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By Root 1426 0

loose by his momentum, before the memories they stored within their flesh could take hold. One arm lashed out across the path and he landed on it, crushing its dead flesh into the rock ground beneath; a spear of memory burned up through his leg and he felt cold teeth bite into his throat, the hot wound of despair as his lifeblood gushed out. It took everything he had not to stumble, but terror lent him a strength that cold logic could never have inspired, and he managed to stay on his feet. There were moans all about him now, and while some were echoes of pain and fear, others seemed to be sounds of hunger. Were the bodies aware of him? Did they think he was Tarrant? Ahead of him the path was closing up now, and he realized in horror that to get beyond this region he was going to have to wade through a sea of bodies, each of which had the power to send him spiraling down into unending nightmare. Panic assailed him, and he glanced back over his shoulder—stumbling as he did so—to assess the odds of retreat. There were none. The path in the distance was already gone, and as they ran forward, a wave of flesh came at them from behind, threatening to submerge them utterly.

And then he reached the wall of limbs and he surged into it, knowing even as he did so that no human velocity could possibly overwhelm such an obstacle, that a realm which had been designed to overwhelm the great Gerald Tarrant could easily overcome a mere human like himself—

—running/falling/fearing into darkness darkness, running DESPAIR! and the great bird closes in, talons red, feathers white—andthe man with eyes of blue flame—and the wolveslspiderslsnakesl shadows/HUNTER!—

A hand grasped hold of his shoulder; he felt it distantly, like a thing from another world, as the terror of the Hunter’s victims reverberated through his flesh, drawing strength and solidity in each new second.

—facelike a ghost and hunger a palpable force that licks at her with an icy tongue—

He struggled to surface and failed. Struggled to define himself, to divide himself from the tsunami of pain and fear that surged through his brain, but the memories were too strong, too compelling ... too many. He was drowning in terror.

—faceof a monster-

Another hand grasped him, held him tightly.

—faceof a god, too dark and terrible to behold. She lies transfixed as he bends down over her, her heart pounding like a frightened animal’s... and then, suddenly, there is something besides fear in her. A rising heat, sharp and shameful, that makes her stretch back her throat as his shadow embraces her, baring it for the kill—

—secret, shameful thrill—

—power all around her, throbbing like a living thing, HIS power—

—raw and terrible and magnificent—

—ecstasy as flesh is tom from her bone, one last glorious moment in which she shares his pleasure and is willing to die for this terrible embrace—

With a gasp he surfaced long enough to see Rasya’s face just above his own, expression drawn and strained as if by some private agony. “Can you move?” it whispered. A dead hand grasped at his thigh as he nodded, and it sent him plummeting down into nightmare once more. But they were no longer cold dreams of horror and despair; this was a hot sea he sank into, fear transmuted into desire, horror made into beauty, resistance giving way to a blissful acquiescence. He could sense the real terror behind it, masked by Karril’s hedonistic illusions, but its edge had been blunted. Just enough, he thought, to give him a fighting chance.

Panting, he struggled to his feet. His groin was painfully swollen, and when an undead hand brushed against it from beneath he cried out, waves of pain and pleasure radiating out from that point in stunning, shameful confusion. He held onto Karril’s arm and let the demon guide him, accepting the transformed memories as they washed over him like a wave. Once, for a brief instant, his sight of the real world grew clear enough that he could study the land ahead of them, searching for some end to this trial. But the ground was covered in flesh as far as he could see, bodies