“Why not? All I have seen and despised in you I find in myself.”
“By Kopth! We're talking about your death!” He glanced down at his wrist. “And possibly my own. How can you say it doesn't matter?”
“Do you think I do not know what death is?” Azkun shouted back into his face. “You have only seen men die. I have died with them. I know what I am saying. Did you not see what I just did back there? There is death inside me, an evil that the Gashan brought to life. I am no better than you are!”
“It's always dangerous to despise others,” said Menish. There was a firmness in his voice, as if he were trying to be sympathetic and yet trying to make Azkun see truth. “You killed a Gashan. I've killed them myself. They're evil. That one appeared near death anyway, but he had enough strength left to look at me with murder in his eyes. Perhaps you despise me, but I say you did no wrong.” He hesitated, about to ask a question but not knowing how.
“Why did I do it?” Azkun sighed. “You know I can see things that you cannot. I saw the Gashan. You only saw his eyes. I saw him. I became him. I had to stop him. Even if it meant,” he glanced over his shoulder. “Even if it meant that.”
Menish and Althak made a frugal meal of some of the dried meat and fruit from Althak’s pack, their first in two days. As usual Azkun did not eat, but he could no longer bring himself to condemn them for their need of food.
He too was a victim of corruption, and he was dying.
Chapter 25: The Eye of Duzral
The next day they moved even more apprehensively along the causeway. The dead Gashan might have been some kind of warning, he certainly indicated that they were approaching a place where the Gashan folk lived, possibly even the city written of in the Gash-Tal.
Althak’s arm was swollen and painful. The skin around the bite was tight and black with poison, but Azkun’s condition seemed to have stabilised.
They had not been walking more than two hours when they heard a rumbling in the distance. It sounded like thunder at first but the sky was clear. As they drew closer they realised that it was the sound of great drums being hammered.
Around them the forest was becoming less swampy. The causeway was no longer a bridge over the marsh but a road across solid ground. The trees were less dense here, though the snakes were as plentiful as ever. Without the marsh they had nothing to fear from the thing that had killed Hrangil and Grath, but there were other things in the forest. Once Menish noticed a large cat-like creature sliding stealthily among the trees.
In spite of the protection it gave them they decided to leave the causeway. It was possible that the Gashans would have guards posted on it, and discovery would surely mean death. They made their way through the forest, keeping the causeway in sight and keeping a wary eye out for other dangers.
The city itself came upon them suddenly. They emerged from a dense part of the forest and found themselves beside a high stone wall that stretched away from them on either side. It was ancient and crumbling, and beyond it came the hammering of drums.
Menish thrust them back into the cover of the forest while he scanned the walls for guards. However, there were no Gashans in sight. They crept along the edge of the wall until they came to a place where it had crumbled away sufficiently for them to pass through.
“Be careful,” said Menish. “Evil things, snakes and the like, may lurk among the stones.”
Althak’s breath was labouring as they picked their way among the blocks of stone. They saw several brightly coloured snakes like the one Grath had killed sunning themselves on the stones, but they did not have to pass close to them.
Once beyond the wall they found themselves in a wide courtyard faced with massive stone buildings ornately decorated with statues and relief work, but all were ancient and crumbling. The nearest building had a wide stairway leading up to a doorway flanked by two tall statues, no less than ten times the height of a man. They had huge, kindly faces and their hands were open in friendship.
But a wide crack ran like a chasm down the stairway. The face of one of the statues had cracked and crumbled in a way that suggested it was weeping and tears were running down its cheek. One of the arms of the other statue lay in the dust at its feet.
“Why is it all ruined? Do the Gashans not live here any more?”
“I think the Gashans live here like the snakes,” said Menish. “They never built all this.”
Although they had seen no Gashans the drums were loud and not far away. An evil smell, like the burning of unclean things, wafted into the courtyard. They moved stealthily, keeping to shadows and avoiding the open spaces. There was a gateway leading out of the courtyard and they moved carefully towards it. Once there had been heavy gates across it. Two stone hooks could still be seen on the pillars of the gateway. But the gates had long since disappeared.
They peered through the gateway gingerly. There were still no Gashans to be seen. A wide street ran past the gateway and Menish wondered if this was the continuation of their causeway. As far as he could tell it led in the same direction. To Menish it seemed dangerously exposed but there was no other route. He thought briefly of climbing onto the roof of the buildings but discarded the idea as impractical. The outside walls were too smooth to climb and he did not like the idea of venturing inside the buildings.
They moved from cover to cover along the street, keeping to the side that offered most shadow. There were plenty of fallen stones to hide behind and alleyways to slip into. The drums grew louder, but still they saw no Gashans. Menish began to wonder if they had already been seen and were walking into an ambush, but he had no reason to believe that.
For more than an hour they made their way along the street. The city must have been a beautiful place before it fell into ruin. Some of the buildings were faced with marble, most were decorated with carvings of men, birds and axes. The double-headed axe motif Grath had seen in the hot pool was stamped everywhere here and easily recognisable. One building had a dragon carved across its facade in raised relief. It was startlingly lifelike and Azkun stared at it, forgetting himself until Menish pulled him into an alleyway.
“There is something wrong with it. Yes, the ears. Dragons do not have ears.”
“Perhaps the carver hadn't actually seen one,” said Althak. Menish noticed that his face was grey with pain. “We're far from the sea.”
At last the street opened out into an immense square dominated by a huge, pillared building. They crept behind the fallen head of a massive statue and peered out at the scene before them.
There were Gashans here, a great host of them, naked as animals. Near the steps leading up to the pillared building was an enormous drum. It lay on its side and a team of Gashans rammed a log against it, making the hammering sound they had heard all day.
Near the drum, on the lower steps, stood a figure who was speaking to the host assembled in the square.
Cautiously they edged forward. A pile of rubble gave them a clear vantage point.
The figure on the steps was a Gashan woman. She held her arms above her head as she spoke and clasped in her hands were two of the coloured snakes Grath had warned them of.
They writhed and twisted in her hands, biting at her arms again and again as blood flowed down in long, red streaks. But she stood there as the drum pounded, an evil smile on her face as if she relished her own death. She spoke to the crowd. Menish could not hear her words clearly above the drum and he knew he would not have understood them anyway, but they sounded like an exhortation to evil.
With horrible fascination they watched as she swayed on her feet and collapsed onto the steps. The Gashans shouted with glee as she writhed and twitched with the poison. The snakes slid from her grasp but another Gashan woman caught them up. She raised them above her head and continued her predecessor’s speech.