Aurix the Bold

One way or another, Aurix figured it would be their last day of hard riding for a while. That was good, because the caples were nearly spent, and his backside ached with each rhythmic lurch.

The Wraithwood stretched across the horizon before them like a vast ocean of green. It extended to the north and south and west as far as they could see. It might have been beautiful if they weren’t riding into a completely unknown—and apparently unforgiving—place. It might have been beautiful had they the time to stop and appreciate it, but behind them three stag riders (one missing an eye) and twenty or so Raspula forced them onward. It might have been beautiful if they weren’t riding for their lives on exhausted caples covered in a sheen of sweat.

Aurix tried to think of the Wraithwood as a refuge, but it could just as easily be the end of his journey. As it seemed to swallow up his field of vision, he was filled with a sense of dread and drowning, the air above growing thinner and thinner as the neared.

“You guys sure about this?” he called.

Regulus turned and looked behind him. The riders and their team of Raspula were gaining. “I don’t think we have much choice, lad.”

Inanna had spun around on her mount and was facing their attackers, an arrow nocked on the string of her bow. Her knees gripped the sides of her mare like a vice as it sprinted forward. Only a handful of arrows still stuck out of the quiver strapped to her back. So far, she’d given their pursuers just enough to keep them thinking twice about overtaking them, but that wouldn’t last with the forest—and thus their escape—drawing ever closer.

No longer needed to spot from above, Nyx flew at Aurix’s shoulder, instinctively sounding a shrill cry call of alarm.

“Here they come!” Inanna shouted.

Aurix turned to look. The main group had fragmented into three. A few Raspula stayed behind with the stag riders, but the rest were racing toward them, six on each side, their gray legs moving impossibly fast.

“Hah!” Regulus shouted and rose up in his saddle. Archaeon somehow found a bit more speed. Aoni, and Destra followed suit, their mouths open with fatigue.

“Just a bit more, Aoni,” Aurix said into her ear. “Hang in there, girl.”

Nyx spread her wings wide and stopped cold in mid-flight. She whirled on the band of Raspula nearest Aurix. She shrieked and dove at them, her trajectory just out of their reach, but near enough to slow them a few steps as they dodged her feint.

Aurix could just see Inanna out of the corner of his eye. Even over the thunder of hooves and nearing hisses of the Raspula, he thought he heard the thwang of her bowstring as she drew and released in a single fluid motion.

“Drak!” she swore as her arrow flew wide. She nocked another and let it fly. This one caught the lead Raspula. As it stumbled and fell, another tumbled over it, unable to slow in time to avoid it. The remaining four kept coming, but they’d lost a few steps in the process.

“Nice shot, Inanna!” Aurix called.

“Go, go!” Regulus shouted. “Almost there!”

The forest loomed in front of them, massive and dark and strangely quiet.

Nyx took another swipe at the pack of Raspula on Aurix’s right side just as they were about to draw even with Aoni. They lost another critical step.

Aurix drew his sword, but the Grays kept just out of his reach.

Regulus managed to pull Archaeon ahead by a length, though Aurix couldn’t believe the caples had any more speed in them. “Switch, Aurix!”

Aurix guided Aoni to the left, and Archaeon and Regulus bounded to the outside spot. Where Aurix’s sword could not reach, Regulus’ spear could, and the lead runner stumbled over it, crashing heavily into the thickening grass.

The trees in front of them soared into the sky, and they were very nearly to the shadows they cast over the earth. As close as they were, Aurix still wasn’t sure if they’d make it.

Inanna released her last arrow. It caught one of the Raspula in the arm, but it barely slowed the Gray at all. “I’m out,” she called to them, and somehow managed to turn elegantly around so she was facing forward again.

Most of the Raspula had their ringblades in hand, which was bad enough, but a few of them pulled tanglers from their hips—ropes weighted with stones, designed to snare an animal’s legs and bring them down.

Nyx loosed a shriek and flew at one of the Raspula as she began to twirl the tangler over her head. One of the stones struck her. She screeched and veered off course, her wing fluttering to keep the air beneath it.

“Nyx!” Aurix yelled.

The sound of his voice was suddenly overpowered by the cries of dozens of birds that burst forth from the forest and dove at the Raspula like shrieking missiles.

Aurix saw the Grays throwing their hands up to fend off the swarm, and then he was swallowed by the thick dark of the forest.

As the caples crashed into the first brush, the three of them released long, loud breaths they’d not known they were holding. The perpetual shade was a welcome relief, instantly cooling the sweat on their skin. Everything was so intensely green, it took a few moments for their eyes to adjust to the change.

Aurix dismounted Aoni and looked frantically for Nyx. He found her running her beak through her feathers on a stump not far from where they stood. Her wing sat at an odd angle, but he was relieved to find that she otherwise seemed okay.

Outside the edge of the wood, the Raspula were still trying to bat away the attacking birds and were retreating back to the main group. The riders were still approaching the edge of the Wraithwood, but were doing so without urgency. It didn’t look like they had any intention of following.

Aurix couldn’t resist giving them a sarcastic wave.

“We should go in and get them,” one of them said. His eye and one side of his face were bandaged. “Banjax would demand it.”

“Yeah, well, Banjax is not here right now, is he? Not even the Grays are stupid enough to go in there. But be my guest, if you have a death wish.”

“What do we tell him? And Xu’ul?”

“That they’re dead, of course. No one comes out of the Wraithwood. And if they do, their minds will be so addled, they won’t remember this little farce anyway.”

“You’d better hope neither of them checks with the Helm to see what became of us,” Regulus called as he swung down from Archaeon and gave him a pat on the haunch. “You might just end up in here yourselves, or worse.”

“Yes, well there’s no hope for you three now, is there? Enjoy your sanity while it lasts.” He turned and led the others back to the Raspula. After a few minutes they were out of sight, heading north.

“So,” Inanna said. “North?”

Regulus nodded. “North. We should find water first, and rest. It’s been a long few days.”

The forest was dense, and the going was sometimes difficult, but they were all happy to not be on the run any longer. For the first time in days, they breathed a bit easier, and let their guard down a little. And despite all of the warnings and their worst fears, the forest seemed to welcome them.

Tiny streams ran all through the forest, like a circulatory system of vessels and veins bringing nutrients to the tree roots. Chickseed and other edible plants were everywhere, and there was plenty of fodder for the caples. A low constant hum of bugs buzzing and clicking and whirring filtered through the foliage. Flitch and brushtails bounded around or darted up and down trees, watching them curiously. Aurix even caught sight of a kit as it leapt into a nearby thicket.

Nyx rode on Aurix’s shoulder, preening her injured wing. She was obviously uncomfortable, but Aurix wasn’t sure what to do to help her. He gave her a scrap of jerky and scratched the downy spot beneath her throat. She leaned into his touch, and chirped softly as if telling him not to worry.

The group found a small clearing near a fork in the endlessly branching streams and decided to rest there for a while. Though none of them talked about it, all were nervous about what darkfall might bring, and they wanted to be as prepared as a few arcs of sleep would allow them to be.

Inanna and Regulus were out in minutes. Aurix was restless, and it took him a bit longer. He lay on his back and looked up through the countless leaves to the orange light peeking through cracks in the canopy. He wished Shlee were still around to evade his constant questions, to teach him swordplay, or even to call him whelp. Right then he could have really used the old man’s advice. He had no idea what to do next, and he hated the thought that he was very likely leading his friends to a certain (and probably brutal) death.

Aurix was beginning to drift in the thin place between waking and sleep. He knew it because things began to swim and get murky. The air was moving in ways that it shouldn’t—as if it had form and dimension. It shifted and shimmered and reminded Aurix of the strange way light bent around Shlee’s Ring. But none of that mattered, because both Shlee and the Ring were gone, and he was…asleep.

He woke to Regulus’ monstrous hand on his shoulder. “Aurix. Wake up.”

“Umfoo,” he said, completely out of it.

“Aurix, it’s nearly sunset. Get up.”

Aurix took a deep breath that smelled of moss and grass and pried his eyes open. The light was dim and the forest was almost silent. None of the noises he’d heard earlier were on the air. It was as if the entire forest were holding its breath in anticipation.

He sat up and retrieved the glimstone to give them some light by which to see. “Weird,” he mumbled.

“What?” Inanna asked.

“This place. The quiet.” He shrugged and shook his head. Even the glow from the glimstone seemed to wobble. “The light. Look at the caples.”

Archaeon, Destra and Aoni were all whiffing and snorting and prancing in place. Their eyes, though not wild, moved back and forth as if they were seeing things that the rest of them could not. Nyx sat on a branch, her head swiveling back and forth.

“They see something,” Aurix said.

“The shadows of the forest, perhaps,” Regulus said.

Aurix shook his head. “It’s more than that.”

“I feel it too,” Inanna said. “It’s almost like something’s breathing on my neck. It’s giving me the shivers.”

“It’s just a light breeze filtering through the leaves,” Regulus said. “The caples are nervous because they’re in an unfamiliar place. Are you two losing it already?”

“I don’t—” Aurix began.

The scream came from everywhere all at once. From right beside them. From all around them. From inside them. From miles away. They all slammed their hands over their ears, but it did little good. The sound penetrated everything. The caples reared and shrieked, lending their voices to the cacophony. Nyx screeched and managed to flutter awkwardly to a high branch in a nearby tree.

Aurix didn’t realize that they too were all screaming until he saw Regulus and Inanna with their eyes squeezed shut and their mouths open as wide as they’d go. He wasn’t sure if his own scream was one of pain or terror.

It seemed to go on for an impossibly long time. Inanna hunkered down and huddled into a tight ball with her head between her knees and her knees over her hands, hoping to drown out the sound even more. Regulus shook his head back and forth, looking like he was in agony.

When it finally ceased, everything was ringing and muted and fuzzy, like their ears were jammed full of chickseed fluff. Inanna rose from her crouch and rubbed at her temples with the heels of her hands. Aurix could relate; his head was pounding too.

“—us, rr, eer, eedn,” Inanna said.

Aurix shook his head, and pressed on his ears several times like he did when trying to clear them of water. Still they rang, the pitch so high it was almost out of audible range.

“Huh?” Regulus said, his voice just booming and low enough to be heard.

“eers leedin,” Inanna repeated and pointed at his head.

Regulus looked at her stupidly.

“Yrr eer!” She went to him and touched the side of his head with her fingertips. There was blood on them when she took her hand away. She showed him. “Leedin!” She rinsed her hand off in the stream, pausing for a second to look at the rippling water curiously, her head tilted in confusion. Then she shook her head and focused her attention back on Regulus.

Regulus wiped his ear and face with the back of his hand. “Slag, blew my eardrum.” He washed his face and Inanna used a small, damp scrap of fabric torn from her dress to wipe the blood from inside his ear.

Inanna looked over at Aurix. “Oo kay?”

Aurix nodded, but he wasn’t entirely sure. He was still in a stupor. “I’m gonna gather wood for a fire.” He felt the words in his head more than heard them.

Aurix was on edge, and though it wasn’t completely dark yet, he stayed within the maximum range of the glimstone’s illumination. Every now and again, out of the corner of his eye, he could see the red glow bend and flicker, like something was blocking the light from reaching its ultimate destination.

They ate by both firelight and the glimstone. Over time, their hearing returned to normal, though Inanna and Aurix had to sit on Regulus’ left. He couldn’t hear much at all from the right side because of his ruptured eardrum.

“I see why this place might drive people nuts,” Regulus said. “Never heard anything like that before.”

“Me either,” Inanna said. “It was scary. I felt it vibrate inside my bones.”

Aurix nodded. “Me too. I think we should keep watch tonight.”

Everyone agreed.

Aurix got last watch. Inanna’s eyes were wide and fearful when she woke him. “Your turn,” she said. She tried to smile at him but didn’t quite get there.

“What is it?” he asked, sitting up.

“Whispers. I’ve been hearing them for arcs.” Her face looked strange in the light of the glimstone and the low glow from the fire. “Maybe it’s just the forest insects?”

Aurix knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep if she were frightened. “I’m sure that’s what it is,” he said. But he was sure it wasn’t.

The murmurs came and went through his shift. At times they seemed to be right next to him—the voices as much a tickle on his skin as a sound in his ear. And he somehow managed to not scream when he brushed up against something that wasn’t there when he tried to swat at one of the sounds. Throughout the rest of the dark arcs, Aurix tried to focus on the familiar crackle of the fire, so he didn’t drive himself mad trying to eavesdrop on the whispers. All the while, the edges of the light from the failing fire and glimstone quavered and danced.

They ate by Shura’s dawning, glad for the reprieve from darkness. Even with a sentry, none of them had slept particularly well. All were ready to be up and moving as soon as possible, anxious to leave the muttering necronim of the Wraithwood behind.

At first the going was difficult and slow. Navigating through the thick forest with three caples was a challenge at best. But after a time, Regulus noticed that there was some semblance of a trail, barely perceptible among the leaves and brush. Rather than cutting a straight path through the trees, it was a long and winding trail that seemed random and tedious, but was still much faster than trying to push on through the scrub.

Inanna and Regulus often snapped their heads in the direction of some barely visible movement in and around the trees. Aurix did not. He’d taken to watching everything out of the corner of his eyes. He could see them, and they were everywhere. Most were almost completely invisible, and they moved through the brush so expertly, the leaves hardly even rustled. Every now and again, he’d see one a bit more clearly—just before it would duck behind a tree or disappear into a thicket. It didn’t take him long to realize they were entirely surrounded. By what, he wasn’t sure.

They came to a small clearing. Aurix made a clicking noise out of the side of his mouth that brought the caples to a stop.

“There’s something wrong with this place,” Regulus said to them. “I keep seeing things that aren’t there.”

“Oh, they’re there,” Aurix said, keeping his voice low. “We’re surrounded by them.”

Inanna reached for the rapier dangling from her belt.

“No,” Aurix whispered. “Leave it. They’re allowing us to keep going.”

“Who’s they,” Regulus said, trying to lower his own voice to a whisper. In other circumstances, Aurix might have laughed at the miserable attempt.

“I’m guessing the Rilx,” Aurix said. “Now I know why they call it the Wraithwood.”

Regulus turned his head from side to side, searching.

“You won’t see them like that,” Aurix said. “You’ve got to kind of look out of the corner of your eye. Use your peripheral vision.

“How many are there?” Regulus asked, trying out the visual technique Aurix described.

“Far too many for us to do anything about,” he said.

After several seconds, Inanna gasped and put her hand to her mouth. “Oh no.”

“See one?”

“No, I see at least three. Four. My Gods.”

“Hmm, I still don’t see them,” Regulus said. “Guess my eyes are broken, along with my—” He trailed off. “Got em. What the fex? Are they necronim?”

“I don’t know,” Aurix said. “I don’t think so.”

“They’re like water,” Inanna said.

Aurix realized that was precisely what they reminded him of. They would be what a body would look like if it were made purely of crystal clear water. As they moved, the surface would shudder and shift, sometimes reflecting light, sometimes absorbing it, sometimes refracting it. His brain couldn’t quite interpret the optical input.

“What do we do?” Regulus asked.

“Surrender,” Aurix answered.