Murky waters can hide more than mud and quicksand, and secrets long buried have a terrible habit of finding their way back up from the depths. The Plains of Mourning have forever been an enigma to man, their treacherous waters and misleading fogs the home of countless lost souls. All of the stories, all of the rumors and hushed whispers, only cast a vague shadow of the truth. Beyond its humid border, the Plains are more than dangerous land; they move and breathe as if alive, sucking you down with a ravenous hunger, and they will stop at nothing to devour any living thing that dare enter their dark, pitiless mouth.
12
"Damn these blasted gnats!" Sarj cursed for the tenth time in as many hours as he swatted angrily at the little insects.
With no reliably firm ground to make camp on the three of us had decided to travel through the night in the hope that with daylight might come fortune. The horses hated the swampy ground, grunting and twitching constantly in discomfort and disgust, and Sarj loudly agreed with them with what felt like every breath. Arrus and I remained silent, trudging on without acknowledging each other or our increasingly obnoxious companion.
"The sun, at last, greets us with'er bloody smile." Our large friend grunted some few minutes later, relief coloring his tone as the first rays of morning touched the sky behind us.
I looked back at it, noting the way the humidity made the steadily brightening sky shimmer as if the sunrise were a mirage that might dissolve at any moment. My whole world seemed to have a surreal haze to it right then, and it had not stopped feeling that way since the beginning of our escape. Arrus's action had been unprovoked, unasked for, and the resulting backlash on my brain blew it into a thousand fragments; all of them screaming in confusion and indignation at once. My forehead still tickled uncomfortably some ten hours later and with good reason. A kiss, even one to the forehead, felt altogether alien on my skin and emotions, and I simply did not have the tools to process its implications. Behind me Arrus rode as stiffly as a board, his hand on his thigh rather than my hip. Some small part of me wished he would put it back in its usual spot even as the rest of me thanked the gods he did not.
"There seems to be a flat of land on the horizon." Arrus spoke up after some time, pointing a mailed hand.
"Aye, and with 'ny luck it won' be a mirage." Sarj grunted pessimistically even as he spurred his horse in the new direction.
I kept my lips firmly sealed as we moved, afraid if I opened them the voices in my head might spew out before I could stop them. The ground water began to increase beneath us only a few steps later, forcing the horses down to a walk after a hundred meters. Sarj complained even more harshly as we plodded along, but the flat Arrus spotted came to us quickly enough and soon our mounts set their hooves on solid ground for the first time in too long.
The flat spread out on all sides for a mile at least, and consisted of wet, hard-packed earth and scattered patches of thick moss that sprouted up from the moist ground every few feet. I poked one dense green mesh with my boot after dismounting and immediately jumped back in disgust as a noxious smelling goo oozed out from pores in the plant's skin like surface. Thousands of thin white things protruded from it like spiked hair, and each individual structure seemed to shiver in the humid heat of the morning. The hairs detached when my boot made contact and seemed to stick to the leather as if held there my magick. I tried for several minutes to scrape them off in the dirt with little success, and, with a grunt of frustration, decided to ignore them altogether and help the men set up our camp.
Exhaustion settled into my bones with the dense inescapability of a winter blanket as we finished, and I settled with a soft moan onto my mat. Arrus laid his mat down some five feet from mine and stretched out facing away from me. My inner demons both despaired and rejoiced in his avoidance of me, but I firmly refused to let the emotions give themselves names.
He meant nothing of it. I told the voices angrily. A kiss on the forehead is something a brother gives.
The sun hung fully in the sky before I found what I hoped would be peace in sleep. My dreams denied me the pleasure of rest and instead plagued me with retellings of the moment his lips pressed against my skin. One moment the touch felt soft, tender, and the next the sensation felt forced, angry. A multitude of colors danced behind my restless eyes for what seemed to be an eternity of confused torture until, finally, my discomfort ended with the brush of a hand on my shoulder.
"We slept th'mornin' away, lass. Time't'get back to it." Sarj boomed with some of his old vigor coloring his tone.
I nodded, wincing at a sharp pain behind my eyebrows, and scrambled to my feet. Every muscle in my body ached. My older friend smiled pleasantly, sending his mustache up above his ears, and bustled over to his horse to ready his saddle. Some three feet to my left Arrus stood surveying the horizon, but he turned towards me once I finished rolling and binding my mat. My stomach dropped uncomfortably, but I faced him with a small smile. He held no fault for my inner turmoil.
"About last night…" He began a bit awkwardly. I fought against the impulse to flinch but held my ground.
"I forgot that you're new to…people." He continued with a sheepish smile, pausing midsentence as if to choose his words carefully. "I wanted to make you laugh and didn't stop to think that you'd…be…"
"Surprised?" I offered, trying to sound cheeky and only managing to sound like a frightened mouse.
"Surprised." He agreed with a grateful smile. "You're a very dear…friend…to me and…"
His words trailed off as his face grew whiter than a wraith's, and I found myself giggling at how silly this all seemed. Arrus only paled more at my sudden outburst and opened and shut his mouth several times, but that only got me laughing harder. A few feet away Sarj chuckled under his breath and began brushing Shadow.
"It's-it's fine." I sputtered through the mirth bubbling out of my mouth.
"Are you alright..?" Arrus asked nervously, lifting one hand as if to reach out to me and letting it fall back to his side just as quickly.
"It was just a kiss on the forehead." I scoffed, feeling much lighter after the realization that had just hit me.
"Then…you're not upset?" He fished, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion and suspicion.
"Not at all! You've done no more than a brother would." I said with a grin as I finally gained control over my laughter.
Of course it meant nothing. Arrus felt a connection of fondness towards me because of our bond of friendship, nothing more. With this decision my chest settled down, and the many voices calmed and quieted. During those same moments Arrus's face froze into its blank mask, and his eyes went oddly blank.
"Yes, that's right. No more than a brother would." He said rather woodenly before stiffly turning around and walking to Sweetling.
I hardly took notice to the change in his demeanor, choosing to revel in my revelation rather than on his curious behavior. A tiny, barely audible voice trickled forth from the deepest corner of my mind and asked me why I felt so desperate to accept my new conclusion, but I squashed it with a rough shake of my head and cheerfully helped Arrus ready Sweetling for our ride. As a final make ready the horses ate a breakfast of oats and carrots before we set off again with the sun now almost directly above our heads.
"Gods is it hot." Sarj muttered darkly after a little more than an hour.
"Aye, and the flat has almost abandoned us." Arrus agreed, wiping sweat off his brow as he glared murderously at the deepening mud beneath our feet.
A bubble of gas broke through the surface of a black mud puddle to our left as if in answer. The wet, belching sound almost sounded indignant at our distaste. Uneasily, I noticed similar puddles of various size all around us, and with a sinking feeling in my gut I realized that they had been slowly gathering in number for quite a few minutes. Tapping Arrus on the knee, I nodded pointedly at our new threat.
"I've been watching them." He nodded soberly, "We've got to be careful."
"What are they?" I asked softly, feeling an irrational urge to whisper.
"Tar, looks like." Sarj blustered, leading his horse carefully around a particularly large, bubbling pit.
My stomach twisted painfully with fresh anxiety. Boiling tar?
Our mounts labored on, each new step slower and more careful than the last as the tar pits continued to gain in number. My tongue stuck uncomfortably as the heat of the day increased with every hour, and sweat beaded along my upper lip and dripped unpleasantly down my back. Sarj's grumbles grew blacker and meaner as time wore on one painful moment after another, and behind me Arrus began shifting in his seat more and more often.
By the time the sun began its slow descent, its light now shining directly into our eyes, the tar pits had become so numerous that we found ourselves forced to dismount and lead our horses through a deadly maze of bubbling blackness. My under shirt clung to my chest and back like a second skin, making each breath a difficulty, but I followed my companions without complaint. If they would not let the danger slow them down, neither would I.
"There! Another flat!" Arrus cried with poorly disguised relief as the sun finally sank low enough for better sight.
Hope blossomed in my chest, but as I squinted in the direction of Arrus's pointing finger it gave way to confusion. There did appear to be flatter land not too far ahead of us, but it looked wrong somehow. The air seemed to hang thicker there, the fog that hung over the new ground so deep that from our distance I could not see into it. My eyes narrowed as suspicion sank in, and I called for the men to stop so that I could voice my concerns.
"I think we should go around it." I concluded, trying with immolate Arrus's firm tone of finality.
"It may be the only true ground for the next hundred miles." Arrus argued immediately, already shaking his head. "We can't keep walking forever in this heat."
"Th'man's right. Strange'r'not, and I admit 'tis strange lookin', it might be our only chance fer a while." Sarj agreed.
Not very surprised by their steadfast refusals, I relented with a heavy heart and nervous stomach as we moved on again. The closer we grew to the fog covered area, the more uneasy I became. The thick air never became easier to see into, even when it floated only a few yards ahead of us, and it moved, undulating as if alive. As we drew closer a buzzing sound began to fill our ears, as loud and intruding as if somewhere beyond our perception hundreds of bees flew.
"Ok, this is getting to be too much." Arrus admitted, drawing us to a halt just a couple of feet from the cloud of thick, unyielding grey. He almost had to yell over the buzzing.
"Where's it comin' from?!" Sarj boomed furiously, eyeing the wall of impenetrable humidity in front of us.
"I think…it's the fog." I said slowly. The more I stared at it the more tangible it seemed.
On a sudden hunch, I reached into a saddle bag, withdrew a carrot, and threw it into the haze. All three of us shared a collective gasp as the fog parted for its passing, letting the carrot land on the ground some five feet away without touching it before closing into a solid mass again. Following the same gut feeling, I next pulled out a piece of dried venison and tossed that, too. The buzzing grew in intensity the moment the morsel came into contact. Caught as if by invisible hands, the piece of venison stopped mid arch and hung suspended in midair as millions of tiny teeth began disintegrating it. In a matter of ten seconds, with the three of us watching in mute horror, the meat disappeared entirely.
"Carnivorous fog." Arrus stated in a dead voice.
"I'd bet all o'the royal treasury that tha's what's makin' everyone that comes here disappear." Sarj commented grimly. His face displayed no outward signs of fear, but his left hand shook slightly where it hung by his side.
"I can't even begin to imagine how this came into being." Arrus mused, rubbing his newly grown whiskers as he scrutinized the buzzing predator.
"Rhynne, can you cast a spell of protection?" The prince asked, turning to me suddenly.
"I could, but I wouldn't be able to hold it for more than a few hours, and there's no way of knowing how deep the fog goes." I explained with a chagrined shake of my head.
"Damn…too risky."
"Can we go around now?" I asked quietly, trying to ignore the frightened part of my heart that wanted to say that I had told them so.
"Aye." Came my companions' quick and unison response.
Within a few minutes we had backtracked about a hundred yards and begun walking south, parallel with the deadly fog. It seemed to stretch forever, the now muted but ever present buzzing a nuisance fit to drive us all mad. Our horses hated it, kicking their feet nervously and laying their ears flat against their heads. Before long the sun sank beneath the horizon, and we had no choice but to continue on by the light of the moon. Fortunately, its pale face shone brightly that night, and finding our way proved easier than it might have been.
"The moon is at its highest point in the sky, and we still haven't found the end of the fog." Arrus said suddenly into the silver air.
"It's like a never ending wall." I whispered, shivering in the cold that came quickly behind the heat of the day.
"There's a chance there won' be an end t'it." Sarj said ominously.
Without a spoken command the three of us stopped and considered the idea. There lived every likelihood that the murderous fog existed to keep out trespassers, but if that were true, how could we ever pass through the Plains?
"We have to keep going." Arrus said firmly.
"Every step we take might be wastin' time." Sarj blustered even as he pulled Shadow onward again.
Arrus and I followed suit, but my younger friend did not fight against Sarj's comment. The man spoke a terrible fear we all had. I let a sigh fall from my lips at the hopelessness of the situation we had found ourselves in. The ever buzzing white barrier continued beyond and behind us as far as the eye could see, but I pushed on without allowing myself to do more than glance at it.
The remainder of the night passed with little break in the tense silence except the droning of the fog and Sarj's heavy breath. The tar pits, though decidedly too numerous for comfort already, did not by some small grace of the gods increase in number as we traveled. As dawn moved steadily towards us, they even seemed to dwindle.
"Finally! A reprieve!" Sarj boomed out suddenly with only a couple hours left before sunrise.
Following his pointed finger our eyes alighted upon a stretch of seemingly solid ground not three hundred feet ahead. In the silver-blue light of the moon the small, oval swatch of firm land had appeared no different than the swamp surrounding it until, as if by some unseen Wielder's hand, it came all at once into perception. With a desperate sort of joy the three of us hurried forward.
The area proved perfect for camp, and we gratefully set up for a well-earned break. The horses, nervous and sweating, ate their oats and carrots with the ferocity of starving animals, and we tore into our own scarce meals with the same fervor. Dawn loomed close at hand, and we drew straws for first watch quickly so that the winners might catch the release of sleep before morning's arrival.
I drew the short straw and ignored the sinking disappointment in my gut. Arrus gave me a small, pitying smile, and Sarj gave me a clap on the shoulder for luck before the two bid me good night and settled into their blankets. Pushing back unfair resentment, I sat back against Sweetling's warm flank and stared at the opaque, shifting fog that dominated the western horizon. It seemed to stare back, mocking me. Sweetling shifted her weight behind me as she settled in more comfortably, and I tucked in for a long morning.
The final hours of the night were spent considering our position. If we continued searching for a way around the danger whole days might be lost. Going through it seemed frustratingly impossible, however, and I lacked the knowledge to do it with magick. The barrier could only be the work of a powerful Wielder, of that I had no doubt, but what could I do to thwart this terrible invention? There seemed to be no means.
Are you sure of that?
The question floated into my head without my bidding it, and I had the unsettling feeling that it did not belong to me. The skin on the back of my neck stood up as a strange, and yet almost familiar, sensation washed over me. Someone, or something, had joined me, and it watched with invisible eyes.
What if the way through is simpler than you think?
The question bubbled into my mind, placed there by my incorporeal visitor. I shivered against its presence, muted by shock and horror. The pressure in the back of my skull intensified as an image began to form behind my eyes, condensing from a hazy square of blurred colors into a clear scene. In it my gloved hand reached into the fog, and it answered by parting away from it. I gasped out loud, thrown by such an obvious solution, only to hastily cover my mouth in fear of waking my knightly friends.
Breathing out a silent sigh of relief when they did not stir, I put my attention back to the foreign being invading my brain. It still rested with me, asserting a steadily growing pressure, and I marveled that I had not noticed its arrival.
I did not wish to be known.
My skin crawled as my own mind's voice spoke without my consent. The presence did not at once feel benevolent or malignant, only very, very old. I fought against the bile churning in my stomach and wondered who the person, or creature, might be, knowing that it could hear my thoughts.
You will know me in time, youngling. Test the knowledge I have gifted you.
With its final command I felt the pressure begin to recede, and an achingly deep sense of loneliness swam in to take its place. The sudden sense of loss, as if I were losing an old friend, frightened me more than any other part of the experience thus far. Even as I feared the feeling I found myself reaching out mentally to keep the visitor with me, begging it not to go so soon.
We will meet soon enough, child. Perhaps even sooner than you might wish to. Until then…
With those last words my mind all at once belonged to me again. My heart clenched at the stranger's departure, and for a while I sat in a daze at the strangeness of the last few minutes. Behind the fear and confusion came a determination. I had to investigate what had been given to me.
Slowly, carefully, I stood and retrieved my gloves, a couple small pieces of jerked meat, and a strip of bandaging. My companions remained asleep, Sarj's heavy snoring effectively hiding any small noises I might have created. I gave Sweetling a scratch behind the ears and a quick hug to steady my nerves, to which she replied by giving me an affectionate nuzzle, and stole away towards the buzzing mass that was the carnivorous fog.
Behind me the first rays of dawn began breaking through the horizon, lighting my path and easing the way through the maze of tar between our small flat and my destination. My feet tried to slow only once, anxiety almost turning me back, but I gritted my teeth and trudged on. Already my ears throbbed as, too soon, I reached the white wall.
It did not acknowledge my presence, and I took this to be a good sign. Swallowing around a lump in my throat, I raised my arm and tossed a piece of meat into the fog. Just as it had before, the buzzing increased as the morsel froze in midair and disappeared. Taking a deep breath, I then wrapped the next piece in the bandage and tossed it, too. It arched, going higher than I had intended, and I watched with bated breath as it began its descent towards the waiting whiteness below.
A fraction of a second before it made contact the fog parted, and it hit the ground unharmed just before the barrier closed back in around it.
Heart pounding, I pulled on my gloves and took a moment, and then another, to ready myself for the next step. Finally, with trembling hands and shaking knees, I lifted my right arm and held it an inch away. The buzzing continued at its usual level indifferently, but this close the air seemed to pulse, exerting a pressure that I knew very well against every side of my hand. Magick, without question, was behind this. If this did indeed come into being because of magick, it meant that this solution could actually work.
Every great Wielder forgets the obvious! Norm's energized voice trickled into my mind. Too often a Wielder forgets that even an imbecile can break down a locked door! You should see the look on their faces when their spells don't work! Hilarious!
"Now or never…" I whispered, taking strength from my eccentric but fantastic teacher, and then I thrust my hand forward.
The fog immediately parted, letting my hand penetrate its perimeter untouched. I snatched my hand back quickly and stifled a delirious laugh. It had worked! Ecstatic with my discovery, I hurried back to my friends. By then the sun could be clearly seen peeking over the eastern edge, and the way back took longer than coming had. Walking carefully against the blinding morning sun, I managed without injury and called for my companions to wake up.
I had a crazy, blindingly dangerous plan, and they would not enjoy the telling.
"Danger?!" Sarj boomed, jumping to his feet with all the hubbub of a lumbering ox.
Arrus rose with a little more grace, giving the sun a murderous glare before leveling his irritable look on me. I smiled nervously in return, kicking my feet against the dirt and giving them time to process the new day. Sarj calmed down quickly enough and set to grumbling about only three hours of sleep.
"What's the news?" Arrus asked as if he could read my mind.
"I have a plan that will get us through the fog." I said slowly, dreading the actual telling more with each passing moment. So much of it simply sounded ridiculous.
"Through the fog?"
"Aye, we need to-"
"I suppose yer gonna say yeh found a new magick spell tha' can turn us int'birds?" Sarj cut me off, voice black with exhaustion and sarcasm.
"No, sir, I won't have to use magick at all." I promised, my face growing red.
"Shut up and let the girl speak." Arrus chided him, sending the older man a cutting look. Sarj grunted and remained silent. I did not blame the poor man for his fatigue.
"We're going to have to let the horses go," I began, "and-"
"Let the 'orses go?" Sarj boomed, unable to keep his frustration in after all.
"Y-yes. It's the only way to do it!"
Sarj stared at me long and hard, searching my face. I held my breath, meeting his gaze as well as I could, but if he found what he wanted to find I would never know as he dropped his eyes only a few moments later. With a grunt the great knight crossed his arms and nodded that I continue, this time seeming more determined to hear me all the way through.
"We let the horses loose first," I repeated, and then plunged into my explanation.
I detailed my thoughts about the fog and how it seemed so unnatural, moving on with only a small hesitation to the mysterious presence that visited me and provided the answer. Arrus had many questions about this being, but I had few answers to give. To settle his nerves I moved on quickly and went into detail about testing the idea. The men seemed both shocked and awed by my discovery and how far I had done to prove it.
"That was stupid. Idiotic. You could have lost your arm." Arrus lectured sternly, but then his angry expression gave way to one of pride.
"You did very bravely to do all that on your own, Tigress." He praised. "Your mind has finally begun to catch up to your age."
"Aye, 'twas a right gutsy thing t'do, lass." Sarj boomed merrily, clapping me on the back and giving me a bone rattling shake of approval. I could not help but smile hugely through the pain.
"We'll have to go in totally covered, or it'll mean the end of us." I said more seriously, putting my mind back into gear.
"I don' like losin' the 'orses." Sarj muttered a bit sadly, giving Shadow a rough scratch. The horse whinnied and stamped his foot.
"I don' like that fog, either." He said darkly, eyeing it with foreboding.
"None of us do, but Rhynne has given us what I suspect is our only real chance of surviving these Plains." Arrus agreed as he gathered our blankets into a pile and took out his hunting knife.
"I wish I knew a better way." I told him, trying to hide my nerves.
"It's goin' in blindfolded that's no good, too." He said. To an unfamiliar ear Sarj seemed only to be complaining, but Arrus and I both knew that he voiced worries out loud so that we did not have to.
"Aye, but at least the blankets can be seen through a little bit." Arrus said just as he finished cutting off a wide strip of cloth, which he then handed to the larger man.
The fabric would have to cover every bit of our flesh or we would be eaten alive in seconds. The horses had to go for obvious reasons, but by some fortune the saddle bags were light and easily carried between the three of us. We worked from then on in silence, wrapping strips of cloth around every bit of skin that showed through our clothing. We covered our faces last, winding the fabric around our heads so that even our hair did not show through. At last, we finished; each of us covered from head to toe and looking like strange, lumpy monsters. The time to go had arrived.
Taking the saddle bags and spreading the weight out among us, we turned our horses towards home and slapped their rumps. The beautiful beasts seemed eager to finally be rid of the never ending buzz of the fog and picked their way through the tar riddled ground as quickly as they could. We watched them go until the morning sun turned them into blurred, shapeless shadows, and then turned to face our own path. The walk to the edge of the wall seemed to take less than a second, and before any of us wanted to be, we stood before the barrier.
"I don' like it." Sarj muttered, "I don' like it at all."