Talion: Revenant by Michael A. Stackpole

Author:Michael A. Stackpole [Stackpole, Michael A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780553576566
Publisher: Spectra
Published: 1997-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Novice: Nightmare

A breeze swept across the dusty yard and swirled the charnel-house scent around me. It knocked me from Wolf's back and onto the ground, where I vomited. Weak knees and unsteady, quivering arms held me above the puddle that had been my breakfast as my body convulsed again and again to further empty my stomach. Bitter bile coated my mouth, sweat slicked my flesh, and tears seeped from my tightly shut eyes.

"That's enough, Talion. Get up." Ring's Call cut through my physical agony but carried no compassion or concern for me with it. He hated me and threaded his words with contempt.

I dug my fingers into the dust and relished the simple feel of each grain of gritty sand. I reached inside to calm my body and stop my stomach from heaving, but a second gust of wind threatened to start the process all over again. I used my rage with Ring and myself to exert iron-willed control over my insides and, for a moment, took refuge in just feeling all the pains in my body. Better that than what lurked outside.

"Now, Novice, get to your feet and tell me what you see."

I rolled back on my heels, kept my eyes closed, and raised my face to the sky so the sweat could cool me before I attempted any more complicated movement. I reached behind me, felt for and found my left stirrup, then dragged myself to my feet. I swayed, both from weakness and a dizzying wave of nausea washing over me. Slowly, dreadfully, I opened my eyes.

I'd seen it before and shook my head hard to flick off the tears welling up in my eyes.

They'd used sod to build their house but, other than that, the farm looked identical to the one I'd grown up on. The smoke still drifted up from the charred ends of roof beams. Fire-blackened ruins and the blue sky filled the empty doorway and windows. Back behind the house, mocking the carnage before it, stood a smokehouse.

Corpses choked the sunbaked yard in front of the house. The men lay on the right and the women on the left as if they had been taken in the midst of a ceremony or celebration. Their animals, all dead, lay scattered around haphazardly, but they looked as though they'd tried harder to escape their fate than the people had.

Several small pits, about two feet in diameter, half that depth and filled with loose, dry dirt, were sunk in a seemingly random pattern throughout the yard. Everyone, everything was dead and had been dead for a few days. And everything had been chewed on.

"Nolan, what do you see?"

I turned too quickly in anger and wavered until the world caught up with my head. Ring towered over me up there on his horse. A silver circlet held back his long black hair. The breeze tugged and played with his hair, but he gave no indication that it brought to him the same scents it did to me.

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