The Unseen were said by some to be a punishment sent from the Other, the realm from which all life comes, to remind us of our sins. Others argue that they are what a soul becomes when it is lost and full of vengeance. Their eyes can turn a man into stone with a single glance, the whispers say, and their faces hold no mouths because their cries are a death toll even unto themselves. I never believed any of those nonsensical superstitions, but the day I first laid eyes on the slain giant I knew that something was wrong about it, somehow. That day marked the first inkling of fear in my heart; a fear that would grow into an all-consuming, and forever deeply rooted, horror.
Ten
"Up. It's time to go."
Arrus's urgent words tore me from my rest, and in another instant I was up and holding my dagger at the ready. My two companions stood before me, holding our horse's reigns at the ready. While I had been asleep, for only a few hours according to the stars and full moon above us, the men had packed up and readied us for a quick departure. Confusion touched my still groggy mind, but their somber expressions kept my questions at bay.
"No. We walk for now." Arrus breathed, placing a hand on my shoulder to stop me as I made to climb onto Disaster.
"What's going on?" I asked under my breath, but no one answered.
The men were acting odd. I could not imagine that there were any more bandits around, and we had no reason to hide from anyone on the road. A dozen scenarios flew through my head as we slowly snuck our way back towards the beaten path. Each new explanation grew more farfetched than the last, my lethargic mind spinning webs of intrigue and danger. Distracted, I did not see Arrus stop walking until my nose collided painfully against his armored back.
"Wake up. There's no knowing how good their hearing is." Arrus scolded.
His words rooted me to the spot. Of course our sneaking away could only mean the Unseen were near. Cursing at myself for my idiocy, I shook my head in an attempt to dispel the lingering drowsiness clinging to my thoughts.
Ahead of us Arrus stood stock still, one hand raised to keep us quiet while he listened.
Fear twisted in my belly at the thought of running into a live Unseen. The creature's mouthless face and black stare floated into my mind's eye as a shiver made its way down my spine. My thoughts had trouble fathoming the existence of such terrifying beings. Its long, twig-like legs had been little more than pale grey skin pulled too tightly over knobby bones, each stretching longer than I was tall. A vision of its long claws, still wet from rending the bandits apart, danced to the forefront of my mind, and I shook off a shiver of dread. Most terrifying of all had been its saucer-like eyes, five times the size of my own, which seemed even in death to stare into the depths of your soul. Shaking my head in an attempt to dispel the image, I focused with renewed energy on my companions as Arrus gave the ok to start moving again.
We found the road again without incident, but Arrus chose to cross it and continue on into the forest again. Two hundred yards in the young knight turned us abruptly to the right and guided us parallel with the road towards Carvin.
"We're still on the right path, but there's less chance of anyone knowing our presence this way." Arrus explained without looking back.
The tactic made sense to me, even if I found the point of it lost. If the Unseen were truly as terrible as the rumors told, they would find us no matter how hard we tried to avoid it. Briefly, I wondered if death by Unseen would be overly painful, but while my gut twisted with anxiety I felt little fear of the idea of death itself. It was the fear of losing Arrus and Sarj that kept my heart pounding and breathing shallow.
The next four hours passed slowly as we trudged on warily, the only break in the silence the occasional creak of armor and whiny of a horse. The tension in the air floated so thickly around us that one could cut it with a knife.
"How far until Carvin?" I asked softly just to lift the suffocating weight of the silence.
"We won't see its gates for another day, at least." Arrus answered. He seemed to be grateful for the distraction even as his face said nothing.
"They could attack at any time," Sarj grunted, "and there's no knowin' how many there are creepin' 'round this gods forsaken forest."
"How do we defeat them?" I wanted to know. There lived little chance that I could survive an attack by these creatures, but I would be damned if I did not bring at least one of the bastards down with me.
"Go for the joint in their legs." Arrus explained grimly. "If you can cut their height down you bring them low enough to strike at their heads. Beheading is the only sure way."
"Do they have hearts?"
"None which we know of. Running them through the chest does nothing."
"Nobody knows where th'demons came from." Sarj rumbled. "Fer a thousand years, nothin', and then suddenly, there they are by the tens of thousands. It's like they crawled up from th'Other itself to punish us."
"Punish us for what..?" I asked fearfully. I felt my eyes growing big like a child's and tried to regain my composure.
"Fer all our wrongs. Our murderin', our rapin', our injustices, and our wars."
"Quiet!"
Arrus's command came so suddenly that we obeyed out of surprise. The young knight held up a hand, calling us to halt.
"What is-" I started to whisper, but was cut off by a strange sound.
Increasing in volume slowly, the long cry sent a chill through my chest. The desolate sound rang out like nothing I had ever heard before, and was suddenly joined by others of differing pitches.
"RUN!" Arrus cried, turning and heading for the road.
Sarj and I scrambled to follow without pausing to argue. The terrible sounds raised in pitch, raking the air with a painfully high ringing. The bells of death were rolling.
As quickly as we could we made our way back to the road. When at last we reached it a gasp of relief burst from my mouth, but it was short lived. The wails were getting louder, closer.
"WE RIDE!" Arrus cried.
Our horses did not wait for our command to start galloping once we had mounted. The horrible wailing had sent them into a frothing frenzy, and they ran as if the Reaper himself nipped at their heels.
"How quickly do they travel?" I cried breathlessly. The calling had grown louder than ever before, and I had to yell over the terrified screaming of our horses.
"As fast as any horse." Sarj boomed with the expression of a man about to go to war.
His words twisted my stomach into knots of horror. What was the point of running if they were going to find us anyway? I did not voice my panicked thoughts. Even wild with terror, I knew not to let it show.
The wailing reached a crescendo, the many voices within melding together into one final, ear splitting note before cutting off. The silence that fell immediately after felt thicker than wool, and a thousand times more ominous than the cries had been. Our horses did not slow, and we made no moves to make them.
"I don't trust this." Arrus called as softly as he could over the pounding hoof beats.
"Aye, they could be-" Sarj began to reply, but his words stopped short as an Unseen stepped out of the woods only a hundred yards in front of us. The creature glowed a soft white in the moonlight as it regarded us silently.
Our horses screamed and reared, nearly throwing us off. I managed to hold on, only just, and I drew my sword with a shaking arm. Beside and behind me my companions did the same, but a rustling behind us whipped our heads around. Only fifty feet away, two more Unseen stepped out onto the path.
"Balls." Sarj swore, his face uncharacteristically pale behind his mustache.
"We fight until the end." Arrus ordered grimly. "They will taste death for attacking us."
I nodded, looking death in the eye and feeling my first twang of true fear of it. This had not been my hopes for our quest, but there could be no lamenting that now. Now, I knew, was the time to show how strong I had become. I would not be a burden to these men that had saved my life.
"TO ME!" Arrus called, trying to calm his horse.
Sarj and I struggled to fall in closer, but our raging horses were difficult to control. One either side of us the Unseen began to close in as we worked. They moved as if in slow motion, their long legs stretching out grotesquely, and yet each step brought them at least six feet closer. The one that had surfaced first, the tallest of all three at a height of almost nine feet, was the first to make a sound.
To my great disgust and surprise, two thin slits of flesh under its collar bones opened to reveal rows of teeth and long slithering tongues not unlike a snake's. From the drooling mouths came that awful screech of sound once again, loud enough to force us into shielding our ears as our horses reared again. This time I lost my seat and hit the ground, hard.
Coughing against the pain in my chest, I stood and faced the giant with grim determination. Disaster was already gone. The moment he found himself free of me he tore into the forest at top speed, and I silently sent a prayer to the Other that he would find his way home safely.
The two behind us reached us first, and Arrus swung his sword at the legs of the left while Sarj blocked the slicing claws of the right. Standing alone and horseless, I turned to face the third who stood now only twenty feet away.
The creature paused, its large eyes regarding me as if to assess my threat. Carefully, I forced my wobbling legs to bring me towards it. Behind me, Arrus yelled out a battle cry, and Sarj boomed out bloody promises. Unless they were able to defeat their own foes, I stood before mine alone. Fear shook my limbs and brought sweat to my brow, but I bit the inside of my cheek savagely to remind myself of the promises I had made. The taste of blood in my mouth brought back memories of my training, and I felt some of the fear lose its hold. I stopped before the Unseen, now only ten feet away. Its tongues tasted the air as it stood unmoving, watching.
"I do not…know why you have come," I said aloud, not sure if the giant could even understand, "but if you harm my friends, I will kill you."
"Ahhhh…." Its mouths sighed, almost sadly. The soft sound struck my heart almost as painfully as its awful war cry.
Arrus grunted out of sight, and a moment later a heavy thud shook the ground. I begged the Other that the sounds meant a dead Unseen and not a dead prince. My foe shifted its gaze to the battle behind me, but I dared not turn my own eyes away. A dozen spells ran through my head over and over as we faced off, Norm's voice instructing me in his rambling way of the best ways to defend against a larger opponent.
"Ahh…" The Unseen sighed again as it bent its head to look down at me once more.
I had little time to prepare as it stepped forward and lifted its three long claws out across the void between us to strike. Throwing my sword up out of sheer reflex, I blocked the blow from beheading me, but the impact nearly sent me sprawling in the dirt and jarred my arm so badly it almost went numb. Wild with a combination of adrenaline, shock, and fear, I dive rolled to my left and threw a ball of loosely concentrated magick at its eyes. The spell held a fraction of its strength and only succeeded in temporarily blinding it, but it was enough.
Rubbing at its eyes, the creature reeled back and screamed. Fighting the urge to cover my ears I ran forward, closing the distance between us, and brought my sword up and sideways with all my strength into its knee joint. The leg split in two with an audible snap, and I only just got out of the way as it came crashing to the ground. The Unseen was not dead, though, far from it, and it fixed its saucer eyes on me murderously. Its hands slashed out at me as I scrambled to put more distance between us, one chance blow knocking my sword from my hand and out of reach.
Cursing, I drew my dagger and kept retreating. The giant crawled after me like something out of my worst nightmares, its injured leg leaking silver gore and the other propelling it forward. Its mouths slobbered hungrily for me as its long claws reached for flesh, but I managed to keep just out of the way for several feet until something hard hit my back. I had reached the border of road and forest, and a long log blocked my retreat. The Unseen screamed in triumph as its terrible hands came within striking range, but I did not give it the chance to lay down a killing attack.
"Grak! Rheln! Sjur!"
Early in training Norm explained that when we spoke the strange words that brought magick, we were in fact calling out the names of old gods long forgotten. Though they had long left our world, their power was such that invoking their name alone was enough to bend reality around us. The echo of their presence sounded in every living being, and those capable of Wielding its power were those that heard the echo most clearly.
Back in reality, a great pressure built up in the back of my head and in the tips of my fingers. The Unseen was upon me, its empty face so close I could see the tiny silver veins running through its eyes, when I released the spell into its chest. The force of it threw me back against the wood with a painful crunch and sent the giant flying back with a hole in its chest. It lay in a crumpled heap for several moments, and I took the chance to check up on my companions. Arrus was alive, thank the Other, and the two men were fighting together against the only of their two enemies that yet lived. The first lay motionlessly on the ground, its head missing from its shoulders.
"Ahh…" My Unseen sighed, bringing my attention back to my fight. Slowly, the giant struggled to lift itself from the ground.
My spell had weakened it and opened a large hole in its chest, but Arrus had been right about it not having a heart. Fighting the need to vomit, I stood slowly and edged towards it as quietly as I could. It did not seem to notice my advance as it worked to get on its hands and knee. I suddenly noticed my sword glinting in the moonlight only a couple feet away from the monster's head, its hilt facing me, and I ran to it. My footsteps were enough to bring the giant's attention back to me, but by then it was too late.
Gripping the sword firmly, I hefted it high above my head and brought it down onto the Unseen's neck with every last ounce of strength that I had. Cranium separated from vertebrae, and the creature lay still at last. A sob of relief broke out of me before I could hold it back, and I sank to my knees with a cry of exhaustion.
Behind me, Arrus and Sarj battled on, and I forced myself to stand again. The two were on foot, their horses long gone, and I knew that if I tried to attack I would only get in the way. Still, there was one thing I could do, and with a final thrust of strength I threw a ball of magick at the Unseen's face. Blinded, the creature reared back much as mine had, and the knights wasted no time in freeing it of its head.
"Dead, they're all dead." I said through my tears.
We had lived. Somehow, somehow, we had lived.
"Aye, lass!" Sarj boomed triumphantly, banging his sword arm against his chest.
"You fought well, Tigress." Arrus congratulated me wearily, walking to me and ruffling my hair.
It was all I could do not to break down like a child right then and there, but with his strong hand in my hair I only just held it in. The men had not left their battle unscathed, I was quick to notice when I had found my way back onto my feet. Arrus would have a new scar on his face where a claw had slice him. The cut, though shallow, stretched from his right ear to the bride of his nose. If he had not been wearing full armor he would have had a dozen similar cuts across his body. One especially deep dent in his chest plating told of a blow that would have run him through, which sent a shiver of anxiety through me.
Sarj had lost the top half of his right ear, which he laughed off when I cried out in horror, and had a deep cut across his left forearm where he had lost his bracer. He allowed me to heal the arm but insisted that the ear bothered him little and that I wasted my energy wanting to fix it.
"'tis nothin'." He said for the fourth time as I tried to get him to hold still. "It'll give me more love from th'lasses. Ev'ryone loves a good battle scar."
The older man winked at me then, sending blood to my cheeks and making me laugh. I left him alone after that and started in on Arrus instead. The younger knight proved just as stubborn, saying over and over again that I should look after my own hurts before I bothered with his. I tried to tell him that I had made it from my fight with little harm to show for it, but he would not hear of it.
"You fell from your horse. Trust me, you're hurt." He said, not for the first time. Throwing my hands up in defeat, I left the cursed man to nurse his own wounds.
"I'm just glad that everyone is alright." I enthused, grinning at them both happily.
"Aye, 'twas a close call for all of us." Sarj rumbled in agreement.
"We can't relax right now." Arrus said, his voice so grim that we both looked at him worriedly.
"Our horses are gone, our supplies with them, and we've got two days left to our journey without their speed."
His words knocked me off my high cloud of victory and sent me crashing back down into the truth of our reality. Food posed no difficulties, but finding adequate shelter at night might prove to be more trouble than would be worth it.
"We should travel as long as we can stand it every day. We'll go farther that way," I suggested around a sour taste in my mouth, "and when we sleep we'll be too tired to care that it's on a rock or two."
"And if we come across a bear or some other threat along the way? What if we're too exhausted to fight?" Arrus reasoned calmly, making me feel dumb.
"We march from dawn to dusk," Sarj said with certainty, "and find shelter at night."
"That's our best course of action." Arrus agreed.
"It's dark now, should we wait to start out or go now?" I asked, knowing the answer already and dreading it.
"We start now. Dawn is only an hour or two away from breaking." Arrus said, not unkindly.
"I was afraid you'd say that." I tried to joke, but the short feeling of happiness we shared was gone now.
We set out from there, but not before cleaning the silver blood from our swords. The moon was out and full, giving the night a silver cast that brought images of Unseen dancing behind my eyelids anytime I closed them.
As we walked we discussed the details of our individual fights. Arrus was knocked from his saddle from the blow that dented his chest plate, but not before beheading the left Unseen, and his horse fled into the night seconds later. Sarj abandoned his the moment he realized that the frightened creature meant more danger than help. Together they faced the second enemy, both bent on killing it and turning to assist me, but I had not needed them. With a soft tone I explained my own experiences, and felt the nausea in my stomach become too much as I tried to describe the more gruesome details. Arrus held my hair back as I emptied my twisting stomach onto the side of the road and offered me mint leaves from the bag he kept on his hip to rid myself of the taste.
"It gets easier to hold your stomach, eventually." He said gently as I accepted the sweet smelling leaves.
"Thank you." I muttered. If I had any strength left in my bones I might have had the grace to feel embarrassed, but as it was I could only think of putting one foot in front of the other.
We trudged on wearily. True to Arrus's prediction, the sky began to lighten after the second hour, marking the beginning of a new day. The forest started to thin out as morning became noon, and when we sat down to eat a small lunch we sat on open ground. By late afternoon the forest had become little more than a thin woods, each skinny tree at least four feet from its neighbor, and I welcomed the change with open arms.
"Ther's the edge!" Sarj shook the nearest trees with the strength of his exclamation.
"Aye, the way should be a bit easier, but food will be scarcer." Arrus said in his ever serious way.
"We'll worry 'bout that tonigh'." Sarj said stubbornly and moved ahead of us.
"He hates forests." Arrus explained when he had gone out of earshot.
"Why?" I asked, not comprehending. How could anyone hate so much green?
"Ask him one day, and he might tell you." Came his cryptic reply.
"Why bring it up if you won't say?" I asked with some frustration.
Arrus only shrugged teasingly and gave me a wink. Red in the face and furious, I trudged ahead of Arrus to catch up with Sarj, but an all too familiar sound stopped me dead in my tracks. The cry snuck up on us, building in strength for several long moments before any of us noticed it, but now it rang too loudly to miss.
"No…there can't be more. There can't be more!" I cried in terror, searching every direction for the source of the wailing.
Arrus's face grew pale, as if with a sudden realization, and he beat his head with a palm in frustration.
"There were four!" He spat. "There were four sitting there, and we only killed three!"
"Where is it? Where is it?!" I fought against the scream building in my chest, feeling panic set in at the idea of fighting even one more of those monsters.
"Keep it together!" Arrus ordered, grabbing me by my shoulders and shaking me.
"Y-yes!" I said breathlessly. Arrus's firm expression served to calm the raging tide of fear in my stomach, and in its place I felt determination.
The wailing grew louder as it came closer, but no Unseen walked anywhere within sight.
"Let's get out of the trees! We can't out run it, but we stand a better chance on open ground!" Arrus commanded, and we moved to obey quickly.
The edge of the forest was only feet away, the open field beyond the last line of trees shining in the sun, when the giant stepped out from behind a tree and knocked Sarj cleanly off his feet and into a nearby tree trunk. Its mouths were already open and drooling for blood as it turned to face Arrus and me. Crying out twin battle cries, the two of us went to work. Arrus flew forward, his sword deftly blocking the Unseen's long claws and slashing at its knees. I stood back, sending bursts of magick at its eyes in an attempt to distract it. It worked, and Arrus cut both of its legs off in one strong strike. It screamed and fell with a hard thud. One bony hand lashed out and caught Arrus across the chest, but the blow glanced off of his armor without causing damage. With one final attack, Arrus cleaved the creature's head nearly in two, revealing the disgusting contents of its skull.
"Sarj!" I called out, searching for our fallen friend as Arrus yanked his blade free.
The large man lay in a heap of metal and man at the base of the tree he had been thrown into. A trickle of blood dripped down from a lump in the back of his head, and his breath rattled shallowly from his lungs.
"To think a blow to the head could actually knock this bastard out." Arrus mused.
"Is he going to be ok? I can heal the outer damage, but I don't know the extent of what's going on inside his skull." I asked through a knot in my throat as I set to work healing what I could see.
"He'll be fine. The bigger question to answer is how we're going to get the big oaf out of this forest."
"I could float him out, but not for long." I offered.
"Float him out?" Arrus asked in confusion. I wrote a few runes over the fallen knight's head by way of explanation and magicked the man waist high into the air.
"That's genius!" Arrus said with some pride, patting me on the head like an approving brother might.
"Right, but I can't keep it up all day." I huffed, already feeling the strain.
"Then we set out right away." The prince agreed, and we continued on our way. The Unseen we left to rot as we had the others.
"We wouldn't last long against an army of those." I said out loud what no one had dared admit as we walked.
"No, unless we have people like you to help, which we do." Arrus said encouragingly. I heard what he did not say; there were too few of us.
My energy flagged just after darkness fell, which meant perfect timing. After gently setting Sarj down on the ground I threw myself down beside him and nearly fainted right then from exertion. I stood dangerously close to my limit. Arrus settled down beside me and told me to try and stay awake long enough for him to return with game for supper.
I grunted at him murderously, but then forced myself into a seated position. If it meant a hot meal before blessed sleep I would sit vigil for ten hours.
Sometime later Arrus returned and shook me awake from the light doze I had fallen into. Dipping my head in chagrin, I offered to help set the fire, but the prince refused. I used enough magick today he insisted, and I did little to argue with him. An hour later I sat back and sighed happily. With a belly full of rabbit, and bones so weary they felt as if they were made of jelly, I sank into a deep sleep on the grassy ground within moments.
The nightmares began at once.