Stalav's Bane

            The sun was going down. Hopefully it would be the last sunset they saw before coming home. Far Watch was gone. It was painful to think how quick the journey might have been if they had had the time to take one of the trucks, but the long dredge through the snowy woods was finally coming to an end.

            “Rest. Eat this,” said Lisenrush. She handed Ana a handful of berries.

            “Berries? Really?”

            “They won’t fill you up, but they’ll keep you going. How are the shoes?” Ana’s deerskin moccasins had almost fallen apart, and she was forced to readjust them frequently. The hides that they used as jackets now smelled beyond terrible, and Ana was sure that they would have to take a large dose of antibiotics each when they got back to Port O’James after having held the rancid things on their backs for so long.

            Or at least Lisenrush would have to. Ana had been sick before, but never seriously. As she understood it, a cold was pretty much the basic response of an immune system to anything foreign, which meant that it could mean nothing other than an allergic reaction. She had survived a gunshot wound and her heart had stopped for twenty-two hours. Maybe she couldn’t really get sick. It was strangely unnerving to think that she might be perfectly safe with this rotting thing on her back.

            Doctors. It had been a doctor that had turned her over to Lisenrush in the first place. “What happens when we get into town?” asked Ana.

            Lisenrush sat down and took a swig from her canteen. She had filled it with snow, which melted into perfectly safe water thanks to the warming temperatures. “We’ll tell them what happened at Far Watch.”

            “And what happened?”

            The Ranger-Captain looked up. “What do you remember?”

            “Let me hear it from you first. You’re the one they’re going to listen to. If I say anything, they’ll call me a liar.”

            Lisenrush nodded with resigned agreement. “There was some kind of presence at Far Watch. Something invisible, but it was affecting my men. And they were being transformed into something very dangerous.”

            “That’s a lot of somethings.”

            Lisenrush glared at her, but Ana could see that she was aware of the problem. “And then the buildings changed into tall… nondescript buildings.”

            “Skyscrapers?”

            “Yes, but… there was something odd about them. It was like they were only meant to evoke buildings. No glass in the windows.”

            “And no doors.”

            “Yes! Yes, there weren’t any doors.”

            “What do you think we’d find if we went back there?” asked Ana.

            Lisenrush shook her head. “We’re not heading back there. Not yet. Not until we can regroup.”

            “Did you see the faceless man?” asked Ana.

            Lisenrush didn’t answer.

            “Did you see it?”

            “I saw… something.”

            “Well, at least there’s that.”

            They were quiet for a moment. Ana ate some of the berries. They were small and oddly tough, and they had barely any flavor.

            “What happens to me when we get back to town?”

            Lisenrush sighed. “I don’t know…”

            “You don’t know? Lisenrush… Lydia. After what we’ve been through, I would think… no, you know what? Never mind.”

            “I won’t let them kill you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

            “If that’s even possible.”

            Suddenly, Lisenrush dropped low. Ana followed her suit. “What is it?”

            The Ranger-Captain swept the surrounding woods with her eyes. “I thought I heard something.” She waited a few more seconds. “No, never mind.”

            “Have you been sleeping?” asked Ana.

            “Not well. You?”

            “No.” Lisenrush relaxed. She rubbed the back of her neck. Ana’s eyes widened. “Is it worse?” asked Ana. There was a small grey square on the back of her neck – colorless and formless.

            “I’m not sure. Maybe you should take a look…” And she turned around just in time to see the sword swinging toward her face.

            Lisenrush ducked as the sword buried itself in the tree beside her. The arm that yanked the sword loose again with tremendous force was thin, wiry, and a kind of sickly grey. The arm belonged to a tall, armored draugr.

            Ana fell backward. There was no time to think where the thing had come from, only time to react. She noticed, as she leapt backward, that the draugr’s other arm was missing, and instead ended in an unworldly white block, where the flesh was robbed of all its descriptive features.

            Lisenrush punched forward into the draugr’s leg, causing its knee to bend. The draugr stumbled forward, slashing at Lisenrush as he came down. He grazed her, tearing through her sleeve and slicing into her arm. Lisenrush screamed in pain and anger, but the blade was dull, and the cut was shallow.

            Ana pushed herself forward and struck down at the draugr’s arm, trying to aim for his wrist and maybe make him drop the sword, but she only hit his forearm, and in an instant she felt his elbow connect with her face, crunching into her nose and sending her stumbling to the ground. Thankfully, she fell on her ass at the moment that the draugr swung the sword at where her face had been, and it sailed above her.

            Lisenrush kicked forward, planting her boot directly in the draugr’s abdomen. This was finally enough to throw him off balance, and he fell backward, the sword falling from his hand.

            She kicked again, this time aiming for his face, but he caught her foot and twisted, and then threw her off. Lisenrush yelped in pain as she landed on her broken ankle. In the blink of an eye, the draugr was up again and grabbed Lisenrush by the back of her neck. The draugr yanked her forward and smashed its skull into her face. Then, it threw her into a nearby tree, and the Ranger-Captain crumpled like a rag doll.

            As Lisenrush was moaning on the ground, the draugr turned to Ana. She looked into his pale blue eyes – the same blue she had seen in the hold of the Ostrich an entire life ago. The draugr took a step forward, and then there was a horrific sound.

            It took her a moment to realize that the sound was coming from the draugr. It was screaming. The draugr took its head in its remaining hand, shutting its eyes tightly and… was it sobbing?

            Ana’s heart was pounding. Everything had happened so quickly, but now the draugr had stopped. She looked down. Lisenrush’s rifle was on the ground between Ana and the draugr.

            If she didn’t kill it, it would finish Lisenrush.

            And without Lisenrush, they’ll burn you to death.

            She could get the rifle if she dove for it, but the sword was within his reach as well.

            No time to delay.

            And just as she was about to dive, the draugr grew slack. It opened its eyes. The pale blue glow was gone. Its eyes had become black spheres, and the colorless white of its shortened arm spread across his skin. The skin grew more solid, less translucent. The tears and flaws of death and decay faded.

            She dove.

            The draugr bent down and took the sword in its hand. With a deft twirl, it brought it into a stabbing grip, with the blade pointed down.

            Ana took the rifle in her hands and rolled onto her back. The draugr raised the sword above her. She aimed, and the sword hung in the air for a moment.

            She fired.

            The bullet shot right through the back of the draugr’s head, leaving a clean hole going through from one side to the other. For a horrible moment, Ana believed that the draugr had survived.

            But then the sword fell from its hand. The blade fell on her, but it turned as it fell, and she was hit only with the flat of it. The draugr’s neck grew slack, and its head lolled over to one side. The body followed suit, falling down to the ground.

            Blood was pouring from Ana’s nose. She wiped some of it away with her arm. It hurt like hell. She felt as if she could fall to the ground as well, but then her eyes fell on Lisenrush’s crumpled frame.

            “Lisenrush!” she cried out. She ran over to the Ranger-Captain. “Lisenrush… Lydia, can you hear me?” Carefully, Ana ran her hand along Lisenrush’s back. There was no obvious break in the bones, though Ana was not sure if a break like that could be so easily detected.

            Ana rolled the Ranger-Captain onto her back. Lisenrush’s face had been beaten badly. Already it was swelling and purple where there wasn’t actual blood. “Lydia, Lydia, listen to me!” Ana yelled.

            Lisenrush was making a strange, animal-like sound. Ana hoped that she was moaning with pain.

            “Lydia, listen to me, I’m going to get you home. I’m going to get you home. The draugr’s dead.” Ana glanced over. Yes, the thing was still there, perfectly still on the ground. She got up and picked up the thing’s sword and tossed it a few yards away. “You’ve got to… Can you hear me?”

            Lisenrush didn’t respond. If she was conscious, it was only just barely.

            “Shit! Shit!” yelled Ana. She took a deep breath. She examined Lisenrush. She could not take her boots. Ana had heard the crack of Lisenrush’s ankle breaking, and it wouldn’t do to take those boots off of her.

            Shuddering, she looked to the draugr. It had boots, of a sort. They were really more like greaves, but under the plate metal there were leather shoes. Her moccasins were nearly useless.

            The draugr’s boots were tight, but they fit her. Now that she could examine it, she realized that the draugr was actually shorter than both her and Lisenrush. The armor was built to fit it, and looked positively ancient.

            Just to be safe, she put two more rounds in the skull.

            “Ok. Ok.” She breathed deeply again. Lisenrush was quiet, but her chest was rising and falling. Slowly, Ana bent down and struggled to get her arms underneath her. She heaved, and grunted loudly as she brought the Ranger-Captain up onto her shoulder.

            She nearly fell down, and stumbled a little before she could regain her balance. She reached out to the tree, coincidentally putting her hand on the gash that the draugr’s sword had made.

            “First step’s the hardest,” said Ana, and she made her first step toward Port O’James.

(Copyright Daniel Szolovits 2015)