For the first time in her life, Jaya left the sea behind her. All the days since she was born she had never gone beyond the smell of the salt and the sound of the waves, the cry of the sea-birds when dawn came or the winds at dusk. Now she turned her path northward, away from the shore, into the mountainous heart of the island of Tarakan, away from anything she had ever known.
She passed through terraced farmlands, avoiding any contact with either her own people or the giants who traveled the black stone roads. The land lay under mist and rain, and it was not hard to remain concealed. It galled her to turn her back on scourging the invaders, even for a time, but now the tiger shrine called her, and she could not believe that was an accident. If she would follow the will of the gods, she must be ready to answer when they spoke. The forbidden heartland of her race called to her, and she would heed it.
The land rose up and up, the trees growing taller and the roads less well-kept, until once again she followed foot-worn trails through the mud. On the third day she stole sandals from a farmer’s hut and strapped them on, for the way was becoming more stony and rough, and she believed it would only become more rugged as she climbed. She had never seen mountains close, and the few glimpses she had through the stormclouds looked too far away and too immense to be real.
The path led upward, through a series of narrower passes between hills, and she saw fewer villages, fewer signs of the things of man. Only here and there did faded columns or worn archways mark that once her race had built great things on this soil. Stone heads watched her from the hillsides, half-covered with moss, their features all but worn away.
There was a last village, and she found it empty, the houses abandoned and the roofs falling in. She found no bones, no signs of death, but the lodges stood empty, many useful things still inside. Glad of the chance, she went inside and gathered dried meats, a new waterskin, and some javelins for hunting. She found new laces for her sandals and spent the evening repairing them, cutting them to fit her better. Already she had walked much farther than she ever had before.
She spent the night in a half-ruined lodge, sheltered from the rains by the slumped roof. In the dark before dawn she awoke to hear something overhead. There was a deep thrumming sound that passed over three times and then faded away into the cries of the morning forest. Jaya crept out to a place where she could look up into the open sky but saw nothing. The clouds were low and the sun was not yet risen. Mist drifted through the empty village, and Jaya felt a sense of menace in the stillness.
Thunder echoed among the hilltops as she followed the stony path higher into the mountains. The trees were towering, and there were strange plants that were not trees yet stood taller than any human reach, covered in white blossoms. She heard monkeys calling in the treetops, saw birds in vibrant colors flying in clouds and saw the flash of a giant blue serpent high among the branches.
She found the trail steeper and harder, and she was glad of the javelins she carried, as she could use one as a walking stick to help keep her balance. The path twisted back and forth among jagged rocks, and she saw here and there what remained of steps cut into the stone. This had been a place marked by the hands of men once. It told her she was on the right way, and it would carry her to her goal.
The clouds were low and heavy, and only now and then did the sun break through and lance brilliant shafts of golden light through to transform the panorama of the jungle-covered hillsides. When she looked back to the south, Jaya saw the land vanishing into the mist, patches of rain walking across the forest like giants illuminated by flashes of lightning. When she turned back to the mountains she heard something hum as it passed overhead, and then again, louder.
She looked up and saw shadows pass over, two of them, then more. They flew, but they did not move like birds. The humming they made was deep and loud, and it made the hair stand up on her arms. She slipped to the side, under the canopy of the forest, and moved onward carefully, listening. The path was haunted by some kind of winged demon, and she did not intent to be ambushed from above.
The path narrowed between rock faces, and she had to keep well to the side to make sure she was shielded from above. She heard more of the buzzing, and then more, much louder. There was a sharp scent in the air, and it was halfway between unpleasant and sweet. Jaya gripped a javelin and crept forward, up the last slope where the stone steps had been cut into the path, until she could look out into the open.
Ahead of her was a bridge made of stone, overgrown with vines and heavy with moss. It spanned a ravine that plunged down out of sight, and the mist that boiled up from the deeps told her that somewhere below a river raged between high stone walls.
It was on the far side that she saw the thing that made her freeze where she was, holding even her breath. Something was built into the cliff face, towering over her many times higher than the tallest lodge. It was dark and twisted, like roots or driftwood, and he saw it was pierced by many holes, and from those holes issued the things she had seen above. It took her a moment to realize they were red-shelled wasps, and another moment to realize they were bigger than she was. They were as big as a full-grown giant, and the thrumming of their wings was a deep vibration that hummed in the rock under her feet.
o0o
She held very still, her mouth going dry. She had never seen wasps this large, and she knew of nothing like this in any legend. It was a nest of them larger than even the houses of giants, and there must be a great many of them inside – a few hundred at the very least. In the sun that filtered through the clouds she saw the gleam of their red armored bodies, the iridescent flash of their wings as they came into land or took off into the sky. Their eyes were golden and their stingers were black. She imagined the stingers they wielded must be as long as daggers, longer than her hand.
One flew low overhead and the thrumming sound made her flinch, her belly tightening. She feared no man and no mortal enemy, but if she fought one of these things it would call more of them, and she would be swarmed and killed. Even their mandibles were the size and sharpness of knives. They could cut her apart without a single sting.
A glance up and down the gorge showed no other place to cross. She had to cross the ancient bridge, and yet that would put her in full view of the wasps, open to an attack from above. Also, to follow the bridge, meant she would have to pass so close to the base of the nest she would be able to see into the black holes where the things dwelled – close enough to touch.
Jaya thought of trying to disguise or camouflage herself, but there was nothing to use, and not enough cover on the bridge. The vines that spread over it hugged one side and trailed down over the edge, and the moss would only make the stones slick. She felt a wave of frustration like a knot on her guts, and then she looked at the vines again. Some of them were thick as her wrist or thicker, and they had plainly been here a long time. Her question was: how far underneath did they go?
Ahead of her vines disappeared over the lip of the ravine, and she looked up, trying to judge a moment when no golden eyes would be turned her way. She wedged the javelins carefully under her belt, made sure her sword hung free so it would not slip away and fall. She rubbed her hands in the dirt, then gave one last glance up, took a breath and scrambled forward.
It was not far, but it felt far as she crossed the bare rock, grasped the vines and then quickly climbed down over the edge. She heard the hum of a wasp coming close and she moved quicker. The vine stalks were hard as stone, but they were wet from the spray of the river below, and so made for a treacherous grip. She climbed down and then began to work her way across to the underside of the bridge. A shadow crossed her and she heard the deep thrum, felt it vibrating in her teeth.
Desperate, she swung over, hand to hand, letting her legs swing. She looked down before she could stop herself and saw the sheer sides of the gorge vanishing below into a cloud of must. The sight made her stomach climb into her throat, and her arms tingled as though she were once again in the embrace of the sea stars.
She felt the wind of the wasp’s wings as it came near, and she pulled herself up into the tangle of vines and leaves under the bridge. She hooked her legs in and pulled herself up, twisted and backed into the greenery. The thrum was a roar now, so close, and the wind came in, washing over her. Turning, she was face to face with the creature, its head bigger than her own, mouth parts working like saws as it brushed forelimbs at the vines.
Jaya held still, wanting to reach for her sword but making herself freeze in place, willing even her breathing to slow and still. The wasp flew close, pawed at the vines with limbs tipped by hooks long as her fingers. For a moment she thought it would take hold and hang there so it could seek her with its stinger, but instead it drew back, head cocking to one side as though listening, and then it flew upward and vanished from her sight.
She held her breath for a long time, afraid it would return, but then she let out a long gasp and closed her eyes for a moment. It had not thought her worth bothering to chase down, and that was what she wanted.
Now came the harder part. Now she had to crawl across the chasm on the underside of the bridge. The vines were heavy and thick, not always easy to grasp, and the way was far from clear. She started, forcing herself through the tangle, pushing leaves out of her way, slapping aside centipedes as long as her arm and avoiding snails with shells as big as her fist.
She wormed her way through, becoming soaked with the mist of the river below and sweat that streamed down her face and streaked her limbs. She hoped the noise of the rapids unseen below would mask whatever sounds she made, so that the wasps would not simply dive on her in a horde when she emerged. She worked her slow way across the chasm, until ahead of her was only the rock face of the far cliff. The sound of thrumming wings was heavy here, and there was heat radiating from the massive nest as if from a bonfire, steam rising from the dark mass of it.
Carefully, almost holding her breath, she crawled up from the underside of the bridge, her arms shaking from the exertion. Hand over hand she pulled herself up until she could swing a leg over the side and crouched there for a moment, breathing heavily. Looking up, she saw the wasps flying above, and none of them seemed to react to her presence. Jaya caught her breath and then climbed onto the stones of the bridge, set her feet toward the arch that marked the other side, so close to her.
She heard the thrumming grow, and then she looked up and saw the hole in the nest only a short reach over her head. As she looked a golden-eyed monster crawled into the light. More vibration shivered underfoot, and it filled the air around her. Wasps began to issue from the many openings, the sound of their swarming growing until it almost deafened her and shook her teeth. She took a long breath of air, and then she began to run.
o0o
She passed under the arch and then she was on the stone path again, the ground littered with bones as she raced up the hillside. The sound of the wasps grew behind her, rising to an angry pitch, and she heard it come boring down for her as they dove after her shadow. She jogged side to side, trying to keep from making an easy target. Her breath burned in her chest.
One of them dove for her, and she twisted out of the way as it lashed at her with hooked forelimbs. She felt the wind of its wings on her like hot breath, and the armored body brushed against her as it passed, almost knocking her down. She could not fight them. One, perhaps, even two, but with the swarm bearing down on her if she slowed she would be dragged down and stung to death.
Another came for her, plated belly curling as it stabbed with the daggerlike stinger, so close she could smell the bitter tang of the venom. She cut around it and ran on, up the slope, and then the path leveled off and she saw the shadow of a forest ahead, towering trees rising up until they vanished in the mist and the low-hanging clouds.
The trees closed in above her, but the heavy trunks were spaced widely enough that the wasps dodged among them and kept coming. Jaya saw the heavier undergrowth on her right and ran that way, dodging around the massive trees and the jutting, sharp rocks. Vines hung between the trees, and she found lesser plants rising up over her head. She sought out the darkest, most heavily-grown part of the forest, and the wasps began to fall behind. She heard their wings buzz angrily against leaves and branches, heard the terrible clatter of their armored limbs scraping at the trees.
Jaya ducked behind a huge tree and hid herself in among the roots that thrust up like knees from the loamy soil, and she held there, trying to catch her breath without making too much noise. She did not look, she listened, and eventually the thrumming began to die away, the beasts returning to their nest one by one until all was quiet.
She made herself wait for a hundred breaths, and then she peered around the trunk of the tree. Not far, she saw one remaining wasp cleaning itself as it clung to a branch, as though it were waiting for her. She thought about killing it, but she knew if she did not bring it down at once it would call the others back. Best to evade it and go on. She slipped deeper into the brush and then began to make her way uphill again, keeping to the shadows until the sentinel was out of sight.
Thirsty, she cut a vine and drank from the end, and then she ate some of the food she had brought, chewing the tough, dried meat. She could not find the path again, and so she followed the slope upward, trusting that she would find what she sought in the high places where secrets remained.
o0o
She passed the night in among the roots of an immense tree, and then in the clear morning light she ascended through terraces of mist until she looked up and beheld a gateway almost buried in moss and vines. Two pillars of stone marked a narrow pass through the rock, and she knew by the stonework she was following the right path. This was a place of the Tau’ta. In elder ages her ancestors had raised these stones, and they marked the road to Kahashya.
Reverent, she climbed the crumbling steps and then passed through the gateway, finding it much larger up close than it had seemed from afar. It was built on a massive scale, towering above her, draped with lush greenery and hung about with garlands of crimson flowers. On the other side she stood looking down into a valley beyond, mist making the distances deceptive. The way down was marked by standing stones worn smooth by ages of rain and wind, and the trees were twisted into strange, coiled shapes.
The moment she stepped over the threshold she heard something off in the mist, something like a howl or a voice raised in wordless song. She held still for a moment, listening, and then the winds began to rise. The mist coiled and spiraled as though something huge moved through it, and the grasses before her were flattened as by a great hand. Thunder shook the clouds overhead, and she glanced up, when she lowered her gaze to look at the valley once more, she saw something there.
It was a shadow in the fog, almost at the limits of her vision, and it stood many times taller than a human form, though it walked like a man. She saw the featureless head shadowed and dark, eyes gleaming there like flickers of green fire, and it moaned again, a long, mournful sound like wind through jagged rocks when a storm is coming.
She stepped closer and then the wind grew suddenly fierce and buffeted her, making her stagger for balance. The giant shape moaned again, and then it came closer, footfalls echoing and shaking the ground under her feet. She squinted as the wind blew rain into her face. The thing was bigger than it had seemed, and grew larger as it came closer. It towered over her, many times her height – a true giant, larger than the outland invaders, larger than anything she had ever seen that walked upon the land.
It towered over her in the mist, eyes glowing like torches of stormfire, and when it looked down at her she seemed to feel its attention like a heat on her skin. She held immobile for a long moment, wondering what this apparition would do – wondering if it would even notice her, or if it simply wandered this strange place, indifferent.
A hand reached down for her, a shadow descending. She saw the flesh was mottled white, wrinkled and scarred. The nails were long and blackened like spade claws, and she smelled a stench on it like mortifying flesh. With a cry Jaya hurled herself out of the way and the fingers dug into the soil where she had stood, tearing up a handful of grass and earth with a ripping sound. The giant howled, and then the wind rose again and all but flattened her to the ground.
It flung the torn earth aside and reached for her again, and Jaya drew her sword with a flicker of steel. She struck at the bone-pale skin and cut it, but not deeply, and no blood flowed from the wound. Those fingers almost closed on her, and again she leaped out of the way and staggered in the wind as it tried to pull her back. The thing swept its other hand across the ground, clawing long furrows in the soil.
Jaya scrambled back, fighting to keep her feet in the sudden tempest. The giant bellowed, and then she realized that the wind was part of it, a power it called down to try to pin her in place where it could catch her. It was some unliving monster wandering this desolate wilderness, with power over the wind and the sky, guarding the way. Perhaps her ancestors had set this thing here as a guardian, perhaps it had crawled up from some ancient hollow in the earth, remnant of something far older than her own race.
She shouted her name and her lineage into the wind, but the tumult carried her words away, and she had to leap away as the giant reached for her again. When she moved the wind sent her rolling across the wet grass until she hit hard against the stones of the gateway. Almost blinded, she clawed to her feet and reeled back through the stone passage, the wind howling and pressing against her until she emerged on the far side.
Even as she staggered away from the passage, a great pale hand came reaching for her, groping blindly at the ground and the moss-covered stone until she had moved far enough that it could not reach her. She looked up at the stone pillars and was not at all sure that the barrier would stop the thing if it really wanted to come after her. The wind moaned through the opening, and she could not tell if it was truly the wind, or the voice of the mist-shrouded thing on the other side.
o0o
Jaya stayed there the rest of the day, listening as the sounds of the sentinel wandered in the far valley, fading or growing, but never dying away completely. The land around was steep and stony, and she doubted there was another way around, for why else would such a guardian be here? She considered waiting for darkness and then trying to slip past it, but then thought of what would happen if the enormous wight could see in the dark. It would carry her up and devour her, or do whatever evil it was bent on. No, she would not fall into so obvious an error.
She camped for the night under the shadow of the stone pillars, eating dried meat and drinking water squeezed from the moss. Her night was not idle, for she was thinking steadily, trying to plan a way around the giant. Early on she had her idea, and then she spent a great deal of time trying to think her way around it, because she did not like it at all. By the time the dawn broke gray and feeble through the clouds she knew there was no another plan, and so she rose and gave a last look toward the gate, and then she turned and retraced her steps back down the mountainside.
It was not very far until she was again immersed in the trees, making her way through the undergrowth of the misty jungle. Snakes crawled across her path, lizards and hand-sized beetles scuttled away as she approached. She was not making any effort to move quietly, or to remain unseen. She was hunting, but not by stealth. She wanted to be found.
Just as she began to hear the susurrus of the river in the gorge and the hum of the wasps, she found one of the red and black armored creatures perched on a heavy limb devouring a monkey. She hunted for a stone and picked one up, brushed off the dirt, and then she drew back her arm and hurled it.
The rock made a hollow sound when it hit the thing on the abdomen, and it suddenly burst into furious motion, wings thrashing the air, limbs clawing the wood. It turned and looked at her, light reflecting from the golden eyes, and then it came for her, all wrath.
Jaya was ready, and she hurled the first of her javelins only to see it glance off the armored carapace. The wasp dove for her and she held her second dart ready until it was almost on her before she rammed it into the underside of the thorax and left it there, leaped aside as it lashed at her with its stinger. She drew her sword and hacked off a wing before it could rise again, and the whole monstrous creature fell thrashing to the earth.
Quick, before it could turn on her, she cut off its head, and then she went on to dismember the writhing, squirming body until it was all in pieces, though it did not cease to move. The abdomen curled and flexed, the stinger plunging out again and again, seeking her blindly.
Now she had to hurry, for the distant sound of the hive was growing. She knew that wasps followed one another by smell, and she was trusting in that. The last javelin became a spike driven into leathery, plated body, and she used it as a lever to hoist the thing up over her shoulder, the stinger pointed away so it could not reach her, and then with it held above her head she ran for the uplands.
She hurried through the jungle, pacing herself so she would not wear herself out too quickly. The trees above sheltered her, and they slowed the wasps she heard coming in her wake. Ichor leaked from the still-moving abdomen she carried, and she knew the scent would stain the earth and make a trail to follow. Rain began to fall, and thunder sounded in the clouds overhead like tumbling stones.
Jaya emerged from the trees and began to run faster, using the strength she had saved from her earlier pace. The ground ascended, up and over ridges and rocks, and she heard the buzzing behind her grow louder still. She crested the hill and looked on the gateway above her, so close. She glanced back even as a horde of furious wasps burst from the upper branches of the forest. A veritable army of black and red armored fiends coming with vengeance in their cold hearts.
She ran, pushing herself until her breath burned in her throat and she felt her blood like fire in her veins. Through the narrow passage of the gate and then she was through into the valley beyond, and the winds came swiftly.
Jaya saw it at once, the shadowed form towering over her, close to the gateway as though it had been waiting for her to try to enter again. The ground shook under her as it stepped close and reached down, black nails like claws reaching for her. This time she did not spring away, instead she waited for the hand to come close, and when it did she plunged the tail of the wasp upward so the questing stinger pierced the gray-white skin and lodged its barbed point deep in the monstrous flesh.
The thing snatched back its hand, howling furiously, carrying the severed piece of the wasp’s body up and up. It crushed the thing in its hand and tried to fling away the remains, but the ichor splattered its hand, and even as it turned back to reach for her again, the thrumming grew deafening, and then the horde of wasps came swarming through the narrow gate and hurled itself upon the giant like a river of armor and venom.
Jaya pressed herself back against the stone, staring up as the giant was covered in furious, stinging wasps. It let out a howl that shook stones loose from the gate and the winds grew to furious power with a suddenness that almost pulled the breath from her chest. Wasps were ripped loose and hurled away by the gale. The giant bellowed and tore the stinging creatures free and crushed them in its hands, twisted and flailed at the air as they kept coming, diving through the winds to hook themselves upon that pallid flesh and drive their stingers in over and over.
She stared as the towering form staggered away, swinging its arms and clawing at itself, covered in more and more wasps in a cloud that bit and clawed and stung. It crushed them in handfuls, it threw their broken corpses to be carried away by the wind, but there were too many of them. They stung out those glowing eyes, they stung the head and the neck and the chest. She saw the white skin pierced by wounds that ran with black blood and yellow venom, saw veins stand out and burst open.
It reeled away and Jaya followed it, jogging with a measured pace that kept it in sight. She evaded the dead and dying wasps on the ground, followed the giant until she caught up with it on the edge of a stony cliff, pawing and slapping at itself, blasts of wind scouring the wasps away from it. Yet the armored devils would not be driven back, and they attacked relentlessly.
She saw the giant brace itself on the edge of the cliff, on clawed foot digging into the soil, and she ran forward, head down and teeth bared. She put both hands on her sword-hilt and struck once, shearing through the great tendon at the back of the immense ankle. The sound of it was like a breaking tree trunk, and then the giant’s foot folded under it and the thing fell back.
There was a moment when it seemed it would simply hang there, flesh riddled by stings and swarming with angry wasps, hands reaching for something to grasp and failing. It teetered there, and then it went over the edge. It howled as it went down, one hand catching the brink and gouging the stone before it tore free and then the moan of the thing fell away as the giant plunged into the mist below. Jaya felt the impact shudder through the stone underfoot, and then everything was still.
She stood for a moment, looking down into the layers of mist, rain pelting against her face. Nothing moved, and no sound came to her save the thrumming of the remaining wasps. She decided not to tempt them and she turned away and headed into the mist, following the rising ground toward the trees on the upward slopes. Stormclouds gathered around the mountain peaks, and she followed the flicker of lightning.
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