Chương 68: The Fáelad

Miriam was the last one up the rope. She had hoped her body would heal her arm enough for her to use by the time all thirty Wisps made their way up, but it was far too damaged for that. She was at best gaining some control over her fingers, but hoisting was impossible. She was forced to tie the rope around her waist and let Róise pull her up like a sack of grain. As soon as she wriggled her head out of the hole, she could smell the smoke. Cianán's Walk was burning.

"Is Cian doing this?" Miriam asked Róise. The pixie sat down on the bare rock, seemingly exhausted. She was still running Róisín Dubh but it seemed to be on its last legs. Cormac sat not far away, his leg seeming to be a lot less mangled than before, but he still looked to be in terrible pain.

"It is Cian. The villagers who have just come in say it is, anyway, though I don't know how they're so sure. They talk about a smoking gray wolf with a mouth and eyes of fire." The bare top of Scior was emptying quickly. There had likely been hundreds of villagers squeezed into the bald spot before, but by the time Miriam emerged from the hole only a dozen or so remained, shuffling off in quiet lines through the jungle towards the far shore.

The Wisps had not stayed for even a minute, vanishing into the jungle as soon as they emerged from the hole. Luíseach was one of the remaining villagers and she knelt down next to where Miriam rested.

"We don't know that it's Cian, but we're pretty sure." The banshee looked out to the curtain of smoke rising over the trees.

"We have legends here, just like anyone else. One that we tell in hushed voices where we think Cian can't hear concerns the origins of the island. The story goes that when people first started coming to the island it was a desolate wasteland. Populated by beasts the likes of which you've already met, sure. But there was the King of the Island which ruled over them all. They called it the Fáelad." Luíseach grimaced.

"It was said to be a wolf the size of a tree. Burning eyes, smoke trailing his every movement. The Fáelad would slaughter any who took a step upon the shores of the island - whether they meant to be there or not."

"What changed?" Miriam asked, entranced.

"We don't know. What we're told is that over a thousand years what used to be the Fáelad became Cian. There were rumors… stories that Cian kept Drops from King Cianán out in the jungle, that he used them to improve himself." Tears streamed from Luíseach's eyes.

"It's my fault. I told Maitiú the rumor. He must have found them and…" Cormac scooted over to Luíseach.

"It's not your fault. King Cianán himself told Maitiú where to dig. What to do. Maitiú would have never found Cian's stash if all he had was the rumor." Luíseach's eyes were blank, her gaze searching out something far beyond the trees.

"That's kind of you to say. But no matter where I go now, I'll always know that it was me who caused the only home I've ever known to be burned to the ground. Displaced all these people. Cian only ever wanted to help, and I tore his sense of self away and turned him back into a monster. That was my fault." Silence took over the group for a moment, until Róise's Róisín Dubh petered out.

"I have one more Life material fórsa left," Róise said.

"The villagers had a ton more, but they've already moved it to the shore."

"Don't use it," Cormac said sharply.

"We still need to get to the shore ourselves. You'll never make it if you're tapped out."

"You'll never make it on that leg," Róise snapped back.

"I'm pretty well tapped myself," Miriam said.

"Otherwise I'd get Sol to take some of my Life to give you, Róise."

"I will be fine," Cormac said, struggling to his feet.

"With any luck I might slip past the monsters again with none being the wiser.."

"We still have the problem of Scior redirecting us," Róise pointed out.

"Without the Drop of Intent, we'll be flying blind. And now, if I'm reading the pace of that smoke right, anyone who gets off-track is going to end up straight in the jaws of the wolf." Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Or on fire," Cormac added helpfully. Miriam stared at the smoke. It was coming closer. Would Cian really try to hurt them? It was so outside of the person she had come to know that it seemed unimaginable. In desperation, she looked at her friends. The chances of them navigating straight to the shore the first time was low - Cian had even told them most people who actually made it required two or more loops back at Scior. Cormac was never going to survive alone.

He was mending, but he was at least as hurt as she had been when she fell into Domhain. She smiled.

"Oh. Oh! I have an incredible idea." ✧✧✧ They waited until all the villagers had left into the forest, then prepared to leave themselves. Miriam was exhausted and her tree was calling her hard. It was a constant effort of will not to drift off into vacant daydreaming. But never let it be said that Miriam Callihan was bereft of will! She forced herself back in the moment.

"We should have left earlier," Róise said, clearly nervous. Miriam agreed. They probably should have. But…

"I need to see him," she whispered. Smoke poured out of the edge of the jungle now. Miriam could see flames licking the horizon from far-off trees until the flames themselves were obscured by closer smoke. Flocks of birds flew away in a panic. Miriam wondered what was happening to all the monsters on the different Webs, as the Wisps had called them. Were they running too? Then she could see it clearly. The Fáelad. What was left of their friend Cian. In the curtain of smoke there were two blazing orange eyes.

Orange fire licked around a long snout from in between rows of deadly teeth, the same as she had seen in Domhain. Now she could see more - the hulking body of a beast the size of a barn. Claws that seemed unable to retract, tearing deep rows into the earth as it walked ponderously towards them. A bristling tail wringed with fire. And walking next to it, completely unbothered, was an old man in resplendent robes. A short beard. A circlet of vines on his head.

He looked constantly amused, as if the razing of Cianán's Walk were a fun day out.

"King Cianán," Cormac said breathlessly.

"Bodac above. I've never met anyone who's actually seen him."

"We need to move," Róise snapped.

"Or you won't live long enough to tell anyone either." Her words were like a shot, startling them out of their reverie. The giant wolf was still getting closer. Miriam turned to her friends.

"Remember the plan. Be safe!" Sol nodded and absorbed some Luck material fórsa. He hadn't actually figured out how to preserve a Luck technique yet, so he had plenty left. Cormac wrapped his arm over Sol's shoulders and they both disappeared into the jungle towards the shore.

"I hope this works," Róise said, vanishing into the jungle herself.

"Me too," Miriam said, casting one last look at the slowly advancing King and wolf before slipping into the jungle herself. Right into a stampede. Miriam was knocked to the ground by a huge creature thundering past from behind her, even though Scior had been empty just before she stepped out. It was a huge creature that was something like a rhino, but with a human torso instead of a head and a goat's head on top of that. That's a Third monster, Miriam thought numbly. Róise had told her about it.

As she stood up, she was knocked around again by a parade of panicking beasts pouring out of Scior, seeming to appear right on the edge just as they crossed the threshold. She could barely stay upright as she was buffeted around, but none of the monsters stopped to attack her. They were all running from the fire. The Fáelad. She needed to get above them, but she didn't want to waste fórsa on a Vine Leap, so she climbed a tree the old fashioned way.

Even the tree, a sturdy, old behemoth, was shuddering as the beasts stampeded through. How was she going to manage this? If she went down there she would eventually end up trampled. On the plus side, she supposed this meant they might not need to go with their plan - they could just follow the herd out. No, she realized, peering deeper into the jungle. The creatures were not traveling straight. They were peeling off one by one, in curving paths to the left or right. This wasn't a stampede, she realized.

It was a death spiral. Ants did this sometimes, when they lost which other ant to follow. They just marched in a circle until they all died, none of them able to figure out that they were following each other to their deaths. These creatures were panicked, but the pull of Scior meant that they just kept running with no real way to escape it.

"This was unexpected!" Sol's voice called from another tree nearby.

"What are you doing here?" Miriam asked.

"You're supposed to be with Cormac!"

"We got lost already!" He held out his arms sheepishly.

"All the markers we planned out for the first leg got trampled." Miriam snorted.

"Yeah. Ok." She closed her eyes and felt around. It didn't take long - as tired as she was, the pull of her tree was strong. Miriam opened her eyes and pointed.

"There. That one tree there with that big cluster of hard-shelled fruit on it. Then after that there's like a web of vines tied up in a knot. Head for those and we'll meet up again." Sol nodded.

"I'll talk to Róise next, but it's getting pretty dangerous - " An alligator the size of a covered bridge leaped out of the stampede of beasts and dragged Sol to the ground in its jaws.