Chapter Eighteen The Answer Lies upon Your Lips
Chapter Eighteen
The Answer Lies upon Your Lips
They erupted out of the ground with the bone-shaking rumble of an avalanche. I caught a glimpse of something whitish and big before Poma squealed in fright and reared. Keeping my seat took all of my focus.
“Witch!” Jack screamed. “Is this your doing?”
I couldn’t reply. I could barely stay on my horse. She bolted away from the threat while I clung desperately to her neck. Gentle mare she might have been, but maintaining her calm in the face of whatever had just happened was too much to ask.
As I struggled to regain control, I heard shouts and curses, thuds and cracks and booms. To my left, a huntsman spat a bright blue poison dart frog at a giant swinging fist. To my right, an arrow shattered against an eyeless, misshapen head.
One of the creatures stepped in front of us, and Poma came to a terrified halt, so abrupt I was nearly flung over her head. When I thumped back into the saddle, my gaze fixed on the two great columns of leg that blocked our way. My stare traveled up…and farther up.
It was at least ten times my height, and roughly in the shape of a man. It was made of unhewn rock, pale except where clumps of mud still clung to it. Moss and grasses dusted its shoulders, and a sapling had taken root on its elbow. Its great hand reached for me.
Two riders thundered past me on their stallions. The stone giant paused. One of the horsemen took the opportunity to duck under the enormous fist and slash at its leg with a sword.
Or tried to, anyway. His sword scraped across the stone with a shower of sparks.
It didn’t leave behind so much as a mark.
A boulder-like head turned with a grinding of stone against stone.
That massive hand came at him with an almost disinterested swat, like the paw of a lazy cat batting at a toy.
With a crunch, the green-clad swordsman went flying off his horse.
“Jacqueline!” screamed Gervase from my other side. He turned his steed and dashed toward the fallen huntsman.
I blinked, and a half-formed understanding flickered across my mind. But it would have to wait. The towering monster had turned its attention to me.
Finally, my horse and I reached complete agreement as to the proper course of action. Poma wheeled around and galloped away as fast as she could.
Sapling Elbow pursued us. We’d managed to get a decent head start before it swung into motion, and its movements were ponderous, the massive slabs of stone that were its legs shifting only with reluctance. But it hardly mattered. Each of its strides ate up great swathes of land.
Chaos was exploding all around me. The giant rock creatures seemed to be everywhere, fighting one-sided battles with huntsmen and guards.
Dogs ran underfoot, adding their barks to the cacophony.
Armored men lay smashed on the ground like broken dolls.
The air had grown bitterly chill, and a violent wind threatened to pull me off my saddle.
Max and Kit were making their stand—Hat On Ear and The Nose Blower putting their powers to the test. No doubt they were doing their best, but the rock monsters were unaffected.
They were insensible to the cold and too heavy to be blown over.
I reached the edge of the clearing. Poma swerved to avoid crashing headfirst into the trees. The creature chasing us drew closer. It had no need to dodge; oaks and maples toppled before it as it loped straight through them.
A huntsman pulled up beside me, bow in hand. He twisted around to shoot backward off his horse. Arrow after arrow cracked against the stone giant charging after me. His quiver hung flat, nearly empty.
“What are you doing?” I cried.
“Tryin’ tae find a weak point.”
“I don’t think they have one!”
Clem muttered a curse. “Keep it awa’ fae the king. Ye gang left, an’ ah’ll gang richt. It’ll follow ye o’ me.”
I nodded and tugged on Poma’s reins. Clem and I veered apart. Sapling Elbow hesitated, swiveling its head, choosing which of us to chase. Giving us precious seconds of extra time.
But when its great feet thudded forward, it chose to follow me.
I zigged and zagged through the trees. In the flurry I saw the lion, his spectacles askew.
He raced at a monster, claws out, slashing.
They did no more good than Jack’s sword.
Close by, three huntsmen rode in circles around a moss-speckled stone giant, just beyond the reach of its hammering fists.
Thorny vines heavy with roses burst forth from the ground and twined up past their enemy’s granite torso.
For a moment, I was baffled, even wondering if I might somehow be responsible.
Then I realized it must be another huntsman’s power.
The vines burst apart, falling in shreds, as soon as those vast stone legs moved. Whoever had grown the roses, they’d failed to vanquish their foe.
I’d done no better. Fleeing for my life was as much as I’d been able to manage. Behind me, the thunderous footfalls of the creature in pursuit grew louder and louder, ringing the earth like a bell.
Could I grow my hair long enough to use as a snare? It snaked down my back as I thought about it, flowing past my waist to brush the saddle. But that would more likely rip my scalp off than be of any use.
So much for being the sorceress destined to save the king and the kingdom.
Jonquil would have performed some astonishing feat of spell casting by now.
Calla would have convinced a horde of moles to dig pits under the monsters’ feet.
Even Liam, with far less magic than me, would have figured out some clever way to exploit their weaknesses, and Gnoflwhogir would have… I don’t know. Eaten them?
I was at a complete loss for a means of escape until I spied a stand of the enormous shaggy trees native to Tailliz topping a nearby rise, surrounding the hilltop like a henge, in staggered rings. They towered high above the smaller trees the stone giants smashed down with such ease.
The gaps between them were larger than I would have liked, but there was a chance they were narrow enough to suffice for my hastily improvised plan.
I did my best to steer Poma in the right direction.
Her hooves pounded on the frosting-over ground.
She shot up the hill, a howling tailwind speeding us on.
I guided her between the closest pair of great trees and heard a tremendous crash just after she slipped through.
The stone giant had smashed into the trees, unable to fit between them. The massive trunks shook, the treetops whipping to and fro in the heights. But they held firm. The trees were five times as tall as the monster and as thick around, with roots that twisted deep into the soil.
There was little opportunity to relish my escape. Poma decided she’d had enough. She threw me off with one mighty buck and fled. Kit’s wind caught me and whipped me to the ground, flat on my back.
“Ow,” I said, rather inanely. I blinked up at a sky gone white with clouds. It had begun to snow, stinging wet flakes driven near horizontal by the gale.
Something huge and gray hurtled toward me. I rolled out of the way moments before an immense stone hand smashed into the mud where I had been. I staggered to my feet and stumbled back as it groped for whatever part of me it could catch hold of.
The monster had managed to wedge a shoulder between the trees. Its long arm stretched out, the flexing fingers close enough that I saw bright flecks of quartz glittering in their tips. I shrieked and scuttled farther out of reach.
Then the hand flew away as something wrenched the monster backward, sending it tumbling down the hill.
I squinted against the blowing sleet as a huntsman poked his head out from behind the trees. I shouldn’t have been able to tell him from the others, but as he strode closer, there was no doubt in my mind it was Sam.
The knuckles of both his hands were bloodied. The whole of his right side looked like a single massive welt. He grasped my shoulders as soon as he was within reach and paused for a moment, frowning.
“Is your hair different?” he asked.
“Really not the time.”
“Right, sorry.” He shook his head as if clearing his thoughts. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. Thrown from my horse, but that’s all. You?”
“Oh, I dismounted early on. Easier to punch things on foot.”
“I meant, are you injured?”
“I’ll live.”
I restrained myself from yelling at him for battling monsters bare-handed again. I would yell at him later if we both managed to survive. “The one you threw—is it dead?”
“No. When I hurl them down, they just get right back up. Nothing I try does any lasting damage.”
What weapons could be brought to bear against these indestructible creatures? “I don’t suppose you brought any siege engines along?”
The ghost of a smile alighted on Sam’s lips. “Sadly, no.”
“Seems like an oversight.”
“After today, I’ll carry a trebuchet wherever I—”
He cut himself off when he noticed the expression on my face.
Over his shoulder, I could see what was coming up the hill.
Not just my original pursuer, Sapling Elbow, but also two more.
Behind it was the moss-speckled one I’d seen attacked by roses and another with dark striations banded across its chest.
They didn’t attempt to force their way through the too-narrow gap.
Sapling Elbow pounded on the smallest of the trees in the outer ring, a youngish one scarce a hundred feet high, trying to smash it to pieces.
Futilely, I hoped. Moss Speckle and Chest Bands circled the tree line, peering between the trunks.
Hunting for a large enough break in the barrier.
It wouldn’t take them very long to find one.
The trees weren’t anything like a real fence and were giving us only a brief reprieve.
The young tree shuddered under Sapling Elbow’s blows. Sam shouted to make himself heard above the pounding. “You should run. I’ll try to hold them off for as long as I can—”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I snapped. “I’m not leaving you alone to get trampled into bits.”
He nodded but had no time to say anything else. Moss Speckle had found a way to squeeze through.
Sam charged before it was able to do much more than turn in our direction.
He slipped his hands under its carriage-size foot.
With a mighty heave, Sam threw the creature off-balance, toppling it over.
By then, Chest Bands was rushing toward me.
I dove aside just in time to evade being crushed beneath its heel.
A fist thumped down so close I was splattered with slush. I leapt back only to be caught on the side by the flat of its other hand.
The blow sent me flying twenty feet or more. I slid another ten when I landed, stopping just short of braining myself against a tree. My whole body throbbed; if nothing was broken, I’d be lucky.
There was a creak like an enormous rusty door being forced open. I blinked away the black dots swarming in my vision and saw Sapling Elbow had its arms wrapped around the tree blocking its path. With an earsplitting crack, the trunk began to tilt.
Sam skidded to a halt next to me. Behind him, Chest Bands was picking itself up. I hadn’t seen Sam knock it over. Too much was happening all at once.
“All three of them will be here soon,” he said, panting. “If you’ve been holding back any great feats of sorcery, now would be the time.” He didn’t look optimistic.
I wasn’t hopeful myself. Even if I could dredge up some kind of enchantment, what would work against them?
What weaknesses did a rock have? Not fire, not lightning.
Clearly not snow or sleet. Strength hadn’t broken them.
Weapons didn’t scratch them. I doubted that the mightiest of death curses would stop them, if I knew any.
They had no blood to boil or bones to splinter.
The drunkenly tilting tree vanished from the line like an abruptly pulled tooth. Long seconds later, a crash jolted the ground as it fell somewhere below.
The ground will shake; the earth will quake….
Sapling Elbow appeared in the empty space where the tree had been and stepped up to join its fellows. Three great slabs of animate rock marched forward through the pelting snow. Beside me, Sam braced himself, chin tucked to his chest, ready for the fight. They would be upon us in moments.
Your love one breath away from death…
His fingers brushed mine.
And clinging by his fingertips…
I curled my hand around Sam’s.
My thoughts floated in a peculiar bubble of calm. I felt detached from the events around me, a dispassionate observer of my own terror. The stone giants seemed far away, their movements lethargic, as if they were walking underwater.
What good had Gnoflwhogir’s warning been? There was nothing I could do. I wasn’t powerful enough. And I had no way to increase what meager power I possessed. I did not have the Golden Key, or a hair plucked from a devil’s tail, or…
Or…
If you would save him from the grave, / The answer lies upon your lips.
Maybe Liam had given me something useful in my dream after all—a clue, pressed against my cheek before he vanished.
“Do you think,” I asked Sam, my voice sounding distant, as though I were listening to myself speak from somewhere off to one side, “that they can swim?”
“What?”
“Kiss me,” I said.
He didn’t hesitate a moment, turning even as their stone hands reached for us, pressing his lips against mine.
Become water, I thought.
And I did.