Nightfire | The Whispering Wall #1

Twenty Nine: A Hunter's Burden

"So there'll be more than one over there?"

"In all likelihood, yes," Yddris said, "which is why we are going to sneak past them and find something else."

He started walking again. His control over Jordan's magic was like a vice; Jordan could have sworn he felt it writhing under his skin, trying to get out - responding to the feverish heat in his face and limbs, the pounding of his heart. When they passed the Wights, he knew about it; he couldn't see them, but he sensed them somewhere nearby and jumped when something rattled on the next street. Yddris grabbed his wrist and pulled him along, faster and faster until they were both running; though Yddris's feet were silent and Jordan clattered along behind him, unable to see where he was going.

Yddris stopped. Jordan bent over with his hands on his knees, panting. His throat ached with strain, and though he had recovered from his Gift-induced fever days ago, the corners of his vision were swirling darkness and his head felt like it was filled with air.

He could no longer see the river when he straightened up and looked around. Yddris stood behind him, stock-still as if waiting for something. The houses around them were tumbledown, though some were clearly occupied; ramshackle buildings of crumbled brick and sheets of tin, some with their bare interiors exposed to the night and others in which candles and shadows flickered through gaps in the brickwork. Some houses were stacked on others in tottering piles. A vast mountain, the closest Jordan had been to one, loomed over the settlement, the last dregs of which clung to its base like so many tiny mushrooms. The mountain was rimmed with light from a dimming moon behind its peak, but the rock itself was brighter, shot through with veins of green. Jordan thought of the rocks back home which were slate grey until you turned them over and the inside glittered with delicate purple amethyst. He imagined that if a quake were to rend the mountain in two, it would look like that; emeralds and jade, exposed to the moonlight.

His skin prickled, and he turned just as a howl ripped through the night. He cringed and drew close to Yddris, who seemed unfazed.

"Relax, boy. It's too far away to smell us."

"I'll relax just as soon as I'm not surrounded by things that wouldn't think twice about crushing my head like a fucking grape," Jordan muttered. The surroundings were no longer absorbing. He glanced up at his tutor and added, "You don't know what a grape is, do you?"

"I will have to confess my ignorance on that one, but it sounds rude," Yddris said, ushering him along the street. Jordan snorted and allowed himself to be led along, just relieved that Yddris was talking to him again.

The quality of the housing didn't improve as they walked; in fact, it seemed to get worse. The houses with occupants grew sparser, and more than once they had to find a way around a collapsed house blocking the street. By the time they were standing in the shadow of the mountain, Jordan's legs ached from picking through rubble and his heart was pounding. They stood facing a large pile of debris that might have been a home once. A door lay flat on the ground nearby and it was scored through by claw marks.

"Where are we?" Jordan whispered, and winced as his voice broke the silence.

Yddris shushed him and pointed. It was too dark to see further than what was directly in front of him, and after a minute of squinting Jordan shrugged and shook his head.

The release of Yddris's restrictions on his magic felt like a hot, slow trickle down his spine. The pounding began again, the magic roaring up to meet him as if it had been trapped for years. Jordan winced, and then gasped as the city around him began to light up; all around him, writing was appearing on walls and a faint greenish mist tinged the whole view – and he could see, almost as well as if it was daytime. He looked down at the ruined door on the ground, and realised that the score marks ran straight through what looked like a rune, which glowed much more dimly than those on the few intact walls surrounding them.