Seven Into the Bleak Read Free

came within five or six strides, I cried out. Around the neck of the figure was a silver circle, the holy sign of Belal. The figure turned gracefully, pirouetting in place. It was Lilath.
    "Lilath," I whispered. "What are you doing? Are you all right?"
    Lilath nodded and smiled, gliding toward me. Her arms were spread wide and the fabric of her robe fell like an angel's wings. As she approached, the pure notes I had heard earlier spilled from her open mouth, a mouth I saw now was not formed into a smile, but an idiot's grin. My skin crawled and bile filled my mouth when I saw her face fully. The skin was slack and her eyes dull, the mouth gaping with the insane song. The fingers of her outstretched hands moved independently, like starfish in the sea. I stumbled backwards, then broke into a run. Lilath, or whatever she was now, followed.
    I tripped up the slope, casting glances over my shoulder. In but a few strides, I realized I was not going to outrun her and she was only a dozen feet behind me when I turned. Spittle covered her chin, making it gleam in the low light and her song had turned into a high keen. I waited a heartbeat, then leapt forward with my knives.
    Both blades took her in the chest, but she ignored the life-ending wounds and tried to embrace me, her hands slapping wetly at my face and arms. I drew the knives back and plunged them into her again, this time aiming for her face. The keening turned into a wail and--suddenly, grotesquely, a vision of insanity--the back of Lilath's head came off like an egg shell broken in half.
    Something from a nightmare--dark and scaled, with a dozen tiny legs--released its hold on her and leapt to the ground as Lilath's body collapsed to the ground. It scuttled away from me and back towards the slope leaving a pink trail of liquid and mucous. With a yell, I raced after it and stabbed downward with my knives. They sank through the scales and into the bloated flesh. The small legs scrabbled at my hands, but I twisted the knives until the thing stopped moving. It thrashed, pinned to the ground, and a single pure note escaped from some mouth in the thing's body.
    I got to my feet, sweating and shaking, and walked back to Lilath's body. She lay crumpled where she fell, like a pile of clothing. I looked at her for a long moment, sighing and blinking. She lay face up, slack-jawed and wide-eyed, and after a moment, I turned her over. The obscenity I saw made me retch and vomit.
    There was no back of her head: her skull was simply missing behind the ears. The thing I had killed had...removed everything but the eyes and skin. There were small indentations along the scalp where its claws had taken hold of her.
    I spat to one side, trying to clear my mouth and my mind, then dragged Lilath's corpse to one of the infernal cracks in the earth that we were always in danger of falling into. I tipped her body and that of the monster that had defiled her into the rift. The two fell out of sight, to become food for some other grotesque of the Bleak.
    I hurried back to the camp, abandoning silence. I no longer cared if my struggle with Lilath's killer brought every demon in the place down on me, though I had learned there were things worse than death. I stumbled back the way I had come, trying desperately to erase the images in my mind. Some spirit watched over me, as I made it back to the dull glow of our "campfire" safely.
    Harlan and Filki had beaten me back to camp and the four were crowded together, speaking in whispers. They looked up as I came near, their faces hopeful, but something in my look must have warned them. Harlan turned away and Galdur sighed, dropping his head.
    "Did you find her?" Karn asked. I felt my guts twist when I saw his expression. Karn the Axe, Karn the Killer, who had split apart men and beasts for half his life, close to weeping over a priestess of Belal. "Tamik?"
    "She's gone," I said. I tried to go to my bedroll, but he grabbed my arm. His grip was like an iron