Cole led them. He was followed by Greyber. The Water-Mage came next, and Shaella was behind him, prodding him along with her sword. The soft, yellow glow of its blade helped with the dimness created by the density of the vegetation.
Even if the sun had been directly overhead, Gerard thought that it would’ve been dark in this claustrophobic place.
Flick had stayed with the boat. The two deck hands that hadn’t gone with the cargo barge were with him. The further Gerard moved away from the boat, the more he found himself looking back over his shoulder into the dark nothingness.
Some sort of thorny vine spiked into his arm sharply. He tried to pull away, but it was embedded in his flesh. He pulled again, with gritted teeth, and finally broke free of it, but not before dragging several feet of the ropey plant down the trail behind him. The rustling of bushes, and the sound of heavy footfalls, as some large, grunting thing bolted away from them, hurried his pace. When he caught up to Shaella, and the comforting glow of her sword, he decided that this wasn’t the sort of place where one should lag behind.
The clamor of a hammering bird’s beak, and the chirping sizzle of a million different insects, wafted up through the thick air to his ears. To his right, for a fleeting instant, he thought he saw two tiny specks of yellow light, spaced a hand’s breadth apart, bobbing slowly along beside them at head height. By the time his mind registered that what he was seeing was two eyes reflecting the light from Shaella’s sword back at him, they were gone.
Off in the distance, the ear-piercing shriek of something huge caused a moment of total silence. The whole jungle, even the insects, stopped to listen. Then slowly, hesitantly, the cacophony of noise resumed, as if the creatures hadn’t been disturbed at all.
The ground seemed to grow less spongy as they continued, but it never stopped being slimy. The ever present moisture dripping from the leaves and vines above wouldn’t allow it. Gerard figured that they were slowly moving up onto higher ground. His new boots were probably a ruin. He wondered absently what Hyden would think of all the places he had seen so far on this journey.
He glanced down at his arm, and saw that it was swollen and bleeding. So much moisture was clinging to his skin, that he hadn’t noticed it. The wound began to pulse with pain then, and he wondered if he would be feeling the growing throb if he hadn’t looked at it. For a moment, he panicked. He had to climb soon. He couldn’t afford to have a swollen arm and be in this kind of pain. Go away! he screamed inside his head. Before the thought had completed itself, he felt the ring on his finger heating. The usual rush he felt in his blood was dampened by the pain in his arm, but only for a moment. The magic quickly scoured away all traces of the injury, and he soon felt its luscious tingle coursing through him. A thought came to him as he rode on the rush of unnatural power. Light! He commanded in his mind. To his great surprise, an apple sized ball of bright white light appeared in his palm.
He heard Shaella gasp, as she turned to see what had happened. It was a gasp of surprise, and maybe wonder. The sound of the Water-Mage’s gasp though, was clearly one of shock and terror. Gerard reluctantly peeled his eyes away from the glowing light in his hand, and saw what had frightened the man. In the trees, all around the group, were glittering pairs of reflection. Hundreds of black orbs, set in slithery, slick reptilian faces, were staring at the light. The lizard-like creatures were standing upright, and armed to the teeth with human weapons. A bright, pink tongue flickered from a split in a snouted turtle shaped head, then another. The parts of the creatures’ bodies that weren’t covered with ringed leather armor or scraps of chain mail, were scaled and as green as the jungle around them.[__] Skeeks, Gerard decided correctly, right out of one of Berda’s stories.
Everyone seemed to be captivated, as well as irritated, by the light. More than one of the lizard men had moved to shield its eyes from the brightness. More flickering forked tongues appeared, accompanied by a severe hissing sound, as their heads began to dart around nervously.
Gerard was sure they were about to be attacked, but then one of them spoke to Cole in a strange, clicking sibilant language. Gerard recognized it as the language the two bald-headed wizards used when they spoke to Shaella and each other. Gerard noticed something else. It was the blackness of the eyes, maybe, or the elongated torso and head of the lizard men – he wasn’t sure. He tried to pinpoint the similarities, but couldn’t. They were subtle and many. He was sure though, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that both Cole and Flick were related to these unsettling creatures somehow. As if to confirm this thought, Cole responded to the beast in a casual, yet commanding tone.
Gerard waited for the lizard man’s response, but the next words were spoken to him.
“Extinguish the light!” Cole commanded harshly in the common tongue.