L5r - scroll 04 - The Phoenix (19 page)

The nezumi chattered as they walked, nipping at each other. Tadaka realized all three were scared, even the hunter Krree. Squabbling was a way to keep up their courage. The Master of Earth said nothing to them about it. The nezumi would know when to fall silent.

They saw no game as they traveled, and only a few small creatures—twisted animals infected with taint. The ratlings threw stones to scare the creatures off. After a time, Mouse and the others grew less boisterous in their chatter.

Before sleep on the first day, they came to a waterfall that ran backward. The noise of its deluge was like a great hissing snake. Its black waters emanated from a wide, bubbling pool. They cascaded upward from the tainted earth into the gray sky. The waterfall's top remained hidden in the mists. Its dark liquid stank of decay and corruption.

Krree and Mouse avoided the water, but Chihu ventured to the edge of the pool. He tossed a charred stick into the liquid. It was sucked into the torrent and sailed up into the air. He wanted to experiment further, but Tadaka insisted they move on.

Always, the Shadowlands fog glowed around them. They had no day or night to judge by, so they walked until they were tired.

They traveled a good distance from the cursed waterfall before making camp to sleep.

The ratlings set guards, but Tadaka merely crossed his legs and slipped into meditation. He left enough of his consciousness behind that he could react quickly to any danger. Fortunately, the sleep time passed uneventfully.

After they woke, they crossed into a land of smooth, curving rocks—like a wide frozen river. The surface of the rocks was slippery, and the small band picked their way across it with care. At one point Tadaka rounded a corner and found himself staring up at the rest of his party. The ratlings blinked and rubbed their eyes when they spotted the Master of Earth rooted to the overhang above their heads. It took a while before he could convince the skittish nezumi to round the corner and join him.

The laws of nature do not apply in this cursed land, Tadaka thought to himself. There is no night or day, no up or down. The only distinction is between good and evil—and even that dims the farther we travel.

Eventually the sloping stones gave way to a dry, cracked plain dotted with diseased plants. Deformed insects poked their heads from the cracks in the earth, only to scuttle away.

Gradually a new sound came to Tadaka's ears, like the wailing of the wind, but the Master of Earth felt no breeze. The sound became clearer when they stopped to eat. The nezumi broke out their water jugs and some dried meat and vegetables. Tadaka stuck to his own provisions: water from jade vials, dry seaweed, some nuts and dried fruit.

As they ate, he looked at the jade amulet that hung around his neck. Already veins of darkness crept into the green stone's round surface. The evil of the Shadowlands was powerful here. He hoped he'd brought enough jade to ensure safe passage in and out of the dark kingdom.

The mournful sound caught his ears again. Turning to Mouse, he asked, "What's that noise?"

"Howling Mire," Mouse said. A shiver ran down her tail.

"What makes the sound?" he asked.

"Wailing demons," Mouse said. She closed her black eyes, bit her lower lip, and hugged herself.

"Lowlies think that," Krree said. "Mire has demons, but noise is only an evil wind, Kra'no'krree think." He spat a bit of tough vegetable out onto the ground.

"Krree just boasting," Chihu said, "has never felt this wind on his fur."

"Kra'no'krree seen inside mire," Krree said, somewhat annoyed. He bared his front teeth intimidatingly at Chihu.

"lust not far far," Chihu added, ignoring the threat. He gnawed the last bit of meat off the bone he'd been chewing, i racked it with his teeth, and sucked out the marrow.

Krree frowned. "Some day," he said, "Chihu's courage will be tested. Then we see how brave
Chihu
is."

"Hope courage will not be tested until wedding day," Chihu said, "understand
those
dangers." He grinned broadly, showing all his teeth. The other nezumi only smiled weakly in return. The strangeness of the Shadowlands had begun to weigh down their spirits.

Soon, the four companions resumed their journey.

In the Master of Earth's soul, the call of the earth lessened, livil gradually overwhelmed it. At the center of that evil sat Yogo Junzo, and beyond Junzo lay his undead master. They were traveling in the right direction.

The plants they passed became more stunted and flabby as I hey approached the mire. Long whitish tendrils, some as thick .is tree branches, covered the earth.

One of these tendrils snared Mouse's leg. Tadaka hacked the root off quickly, but the encounter left the ratling girl shaken.

They came suddenly upon the edge of the mire. Chihu put his foot out and discovered that the earth beneath his paw was no longer solid. He squealed as the mire sucked at his shin, t h reatening to pull him under. Tadaka and Krree grabbed him by the armpits and dragged him out.

Chihu sat on the solid ground at the mire's edge and panted. "Enough courage test, Chihu think."

Tadaka looked at his three companions. The ratlings tried to hide their fear. They were a proud, brave people. Their courage impressed the Master of Earth. "I don't need all of you to go with me," Tadaka said, "just one. The rest of you can go back to your tribe. It will not be a stain upon your honor. I thank you for taking me this far."

"Give our word to Ke-o-kecha," Krree said. "We all go with you."

"Besides," Chihu added, "three luckier than one." He said it bravely, but his voice trembled.

Though still shaking, Mouse nodded her head.

"Very well," said Tadaka. "But you may leave at any time, so long as one remains to guide me to Junzo's lair."

The ratlings nodded their heads and bowed slightly. They were with him on this road to Jigoku until they achieved their objective or death took them. The Master of Earth calmed his mind and drew strength from one of the untainted stones concealed within his sleeve.

He peered into the iridescent fog of the Howling Mire. Titan shapes loomed in the gray darkness—great Shadowlands trees, gnarled and twisted by the swamp's black waters. The branches bore no leaves, though some hung with vines or tendrils.

Patches of earth dotted the mire, rotting soil covered with fungus and spiny plants. In some places, the ground appeared solid, but such a spot had nearly claimed Chihu. They couldn't trust anything on looks alone. Nothing in the Shadowlands was what it appeared to be.

A low, distant wailing, like the cries of dying men, suffused the air.

"Is there no path around the bog?" Tadaka asked Mouse.

"No," Mouse answered. "This only track. Careful careful. Many dangers."

"Do you know the way?" the Master of Earth asked.

She nodded. "Walking slow, though."

"Slow slow, if stand and talk," said Krree.

"Could make boat," suggested Chihu. He shaded his black eyes with one long hand and cast his gaze to the mire's tall trees. He frowned and wiggled his whiskers.

"Tree juice deadly," Mouse said. "Saw lobuck rub antlers on one. Fell down dead. Mouse won't cut bad trees."

"Danger danger in water, too, Kra'no'krree guesses," Krree added.

"Then we'll pick our way through," Tadaka said. He looked at Mouse.

The young lady ratling shivered. She scanned the perimeter. Finding a likely place, she led Tadaka and her fellows into the Unaru Numa.

They traveled from one stand of vegetation to another. Thistlemoss stung the nezumi's toes, but they wrapped cloths •iround their feet and continued bravely onward. On the bough of a great fallen tree, the group took supper. They'd seen some small animals earlier during their hike but saw none now. The swamp was drained of life. The only sound was the mire's omnipresent mournful wailing.

When supper was finished, Tadaka led the nezumi toward the next sward of sickly vegetation. He'd just reached the shore when suddenly the log shook. The ratlings tottered, throwing their arms wide and using their tails for balance.

On the mossy ground at the trunk's end, Tadaka looked back. He turned in time to see a huge shape emerge from the mire. It surfaced like a breaching whale, thrusting tons of mud and black water aside. The swamp's stagnant air howled at the monster's arrival.

The creature's great jaws gaped wide, half again as tall as a man. Mouse, Chihu, and Krree screamed. Before Tadaka could do anything, the jaws snapped shut. The great log splintered as the creature took a huge bite. Along with the wood went Krree.

Mouse and Chihu scampered off the log.

Tadaka reached into his sleeve and threw a stone. He spoke a word of power. The stone grew as large as a boulder.

The creature dived back into the mire. The monster sank in a roil of bubbles and vanished from sight, taking Krree with it. The last Tadaka and the others saw of their friend was his tail, pro-t ruding from the muck monster's mouth.

Tadaka's boulder splashed harmlessly into the swamp.

Mouse wailed piteously and started to cry; Chihu gibbered incoherently. Tadaka forced them back, away from the water, putting his own body between the nezumi and the menace. He scanned the mire's surface with his keen eyes, but saw only ebony water. Eventually, the mire's howl died down, and the bubbles subsided.

"I'm sorry," Tadaka finally said.

"It eat him! It eat him!" Chihu babbled. He picked up a stone and threw it defiantly at the water.

"We should move," Tadaka said, "in case the creature comes back. I doubt this small, wet island would be much protection."

That roused the nezumi. The trio quickly picked their way off the small stand and away from the ruined tree trunk. As they walked, over broken lands and through waist-deep waters, the eerie sound of the mire grew steadily louder.

They should have stopped to rest, but after Krree's accident, none of them wanted to. Tadaka kept his senses open, determined not to be caught off guard again. Mouse maintained a steady direction through the tangled gloom.

After a time, Chihu turned to Mouse and asked, "Why you know this place deep deep in mire? Rest of pack do not."

"Gin'nabo-rrr did, " Mouse said quietly, "before he killed by dark ones. Mouse follow him couple times. Once, got lost. Monster chase far far into mire. When stopped running, had reached solid ground. Saw fortress of dark ones." Her tail shook with the thought. She paused before continuing quietly, "Took many walks and many sleeps to find home again."

Chihu and Tadaka nodded. The trees in the swamp grew so thick the trio had to climb between the trunks to pass. Tadaka found a place for them to rest in a cleft above the muck. They sheltered and slept awhile.

When they resumed their journey, the gnarled trees became shorter. The blighted wood thinned out, and the companions walked in the mud. Tadaka and the nezumi found some fallen branches stripped of bark and denuded of poison. They cut the branches into staffs and probed the waters in front of them. Always they watched and listened for bubbles and other signs of monsters. All they heard, though, was the mire's eerie dirge. The companions saw strange fauna, including a rabbitlike creature with feet shaped like small canoes. No animals threatened them, though.

By lunchtime, Tadaka and his guides reached a spot where the great trees vanished completely. Before the travelers stretched a vast pool, dotted with tree stumps. The wailing was almost unbearable here, filling the fog-shrouded air with a numbing drone. All three covered their ears.

"Almost there," Mouse said, gasping for breath in the moist atmosphere. Her fur shivered, and her whiskers trembled. " Beyond waste lies fortress of Evil One."

Tadaka nodded. "Yosh." He peered into the gloom.

What at first had looked like tree stumps were actually some kind of flora—short and squat, with long broad roots and no apparent leaves. A hole gaped in the side of each plant. The howling noise emanated from the holes. It sounded like the wail of restless spirits.

"You scent that?" Chihu asked loudly above the howling.

Tadaka detected a faint, cloying sweetness in the torpid air. "Smells like honey."

Chihu nodded. "Think there is honey in stumps?"

"If there is," Tadaka said, "it's unfit to eat. We should move along." He walked forward, probing with his stick. The ratlings followed. The stagnant water was knee-deep and seemed free of sudden drop-offs.

"Did Mouse sniff smell here before?" Chihu asked.

The female nezumi shook her head and laid her ears back. "No," she said. "Just wanted get home."

"Wouldn't hurt to look," Chihu said thoughtfully. "If find honey, we have treat." Before Tadaka could stop him, he walked to one of the stumps and stuck his nose near the hole.

As his whiskers brushed the surface of the plant, the maw in the side suddenly snapped shut with violent force. Chihu jumped back. The wailing from the stump grew louder.

"Are you all right?" Tadaka asked.

Chihu put his hands on his black nose and wiggled his snout. " Nothing missing, Chihu think."

"You were lucky," Tadaka said. "Don't do anything like that again. I thought after Krree you would be more careful."