More wolves hit me, from behind this time, scrambling all over me as they tried to force a way through my armour with their teeth and claws. I grabbed them, one at a time, snapped their necks, and threw the limp bodies away from me. Dead wolves lay broken in the snow all around. And still the rest of the pack held their ground, watching me with cold, implacable crimson eyes.
Two wolves shot in from the side, ignoring me and going straight for Molly. She threw something at them. There was a sudden explosion, and both wolves were blown apart. Bits of bloody meat and smouldering fur rained down across the snow, staining it in ugly scarlet Rorschach blots. Molly grinned at me.
“Incendiaries are our friends. Never leave home without them.”
The wolf pack fell back on two sides, presenting us with an opening in the circle, a way out. I went back to Molly and offered her my hand, pulling her up out of the trench I’d made. I led the way slowly forward, heading for the opening, looking quickly back and forth, ready for any movement by the wolves. Molly trudged along through the snow, sticking close to me. The wolves let us pass, but we’d hardly made a dozen paces beyond the circle before they came stalking after us. Moving slowly, silently, maintaining a respectful distance but still following.
“They’re not giving up,” I said quietly to Molly. “Why aren’t they giving up?”
“Why do you keep asking me questions you know I don’t know the answers to?” said Molly.
“Just to annoy you,” I said.
“Then it’s working. They must be really hungry . . . Wait a minute-can you feel something?”
“Like what?”
“Hold up a moment.”
We both stopped and looked around us. I couldn’t see a damned thing anywhere in the whole snowy landscape, apart from the wolves behind us and the Gateway up ahead. But the wolves all had their heads up, looking nervously about them, ignoring Molly and me. They looked disturbed, and frightened, making darting little runs this way and that, as though not sure where to go for the best.
“Come on, you have to feel that!” said Molly. “Vibrations, deep in the ground, under the snow.”
“Yes . . . ,” I said. “Like an underground train . . . But there’s no subway system all the way out here. Is there?”
“There you go with the questions again,” said Molly. “The vibrations are getting stronger! Whatever’s down below, it must be pretty damned big. And heading straight for us.”
“You know,” I said, “for a deserted Siberian tundra, there’s a hell of a lot going on here.”
The ground exploded before us, snow and earth and rocks blasting up into the air and falling back again. The wolves scattered and ran, as something huge and nasty burst up out of the broken earth to tower over us. Twenty feet tall and still rising, covered in dark brown scales, a living column four to five feet in diameter, a terrible creature from the depths of the earth, still rising up and up into the air before us. The great blunt head unfolded suddenly, blossoming like some fleshy flower, revealing flapping pink petals of dark-veined flesh, surrounding great circular jaws packed with teeth, swirling round and round like a meat grinder.
The creature made an insanely loud sound, like some awful factory siren in Hell. The thing had no eyes, or any other sensory organs, but it was obvious it could sense its prey. The great flowering head slammed down, the body bending in an arch, and the grinding teeth fell upon a running wolf, picking it off with flawless accuracy. The creature snapped up the wolf and swallowed it whole as it straightened up again, leaving just a few spatters of blood on the snow where the wolf had been, its paw-prints just suddenly stopping.
“What the hell is that thing?” said Molly.
“Siberian Death Wurm!” I said. “I thought they were extinct!”
“Has anyone told it that?” said Molly.
The ground shook heavily, and Molly and I had to grab each other to keep our feet. The earth exploded again and again, snow and dirt flying into the air, as more and more of the awful creatures erupted from below. Until we were surrounded by ten of the huge, openmouthed Wurms, their heads swaying high in the air above us. The wolves were running in all directions now, running hard for their lives, but the Wurms just slammed their heads down and picked the wolves off neatly, one by one. Swallowing them whole, to be ripped apart by the swirling, grinding teeth, until there were no wolves left at all. The Wurms swayed around us like a living forest of tall scaly columns, sending their deafening screams out to each other. They sounded horribly triumphant.
“Run,” I said to Molly.
“Which way?” said Molly. “The bloody things are everywhere!”
“Head for the Gateway,” I said. “Make for the light.”
“What bloody light?” said Molly. “I don’t see it anywhere!”
“Oh, I just know I am going to regret this later,” I said.
I grabbed Molly and threw her over my shoulder, and then sprinted for the horizon, forcing my way through the thick snow by brute force. I ran hard, accelerating to more than human speed, snow flying in all directions as I ploughed right through the packed banks, refusing to let them slow me down. Molly cursed me shakily, in between breaths forced out of her by my lurching progress.
“Put me down! Now!”
“Oh, shut up,” I said. “I am saving your life!”
“This . . . is so undignified . . .”
“I’m faster than you are.”
“Not fast enough. We’re not out of them yet.”
“Back-seat driver.”
I ran between the last two towering Wurms, dodging back and forth as the great flowering heads came crashing down. They didn’t even come close, but just the terrible impacts were enough to throw me off my feet for a moment. I kept going, not looking back. I could hear Molly breathing hard, as the continual impacts slammed the breath out of her, but she didn’t say a word. When I was some distance away, and felt safe enough to stop, I let her down. I had to hold on to her for a moment, steadying her till she got her breath back. Then she pushed me away, and glared at me.
“We will have words about this, later.”
“Understood,” I said.
She looked about her. “I still don’t see this damned light of yours. I can feel the Gate’s presence, though. We’re not far from it, are we?”
“Almost there,” I said. “Ten, twenty feet, and we are out of here.”
The ground ripped open between us and the Gate, sending me staggering backwards as a Siberian Death Wurm blasted up out of the earth. A shower of snow hit Molly hard, throwing her to the ground. More snow splattered against my armour, and fell away. Molly scrambled back to her feet, plucked a charm off her ankle bracelet, and threw it at the Wurm’s towering body. It slammed against the scales, exploding in fierce violet flames, and the Wurm didn’t even notice it. The flames died quickly away, unable to get a hold. Molly looked at her charm bracelet as though it had betrayed her, and then looked at me.
“That’s it!” she said. “I’m out! I haven’t anything left that could even touch that thing!”
She was shaking and shuddering harder than ever, no longer protected from the awful cold by any of her magics. I looked back the way we’d come. The other Wurms were plunging down into the snow, throwing themselves back into the ground and burrowing towards us. I could feel the vibrations through my golden boots. I looked at the bright spotlight of the Gateway, stabbing up into the sky. Easy running distance, once we were past the Wurm before us. I didn’t think it could sense us as long as we stood still, but the moment we started running . . . it would know. But we couldn’t stay where we were for long. The other Wurms were coming.
“Molly,” I said steadily, “I need a distraction. Something to hold the Wurm’s attention, just for a few moments.”
“Got you,” said Molly, forcing the words out through chattering teeth. “I run for the Gate, it goes after me, and you take it out when it isn’t looking.”
“That’s the idea,” I said. “Trust me?”