He took in a chestful of the air and then exhaled it. “No.”
I thought rapidly. I knew that scent, or at least something close to it.
And then the clouds in my mind slowly cleared.
Poison.
“What is it?” he asked nervously.
“I’m not exactly sure,” I replied, and I wasn’t. But I had smelled that sort of concoction before, back at Stacks, the factory where I was employed as a Finisher.
I pointed to the left. “Let’s try that way.”
“Shouldn’t we maybe fly?” said Delph. “Get there faster, won’t we? Let us... let us maybe see what’s coming, before... before it gets us,” he finished breathlessly.
We would get there faster flying. But something in the back of my head said to leave our feet firmly on the ground. At least for now.
I was one who tended to follow her instincts. They had served me more right than wrong over my sessions.
And that’s when I happened to look up, and saw it. Or rather, them.
A flock of birds was racing in perfect formation across the Noc-lit sky. This surprised me because I did not think that birds flew at night, but perhaps things were different in the Quag. As I watched the birds soar along, something very strange happened. From out of nowhere appeared a cloud of bluish smoke.
The birds turned sharply to avoid it, but a few could not make the turn in time. And when these birds passed through the smoke and came out the other side, they were no longer flying.
They were falling.
Because they were dead.
I stood there, paralyzed. Then I felt something grip my arm.
It was Delph.
“Run, Vega Jane,” he yelled. “Run!”
As we ran, I looked back once and wished I hadn’t. It was a creature I had never seen for real before, but still, I knew what it was because a drawing of it was in the book.
I glanced at Delph and knew that he too had looked behind him and seen what I had. Taking to the air would do us no good. Unlike the garms and amarocs, what was back there and coming on fast was something that could fly.
It looked like our journey through the Quag was about to end before it had even truly begun.
Duo: The Kingdom of Cataphile
It was a fiendish inficio behind us.
An inficio was a large creature with two massive legs, a set of powerful webbed wings and a long scaly torso out of which grew a serpentlike neck capped by a small head, which was fronted by blazing venomous eyes, and a mouth with razor-sharp fangs. If that wasn’t enough to terrify sufficiently, the inficio also expelled a gas that would kill any who breathed it, like those poor birds.
I had been right in not taking to the air. We would already be dead.
Delph looked back as we sprinted along.
“It’s comin’ lower. Comin’ to kill us!” he yelled. “Run!”
I needed to do something. Anything. Why was my brain so muddled? I had just stood there as the inficio was coming to kill us. It was Delph who had told me to run.
“Vega Jane!” screamed Delph again.
Without really thinking, I reached into my cloak pocket, pulled on my glove, and then my fingers closed around the Elemental. In its present state, it looked completely unimposing, only three inches long and made of what looked to be wood. But when I willed it to full size, the Elemental grew into a spear taller than I was, and a brilliant gold. I had been given the Elemental — along with the glove that I was required to wear while holding the Elemental — on a great battlefield from long ago, by a dying female warrior. She told me it would be my friend whenever I needed one. Well, I needed one now. I needed to do something. I refused to simply... die.
As I looked back, the inficio was closing fast, its clawed feet nearly on the ground. I saw its mighty chest fill with air and then it expelled a breath, which became a great cloud of blue smoke that at its center held death.
Still running, I turned and prepared to hurl the Elemental, guiding it with my thoughts. When I let it fly, the Elemental zipped past the outer edge of the smoke, and the wake caused by its speed disrupted the cloud of poison, pushing it back toward the creature that had released it. The inficio instantly soared upward. Apparently, though the beast was the source of the deadly fumes, inhaling the smoke could harm it too.
The Elemental flew back to me. Just as I grasped it, the ground under our feet gave way and we plummeted downward about fifty feet. Whatever we hit was softer than our landing off the cliff. Still, I felt myself gasp and I heard Delph do the same. Harry Two yipped once, but that was all.
I rolled onto my back and saw the dark sky disappearing behind the cover of large branches and rolls of matted grass. These elements were being hoisted into place by what looked to be a series of pulleys and ropes. But that could hardly keep the inficio at bay. I expected it to burst through this flimsy cover and destroy us.
But the inficio did not come. Instead, a heavy net fell over us and we became tangled in ropes so thoroughly that I could barely move. I looked to the side and saw that Delph and Harry Two were in the same predicament. As we lay there struggling, I heard something approaching. Delph obviously did too, because he grew quiet. I willed the Elemental to shrink and placed it in my pocket and then took off the glove and placed it in my other pocket.
I reached out as far as I could and took Delph by the hand.
In a low tremulous voice, I said, “Be ready for anything, Delph.”
He nodded.
Our gazes locked for a long moment. I think we realized that this might be it for us — two simple Wugs from Wormwood attempting to cross the insanely treacherous Quag. It seemed so absurd right now. We never stood a bloody chance.
“I’m so sorry, D-Delph,” I said, my voice breaking as I finished.
Surprisingly, he smiled and rubbed my hand gently, which sent shivers up my spine. He said, “ ’Tis all right, Vega Jane. At least, well, at least we’re together, eh?”
I nodded and felt a smile creep to my face. “Yes,” I said.
I looked beyond his shoulder and saw lit torches set into holders on the rock walls. This gave the place a shadowy, vaporous illumination. It only added to my sense of fear and foreboding. What would be coming for us now?
I looked past Delph and stiffened.
There were dozens of pairs of eyes looking back at me from barely ten feet away. As my vision adjusted to the feeble light, I could see that they were smallish creatures with fierce, grimy faces and strong, toughened bodies. But their backs were bent and their fingers dirty and gnarled, perhaps from heavy toil.
As they grew even closer I received another shock. They had mats of grass growing on their exposed arms and necks and on their faces.
I heard Delph quietly mutter, “Ruddy Hel?”
The column of little creatures transformed into a circle and they surrounded us. I heard one of them call out in a series of grunts. When the net started to lift, I realized that he had been giving the instruction to do so.
The weight of the ropes lessened and we all three struggled to rise.
Quick as a flash, the creatures whipped out weapons and held them at the ready: small swords, lances, pickaxes and long, lethal-looking knives. And about a dozen of the creatures held small bows with sharpened arrows tucked onto strings ready to fire.
We could now see our captors quite clearly. Not only was grass growing on their bodies and faces, but their hair was grass as well.
Outnumbered as we were, I thought a friendly if direct approach best. I said, “Hello. I’m Vega. And this is Delph and Harry Two. Who are you?”
They all stared blankly back at me. Their faces were small and wrinkly, but their eyes bulged and were quite painfully red. I could see now that they were dressed in a hodgepodge of dirty clothing: trousers held up by stout rope, old shirts, frayed kerchiefs, stained vests, old coats and peaked hats. Some had on nicked metal breastplates. Others had metal coverings held on with leather straps over their thighs. One bloke sported a cap made of rusty iron.