He cached the water-skin behind a rock and then studied his hill. A clump of boulders near the top looked like three old men hunched together in prayer. Green lichen, like a cloak, covered the middle rock. He memorized what they looked like.
Decision made, Joash slung the spear across his back and hurried after the others. He was careful to stay close to the cliff-edge. Unlike them, he still feared falling to the ground below. They leaped and bounded up, as if falling was a thing for mortals, not for them. Even so, without the chariot water-skin and with the spear now slung on his back, Joash was able to catch up to Adah. Maybe his days with Balak had been good for something after all. She scaled what looked like a sheer rock-face. He saw that it was angled slightly backward, and to his amazement, he saw handholds chiseled into the rock.
Awe filled him. Had Shining Ones chiseled the handholds long ago? Or maybe some warriors, who had been led by Shining Ones, had chiseled them. Yes, they’d chiseled the handholds as they hunted the defeated followers of Draugr Trolock-Maker. Maybe Niflmen, who had followed the Nameless One, had been chased up this very hill. Adah had said only a thousand Niflmen escaped to their northern strongholds.
Joash watched Adah scurry up the cliff as if she was a squirrel. She didn’t pause to wonder upon the strangeness of an ancient battleground. Divine beings had warred here, the same divine beings that warred in the Celestial Realm when Morningstar and Azel had led their rebellion against Elohim.
Joash shook his head. The horrid enchantment of this place was too strong. A thousand Niflmen had long ago fled these hills. How many thousands more had been slain? How many had died where he now stood? Joash hoisted himself up after Adah. Arioch the Archangel had sealed the bene elohim Draugr in a cave hidden somewhere near here.
Joash paused. Was it possible Draugr Trolock-Maker still lived? No, that was impossible. Joash had learned as a child that the Shining Ones had defeated the bene elohim. Their spirits had been taken off Earth and sealed in prisons. Some called that prison the Gulf of Tartarus, and others called it the Lake of Fire. Surely, if Arioch had sealed Draugr here, the Archangel would have made certain that in the end, the bene elohim had perished. Arioch would also have insured that the evil spirit had been borne away with the others.
Joash scrabbled onto a new and hotter ledge. Adah hurried along a narrow trail that seemed to curl around the rocky hill. Joash followed, although like the animals, he hated these hills. He also pondered all he’d heard. Hadn’t the Singer said trolocks had been sealed with Draugr? Trolocks were piles of rocks, according to Adah, animated by the spirits of the damned. Joash shivered with horror. Trolocks sounded loathsome. Yes, perhaps a treasure really was in this cave, but horrors and old terrors would be there as well.
Joash turned the corner, climbed another ledge, and saw a mini-plateau stretch before him. At the end of the plateau, were Herrek, Elidad, and Gens. Adah hurried to catch up to them.
What had it been like when the Shining Ones had tracked down the bene elohim? How many times had steel rung against steel, how many times had warriors screamed as they fell to their deaths, or shouted in triumph because at last their hated foes had fallen? It seemed, faintly, that Joash could hear the old cries, hear the clangor of battle, and the last desperate shouts of trapped champions. He nodded. The evil enemy would have set ambushes. Boulders would have been rolled upon the unwary. He looked around. The hills were more like a complex of traps, ledges, and high points, rather than natural stone. There would have been bitter melees. Joash was glad the Shining Ones had completed their task. Remembering Mimir’s size and strength, he was appalled at what the giant’s grandfather, a bene elohim, must have been like.
What was in Draugr’s Cave? An ancient treasure, obviously. But why were they being lured toward it?
Then it came to Joash. If a cave had been sealed up for ages, and if Draugr Trolock-Maker had perished in the cave, trapped as he was with trolocks that were animated piles of rocks…maybe Mimir and Tarag feared what was in the cave. Maybe they needed someone else to see if any of the old dangers still lurked in this place of horror. For hadn’t the trolocks been fashioned in the dark caves? And hadn’t Adah once told him that old people, those who had lived for hundreds of years, were very careful with their lives? If patriarchs like Lord Uriah, seldom left the safety of their holdings, what were even longer-lived beings like Tarag like? According to Adah, Tarag had been born before the ancient war had even begun. Wouldn’t Tarag be even more cautious than Lord Uriah was?
“Stop!” Joash shouted, cupping his hands and yelling. His voice was weak, and the others paid him no heed. They strode onward, oblivious to their fate. “No!” Joash shouted. He forced himself to run to Adah. The small Singer strode fast, her eyes straining, her mouth worked into an eerie smile. Her skin had a green cast, and veins that he’d never seen before had surfaced near her skin.
“Adah!”
She didn’t look at him.
Joash grabbed her arm and forced her to stop.
She hissed and slapped him across the face. He released her. She rushed forward.
Joash shook his head, and then dashed after her. “Adah! Wait! You must tell me more about Draugr.”
She didn’t listen.
Joash stopped from sheer exhaustion, sat down, and uncorked his own small water-skin. He sucked the hot liquid as sweat soaked his clothes. He watched Elidad climb a rock and jump out of view. It was impossible to keep up with them.
Would they truly dare fight Tarag?
Of course they would dare. As he was now, Herrek would face anyone.
Joash snapped his fingers. They had bewitched the others so they’d discover if trolocks still lived. From Adah’s description, trolocks seemed like creatures even Nephilim or First Born might fear. Then what could a human hope to do against them?
Joash groaned. Should he try to drive a chariot back to Hori Cove and alert Lord Uriah about the horrors Nephilim attempted to release? The others were doomed.
Joash shook his head. He didn’t truly know what awaited them in the cave. But he wasn’t bewitched. Therefore, he must save them. A shrewd warrior would try to ambush the ambushers. Joash chewed his lip as he readied his spear. This was beyond his skill, but perhaps if he cast the spear at just the right moment…
Joash rose and followed the others. And he strained to catch a sound or a sight of the enemy. One thing seemed certain. If animals couldn’t come to these hills, then Tarag would be without his sabertooths.
A sound alerted him. Joash increased his pace.
“Here,” Herrek shouted from ahead. “Here is the cave.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Cave
…They will set up the abomination that causes desolation.
Joash hurried. Then he slowed, glancing to his right and then to his left. In a moment he ducked behind a rock and waited. He heard the others arguing, but he couldn’t see them yet because they were on the other side of an outcropping of stone. Beyond the outcropping rose a cliff. Above the cliff towered a lichen-capped peak.
Their voices rebounded off the cliff and reverberated into the hills. If Nephilim followed, they’d hear the voices. Joash listened for the scrape of Nephilim sandals or for the clatter of falling rocks. The wind moaned, the sun blazed its heat, and a fly buzzed past his ear. Joash brushed away the fly as sweat dripped into his eyebrows. He didn’t move, didn’t twitch, and didn’t even breathe deeply. The others depended on him for survival.