Kael Voidwalker's Arc

Chapter 3 of 10

Kael left the caravan with the shard cold against his chest. The dead forest closed around him fast. Skeletal trees rose black on every side, split by violet cracks that drank the light. He had maybe two hours before dark. He did not know this ground. Twice already his boot had punched through rotted roots into pits that stank of old water. Move too slow and the worse thing would find him. Move too fast and he would break a leg out here alone. A figure stepped from behind a leaning trunk. Small, robed in dark cloth stitched with faded gold. His hair was gray at the roots and his eyes glowed the same violet as Kael's bad one. A syringe hung at his belt, its tip capped in dull metal. He did not flinch at Kael's hand on the knife. "You're bleeding light," the man said. "Even muffled. I felt the edge of you." He tilted his head. "Erasmus. I study things like you. For a price." "I don't have time," Kael said. "Something's coming." "I know. I've been mapping how it moves." Erasmus turned and pointed with two fingers. "The soft ground runs there. And there. It sinks a man to the hip." He traced a line Kael could not see. "The old root spines hold weight. Walk them and you keep your speed." Kael looked where the fingers moved. He saw only mist and black trees. "I can't read this forest." "I can." Erasmus started walking, quick and sure, stepping only on ridges of exposed root. "Match my steps. Do not stray. The price is one answer, later." Kael followed. He put his boots where the scholar's boots had been. The ground held. They moved fast now, weaving between the pits Erasmus named without looking. The light drained from the sky. Kael's shadow dragged a beat behind him across the roots. Then the violet fissures in the trees began to pulse. Faster. Brighter. Erasmus stopped and went still. "It's close," he said. "The ground opens to a ridge ahead. Hard stone. Run it." Behind them a shape poured between the trunks. Long-bodied, black, veined with crawling violet light. Smoke tendrils curled off its hide. It moved low and fast, drawn to the last of Kael's leaking aura. Its eyes burned white in the dark. Kael ran. He hit the stone ridge and his boots found solid ground at last. He crossed it in seconds, Erasmus at his side. Behind them the creature slammed into the soft earth at the ridge's edge and sank, thrashing, hip-deep in the mud that had almost taken Kael. They broke free of the trees onto open rock. The dead forest ended behind them. The creature's snarl faded into the mist. Erasmus stopped and looked at Kael. "You owe me an answer." He was not out of breath. "When I ask, you'll want to lie. Don't."