The rain began before dawn.
It started as a mist, whispering through the treetops, then thickened into a cold curtain that plastered Kael's hair to his forehead. The forest was all grey and green, muted by the water, the world smelling of wet earth and pine sap.
Halric led the way along a deer path, his broad shoulders hunched against the weather. Elara followed with the boy close behind, keeping her head low, one arm over him like a shield. Kael brought up the rear, every step sinking into mud.
The abyss was quiet.
It always unnerved him when it went silent — not gone, just watching. Like a predator with the patience to wait.
By midmorning, the path opened into a clearing where the rain pooled in shallow depressions. Halric stopped at the far side, scanning the treeline. "We camp here," he said.
Kael frowned. "Too open."
"Too wet to keep moving," Halric replied. "Elara needs rest. The boy's near asleep on his feet."
Elara gave Kael a small, tired nod. He didn't argue.
They built a low fire under a makeshift tarp of oilcloth, enough to dry the worst of the wet from their clothes. Steam curled from their cloaks in the heat. Kael stripped off his jerkin, wringing water from the leather.
That was when the smell reached him.
Not the smoke or damp wood. Something heavier. Sweet and rotten at once.
Blood.
Kael straightened, eyes scanning the clearing's edge. The rain muffled sound, but there — faint — the wet crunch of something moving through the undergrowth.
He caught Halric's eye and jerked his chin toward the trees. Halric's hand went to his hammer.
The first shape emerged from the shadows — tall, gaunt, its armor rusted and pitted. It moved with an awkward, jerking gait, head tilting as it sniffed the air. Where its face should have been, there was only stretched, mottled flesh and a gaping hole where the mouth had been torn wider than human.
Behind it, more shapes followed. Six. Eight. All in the same corroded armor, all wrong in the same way.
Elara's voice was a whisper. "The Hollowed."
Kael had heard of them. Soldiers who'd fallen in battle, their bodies reclaimed by something in the deep places of the world. They were stronger than men, tireless, and endlessly hungry.
The lead Hollowed gave a wet, rattling hiss.
They charged.
Halric met the first with a roar, his hammer caving in the thing's helm in a spray of black ichor. Kael moved to intercept another, blade flashing. The abyss surged instantly, his vision sharpening, the rain slowing to droplets that hung in the air.
His dagger punched through a breastplate like it was soft leather. The Hollowed didn't even cry out — it just clawed for his throat until he twisted and tore the blade free.
Elara fired from behind the fire, her arrow taking one in the eye. It fell, twitching. The boy huddled under the tarp, eyes wide and unblinking.
Two more came for Kael at once. He stepped inside the first's reach, slashing low to take its leg out from under it, then drove his sword up under the other's chin. The abyss whispered encouragement, urging him to drink, to take their stolen vitality for himself.
He resisted.
Until the one Halric had dropped began to rise again.
Its skull was caved in, but its hands still clawed for purchase in the mud, pulling its half-ruined body upright.
Kael swore. He grabbed the thing by the throat, the abyss flooding his limbs. Black smoke bled from his skin into the Hollowed's flesh. The creature convulsed, its movements growing frantic, then slowing, then still.
When Kael let go, it collapsed like wet cloth. The abyss purred.
That was a taste. Imagine more.
Kael staggered back, breath misting in the cold air. The other Hollowed were down, their bodies sprawled in the mud. None moved.
Halric stood over one, chest heaving. "By the Forge…" He glanced at Kael, then at the body near his feet. "What did you just do?"
Kael wiped his blade on the grass. "I stopped it from getting back up."
"That's not an answer," Halric said.
Elara stepped between them. "It's an answer for now. We can't stay here. More will come."
They broke camp in silence. The rain eased as they moved on, but the tension didn't. Halric kept glancing at Kael like he was trying to decide whether to trust him with his back. Elara said nothing, but Kael felt her eyes on him.
By nightfall, they found a shallow cave to shelter in. The boy was asleep almost before his blanket was over him. Halric took first watch, his hammer across his knees.
Kael sat near the cave mouth, staring at the rain-dark trees. The abyss stirred again.
You saved them. And they look at you with fear. Does that not burn?
"They're alive," Kael muttered. "That's enough."
For now.
The voice lingered, curling like smoke in the dark. When the dragon finds you again, you will have to choose — their fear, or their lives. You cannot keep both.
Kael didn't sleep.
---