The Death God's Citadel by Juanita Coulson

Author:Juanita Coulson [Coulson, Juanita]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9780345280893
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 1980-01-01T23:00:00+00:00

XI

Ice Forest and Skull Breakers

The travelers gazed apprehensively at the line of trees. The dark barrier extended east and west as far as they could see. Rof had been to Irico and said that even there the Ice Forest was unbroken. It stretched across all the land and beyond into realms no one knew. To the east, where Couredh met the sea, the trees marched to the edge of the frozen ocean and joined where eternal ice blocked all ships.

It was an unnatural forest, black with shadows, thickly grown in a land beyond all other trees and brush. Nothing had grown here for ages, yet the forest was alive. It hulked beneath the constant gray overcast, a wall of twisted trunks and leafless branches. The stillness was profound, filled with a peculiar menace, as if something more unearthly than the brooding trees lurked within, waiting.

A new chill clawed the travelers with talons of ice. It was not the northern wind but fear. The frozen trees and oppressive silence gnawed at them. The horses scented their uneasiness and jerked at reins and tethers. Roughly, the riders quieted their mounts and the spare animals.

Rof pointed. "The end of your realm, LaRenya. Couredh is no more. This is the entrance to the Death God's domain."

Jathelle was afraid. But like Tyrus and Erejzan, dedication to her cause made her conquer fear of the unknown. She said boldly, "I have seen the Ice Forest, bandit lord. When my father bested the barbarians to the west, we came very near the line of the trees."

"But did not enter the Forest, I wager."

"Have you?" Aubage demanded testily.

Rofs answering grin was as cold as the wind. His thieves cowered in their mantles and muttered unhappily as if recalling a bleak enterprise sometime in the past. "I have ventured there, ai," Rof boasted. "You might say it was a matter of life or death—my life or death. Some seasons ago, my men and I had, ah, a disagreement about some furs with a nomad tribe. They cut off our escape to civilized regions. So we sought the one place even barbarians shun—the Ice Forest. We lost them readily, you may guess, and we followed the trees for some distance. No longer than we had to, be sure. We are not lackwits."

Tyrus listened to all this absently. He focused on the Forest and the darkness hiding within it. Suddenly he asked, "How deep is it? I am finding it difficult to measure it accurately."

Jathelle and all the men save Erejzan gaped at him and Aubage wondered aloud, "How can you measure it, amuser? We have not yet traveled into it."

"I have methods," Tyrus said, and Aubage asked no more questions. Like the rest of Jathelle's entourage and the brigands, he seemed of two minds; he hoped Tyrus had magic to help them, but he disliked dealing with things he could not see or believing arcane weapons could serve better than club and blade. Tyrus went on, "I have plumbed it and find sorcery.

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