In Lost Dreams the Four Were Bound

59 - Neris - Fleeing Terror

"Elis, no slowing down. Not until we're out of here," Neris commanded as they descended the great tree. Elis hobbled and skipped, her pace becoming heavy as they continued down.

"I'm trying, Neris."

Neris had expected grief from the woman but not such disdain. She had seen the mania in Davnian's eyes as he finished off a begging talvuo man, watching as he dispatched him with ease. It wasn't so strange to her. She knew everyone there was already dead one way or another. She had thought they were too if not for the brazen demon's haughty venture. But for Elis, this was all a confirmation that her childhood friend was not only a killer but also her child's murderer. Even if he had spared her a different form of suffering.

"My ankles ache."

"We'll tend to the wounds once we're out of sight," Neris said, fearing they may be followed. The whole pavilion had been focused on devouring each other. Yet flashes of how Nerin had reached out made her lower back tingle. If she had a tail, it would be tucked between her legs. "It can't be much farther."

"The screaming's almost stopped."

Elis was right. Neris had been scanning ahead and behind for trouble. Perking her black hound's ears up, she heard a gargling hush falling over the echoes cascading through the tree. Either the few struggling survivors had succumbed to whatever Nerin had instrumented, or Davnian and the morass had finished killing the stragglers. If that were the case, she expected things were about to get even worse.

"That just means they can focus all their attention on the survivors," Neris said, panting.

Skirting the edge of the dark confines, she breached the gigantic tree's sunlit gateway. Blinded by the light of the sun as it tilted from its high perch, Neris caught a glimpse of the combined horror and wonder of the procession above.

All around the edges of the great circle, blood had been spilled. Seeping from its sides, the smallest trickles of the thick red stuff had spun in droplets toward the ground. Below the round of the grand terrace, those same droplets seemed to hang suspended in uneven blotches. Surrounding the tree pillar that supported the massive structure, like tiny, red, glossy baubles, the bloody beads twirled in midair of their own accord. Elis gasped at the sight.

"What's happening?"

"Nothing I've ever seen before."

Neris's mind raced through all the terrors that she had faced. Beatings, deaths, rapes, torture, burnings, crying, screaming, none of them were like what she was witnessing. Within the depths of the ancient Delvori keep, she had witnessed strange wards and stones. Even there nothing compared to the bloody chandelier that dangled before them.

"We keep moving," she commanded.

Letting her red eyes stare a moment longer, she caught a glimpse of the refuse starting to reverse gravity's constant pull. The red flowed back upwards, carrying small pieces of flesh and broken bones with it.

"Keep running Elis," Neris said, tugging Elis's arm.

Without another word, the pair ran south, away from the Hyunisti village and the terror above.