[Mkguild] Inchoate Carillon, Inconstant Cuckold (25 of 27)

[C. Matthias]

I have returned safely from my trip and will 
finish posting this tale within a couple of 
days.  Thank you everyone for your patience and a 
big thanks to Hallan for his betareading.

Inchoate Carillion, Inconstant Cuckold
By Charles Matthias


March 12, 708 CR


Angus stretched and smiled as he stared out 
across a clear morning lush with fresh white snow 
and brilliant blue sky. Just as they'd hoped 
there was not even a hint of cloud anywhere and 
the wind had died to the faintest of feathery 
breezes. Even the snow, despite the violence with 
which it had whipped them yesterday, was only a 
few inches thick on the ground, and along most of 
the rocks had been blown free. It would be a beautiful day for climbing.

“Well,” the badger said with a grin that revealed 
his sharp fangs, “it looks like we have good 
weather today. Let's have a quick bite and get on our way.”

James attached his hoof shoes and looked up, 
casting a quick glance at Charles and Baerle who 
were similarly attiring themselves in their 
corner of the cave, “If we're going to go in pairs, who goes with who?”

Angus took a few steps back down into the cave 
until he came to the remnants of their cookfire 
and started going through his gear. “Since we 
have to protect each other in case of falls, it's 
best to judge by size. That means James you come 
with me, and Charles goes with Baerle.” The 
donkey ground his teeth and flicked his tail 
once. It wouldn't matter in the end anyway.

“Which flank should we take?” Charles asked as he 
slipped his boots and tightened the laces.

“The northern pass is a narrower along several 
stretches. You two would handle that easier than 
either James or I.” Angus dipped one claw into 
the pile of ash and drew a mountain on the stone 
floor and then two paths around it. “We walk for 
about an hour more through this valley, and then 
there will be paths as we leave and start up the 
mountain. You two will take the right fork and 
James and I will take the left. By mid-afternoon 
we should reach the other side. When you reach 
the small grove of trees on the other side, wait there for us.”

“Or meet you there,” Charles added with a nod and 
a tap of his chewstick against his teeth. “How 
many more talismans should we see on the slope?”

“Two more,” Angus tapped positions on the path 
about a third of the way around the mountain from 
either direction. “And there are cracks all over 
the mountain, so even if we need to take shelter we can.”

“I guess that's it,” James said, standing up and 
hoisting his pack. The bell thrummed against his back. “Let's get going.”

Baerle looked at him and blinked. He could never 
turn away when she gazed at him. “Didn't you want something to eat, James?”

The donkey smiled to her and nodded. “Of course. 
A little something before we go.” A few more 
minutes delay wouldn't matter. “So, what do we have?”

----------

Jessica was roused from sleep by the squeaking 
voices of two young squirrels. Darien and 
Christopher stood just inside the door , long 
tails twitching with every flick of their 
whiskers, as they warned her in louder and louder 
whispers that it was time for her to get up. By 
the time they were speaking in normal tones, she 
had enough energy to blink open her eyes and push herself into a half crouch.

“It's morning, Mistress Jessica,” Christopher 
said with a eager twitch to his jowls. “Father asked us to get you up.”

Darien held out a small covered basket. “We brought you fresh sausage!”

She still felt very groggy and so decided to cast 
a simple little spell to try and clear her mind 
and renew her energy. Something using the 
hyacinth. She let her gaze settle on the two boys 
and she chuckled under her breath. “Thank you, 
both. Now if you put the sausage down, I'd like 
to try a little spell on you two.”

“Will it hurt?” Darien asked with wide eyes and alert tail.

“Not at all. Just hold still.” She could only 
truly reach out for the hyacinth when casting 
magic, and this was a perfect excuse. A little 
bit of fun that the boys could tease each other 
about later. Even with her mind still darkened by 
sleep's cold grip, she was able to craft the 
spells, the same spell she had placed on Berchem. 
As soon as she reached for the hyacinth's power, 
she felt her own body begin to sooth and clear. 
And when she placed both incantation on the boys, 
she felt as fresh as if she'd just enjoyed a long 
glide through crystal clear air.

Darien and Christopher squeaked in surprise as 
their posture changed, features softening even 
underneath all of the fur. A faint suggestion of 
femininity dented their chests. Both of them 
looked at each other and then themselves in 
horror. “Oh yuck!” Darien exclaimed in a higher pitched voice.

Christopher echoed her now sister. “Girls!”

“Change us back!” Darien begged.

“You can leave Darien like this as long as you 
change me back,” Christopher suggested with a cackling laugh.

“No!” Darien pipped. “Change me back and leave Christopher like this!”

Jessica stretched as she stood and squawked in 
vivacious pleasure. “Just a little trick, that's 
all. Now, let's get you two boys right again.” 
Jessica reached out her wing claws and severed 
the cords of magic between the little squirrel 
girls and the hyacinth. Within a few seconds both 
of them were once again the rapscallion boys of the Glen.

“Now,” Jessica said with a faint laugh, “I can 
trust you two boys not to tell anyone about this?”

“I'm not telling anybody!” Darien said with an 
emphatic nod. Christopher bounced his head up and 
down like only a squirrel can.

“Good, now go and tell your father that I am on my way.”

The two squirrel's almost scampered over each 
other as they pushed out the door, bounding on 
all fours down the hallway in their enthusiasm. 
Jessica's beak broke into an avian grin. How she loved those boys.

She took the basket in one wing claw and after 
tossing aside the little cloth on top, she 
scooped up the trio of sausage links and gorged 
them. They were made form elk meat, thick with 
salt, and entirely scrumptious. She'd have to 
remember to ask Jurmas the Innkeeper who made them.

Once finished she carried the basket down to the 
Inn's common area, left it on the main counter 
with one of the servants, and then headed 
straight down the stony path toward Berchem's 
burrow. The morning was crisp and clear, with a 
warmth that spoke clearly of Spring. What little 
snow had fallen the night before was already melting.

Lord Avery and Alldis were waiting for her 
outside Berchem's home. The door was swung open 
and she could see a faint shimmering of light 
from the fire within reflecting off the wooden 
roots framing the door. Both squirrel and deer 
turned to greet her with warm smiles. “Are you 
feeling better?” Lord Avery asked. “Erica told us what you saw last night.”

“I am much better, milord,” Jessica replied with 
a slight bow to the squirrel. “How is Berchem?”

“Almost catatonic,” Alldis grunted and waved a 
long arm toward the door. “Jo cannot even get him to take his broth anymore.”

“Then there's no time to waste,” Jessica said with a sigh. “Is Burris here?”

“In the room waiting for you,” Lord Avery said 
with a long chittering sigh. “We'll be here.”

Jessica swept down the steps and saw that the 
skunk had been placed on his pallet again; 
otherwise the small home was in much the same 
condition that it had been the night before. The 
lines of powder she'd painstakingly erected were 
gone, consumed in the last moments of the spell. 
With what she intended, she wouldn't need them now.

Burris leaned over the skunk, offering short 
incantations to try and relax the skunk's 
muscles, but nothing seemed to be working. Jo 
fretted over the kettle with her latest batch of 
broth, but her bowl sat untouched next to the 
skunk's head. His jaws were clenched together so 
tight that they were actually bleeding. And more 
blood was dribbling out his ears.

“Oh thank Akkala you're here!” Jo exclaimed when 
she saw the hawk land in the center of the room. 
“I can't do anything for him anymore.”

Jessica glanced at Berchem's constricted face and 
felt her stomach tighten. She had seen men die in 
battle, but never a death so slow or so painful 
as what the irascible skunk now endured. “A 
powerful sleep spell might work, but after what I 
saw last night, it might not.”

“Do you really think the magic of Marzac is 
involved?” Burris asked as he stepped back from the pallet.

“It felt like it,” Jessica said in a harsh 
whisper. “I'll know for sure in a moment. Don't 
interfere. This is going to be risky.”

Burris and Jo both moved to the other side of the 
room while Jessica took the two steps to the 
pallet and bent over the skunk. Berchem had 
curled into a fetal ball, his tail wrapped up 
beneath his head like a pillow. His claws were 
digging into his chest fur, but not yet fierce 
enough to draw blood. Jessica swallowed,nervous, 
and let the veins of magic come to life around her.

The knot in Berchem's head had tightened further, 
drawing more and more magical threads into its 
weave. The threads passing through his body but 
not yet drawn into the knot were dwindling; she 
counted less than thirty left out of the hundreds that ought to be there.

Jessica could still feel the energy from the 
hyacinth. Normally she only applied it to her 
curse changing spells, but given what had 
happened the last time she'd tried this on 
Berchem she knew she couldn't take the chance of 
her spell becoming so tightly embedded into the 
skunk that she couldn't remove it.

Instead she crafted a very simple spell that 
bound the skunk's ears to her own, and with the 
hyacinth grounding her, she brought the spell 
into contact with the knot. A simple matter of will opened the connection.

And she was slammed against the wall as a huge 
bell tolled above her louder than any dragon's 
roar or even the inferno that had engulfed 
Marzac. The aural concussion made her try to 
scream, but she couldn't even hear anything but 
that ever renewing resonance of that vaulted 
bell. Her eyes filled with a vile black shadow 
that coalesced into the shape of the bell, 
vaulted and terrible. But not one bell, nine 
bells in a grid, carillons coming into focus and 
resolving from some leftover malice that now 
clung to Berchem's mind and fed from it like a 
leech. Swollen and engorged, the bell smashed its 
bulk with every peal that made her fear her bones 
were going to melt into jelly.

After only the seventh peal, Jessica was able to 
grasp the spell connecting her to Berchem's mind 
and she ripped it apart. If not for the strength 
that flowed from her hyacinth, she knew, even as 
she fell to the floor gasping and watching drops 
of blood fall from her beak, that she would have died as surely as the skunk.

Jo was at her side with a small cloth gently 
dabbing the blood smearing her black feathers. 
“Are you okay?” she whispered as if from miles away.

“No,” she replied with a gasp, startled to 
realize that her own voice was just as remote. 
How badly had just those few knells hurt her 
ears? “I heard it... I heard the bell in his 
mind. It is Marzac. There was... there was a 
carillon of nine bells in one of the rooms at the 
Chateau. They're what's caused this.”

“Are you okay?” Lord Avery called down the steps 
as Burris and Jo helped Jessica get back to her feet.

“I will be in a moment.” Jessica said in a clear 
voice. Already her hearing was coming back, but 
her ears still stung with the faint tremor of the 
ringing. “It's one of my friends who did this. 
Charles or James. I don't think any of the others 
have been through here since the plague.”

Alldis grunted. “It's James. I checked all the 
Polygamites, but none of their hooves match what 
I found. And James has been carrying around a bell he made a few weeks ago.”

Jessica breathed heavily, gathering her strength again. “Where are they?”

“In the mountains,” Lord Avery replied as he 
offered the hawk a hand to help her climb out of 
the skunk's burrow. “It'll take days to find them.”

“I can fly there today,” Jessica said. “if I can 
find them I can warn Charles and we can put a 
stop to this. Once we destroy that bell, Berchem should recover.”

“What should we do until then?” Jo asked.

Jessica sighed as she glanced back down into the 
home. The skunk still lay curled into a tight 
ball, his face more pained than even an expert 
torturer would seek. “Do whatever you can for 
him. I don't think he'll last another day.” She 
turned to Lord Avery and met him with intent 
eyes. “Where exactly are they going? Who is with them?”

“Angus and Baerle. They went into the mountains 
just south of the Sea of Souls. I can show you a map.”

“Thank you, milord, but that won't be necessary.” 
Jessica spread her wings and leaped into the air. 
Beneath her she heard the squirrel shout 
something, but the words were lost as she 
ascended up through the trees. She winged to the 
northwest, heart pounding with every flap, her 
focus sure. How she wished she'd asked the Glenners to wake her earlier.

----------

The left fork ascended in a series of switchbacks 
up along the mountainside before striking in a 
wide shelf coated in fresh snow along a gentle 
slope that would be covered in scrub in a few 
months. They had been walking not even an hour by 
the tie they took a short break to stretch their 
legs after the climb. James set his pack down on 
a rock and sorted through it until he had the 
bell in hand. Angus stood a handful of paces 
ahead of him, surveying the path and the sheer 
face of rock descending down into the valley.

“I know you wanted to go with Baerle,” Angus said 
quietly. “Next chance I have, I'll make sure you have some time. I promise.”

James cupped the bell in hand and turned toward 
the badger, taking each step carefully. “You do? Why?”

“Both Charles and I have seen the way you look at 
her,” Angus replied as he continued to note the 
precipice and the path ahead. “She's had a rough 
time with men in the past, so don't let her 
manner fool you. If you truly like her, she'll come around.”

James licked the back of his lips and took 
another step, the bell thrumming in his hands.

Tolling.

“I do like her,” James admitted. “So why do you keep pairing her with Charles?”

Angus half-turned to glance at him, then shrugged 
as his eyes wandered to the clear sky. “Well, I 
wanted to talk with you a bit, James. And I was 
hoping Charles could talk to Baerle. I've seen 
the way she looks at him, and it's not helping our friend.

“She doesn't love him,” James insisted. Only a few more paces left.

Angus scuffled the snow and grimaced. “Perhaps 
not. But... there's one other thing I wanted to 
let you know, James. It's been a little over a 
year now since I started teaching you. And I have 
never been as proud of a pupil as I am of you. 
You are one of the most capable men I've ever 
known, James. I mean that. In another year you'll 
be leading scouting teams, and maybe more. But,” 
he turned away from the precipice and grabbed his 
gear, brushing it free of snow. “But for now, I 
hope that you have some luck with Baerle. She's a good woman.”

James licked his lips and lifted the bell up over 
his head. “I know she is. Thank you for telling 
me this, Angus.” The badger started to turn when James swung down hard.

Tolling!

The bell landed solidly in Angus's forehead. The 
badger flinched backward for a moment, and then 
his eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed 
into the snowbank against the mountainside.

That my tone should be tuned to such solemn song.

So mournfully – so mournfully, that the dead may feel no wrong.

James stared at the unconscious badger for 
several long seconds before shaking his head. 
“Nay, he wanted, he wanted me to be with Baerle. 
He promised me. I'll make him forget. Two accidents is too much anyway.”

Nevermore.

“Too much,” James repeated, before bending down 
and scooping the snow, piling it in heaps atop 
the badger's body to make sure he didn't freeze 
to death. Once he'd covered all but his snout, 
James hefted his pack over one shoulder and 
started back down the trail. He kept the bell in 
his hand, which throbbed and warmed him with 
purpose. He exulted and felt so alive as he 
nearly galloped down the switchbacks. At long 
last, it was finally time to rescue Baerle from that rat.

----------

Once she cleared the Glen treetops, Jessica 
followed the line of mountains, climbing high up 
to where she could see over the nearest peaks. 
The air was cold, but he feathers kept her warm. 
To make things even easier, she shrank into her 
pure hawk form which was well-suited to such heights.

After spending almost eight months traveling with 
both Charles and James, she knew them very well 
and not just their physical appearance. The way 
the Curse attached itself to each of them was 
also an old friend of hers. And as a Sondecki, 
the rat's magical essence moved in very peculiar 
ways through his body, circling an inner 
inaccessible core of power like a whirlpool. Once 
she was close enough it wouldn't be hard to spot either of them.

Jessica opened her vision to the streams of magic 
but saw nothing unusual. Disappointed but not 
surprised, she kept on flying toward the mountains and the sea beyond.

----------

Angus woke to a horrible headache and a slight 
ringing in his ears. His chest seemed very heavy 
and cold too. He blinked open his eyes and tried 
to lift an arm to brush the snow from his face, 
but his arm didn't want to move that easily. 
Shaking his head back and forth, he blinked and 
glanced down at the mounds of snow resting atop his entire body.

“What in all the hells?” he blurted and groaned. 
It didn't take him long to dislodge the lightly 
packed snow, and soon he stood and brushed 
himself off, shaking his body to loose the 
stubborn flakes. He put one paw to his head and 
took several deep breaths. The top of his head 
stung with a fresh bruise. And the ringing in his 
ears, though light, did make him a little wobbly on his footpaws.

But, a warrior of as many years as he was never 
disoriented for long. He scanned the snow nearby 
but saw no sign of blood or even of a struggle. 
The only prints marring the pristine surface were 
his own and the hooves of his friend James. Only 
James's tracks returned the way they'd come.

“What's going on here?” he muttered under his 
breath. He grabbed his satchel, and pulled out a 
pair of long swords. He strapped these to his 
back and then slung the satchel over one 
shoulder. After adjusting the straps to keep them 
from jabbing or slipping, he started back down 
the trail. He followed James's tracks, wondering 
and wary. But no matter what had happened, he'd be ready for it.

----------

The first of the two talismans on the 
northwestern face of the mountain was nestled 
within a large fissure of basalt interwoven with 
granite. The black basalt had worn away between 
the shelves of granite on either side creating a 
natural alcove that arched closed above them like 
a pulpit. This pulpit overlooked a vast 
congregation of brush and conifers in the valley 
between the mountains, as well as further in the 
distance highland dells that would be teeming 
with mountain goats in a few weeks.

Charles could easily see the Lutins attempting to 
cross those gentle slopes, but not this mountain. 
A rock ledge offered them a winding path that 
kept more or less flat as it meandered around the 
slope. The recent storm had covered the path in a 
layer of snow at least a hand deep, so they kept 
their pace a slow one to be sure that they did 
not slip. One fall and they would tumble down a 
sheer ledge of exposed granite for a hundred or 
more feet before impaling upon the tops of the trees.

Despite these obstacles, both Baerle and Charles 
found it a very easy climb. He cautioned the 
opossum several times not to become confidant but 
to focus on stepping with care and precision. The 
confidant climber was the dead climber, a fact 
that she knew all too well from scaling the trees 
of the Glen. But she never chided the rat for his 
caution nor remind him of her expertise.

And Charles appreciated that. The comity that had 
existed between them for nearly their whole 
friendship had always been a source of pleasure 
to him. And they had to keep it that way.

Baerle positioned herself next to the five-bladed 
talisman nestled in the pulpit and turned to the 
rat who stood a pace back where the granite wall 
began. Wordlessly he handed her one of the 
pouches with Burris's magical concoction, and 
then licked the back of his teeth as he watched 
her spread the paste across each blade.

“Baerle,” he said softly, eyes ever on the fresh 
sheen of white snow perched over head, “there's 
something I've been meaning to ask you for a while.”

She turned her muzzle to one side while smearing 
the paste across the top blade. Her gray snout 
brightened with the talisman's orange glow. “What is it, Charles?”

“I've wanted to ask this for a very long time, 
but circumstances, and... and my own fears and 
sorrows have kept it from my tongue. But here we 
are, far out of reach of any in the Glen, and 
there's no better time for me to ask it.”

Her face seemed to draw tight as if expecting 
some vicious blow. “Charles, what is it?”

He gazed firmly at the opossum, noting the way 
her ears folded back and her bright pink nose 
surmounted a snout filled with sharp teeth. But 
his regard settled resolutely on the one blue eye 
turned toward him and with heavy heart he brought 
to life the thoughts and feelings that had 
battered around inside of him for over a year. “Baerle, do you love me?”

Baerle swallowed and her one hand wrapped about 
the base of the talisman to hold herself up. She 
trembled. Her face lowered, eye looking anywhere 
but at him. Her muzzle parted to speak, then 
closed, her other paw wrapping tight about the 
fur lining of her jerkin. In a quiet voice she 
said, “Please... don't ask me that.”

Charles kept his eyes riveted to her, a fact that 
her wandering eye tried to avoid but could not. 
The words were now free and could not be taken 
back, and so neither would he back down. “Baerle, 
I must know. I have so much more to say, but... 
until you tell me, honestly, what is in your 
heart, I cannot say more.” He swallowed and then 
added, “If I did, you could never answer me honestly.”

She took a deep breath, her eye moistening. “I... I can't.”

Charles almost reached a paw out to her, but kept 
them fixed at his side. “Baerle. I have to know. Do you love me?”

With a deep gasp, and a pained expression, Baerle 
swung her snout so that both blue eyes, watering, 
met him. “Aye! I do love you, Charles. I have not 
stopped loving since I met you. But... I'm 
trying... I'm trying so very... very hard to let 
you go. For Kimberly. Because I love her more as 
my sister than I love you. I know it. I can't 
break that. How could you make me say that? How could you do that?”

Charles took a careful step back, putting one paw 
on the cold stone wall. “Because as long as we 
said nothing, there would always be that 
possibility between us.” He lowered his eyes and 
ground his teeth together. “There were a couple 
moments in the last week when I was tempted... by 
you. And many more before that.”

The anger in her face began to ebb as she 
breathed slowly, her white fingers uncurling from 
the talisman's base. “Then... you did love me?”

“I do love you, Baerle. But I can never love you 
as you deserve.” He lifted his snout again, and 
took a deep breath. “I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. You deserve to know.”

She swallowed and nodded, lifting one paw to 
brush back her tears. “I... I... I don't know what to say.”

“Do we need to say anything more?”

She blinked and brushed her face with both paws 
before heaving a long sigh. “I don't know. I 
thought I was cursed; I spent the last year in 
love with a married man, wondering and hoping if 
I could accept just being his mistress. And a 
part of me thought I could. But... nay.” She 
looked away and pressed her face against the rock 
wall and shuddered. “Why can't I love right? Why 
can't I love someone who will love me back?”

Charles stepped forward and put a gentle paw on 
her shoulder. “You are loved, Baerle. And I 
believe that there is at least one man who loves 
you and would want you as more than just a 
dalliance, and even more than just a dear friend. 
I believe he loves you as you should be loved; if 
only he would have the courage to say it.” 
Charles resisted the temptation to lift his 
chewstick to his incisors and added, “And I'm 
saying this partly for his sake. If he doesn't 
see that you are still in love with me, maybe 
he'll have the courage to admit it.”

Baerle turned slightly, blinking, bewildered. “Who?”

But he could only shake his head. “That's not for 
me to say. But I believe it to be so. Baerle, you 
are very dear to me an I want to see you happy. I 
cannot do that. And it's time we stopped dancing 
around it. You are meant for another. And I don't 
want to be in his way anymore. And I don't want 
to be in your way anymore either.”

She swallowed and slowly began to nod, turning to face him. “I'm sorry.”

“There's nothing to be sorry about,” Charles said 
with patient gentleness. His own heart ached, but 
it would heal as well. “Let us say no more now. 
When we get back to the Glen, well, if ever you 
need to talk, I will listen. I will just listen.”

Baerle stared at him for several seconds before 
flinging her arms around his back and lifting him 
off his feet, iron shoes, pack, and all. He 
gasped in surprise, and then wrapped his arms 
about her back, hugging warmly if not with as 
much need. She put him back down a moment later, 
and with her eyes still running but her snout 
broken into a faint smile, she managed to say, 
“Thank you, Charles. No more then. Dear friend.”

He smiled back and then gestured to the talisman. 
“Well then, dear friend, shall we finish up here and move on?”

Her paws lingered at his sides a moment longer as 
she took several deep breaths, her smile 
steadying and touching her eyes anew with each 
one. “Okay,” she said at last, her voice soft but 
no longer shaky. There was a confidence in it 
that knew it would feel better in time. Her smile 
dimpled her snout, and then she turned back to 
the talisman and picked up the pouch of the woodpekcer's strange paste.

Charles stretched and felt a vast wave of relief. 
He'd finally managed to get through that and it 
hadn't hurt as much as he thought. He still felt 
an agony, an almost emptiness in his heart, but 
it wasn't Baerle causing that. And he felt an odd 
sort of throbbing in his ears and mind that 
swelled into a lancing pain. He brought both paws 
to the side of his head and winced wondering where that had come from.

“Charles?” Baerle asked, glancing back from the 
back of the alcove in worry. “Are you okay?”

“Something...” he muttered as he looked up, a 
rumbling sound joining the sonorous throb. His 
eyes widened in horror. “Stay there and hold on!” 
He shouted, even as he tried to focus on sinking 
his body into the rock. Above them the wall of 
snow had broken free and was tumbling down the mountainside toward them.

----------

Mountain climbing had never been so easy. With 
the iron bell gripped tightly in his right hand, 
James scaled up the side through the fresh-fallen 
snow as if he were taking a stroll through the 
Glen commons. He ascended with a speed and a 
surety of balance that would be the envy of a 
mountain goat, rising up above the path where 
Charles and Baerle trod. Neither of them would 
have been able to see him through the glare of 
the midday sun, but he could clearly see the path 
below and the paw prints they'd left behind. Very soon he would see them.

Though the clapper did not strike against the 
side of the cracked bell, he could feel its 
tolling reverberating up his arm, around his 
heart like a hummingbird flitting from blossom to 
blossom, and then to his mind where it resounded 
expectantly like a hunter waiting for the game to 
come. The donkey breathed with that rhythm, the 
colors of the sky dimming to an iron gray as cold as the mountains.

The minutes fled from him in a torrent. The cold 
air wrapped about him, permeating his fur-lined 
coat, and sinking into his flesh. Beneath his 
hooves the snow parted to be met by the rock 
beneath. This he pursued until the path reached a 
small ledge overlooking a crevice of basalt 
through the mountainside. A few dozen feet below 
him he could see the talisman. And standing there 
just beneath him was Baerle and that rat. He had 
his filthy arms around her and she him.

“Nevermore,” he muttered, lifting the bell over his head.

That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.

“Nevermore,” James said again, lips quivering with each syllable.

Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore.

“Nevermore!”

Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore.

“Nevermore!” James swung the bell downward 
striking the rock with its bore. The tone that 
bellowed forth shook the mountain. His eyes flung 
their rage at the cowering rat as the snow around 
him thundered down the mountainside with the voice of the bell.

----------

At least three miles ahead across the mountains a 
brilliant plume of light smeared with a darkness 
unfathomable erupted. Jessica's chest tightened 
and she beat her wings even harder as she could 
see with her natural vision half the face of one 
of the mountains begin sliding down.

It had begun. Whatever James was going to do, he'd already started.

She hoped she wouldn't have to kill him to stop Marzac's evil.

----------

Angus's head still hurt, but he'd been in worse 
shape before. The ringing in his ears had grown 
ever so slightly in its intensity as he traced 
James's path back down the side of the mountain 
until they came to where their paths had forked 
that morning. The donkey didn't follow Charles 
and Baerle along the northwestern flank of the 
mountain, but struck out on a higher route that 
quickly ascended across almost sheer rock. Angus 
scratched his head and shifted the swords against his back.

He knew that James was a skilled climber, but 
even the donkey wouldn't have been able to scale 
that wall without first chiseling hand and hoof 
holds. Something else was going on.

He grunted as the ringing in his ears pressed 
further against the inside of his head. He 
growled low in his throat, and then blinked open his eyes in horror.

Angus stared down at his paws, touched his ears, 
folded them against the sides of his head, and 
snarled. The ringing. Strange, even inexplicable 
behavior from James. It was all connected. 
Somehow, he didn't know how, James was 
responsible for what happened to Berchem, and now 
he was going after Charles and Baerle.

The badger straightened his gear and started 
rushing down the path after the rat and opossum 
when a loud rumbling began shaking the mountain 
beneath him. He'd heard that sound and felt that 
shaking before. His heart beat with every prayer 
he could think of to every one of the Pantheon.

He didn't know anyone that had survived an avalanche. He hoped he soon would.

----------

May He bless you and keep you in His grace and love,

Charles Matthias


!DSPAM:4e9b3ff9220551804284693!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.integral.org/archives/mkguild/attachments/20111016/b32acc09/attachment-0001.html>