Zemella and the Deathguard were beside him as he watched the soarwing swallowed up by the darkness.
“Are you hurt?” said Zemella.
Vaddi shook his head. “Erethindel has been taken.”
She stared coldly into the night, a look that would have put terror into hearts of many an enemy. “Then we will retrieve it,” she said, “but for the moment we must get away.”
Vaddi looked around and saw Nyam, who was staring in confusion across the stones to where the decapitated body of Caerzaal had fallen. But the body was not still. It spasmed then began to crawl, fingers dragging it through leaking blood, inch by inch toward the severed head. Vaddi watched as Nyam walked calmly toward the animated horror and stood over it. His face grim but set with determination, he cut up the body. Beyond him, the undead warriors that Caerzaal had brought drew back and dispersed, shrinking from the power of the elves’ fiery blades. When Nyam completed his grisly task, he went to the severed head, lifted it by its long strands of hair, and hurled the thing into the pit.
“We must leave this place quickly,” said Fallarond.
Vaddi saw the body of Ardal and several other Deathguard, all of whom were being carried by survivors.
Tears welled in Zemella’s eyes as she looked upon the fallen warrior. As the company made its cautious way to the far side of the pyramid, away from the mayhem that Sethis still created among the enemy host, he walked with her, not knowing quite what to say to her.
“He gave his life to save me. Others of the Deathguard have fallen, too. You all risked everything, and we have lost the horn, too. You should have left me!”
Staggered, he shook his head. “No, never. We would not have done that. Was Ardal your betrothed?” He blurted the question before he had time to check himself.
She looked as if the words stabbed her heart, but she shook her head. “No. Nor was he my lover. But he wooed my sister, Herrenwen. She loved him. She teased him, but in time, they would have wed.” A tear fell from her cheek as she spoke.
“We must bear him back to Valenar,” said Vaddi.
She nodded. “Herrenwen will be devastated. Their marriage was foreseen many years since. The future is tainted.”
Their attention was snared by events behind them and they closed ranks, shielding themselves from any potential pursuit. Sethis had at last emerged fully from the pit. Well over a hundred feet long, the colossal worm crashed down on the flat pyramid and undulated with frightening speed toward the massed creatures from the jungle. What few Murughel that had survived fled. They trampled their own company and toppled from the heights of the buildings.
Tallamorn stood with arms raised, continuing the powerful working that sent commands to the monster, using every vestige of necromantic energy to divert it away from his companions.
A Deathguard scout, who had gone beyond this far edge of the pyramid, reported back to Fallarond. “The Madwood has been stirred into a frenzy. It has withdrawn from the city but not gone away. We dare not enter the jungle here.”
“Then we wait,” said Fallarond. “Find cover.”
“What of the worm?” said Vaddi.
“There is feast enough for that monster without turning upon us. Even one such as that can be sated. Tallamorn’s power will return it to its lair.”
“And Ezrekuul?” said Nyam. “Surely he and his kind will have fled deep into the heart of the Madwood. We’ll not be able to rely on them, I fear.”
“Perhaps,” said Fallarond, “though I hope you are wrong. Without them, our testing has barely begun. The Madwood has been stirred like a hornet’s nest. Its entire expanse will be awake to us by now.”
17
The Madwood’s Anger
Exhausted, Vaddi and Nyam fell into a fitful sleep in a sheltered overhang below the apex of the pyramid. The elves took turns at watch as they themselves rested. During the deep reaches of the night, Tallamorn heard the return of the immense worm. He drew again upon the necromantic energies in this place to control the beast, which had evidently sated its vile appetite in the Madwood. He directed the monster to the pit and let it slide silently and swiftly back into its gaping lair, heedless of anything around it. Satisfied that it had indeed returned to whatever hellish dimension had spawned it, the necromancer did not disturb his companions.
Later Fallarond stirred, with dawn yet an hour or more away. He studied the jungle beyond the pyramid and central citadel. By the uninterrupted light of the moons he could see the havoc wrought by Sethis as the monster had surged out into the city, smashing a path through the ruins, leaving a distinct trail in which the corpses of numerous inhabitants of the Madwood had been pulverized and heaped to either side. The Deathguard commander gasped as he realised how vast an array of these creatures had been out there.
“Sethis has returned to its lair,” said Tallamorn. “It is sated for now.”
“Then we must leave with all haste.”
Fallarond had the company readied. They prepared to go back into the ruins, carrying Ardal and their dead with them.
“Which way?” said Nyam.
Fallarond stood at the top of the steps that ted down from the pyramid. “We will try to head northwest to the border of the Madwood where we entered it. Sethis has caused so much destruction that the jungle’s denizens must have withdrawn well away from here. We may be able to slip past them before they regroup.”
No one objected. They were all drained by the events of the night, their brief rest only partially renewing their energy. Vaddi walked beside Zemella, wanting to talk to her, but the entire company felt hushed by the oppressive atmosphere of the Madwood. Instead, they made their cautious way down into the ruins, for the moment following the havoc that Sethis’s passage had caused. In the darker shadows of the smashed buildings, shapes shifted and writhed, but nothing emerged to harass them.
The wide swath that Sethis had cut through the city led north, and only now could the company see the true nature of some of the horrors that would have beset them. Many were abominations that shunned the light, as warped and twisted as the worst spawn of Voorkesh, while others were beyond even those levels of corrupted living matter. There were a few dead Murughel among the fallen and scores of creatures not unlike Ezrekuul. In the early morning, steam rose from their carcasses.
At the wall of the city, itself reduced to a low heap of rubble for a hundred yards or more, the company paused, listening to the Madwood beyond and its unnatural silence. To their right, the first hint of dawn light edged the treetops like a bloodstain. The Madwood seemed to crouch, waiting for some signal.
“There!” said Tallamorn, pointing to the cloaking darkness ahead. “The jungle is yet alive. It does not mean us to pass.”
The Deathguard readied their bows.
“Wait!” said Vaddi. “It’s Ezrekuul.”
He was proven right, for in a moment the hunched figure of the creature slipped from the shadows and came forward, face screwed up in a grimace. He bowed low before Tallamorn. “We wait.” He pointed back with his root-like arm to the murmuring darkness at the jungle’s edge. As the company studied it, they could see others there, reluctant to come out into the growing light. Some were similar to Ezrekuul, others were far more misshapen, but all had the distinct taint of the Madwood.
“You will guide us out of here?” said Tallamorn.
“You promised. Return us to light. Free us from Madwood curse.”
“I did,” said the necromancer. “None who wishes to leave shall be neglected.”
“Many died this night,” said Ezrekuul. “Sethis fed. Madwood forced back. Now ablaze with anger. Wants revenge! Must go quickly, while jungle licks wounds. Now jungle fears you, but won’t last. Soon … aftermath comes.”
“Then lead us,” said Fallarond.
Ezrekuul needed no second bidding, skipping away to the jungle’s edge. Shadows parted and as the company took its first precarious steps into the twisted trees. Beyond, still cloaked in darkness, the Madwood and its horrors yet brooded. Fallarond led the way, elf blade held high. The company took their lead from him. The green glow of the blades was a clear deterrent to whatever stalked them.