Chapter 21– The Land of No Words
The morning didn't break. It just bled gray light into the storm.
Uzo woke to the sound of wind screaming across the mouth of the cave. His arm was a throbbing knot of fire, but the rest of his body felt dangerously cold. Numb.
He tried to sit up. The world tilted on its axis.
"Stay down," Ronnie said. She was sitting by the entrance, sharpening her chain-dagger against a stone. She looked exhausted, her eyes rimmed with red, but her hands were steady.
"We can't stay," Uzo rasped. "The cold... it'll kill us faster than the Clowns."
"If we go out there," Ronnie countered, "we freeze. Or we walk off a cliff. I can't see five feet in front of my face."
Caw.
The sound cut through the howling wind like a razor.
Uzo and Ronnie froze.
A black shape fluttered into the cave, shaking snow from its wings. It landed on a rock ledge, its talons clicking against the stone.
The Crow.
It looked ragged. Feathers missing, one eye clouded with a milky cataract. But its good eye black and intelligent was fixed directly on Uzo.
"You," Uzo whispered.
He hadn't seen the bird since the Outpost. Since before the awakening.
The Crow tilted its head. It didn't caw again. It hopped twice, turned its back to them, and looked out into the storm. Then it looked back at Uzo.
"It wants us to follow," Uzo said, using the wall to pull himself up.
Ronnie stood, blocking his path. "It's a bird, Uzo. Not a tour guide. It probably wants to eat our eyes when we drop dead."
"No," Uzo said, clutching the Lexicon in his pocket. "It's a Witness. It's been watching since the beginning. If it wanted us dead, it would have left us to the Ringmaster."
He stumbled past her. The pain in his arm made his vision swim, but he focused on the black feathers.
Ronnie sighed, grabbing her pack and swinging it over her shoulder. "Fine. But if we die, I'm haunting the bird first."
They stepped out into the white hell.
The snow was knee-deep. The wind bit exposed skin instantly. But the Crow was there. It flew short distances, landing on rocks or low branches, waiting for them to catch up.
They walked for an hour. Maybe two. Time lost its meaning in the whiteout. Uzo leaned heavily on Ronnie, and every time he stumbled, he felt her arm tighten around him unnaturally strong, unyielding as iron. The Oath was holding him up.
Suddenly, the Crow stopped.
It landed on a jagged spire of rock. It looked down at them, fluffed its feathers, and let out a harsh, screaming cry.
CAW! CAW! CAW!
Then it took flight, soaring straight up into the gray clouds and vanishing.
"Where is it going?" Ronnie yelled over the wind.
Uzo stopped. He looked at the rock where the bird had been. He looked at the ground beneath them.
The snow here wasn't smooth. It was disturbed. Large depressions, quickly filling with fresh powder.
"Ronnie," Uzo whispered. "Don't move."
"Why?"
"Because the snow is breathing."
The drift to their left exploded.
A massive shape rose from the white. A giant of a man, seven feet tall, wearing furs and a helmet made from a dire wolf's skull. His skin was pale blue, scarred and thick.
A Barbarian.
He didn't roar. He didn't hesitate. He swung a club made of black iron and bone, aiming directly for Uzo's head.
Uzo was too slow. He couldn't dodge.
But Ronnie could.
"No!" she screamed.
The Oath flared. The gray vein on her hand pulsed violently.
She didn't pull Uzo away. She stepped in.
She raised her chain-dagger, catching the shaft of the giant's club with the chain.
CLANG.
The impact should have shattered her arm. It should have driven her into the ground like a nail.
It didn't.
Ronnie's boots slid backward in the snow, carving deep trenches, but she stayed standing. Her muscles screamed, the magical energy of the Vow surging to meet the crushing weight of the Barbarian.
The giant's eyes widened beneath his wolf helm. He pushed down, veins bulging in his neck.
Ronnie gritted her teeth, blood leaking from her nose. She pushed back.
"Get... off... him!" she snarled.
With a roar of effort, she heaved. The magical strength threw the seven-foot giant backward. He stumbled, losing his footing in the deep snow.
Uzo stared, stunned. She had just overpowered a brute twice her size.
"Run, Uzo!" Ronnie shouted, spinning the chain.
But the snow exploded again. Behind them. To the right.
Two more Barbarians rose from the drifts.
Uzo reached for the Lexicon. He needed a Word. Something to blast them back. He focused on the concept of Force.
He opened his mouth.
"Repel!"
Nothing happened.
The air didn't ripple. The Lexicon didn't hum. The word fell from his lips flat and dead, like a wet match refusing to light.
The nearest Barbarian didn't even blink. He stepped forward, grabbing Uzo by the throat with a hand cold as ice.
"Repel!" Uzo screamed, choking. "Push! Blast!"
Silence. Absolute, powerless silence.
The Barbarian holding him slammed a fist against his own chest. THUD-THUD.
He pointed at the ground.
Here, words die.
The House of Barbarian didn't just reject magic. Their territory was a Null Zone.
Ronnie saw Uzo get grabbed. She abandoned the first giant and launched herself at the one holding Uzo.
"Let him go!"
She swung her dagger.
But the third Barbarian intercepted her. He didn't use a weapon. He simply tackled her.
They hit the snow hard. Ronnie thrashed, her Oath-strength making her kick like a mule. She threw the man off, sending him flying five feet.
But before she could stand, the first giant the one she had humiliated was back.
He didn't swing his club this time. He swung a heavy net made of weighted chains.
It wrapped around Ronnie, binding her arms to her sides.
She screamed, straining against the metal. The Oath flared, the gray light burning beneath her skin. The chains creaked. She was actually bending the metal.
But the Barbarian was ready. He grabbed the end of the net and yanked her off her feet, slamming her into a rock.
Her head cracked against the stone. The gray light in her hand flickered and died. She went limp.
"Ronnie!" Uzo gasped.
The giant holding Uzo lifted him higher, feet dangling. He brought his face close. He smelled of dried blood and old iron.
He didn't kill him.
He leaned in and whispered a single word. It wasn't in the language of the Kingdom. It was a guttural, ancient sound.
"Grom."
He threw Uzo into the snow next to Ronnie.
Uzo gasped for air, his vision fading.
High above, on a jagged branch, the Crow landed again. It looked down at the capture, impassive.
You led us here, Uzo thought, darkness closing in. You led us to the trap.
They weren't dead.
They were property of the Horde.
And in the land where words held no power, Uzo was just a boy with a broken arm and a debt he couldn't pay.