Stone of Tears

With the sword gripped in both hands, Richard screamed with unleashed fury, driving the sword through the beast’s chest as it rushed at him. Soft flesh and hard bone hissed at contact with the blade. The monster slid from the sword and hit the ground like a bucket of slop, its hide not entirely able to contain its contents. A drop of blood splattered on Richard’s arm, burning through his shirt and into his flesh. From the inside, the beast boiled and frothed. Worms wriggled from the abscessed sores.

Sister Verna stared wide-eyed at the bubbling, smoking mass. He grabbed her curly hair in his fist and twisted her head to look at the forms that were closing in. “Is this your idea of Paradise? Look! Look at them!”

He dragged her backward with him as the dark, watery blood running from the beast ignited, sending acrid, oily black smoke curling from the flames. Richard halted when he remembered what she had told him before, about backing into worse danger. He smelled burning flesh and, realizing it was his own, spat on the painful, smoking spot of the beast’s blood on his arm.

He took in a quick sweep of the area. There were more of the forms behind. Another of them solidified into a beast, this time with cloven hooves and a broad snout. Razor-sharp tusks sprouted, growing into long, curved weapons.

Snorting, it charged them. Richard drove his sword downward through the thing’s skull as it tried to gore him. With a squeal, the beast collapsed heavily. By the time the bulky body hit the ground, it had mutated to a writhing mass of snakes. They tumbled and rolled as they hit, the tangled pile of them wriggling apart. Hundreds of hooded red eyes glowered up at him. Red tongues flicked the air as the yellow-and-black-banded bodies slithered toward the two of them.

Richard didn’t think they were mere incorporeal illusions; the place on his arm where the drop of blood had splattered burned painfully. The snakes hissed. Some coiled to strike, revealing dripping fangs.

“Richard, we have to get out of here. Come, child.”

They turned and ran, the floating, red-eyed forms following. Richard felt the thick air as he went through. The air around him sparkled.

Sister Verna cried out. He turned to see her on the ground before the snakes. She sprang to her feet and tried again, but could not pass through. To her, the air was solid.

She stood silently a moment, going calm. She clasped her hands. “Richard, I am trapped in this spell. I cannot leave it. It is me the spell captured, and recognizes. It is too late for me. Save yourself. Run. Without me, you may have a chance. Hurry. Go.”

There seemed to be a lot more snakes than Richard had seen at first. The ground was alive with them. They were surrounding him. He struck as they did, and beheaded three that came too close.

The headless bodies writhed and then disassembled into hundreds of huge, glossy, black-and-brown-banded bugs. They skittered in every direction. Some ran up his pant leg. He frantically shook his legs trying to get them out. Each bite felt like a hot coal on his flesh. He stomped his feet to get them off. From the ground where he had killed the snakes, more of the bugs poured out, their hard-shelled bodies tumbling over each other, rustling like the sound of dry leaves blowing across parched earth.

Dancing among the clicking bugs and between the squirming snakes, he stepped back into the sparkling air. “Without you I don’t have a chance. You’re coming with me.”

He enfolded her in his arms and threw himself sword-first at the sparkling barrier. The wall seemed hard at first, but then the air about them exploded in glittering flashes. Lines of light, like crazed glass, shot in every direction. The air erupted in a burst of sparkles and a crack of thunder. The darting sparkles slowed and then drifted to earth, like fat flakes of snow, their light extinguishing when they touched the ground. The two of them moved past the vanished barrier, free of the spell.

The dark forms followed. The snakes followed. Bugs popped and crunched under his boots.

Richard’s grip tightened on the sword. “Let’s get out of here.”

She took two strides and then froze.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t feel the way,” she whispered. “Richard, I can’t feel the gaps.” She turned to him. “do you feel anything?” He shook his head. Try! Richard, try to feel where there is less danger.”

He stomped his feet to knock the bugs off his legs and swiped off one that had made it to his face. Snakes were still pouring from the ground where the monster had fallen. They boiled up like water from a spring. “I can’t. I feel danger all about. It’s the same everywhere. Which way!”

She clutched her skirt in a fist. “I don’t know.”

Richard heard a scream. The familiar voice wrenched his attention before he could stop himself. Kahlan was standing where the snakes poured from the ground. They slithered up and over her as if she were a rock in a living stream of snakes. She held her arms out to him.