Chapter 14 – Darkness I
The change is harsh, yet swift complete,
With grinding bones and shifting meat.
I
It was difficult to tell where Darkness began and where the influence of the city shield finished. The light simply faded slightly, the clouds grew thicker above, and it began to rain. It was not heavy rain, little more than a mist, yet Jorden found it uncomfortable.
Taf didn't mind. The rain was cool and the lands of Darkness were often very warm, and it was not as if it fell heavily. She walked lightly along the broad provincial road, the abandoned fields on either side, and hummed to herself. Jorden trudged on with his heavy pack.
Aside from the rain there was apparently not much to the Time of Darkness. It was not dark, or not completely dark, just dim as one would expect on a heavily overcast day. There was some wind, though hardly a gale, and the empty lands were somehow eerie. It was disturbing to see one farmhouse after another that was dark and quiet, left by its owners to the spirits of the night.
Of course the lands were not completely empty. Various farm animals seemed to remain: horses, cattle, goats, and something that resembled a pig. There were also animals that were not familiar, yet all had one thing in common and that was they grazed quite happily in the fields with little regard to the condition of the weather.
Jorden and Taf continued walking. Nothing changed except for the scenery, and that did not change much. “All right Taf, so what is the big secret about this place,” Jorden asked when they were some ten thousand footfall out from the shield of Saljid. It was late afternoon and the light was fading, yet otherwise all was proceeding nicely.
The aestri smiled toward him. She had been unusually quiet, Taf seldom having such lengthy periods without speech, many things cluttering her mind. “The less that you know of it the better,” she returned. “The creatures of Darkness do not see well, but they can taste your fear on the wind. It is best not to think of them.”
Taf's words had the opposite effect of that intended, Jorden suddenly quite fearful. It was the first time any mention was made of creatures that lurked in the darkened lands, and he wondered why Taf had not spoken of such things earlier to try and discourage him. “Creatures?” he said uneasily. “You never said anything about creatures.”
The aestri frowned. “Why do you think that the people go into the city. There are many things that come from hiding in the Time of Darkness, horrible little things that are best avoided. And there are some that are dangerous.” Then the smile. “But I am here to protect you.”
Jorden faked a return smile. “I feel better already.” He wondered what to expect, and what nightmare could bring to face them. Taf wouldn't say.
He had to wait until the following morning to meet the first.
II
They camped at the edge of an open woodland, the fields of many farms stretched out into the north-west. The river now ran near to the road, its water dark and forever in motion. And it was not simply the current, Jorden noticed, but also the presence of a great deal of life, the fins of many often breaking the surface. He was glad it was several hundred paces from the camp.
It was a very sparse camp. Jorden had made fire, a technique learned from Burgo Kaeina, yet found that the worm-like animals that Taf had collected from the surrounding forest did not cook well. That was because they burnt substantially better than the damp timber that he tried to use for fuel. Taf ate hers raw, Jorden eventually following suit and discovering that they were quite tasty – something like a banana that wiggled until it was thoroughly beaten to death.
Jorden put away his pouch of kadastone. He was getting better at fire, he thought with a certain measure of pride, but had a long way to go. Kaeina had made it look so easy. She held the piece of stone between her palms, rubbed gently, then with a gentle breath produced a flame that leapt from her palms and ignited anything nearby.
During that first lesson, the outsider had tried to do the same. He placed the stone between his palms and rubbed, then dropped the stone and licked his hands. He had expected the kadastone to get warm, but not quite as hot as coals from a fire – although he suspected the flames that issued in step three would be somewhat warmish. The trick was speed and timing, and on Jorden's second attempt he was able to get as far as roasted fingers. He blew too hard.
Now it was becoming easy, but his hands inevitably received minor burns.
Taf wasn't interested in the fire. It was already quite warm and she could see quite well, and she certainly did not wish to cook the maetre larvae. She was tired, though, and ready for a good night's sleep before the first full day of walking. “We should get some rest, Jorden,” she yawned. “It will be a difficult day tomorrow.” And the next. Both would tire easily until they were used to the exertion. “There are pong trees in this wood, and they are the smoothest and most sheltered.”
Jorden nodded. He was feeling quite weary himself and stood with his gear, kicking out the fire as he waited. “Lead on.”
The aestri did, taking them at last to a thick white tree whose low, smooth branches were all but horizontal, and whose leaves were thick and glossy. As good a place as any, Jorden soon spreading his bed-roll upon the short green turf that grew in the pong's shade.
Taf watched him put his heavy hides onto the ground and slid amongst them, and then he spoke. “I think there is room in here for us both,” the outsider told her. “Though it might be a little cramped.”
“For what,” she asked. “You can't sleep on the ground, silly. Come where it is cool and comfortable.” As an example she leapt up the tree and clawed her way to a branch above him. “You can come to the branch beside me and talk me to sleep.” The aestri allowed her limbs to dangle beneath, her torso firm against the timber, then she put one arm beneath her cheek so that she could better view her companion.
Jorden could see enough of the perch in the dark to be sure that he was better off where he was. “I don't think so, Taf, I have a bad habit of falling out of bed and that's a heck of a fall” It was twice his own height. That would be quite a shock while one remained in the land of dream, and he would be likely to break something.
The aestri smiled. He would learn, and better here than further from the influences of the city shield.
III
Jorden woke up with the creature – or creatures, to be exact, for there were quite a few more than just one – and luckily for him they were all fast asleep when he screamed. After the scream they were disoriented, and scuttled about on the bed-roll like a group of wayward pink spotted lizards that had just discovered that their morning meal was alive and well. Actually they scuttled in such a way because that was exactly what they were and what had happened.
Taf caught two of them before they had time to inflict any injury to her friend, and the rest lost interest when they saw that there was more than one live entity beneath the tree. Jorden was still trying to catch his breath long after the aestri had killed the two pink spotted lizards and eaten one of them. Like the local rats, they were quite large – a body the length of Taf's forearm with a tail that was longer again – and were as thick as two forearms.
“A good breakfast, Jorden, but that is not the safest way to catch them.” The aestri handed him the other lizard, the skin already stripped from its flesh.
“No thanks, I'm not really a lizard fan.” Especially not now. “I've heard that reptiles will come near humans for warmth, but I didn't think they meant quite like that.”
Taf snorted. “They didn't come for warmth, silly, it is already quite warm enough. They came because they thought that you were breakfast – thought you were something that had died sometime yesterday.” She shrugged. “They were so furious to find that you were not dead they may well have killed you, but that would be rare.”
“Friends of yours, are they,” Jorden puffed. Darkness was beginning to show it ugly side.
“I know their ways.” She smiled. “Perhaps now you will
listen when I say that the ground is no place to sleep.”
Jorden nodded. “I get the point. You knew that the lizards would come, didn't you. You wanted me to find out for myself.” He paused to consider other possibilities. “What if it wasn't the lizards? What if something else had come for me? You should have told me straight that the ground was dangerous.”
“I thought that would be obvious even to a man,” she chuckled. “And I was watching from above. I can hear a fish swimming from a hundred footfall. And if it were not the lizards then it would only have been the red jelly things that leave slime wherever they crawl. That would have been much funnier.”
The outsider faked an evil glare. “I know where the most horrible creature is!”
IV
Jorden slept in the trees from that time on, though he found them intensely uncomfortable. He was tired throughout the days, and restless throughout the nights. It was a stupid journey. He should have waited until the next Time of Light. But he was committed now and would keep on his way, and hoped that the trees were mostly of the smooth varieties rather than the rough hairy ones they were sometimes forced to sleep in.
By this time they were several days out from Saljid and had left the open lands and abandoned farmhouses and were walking amongst the ever thickening woodlands. The wind was stronger, the nights were redder, and the rain often fell in torrents. It was intensely uncomfortable, and on the very red nights it often seemed that sheets of blood fell from the heavens, the lands howling in pain. The trees were slippery and even more uncomfortable on such nights, yet Taf did not seem overly concerned. Jorden had seen her shiver with cold on several occasions, but she never complained, and when he offered her the coat of his safari suit she politely refused.
Jorden was not as persevering. “This is no place to be,” He said one night in the wet dark. “What a stupid idea!”
Taf smiled from her branch, the water beading on her bare back. “I told you that in Saljid,” she said, and smiled.
The outsider knew that, but it did not make him feel any better. He was soaked and cold, and tired from lack of sleep. When he wasn't cold and wet he was hot and damp in the humid days of Darkness. Taf said more that was supposed to cheer his spirit. “But we are doing well, perhaps thirty thousand footfall a day. In another few days we will reach Lennon, and we have not seen anything that is really dangerous.” She nodded hopefully. “We are doing very well.”
Jorden was not so sure. What was well for aestri was not really all that great for a normal person as far as he was concerned, and though she might be more than happy with her cold meals of not quite living things, and her beds of wet solid timber, Jorden was sure that he wasn't. He thought seriously about giving up when the situation became a little better... but also far worse.
It was better because the lands became more open than the dark and monotonous forest, and grew again into farms, the two friends able to sleep in the luxury of barn lofts a lot more frequently. They could have slept in houses, yet doubted the owners would appreciate such a thing, even though there was nothing the owner could actually do to stop them. Taf simply thought it was bad enough that the houses were occasionally the playgrounds of the wild things of Darkness without them also being the camps of grimy travellers.
It was worse because Jorden also came across a wild thing of Darkness. He had already seen the red jelly things that left a trail of pink slime wherever they crawled, and he had caught glimpses of fish that could strip the flesh from a horse in minutes, and he had heard of the hairy tree that ate pink spotted lizards, and he had watched the giant moths of Darkness eat sparrows that dared to fly at night...
Those things were not often a threat to man, although the fish were not fussy eaters. But if anyone was stupid enough to go swimming in darktime rivers then they deserved a painful and rapid death. The true wild things of Darkness, however rare they might be, were certainly a danger, and sought out their prey with vigour. And it was one of those wilder things that came upon two lone travellers who dared the darkened roads.
Jorden didn't see the creature, not really, it was far too dark for his eye. He saw a shadow, and a flash of ivory as a huge sharp tusk came all too close, and he reached for his knife. He cursed to himself, knowing the he and Taf had walked too long into the night before thinking to make camp. His fear had begun to grow, and the creature had likely latched on that.
Now he stood to face some nightmare beast that he was sure was much larger than himself, armed with a short sharp knife against dozens of razor sharp tusks. The task was made even more difficult by the fact that he could not even see their attacker. That was a good thing in some ways. If had Jorden been able to see the beast – a beast that was actually much his own size – he would have known just how useless the knife he carried really was.
In any case the incident was over all too quickly and the red night was way too dark and overcast. He knew Taf was near, then heard something of a struggle, and he heard the yelp of the aestri more than once. There was also the sound of something large and unpleasant groaning, then the thump of something running off into the night.
The shadow of Taf came near. “A tree,” she said with some difficulty. “Before another comes this way.”
Jorden nodded and assumed the creature could not climb, not realizing that it was simply that Taf felt she had an advantage over such beasts when out on the limbs of trees.
“What the hell was that anyway.” He was surprisingly calm considering what had happened, mostly due to the fact that he had not seen the...
“Polythorn,” Taf said quietly, and would say no more. She was very, very quiet for the rest of that night.
V
In the morning Jorden knew why, and the polythorn became a very much more real and threatening creature.
Taf was hurt.
She sat against the base of the tom-tom, a sprawling rough-barked tree that was covered with large, red, and very poisonous berries. She seemed alert – not happy, but alive. Taf sported several bruises, but more serious were the two ugly puncture wounds in her left arm and another in her leg. Then there were a series of scratches upon her belly that looked like the result of having a wire brush dragged across her skin.
She could still use her arm, and she demonstrated such to the man who crouched near. “See,” she managed a near-smile. “Still works. That is more than I can say for most of the limbs of the Polythorn.” She knew she hadn't caused it serious injury, but her attack had been enough. “I should have been able to kill that stupid thing. It was only a stupid little polythorn. I should have easily killed it. Instead it's main thorn came close to taking the life of Jorden, I think.” Taf chuckled, but it hurt.
“I saw something,” he admitted, “but not much.” He shook his head. “I knew that I shouldn't have brought you out into this nightmare.”
Taf snorted. “Without me you would now be dead, silly.” She sighed and looked to the cloudy skies, or what she could see of the them through the leaves of the tom-tom. “Things will change, don't worry, and we will easily get to Nowhere. Anyway, I have always wished to speak with Hura Ghiana, and now I have a reason to do so.”
Then the aestri lifted the leather string from around her neck and passed the charm to Jorden. “You can keep this for me,” she added softly. “I won't be needing it for a while.”
Jorden took the clear crystal amulet, annoyed. “Thirty sectors,” he mumbled, “and now you don't want it?”
“I do, silly, just not right now.” Taf managed to stand. It hurt. She was stiff from the night's sleep and the injuries of the polythorn, yet knew that the walk would help. “Now let us move on toward Lennon, and tonight I think we will find a loft to camp in. I have been being silly, pretending that I can survive the wilds as I am, and I have ignored the cold and rain. Now I feel like some warmth and comfort. No sleeping in a tree tonight.” She smiled broadly.
Jorden couldn't believe the durability of the aestri. They were certainly like
no feeble human. “Sounds good to me,” he said.
VI
They did find a loft that night, and Taf rested in the relative comfort, but fitfully at best.
She had several more aches by then, as she knew she would, and her mind was elsewhere. Yet she cherished the close companionship of her friend Jorden as if it were their last time to be together in relative calm. She hoped that it wasn't, of course, but in such lands who could ever know for sure. Morning came slowly. Aestri Finesilver was late to rise. There were few parts that did not ache. She had felt like such for perhaps only a half dozen times in her life of over thirty cycles, yet this was by far the worst. And she was ravenously hungry.
Jorden had been awake for quite a while and had spent his time exploring the barn they had found the previous evening. It was perhaps a hundred paces from an attractive white house that stood amongst towering pine trees. The barn was not as impressive, and was built aside a few dark smelly stock yards. But in one of the yards was a young wild midget goat that found himself cornered by a man.
Jorden surprised himself and somehow actually managed to kill it. Then he was at a loss, and somewhat ill at ease over the amount of blood the goat had spilled. He was then not quite sure what to then do with the warm quivering corpse that was lying in a spreading pool of that blood. Only one thing was certain, Jorden was not quite up to killing to survive as yet.
Taf helped, although she felt in no fit state to do so. The goat was skinned, the skin unfortunately discarded, and gutted, the aestri showing the man how best to do so. It was fortunately a nice day for the Time of Darkness, which was not uncommon in the early days of such, and Jorden built a fire on the soft earth in front of the barn, using pieces of the barn, on which to cook a hearty breakfast of goat.
It would have to be a hearty breakfast, and a good lunch. Jorden doubted that the meat would last long in such heat, perhaps until the evening, and he had certainly killed more than they could eat between now and then. That was not something that occurred to him before he had actually killed the goat.
But he underestimated Taf's appetite that morning. There was enough for breakfast, and that was all.
Jorden found he could do little but stare as the aestri meticulously sliced every last scrap of meat from the carcass. It was true that she gave him quite a good share to cook, and told him to eat well while the opportunity allowed, but the majority went into her own mouth, and that included the goat's heart and liver and other less appetizing offal.
It was a small midget goat, but not that small, about the size of the goats of home, not small enough for anyone to eat the majority of in one sitting. Certainly not anyone as tiny as Taf, and she bulged with her fill of goat meat. It was an actual bulge, a substantial thickening of her middle that altered her familiar smooth lines. Jorden thought that she looked about seven or eight months pregnant.
He motioned toward the few bones and scraps that remained. “Sure you've had enough?” he asked. “I could go out and find another if you like.”
The aestri smiled. “I've had enough for now. Perhaps later in the day.” She gazed at Jorden's continuing frown. “I need my strength so that I can heal!”
“I suppose you do,” he agreed, “but can you walk, eh, that is the question.”
“Of course I can, silly,” and Taf demonstrated. She felt a lot better with her belly full, but it wasn't easy to walk. She was bloated and felt like resting, and the aches were worsening. Her eyes were also sore, and she rubbed them. “Lennon couldn't be much more than a day or two away.”
VII
By afternoon, Taf's eyes were worse, a lot worse, yet that was one problem amongst many.
She had walked quietly throughout the day, her pace a little more sluggish than days past yet still a match for the step of Jorden Miles. But Jorden could no longer pretend there was nothing wrong. He knew that Taf wasn't well, and he knew that she was keeping something from him. He recalled the puncture wounds of the polythorn.
Whether they were poisoned thorns or not, Taf wasn't saying, yet Jorden guessed they were. He also guessed, or at least hoped, that there were medicines or treatments available in Lennon. The aestri was certainly eager to be moving toward the city.
Jorden asked again as they walked the empty and endless road. “Are you sure they're not poisonous? You don't look so well, Taf.” She didn't answer. Another farmhouse drifted slowly by in the dim daylight, the rain falling as an eternal mist. “Maybe it's a different creature than the one you're...”
“No, silly,” Taf snapped. “Do you think that I would wake up and eat most of a midget goat if I was sick and dying from some poison?” She answered for him. “Of course not. I am just very sore and wish to rest. That is the way of things if a creature is injured: eat and rest. The healing makes me very very tired. I am not sick or dying.”
The statement was quite clear, yet Jorden didn't believe a word of it. There was too much that was not right...
That evening, an evening spent in the home of some poor farmhand that was well clear of the main road, they sat close, a cold empty fireplace nearby.
By then Taf's eyes had begun to bulge, and her gums were red and swollen, and her skin in general had an odd colour and texture. Jorden touched her cheek gently. “Damn,” Jorden swore, the tissues spongy beneath his touch, the aestri turning away. He was worried, damn worried, and his voice showed it. “Come on, Taf, don't lie to me any more. I need to know the truth. I don't want to lose you, not like this.”
Breath was difficult, yet Finesilver managed to speak. There were several long minutes of silence beforehand. Time for her to consider her words carefully. “Poison, yes,” she said, and though her voice did not sound exceptionally weak, it was not strong either. “But I won't die, I promise. It just makes you very sick.”
Jorden frowned. “You could have told me. I thought you trusted me, thought you were a better friend than that. You know I care about you.”
“I don't like for you to worry. There is nothing you can do for me, so why should you need to worry. I just get sick and then I get better.”
“How sick?”
Taf closed her eyes, she was tired from the day's march, very tired. “Worse yet, I think, but I'm not really feeling that sick, just sore and tired. It just looks worse than it feels. Really.” Jorden hoped so, because it looked bad. If Taf blinked too hard her eye would bleed, and her gums bled often.
She massaged a jaw, then reached within and casually removed a tooth. Jorden felt distinctly unwell, and felt tears forming within the pits of his eyes. He knew then that Taf was dying and he couldn't do a damn thing about it. The words of Suzy echoed in his mind.
In time she slept; Jorden didn't. He couldn't sleep, not now, not with Taf suffering. He knew she was. The aestri was just too tough to show a little pain, just as she refused to let the cold rains dampen her spirit. And it was not a peaceful sleep. She often writhed and moaned, bumping a jaw that would then bleed. The wounds of her arm and leg wept fluid, a clear, cold gel, and Jorden wondered how he could just sit and watch her die. But what else could he do? Lennon was still too far to go for help.
Then, in the dead of night and without warning, Taf grunted and sat up, startling the weary man. She seemed dazed a moment, then smiled a crooked smile. “Are you still awake,” she said in much the same way she would always speak, her voice stronger than it had been. “You need your rest. It is a still good walk to Lennon, although you might get there by late tomorrow.”
Jorden was shaking. “I'm not going anywhere without you.” His voice wavered and almost failed.
“Then I will have to go too. I had hoped I could stay and rest a while. I would really like some rest.” She smiled, yet it seemed to crack the smooth white skin of her face.
He attempted a smile in return. It was not a very good smile. “Then rest, and I will stay here with you until you get over this.” But he knew now that there would be no such recovery, he wasn't that stupid, and he re
ached over to take the hand of a near-woman he had grown to truly love.
Hands were held a moment, but it was not a warm or comforting touch. And Taf's nails and small pieces of the flesh of her fingers remained in Jorden's grip when they parted. Yet there was no pain, Taf simply frowned and caused her lip to bleed again.
Jorden Miles ran from the house to vomit. He couldn't bear another moment of the torture, another second of the punishment that was being inflicted on them both. He wiped his hand upon the lawn of the house, the sight of Taf's fingernails churning his bowels yet again.
He wondered why he had ever met such a friend like Taf; wondered if it were not just part of the torture of this hell. How much more efficient it was to first give love and then take it away; how much worse is sadness after happiness. His jailer in nightmare knew how to torture him to the fullest, and his punishment in the Domain was more shattering than he ever imagined possible.
“Come and get me you bastard,” Jorden shouted to the polythorn. “Take me,” he screamed.
But the polythorn would not attack an angry man, only one that walked in fear, and when the wounded beast felt the distant, violent mind of Jorden Miles, it scuttled to a not-so-distant river and threw itself to the sharks.
Jorden stood on the lawn for an eternity, doubting he could look upon Aestri Finesilver again. There was a part of his mind that hoped she was already dead, that she would no longer suffer. And the words of the seer, Suzy, were again recalled: Jorden's path of death. He cursed.
In time he went back into the house, he had to. He owed Taf that much, to be with her in her final moments. Yet when he came within the room that they had claimed for their camp, she was gone. Gone to die, Jorden wondered.
Only a bloody message remained, the words of the aestri poet scrawled in red upon the wall...
I know that you are sick of watching me fall to pieces, and I must rest. You must go on without me. Lennon is not far. Go there. Rest yourself. If I can, I will follow.
I will love you always.
Finesilver.
Jorden ran out of the rear door of the house to find her.