Chapter 16 – Darkness III
Burgo wing and aestri claw,
The horn of pock and morelian maw.
I
Night came quickly, the cloudy sky turning to a blacker shade of red, and Jorden Miles was still trying to come to terms with all that was going on around him. The voice was too alike the aestri he had known, but she was no feline...
Jorden considered the last weeks, a multitude of not so subtle clues coalescing within his mind, hints and pointers that had previously passed unnoticed. The eyes came first to mind. He knew those dark slitted eyes, and the dark mane could well have been the hair of Finesilver.
Finesilver. The coat of silver grey, the cub of Pandora, the ratter of the Katerina, the claw and tooth of the aestri...
But aestri weren't cats. Burgo could easily have been some hideous cross between bat and bird, yet aestri were far from being huge ferocious felines. They were light and frail, not the bundle of teeth and muscle that Jorden had seen blurred across the clearing. The cat would have to have been twice the meagre weight of the aestri, if not much more. Of course the aestri were far from frail, just light, though they tended to look quite frail.
Would a cat be so fond of water? Why was his new friend now a cat? Was this a permanent state? Was this cat really Taf...
Jorden would have questioned and argued himself into a stupor if it were not for the immanent arrival of the aestri, for it was indeed an aestri in her first form. She dragged the launcer beneath the tree, not the best of places to gut the beast, perhaps, but there were other trees in which to sleep. Jorden remained aloft, watching how easily those jaws carried the substantial mass of the corpse. It was true, he would not stand a chance against such a predator.
Aestri Finesilver dropped the carcass, then glanced above. “Are you still up there,” she said quietly. “I thought that you would have had a fire blazing by now. Aren't you hungry?” She wondered if he had run out of kadastone. Or perhaps her playful reunion had been a touch overdone.
Jorden still hoped it was a dream; hoped he had not truly fallen for a cat. He had known that Taf was not quite human, but a cat... “Tell me this isn't happening,” he said. That was not really what he wished to say, however, and he tried again. “Damn Taf, is that really you.” Mixed emotions welled. He dearly hoped she was indeed alive... But a cat...
The aestri frowned. Such expressions were now difficult, and were easily misinterpreted by those who watched, but not in this case. “Of course it's me silly,” she said. “My voice is only a little deeper.” She remembered the first contact. “Sorry about growling at you before, but you looked so frightened and you did try to shoot me first. I was doing nothing to hurt you. Would you kill an aestri, or even one of the mindless, simply because it was a better hunter than you? That was very mean, Jorden...”
The outsider felt substantially better, yet it was still very difficult to accept that his dear little Taf was now an huge grey lioness. But it was her, there was no doubt of that. Only an aestri could chatter on in such a way, and this aestri used far too many of Taf's favourite expressions. He collected his pack from a fork in the branch and began the decent to the turf below, but he kept his distance for the moment. An affectionate hug from his dear friend could easily prove to be fatal.
“I thought you were dead, Taf. You looked...” He shook his head. “Why didn't you just tell me.”
She sat beside the launcer and sighed. “I told you that I wouldn't die but you wouldn't believe me.” Her dark eyes were fixed upon the man. “It was hard to tell you the truth. I didn't know how.” She tried to shrug. “This way it is easy. Now you see what aestri is, and now you see why you shouldn't love me.” Taf looked away.
There were many things that were suddenly much clearer about the Domain, things that had never made much sense. He thought to ask why she had not told him the truth aboard the Katerina, yet that was a stupid question. He would never have believed her, and even if he did he would never have become as involved.
Jorden came closer. “I just don't understand. Why the change, why now. You were fine until... the poison?” he frowned. “A polythorn can do this?”
“Of course they can't,” Taf frowned again. “I lied about the poison to keep you quiet. I was very tired, Jorden, the change is not easy.” She looked to the red lands about them. “Hura's power is weakened by the darkness, her gift of the second form will not endure out here, not without help. That was why I wanted the charm, Jorden. I didn't want you to see me like this.” Her voice belied a certain sadness.
Jorden reached to his neck and removed the leather cord, then gazed into the crystal of Taf's charm. It was clear, though it was difficult to be sure in the dim light, and looked like nothing more than a piece of quartz. Although perhaps it glowed ever so faintly. “Damn,” Jorden mouthed before speaking more clearly. There were a lot of questions left. “Then why did you take it off?”
The huge feline laughed, though it was not a particularly merry laugh. “What chance does a second-form aestri stand out here,” she said when she could manage. “Not much more than a feeble man. I was nearly killed by the smallest of polythorn. It would have been the evening meal if I was as I am now.” Of course polythorn were not all that appetizing, but the point was made.
Then Taf sighed and went on. “It is also best that aestri return to their first form from time to time. It is refreshing and comforting to return to your original shape, and those aestri who don't seldom live as long and full as those who do. This will be my... eighth time since I was a cub, I think.”
Jorden recalled the silver cub that the aestri of Lennon had spoke of. At that time the statement had meant very little, there was too much else on his mind, and the term could well have been the local slang for child. “When you were young,” Jorden considered aloud. “I met an aestri in Lennon who saw you with Pandora. She said you were silver grey. It didn't really mean anything until now. I thought she was talking about your hair, not fur.” There was a subtle difference.
Taf nodded. “Aestri are born in first form, and sometimes stay as such for as much as a cycle. I was slow to change.” Jorden nodded and wondered if that was why Midnight had disowned her. Or maybe it was something else. These were things that Jorden was yet to learn of, and perhaps he never would. “I'm not really sure how to take all of this, Taf,” Jorden admitted, then smiled. “You don't have any thoughts lurking within that involve me being eaten or anything.” It was partly jest and partly the memory of the horror movies of home.
“I'm starving,” Taf confirmed, “but we have the launcer for now. Why don't you skin it and get what you want of it, and I'll have what you leave.” Jorden didn't doubt that. Although she did not look exactly undernourished, she did appear somewhat lean. “If I start on it with these,” and she displayed a paw, “I'll end up shredding it. And it's a little hard for me to use a knife.
“But get a fire going first, and give me that.” Taf pointed with a large silver paw, referring to the crystal protectorate.
Jorden was confused. After giving quite adequate reasons for the change to first form, it seemed ridiculous for Taf to wish to undergo the lengthy, and undoubtedly uncomfortable change back to her pseudo-human form. “I love for you to change back, Taf, but...”
He wasn't allowed to finish. “It is a form protectorate, silly, and will hold a current form. If I don't wear it then I can't enter the shielded cities without my fur shedding and I'd look terrible.” It was quite a beautiful coat, and she loved it while she had it.
“Of course,” Jorden grunted, “I should have known that nothing would be simple in this madhouse.” He approached to place the necklace upon the huge cat, a still slightly disturbing sight. Taf rubbed her cheek against his arm as he did, the man instinctively jerking away.
“Still love me?” Taf purred, although the purr of a first form aestri was very similar to the rattle of a badly tuned engine.
Jorden nodded. “Sure, Taf, but it isn't easy.” He thought t
o blame it on her rather horrifying reunion, but it was more than that.
“Then hurry up with the fire, and skin that launcer.”
It was somewhat difficult to refuse her, and it was certainly obvious who was boss at the moment. Jorden wondered how aestri order had ever become one of the lower races of the domain...
II
The timber that Jorden collected from the nearby woods was drier than it had been in recent days, and the fire ignited easily, although he did burn his little finger yet again. There simply had to be a better way of lighting a fire. Then he skinned the launcer and cut a few slices of flesh from the shoulder and rump, dissected them into smaller chunks, and placed them upon a metal skewer that he carried. He propped the skewer above the flame on two rickety sticks.
Taf laid near and watched like the queen of the jungle, smiling often and helping only rarely. She was interested to see how the man had fared without her. She knew of some of the things that had befallen him, but not all. “You did well against the necromant,” she said as Jorden completed his work. “I saw it running amongst the woods with your arrow in its head and brought it down. It wasn't very tasty though.” Not like the launcher looked. “Do you mind if I eat?” she asked.
Jorden nodded, it would have been difficult to refuse, and he wondered why the aestri asked, especially an aestri who had killed that horrible toothy beast. Anyone who had sat near to a first form aestri while it was eating, however, or indeed a large cat of earth, would soon understand. It was not a pretty sight. It was also hard to remember that the beast was actually a peaceful, kind-hearted friend, and not a threat to the nearby human's frail life.
Taf tore the flesh from the bone quite easily, the small launcer soon just fodder for the local scavengers, then burped explosively in contentment. She then proceeded to lick herself clean. Jorden had to wait until that time to enjoy his own meal, aestri eating habits were just way too distracting, and by that time he had lost his appetite. He ate anyway.
Taf understood. “Sorry,” she said, and came close to Jorden and the fire. “I should have waited for you to eat first, but I was so hungry. In another few days I will reach full weight and it will not be so bad, but lately I have had to kill twice a day.”
The outsider could understand that, she had certainly gained some weight. He wondered what became of it on the return to her smaller form.
Jorden finished eating, Taf sitting near and carrying on her grooming, and then he drank. He shook his flask, there was not a lot of water left as it had not rained since the first day out from Lennon, the frequent puddles now vanished. “Thirsty,” he asked, offering the bottle.
The aestri nodded, but refused his offer. “I'll go later to drink. There's a stream on the other side of the ridge that you can fill that in tomorrow.” Taf yawned.
Conversation faded for some time, the two watching the flickering flames of the weakening fire. Jorden was weary from the day's walk, Taf still weakened by the change. But neither were quite ready for sleep, Taf moreso than Jorden. She was hopeful they could still be close as before, yet the aestri knew that the change in her was likely to be difficult for Jorden. She drew close and whined in contentment, and content she was. This was now her world, and her belly was full. There was little else that an aestri could want.
Jorden was at first disturbed by the touch of the beast who was curled about him, yet she was warm and soft and hardly a threat, and he soon found he was stroking the fur as he would a pet tabby of home. It was certainly the finest of fur, and so clean and glossy. Which is the way it should have been. It was all quite new and freshly grown, fur that had sprouted at an unnatural rate. Not that anything about the Domain was what he would normally call natural.
She made a very good pillow, Jorden almost wishing he could sleep on the ground. But Taf slipped from under him not long after he had relaxed against her. “Better climb the tom-tom,” Taf yawned again, stretching. “We don't want to be pounced on in our sleep!”
Jorden thought there was little chance of that, Taf was not that heavy a sleeper, but it undoubtedly wasn't worth the risk. He moaned. The meant sleeping in another tree. He wished there was a more comfortable way to sleep. He looked up into the branches in dismay.
“You should have brought a hammock along,” Taf said thoughtfully.
III
Aestri Finesilver woke with legs dangling. To Jorden it seemed strange to see the huge cat hanging in the tree, but she appeared as happy with it now as she did before.
She peered across to her companion, wishing he had more nocturnal habits, but there was little to be done about that. “Good morning,” she said instead.
As good as any, Jorden thought. At least it wasn't raining. It wasn't even all that windy, just dim as always. He mumbled and sat on the branch, then yawned. “Another day. I wonder if I'll ever get to see this Hura.” Then he smiled. “At least I'm not alone now.” And he shouldn't go hungry while there was game about.
There were at least some advantages of Taf being as she now was, and she would be company, but it was still somewhat difficult to think of her as sweet little Taf. “It really is good to have you back,” Jorden said, and it was. “I really did think you were dead. When your teeth started falling out...” The memory made him ill.
Taf nodded. “The change wasn't easy, I should have eaten more.” She sniffed. In fact she sniffed often, perhaps a sinus problem inherited with her cat form. “I would have missed you If I died.”
Jorden frowned. “Not as much as I would have missed you I think,” he said.
The feline chuckled. “I would have found you again somewhere, sometime. In another life, perhaps.”
He considered her word. He had not really given much thought to local theology, there had been too much else to fill his mind. There was the witch-god Hura, who may or may not have been a god, and that was about all he really knew. Every other facet of life seemed centred on survival, and even Hura seemed more concerned with the present rather than the afterlife.
Of course Taf may have been speaking metaphorically. “Who's?” he asked. “Mine or yours?”
Taf found she could not shrug while hanging on the branch. “Both, I suppose, unless you lived a very long time. It would be unlikely that I would be allowed back here. Of course I might not ever remember much more than an image of you, and that would take so long...” She sighed. “But I have been true to my order and served my purpose well, so death is nothing to fear.” Not that she wished for death in the near future.
Jorden grunted. “I'll remind you of that when we come across the next polythorn,” he said. “Death isn't something I'm looking forward to. It's been too close for me already.”
“Pain is what you fear, silly, and dying can be painful. But not death. Death is peaceful, then birth is painful again, a nice sort of pain though.”
A touch of sarcasm came to the words of the Tasmanian. “Something you do quite often, I suppose.”
“I can remember one death,” Taf said thoughtfully. “Just a glimpse. There was pain, very bad pain, then I became sleepy.”
Jorden was not particularly impressed. “Back home we just die. People like me rot, but some have a god to go to...”
Then Jorden was interrupted very unexpectedly.
It had a lot to do with the sudden disappearance of the limb he was sitting on. Of course the tom-tom did not actually vanish, nor did any of its limbs. It was simply that the limb and the tom-tom, and indeed the Domain that in grew upon, was apparently shifted suddenly one footfall to the south.
Jorden found himself in free space with nothing between his rear end and the ground below. Fortunately it was not far, perhaps three metres at the very most, but it was not a jump Jorden would have consciously attempted. He swore and fell, there was not a great deal more that he could do.
Taf did not fall, not quite, but the movement had caught her as much by surprise as it did Jorden. It had taken most of the strength and speed she posses
sed to stay with the shifting, shaking limb, however, and now she hung below it rather than above. Like her companion she grumbled in disgust, yet unlike Jorden she made her way to the surface of the Domain voluntarily.
The land continued to shake for some time after that, then there were a series of very slow oscillations, then it was still. It also seemed very quiet after the deafening rumble that had began the moment the tom-tom had first shifted beneath the two travellers.
“Crap.” Jorden rubbed the point of first contact with the turf – his ass. “I had forgotten about the stupid earthquakes.” There hadn't been one in weeks, it seemed. He grunted. Of course there hadn't. It would be difficult to feel such a quake in the middle of the Sea of Challenge. Then he recalled the odd devastated warehouse that he had seen in Saljid. The quakes perhaps?
Taf had landed on her feet and now walked near Jorden. “I have never felt the land move like that,” she said. “It shook a little last dark, but would never have thrown anyone from a tom-tom. What did you say it was?”
“An earthquake,” Jorden told her. “That's what we would call them back home, but the Kaedith Tsarin told me that you don't have earthquakes here. Well, not until recently anyway.” He smiled. “Unless you can remember one from a previous life.”
The pseudo-feline frowned, although it took on more of an appearance of an angry snarl. “Don't be silly. Other lives are just glimpses and dreams, not real memories. You don't remember other lives do you?”
Jorden stood slowly, his back aching. “I'm not sure I've had any, but if these quakes get any worse then I might get to apply for one.”
Taf surveyed the surrounding woods. “We should get out from amongst the trees before something falls on us. Get your pack and we'll head on to the stream, and then there is a shielded village somewhere along this road that we might be able to reach before nightfall.”
He nodded without thought and it was several moments before he asked Taf about the practicality of her suggestion. In that time he packed his gear and prepared to be on his way. Then he asked, “are you actually going into a village like that? Won't someone be inclined to take a shot at you?”
“Like you did?” She flashed her array of canines and incisors, a smile perhaps. “I'm still aestri, silly.”
Somehow it just wasn't quite the same thing as far as Jorden was concerned. A petite young girl was not exactly as threatening as a large and very much heavier feline with claw and fangs to match. Of course that was the thought of someone who had never seen an aestri truly angered, even as close as it had come with Midnight.
“Now come on,” Taf continued, “or we'll never see Hura. It's not as if we can fly like the burgo.”
Jorden nodded and followed the aestri's lead, another question forming within his mind.
IV
It was a full day.
A dimmer day than the one before, yet that was to be expected. As the Time of Darkness deepened then so did the days, but they would not do so forever. Soon it would be as dark as it could become, which was not altogether dark for the aestri, but it was a gloom the man would find difficult to navigate within. That was several weeks into an uncertain future.
Uncertain because there were many things that stood between the present position of the travelers and the castle of Hura Ghiana. And one of those many things was roaming near the road and chanced to smell something quite appetizing...
Early in the day, Taf killed another launcer and ate while Jorden continued walking, the man having had his fill of meat the previous day, and she caught up easily after a brief rest to allow the meal to settle. If only they could both move as quickly, Jorden thought, weary with the endless plodding. If only we could fly, considered Taf, her mind soaring if not her body. They both dreamed on.
Then they faced the creature.
It had never thought much of death, this beast, just the pursuit of nourishment in between bouts of hibernation, and it did not think of death now. It was not all that intelligent, but it was very large and very well armed, so it did not need to think of death. And even if it did have such need it certainly didn't have the mind to waste on such a thing. At the moment it was thinking of eating.
There was not much pleasure in life except eating, and now there was a tasty morsel nearby... no, two of them. Although blind as far as the ability to detect light was concerned, the beast could feel their minds. One was quite confident, the other faintly glowing with unrest. The beast slobbered. It would have smiled except that its jaws were not designed for such, they were inflexible and filled with teeth and impossible to even close properly. That was why it slobbered.
It wandered confidently out onto a hard stony surface, the smell of food very near. The first mind began to glow just slightly, the other flashed in fear like a beacon. It would eat that one first. There was a whistle of air and an annoying sting, the creature scratching its chest. Perhaps it was a polythorn, it thought. It didn't smell like a polythorn. It shrugged within. It would eat it anyway.
Then there was a somewhat more urgent message of pain. The creature had not been expecting that, there were not many things that could inflict such pain. It was pain that continued, and the beast scraped a limb along its side to dislodge the thing that chewed on its chest at that point, but the pain simply shifted position. Soon there was gripping sensation in its throat, a flush of warm cascading down its chest.
The creature considered its opponent. Surely only a huge and very fierce giant of the Darkness could inflict such pain, and so it surrendered its life. So this was Death, it thought, and at that moment it remembered that it had seen Death before. At that time it had been carrying a gun, there was a roar...
But that was another life.
Taf stood over the quivering carcass and puffed, surprised that the task had been so easy. Another kill. But this was one kill that she would not devour. That was firstly because it was huge, the size of a terrestrial rhino, and secondly because it had a dark putrid meat that even the hungriest aestri would leave to the scavengers.
Jorden stood motionless a moment longer, hoping the beast was completely dead, then tossed the crossbow into the grass that lined the road. It was useless. He might as well have thrown rocks. “What the hell is that?” he asked for want of a better question. He had already seen some hideous members of the local fauna, and each seemed larger or more vicious than the last. This was the largest and most vicious to date.
It was like something out of a cheap horror movie, a conglomerate of the most hideous attributes of an assortment of creatures. The jaws of some prehistoric lizard had been stuck atop a very large member of bigfoot's family with huge, crab-like claws attached to its hairy limbs. It would have stood over three metres tall, but now it didn't. Now it was dead.
“It doesn't really have a name,” Taf told him between breaths, her coat dark with the blackish blood of the creature. “Most call it the lesser lizard beast of Darkness.”
“Lesser beast?” Jorden echoed. “Lesser of what?”
Taf growled, her triangular ears folded back. “Lesser than the greater lizard beast, silly.” She thought it was quite obvious even to the most ignorant. “The greater lizard beast grows twice as large and is much more dangerous. But they are far less common.”
The man approached for a closer look. “Well I would hope so.” Then he glanced to the relatively small aestri who had brought it down so easily. “How much bigger do these creatures of Darkness get, Taf. Even you couldn't kill something twice this size.”
She nodded. “It would be more wise to run.” Then she paused to think. “The mexin would be the largest, I think, a huge serpent that is said to eat greater lizard beasts whole. It hibernates in the deep seas and sometimes comes to land when darkness comes, but it does not like to leave the sea for long.
“There is also the saruto,” Taf went on. “It is like a necromant, only larger.” She leapt from the chest of the beast to the ground and began cleaning her coat. The blood taste
d terrible and she coughed and spat often. “Midnight calls them the esoru-ilmato and claims they are rare, but very dangerous.”
“And we're out amongst them all,” Jorden groaned. “You could have told me about mexin and super necromants before we left Saljid. There is no way that I would have left the safety of the city if I knew about all of this.”
Taf stopped licking. “Yes you would. You would not have believed in a greater lizard beast unless you first saw a lesser one, just as saruto means nothing unless you know of the necromant. You would have come to see for yourself, and you would have been much more fearful and would have attracted many more.”
“And would have been killed,” he finished. “Great logic, Taf.” Then he moved to kick the beast. It seemed quite dead. “Well, our trail is littered by death, as Suzy said.” An easy prediction if she had known he was heading out into the Darkness, which she didn't. “At least it isn't marked with your death.” Yet.
The aestri nodded slowly. “Suzy is seldom wrong, and she said you had a long way to travel... And we have a village to find.” And Taf bounded playfully away, a flash of silver beneath the grey skies.