Toll the Hounds

‘I recall him not asking for it,’ growled Nenanda.

‘He is not all powerful,’ said Desra, ‘though he might affect such-it comes with being so young.’

Nimander stared across at her. Where did that insight come from?

‘Clip is vulnerable?’ Kedeviss asked in mock surprise. ‘Be quick to take advantage of that, Desra.’

‘The endless siege that is your envy grows wearisome, Kedeviss.’

Kedeviss paled at that and said nothing.

Oh, we are a vicious bunch, are we not? Nimander rubbed at his face, then said, ‘Let’s go, then, and see for ourselves what has become of him.’

Desra was first through the door.

Out into pale silvery light, a cerulean sky devoid of clouds, looking somehow speckled with grit. The harvested plants drooped in their racks, sodden with dew, the bulbs like swollen heads lined up in rows above the latticework. Nimander saw, as he paused out on the street, that the temple’s doors were ajar.

Clip was lying on the wooden sidewalk in front of the tavern, curled up, so covered in dried blood that he might have been a figure moulded in black mud.

They set out towards him.

Clip’s eyes were open, staring-Nimander wondered, if he was dead, until he saw the slow rise and fall of his chest-but showing no awareness of anything, even as they closed round him, even as Nimander knelt in front of him.

Skintick moved up to the tavern doors, pushed them open and stepped inside. He staggered out a moment later, both hands covering his face as he stumbled out into the middle of the street and stood there, back to the others.

Slaughter. He slaughtered them all. Clip’s sword was lying nearby, thick with gore, as if the entire weapon had been dragged through some enormous beast.

‘They took something from him,’ Aranatha said. ‘Gone. Gone away.’

Nenanda broke into a jog, straight for the temple opposite.

‘Gone for good?’ Nimander asked Aranatha.

‘I don’t know.’

‘How long can he live this way?’

Shi shank her head, Force food and water into him, keep his wounds clean…’

Long moments when no one spoke, when it seemed not a single question could be found, could be cleaned off and uttered in the name of normality.

Nenanda returned, ‘They’ve fled, the priests, all fled. Where was the Dying Cod supposed to be?’

‘A place named Bastion,’ said Kedeviss. ‘West of here, I think.’

‘We need to go there,’ Nimander said, straightening to face the others.

Nenanda bared his teeth. ‘To avenge him.’

‘To get him back,’ Nimander retorted. ‘To get back to him whatever they took.’

Aranatha sighed. ‘Nimander…’

‘No, we go to Bastion. Nenanda, see if there’re any horses, or better yet, an ox and wagon-there was a large stable behind the inn.’ He looked down at Clip. ‘I don’t think we have the time to walk.’

As the three women set out to collect the party’s gear, followed for the moment by Nenanda, Nimander turned to study the tavern’s entrance. He hesitated-even from here he could see something: dark sprawled shapes, toppled chairs; and now the buzz of flies spun out from the gloom within.

‘Don’t,’ said Skintick behind him. ‘Nimander. Don’t.’

‘I have seen dead people before.’

‘Not like these.’

‘Why?’

‘They are all smiling.’

Nimander faced his closest friend, studied his ravaged face, and then nodded. After a moment he asked, ‘What made the priests flee?’

‘Aranatha, I think,’ answered Skintick.

Nimander nodded, believing the same. They had taken Clip-even with all the dead villagers, the priests had taken Clip, perhaps his very soul, as a gift to the Dying God. But they could do nothing against the rest of them-not while Aranatha resisted. Fearing retribution, they fled in the night-away, probably to Bastion, to the protection of their god.

‘Nimander,’ said Skintick in a low, hollow voice, ‘we are forced.’

‘Yes.’

‘Awakened once more.’

‘Yes.’

‘I had hoped… never again.’

I know, Skintick. You would lather smile and jest, as befits your blessed nature. Instead, the face you will turn towards what is to come… it will be no different from ours, and have we not all looked upon one another in those times? Have we not seen the mirrors we became to each other? Have we not recoiled?

Awakened.