Ascension by Charles L. Grant

Author:Charles L. Grant [Grant, Charles L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2017-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

VIII

The night went badly. Once past the lake into the forest’s canopy, what little light the moon provided was too fractured to be more than confusing. Frustration and caution brewed a mild panic when they found themselves moving slower than they wanted to, faster than they knew was prudent. Several times they blundered into thickets and cursed as their hands beaded blood; more than once they misjudged a slope and spilled into depressions packed with damp leaves and crawling things that tightened their skin and clung to their clothes.

Upward, angling northward. Not knowing the distance they covered, praying they wouldn’t suddenly break into the open and discover the lake tranquilly black at their feet. To prevent it, Parric climbed, pulling the girl when energy permitted, and pushing her when he felt himself flagging. And just as often it was she who led, using her arm to keep branches from slashing his face, finding the hidden boulders first and biting back grunts of pain when leg met stone. They spoke little save to gasp a position, wordlessly to sound out a change in direction. Encouragement came in the holding of hands, the quick slap on a rump, the sudden discovery of a natural path that allowed them to trot side by side before the forest resumed command and they were fighting again.

The ground leveled. Parric held onto a trunk and swallowed for air. Courtney yanked at his sleeve, and his support was gone and his arms were flailing, then hanging limply and allowing gravity to do most of the work, all of the tugging.

He dropped. Crawled up against a root jutting out of the earth. She knelt beside him but did nothing, said nothing. They spoke instead through agonizing rasps, touches, and a single soft laugh. They listened, and heard only the wind that changed the shapes of the trees and cooled to ice the dampness on their faces. Parric plucked his shirt away from his chest and shook it, trying to move the air. His pack was uncomfortable. It pulled him back until he was lying on his side, his head against his arm.

“Can we sleep?” she asked, lying beside him.

He smiled, but his lips wouldn’t remain steady and his face twisted in a breathless grimace. “What … we have to. For a while. We’ll kill ourselves. If I hit just one more Plagued tree…”

He felt giddy, and knew Courtney was sharing because she giggled and commented on a fall he had taken—decidedly ungraceful and not worthy of a hero, she said, and he tried to cuff her and found his arm refusing to respond. She giggled again. It was dark, and he couldn’t tell if his eyes were open, hadn’t known he was sleeping until an insect walked across his face and he brushed it off impatiently, sitting up to see the air tinted green around them. Courtney was curled with knees to her chest, her face and hair spotted with wet grass and dead leaves, pine needles and smudges of dirt.

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