The Night of the Swarm

falling in Siebr Shidorno that carried you to brutal Alifros — that slow-falling star that set the plain alight, as though in tribute to your birth. And in all that time not one of you has wished us happiness. If you speak the truth you are a stranger being than you seem.’

‘He’s pretty strange,’ murmured Neeps.

Thasha elbowed him. Then she in turn looked at the eguar, and Pazel knew that she too was aware of its loneliness. ‘When our work is finished,’ she said, ‘I will gather your people together in one land, if you wish. There’s room enough in Alifros.’

‘Gather us, child?’ said the creature. ‘By what unearthly power?’

Thasha looked as though she might speak again, but then Hercol touched her arm, a gentle warning. ‘You cannot have forgotten our love of fantasy, great one,’ he said. ‘Forgive our chatter; we will leave you now.’

‘I will be with you anon, Sitroth,’ said Arim. ‘Come, travellers; the road ahead is long.’

One by one they passed the staircase, right under the beast, coughing as they touched the vapour cloud. Pazel feared the waves of force surging out of the creature would make him stumble, but he kept his feet. When they were all passed he felt an immense relief. Some distance ahead the cave narrowed once more into a tunnel. But they still had to get there, and Pazel could still feel those blazing eyes.

‘Happy,’ whispered Neeps, shaking his head. ‘ “I wish you could be happy.” Has it occurred to you, Pazel, that you’re raving mad?’ Then he jumped and cast a guilty look at Lunja. ‘Aya Rin, sorry-’

The dlomic woman brushed against him deliberately. ‘You will be sorry,’ she murmured, mock-severe. ‘Mad this, crazy that-’

‘Yes, yes, I know,’ said Neeps, hushing her in turn.

So blary intimate, thought Pazel. Like lovers, Neeps and Lunja were starting to talk in a style no one else could quite understand. It’s the only way, he reminded himself. We asked her to do this, and she’s trying. They both are, magnificently.

To their right, Olik was coughing badly; the fumes seemed to have affected him more harshly than the others. Bolutu took him by the arm.

‘A few more steps, Prince Olik. When we reach the tunnel you’ll feel just-’

Lunja howled. A warning. Pazel clutched his temples: the waves of force had surged a hundredfold. Instinct took over: he turned and dived on Thasha, whose hand was already on her sword. The eguar was smashing through them like a cannonball. Thaulinin had been knocked aside; another selk was in the creature’s teeth. Pazel tried not to breathe, while the others fell around him, writhing in pain. This close the vapours were like a mule-kick to the chest.

Olik! The eguar’s white-hot eyes were locked on the prince. Olik had his sword out and was holding his ground — but then Hercol lunged before him, whirled with blinding speed, and stabbed.

The eguar gave a deafening roar: Ildraquin had pierced its flesh behind the jaw. The beast threw its head, wrenching Hercol from the ground and hurling him away. The eguar spat out the fallen selk and lunged once more at Olik — and then a searing light filled the cave. The beast twisted, and its roar grew louder still, shaking the cave and bringing stalactites down like hail. Then it turned and fled. In three heartbeats it had flown up the stairs and vanished through the arch. They could still hear its bellows of pain.

‘Lord Arim!’ cried Thaulinin. ‘Eyache, master of masters, are you burned?’

Arim had fallen on his side. ‘I am burned,’ he gasped, ‘but by my own spell merely. It is long since I called down the lightning, and this body is too old to be a lightning-rod. Never mind, Thaulinin! What of the others?’

The answer to his question was plain to see: the selk that the eguar had bitten was dead, his body horribly torn and scalded. Another warrior had also been burned by the spittle of the creature, and Hercol was bruised and shaken, but both were on their feet.

‘Arpathwin, you matched my spell, as in elder times,’ said Lord Arim. ‘How do you fare?’

‘I have felt better,’ said Ramachni, shaking the dust from his fur, ‘but also much worse. You took the better part of the shock, my lord.’

‘Betrayed,’ said Thaulinin, kneeling by his kinsman’s corpse. ‘After all these centuries, Sitroth has turned on us. How could this happen?’

‘Could he be under another’s spell?’ asked Pazel.

Lord Arim shook his head. ‘No spell to control the mind of an eguar has been cast in Alifros since the Dawn War, and even then it was a great undertaking. No, something terrible has occurred in the heart of Sitroth, to bring him to this pass.’

Ramachni looked up at the prince. ‘You were his target, Olik Ipandracon. He attacked the moment Bolutu mentioned your name. No, Doctor, the fault does not lie with you-’ for Bolutu had bowed his head in shame ‘-nor with any of us. This was a disaster no one could have foreseen.’

‘And it leaves an entrance to the Vale unguarded,’ said Thaulinin.

‘Yes,’ said Arim, ‘for we cannot let Sitroth remain here. The faithful one was not faithful.’ He sighed. ‘I must do a thing while the power is in me. Go, all of you, into the tunnel ahead, and await me there.’

Thaulinin protested, but Arim waved for silence. ‘You must remove every bit of clothing that the eguar touched. Leave it here; I will send our people back to collect and burn it. Then wash your hands and faces, and clean any wound with utmost care: first with water, then with our good wine. Do it quickly! There is poison to rot flesh and weaken hearts in an eguar’s mouth.’

He made for the staircase, and the others reluctantly obeyed him, leaving the cave for the narrower tunnel. The selk had the worst of it, but Hercol and Olik too had to discard their coats and gloves, and Thaulinin personally scrubbed out a wound on the back of Hercol’s hand.

‘Aya!’ said Hercol, gritting his teeth. ‘So that is eguar spittle! It is far worse than the slobber of the flame- trolls.’

Suddenly there came a great boom and a blast of air and dust. Thaulinin dashed into the cave, and returned supporting Arim, who looked exhausted and frail.

‘I have collapsed the tunnel behind Sitroth,’ said the old selk. ‘He has another exit to the mountains, but he will not soon be returning to Ularamyth. And now I must rest, and return with our fallen comrade’s body, when I can.’ He looked at the travellers sadly. ‘I have failed you, here in this first moment of your journey. If I had the strength I would go with you to the Sky Road. But that strength is fled. I called, and it came a final time. I do not think it will dwell in me again.’

‘You failed us in nothing, Arim,’ said Ramachni. ‘Go to your rest, and be certain that a part of us goes with you.’

Thaulinin commanded two selk to escort him, and to carry the body. ‘We will make do with your seven comrades,’ he said. ‘But you two: leave your coats and gloves for Hercol and the prince. Their road will be far longer than yours.’

Lord Arim looked up at Thasha. ‘You are trying to breach the wall inside you,’ he said. ‘You must persist in that struggle, but do not overlook its cost. A battle in the mind will tax the body, and in the High Country your body will need all its strength. At all costs you must reach the sea alive. Once aboard the Promise you will be warm and fed, and have long days to seek a path to Erithusme.’

Then his gaze swept them all. ‘Farewell, citizens. Your quest is our own, though we did not foresee its coming. It is not likely that we shall meet again in your short time in Alifros. But there are worlds beyond Alifros, and minds that reach out to us from them, and in that reaching there is hope for us all.’

With that he started back towards Ularamyth, and the selk warriors lifted the body of their companion and followed after.

‘Quickly, now,’ said Thaulinin. ‘The portal is just ahead.’

He led them on, and very soon it proved so: the tunnel ended in a pair of tall and curious doors. They appeared to be carved from two enormous pieces of jade, and on each was carved a staring eye.

‘The Gates of Cihael the Explorer,’ said Thaulinin. ‘He was the greatest mountaineer of all our people, and he fell here, defending Ularamyth from the ogres of the Thrandaal Caves. Shield your eyes when I open the door, or the sun will dazzle you.’

He strode forward and set a shoulder to one of the doors. He pushed, then looked back with a sad smile. ‘Blocked with snow. Ah well; perhaps we had better remain.’

The prince actually laughed, and went forward to help him. Together they pushed, and the door moved slightly, and a blade of sunlight appeared in the crack-