The figure didn't immediately react and just kept staring for a while, but he was close enough to the fire to leave no room for doubt. It was, undeniably, Skello.
It took a long moment for the bemusement to wear off, but there was still no reaction from Skello to our blank stares. I exchanged a quick glance with Zolya, hoping he'd have some kind of explanation, but all he offered was a slight shrug.
"You're alone." Skello had begun moving again, but he still didn't come closer. He shambled around us on a circular path, seemingly as suspicious of us as we were of him.
"So are you," Zolya gave back, furtively watching Skello from the corner of his eye.
Now Skello stopped and regarded us with apparent amusement. "Shouldn't surprise you," he said. "You left me to die in that accursed tunnel."
"We didn't have a choice," Zolya replied. "And we warned you. You crawled in there on your own volition."
To our bewilderment, Skello laughed out loud before his expression became serious again all of a sudden and he resumed slowly circling our fire. "So we all got away in the end," he noted when he reached the uncovered ditch. "Unlike the others."
"You saw them? Where? How many were there?" I quickly asked, hoping he could tell us if there were still pursuers we had to watch out for at night. We didn't know if all of the survivors had followed the captain's example. Some might still be able to see, and they had weapons better than two carved branches and daggers.
"I don't know." Skello shrugged and kicked some snow into the ditch. "Didn't count. Most were staggering through the pass, all in different directions. Some sat around a fire and dug around in what looked like a carcass. Couldn't tell what it was from the hilltop, but it looked big."
"It was an elk," Zolya said. "Dead when we found it. Ture and I suspected that something was wrong with the meat. We refrained from eating it, however, the rest of the crew did. At night, when the madness overcame them, we took advantage of their distraction and escaped to the hills." He glanced over to me, silently asking if we were in agreement about Skello not posing a threat.
I subtly nodded, then waved Skello closer. If he hadn't been close enough to recognize the dead beast as an elk, he surely hadn't eaten from it. "Sit down," I said, nodding to the fire. "The three of us are all that's left of the crew. We better stick together and put past differences aside."
Skello reluctantly accepted my offer, but he kept a distance to us when he sat down. "What kept you alive after your daring escape?" he asked, skeptically eyeing us up. "Were there any dead rats left to steal in the dinghy?"
"I didn't get close enough to look for hidden stashes, but I doubt there were any," Zolya replied. He, too, intently studied Skello's face, aided by the now brighter shine of the fire. "I took my medicinal supplies when we abandoned the ship though, a small amount of dried mosses. Barely enough to sustain a man, but sufficient to not succumb to madness from hunger."
"What about you?" My tone was more challenging than intended. Skello had certainly spotted the bones in the fire pit, yet he had not asked us about leftover food. He also looked fairly well-nourished, all things considered, which made me suspect his ordeal in the cavern had yielded results. "Did you find roots or mushrooms in the tunnel? Did you take any with you?"
Once more Skello unexpectedly guffawed instead of giving an answer, and there was a strange, otherwordly gleam in his eyes. A lanky lad like him was no match for me, and Zolya, though less accustomed to weapons, could have fought him off with ease as well. Yet there was something feral and frightening about his demeanor that sent cold shivers down our spines.
"Poor Reko..." Skello was still shaking with laughter. "Never saw it coming, it was almost too easy." He exhaled deeply to calm himself down while Zolya and I stared at him, frozen in motion. "It doesn't make any sense, you know? Not eating our own." Skello smiled and his tone was casual, as if this was idle chatter and not a confession of breaking the ultimate taboo. "We taste like anyone else! Wildlings, Northmen, 'Tyroshi', it's all the same." He paused, thought for a moment, then his smile faded into an apologetic frown. "I'm afraid I can't offer you any food though. Ate the last bit I took when I spotted this forest and thought to myself I'd find new supplies here."
"It's alright," I hastily said, trying to not let on my disgust. "We're close to the Nameless River." I glanced to Zolya who glared back with bewilderment from under his hood, tried to signal to him that I knew what I was doing. "But the meager meals we had drained our strength. Moss, and some shreds of meat on these gnawed off bones..." I nodded to the fire and sighed. "You're in much better shape, so perhaps you can scout out the settlement tomorrow. Gauge what resistance we'll encounter or if we can sneak in unseen."
To my great relief, Skello agreed to the proposed plan right away. He was quite evidently not in his right mind and it worked in my favor. Instead of suspecting my true motives behind assigning him to a dangerous task, Skello took it as a sign of trust and appreciation.
"You'd be doomed without me," he kept muttering with a smug grin on his face. "Now who's the true survivor among us? The first mate who abandoned his captain and crew? Or the shipboy too dumb to follow the simplest of orders?"
Zolya and I humored him. We confirmed that he had indeed proven his worth to us, that we stood no chance if it wasn't for him. As the sky darkened, his ramblings became more erratic. There were things he said that didn't make any sense, and there were hushed, ominous whispers that filled me with dread. Finally, Zolya convinced him that he should sleep. Said we'd take turns watching the fire and wouldn't disturb him, so he'd be well-rested and alert in the morning.
Skello gladly accepted our offer to sleep in the sheltered ditch while Zolya and I stayed close to the fire. We kept the makeshift spears nearby and my hand didn't let go of my dagger all night. Yes, Skello was still the skinny lad he had been upon our departure from Skagos, and I could easily have taken him down in a fight. But it was clear that some kind of madness had possessed him, something worse than what had ravaged the crew.
The thought of Skello gnawing on the bones of the boy haunted me and at first I feared I wouldn't find any sleep when it was Zolya's turn to keep an eye on the fire. But in the end, exhaustion won over and I drifted off into a short, dreamless slumber.
﴾ _ ﴿
Heavy snowfall welcomed us in the morning, a flurry of falling stars wafting down from the overcast sky. Fog crept up between the trees and hindered our sight, therefore we decided to stay close to the coast when we had left the forest behind us. In a world of white against white, the rocky shoreline was our only constant, a landmark we could trail to not lose our way.
Zolya had suggested to give Skello one of the sharpened branches, and I had agreed, albeit with reluctance. I didn't like the thought of arming the man who had eaten a stoneborn boy only a few days ago and seemed to think nothing of it. However, Zolya convinced me in the end. It would make our charade of having faith in his skills as a scout more believable, he said, and should he encounter any dangers he'd at least have a fighting chance. I didn't like that thought either. For all I cared, Skello didn't deserve any chances, but I also still saw his merit as bait. Having him scout ahead increased our odds of survival. He was a convenient distraction that might allow us to get away from encounters with wildlings, Tyroshi and whatever strange beasts roamed these lost lands.
Things went as planned, or so we thought at first sight. Skello nodded along when we handed him the makeshift weapon and didn't show any signs of being hostile or suspicious. However, he didn't show any signs of understanding what we explained to him either. He didn't speak at all, he only grinned and contorted his face to benighted grimaces. At least he did walk ahead when we left the camp, though not as far as I had suggested. We could hear him laugh through the howling wind, could see him gesture through the fog and the snow, apparently talking to himself, the storm or the sky.
﴾ _ ﴿
"Praise the gods, even if they won't hear us out here..." Zolya's voice, filled with awe, was merely a whisper, but words were not needed to convey the relief we both felt. My eyes were drawn to the snowbound structures in a short distance, barely visible on the banks of a frozen river, the bright blue sails of the Tyroshi galley rising into the murky dusk from beyond.
"Just like Captain Stane predicted," I got out, staring to the almost unreal sight ahead. "The settlement, the ship holding out in the mouth of the river, it's all exactly the way he hoped."
"It is not." Zolya had stopped and turned his head to look me in the eye from under his hood. "There are no people, this place looks abandoned. No flickering glow from fires behind the ship's windows, no columns of smoke above the huts and tents."
I narrowed my eyes, but still couldn't make out any details. All I saw was Skello, laughing as he shambled toward the nearest building, waving the sharpened branch in the air. "Why would the Tyroshi have abandoned ship if they made it this far?" I gave back. "They must have taken their captives long before the bad storm reached the river. Now they're probably waiting it out on the far side of the ship."
We exchanged a dumbfounded glance when we noticed that Skello was no longer near the building, yet the wind still carried his mad laughter to us. A moment later Skello reemerged. Apparently he had discovered a door or window leading into the rickety hut. He didn't seem to remember our presence though as he didn't even look in our direction. Instead, he wandered toward a group of snow piles that, going by their shape, hid the remnants of tents.
"If anyone was still in those buildings, they'd have heard his ranting by now," Zolya said. "And should the Tyroshi still be on the ship, he'll draw their attention while we search the huts."
I nodded and together we headed for the nearest hut where we found the shattered remains of a door standing open. There was very little to survey inside, but having a roof over our heads was good enough for the moment. After our long march through the snow, it almost felt surreal to be inside a manmade structure, a silent reminder that we were not all alone in this world.
We rummaged through the wooden planks that had probably been crude pieces of furniture before the Tyroshi must have attacked. Not much was left and therefore we didn't expect to find anything of use among the broken pieces and rubble. A sooty blot on the ground suggested a fire pit, nearby were planks that could have been used as a bed, but lacked furs and blankets, one corner housed the smashed in remains of a trunk. Zolya stayed by the door and kept an eye on Skello while I inspected the container and found nothing in it except for more broken wood.
"He must have discovered something in those tents," Zolya said and frantically waved me over.
I joined him by the door and outside I saw Skello, standing in front of the largest triangular snow pile. He held the flap open and peered inside, regarded his apparent discovery for a moment, then guffawed and moved around the tents, toward the bank of the Nameless River. His reaction didn't give any hints about the nature of the tent's contents, so Zolya and I had to see for ourselves. As soon as Skello had staggered away far enough for our comfort, we left the shelter of the hut and hurried to the group of snowbound tents.
It was unlikely that the Tyroshi had left useful supplies behind, but deep down, I still hoped there'd be at least furs or perhaps even a pot of weeks-old, frozen soup. But what I found when I pulled the flap open was neither. Three men stared back at me from eyeless sockets, their exposed hands and feet black with gangrene, their blue-dyed beards clinging like icicles to their distorted faces. Thin silver chains formed some sort of web between rings that pierced the skin in seemingly random places; ears, nostrils, lips and cheeks. As flamboyant as Tyroshi robes often were, these rings and chains were placed too haphazardly to be a quirk of foreign fashion.
Our further search of the few buildings yielded nothing but broken planks and a few shredded rags, both of it damp and frozen. The largest of the huts contained most of our findings. An empty rack on a wall and a stringless bow leaning below it, a fire pit with a knocked over cauldron, scattered bones of hares and birds on the ground.
Since Skello had been all but quiet outside, yet nobody had emerged from the galley to find the source of the screeching and laughter, we decided it would be safe to inspect the ship. The storm had calmed down somewhat during our search of the buildings, but the weather out here was erratic. Should the winds and the snowfall get heavier at night, we'd rather have sturdier shelter in the brightly painted hulk than a rickety shack.
﴾ _ ﴿
The gangway was slippery and frozen over, as was the exposed upper deck. Only some of the sails had been taken in and I couldn't figure out why not all had been lowered. The mouth of the river was a safe haven and the Tyroshi were lucky to have made it here. Why would they risk drifting out to the ocean where ice floes might damage their hull and oars?
While Skello kept roaming the snowy banks, Zolya and I began to survey the ship. Our first way led to the captain's cabin under the helm. The door was unlocked and revealed a room in disarray when we pulled it open. Unlike in the shacks, the cabin wasn't empty. We found blankets, furs, and clothes scattered across a chaotic arrangement of furniture. Knocked over chairs on the far side of the room. A hammock filled with all sorts of clutter; pots, sea charts, a mismatched pair of boots, leather-bound books and a pile of colorful scarves. Apparently someone had tried to barricade the small window with a shelf, it still leaned against the wall, propped up by a turned over table.
"This doesn't bode well," Zolya noted, but he refrained from commenting further on it.
"Could be they retreated to the common room," I gave back, though my hope that it was true was quickly fading. If there was a gathering of survivors under deck, I was reasonably certain that we would have heard something. Yet there was an eerie silence on this ship, the only sounds came from our footsteps and the sails flapping in the wind. "They might be hiding," I tried to convince myself. "Evidently, madness befell the men we found in the tent. The rest might just be in our position, a lucky few who got away just in time. Of course they'll keep quiet if they fear the infected might be looking for them."
I followed Zolya outside and looked around until I spotted a hatch, probably leading down to the common room. "At least we now know they didn't get away from the ship," I heard Zolya say while I tried to force the frozen over hatch open. "The dinghy is still here. There are some furs and waterskins on it and someone lowered the boat into the river, but it is still attached to the ropes."
"Skello's approach might have spooked them." I kicked shards of ice away from the hatch, then used the makeshift spear to pry it open. "They couldn't know who was coming. If we were armed, if we were hostile." The hatch cracked and finally gave in, revealing a ladder leading down into a murky darkness. "The dinghy can't be seen from the direction we came from, but they'd have been sitting ducks on the river."
Zolya didn't reply, but I caught a glimpse of him skeptically glaring at me as he came closer. "Leave them in their hideout, if that's where they really are," he said. "We should take the boat up the river ourselves. Go inland, try to reach the Valley of Thenn. Or any other place less cursed and haunted."
"We will," I firmly gave back as I began ascending the ladder. "By first light we'll leave, but some furs and waterskins won't get us far. We need to find supplies. Untainted bodies, any food they may have. At least proper weapons, if nothing else."
