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  “Turn your head,” I said to him, and aimed at the joint where the shackle met the thick chain. He twisted his face away, and I fired. The steel severed, and his hand sprung free, the manacle hanging from his wrist like a dangling bracelet. I was running to the opposite side to do the same for his other hand when he sat up, reached over, and grasped the chain. With a guttural yell, he yanked on the steel, and I heard a popping sound. The stake holding the opposite end of the chain to the rock broke in half, and Kotis rose to his full height.

  His eyes widened as he looked past my shoulder. “Down!” he yelled, and whipped the chain in a sweeping motion at my head.

  I bent my knees and fell to the ground, rolling over just in time to see Dagnon’s pincers stab the air where I’d been. The chain attached to Kotis’s wrist wrapped twice around the monster’s neck.

  Dagnon’s eyes flared with surprise, and his hands reached to the chain. Before they could get there, Kotis whipped his left arm back, almost pulling Dagnon off his feet, and threw his massive right fist forward. His knuckles crashed into Dagnon’s face with a wet explosion of tissue and bone. Blood splattered out from the circumference of Kotis’s fist in a halo of gore. My eyes widened as the monster’s face caved inward before he flew back from the force of the blow.

  Dagnon’s features were a flattened mess. Blood rushed from torn flesh where jagged bones poked free. His right eye stared sightlessly at the crater where his nose used to be, and his left was a gelatinous stain that drooled down his cheek. He opened his mouth as though to say something, and a handful of pointed teeth tumbled free onto the ground, a few trailing bright red roots. Without another sound, he crumpled and lay still, his legs splayed in a V.

  “That’s for hitting my bird, prick!” Kotis yelled.

  I stood and turned to see Fellow a short distance away as he pulled the curved blade from the back of the last rust creature. There was a tinkling as its body fell to pieces, and then silence except for the singing of the wind through the jutting teeth around us. I sagged and my legs threatened to drop me to the rock beneath my feet. Scrim swooped past me and fanned his wings before landing on Kotis’s outstretched forearm. The giant’s eyes shone with tears. Scrim clicked and made the purring sound I heard before. Kotis smiled and petted the bird’s head, smoothing the upraised feathers that stuck out in several directions. Scrim let out a short squawk and then clicked rapidly, sounding like an old typewriter.

  Kotis smiled and shook the bird in mock anger. “I know I’m naked, you fool, give me a minute to get decent.”

  Fellow approached and handed Kotis his vest and pants, having donned his own clothes moments before. All I could do was stand with a smile plastered on my face.

  Kotis noticed my expression and grinned. “Now that you’ve seen what a real man looks like, don’t be gettin’ any ideas.”

  “Yes, like I said, I’m married,” Fellow said deadpan.

  Kotis’s head jerked around as he tried to break the shackle at his ankle, and he lost his balance and fell to his back with a grunt. Scrim hopped free and flapped above his supine form, screeching what sounded like laughter. I chuckled, and soon my stomach ached with convulsions.

  “Bollocks on all of you!” Kotis yelled as he broke his ankles free of their chains. This only made Fellow and I laugh more, and when the giant finally struggled to his feet, a smile stretched across his hard features.

  Once Kotis put on his clothes, we moved out of the mouth of Lonos and left his last acolyte lying where he fell. As we walked I related what I’d seen in the house and how my shadow had followed me inside. Both Kotis and Fellow grew silent as I told them about my worst memories and the suicidal hold the house possessed on anyone who entered. When I reached the portion concerning Lonos’s soul trapped in the glass container, Kotis stopped and tilted his head to one side.

  “So where’s that thing’s soul now?” he asked.

  “Tucked safely inside a Jack Daniels bottle in the second story of the house,” I said. Both Fellow and Kotis stared at me, their jaws hanging open. “I got the idea when I emptied the whiskey onto the floor,” I explained. “The whiskey bottle’s top fit perfectly inside the mouth of the vase. I just poured it in and capped it.”

  “Then you pissed in the vase?” Kotis asked.

  I nodded.

  “Oh, I’ve heard it all now,” Kotis said, putting a hand against his forehead. He laughed again as we resumed walking.

  “What I want to know is, why Ellius let you both get captured while he ran away,” I said after a time.

  “He thought you were dead, Michael, we all did. None of us expected you to survive after you fell,” Fellow said. “When Dagnon and the others sprung out and took us by surprise, Ellius tried to call the roots up from the ground like he did outside of the bone field. But Dagnon saw him do it and attacked him. Ellius had no choice but to flee into the safety of the forest.”

  “He’s right, mate. He did what any of us would’ve done,” Kotis said.

  “But you were brilliant!” Fellow exclaimed. “That was an amazing plan, Michael. It worked perfectly!”

  I shrugged. “I wouldn’t say it was brilliant. Maybe crazy and reckless.”

  “But it worked,” Kotis said, jabbing me in the shoulder with a finger. “You kept us all alive when you could’ve left us to die.”

  “I would never do that,” I said.

  “Then you’re a shining beacon of what’s good from your side, even if you are an ugly wanker,” Kotis said with a wry smile.

  We emerged from the outer teeth of Lonos’s mouth and headed to the right of the house in the distance. I wanted to swing wide around it, even though I knew it would hold no more horrors for me if I stepped inside. The hard-packed earth provided an easy walking surface, and we trudged on, the exhaustion of battle slowing our steps with each one we took. Fellow led us, his head erect and watchful, never deviating from a line that only he could see. After an hour of walking, trees became visible on the horizon, a welcome sight. We made camp at their edge, and fire had never felt better on my chilled hands and face. Kotis handed around the last of his dried meat, and Fellow offered to go hunting for something in the woods. But we agreed tomorrow would be soon enough. We were all tired and sore, fatigue pressing upon us with irresistible fingers, and soon after eating we bedded down in a semicircle around the fire.

  “The stars you spoke of,” Fellow said, breaking the silence I’d mistook for sleep. “Do they have names?”

  “Some do. There’s billions upon billions of them, so most only have numbers or areas assigned to them. But some have names.”

  “Like what?” Kotis asked.

  I blinked, trying to will the gray-tinged clouds above us to part so that Kotis and Fellow could see something of my world, a common ground of beauty and wonder that still held sway in anyone’s mind if one wasn’t oversaturated with everyday life. Before I spoke, I wondered when I’d last taken time to look at the stars.

  “Most times there are a few stars grouped together, forming a picture, and they’re named for really old heroes or gods. There’s Aries and Taurus, Aquarius, the Big and Little Dippers, Orion the hunter, things like that.”

  “What a thing, to be immortalized forever in the sky for a deed,” Kotis said.

  “Nothing’s forever,” I said, closing my eyes. “Even the brightest stars burn out and disappear.”

  “But you’ll remember them when they’re gone, won’t you?” Fellow asked.

  I thought about the nights I’d spent with Sara and Jack looking up at the speckled sky. Their questions so full of childish simplicity, so direct and honest that they deserved an equally honest answer. I remembered telling them the names of the stars in the hope that someday they would tell their own children.

  “Yes, there’s always someone to remember,” I said, as a tear slipped free of my eye and trailed down the side of my face.

  A stick snapped in the darkness of the trees nearby, and we sat up as one, our eyes trained on the sp
ot the noise came from. My hand found the pistol in my pocket, and I mentally counted how many shots I fired earlier. Three, only three. I had three shots left. With a scraping sound, Fellow drew the long blade from his belt. He’d offered it back to me on the walk to the camp, and I declined, seeing that he’d taken a shine to the weapon after experiencing its usefulness. Kotis stood and balled his fists, his shoulders hunched with anticipation. Scrim tensed on Kotis’s shoulder and shrugged his wings. My grip tightened on the ancient handle of the revolver as we stared at the edge of the trees. The twilight condensed to pure darkness between their trunks, but after endless seconds of staring, I caught movement a few steps in.

  “There,” I said, pointing the pistol.

  Fellow moved closer beside me, the wicked blade he held waving back and forth. “Who’s there?” he called. We heard a few scuffling footsteps coming in our direction, and a shadow formed an outline I recognized at once.

  “Never a sight was better seen by eyes alive or dead,” Ellius said as he hobbled out of the trees and into the camp. His wrinkled features were warm with a gracious smile as he made a straight line toward me and hugged me close. I hugged him back, thankful that our group was whole again. He pushed me to arm’s length and examined me, perhaps to make sure I had all of my appendages. “Unbelievable,” he whispered. “I thought we’d lost you.”

  “Not yet,” I said.

  Ellius turned and greeted both Fellow and Kotis and patted Scrim on the head as the bird issued an appreciative screech. Without preamble, Ellius asked us to relate what had transpired during his absence. I told him of my trip down the river, of nearly freezing solid, of the escape from the river’s tongue, and of the rescue and subsequent battle we’d fought. He listened raptly, nodding and exclaiming at times. When I finished, his face became solemn and he looked at each of us before speaking.

  “I failed you all, and I’m very sorry for that. I searched for you, Michael, after Fellow and Kotis were taken, but I must have passed you by more than once. After that I canvassed the woods and found a group of chitnas—”

  “What are chitnas?” I asked.

  “Forest imps. Nasty little bastards. Don’t care for anything but acorns and nuts,” Kotis said.

  Ellius nodded. “They wouldn’t help me, even though their numbers were enough for rescue. So, instead, I wandered the woods looking for help in any other form, but found none. I was about to double back when I saw the fire and hoped against hope ...” He stopped and bowed his head. “Forgive me for failing you all.”

  “There’s nothing to forgive,” I said. “You tried your best, and it’s only by chance that we were able to fight our way free.”

  “He’s right. You did what had to be done, no harm in that,” Kotis said.

  “We’re just glad you’re back,” Fellow added.

  Ellius smiled, the bark on his cheeks crinkling. “Thank you.”

  “Ellius, how much farther?” I asked.

  His eyes brightened, and he put a gentle hand on my shoulder. “I think we’ll be close tomorrow.”

  Elation and longing surged within me, and I nodded. Tomorrow I would find my family. Tomorrow I would face whatever took them, an evil without name, without age. I wanted to force everyone to move on right then, but resisted the impulse. It would be foolish and reckless to continue when we were so exhausted. A mistake might be made that we couldn’t afford, not now, not with how far we’d come. Instead, I sat and tried to make a plan of how to save my family from a threat I knew nothing about.

  We talked for a while longer before sleep pulled me to the ground. The last thing I heard were the comforting murmurs of my friends before closing my eyes.

  Chapter 10

  The Nameless Crater

  I woke before anyone else. My head felt leaden, and my stomach growled with clawing hunger and anticipation. I would see my family today. I would hold them and tell them everything would be okay, or I would die with them.

  Fellow, Kotis, and Ellius lay around the fire, each snoring at a different volume. Scrim sat beside Kotis’s shoulder, his wing pulled tight over his tucked head. The fire burned low, and I threw several pieces of wood on the flames.

  I stood and stretched, pulling my coat around my shoulders to stop the chill creeping up my back. My body felt like I’d fallen down several flights of stairs after running a marathon. Every muscle was sore to the touch, and my head throbbed in strobe-like pulses. Drinking some water from Kotis’s water pouch, I turned to look at the sun. It hung just above the horizon behind us, its light bloody and pooling across the clouds, streaking them crimson.

  “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight, red sky in morning, sailor’s warning,” I said to the light breeze. Unease flowed across my skin, giving me of goose bumps. No matter how many years I watched the Weather Channel to try to plan my day, the very best indicator of a storm was always the sunrise.

  “Not thinkin’ dark thoughts, are ya?”

  Kotis stepped up beside me, and I jerked at the sound of his voice. I hadn’t heard him rise, and for his size he moved with considerable stealth.

  “No,” I said. “Just thinking.”

  He turned his head to study me before facing the sun again. “I can’t imagine how you must feel, being away from them so long. I miss my own sorely, and I’ve only been gone a few days.”

  “Yeah, it’s something I never thought I’d have to deal with. It’s not that I took them for granted, but ...” I searched for what I wanted to say, finally letting my breath fizzle out between my teeth.

  “You’ve come this far for them, mate. They’re special to you and you to them. Enough to risk it all, am I right?”

  I nodded, thinking of their smiles. “Yes, you are.”

  Kotis grunted, satisfied. “Then we find them today and bring them back. Do or die, mate.”

  “You’re goddamn right.”

  We set off after a meager breakfast of mush Ellius provided from his satchel. The stand of trees we camped by swung out and to our left, and we followed its border for hours. The trees became sparse after a time, and soon there were only a scattered few, scabbing the ground with their long shadows. The soil went from dry and cracked to rocky again. The rocks were dark and sharp, strewn haphazardly everywhere, ranging from baseball size to a towering twenty feet. At one point we rested, and I examined a nearby boulder, placing a hand against its side, and felt the small flakes of rock biting into my skin. When I pulled my hand away, it bled freely from multiple slices. The minute incisions were not deep, but they covered my entire palm. I made a mental note not to fall against any of the stones if I could possibly help it.

  The day wore on and our pace slowed. Ellius led the way, with Fellow behind him. I was next, and Kotis took up the rear. Scrim flew ahead every so often and reported back, saying that there was no obvious danger in our immediate future. The ground began to rise, slowly at first and then in a more obvious grade. My legs burned from the exertion, and my breath came in short bursts.

  After hours of climbing, I was about to ask Ellius how much farther it was when he halted the group with a raised hand. We stopped, listening for the sound of footsteps or approach of any kind. Nothing met my ears, and I gazed around, taking in our immediate vicinity.

  The slew of rock we treaded through had diminished, and now only a few small stones lay on the ground in close groupings, as if piled by an unseen hand. A beaten trail ran beneath our feet and led away, onto a flattened area and then into what appeared to be foothills of a sheer mountain. The mountain was black, matching the rock that lay around it, making it look like a crusted sore. Its height ended abruptly in a flattened top, a rough irregularity that suggested an unnatural formation.

  “It’s a crater,” I said, staring at the huge cone thrust upward from the rest of the flatland. I took a few steps so that I stood even with Ellius. “That’s an impact crater.”

  Ellius nodded. “It gouged the ground and rock free, making a burrow of unfathomable proportions.”
r />   Understanding dawned in my mind. “That’s where it lives, that’s where it’s keeping them.”

  “Yes. This place is nameless, just as its master. There is no life but what it provides here, and that is monstrous creation, unfit for light and horrible to behold.”

  “It stinks,” Kotis said.

  I agreed. There was a taint to the air that hadn’t been noticeable before when we stepped onto the plateau. It was musky and thick, pungent in a way that made you feel as if you were breathing liquid. It held a tinge of decay, but mostly it smelled of unwashed life, something neglected and unclean.

  I gazed at the crater’s wall, looking for a way up, and saw a few promising routes. The path we stood on looked like it had been trod for millennia, the dirt and sand compressed into a smooth pack that shone as it wound up the side of the rise and vanished in an outcrop of rock.

  “So what’s the plan?” Kotis asked, folding his arms over his chest.

  “We need to get off this path,” Ellius said. “This is its hunting trail. We’ll eat and rest before we attempt to climb the pass. All we can hope is that it is not present and remains absent while we’re inside.”

  “What?” I asked. “We need to go now, we’ve wasted too much time.”

  “Michael, we’ve been walking all day. Everyone is weary and dull-witted. We must rest and form a plan for success. Everything balances upon our actions. If we make one misstep and it kills your family, we are all doomed.”

  “What if they’re hurt or dying? I can’t just sit here while they need me. We have to go now.” My voice nudged the edge of hysteria, but I didn’t care. I was within a mile of my family, and I couldn’t wait anymore. The thoughts that had plagued me over the past days returned and painted the walls of my mind with murals of my children’s mutilations, my wife’s tortured death. Their cries of pain echoed in my ears until it was all I could hear.

  “Michael, he’s right. We need to form a plan of some sort,” Fellow said as he laid a hand on my arm. “Without contingency, we might as well accept defeat. It is wily and older than all of us, it will have the upper hand when we enter.”