The Barsoom Project

Max said, “Oh, drown it!” and dove in after him. The water was oddly warm-those Implementors were rascals indeed. Also, there seemed to be another layer of iceberg beneath his feet… or else it was rather improbably shallow…

Ah, well, no time to think.

Something was moving in the water. He saw the tentacle out of the corner of his eye, raised the sacred usik on high, and bashed the thing backhand before it could come much closer. Hands reached down into the water, hauled Orson out, then reached down for Max. Blood slick spread around them. If there were predators about, well…

Eviane’s eyes were glittering at him, and she paused a moment to give him a quick kiss.

“Come on!” Snow Goose yelled. “It’s not far!”

Behind them the entire ice field was breaking up. Huge slabs rose and sank, clashed amidst a monstrous spray. In the distance, the Wolfalcons screamed their frustration.

And then…

The sun began to change. It was warmer still, and the air shimmered around them, rather like a heat mirage. Nothing extreme, but a sensation of chill ran the course of his body, and he knew Seelumkadchluk! Reality lay just ahead.

Chapter Thirty-Six

MICHELLE

The earth rumbled, and then subsided.

There, ahead of them, was the village where they had crash-landed an eternity ago. The burned and blasted wreckage of their plane was a reminder of happier times, like the stripped carcass of last week’s Thanksgiving turkey.

A dozen Eskimos, scattered around the edge of the bay, pointed and cried out as the Adventurers ran across the last of the sea-ice. The steadily thinning sheet dissolved beneath their very feet. One by one they plunged into the sea. Eviane’s legs burned with fatigue; she hopped from perch to perch, and finally ran out of ice.

Chunks of ice bobbed and clashed about her head as she stroked for shore. Eviane noted how little the freezing water affected her. Her toughness might save her yet.

Snow Goose scrambled ashore to be met by Martin, her father. “My child!” He embraced her warmly. “You have saved us!”

“Daddy, we’ve still got trouble. The Cabal are coming.”

“The Cabal cannot use their beasts or spirit forms in this world, but they can attack as before, with guns. Hurry!” He pulled her toward the trading post. Other Adventurers followed, while Eviane struggled up the strand.

Seven Adventurers remained. Orson and Max, Eviane, Snow Goose, Charlene, Trianna, and Hippogryph. They all looked like something the proverbial cat should have buried in the sand.

Eskimos scrambled to get boxes from the trading post. “Weapons!” Martin the Arctic Fox bellowed. “Sometimes the need is for spiritual weapons, and sometimes for a Smith and Wesson.”

Eviane recoiled as an Eskimo handed her one of the rifles. It felt heavy in her hand, and alien, and…

A single gunshot set the tired Adventurers to diving behind buildings. Eviane found herself below ground level in a web of splintered wood. Something sailed through the air “Grenade!” Orson screamed. All heads ducked as one of the sheds disintegrated in fire and sound. A ragged Eskimo form flew boneless through the air.

There was firing all around her. Eviane huddled, covering her face.

Charlene dropped behind the barrier with her. “Eviane! Why aren’t you fighting?” She looked concerned. Eviane had no answer.

She heard the roar behind them. It was not an explosion; it was the roar of a great beast, and Eviane knew what she would see even as she turned. She sucked air, hyperventilating, as she did whenever the nightmare returned.

The thing that rose from the ocean was a form of madness and nightmare, larger than anything that they had seen yet. It was a many-segmented worm-shape, with a yawning maw.

Martin walked on stiff legs, unconcerned by the gunfire and the explosions that had turned the village into a battlefield. He stared up at the creature, and screamed, “Blasphemy! How much power did you steal, to manifest in this world! You go too far, Ahk-lut! I, your father, renounce you! I, your father-”

A sound that could only have been a human laugh emerged from the titanic shape, and the entire world shook with its evil mirth.

Martin’s magical gestures were evidently inadequate. The monster humped forward. The shelf of ice supporting Martin shattered, filling the air with frigid mist and chips of broken ice. Martin disappeared into the ocean.

Ahk-lut’s terrible spirit form dove after him.

“What was that?” Max gasped.

“A Terichik,” Snow Goose said, eyes wide. “I’d only heard about them. Never seen one. It’s Ahk-lut, my brother. He’s going to kill us all.”

Like a raging mountain, the Terichik rose screaming from a frozen, nightdark sea. Its many-sectioned, grotesquely wormlike body reared up; tons of water and ice thundered into the ocean with a howl like the death of worlds. The night sky swirled wind-whipped snow through mist that tasted of salt. The Terichik’s mouth gaped cavernously. Endless rows of serrated teeth gleamed as it shrieked its mindless wrath. Its breath was a cold and fetid wind.