“Don't let her stay there,” Melcorka said. “Think of something else.”
“What?” Bradan asked. “The grey woman is in my thoughts, pushing herself forward.”
“She is grey,” Melcorka said. “Think of colours, bright colours. The grey things want to reduce you to monochrome, to dispel your individuality.”
“I will try,” Bradan gasped as the concentrated force of the grey men hit him.
“Remember your staff is blessed,” Melcorka said. “See if that helps.”
“Blessed?” Astrid looked confused as Bradan stepped to the front. Grasping his staff, he pointed the Celtic cross forward, while thinking of the bright berries of the rowan tree, the purple of autumn heather and the glories of an east coast dawn.
The greyness shifted as he pointed his staff. A corridor appeared, with the grey recoiling on either side.
“Like Moses crossing the Red Sea,” Melcorka murmured, with one hand on the hilt of Defender. “The priest's blessing worked again, Brad.”
With Melcorka a pace behind Bradan, they moved cautiously, until the men in grey vanished and they stood in a flat landscape of stony fields under a vast sky. From side to side, the horizon was a hard line between land and air, with only the drift of smoke to show where habitations squatted.
“This is a strange land,” Melcorka said.
Bradan tapped his staff on the ground. “Can you hear something?”
Melcorka shook her head. She touched the hilt of Defender to sharpen her senses. “Yes,” she said. “I can.”
They could not say from where the sound came. It seemed to be all around them, low and sinister, as if the ground itself was speaking.
“The earth is growling at us,” Melcorka said. “Or something within the earth.” She touched the hilt of Defender, knowing the Cu-Saeng made the noise.
“I haven't heard the like before,” Bradan tapped his staff on the ground.
“Nor have I.” Astrid said. “Let's keep moving.”
They walked across a desert of flat stones and broad patches of bogland, where wildfowl exploded from reeds and insects clouded around their heads. Above them, the sky was a pale grey, although they could not see a single cloud.
“That's another sound now,” Bradan said. “It's like a cat.”
“More than one cat,” Melcorka said.
The howling had started so softly that Melcorka barely noticed, but as they walked northward, it increased in volume until it permeated all their senses.
“This is the land of the cats,” Astrid reminded them.
“Do cats live here rather than people?” Bradan thought of the cat-creatures that had killed Halfdan. “We might find out more in that settlement.” He pointed to a cluster of houses built in the rectangular Norse style. “We might find out more there.”
“We might.” Melcorka did not relinquish her grip on Defender.
There were five houses in the settlement. Built of loose stone slabs and roofed with reed thatch, they seemed to cower under the oppression of the vast sky. As they approached, Bradan saw the movement on the roof.
“Somebody is working with the thatch,” he said. “Repairing it after the storms.”
“No.” Melcorka shook her head. “Nobody is working with the thatch. That is not a man on the roof.”
They stepped on, with Bradan tapping his staff on the ground and Melcorka ready to draw Defender.
The movement on the roof increased. “There are animals on the roof,” Bradan said.
“Cats.” Astrid's voice was flat. “These are cats.”
The howling increased in volume as the cats noticed the three travellers. Tumbling from the cottage roof in a confusion of fur and claws, they bounded towards them, spreading out as though they were in a military formation.
“How many are there?” Bradan stood in a half-crouch with his staff held ready as a weapon.
“Twenty, perhaps,” Melcorka said. “Or a few more than that.”
“I see 23.” Bradan swung his staff.
“Men!” Melcorka shook her head. “Why must men reduce everything to figures?” Drawing Defender, she stepped slightly in front and to the left of Bradan. “Use your cloak as a shield, Bradan. Wrap it around your left arm. You too, Astrid.”
“Cats have never bothered me,” Astrid sounded very calm.
Led by a one-eyed tom-cat with an evil face, the cats launched their attack on Melcorka, who swung her sword left and right, disposing of the first three with a single swipe. Two came for Bradan, who knocked them back with his staff and, when Melcorka came at them with Defender, the remainder decided to hunt for less aggressive prey.
“That was easier than I thought,” Melcorka said. “You were right, Astrid. They did not attack you.”
“I've never been bothered with cats.” Astrid had not moved during the skirmish.
“They might be more trouble.” Bradan nodded to the house. “Are these not the same creatures that killed Halfdan?”
“What in the name of the wee man are they?” Melcorka asked. “They look like a cross between a cat and a man.”
“That's what I thought.” Bradan said. “We are now in their territory.”
The creatures that emerged from the house were the size and shape of men, but ran forward in a half-crouch, with the head of a cat and long talon-like claws protruding from each hand. Five of them bounded across the ground, howling, and leapt straight at Bradan.
“I'm coming!” Melcorka shouted.
When the cat creatures came close, they were even more menacing than Bradan had thought, with long fangs protruding from their mouths and cat fur over the top half of their body. Melcorka swung Defender at the first, chopping off its hind legs, and thrust at the second. Her sword impaled the creature, but when she tried to withdraw, the blade stuck. A third creature ran toward her, slashing with its claws. It would have ripped Melcorka's throat open if Bradan had not unbalanced it with a thrust of his staff. As it was, the creature twisted in mid-air, with its claws missing Melcorka, only to rake down Bradan's arm.
With that parting shot, the cat-creatures picked up their casualties and fled at speed.
“Bradan? Are you all right?”
“Aye, it's only a scratch,” Bradan said, holding his arm. “I never did like cats much.”
“They don't like you much, either,” Melcorka said. “Sit down.”
Casting around for sphagnum
