The Pillars of Creation Read online

  Jennsen’s breath left her lungs in a grunt as she crashed into a solid wall that had never been there before.

  Rebounding from the collision, she looked up to see a broad back turning, to see a huge hand snatching for her.

  The hand caught only her cloak. The heavy wool cloak stripped away from her as she fell back. The bowl thudded to the floor, spinning like a crazy top. The door bounced back from hitting the wall, banging closed behind her, trapping; her, just before her back slammed into it.

  Gasping, Jennsen reacted.

  It was wild instinct, not deliberate thought.

  Jennsen.

  Terror, not technique.

  Surrender.

  Desperation, not design.

  The man’s blocky face was clearly lit by the fire from the hearth. He plunged toward her. A monster with stringy wet hair. Straining sinew and muscle twisted in rage. The knife in her fist whipped around, powered by stark terror.

  Her cry was a growl of panicked effort. Her knife slammed into the side of his head. The blade snapped at midlength as it hit his cheekbone. His head twisted from the impact. Blood splashed across his face.

  Swinging madly, his meaty hand walloped her face. Her shoulder hit the wall. A shock of pain lanced her arm. She stumbled on something. Thrown off balance, she tumbled past her footing.

  Her face smacked the floor beside another of the huge men. He was like the dead soldier she had buried. Her mind grasped at snatches of what she was seeing, trying to make sense of it. Where did they come from? How were they in her house?

  Her leg was draped over the man’s still legs. She pushed herself up. He was slumped against the wall. His dead eyes stared at her. The handle with the ornate “R,” sideways below his ear, reflected sparkles of firelight. The point of the knife jutted from the other side of his bull neck. He wore a wet red shirt.

  Surrender.

  With cold fright, she saw a man coming for her.

  Gripping her broken knife, she scrambled to her feet, turning toward the threat. She saw her mother on the floor. A man held her by the hair. There was blood everywhere.

  Nothing seemed real.

  In a nightmare vision, Jennsen saw her mother’s severed arm on the floor, fingers slack and open. Red stab wounds.

  Jennsen.

  Panic ruled her mind. She heard her own short, choppy screams. Wet blood, splashed across the floor, glistened in the firelight. Whirling movement. A man slammed into her, driving her to the wall. She lost her breath. Pain crushed her chest.

  Surrender.

  “No!” Her own voice seemed unreal.

  She slashed with her broken knife, ripping the man’s arm. He bellowed a vile oath.

  The man holding Jennsen’s mother dropped her and made for Jennsen. She stabbed wildly, frantically, at the men around her. Reaching hands shot toward her from all around. A huge hand clamped her thrashing knife arm.

  Surrender.

  Jennsen gasped a cry. She struggled savagely. She kicked. She bit. Men cursed. The second man seized her throat in iron fingers.

  No breath. No breath. She tried—couldn’t breathe—tried desperately—but couldn’t draw a breath.

  He sneered as he squeezed her throat. Pain shot up through her temples. His cheek, slashed by her knife, laid open from ear to mouth, ran with gouts of blood. She could see glistening red teeth through the gaping wound.

  Jennsen struggled, but couldn’t pull a breath. A fist slammed her stomach. She kicked him. He seized her ankle before she could kick him again. One was dead. Two had her. Her mother down.

  Her vision was narrowing to a black tunnel. Her chest burned. It hurt so much. So much.

  Sound was muffled.

  She heard a bone-jarring thunk.

  The man in front of her, squeezing her throat, staggered once as his head jerked.

  It made no sense to her. His grip went slack. She gasped an urgent breath. His head tipped forward. A crescent-bladed axe was embedded in the back of the man’s neck, severing his spine.

  The axe handle swung in an arc as he dropped. Sebastian, measured fury with white hair, stood behind him.

  The last man let go of her arm. His other fist brought up a blood-slick sword. Sebastian was quicker than the man.

  Jennsen was quicker even than Sebastian.

  Surrender.

  She cried out, an animal sound, savage, unbridled, terror and fury. Her broken blade slashed across the side of the man’s neck.

  Her half blade ripped bone-deep, cut the artery, severed muscles. He cried out. Blood seemed to float, suspended in midair, as the man pitched against the far wall on his way down. She’d swung so hard she fell sprawling with him. Sebastian’s short sword struck like lightning, slamming through the great barrel chest with bone-cracking power.

  Jennsen scrambled over the bodies, slipping on blood. She saw only her mother on the floor, half sitting, leaning against the far wall. Her mother watched her come. Jennsen couldn’t stop screaming, couldn’t breathe through her hysterical cries.

  Her mother, covered in blood, eyelids half closed, looked as if she were falling asleep. But she had that spark of joy at seeing Jennsen. Always that spark in her eyes. Her face had bloody streaks from big fingers down the side. She smiled her beautiful smile at seeing Jennsen.

  “Baby…” she whispered.

  Jennsen couldn’t make herself stop screaming, shaking. She didn’t look down at the awful red wounds.

  She saw only her mother’s face.

  “Mama, Mama, Mama.”

  One arm embraced her. Her other was gone. Her knife arm gone.

  The one around Jennsen was love and comfort and shelter.

  Her mother smiled a weary smile. “Baby…you did good. Now, listen to me.”

  Sebastian was there, working frantically to tie something around what was left of her mother’s right arm, trying to stem the tide of blood. Her mother only saw Jennsen.

  “I’m here, Mama. Everything will be fine. I’m here. Mama—don’t die—don’t die. Hold on, Mama. Hold on.”

  “Listen.” Her voice was hardly more than a breath.

  “I’m listening, Mama,” Jennsen cried. “I’m listening.”

  “I’m gone. I’m crossing to be with the good spirits, now.”

  “No, Mama, no, please no.”

  “Can’t help it, baby…. It’s all right. The good spirits will take good care of me.”

  Jennsen held her mother’s face in both hands, trying to see it through the helpless flood of tears. Jennsen gasped with frantic sobs.

  “Mama—don’t leave me alone. Don’t leave me. Please oh please don’t. Oh, Mama, I love you.”

  “Love you, baby. More than anything. I’ve taught you all I can. Listen, now.”

  Jennsen nodded, fearing to miss a single precious word.

  “The good spirits are taking me. You must understand that. When I go, this body won’t be me any longer. Understand? I don’t need it anymore. It doesn’t hurt at all. Not at all. Isn’t that a wonder? I’m with the good spirits. You must be strong now, and leave what is no longer me.”

  “Mama,” Jennsen could only sob in agony as she held the face she loved more than life itself.

  “He’s coming for you, Jenn. Run. Don’t stay with this body that isn’t me after I’m with the good spirits. Understand?”

  “No, Mama. I can’t leave you. I can’t.”

  “You must. Don’t foolishly risk your life just to bury this useless body. It isn’t me. I’m in your heart and with the good spirits. This body isn’t me. Understand, baby?”

  “Yes, Mama. Not you. You’ll be with the good spirits. Not here.”

  Her mother nodded in Jennsen’s hands. “Good girl. Take the knife. I took one out with it. It’s a worthy weapon.”

  “Mama, I love you.” Jennsen wished for better words but there were none. “I love you.”

  “I love you…that’s why you must run, baby. I don’t want you to throw your life away over what is no longer m
e. Your life is too precious. Leave this empty vessel. Run, Jenn. Or he’ll get you. Run.” Her eyes turned toward Sebastian. “Help her?”

  Sebastian, right there, nodded. “I swear I will.”

  She looked back at Jennsen and smiled her sweet love. “I’ll always be in your heart, baby. Always. Love you, always.”

  “Oh Mama, you know I love you. Always.”

  Her mother smiled as she watched her daughter. Jennsen’s fingers caressed her mother’s beautiful face. For a fleeting eternity her mother watched her.

  Until Jennsen realized that her mother was no longer seeing anything in this world.

  Jennsen fell against her mother, dissolving in tears and terror. Choking in sobs. Everything had ended. The crazy senseless world had ended.

  Her arms stretched out toward her mother as she was pulled away.

  “Jennsen.” His mouth was close to her ear. “We have to do what she wanted.”

  “No! Please oh please no,” she wailed.

  He gently pulled. “Jennsen, do as she asked. We must.”

  Jennsen pounded her fists against the blood-slicked floor. “No!” The world had ended. “Oh please no. No, it can’t be.”

  “Jenn, we have to go.”

  “You go,” she sobbed. “I don’t care. I give up.”

  “No, Jenn, you don’t. You can’t.”

  His arm around her middle lifted her, set her on her wobbly legs. Numb, Jennsen couldn’t move. Nothing was real. Everything was a dream. The world was crumbling to ash.

  Holding her by her upper arms, he shook her. “Jennsen, we have to get out of here.”

  She turned her head and looked at her mother on the floor. “We have to do something. Please. We have to do something.”

  “Yes, we do. We have to leave before more men show up.”

  His face was dripping. She wondered if it was rain. As if she were watching herself from some great disconnected distance, her own thoughts seemed crazy to her.

  “Jennsen, listen to me.” Her mother had said that. It was important. “Listen to me. We have to get out of here. Your mother was right. We have to go.”

  He turned to the pack beside the lamp on the table at the side of the room. Jennsen slumped to the floor. Her knees hit with a thump. She was empty of everything but the hot coals of agony from which she could not pull away. Why did everything have to be so wrong?

  Jennsen crawled toward her sleeping mother. She couldn’t die. She couldn’t. Jennsen loved her too much for her to die.

  “Jennsen! Grieve later! We have to get out of here!”

  Out the open door, the rain poured down.

  “I won’t leave her!”

  “Your mother made a sacrifice for you—so you would have a life. Don’t throw away her final act of courage.”

  He was stuffing whatever he could find in a pack. “You have to do as she said. She loves you and wants you to live. She told you to run. I swore I’d help you. We have to leave before they catch us here.”

  She stared at the door. It had been closed. She remembered crashing into it. Now it stood open. Maybe the latch broke…

  A huge shadow materialized out of the rain, melting through the doorway into the house.

  The brawny man’s eyes fixed on her. Feral fright surged through her. He moved toward her. Faster and faster.

  Jennsen saw the knife with the ornate “R” sticking from the side of a dead man’s neck. The knife her mother told her to take. It wasn’t far. Her mother had lost her arm—her life—to kill him.

  The man, seemingly oblivious of Sebastian, dove for Jennsen. She dove for the knife. Her fingers, greasy with blood, seized the handle. The worked metal gave good grip. Art, with purpose. Deadly art. With teeth gritted, she yanked the blade free and rolled.

  Before the man reached her, Sebastian growled with the effort of burying his axe in the back of the man’s head. The soldier crashed to the floor beside her, his meaty arm falling across her middle.

  Jennsen, crying out, wriggled out from under the arm as blood grew in a dark pool beneath his head. Sebastian pulled her up.

  “Get whatever you want to take,” he ordered.

  She moved through the room, walking in a dream. The world had gone mad. Perhaps it was she who had finally gone mad.

  The voice in her head whispered to her, in its strange language. She found herself listening, almost comforted by it.

  Tu vash misht. Tu vask misht. Grushdeva du kalt misht.

  “We have to go,” Sebastian said. “Get what you want to take.”

  She couldn’t think. She didn’t know what to do. She blocked the voice and told herself to do as her mother said to do.

  She went to the cupboard and rapidly began picking out things that they always took when they traveled—things always at the ready. Traveling clothes were kept in her pack, ready to leave at a moment’s notice. She threw herbs, spices, and dried food in on top of them. She pulled other clothes, a brush, a small mirror, from a simple chest of woven branches.

  Her hand paused when she started grabbing her mother’s clothes for her. She stopped, fingers trembling, focusing on her mother’s orders. She couldn’t think, so she moved like a trained animal, doing as she had been taught. They’d had to run before.

  She scanned the room. Four dead D’Harans. One that morning. That made five. A quad plus one. Where were the other three? In the dark outside the door? In the trees? In the dark woods, waiting? Waiting to take her to Lord Rahl to be tortured to death?

  With both hands, Sebastian seized her wrist. “Jennsen, what are you doing?”

  She realized she was stabbing at the empty air.

  She watched as he pried the knife from her fist and returned it to its sheath. He tucked it behind her belt. He scooped up her cloak, which the huge D’Haran soldier had ripped off her as she had first fallen into the nightmare.

  “Hurry up, Jennsen. Grab anything else you want.”

  Sebastian rifled through the dead men’s pockets, pulling out money he found, cramming it in his own pockets. He unstrapped all four knives, none as good as the one he’d tucked behind her belt, the one with the ornate letter “R” on the handle, the one from the fallen dead man, the one her mother had used.

  Sebastian slipped the four knives down the side of the pack as he yelled at her again to hurry. While he took the best sword from one of the men, Jennsen went to the table. She scooped up candles and stuffed them in the pack. Sebastian attached the scabbard of the sword to his weapons belt. Jennsen collected small implements—cooking utensils, pots—pushing them in her pack. She wasn’t really aware of what she was taking. She was just picking up whatever she saw and putting it in.

  Sebastian lifted her pack, took one of her wrists, and stuffed it through the strap, as if he were handling a rag doll. He put her other arm through the other strap he held out for her, then threw her cloak around her shoulders. After he pulled the hood up over her head, he stuffed her red hair in the sides.

  He held her mother’s pack in one hand. He tugged twice and freed his axe from the soldier’s skull. Blood ran down the handle as he hooked the axe on his weapons belt. With the heel of his sword hand against the small of her back, he urged her onward.

  “Anything else?” he asked as they moved toward the door. “Jennsen, do you want anything else from your house before we go?”

  Jennsen looked over her shoulder at her mother on the floor.

  “She’s gone, Jennsen. The good spirits are taking care of her, now. She’s smiling down on you, now.”

  Jennsen looked up at him. “Really? You think so?”

  “Yes. She’s in a better world, now. She told us to go from here. We have to do what she said.”

  In a better world. Jennsen clung to that idea. Her world held only anguish.

  She moved toward the door, doing as Sebastian said to do. He scanned in every direction. She simply followed, stepping over bodies, over bloody arms and legs. She was too scared to feel anymore, too heartsick to care. H
er thoughts seemed completely muddled. She had always prided herself on her clear thinking. Where had her clear thinking gone?

  In the rain, he pulled her by her arm toward the path down.

  “Betty,” she said, digging in her heels. “We have to get Betty.”

  He gazed at the path, then toward the cave. “I don’t think we need bother with the goat, but I should get my pack, my things.”

  She saw he was standing in the downpour without his cloak. He was soaked to the skin. It occurred to her that she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t thinking clearly. He was so intent on escaping that he almost left his things. That would be the death of him. She couldn’t let him die. Betty would help, but there was one other thing that she remembered. Jennsen ran back in the house.

  She ignored Sebastian’s yells. Inside, she wasted no time rushing to a small wooden chest just inside the door. She looked at nothing else as she pulled out two bundled sheepskin cloaks—one hers, one her mother’s. They kept them there, rolled and tied, at the ready, in case they ever had to leave in a hurry. He watched from the doorway, impatient, but silent when he saw what she was doing. Without looking death in the eye, she rushed back out of her house for the last time.

  Toegether, they ran to the cave. The fire was still crackling hot. Betty paced and trembled but was uncharacteristically silent, as if knowing something was terribly wrong.

  “Dry yourself a bit, first,” she said.

  “We don’t have time! We have to get out of here. The others could come at any moment.”

  “You’ll freeze to death if you don’t. Then what good will running do? Dead is dead.” Her own reasoned words surprised her.

  Jennsen pulled the two rolled sheepskin cloaks from under her wool cloak and started working loose the knots in the thongs. “These will help keep the rain out, but you need to get dry, first, otherwise you won’t stay warm enough.”

  He was nodding as he shivered and rubbed his hands before the fire, the sense of what she said finally overcoming his urgency to be gone. She wondered how he managed to do all he had done with a fever and after having taken herbs. Fear, she guessed. Stark-raving fear. That, she understood.

  Her whole body ached. Not only had she been banged around, but she saw now that her shoulder was bleeding. The cut wasn’t bad, but it throbbed. The sustained level of terror had left her drained and exhausted.