Alara Unbroken - Doug Beyer [88]
The cat-man was fighting with an undead creature whose face was more mouth than anything else, its eyes grafted into its shoulders. He was holding it off, but didn’t see the two others rushing up from behind him.
“Ajani!” Kresh yelled, and ran to tackle one of them, but Ajani’s next attack caused him to reconsider. He dove away just in time, as Ajani held his double-headed axe at the very end, right down by the near axe head, and swung it around above him. He roared, and the axe burst into … something like flame, but searing white. The weapon carved through all three undead creatures, incinerating their flesh like it was paper. They didn’t get back up. Ajani kept swinging his axe, thrashing through the bodies until all the undead creatures had perished. He even finished off the one that was stuck to the tukatongue tree.
The warrior-leader and the nacatl exchanged a look. In other circumstances they might have grinned at each other, but they didn’t quite.
“I like how you fight, white cat,” said Kresh.
“So do I,” said a voice. It came from the forest shadows somewhere up ahead. They all looked to try to discern its origin.
There was a clap of thunder. It rolled across the sky from the direction they had been traveling, up over their heads, and past them. There was the smell of ozone, and a buzzing, moaning sound.
Out of the darkness of the tukatongue wood stepped Rakka.
ESPER GRIXIS FRONTIER
A head the terrain changes again, Knight-General,” said Kaeda, Rafiq’s aven scout.
“All right,” said Rafiq. “What’s your report?”
“You aren’t going to like it.”
Rafiq frowned. “Tell me.”
The aven seemed nervous. Or shaken. It was hard for Rafiq to tell.
“It’s … scabrous. The terrain looks like it’s smelled for the last hour. There are hills of bone and flesh. The whole place is rotting in on itself.”
“Is it some sort of mass grave?”
“No. It’s more like the entire land itself is a grave. I flew for an hour into the interior of the place. It just goes on and on like that.”
What in Asha’s name? Were they marching into hell? “What’s the enemy situation?” asked Rafiq.
“There are swarms of dead creatures, like we’ve seen crossing over into the last region, Esper. They’re definitely originating from the place ahead of us, and they’re definitely an invasion force.”
“An invasion force? What’s their source?”
“We can’t tell from here. We’d need deeper reconnaissance.”
“Leadership?”
“Mages, most of them apparently also undead—clearly powerful. But mainly, some other, larger creatures appear to be in charge.”
“What creatures?”
“I’m not sure I have a word for them, Knight-General. Frankly, they look like demons.”
Demon. The word was archaic to Rafiq’s ears, a tattered remnant from ancient scripture. It was a word found only toward the end of the Prayer of Asha.
“Well, it’s not something we have the forces to fight.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Gear up, soldiers. We’ve got the materials we needed from Esper, and the information we needed from the world on the other side. Now we’re needed at home. It’s time to return to Bant, and rejoin the main force of Asha’s Army.”
“Sir, there’s one more thing,” said Kaeda.
“What is it?”
“There’s a small shack just past the frontier, just inside the dead lands. There appears to be living humans hiding in it, possibly a small family.”
JUND
As Ajani watched, the human woman stepped out from the shadows between the trees of Jund’s thorny undergrowth, malice swirling in her eyes. She was an older human, wiry-looking but sickly thin; her teeth were blackened points. Her eye sockets were deep, her lips were thin and dry, and her bare arms looked like sticks coming out of her shaman’s tunic. Still, Ajani could feel the power emanating off her. Her hair stood out from her head slightly, as if she were a frightened animal, but she didn’t look frightened. Branching rivers of bluish light played down her bony arms and arced between her fingers.
“You look bad, Rakka,” snarled Kresh. “You’ve been dipping into some wicked magics. And treachery was ugly enough on you.”
Kresh was stepping