Steel and Stone

The swordswoman hissed at him, cutting off his protest. 'If you travel with me, Mackid, you will keep that horse in line, or I will kill it-with my bare hands, if necessary. Understand, soldier?'

Mackid shut his mouth, nodding dumbly. Kitiara took a deep breath, no doubt preparing to go on berating the man, but the half-elf interrupted.

'Until now I thought you were impervious to fear, Kit,' Tanis said. 'I can see now that you merely hide it better than the rest of us.'

'I-' she began, glaring daggers.

'Temper, temper,' the half-elf muttered. Then, as Kitiara sat astride Obsidian, almost speechless with rage, Tanis turned to Wode. 'Are the trees still bleeding, Wode?' The squire bit his lip, looked sidelong at a nearby maple sapling, and nodded. The half-elf persisted, turning to Caven. 'And what do you see, Mackid?' When the Kernish mercenary only shook his head, Tanis said, 'I'll tell you what I see. I see a haze, like dusk in the tropics, closing around us.'

'Like a shroud,' Wode added, the words seeming to jerk from him unwillingly.

'So Wode sees it. Do either of you?'

Kitiara snapped something about 'traveling with a bunch of superstitious weaklings.' Caven raised an eyebrow at her, then addressed Tanis in a low voice. 'I see men lined up at the very farthest distance I can see in these damned woods.'

'Men?' Tanis looked where Caven indicated, but the half-elf saw nothing but haze.

'I know these men.' Tanis waited patiently until Caven took a deep breath. 'They are men I've killed in battle. They are all there, each one represented over and over. Their wounds still bleed. They carry severed limbs, hold their entrails to keep them from spilling out. Their eyes-' he stumbled over the words-'their eyes are scarlet, and they've been here waiting for me ever since we ventured into this unholy woods.'

A groan and a crash sent them all jumping. It was Wode, sprawled in a faint next to his bug-eyed horse.

Kitiara ribbed Wode ceaselessly once they revived him. Even Tanis began to look annoyed at the swords- woman, and Caven finally assigned Kitiara a new position as rear guard. 'The easier to ignore your complaints,' he commented when she protested. Kitiara would have snapped back, but another wave of dizziness and nausea passed over her just then, angering her as much as it sickened her, and she let the others pass ahead without a word.

Certainly, she thought when the other three were ahead of her, she wasn't still hung over from last night's binge. She'd been fighting exhaustion all day, and once she had even found herself sliding from her horse when she fell asleep in the saddle. She'd caught herself with a jerk and shaken back her curls to mask the near fall. But this new wave of queasiness, this sudden vertigo, was harder to hide. That was all she needed now, to mimic Wode's swoon after all the guff she'd given him.

She pulled up her mount and let the other three move farther ahead. They were utterly silent, with none of the jovial horseplay that Kitiara remembered from other forays with comrades. There was only the sound of the horses' hooves, the squeak of Tanis's saddle when he leaned over to catch sight of the ettin's prints, and her own forced breathing. When they were far enough away, Kitiara leaned carefully away from the saddle and vomited into a bush at the side of the path. Then, blinking rapidly to clear her vision, she spurred Obsidian into a trot.

Night was falling. It was as though something, watching them, had decided that it was time to pull the noose tight. They'd resheathed their swords but their hands never drifted far from the hilts.

'Half-elf,' Kitiara called. 'Can you use your night-vision now?'

'I've been trying,' Tanis replied. 'I see nothing but the trees. Nothing else-no small game, no birds. Nothing but the haze.'

Kitiara grunted. She twisted back in the saddle at a sudden noise behind her, unsheathing her sword with the soft sound of metal against tanned leather. 'Half-elf,' she repeated. 'Look back.'

Tanis and Caven followed her directive. Caven swore. 'The path,' Tanis murmured.

'Gone!' Caven added needlessly.

Wode moaned. It was true. The trees had closed behind them like a phalanx of soldiers. Both men drew their swords. Wode clutched his knife nervously.

At that moment, afternoon turned to night in the space of an eyeblink. One moment they could see each other and the tormented trees, and the next, all they could see was pitch blackness.

Wode's voice quavered out of the dark. 'Uncle Caven?'

'Right here.' Mackid had not budged, Kitiara could tell.

'At least we can hear each other.' It was Tanis's voice.

'We're not alone,' Kitiara said suddenly.

The air began to glow, and Kitiara saw the faces of her companions in the reflected light. The glowing light coalesced into a pair of eyeballs. Just below the eyes, two skeletal hands formed, edged with green flame. 'Tanis,' Kit repeated. Her mouth was dry, but her hand was steady.

'I see it, Kit.' Tanis dismounted, moving slowly toward her.

'What is it?' Caven asked.

Kitiara answered. 'A wichtlin.'

'What's that?'

Tanis looked at Kitiara. She'd donned her helm. Although Obsidian was shifting restlessly, nearly at the point of panic, Kitiara sat straight and tall on the mare. She held the reins with one hand and gripped her sword with the other. Her face was pale, but flashes of pink lurked just below the surface, high on her cheekbones. Kitiara was in her element now, Tanis knew.

The fire-limned wichtlin made no motion toward the swordswoman, but its gaze never wavered from her. Hers was as steady.

'Wichtlins,' Tanis whispered to Caven, 'are elven undead.'

'By the gods!' Caven exclaimed. 'And it's just the eyes and hands, no more? How do we fight it?'

'There's more there-the rest of the decayed skeleton,' Tanis said. 'Be thankful you can't see it.' Wode's teeth were chattering.

'And it used to be Qualinesti?'

'Silvanesti,' Tanis corrected. 'Some Silvanesti elves who follow the path of evil during life are claimed by Chemosh when they die.'

'The lord of the undead!'

'And they become wichtlins.'

Caven took a moment to absorb that. 'What do these wichtlins do?' he asked at last.

As Caven spoke, the creature began to move. It edged closer to Kitiara, who calmly backed Obsidian an equal distance away. Kitiara answered Caven's query. 'A wichtlin wanders the world searching for souls to claim for Chemosh. It can kill with its touch.' She moved Obsidian back another pace.

'Will swords kill it?'

'We'll just see,' she answered softly. Even as she spoke, she struck with a lightning-fast movement. Her weapon flashed through the air, slashing between the creature's hands and its eyes. Obsidian whinnied and leaped back from the trail. The wichtlin, unharmed, swooped toward Kitiara, who continued to flail at it with her sword. 'Half-elf!' she cried. 'By the gods, tell me how I can kill it!'

Tanis felt horror clutch at him as the wichtlin feinted again and again at Kitiara Uth Matar, driving her farther off the trail and farther from her companions. 'Magic, I've heard,' he called. 'Only magic.'

'I have no magic, but it'll be a strong beast that can withstand this!' Caven shouted. He spurred Maleficent forward. The giant horse reared, then charged toward the wichtlin, pebbles spraying behind the huge animal's hooves.

The evil creature vanished just before the horse and rider reached it.

Confused, Caven pulled up the stallion and wheeled about on the trail. 'Where-?'

'Caven! Behind you!' It was Kitiara.

Caven turned to find himself inches from the wichtlin. Its left hand, green flame visible at each joint of a digit, reached out toward him. 'Caven!' Kitiara shouted again. 'Don't let it-'

But it was too late. The creature grazed Caven's arm, and the soldier froze, a look of dawning terror etched on his bearded face.