The Eidolon Read Free Page A

on!” I dig my heels into the snow, jerking with his weight beneath me, and lean back. Nothing happens; he’s still dangling from the end of my arms, a dead weight. My legs are shaking now. I don’t know if it’s the shivering or the strain they’re under.
    “Robert...” Danny holds my eye. “You can’t... Just let go!”
    He slips a little, only a few inches, but each of them closing the gap to death. My limbs are on fire. It would be so easy to let go, just relax, release the grip and the pain will stop...
    And then what? From somewhere, I don’t know where, the certainty grips me again. It’s like when you look through the lens of a camera and adjust the focus until everything comes into sharp relief. A clarity, or absence of doubt. Something so obvious you wonder why you didn’t see it before. “No!” I clench my teeth, my eyes squeezed shut, my arms trembling with the effort, and with one last painful heave I haul Danny onto the ledge.
    He’s face down in the snow, gasping, quivering, hugging the mountain. A shard of moonlight slices through the snowflakes, the mountain quietens and the snow is still. We lie there, panting, staring through the blizzard at the abyss.
    “Thanks,” begins Danny. “I don’t know how you...”
    “Come on,” I get to my feet, facing into the wind. “We need to get down.” It still has me, that unwavering certainty.
    “Wait, Robert!” He sways to his knees. “There’s not enough light. We can’t walk in this!”
    “We can’t stay here.” I grasp his arm, hauling him upright.
    “Look what just happened! We could go over the edge!”
    “We won’t. We have to go down.”
    Danny flaps his arms like a toddler having a tantrum. “What makes you so sure?”
    I glance over my right shoulder, towards the place where I saw... I don’t hear any anything and I don’t see anything, but I don’t have to. It’s a feeling, more than a sound or an image, the memory of a shadow. Something else announces it, something undefined. It is like walking into a dark room and knowing, in that inexplicable visceral sense, that someone else is there with you, before you see them. I’m not frightened, I’m calm. Calmer than I’ve ever been. It’s watching.
    But there’s no point in telling Danny, he won’t get it. I turn back to him. “I just know.” I lead the way down the mountain, surefooted and confident in the descent, Danny stumbling behind, and something else, almost beyond sight, but not beyond perception. It follows us into the white noise.
     
     
    A S THE STEEP slopes surrender to a gentler gradient, the wind begins to die away and my steps slow. I turn back to Danny, waiting for him to wade closer, watching him sink into the powdery snow, bluish now in the fading night. Each step is laboured, like his boots are filled with lead. As he draws level, his harsh breaths score the air with steamy puffs and blend with the thick mist. I point ahead. The mist parts and moonlight glimmers on the shores of a vast lake. I put a hand on Danny’s shoulder, my lips cracking as I try to smile. I turn back, over my shoulder, eyes narrowing as I peer into the nothingness.
    And then, as a candle flame snuffs out with a breath, it’s gone, and with it the sense of stillness. The moonlight reflects on the snowy shores, but the lake itself is a deep black – not a ripple of light on its surface. A black hole in the tundra. A cloud consumes the moon, darkening the land again. I collapse face-down in the snow.

 
     
    Chapter Two
     
     
    T HIRSTY. T HERE’S A forest fire in your throat. Feel that by your left cheek? It’s wet. Turn your head, that’s it. Slurp it up. Cold, burning your lips, hot ice. Look around – white space everywhere, endless stellar brightness, fierce wind. A place to hunt yourself. Don’t eat snow . Remember? It’ll just make you colder. Danny told you, before. Where is he? Rest your head down, just sleep, it’s alright.
    No! No sleeping! Fuck! You want to