Just about turning his shoulder against the impact, he ploughed into the fetid mud, water and reeds. He rolled for what seemed like an age, keeping his mouth tight-closed and forcing air out of his nose to keep the stagnant slime from driving up his nostrils.
He slowed to a stop and came quickly to his feet, checking his weapons as he looked around him for the rest of The Raven. His mace was still in its bracket and his sword in its sheath. One of his belt-sheathed daggers had broken and his pack had torn from his back. It lay a little further back along the path he had dragged through the swamp.
He flicked his wrists to shake off the worst of the stinking mud then wiped down his arms and legs with the back of his hands. The Raven were scattered around him, all in various stages of coming to their feet.
'If he wasn't dead, I'd kill him myself,' muttered a voice alongside him.
He looked round. Hirad was smeared from head to toe in black mud. His eyes peered from his face like stars in the night-time sky and the ooze dripped from his braided hair. He wiped at his mouth and nose with one filthy sleeve.
'Yeah, but at least it was something soft,' said The Unknown. 'Come on, let's help everyone up.'
'Do I smell as bad as you look?'
'Probably.'
The Unknown reached down a hand and Eriennc grabbed it, pulling herself to a sitting position.
'Terrific,' she said. 'Where's Denser?'
'He's here.'
'You all right?'
'Yes, love, never better. Nothing I like more than bathing in putrescence.'
The Unknown scanned around him in more detail, seeing the four elves and Thraun making their way over. Ark was shaking his head to clear it. At least no one was hurt. At least not badly.
'What have we got?' asked Hirad, coming to his shoulder.
'You know, I'm not at all sure,' said The Unknown.
Up above him, the sky was loaded with deep-grey cloud. A dull light was cast on ground that in some ways was little different from parts of Balaia. There were hills to their left and an open plain that ran away to their right. A quick look behind revealed shale running up gentle slopes with steeper ground beyond. Directly ahead, the land levelled out and what looked like it might have been a settlement lay at the edges of his vision.
But it was dead. All of it. Silent. Still.
The Unknown looked down at his feet, ankle deep in sludge. What he had thought were reeds were long ribbons of algae floating in the stagnant water. Underfoot, the mud was soft and yielding. They had had a lucky landing. Less fortune would have seen them on the shale and their mission would have been over before it had begun.
Everywhere, the colours were drab. From the grey of rock to the dull brown of the plain sprinkled with the odd patch of palest yellow. He couldn't see the petal of a single flower anywhere he looked. There were no cart tracks, no animal trails. There were no trees. Not as far as the eye could see. But for the undulations of the land, it was completely featureless. And it was cold, very cold.
The breath clouded in front of their faces and dissipated upwards. Tracking it, The Unknown looked into the empty sky. No birds, no insects. No demons either and that was a blessing. He wondered how long that would last. He glanced left and right. Erienne had her arms wrapped around her and was shivering. Denser was doing the
best he could to warm her but his own nose was pale with the cold and there were only tiny dots of colour on his cheeks.
A wind blew at them from the direction of the hills behind. It mourned over the rock and sent icy gusts into their bodies. It wasn't exactly the popular vision of hell but it would do just as well.
'We must be the only souls still here,' said Erienne.
'Which should worry us,' said Thraun. 'Ours will be like a beacon fire to the demons.' He sniffed the air. 'I can't smell anything above this stench.'
The Unknown nodded. 'We need to get out of sight and into some shelter. Not just because of the demons. We're cold and we need to warm up and dry off.'
'Can't see much firewood lying about,' said Hirad.
'There are other ways of providing heat,' said Denser.
The Unknown turned to the elves and raised his eyebrows. While Eilaan had a good covering of the cold mud and slime, the warrior trio had little more than splashes up their trousers and over their boots.
'You need to know how to land when you fall hard,' explained Auum, seeing his expression.
'You never taught me,' said Hirad.
'You could never be with us long enough to learn,' replied Auum.
'What can you see?' asked The Unknown.
Auum pointed ahead of them. 'Tumbledown settiement. All but dust now. Just a few stones. The plain is broad and barren. Behind, there will be shelter. The land is folded. If we are lucky, we'll find a cave.'
'That would be very useful,' said The Unknown. 'That way it is, then.'
He stooped and dragged his pack out of the mud and icy water. One strap remained and he slung it over his left shoulder. He felt a great stiffness in his hip and shook his head.
'I'm too old for this.'
Hirad clapped him on the back. 'Don't worry, big man, it'll all be over soon.'
'Hirad, you are no comfort whatsoever.'
Auum and his Tai led the way, clearly ill at ease. The stagnant water continued for over a quarter of a mile before they began to
travel up slope. The drier ground beneath their feet was a welcome change and the slope afforded some protection against the biting wind. Even so the elves set a cruel pace, driving up the shale at close to a trot. And while their every pace found firm purchase around the loose stone, The Raven slipped and slithered continually, adding grazes and bruises to their shivers and aches.
'Whose idea was this?' grumbled Hirad, picking himself up and brushing shards of stone from his now gauntleted hands.
'Yours, I think,' said Denser. 'Unless my memory fails me, it was you who arrived on Herendeneth and said that something had to be done.'
Herendeneth. The Unknown felt sudden sadness welling up. Every day, his wife and son would stand on the rock overlooking the anchorage awaiting his return. He brought images to his mind of Diera's smile and the wind blowing her hair about her face. And of his son, shouting with wild excitement as he toddled towards his father's open arms. And there really was no going back.
'It's for you,' he whispered. 'This is all for you.'
They continued to climb. Beyond the slopes they could see from the swamp, others revealed themselves, giving the truth to Auum's assessment of the land. The higher they went, the colder and more barren it became; and after an hour's walk, there was no vegetation around them whatever. It was a desolate scene. With their backs to a damp crag that towered hundreds of feet above their heads, they stood or sat to rest.
The Unknown crouched by Rebraal, the two friends looking back over the way they'd travelled.
'Just look at this place,' said The Unknown.
'Small wonder the cursyrd covet Balaia,' said Rebraal.
'Well, for Balaia's vistas today, substitute this glorious view in a few years' time.'
'Unless we put a stop to it.'
'Right.' The Unknown turned to him. 'So, what do your eyes tell you?'
Rebraal shrugged and gazed long out over the decayed landscape. 'It meets exactly the expressions of desolation in the texts in Aryn-deneth. This is what the cursyrd do and it is why the sanctity of the
dead must be maintained. If it is not, all dimensions will ultimately fall to this state.
'There is nothing out there, Unknown. The settlement we could see that is just so much dust and rot is the only one as far as any of us can see or sense. The only break from the wind that we can gauge is the hills at our backs. So the topsoil is eroded and the vegetation has died because it has no purchase. There are no trees. Unknown, there are no trees. So the low-lying land will flood as it rains and more and more is leeched from the earth. And so it dies. As will the air because the vegetation provides the last part in the cycle of life.' He shook his head. 'If this scene is repeated across this dimension then soon it will not be possible to breathe here. And where is the power source my brother said he would set us near? It is not out there.'