Giant snake. Isaac shrugged and fired both barrels of both his guns.
Which had, predictably enough, no appreciable effect. The massive reptile surged forward, muscles under its gleaming scales contracting to thrust it along. Elena managed to avoid getting side-swiped by creature, but Arrafin was not so lucky and she fell backwards with a cry as an immense coil of giant snake smacked her.
The sound of its hissing was like thunder directly overhead. Nevid's ears rang with the defeaning noise, and he backed against a rough cavern wall, hoping the creature wouldn't see him.
Somewhere on the other side of the snake their surprise ally was going toe-to-toe with some terrible monster from the beginning of time. With Etienne lying unconscious nearby. Isaac could hear shouts and a clang of steel. He swore.
The snake froze, and for a second Elena thought it would leave them alone.
It burst into a sudden whirl of coils, dust flying from the cavern floor as it looped its body around Arrafin, just trying to get up. The thin Naridic girl screamed as cool scales pressed against her on all sides and she felt her body begin to flex inwards. Her scream cut off as all the air was driven from her lungs.
Both Isaac and Elena leapt onto the snake's writhing body, chopping frantically at the gigantic reptile. A shrug of its serpentine body sent them both flying, but they scrambled back and drove their swords deep into cold flesh.
Nevid looked up, surprised to discover that the battle had rolled right past him. He now stood between the snake and the Lohanese woman fighting with Laughter of Stones. They circled one another, staring and cautious.
Something happened inside Nevid's head. Perhaps it was the terror of the massive snake, perhaps it was frustration with the unending succession of inexplicable strangeness that had surrounded him ever since leaving Fort Burnoll. Whatever it was, he'd had enough.
Nevid got to his feet. He held in front of him the wooden staff he'd rescued from the underground tomb in Chimney. Behind him Isaac and Elena were yelling to Arrafin, telling her they'd be there soon. Snake coils surged and rolled back and forth across the chamber. In front of him, a terrifying undead creature fought with a slight young woman who appeared unperturbed.
Nevid ran up and hit her in the back of head.
The only apparent effect was that she backhanded him across the face, sending him crashing to the dusty floor of the cavern. He considered his options and chose to lie there perfectly still for a while, listening to the fight between his enemy and her enemy.
Isaac and Elena both hacked at the giant snake in a frenzy of panicked desperation. The snake was almost impossible to miss and they were both strong individuals, so it didn't take long before they had inflicted serious wounds to the occupied reptile.
Arrafin kept trying to breathe in. Nothing happened. The agonizing pain in her midsection kept increasing and her vision kept darkening and as her struggles to inhale continued to accomplish nothing, her strength faded fast. She retained enough presence of mind to note that the inside of the snake's mouth was pure white, and she wondered if it wasn't perhaps related to the Solana Cottonmouth, a water snake common in southern parts of Saijadan and known for eating rats and other pests.
The pure white mouth of the snake gaped open wide and descended towards her.
Arrafin wished she could see her father and her brother once more, at least to tell them she'd found the resting place of Essermane Varag. Her father would be thrilled. She thought of calling out to Elena, to ask her to send a letter, but the last of the breath in her lungs had gone and she started to slump in the coils crushing her so gently.
Isaac saw the creature's head rise up and the mouth open, descending towards what he could see of Arrafin's hair. With a roaring curse he hurled himself onto the coils of the monster and whirled his big sword in a two-handed sideways arc. The steel sank into the open mouth, shattering needle-like teeth and sending a great cascade of blood showering down all over Arrafin.
She didn't splutter or cough. Arrafin's total lack of reaction horrified Isaac. He yelled and swung his sword again and again, driving the snake's head back.
The creature rolled over and sent the big Saijadani flying. He slammed into the cavern wall, his sword ringing against the stone. The reptile's action loosened its coils, however, and Elena yanked Arrafin free. She stood, shaking, sword in her hand, facing the wounded creature.
The snake had had enough. With another thunderous hiss it retreated back into the tunnel it had emerged from. Elena knelt next to Arrafin and brushed blood away from the girl's mouth.
"Come on, Arrafin. Come on, girl. You're okay. You'll be okay. Come on, Arrafin."
Isaac staggered over, panting, to stare wild-eyed at the limp form of his friend. Elena looked up.
"She'll be okay. But if whatsisname doesn't win THAT fight -- " she gestured to where Laughter of Stones and the Lohanese woman continued to circle near where Etienne and Nevid lay, " -- none of us are getting out of here."
It took Isaac a second, but he nodded and with a last look at Arrafin, he turned and raised his sword to approach the two remaining combatants.
Etienne woozed. He put a hand to his head and groaned. He could hear shouting and crashing and other loud noises, but he couldn't quite put together where he was or what was going on. Somebody stepped on his face and he squawked and tried to roll away, but the pressure was gone nearly as suddenly as it was applied. He opened his eyes and saw a rather pretty Lohanese woman. Etienne smiled and tried to push himself upright. The only Lohanese women he'd ever seen before were Blood Council members, but this girl was not in the trademark crimson robes. She wore some sort of dark tunic and wide trousers and held a thin, curved sword in both hands.
When he noticed the black giant squaring off against her with his strange hooked blade, Etienne recalled where he was and what was happening. He considered just lying down again and hoping it would all go away.
Then Isaac charged, bellowing as he bore down on the woman. She turned to confront him and Etienne flinched as Laughter of Stones swept up his sword in a blinding cut straight for her head. She spun to one side, threw what looked like a shower of sparks from her left hand as her right swung her sword up to knock Isaac's aside. Laughter began to burn wherever the sparks touched him and staggered back as she engaged Isaac fully, blades ringing off each other in a sudden flurry of combat. Etienne could hear the Saijadani swearing and he tried to get up.
He couldn't. Etienne frowned and looked down. Only then did he realise he was lying in a pool of his own blood and that his legs held no feeling whatsoever. There was a large knife sticking out of his right side, and now that he thought about it the pain was quite intense.
Etienne began to scream.
The sudden shrieked opened Nevid's eyes. He saw Laughter of Stones staggering, reaching for the blade he'd apparently dropped for some reason. Isaac was backpedalling away from a determined-looking young woman, whose sword blurred back and forth in rhythmic cuts that Isaac only just managed to fend off. They passed him by and, once she had her back to him, Nevid stood up again and again brained her with his staff.
This time she staggered, and with a yell Isaac lunged forward.
Nevid heard her ribcage crack. It sounded like somebody breaking a particularly fresh celery stalk. He saw the back of her tunic reach out towards him as Isaac's sword emerged from just below her shoulder blade. He was still staring as Laughter's heavy blade bit down into her skull, splitting her head open right down to her shoulders.
She dropped. A second later, so did Laughter. Elena ran past Nevid, clutching the skull in her hands as she knelt next to Etienne. She yanked the blade free and tried not to flinch as the wounds closed before her eyes. Nevid stepped back as she approached him.
"I'm not drinking from that."
"Nevid, you're hurt. It'll help you heal. Look at Etienne."
The half-Kishak stood, grinning with sudden vitality.
"I'm not drinking from that," insisted Nevid, "It's black magic. Who knows what it's doing to you?"
Elena sighed.
"Fine. But if you drop dead, I'm leaving you."
Isaac turned from the altercation and saw Arrafin getting to her feet. He ran over and then stood awkwardly, grinning.
"You okay?"
For a second Arrafin looked around wildly, then spotted her bag full of papers and notebooks.
"Oh, yeah. Fine. What would you say was the colouration of that snake? The thicker stripes were sort of a dark green, right? With orange spots along the edge."
Arrafin turned around, grabbed her notebooks and found a pencil to start jotting down her observations. Isaac watched her for a second, then shrugged and turned back to Elena.
Who was slowly backing away from Laughter of Stones.
Who was slowly becoming surrounded by a shimmering dark radiance formed of strange, translucent tendrils that seemed to weave in and around each other, and even to pass through his massive obsidian body. As Isaac, Elena and Nevid watched, the great gouges and hacks in that body reformed, the missing arm swirled into being and their ally stood up, somehow seeming bigger and more dangerous than ever before. He looked down at the corpse of the Lohanese woman and frowned.
"It didn't change. Curious."
The observing eyes widened as he knelt before the corpse and with one quick slash of his sword, opened the torso up and began rummaging around inside.
Elena had watched no small number of slaughterings in her time and for just a second she was impressed with his efficient technique. Nevid threw up. Isaac looked over to make sure Arrafin hadn't noticed yet, and sidled over to stand between the preoccupied Naridic girl and the ongoing gruesomeness as Laughter appeared determined to inspect each glistening organ inside the splayed body cavity.
"It didn't change."
Isaac ventured a question: "I thought we were after bad lizard people things. Keyamuckies or whatever."
"This is Keyad'ar. It has taken a new form. But I expected it to return to its natural form upon death. Interesting."
Etienne returned from the archway where the woman had initially emerged from. "Hey, gold! Oh, and Arrafin, there's a book."
Laughter stood up and considered Nevid.
"You are wounded. I am sorry for that."
He put a huge black hand on Nevid's head and the cut on his face quietly sealed itself back up. Only Elena noticed a similar wound simultaneously appear on Laughter's face.
"What are you?" she asked. She swallowed as ancient eyes, somehow terribly sad and tired, turned to regard her.
"Once we were men. We loved our king, Tushan Kal Kabbar. The sacrifice was his, and still we fight our ancient war. We are the Scar'ith Tushan, the Three Hundred Forsaken. Through the centuries we have hunted the great enemy. The Keyad'ar. We are the darkness that carries through to light. We are glory out of death."
"Great enemy?" Arrafin had joined them and stared open-mouthed at the giant warrior. "But we've never heard of these... Keyad'ar... before."
Laughter nodded.
"Few are left, now. And few of us remain. Still we walk the borders of the Shadow Realm and strike them down where they hide. We are the Scar'ith Tushan and we fulfill the Oath of the Forsaken."
"Tushan Kal Kabbar... How old are you?"
Elena watched Laughter smile and in that moment the idea that this creature had once been a human being seemed suddenly like the saddest thing she'd ever seen. Impulsively she put a hand on his arm, unable to say anything that could express what she was feeling but wanting to reach out anyway.
He paid no attention to the contact but kept his heavy gaze on Arrafin.
"It has been two thousand six hundred and seventy-six years since I drew a breath."
Nobody spoke. He turned back to Elena.
"Do not grieve, mortal. We took this upon ourselves. We took the Oath out of love and need. And once again it calls me."
More tendrils of darkness began to sweep up and around him.
"I must depart and walk the edges of Shadow. I can take you with me, if there is somewhere you wish to go."
"You know where Pavairelle is?"
"Stand close."
Black wind howled and savaged them. Black waves crested and broke against them. Black spears stabbed through them and black flames seared their skin. At times they were overwhelmed with sensation, at times they gasped at the sudden emptiness around them. Laughter of Stones stood in their midst, unyeilding against the horrible fury around them.
And then it was gone. They stood on cobblestones, sounds of commerce and chatter on all sides. Lanterns glowed in curtained windows overhead. Etienne looked around and grinned.
"Cherrytree Alley. We're home."
Laughter smiled.
"Thank you."
Inky tendrils reached up and seemed to suck him down into the paving stones. In the distance, they could hear drunken singing. Isaac scowled.
"I want whatever they're drinking. Kishak, let's see that gold."