The Diary of Mikola Ludmilova

Part 5

Featuring ritual disembowelling (not by Trolls), lightning, a wall of fire and golems…

Waternight, Deathweek, Earthseason – dusk

With Ruth as a guide we cross the Roorider lands without incident, which is good because it gives me a chance to catch up on my sleep after the exhausting trial of crossing the River on top of the Thanatari plot and rescuing the Zorinas.

Clayight, Deathweek, Earthseason

It’s about an hour before dawn when Ruth tells us that we’re crossing the border into Zebrarider lands. As she’s speaking, Tatiana spies something glowing below the horizon to the north-northeast, more or less where we’re headed. If I squint I think I can see what she means but it’s very faint. A couple of the others think they can smell smoke on the breeze, which is northerly. Splitz sends his stonebird familiar off to scout ahead. Through its eyes he sees a circle of burnt wagons, one still smouldering. It’s less than two miles off, in a shallow vale just over the brow of the next hill.

We hurry on and forty minutes later we gaze down on a laager of five wagons, all but one just burnt out shells. There’s also a heap of horse-like creatures that Ruth says are quaggas – sort of like zebras at the front and horses at the back, but the non-white bits are a sort of reddish-brown.

There’s also a row of dead barbarians laid out neatly, save for their guts, which are all over the place! We see a lot of tracks that Tatiana and Irina say belong to horses or similar – horses, zebras and quaggas all have the same feet.

We’re just about to investigate closer when we hear movement behind us. Looking back we see a dozen huge spiders just coming over the brow of the hill, following our tracks. I recognise them as giant hunting spiders, bred for speed. They are, of course, ridden by Trolls.

They don’t quite look like another trade mission so Tatiana and Zod walk up the hill to greet them. It turns out to be a Pravda intelligence unit consisting of six Stygian Great Trolls and six Dark Trolls led by a Mistress called Komissar Karla – she doesn’t give any other affiliation or a matronimic and Tatiana is sure it’s just a cognomen.

It seems news of the burned tower and the skirmishes with the humans south of the River came to the attention of our betters. Since we’re all supposed to be on a diplomatic mission it’s been decided that we need intel, monitoring and ‘proper record taking’. So we’re not trusted – but then Pravda doesn’t trust anyone.

Tatiana relates our adventures with the Thanatari plot, the skirmishes between the humans and the Zorinas (eventually resolved with the duel) and our crossing the River. Tatiana even tells her how I blew up the Phoenician Duck! One of the Dark Trolls takes copious notes of everything said – I shiver to think a written report of me slaying that Duck on the River will be read back home! Vot eto da! [Literally ‘this is so’ but with the meaning of ‘wow’ or ‘incredible’.]

But when Tatiana’s finished, Karla congratulates her on following Mother’s directive not to live ‘off the land’. Karla says she must hurry to catch the other groups (which sadly now seem all to be ahead of us) but one of her entourage is Anya Ludmilova, our nark of a sister, who will be staying with us… to keep notes…

But I must admire Anya’s mount – a beautiful creature, if a little skittish – I would dearly love to take her for a scurry. But when Tatiana tells her I’m a drover, Anya hands the reins to me, saying her bum’s very sore from riding so hard and suggests I borrow it as an aid when droving the kine. Actually, maybe Anya’s not so bad? Of course, she’s only buying my loyalty, but I must admit the price is probably right.

So as Karla’s spiders scurry ahead, our attention turns back to the wagon laager. To me it looks weird but Ruth believes the Quaggariders were returning to a semi-permanent camp using the wagons to hall stuff out of Zebra lands – loot possibly? Well, whatever they stole has been stolen back by the Zebrariders and whatever might have been left is now ash. But Tatiana says we will camp here tonight because we can’t let all this food go to waste – even the Quaggariders are people and deserve to have their dead decently disposed of.

There’s a lot of meat to deal with and it must be done with respect. The Great Trolls systematically butcher the carcases for every available morsel – Great Trolls have big appetites. I take just the choicer cuts but even so there’s too much to be eaten right away so I create a turf smoke oven to cure the meat.

While doing this we all notice the bodies have been ritually disembowelled with their bellies cut open in a shape of a Truth rune. I’ve heard that in the cities, when they want to know how someone has been killed, humans open up the carcass with an enormous Truth-rune incision from neck to groin! I don’t know why they’re so obsessive about Truth – even the Selenites are, and they’re lords of Illusion. Humans are strange!

Well it’s going to take all day to smoke this meat so once the kine are corralled, fed and watered and the smoker put to bed I do the same. With all the tosca [angst] we’re moving to stronger watches so I’ll be up at midday for second watch.

Windsday, Deathweek, Earthseason

I’ll never get used to rising with the Great Fart blazing overhead but Najinski, Irina, Splitz and Bruce are doing the same so at least I have company in misery. Before they turn in, the first watch say they’ve spotted Quaggariders spying on us and several times we see the same. They appear on the horizon in ones and twos, stare at us for a bit and ride off. They don’t respond when we wave. The day is stifling hot – can this be Earthseason?

Windsnight, Deathweek, Earthseason

The heat doesn’t seem to ebb even when the Great Fart sets, the air feels oppressive and tense. But on the upside the smoker has worked a dream – I say a prayer for the dead now their remains are properly prepared.

After a brief trial I decide the spider will take some getting used to so I go back to droving on foot because we really need to make up time by keeping the beetles moving.

The terrain is steppe, vistas of grassy plain as far as the eye can see. To the east are a row of low hills that Ruth says marks the borders with Quagga lands but we’re now deep in Zebra territory. Beyond the hills we spy the snow-capped peaks of the mountains of Transylvania.

An hour after midnight it starts to rain, but very light, little more than mizzle. Then the lightning starts, mainly beyond the eastern hills. It keeps up for more than an hour on a broad front for miles – it almost looks like the lightning is attacking the mountains in the distance. Then the lightning and the rain die away, to be replaced by an easterly wind that starts light and slowly gathers strength.

We’re passing a strange patch of barren ground to our left, maybe a mile across or a little less, like a dark smudge in the steppe. At first I think the vegetation is poor but as we come abreast we see it’s utterly barren, not even soil, just bare rock and even that looks like it’s been pulverised in some cataclysm.

Round the outside at intervals are funny model horse-heads made from sticks, facing into the barren land. Ruth says they’re meant to be zebra heads and mark the area as taboo. Tatiana eyes the tracks in the dirt and says the local wildlife seem to avoid it. I keep a close eye on the kine but none of them are spooked by it. Tatiana’s sure no Trolls have been this way.

We don’t break stride in passing – it’s still three hours to dawn and we need to press on. But our gazes are drawn to the taboo wasteland. In the centre is a low rise with something on top, either ruins or a rock outcrop.

But as we pass the nearest point some of the others hear a noise in the east, the other side of the trail. Najinski says it sounds like war but Anya and Irina think it sounds like trollkin running in fear (which they do a lot).

Then we see light glowing in the east – three hours before dawn, remember, so it’s not even the false-dawn. And now we all hear the noise – and to me it sounds like kine stampeding in fear!

Suddenly we realise the steppe is on fire! There’s a wall of flame advancing from the east, coming on with frightening speed, the wildlife running in fear before it. And that fear’s catching; I can sense the kine are close to panicking. But they’re slow – except for the spider, none of them could outrun something like this and Irina and the others are struggling to control the trollkin. (Though thankfully Lessi and Shep respond to my bark and are actually helpful in herding the ham beetles.)

Of course, there’s one ready refuge that can’t burn so I suggest we enter the taboo land and immediately we turn the kine out of the grass. It takes everyone’s efforts to control the kine and I only just hang on to the spider, which keeps rearing up and waving its front four legs, out of terror.

At least the beetles tend to gather together when threatened but the trollkin dash about all over the place, frantic with terror. My sisters have to chase them almost to the centre before we can round them up.

But we do get them all under control several hundred yards into the taboo land, which by now is surrounded with a wall of flame, destroying the grass and all those zebra heads around the edge. We find it’s coolest near the centre, of course, where it’s furthest from the flames, but we don’t want to get too close to that tump just in case there is actually something behind the taboo.

But several of my sisters and brothers say they saw lead over there – I didn’t, I was too busy trying to stop the spider from bolting into the flames. Now the trollkin and kine are settled Tatiana thinks we should explore the tump – after all, we can’t resume our march until the flames are gone.

So we all have a poke around the tump and find it’s the remains of a fortification, a ring-work around the foundations of a hollow, round structure, some sort of tower, perhaps forty feet across. The rocks in the ring contain lead and me and Najinski agree that the tower was either lined or clad (or both) with workings of lead! Whether that lead was magical or just part of the mundane construction is impossible to say now, since it seems to have been destroyed by a powerful surge of energy, either fire or lightning.

I get a strange shiver, since we’ve seen a lot of both over the last hour or so.

The lead is substantial and could be worth mining, given time. I think one Troll might liberate ten or twenty pounds of lead in a night if our Zorak-Zorani could manage the smelting. Of course we don’t have the time for that right now but Tatiana marks the map – we may make a longer stop here on the way back.

At Anya’s suggestion, Tatiana Detects Magic in the ring-work but she’s confident there’s no real warding. There’s a ‘gate’ and the others want to explore – I check the kine are settled and quiet before following the others in. To my eye, the threshold stone of the gate is well-made, as are the bases of the posts to either side – as well made as any we saw at the Dwarf halls of Privestizavod.

Inside we find the mangled bronze fittings for the door, which are well worth salvaging for the metal. There’s also the broken lintel from the gate and what looks like a well, ten feet across, but when we get close we see stairs spiralling down to the right.

In the general litter on the floor we find two bodies – dwarves in bronze mail and plate, partially buried when the walls came down. Obviously any meat is long gone but it might be worth uncovering them for the bronze, though that would be a lot of work, even with Najinski doing the lifting.

I turn my attention to the broken lintel stone. It has writing on it – strange, angular Dwarf runes and what at first looks like a Darkness rune – until someone spots it has two curving ‘horns’ – Chaos! Were they Chaos Dwarves? Or is this a warning? Anya appears to be good with languages (she will be our translator when we reach Transylvania) and while she cannot decipher the writing, to her eye it looks like scripture or prayer.

Anya is very suspicious of the circumstances that brought us here – the lightning, the fire, perhaps even the ritual slaughter of the Quaggariders. She doesn’t like the well. But Tatiana says we can’t go anywhere for the moment so we might as well explore. I take mental notes of my elder sister’s words – this is leadership!

We form into pairs for the stairs down: Zod and Anya leading, followed by Najinski by himself (because he’s huge), then Tatiana and me and Irina and Splitz bringing up the rear. We all attempt stealth, which of course is ludicrous with two heavily armoured Great Trolls. I’m sure anything down there must hear us coming.

Twenty feet down we reach the floor of a round chamber twice as broad as the stairwell. We immediately spy huge Dwarf statues at the four points of the compass, each in front of a closed door. They’ve been carved with life-like verisimilitude save that their fists are fashioned as mauls – someone says they must be golems, set as guardians. My sisters and brothers take it as read that they will animate as soon as we approach.

We see Chaos runes on their fists and their chests bear the runes of Man, Earth and Chaos – I know of no cult with those runes. Save for Earth these are not Dwarf runes.

Zod steps off the stair – nothing happens! We join him to find the stair lets down onto a central part of the floor the same width as the well which is tiled a different colour to that outside. I notice two other passages curving away, which immediately suggests this has been built in the shape of a Chaos rune.

Whoever built this – and that appears to have been Dwarves – did so as some sort of monument to Chaos. This feels strange to me – it is not in the nature of Chaos to build such structures. Well that’s what I think – but nonetheless, here it is!

On the walls our Darksense picks out carvings, glyphs and more Dwarf runic script. There’s also writing on the floor, which Anya again thinks is a prayer – she says she can make out odd words but doesn’t voice them.

My sisters and brothers assume the golems will animate if we leave the central area. They will probably move slowly but each would be a fearsome opponent, massively strong and immensely tough. Fighting all four at once they would overwhelm us – and what else might come out the doors or down those passages…?

Najinski suggests we all fight from the stair, preventing us from getting outflanked. The front two can double team one golem at a time while the rest of us throw rocks. Anya says we can attack the nearest golem to the stairs to trigger a response before retreating. It makes a lot of sense and Tatiana readily agrees.

Of course, the danger is that one unfortunate blow from those fists could leave one of us on the ground, surrounded by four golems, so Irina hands one potion of Healing VI or VII to each of us from her stash. Tatiana says Irina and me will remain on the stairs but I insist that I’m good with my maul and she relents and lets me join in the fun. Then we all cast our spells – I only have Bludgeon II but Zod generously casts Bludgeon IV and Protection IV on me and Tatiana gives me Strength and Coordination – suddenly I feel immensely capable. I may be small, but I’m mean.

So Irina stays on the stairs while Tatiana, Najinski, Zod, Splitz and me go for the north golem. As we leave the central tiles I feel some sort of magical effect and our golem shifts its gaze and starts raising its fist – I hear Irina shout that the others are moving too, but hopefully we’ll have time to all strike once before retreating for the stair.

I am incredibly proud to open the battle with a magnificent hit on the golem’s thigh – I put every ounce of my magically enhanced strength into the blow, which I’m sure would have felled even Najinski, but it just shatters off about a third the width of the leg. I don’t want to be in the way of the others so I nimbly dodge the golem’s return and peel off to rejoin Irina on the stair. She hits one of the others with a rock.

The others all hit the golem in their turns. It swings at Tatiana but misses. Finally Zod and Najinski both hit its chest, knocking out chips. Tatiana shouts the retreat and we reform on the stairs, with Zod and Anya at the bottom to face the golems’ ire.

Anya receives the first blow, which batters her shield, the second fist hitting Zod’s shield. Anya does little damage in return but Zod returns a mighty blow that puts my effort to shame.

Meanwhile the rest of us retreat up the stairs – I go right to the top, which makes it a little harder to hit anything but means I won’t run out of rocks and each rock will do a lot more damage – and if anything goes wrong I’ll be first out of the well. My first throw hits the arm of one of the waiting golems while Tatiana knocks splinters out of its belly. Irina gets a massive hit on its arm, but it’s still working.

Anya and Zod both parry fists (Zod’s being very neat indeed – true textbook). Both their returns hammer the golem in the chest and it falls to pieces. Hurrah! A win for us! Another golem steps forward but I throw a mighty rock which takes off its arm, the others just seem to rattle off it.

With one arm Anya doesn’t have to worry about defence but the one-armed golem hits Zod even through his parry. Then Anya hits it in the chest and Zod does the same but it’s still going. Up the stairs we all throw rocks at a new target but they just rattle off – these things really are tough.

The one-armed golem hammers Anya’s shield then she and Zod hit its chest and it crumbles. The third golem steps forward with rocks rattling off its leg and abdomen. Unfortunately I get a little too excited with throwing and catch the strap of the shield hanging at my back. The strap breaks and my shield crashes twenty feet to the floor – I hope it doesn’t get trodden on by a golem.

Looking down for my shield, I see the new golem take a mighty swing at Zod but miss completely. It spins round and hits its head on the wall, causing its helm to swivel, blocking its vision. Then Anya hits it in the chest and it crumbles.

Anya earlier said she was the worst of all of us at fighting but I notice Tatiana put her in the front rank and she seems very able to me.

We hit the last golem waiting patiently below with rocks – I get a good hit on its arm but it doesn’t stop it taking position at the bottom of the stairs.

With no waiting golems the rest of us jump down off the stairs but I land badly and find myself rolling about amidst bits of smashed golem. By the time I’ve picked myself up it’s all over. Anya’s large shield is now little more than a boss but her armour saved her from hurt. Najinski struck the golem a mighty blow in the foot. It took another swing at Anya which she deftly parried and Najinski hit its other leg. But then Zod scored yet another kill with a hammer blow to its chest. We should call him Zod Golemmolot [Golem-hammer]!

I stand there in the middle of the well, brushing debris off me – we’ve won! Now come the spoils!