from a smoldering fire its blood had started in the valley's thick grayish grass.

There were no Khroi in sight, but lurking in the fire was a great wolflike beast, and surrounding it were a group of full-grown spiderfolk, attempting to drag it out of the fire with their silken threads. The fire withered the threads and the spiders dared not approach closer. But they, and their pack of snake-leopards, surrounded the fire: the wolf couldn't easily escape.

"Maybe we should turn east again, " suggested Stador uneasily.

"I don't think so," Roble said, looking at Morlock. "You know what I'm thinking?"

Morlock grunted. "My enemy's enemy …"

"…is a fine distraction for my enemy," Roble finished.

"If you guys are planning on doing something," Naeli pointed out, "we need to know what it is."

"Look," Roble said, "suppose we go down there, drive off the spiderfolk-"

"That may be too much to hope for," Morlock observed. "If they're alone, they may stand and fight and we should be prepared to flee. But if others are coming, and they know it, they'll likely retreat and attack together in force."

"But by then," Roble said, nodding concessively to Morlock, "we'll be gone. And if there are any spiderfolk on our trail, when they come this far, they'll become occupied by that wolf-thing down there. And if it's gone by the time they return, they'll have a split trail: ours and the wolf's."

"Werewolf's," Morlock said.

"Oh? I wondered how it could stand to be in the fire."

"Why do you have to run around killing things all the time?" Thend shouted at Morlock.

This was hardly fair, but Morlock took the question seriously. After a moment's thought he said, "I suppose I'd rather see them dead than you."

"But-" Thend noticed his mother glaring at him and he shut up.

Naeli turned to Roble and Morlock. "All right, if we're going to do this thing let's have some sort of plan. We'll all go into the valley, but Thend, Bann, Fasra, and I will hold back; you two and Stador will attack the spider folk and their snake-leopards. The rest of us will intervene only if necessary to help you escape. Agreed?"

Stador looked flattered to have his life put at risk, Bann annoyed that his wasn't. Roble said, "Right!" and Morlock nodded indifferently.

They ran together down into the valley; but at a certain point Naeli gestured, and Stador, Roble, and Morlock ran on alone.

"What's so special about them?" Fasra muttered, angry at being left behind.

"They're expendable," Naeli said dryly. Bann laughed at this, and even Fasra smiled, but Thend didn't think it was funny. His uncle Roble was the closest thing he'd ever had to a father. If Thend wanted any one thing in life it was to be more like Roble: handsome, fearless, never at a loss for words or actions. Should someone like that be thrown away just so that someone like Thend could live a little while longer? Thend couldn't see why.

Thend's feelings about Stador were mixed, but Morlock was another matter. If he wanted to lay down his life for Thend's sake, that was his business.

The crooked man ran, just as he walked, with an odd loping stride. He clapped Roble on the shoulder and said something to him, then veered off straight toward the fire while Roble and Stador swung to the right and rushed the spiderfolk there.

Morlock's monochrome sword glittered in his hand as he plunged into the line of snake-leopards and spiderfolk, kicking and stabbing. The snakeleopards yowled with dismay and the spiderfolk leapt aside: they had been intent on the werewolf hiding in the fire. Morlock ran straight to the border of the flames, where a stunted tree had partly collapsed into sullen embers. Morlock scooped up a fistful of live coals and scattered them among the spiderfolk nearest him.

Thend had been appalled the first time he saw Morlock reach into a campfire for a handful of coals that he proceeded to juggle for their somewhat-horrified amusement. Even though he understood that fire didn't affect the crooked man the way it affected other people, it was still hard to watch.

The spiderfolk screamed; one of them fell to the earth with a gooey sort of thump that was sickening to hear. The others retreated a ways, gathering their clouds of snake-leopards about them with wordlike hisses. Roble and Stador fell back and stood beside Morlock.

"Looks like they're going to stand and fight," Roble observed.

Morlock shrugged and waited.

The snake-leopards spread out in two wings, one of them charging straight toward each of the two groups.

"Get back with the others," Morlock snapped, and stepped into the fire beside the werewolf.

Roble and Stador ran back and joined their family. They formed themselves in a ragged line with blades drawn, waiting for the snake-leopards to mass and attack. Thend held his sword grip with both hands to keep from trembling, and he was glad to see he wasn't the only one doing that.

The snake-leopards massed together, but their attack never arrived. As they leapt toward the quivering line of blades, there came from behind the screaming hiss of the spiderfolk. Morlock and the werewolf were attacking them with fire, Morlock hurling fistfuls of live coals and the werewolf kicking up a steady stream of sparks and burning grass with its back legs.