Rhymer (Rhymer Trilogy Book 1) by Gregory Frost

Rhymer (Rhymer Trilogy Book 1) by Gregory Frost

Author:Gregory Frost [Frost, Gregory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2023-06-06T00:00:00+00:00


PART THREE:

TYWYLLWCH

LLWYR

XXI. A Road to Hel

The red road to the woods extends seemingly into eternity. A road through hell. It feels as if they float along it for days—float because no one seems to be walking and yet, hung upside down, he’s swaying on the pole as the furrowed bloodred tunnel ripples past, recedes in the distance. It’s as if the tunnel itself is compressing and expanding, moving around them while they stay in place. It’s as if they’re inside the body of an earthworm, an idea so grotesque he dismisses it. Was it like this before, with Waldroup? It was hard going, he recalls; they seemed to run in place and get nowhere but then to have traveled some distance. Now he can’t be sure. Disoriented and dizzy, confused, he can’t be sure of anything at all. Even of time: Has it been days or mere moments? Can it be both at once?

Awaiting the Queen on this side are five mounted knights. What’s strange is that on this side their mounts and hers are almost luminescent: Instead of the polished blackness of their bodies, they are radiantly white here, forged from congealed moonlight.

Eventually, the red ribbed sides disappear and a darkness enfolds them as if they’re journeying through a lightless cavern deep underground. He’s sure he didn’t pass this way with Waldroup. Not that it matters. He’s helpless, however they go, wherever and whenever they arrive. He expects he won’t die until then. Closing his eyes, he tries to insulate himself from the journey by concentrating on all the unanswered questions.

How do they pick their victims, and why? Is it a matter of convenience? Onchu from Ercildoun, and then many years later the girl from Carterhaugh—it seems they’re careful not to select too many from one area, a notion reinforced by the pilgrims, who seem to have arrived at his door from multiple locations. And, of course, there’s what Waldroup saw on the battlefield: how they pluck victims where no one will miss them. Thomas was lucky up till now. Once they arrive wherever they’re going, though, if given the chance he will insist on taking Janet’s place. She has a daughter, an influential father. She’ll be missed. He won’t. Let her go home to Morven. He’ll be their teind. . . . Just please let them return him to human form again that he might bargain, exchange his life for hers. But what if they don’t? The Queen can do anything she likes to him. He has no say in anything on this side of the veil. What is the fate of the teind? Thus far the only fate he knows of here is the fate of those who stray from the path and in among the Þagalwood trees. He and Waldroup speculated that Onchu had become . . . what Gallorini became, but there’s no proof of it. Torment and torture might take a million forms among these creatures. He thinks of Janet, and has to fight down his terror. Think! he screams silently. Even



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