Chronicles of Ancient Darkness Part 75

'Yes. We might be able to shift it.'

'We'll have to. It's the only way out.'

'No it isn't.' Reluctantly, she told him about the weasel hole.

Normally he would have wanted to know everything about it, including why she hadn't told him sooner; but instead he seemed distracted. She wondered if he was worrying about the same thing that had begun to trouble her.

She watched him nuzzle Wolf's scruff. Wolf flicked one ear, and they exchanged one of those speaking glances that used to make her feel left out; but she didn't mind any more, she was just glad that Torak had his pack-brother back.

'The blood of the nine hunters,' he said suddenly. 'It's to protect them from the demons, isn't it, when they open the Door?'

She nodded. 'I've been thinking about that, too. Even for the Soul-Eaters, it's going to be incredibly hard to keep the Door open for more than a few heartbeats. But that'll be enough.'

They pictured demons spreading like a black flood over the snow. Across the ice. Towards the Forest.

'And the fire-opal,' said Torak, 'it will give them control once the demons are out.'

'Yes.'

He pa.s.sed his hand over Wolf's flank, and Wolf stirred his tail in acknowlegement, taking care not to thump it.

'How can it be destroyed?' said Torak. 'Hammered? Thrown into the Sea?'

Her fingers tightened on her medicine pouch. 'Nothing so simple. You can only rob it of its power by burying it under earth or stone. And ,' she hesitated. 'It needs a life. A life buried with it. Otherwise it won't be appeased.'

Torak rested his chin on his knees and frowned. 'When I put the Death Marks on my father,' he said, surprising her, 'I didn't do it very well. Especially not here, for the clan-soul.' He touched his breastbone. 'He had a scar, where he'd cut out the Soul-Eater tattoo.'

Renn swallowed.

'I couldn't go back and make things right for him,' he went on. 'Gather his bones, lay them to rest in the Wolf Clan bone-ground wherever that is because ever since then, in one way or another, I've been fighting the Soul-Eaters.' He paused. 'I left him because he told me to. Because he knew it was my destiny to fight the Soul-Eaters. I don't think I can turn my back on that destiny now.'

Renn didn't reply. This was what she'd feared.

She wished desperately that they could find their way out of these horrible caves, retrieve their skinboat, and get back to the White Foxes. Then Inuktiluk could take them on his dog sled to the Forest, and they would be with Fin-Kedinn again, and it would be over. But she knew this wasn't going to happen.

Torak raised his head, and his grey eyes were steady. 'This isn't about rescuing Wolf any more. I can't just run off and leave them to open the Door.'

'I know,' said Renn.

'Do you?' His face was open and vulnerable. 'Because I can't do this on my own. And I can't ask you to help. You've already done so much.'

That annoyed her. 'I know what we've got to do just as well as you do! We've got to make sure that Wolf is free, and then,' she caught her breath, 'then we've got to stop them opening the Door.'

TWENTY-NINE.

After something of a struggle, they managed to haul Wolf out of the pit, and headed off. Their way led through the tunnel of the offerings, where they were relieved to find no sign of the Soul-Eaters, although they'd been there recently. The hole which had held the lynx was empty.

Torak was wondering what this meant when Wolf gave a low, urgent 'uff'!

'Hide!' he whispered but Renn knew enough wolf talk to recognize the warning, and was already scrambling into the lynx's hollow. Torak pushed the slab across it, and an instant later, Nef's bat flitted past his face.

'Boy?' called Nef from the end of the tunnel. 'Where are you?'

Torak glanced behind him at Wolf, whose amber eyes glowed in the torchlight. If Nef saw him . . .

As the Bat Mage limped towards them, Wolf turned and melted into the dark. Torak breathed out in relief. He shouldn't have doubted Wolf. If he didn't want to be seen, it didn't happen.

'I'm here,' he said, struggling to keep his voice steady.

'Where have you been?' snapped Nef.

Rubbing his face, he tried to look bleary. 'I was asleep. That root . . . my head hurts.'

'Of course it hurts! You've got to be strong to be a Soul-Eater!'

To Torak's alarm, she stopped right outside Renn's hiding-place, and leaned her hand on the rock.

He edged away, in the hope that she would follow.

She didn't. Propping her torch against the wall, she squatted on her haunches. 'Strong,' she repeated, as if to herself, 'you've got to be strong.' She opened her hands and stared at them. They were dark with blood.

'The lynx,' said Torak. 'You've killed it. The sacrifice has begun.'

As Nef held her tainted hands before her, her fists clenched. 'It has to be done! The few must suffer for the good of the many!'

Torak licked his lips. He had to get rid of the Bat Mage before she discovered Renn. And yet . . .

'You don't have to do this,' he said.

Nef's head jerked up.

'The sacrifice. The Door.'

'What?' snarled the Bat Mage.

'These are demons!'

'That's the beauty of it! Demons don't know right from wrong! We can bend them to our will! Don't you see? This is our chance to make things right! To enforce the way of the World Spirit!'

'By breaking clan law?'

Nef stared at him. Suddenly she lurched to her feet, s.n.a.t.c.hed the torch, and brought it close to his face: so close that he heard the sputtering hiss of pine-pitch. 'You were a coward,' she said, 'grovelling, whining but not any more. Why did you hide your true nature?'

Torak did not reply.

She lowered the torch. 'Ah, but what does it matter now?'

A patch of darkness cut across the light, and dropped onto her shoulder. As Torak watched her stroke the soft bat fur, he wondered how she could caress her clan-creature, and yet stain her spirit with sin.

'The Opening of the Door is nearly upon us,' said Nef. 'You have work to do. Bring the offerings to the forest of stone.'

He stared at her. 'You mean '

'We're going to kill them. We're going to kill them all!'

He swallowed. 'Where where are you going?'

'Me?' barked Nef. 'I'm going to take care of the wolf.'

'What were you thinking?' whispered Renn after the Bat Mage had gone. 'Arguing with a Soul-Eater? With me right there, waiting to be discovered?'

'I thought I might be able to change her mind,' said Torak.

'Torak, she's a Soul-Eater!'

She was right; but he didn't want to admit it.

'Come on,' he said brusquely. 'When she finds Wolf gone, she'll raise the alarm. We've got to free the offerings and get out of here!'

Swiftly, straining their ears for footsteps, they worked their way down the tunnel, heaving rocks aside and setting the captives free. The fox and the otter fled the moment there was a gap big enough to wriggle through. The eagle gave them an outraged glare, hitched its bedraggled wings, and swept off into the dark. The wolverine was a spitting bundle of rage, and would have attacked them both if Wolf hadn't emerged from the shadows and seen it off.

'Phew!' panted Renn. 'That's grat.i.tude!'

'Do you think they'll find their way out?' said Torak.

She nodded. 'That gap between the slab and the cave mouth. They'll get through.'

'And Wolf?'

'It's big enough for him. But not for us. And I don't think we should count on being able to shift that slab.'

'You mean we'll have to use the weasel hole.'

The blood drained from her face. 'If we get the chance.'

They fell silent. They hadn't been able to come up with a plan for stopping the Soul-Eaters, other than making their way to the forest of stone, and doing something.

Wolf's claws clicked as he trotted to the end of the tunnel, then abruptly stopped. He stared into the pit of the ice bear.

With a sense of foreboding, Torak went to investigate. What he saw made his knees give. 'We'll have a better chance than these two,' he said.

'What do you mean?' said Renn.

He moved aside to let her see.

The Soul-Eaters had slaughtered the ice bear and skinned it, leaving the reeking, steaming carca.s.s in the pit. They'd done the same to the lynx, then tossed its corpse onto the bear's.

Renn sagged against the cave wall. 'How could they? They've just left them to rot.'

This is evil, thought Torak. This is what evil looks like. In death the ice bear seemed pathetically smaller. Torak's heart twisted with pity. 'May your souls find their way back to the ice,' he murmured. 'May they be at peace.'

'Torak . . .' Renn's voice seemed to come to him from a distance. 'It's time. We've got to go. We've got to stop them opening the Door!'

In the forest of stone, the rite of the Opening had already begun.

As Torak crouched in the shadows at the mouth of the cavern, his spirit faltered. Wolf trembled against him. Renn stood rigid.

The stone trees were spattered with scarlet. Acrid black smoke snaked from the altar, where the Soul-Eaters had made an offering of their hair. The Oak Mage and the Viper Mage prowled the shadows, jabbing at the dark with three-p.r.o.nged forks, fending off the vengeful souls of the murdered hunters. Both were unrecognizable in their dead-eyed masks, their painted lips flecked with black foam. Both were stripped to the waist, clad only in a slimy, glistening hide.

The Viper Mage wore the lynx pelt: its gaping head set upon her own, its sleek hide rippling down her back as she brandished the Walker's strike-fire.

The Oak Mage had become the ice bear. With his hands thrust inside the forepaws, he wove between the stone saplings, hissing, slicing the air with his claws.

Only the Eagle Owl Mage was unchanged. Rooted to the stone, she faced the wall where the red handprints marked the Door. Her corpse hands covered the mace on which the fire-opal was set.

With a supreme effort, Torak shook himself free of the spell. Whatever they did, they had to act fast. Any moment now, and Nef would raise the alarm.

'The torches,' he breathed in Renn's ear. 'I can't see more than three. If we can put them out, then maybe . . .'

Renn didn't stir. She couldn't seem to take her eyes off the Soul-Eaters.

'Renn!' He shook her shoulder. 'The torches! We've got to do something!'

She dragged her gaze away. 'Here,' she whispered. 'Take my knife. I'll keep my axe.'

He nodded. 'The weasel hole. Where is it?'

'There, behind that greenish sapling. There's a big crack, you've got to climb up '

'All right. We should be able to reach it, when the time comes.'

Suddenly he knelt, and pressed his face against Wolf's muzzle. Wolf gave a faint wag of his tail, and licked his ear.

'He'll find the other way out,' breathed Torak as he straightened up. 'He's got a better chance than we have.'

'And before then?' said Renn. 'How do we stop them?'

Torak stared at the circling, hissing Soul-Eaters. 'You see if you can douse the torches, while I keep them talking '

'While you what?'