Darkwalker on Moonshae - Douglas Niles [60]
“Could you show us the cave now? It really is most urgent.”
The little dragon looked reluctant, but then contemplated his swollen belly, and decided he would not starve in the next few hours.
“It’s not far,” promised Newt, proceeding to lead them through a horrible entanglement of branches, thorns, and vines. In several places Tristan or Daryth had to hack a path through the growth with their swords. The dragon proved as good as his word, however. As they crossed a flat and marshy clearing, Newt looked over his shoulder and whispered conspiratorially.
“The Big Cave is right up here, through these bushes.” Silently they tethered the horses in the thicket, and carefully probed forward. Tristan and Robyn advanced side by side, with Newt fluttering along above him. Soon they reached the shelter of a low hummock, and looked around it into a great clearing. Before them stood the Big Cave. It was some sort of large stone structure – perhaps a temple, or fortress. Above the great building soared the black falcon, Sable.
*****
The leviathan sensed the presence of the fleet as soon as it broached the waters beyond Iron Bay. Dimly, the creature understood the threat these ships posed to the goddess. It resolutely turned toward the longships, still many miles away.
Slowly, the great tail propelled the creature through the sea, occasionally sending the great body to the surface to breathe. Then its head would dive again, the sinuous body rolling across the surface behind it for an impossibly long time.
Finally the great tail would lift above the waves. The leviathan raised it high, perhaps in a gesture of challenge, and then slapped it against the surface to propel itself deeper and deeper.
For many days it rolled thus, breaking water to breathe, and then plunging far beneath the surface to swim. As it moved, it sensed the threat far before it. A perversion had entered the water, befouling a Balance of the clean sea, and laying a clear challenge before the leviathan.
The befoulment grew stronger as the leviathan moved northward. It spread across the sea like a cancerous poison, clogging the creature’s breathing hole, and stinging its eyes. Resolutely, however, the leviathan advanced.
Soon would come the time for killing.
VIII
THE BIG CAVE
ONCE AGAIN THE full moon poured its irresistible rays over the sleeping village of Corwell. Erian, alone in his cottage, dreaded the rise of the moon, but as its light washed across him he had no choice but to succumb to the summoning force.
As the first twinges of change wracked his body, he smashed open the door of his cottage and ran through the quiet, moonlit streets. The shadowy bulk of Caer Corwell loomed to his right as he splashed through Corlyth Creek at the ford just north of town.
His feet pounded the turf in panic as he sprinted, trying to get as far away as possible. Abruptly, a convulsion wracked his body and he tumbled to the ground, rolling in agony across the grass.
Landing on his back, he lay helpless because his limbs did not respond to his command. Instead they twitched and thrashed with a will of their own. He tried to avert his face, to bury it in the darkness of the earth, but the glowing orb of the moon called to him with such force that he could only gaze skyward. His eyes wide, he felt the stabbing force of the moon burning into his skull.
His body contorted through the changes wrought by the bite of Kazgoroth two months before. Hair, fangs, claws all sprouted. His limbs twisted and shrank. Finally a tortured howl broke from his lips, ringing across the moor and silencing every creature within hearing.
Erian climbed to his four feet and padded softly forward. His tongue lolled heavily, from gaping, fangstudded jaws. His sensitive nostrils searched the air, soon catching wind of a fat cow. His path took him