The Song and the Serpent

The strange visitor seemed to sway from side to side while standing in place, like a sapling in a strong breeze.

“Maker protect us…” Kian whispered. “Are there two of them?”

Adan didn’t answer. He couldn’t answer. All of the breath seemed to be forced from his lungs.

The strange entity stood swaying, watching the two of them. They stood transfixed, unable to look away from the creature.

With an incredible effort, feeling as though he was straining every muscle in his body, Adan took a step backwards.

The creature didn’t move.

Kian took a step back as well.

The creature still didn’t move.

They both began walking backwards, away from the bridge.

The black figure stood still, watching them depart.

“Turn around,” Kian said.

“Why?” Adan asked, unwilling to take his eyes off of the ghoul.

“There may be two of them, and we need to know where we’re going. I’ll watch this one, you lead the way.”

Adan understood, and against all his instincts he turned and led them up the path into the trees, away from the swaying thing. Every time Adan looked over his shoulder, the dark visitor hadn’t moved.

They slowly crept further into the trees until the hanging boughs hid the bridge from their view. As the track they followed began to rise and lead them up a rocky slope, Adan continued to look over his shoulders. He still felt as thought they were being watched, even though the strange shape hadn’t followed them.

Kian eventually turned forward and they increased their pace up the old road. Ferns and fir saplings dotted the path they followed, indicating how little it had been used over the years. They glimpsed gigantic boulders lying underneath the pine branches as they continued to climb.

They hiked for what seemed like hours, looking over their shoulders or watching the shadows of the dark green boughs around them. Sound of the river had long faded away. All was silent now. No wind stirred the branches above and no bird sang in the boughs.

All was dead quiet.

As they ascended, gaps in the trees began to appear and the rocks and boulders around the road became larger, and more numerous.

When they came to an opening in the forest, Adan looked over his shoulder and was surprised to see part of the valley below them. The black spike of Undelma was visible, as was a large part of the city. The river was hidden from view by the tops of the trees, but Adan was able to see how high they had climbed and was surprised by their progress.

He stopped walking and Kian halted and turned as well. They stood panting and gazing at the fortress below for a moment. Then Adan looked up to the mountains above. Now that they had gained some altitude, Adan realized that these mountains were far higher than he first guessed. Their snow capped peaks still reached far above where he and Kian had climbed to.

Kian breathed a sigh and pulled something out of his belt. Adan looked over and saw him examining the map of the maze they were looking for: The Morkil.

“Do we have some kind of plan?” Kian said, looking at the map. “We were so focused on getting away and escaping that we didn’t really discuss what we would do after.”

“My only plan was getting back to Farel and warning them as soon as possible,” Adan replied.

Kian nodded. “And hope that we somehow get there before Hugo.”

“How long do you think it might take us?”

“I don’t know. The map made it look like Farel wasn’t that far south of this place, but we’re traveling through the mountains. At least three days.”

Kian paused before speaking again.

“You know they might attack Enys Island first.”

It wasn’t a question. Adan nodded.

“But you still want to go to Farel first?”

Adan sighed. “It’s the closest place, and we wouldn’t be able to go unnoticed on one of Hugo’s ships for long. I’m just praying that Hugo sails by Enys and attacks the major cities first.”

“But that would give us even less time,” Kian said.

“Then we better keep going.” Adan turned and continued up the track, which was growing steeper with every step. Kian was right behind him.

After a few hundred paces, the trees became sparser, the boulders larger, and the track began to switch back and forth across the face of the incline. Very soon, they left the tree line behind them, following the narrow trail up the rocky mountain.

As they climbed, Adan could see a shelf of rock jutting out of the mountainside high above them. Beneath the shelf, a sheer rock face ran down to meet the trail, spreading hundreds of paces from side to side.

“I’ll bet the entrance to the maze is somewhere in that cliff,” Kian said as he saw it.

“I hope so,” Adan replied. “Otherwise this is going to be a very short hike.”

The track led up to a small plateau at the base of the cliff. A small grove of evergreens sat on the left side of the plateau, while the right side was covered in crushed rocks and boulders, as if a great giant had ground the mountainside with an iron boot.

On the other side of the plateau, across from where Adan and Kian stood, a large wooden door sat closed against the rock face.

“Well, that was hard to find,” Kian said.

Adan and Kian slowly made their way forward across the plateau. As they drew near, Adan examined the door.

The light colored wood wasn’t very old. In fact, it looked like it had been cut and built very recently from the nearby pines. The iron hinges had small traces of rust around their edges, but nothing to indicate a great deal of age.

“This door is not very old,” he said, as they came to stand before it.

Kian nodded.

The door was secured by a simple iron latch that could be opened from both sides. There was no lock or bolt visible from the outside. Adan looked up and saw a mark carved into the stone: The familiar sign of a serpent, coiled in a spiral.

They stood still by the large door, waiting for their pounding hearts to become calm again.

“It’s going to be dark in there,” Kian said at length.

He turned left and abruptly strode over toward the grove of pine trees.

“What are you doing?” Adan asked.

“Finding us some light,” Kian said as he reached the tree line. He began rooting through the ground around the trees until he found a large limb which he broke in half over his knee.

“Do you have a means of making fire?” Adan asked, realizing what Kian was doing.

“I have a tinder box on my belt, courtesy of the warriors we killed,” Kian replied as he drew his sword and cut a thin length of cloth from his robe. Adan did the same on his robe, tearing the lower hem from his tunic, as Kian grabbed a handful of pine needles.

After they had wrapped the pine needles around the sticks with the cloth from their tunics, Kian produced a small wooden box with flint, steel, and tinder to start the fire. Kian used the remaining pine needles to create a small blaze, and they held their makeshift torches over the fire to light them.

“We’ll probably need to leave our spears here,” Kian said. “So we have a hand free at all times.”

Adan nodded and they cast the wooden shafts aside. Adan also grabbed the helmet on his head by its spike and pulled it off. The large steel cap had been rocking on his head for the entire hike and he was eager to be rid of it. He cast it on the ground.

“No need for that anymore,” he said with relief.

Kian removed his spiked helmet and threw it aside as well. Then he reached for the iron handle on the wooden door.

As soon as his hand touched the metal, Adan heard a sound he would never forget.

The silence on the plateau was broken by a low, growling snarl. The sound was faint, as if far away, but not far enough for Adan to feel safe.

Kian froze with one hand still on the door handle.

They listened silently.

Then they heard it again, louder, and closer. Adan felt as if the stone beneath them had vibrated with the sound, as if the mountain grumbled its displeasure.

“That’s not an earthquake,” Kian whispered.

Adan shook his head. “No, it wasn’t.”

The sound had certainly come from a living thing.

In his life, Adan had heard the growl of dogs, wolves, bears, even small lions, but this growl had been somehow different.

The sound came again, and this time, Adan could tell where it was coming from.

He and Kian turned toward the grove of pine trees to their left. They saw nothing out of the ordinary, but they knew the sound had come from within the boughs of that grove.

Adan felt his pulse growing rapid again, and his breath coming in quick gasps. The fear he had felt down at the bridge came rushing back, paralyzing him to the spot, his eyes glued to the tree line.

Then, deep within the small forest, something moved. A shadow passed quickly from one tree trunk to another.

Cold fear flooded Adan’s body and his free hand found the hilt of the scimitar at his belt. Kian tensed next to Adan. He had seen it too.

The black figure again dashed from tree to tree, closer than before. Adan only caught a glimpse, but this time it looked as if it had been on all fours.

They watched silently as the same black figure they had seen on the bridge loped from tree to tree, steadily moving toward them.

Adan’s eyes were transfixed, half in terror, half in curiosity.

Finally, the black creature reached the last and closest tree in the grove, and hid behind it for a brief second.

Adan held his breath.

Then it stepped out from behind the tree and sprinted at them.

The air around the black figure shimmered and twisted, as if it had no definable shape. Adan saw claws for feet and hands as it charged them. He saw an oblong snout and a mouth with rows of bleached white pointed teeth as it opened its massive jaws and let out a growling, shrieking roar.

The sound and the sight jolted Adan back to his senses.

“Open the door!” He shouted.

Kian had already pushed it open. “Inside!” He shouted. “Don’t let it in!”

They flung themselves into the darkness, dropping their torches on the floor so they could push the door shut together.

The wooden door slammed shut, plunging them into darkness. They stood with both hands against the door, breathing heavily and waiting for the impact of the creature slamming against the other side. Adan braced and put all his weight against wood.

No impact came. All was still and silent.

Adan and Kian waited, breathing heavily for several moments, listening for any sign of the creature outside.

They heard nothing. No growl, no scream, no scuffling around the door. It was as if the thing had never chased them.

“Is it gone?” Adan whispered.

“I don’t know,” Kian answered.

Silence.

“Maybe, it left,” said Adan.

Kian nodded. “Maybe.”

More silence.

“We can’t sit here holding the door forever.”

“No, we can’t.”

Neither of them moved. Neither of them wanted to open the door, or leave it unguarded.

Adan turned and examined their surroundings. His eyes were adjusting to the dark, and the faint light of the torches illuminated a small chamber with a doorway opposite them. He looked for something that they could prop against the door, but the chamber was empty. No large rocks or furniture could be seen.

After several long moments of panting, listening, and holding the door shut, Adan began to relax.

“I don’t think it’s going to come in here,” he said.

Kian didn’t move.

“We should probably go.”

“I’m worried that as soon as we walk away, that… that thing will open the door behind us,” Kian whispered.

“We can wait a little longer,” Adan replied, “but there’s no lock, and nothing to prop the door closed with. We can’t stand here waiting too long.”

Several long silences crawled by. There was no sound from outside the door.

Just when Adan was about to speak up again, Kian relaxed with a sigh.

“I’m not taking my eyes off this door until I have to,” he said.

Adan picked up the torches and handed one to Kian. “Fair enough. You watch the door and I’ll lead the way.”

They slowly moved away from the wooden door, and through the doorway opposite.

Adan held his torch up to illuminate a long corridor with a high ceiling and jagged walls. The Morkil looked more like a natural cave system than a mined passage cut from the mountain rock. But it ran straight ahead of them as far as Adan could see, which was not very far by the light of his small torch.

Kian walked backwards, facing the door that led back to Undelma. As they wandered deeper into the mountain, the wooden door never moved. Whatever was chasing them had apparently given up.

The two of them had only to pass through the Morkil before they could finally arrive in their homeland.