Adventuresome

Chapter 20

Not long after, Perrin stumbled over something. She looked down at her feet and her breath caught. She had tripped over the shaft of a spear. Next to the spear, lying partly preserved in the water of the marsh, was a corpse. Above the water its skin was mostly decayed away and showed the bone and muscle.

"Wait, stop. We should go around."

"Go around? Go around what?" Lilliana looked confused as she cast her eyes across the marshland that looked identical in every direction.

"We're standing in a graveyard." Perrin said softly, knowing that if she spoke louder the quiver in her voice would be obvious. She took a step back.

"What are you talking about?"

"That rat speaks the truth!" Fiona said sharply, stumbling a few steps back as well.

Everyone was peering at the ground now, and in growing horror Perrin lost count of the number of bodies she could see around her. Even when she looked behind her, now Perrin noticed them. Hidden among the reeds and algae, the bodies were everywhere. Impossible to miss, but all of them had done just that.

The corpses were all partly decayed, and yet strangely well preserved beneath the marsh waters. Under the water, even the clothes and armor looked largely intact.

"What is this place?" Lilliana said, "Why are there so many dead here?"

And at last, Dominick spoke up. As Perrin had expected he would.

"A battle was fought here. I thought that much was obvious."

"Shut up Dominick unless you have something useful to say." Perrin snapped.

"Leave him alone." Lilliana said defensively.

"It was Tancred." Dominick let out a harrumph. "If you had let me continue I would have explained more thoroughly."

"I doubt it."

"This was Tancred's doing, when he took care of the revolution of the marsh people." Dominick said, ignoring Perrin.

Lilliana looked uncertainly at the staff. "Marsh people?"

"Look," Perrin said, "let's get out of this place before something happens. With your ultimate spirit wisdom I'm sure you can tell us all about that bastard Tancred later." She shivered, glancing at the bodies on the ground.

The marsh, already quiet, suddenly became deathly silent. In the silence, the new ripples in the marsh water were loud.

"You are not welcome in this hallowed place."

Perrin swung her head side to side, looking for who had spoken. The marsh looked empty except for the dead. The reeds rustled around them, creating a moving sea even though they could feel no wind.

"You are not welcome in this hallowed place."

The voice, it sounded like a woman, echoed from all around.

A buzzing began, as if hundreds of bugs hovered just out of sight. The air was starting to feel heavy, and it smelled like it was going to storm.

The four rowers broke the feeling of being frozen. They backed up, then turned and started to run. Perrin scoffed at them. A bit of wind and bugs was hardly enough to send her running.

"Let's go, Lilliana."

The two women turned and, with their heads held high, walked back where they had come from. The ground seemed to suck at their feet, but Perrin refused to let the disgust show on her face. Whatever was out there, she wanted to give it no satisfaction. She had decided they should go around this graveyard long before that creepy disembodied voice had told them to get out.

Ahead of them, the four rowers were running as fast as they could. The rower who had hurt his leg, Perrin had no memory of what his name was, was struggling to keep up with the other rowers. He was running with a swinging, limping gait that was getting him almost nowhere. The other three were glancing over their shoulders back at him, but none of them were hanging back to help him.

Perrin saw when he tripped. She saw when he went flailing to the ground. She saw when he struggled to stand and fell back down. She saw that he disappeared beneath the reeds. She did not see him stand up again.

The other rowers stumbled in their running but instead of stopping simply redoubled their speed.

Her muscles itched for a fight. She wanted to take out Galandat and fight whatever was talking to them. To whatever may or may not be attacking them. She kept her pace even, though she saw Lilliana speed up just a little. Lilliana looked worried. She was gripping her staff with white-knuckled hands and was looking restlessly around. She also looked confused, and almost in awe?

I bet she knows what's going on. Either she knew from before or Dominick has started to fill her in. She seems to have some kind of clue about what is out there right now.

It was frustrating. She, Perrin, had traveled all over the world and been all across the empire. She had come from deep within the desert region and even explored parts of the lands beyond the Western edge of the desert. But never in her travels had she experienced something like this. Where a bodiless voice was threatening them and the atmosphere around them was becoming weirdly connected to the situation.

Then they found the injured rower.

He was laying on the ground, having tripped over one of the corpses on the ground. He was tangled up among its limbs. He lay there, completely still except for the fast rising and falling of his chest and his eyes rolling in his head.

Sitting cross-legged on top of him was a child.

The child looked no older than ten. Her long, mud colored hair hung loose, with bits of reeds tied into it. She wore a ragged pair of pants, a necklace made of what looked like lilypads and sharp teeth, and a shirt of armor made from wood.

She had her head cocked to one side, staring hard at the injured rower.

"H-Help me..." he stammered, catching sight of Perrin and Lilliana.

The women exchanged looks, uncertain what to do or who this girl was. The girl kept her eyes on the rower, but Perrin had no doubts that the girl knew they were behind her. What was a child doing out here alone?

And why does looking at her make me feel unsettled?

"It has been some time, Dominick." The girl said, and Perrin recognized the voice as the one that had told them to leave the graveyard.

"It has indeed." Dominick replied.

"You know who she is?" Perrin asked.

"Yes I do." He said simply. Perrin had expected him to arrogantly explain who she was and make a snide comment about how Perrin should have known. Instead he kept his silence.

Lilliana was staring at the child in awe. Clearly she knew who this girl was too.

So I'm the only one out of the loop, she thought angrily, not counting the rowers.

Reaching up, she drew Galandat from its sheath. The long, slow draw caught everyone's attention.

"I don't like not knowing what is going on around me. I don't know who you are or what you want with us and I don't really care. But I am more than ready to get out of the disgusting swamp and I'm not afraid of some little girl."

"Perrin," Lilliana said, horrified.

"Put that sword away you idiotic desert barbarian." Dominick said, his crystal flaring an angry dark blue. "My apologies, she is new to understanding the spirit realm."

The little girl slowly slid off of her seat on top of the injured rower and stood. She turned to face Perrin.

The girl's eyes were an unnatural, glowing, yellow color. She stared solemnly at Perrin. Perrin found herself transfixed by the unblinking gaze.

"I am the marsh spirit." The girl said quietly. "This is my marsh. And this is the graveyard of my slaughtered people. I will not be insulted by one such as you."