“This whole place is like a tomb,” she said. “I wonder where those leeches came from.”
“Probably Siavrax-what better way to keep unwanted guests away from your secret laboratory?”
“Do you think he would really kill a whole swamp just to keep people away?”
“He summoned the Succubus Queen,” Alexander said. “There’s no telling what he was capable of.”
“I wonder what I’m going to find on that mountain,” Isabel said.
“I had a look around and I’m afraid it’s not so empty of life,” Alexander said. “It’s mostly a jungle until you get up toward the top where the vegetation thins out.”
“Any predators I should know about?”
“A few animals: jaguars, snakes, boar, monkeys, and some type of wild dog that hunts in packs,” Alexander said. “But there’s also something else. I consulted the sovereigns about them before I came to you. They’re called vorash … another one of Siavrax’s creations.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Isabel said.
“No, they’re built almost like a man, two arms and two legs, except they have two broad, powerful, clawed fingers forward and one back on both their hands and their feet. The head is elongated like a dog’s, only bigger, and they have tentacles sprouting from each shoulder ending in clawed hands as well. They’re supposed to be terribly strong, very aggressive, and completely territorial. They can climb better than a monkey and prefer to attack from above, sometimes carrying prey into the trees and dropping them to their death.”
“Great,” Isabel said. “I think I’ll try to avoid them altogether.”
“Probably wise if you can,” Alexander said. “Malachi said Siavrax created them to use as soldiers in the jungle but they were less than obedient and not terribly smart.”
“Anything else?” Isabel asked.
“The fortress is mostly inside the mountain except for the ruins of the keep on the very top,” Alexander said. “It looks like there are a number of ways into the lower levels that are accessible from smaller structures in the jungle.”
“That sounds promising,” Isabel said. “The less time I can spend in the trees, the less time the vorash will have to hunt me.”
“From the course Hazel’s taking, it looks like she’s heading for one of these side entrances.”
“Almost like she knows where she’s going,” Isabel said.
Alexander nodded.
“She was playing us all along,” Isabel said. “I wish I had time to read more of her journal.”
“Maybe when you stop for the night,” Alexander said. “I’ll be back when I know more.”
Isabel moved through the swamp, damp from mist and sweat, her arms and shoulders burning, but she pushed, determined to cover the distance quickly. At dark she tied off to a tree and tried to read some of Hazel’s journal, but it was like reading one side of a conversation. Isabel wondered how much of that conversation had taken place in Hazel’s mind and how much actually made it onto the page.
From what she could gather, Hazel needed a woman of her lineage to complete the transference, whatever that was, and she was very excited to have finally brought Ayela to her. Apparently, she’d been trying to influence the Princess of Karth for some time, using a dream-whisper spell and had all but given up. When Ayela arrived, Hazel began making preparations for the transference spell but could only complete it in the mountain.
She didn’t say why.
Chapter 37
Despite her desire to study the rest of the journal and the uneasiness caused by the eerie noises in the darkness, Isabel’s exhaustion caught up with her. She woke the following morning, stiff and sore from sitting up against her pack all night. She rubbed her neck as she stood up and looked around. The swamp was as quiet and dreary as ever.
She moved slower due to her sore muscles but still managed to reach solid ground just before nightfall. Rather than going ashore and risking the predators that lived there, she tied off a hundred feet from the swamp’s edge and slept on her raft. Alexander appeared when she woke.
“Were you watching me sleep?” she asked groggily as she stretched.
He just smiled with a shrug.
“Their boat is tied off a few hundred feet to the north,” he said. “They went straight to an overgrown structure on the side of the mountain and made camp just inside. Hazel has them up and moving like she knows where she’s going and that’s saying something because that place is like a maze.”
“How will I find them?”
“I’ll guide you,” Alexander said, “but you should probably get moving.”
“First, I’m going to move their boat,” Isabel said with a devious smile.
After finding their boat and rowing it to a thicket just south of where she’d hidden her raft, she headed along the edge of the swamp, reasoning that the vorash would probably do most of their hunting deeper in the jungle that covered the foothills surrounding the mountain.
Near where Hazel and her friends had come ashore, she picked up their trail and cautiously made her way into the jungle, keeping a watchful eye for any sign of danger, using Slyder to scout for her as well. Several hundred feet from a small stone structure built into the side of the mountain, now completely overgrown and barely discernable, Isabel stopped again to survey her surroundings through Slyder’s eyes.
Four creatures were sniffing around the entrance-vorash. They were even more frightening than Alexander’s description. They seemed to be searching the area but were unwilling to enter the structure itself. Isabel waited, watching them until they used their tentacles to pull themselves up into nearby trees where they concealed themselves in the foliage, lying in wait over the entrance.
Isabel weighed her options. She could try to fight her way through, but she doubted she could kill all four before they were on her, and even if she could make it to the structure and get inside, there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t pursue her. She settled on using the potion of invisibility she’d discovered in Hazel’s workshop, hoping it would work as expected.
After drinking the syrupy sweet liquid, she was pleased to see herself vanish from view. Carefully, quietly, she made her way toward the structure. The vorash were watching the area intently and were starting to become restless as if they sensed something nearby. She drew closer to the partially obstructed entrance; a large support stone had fallen across the doorway leaving just a small gap at the base.
Twenty feet from her objective, the vorash roared as one and she realized that the potion had run its course. She was visible again. The vorash were coming, all four of them swinging from their perches high in the trees overhead and reaching the ground far more quickly than she would have imagined.
She raced for the entrance, relying on speed driven by fear to help her reach the relative safety of the structure before the vorash reached her. A tentacle snapped out from the brush, hitting her across the shins, sending her sprawling on her face just feet from the entrance. She scrambled toward the opening, willing the pain shooting up her legs to the back of her mind when a viselike grip caught her by the ankle.
Rolling onto her back and swinging her sword wildly, she caught the tentacle of the creature just above the three-fingered hand, severing it and drawing a scream of rage and pain. Another tentacle struck her in the chest, knocking her breath out as she crawled backward, struggling desperately to reach the structure before the vorash reached her. The other three were nearly within reach when the first leapt into the air, coming down on top of her. She rolled to the side, slashing frantically with her sword, her blade cutting to the bone in the back of the monster’s leg. The vorash shrieked in pain and leapt away with Isabel’s sword still stuck in its leg.
She scrambled through the hole into the darkness but another tentacle grabbed her by the ankle, sending pain shooting anew up her leg, trying to drag her back into the daylight. She turned and plunged her dagger into the tentacle and it released her, the vorash howling in pain. Isabel scrambled backward into the relative shelter of the ruined building.