66. Boulder Dash (Vaye)¶
Grandchildren boiled out of the crevasses, their knife-like claws skittering on the ice. Vaye sprinted for high ground, the electric flavor of terror racing through her. Gadarien and Adranaya followed close behind, all of them leaping over chasms and praying they wouldn’t crash through the surface.
They reached the rocky hillside, the sound of scrabbling claws sweeping toward them like a hailstorm. The stamina of the Grandchildren was unknown, but they were sure to outlast three exhausted humans. There was no way they’d make it up the hill before the creatures reached them.
Vaye stopped and drew her tzashim. “What are you doing?” Gadarien cried as he continued up the slope.
She didn’t answer, turning to face the horde. The witchglass felt strangely alive, almost humming as she slid her fingers through the rings. One of the creatures mounted a boulder to her right and leapt toward Gadarien. She threw her weapon, expecting it to thunk into the creature’s chest, but the dagger sliced straight through the monster’s body as though cutting a sheet of parchment. The tzash reached the end of its trajectory and snapped back toward her as though it had a mind of its own, the cord stretchy in a way it had definitely not been before. She barely managed to catch the handle before another ghoul arrived.
Recovering quickly, she struck again. Her first cut had been no fluke. The next enemy might as well have been smoke, her blade barely slowing in its deadly arc before flying back to her hand like a trained bird, the oddly shiny blood sliding cleanly off its feathers. She held the tzash up in wonder, the handle buzzing against her palm and the blade emitting a high-pitched, insectile hum. Sending her perception into the blade, she realized that the very edge was vibrating extremely fast, the blur of it just barely visible.
She let out some slack in the cables and began to spin the tzashim around herself in broad curves, their silvery layers refracting subtle rainbow hues. The snarling mass of ghouls sniffed for an opening, the black needles of their teeth undulating in hideous contrast with their babyish faces. But before they could pounce, she danced into their midst.
Her tzashim swooped and dove around her, inscribing a scripture of annihilation. The monsters tried in vain to scatter, but she spun through them like a whirlwind, punctuating the hillside with their inky, glittering blood. Her blades snapped back to her hands as she turned, half crouched, to check on Gadarien and Adranaya. They stood on a nearby boulder, weapons drawn but unused, gaping at the ring of bodies around her.
The ghouls she’d slaughtered were a tiny fraction of the mass headed up the slope. No matter how many she slew, it was inevitable that she’d be overwhelmed. Worse, the creatures downhill had seen what she had done and were now avoiding her, circling around to attack her companions. Vaye retreated toward them, killing Grandchildren as she went.
“Feiçeira War Chord!” Gadarien shouted. He grunted as he kicked a creature in the head, cracking its thin skull. “We have to collapse the slope!”
“We’re not trained in that!” Vaye said, sparing him a quick glance where he stood above her.
“I am,” he said urgently, sidestepping another ghoul and slashing it open with his knife. “Just mimic the note I sing. The Gyre will do the rest. It’s our only chance!”
He was right. They’d be overwhelmed in moments. “Start the Chord,” Vaye said. “I’ll protect you.” She dashed forward, driving the ghouls around the base of the boulder, the veins of her hands glowing through her skin. Gadarien closed his eyes and crouched, humming. He soon found the stone’s resonance and sang a single high note. As soon as Adranaya matched it, he switched to an eerie harmony.
The Grandchildren had almost surrounded the boulder, grinning and chittering. Vaye’s tzashim flew to the end of their range, forcing nearby ghouls to scramble back in fear. But their compatriots crept inexorably forward, contracting around the humans like a noose.
Gadarien and Adranaya held hands while they sang, each with a free arm outstretched. With a quick prayer, Vaye sheathed her weapons and jumped, reaching for their hands. She was already echoing Gadarien’s note when her feet struck the rock.
The Grandchildren squealed as they scrabbled upward from all sides. Vaye closed her eyes and forced herself to focus on the harmony, pulling herself toward the Balance Point even as she imagined claws sinking into her back. The final note rattled her teeth in their sockets.
Still singing, Gadarien released their hands, and Vaye turned to kick the Grandchildren away. The boulder vibrated as the sound rippled through its mass, Gadarien subtly steering their voices and somehow making the entire stone resonate like a bell. The chord forced its way into the hidden defects like a pry bar, the waves intersecting and amplifying each other at every crossing.
Singing at the top of his lungs, Gadarien slammed his ice axe into the boulder. Cracks blossomed outward, a deep rending sound emanating from below. The three of them barely managed to jump off as the immense rock split, crashing into the ghouls and unleashing the weight of the hillside above it. The entire slope, destabilized, began to shift. “The trees!” Gadarien cried.
Wild with fear, they leapt from rock to rock, their footing sliding out from beneath them. Only their enhanced balance and perception saved them from being crushed or swept under. The noise was astonishing, a low, grinding reverberation punctuated by thousands of sharp cracks and pops. It made the Eyewall seem quiet. They couldn’t even hear each other scream.
A slavering ghoul leapt toward Adranaya. Her tzashim still sheathed, Vaye raised her empty fists to punch the creature, but a boulder smashed into its head, splattering shiny black gore down the hill. She dodged another bouncing stone an instant later, not even aware of the instinct to duck until she’d already moved.
They reached the trees and turned. Vaye drew her weapons and dispatched the few surviving Grandchildren without much effort. Gradually, the noise subsided, loose stones bouncing down the slope. And then, finally, silence.
Gadarien and Adranaya stood with their arms behind their heads, gulping down air as Vaye slumped heavily against a tree, absolutely drained. Her ears were ringing and she had a deep bruise above her knee where a rock had clipped her. But there was no time to rest.
Far above, the Tine awaited.
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