Chapter 543: A Stench That Kills

One body belonged to something that might have been a bird once — enormous, wings folded under a cloak of dark feathers that had spilled loose the way a losing side does. Teeth had gotten to it first. Gouges opened along its flank where the feathers gave out into bare, ruined skin, viscera spilling forth onto the stone.

There were headless bodies of enormous snakes, some split clean apart along their length, spines torn out whole. Severed legs. Gouged-out eyes.

Some had dried out entirely. All of it lay scattered across the ground like nobody had ever meant to come back for it.

The retch climbed my throat before I could stop it, and I turned away from the dark, refusing to look at the rest.

"What in the—"

The rest of the sentence never made it out. I doubled over instead and lost what little was left in my stomach.

"Uhh? What are you doing here?"

The voice came from above. A heartbeat later, he dropped down after it and landed without a sound, easy as a drifting wind.

He straightened up and looked between the two of us.

"I expect you to be going back up, by now..."

"One would expect the same of you. And yet, miraculously, here you are?!"

The guy chuckled.

"That is because I have a business to settle."

I glanced down at the bodies.

"Does that business have something to do with gouging out eyes and tearing apart limbs?"

He frowned, his amber eyes gleaming in the darkness.

"I may have spent forgettable years in here, but not enough to turn barbaric."

"Ten years would be enough to turn me barbaric in a place like this. If you asked me, I wouldn’t blame you for it either. But that aside."

A cold frown settled on my face.

"I have a feeling in my gut that I shouldn’t trust you, or anything you have to say. You seem shady, and full of lies."

He rested a hand lightly on the hilt of his sword.

"I don’t remember asking to be trusted."

Then he turned and started down into the dark.

"If you know what is good for you, stay away from this area."

I watched him the whole way, until the darkness folded him up and he was gone again.

"Do you think he has something to do with the monsters?"

Ilse asked, her tone unsure, doubtful.

"Of course not. I was merely trying to be irritating."

She frowned.

"Why do you have to do that?"

I grinned, mischief creeping into it.

"Why not? You saw that guy. We can’t play into his hands. We have to at least be a thorn in his flesh, so we’re the ones setting the terms. Besides, I don’t believe him. He says he’s been here ten years. Did he count straight through ten years? That sounds like bullcrap to me. Unless he’s got some superhuman brain for counting, it’s impossible. Either he’s been down here longer, or he’s just another Beast wearing a human face."

She sighed.

"You’re still on that."

Hearing her say it like that, I shot her a look and grimaced.

"You didn’t have to go through what I went through. You’d know if you did."

Ilse rolled her eyes and folded her hands.

"Well, what is next? You don’t want to go down?"

A coy smile broke over my lips.

"Of course, Ilse, of course, we’re going down. Following him."

Her face contorted slightly, displeasure folding into it.

"Listen, Cade... I don’t think we want to make an enemy of that guy. In case you haven’t noticed."

"So what, Ilse?"

She paused, looking at me and blinking.

"Are... are you insane?"

"I might be. Who knows. But don’t you think it’s a little too late to start being careful about anything? Sure, I don’t want to die. But it’s beginning to get a little annoying, scurrying around like some weak rat. I hate running, Ilse, and I’ve been doing it again, and it’s freaking irking me."

She was silent for a moment, just staring at me with a blank look in her eyes.

"Well, looks like this is more than a surface problem. Whatever you say then."

I nodded and gently held Wren, who whispered into my ear.

Whatever you say, boss. Isn’t that what humans call it, boss?

’It’s Master to you.’

I’d die first.

We walked on, covering our noses against the stench of dead things rotting in the dark.

We trekked through the dark for what started as minutes and became hours, until the stench turned sickening in the literal sense of the word. Walking a straight line got a lot harder once the nausea started stacking on top of itself.

Then I heard something drop behind me. I paused and turned around. It was Ilse. She’d gone down on her knees, retching hard.

I crouched and touched her shoulder, and the same nausea hit me all over again, fast enough that I had to fight it down, mostly because throwing up on her wouldn’t have helped either of us.

But then I noticed something wrong.

Ilse kept vomiting. When there was nothing left in her stomach to bring up, she started vomiting blood instead.

My stomach dropped, and it wasn’t the smell this time.

"Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on, Ilse?"

She couldn’t answer. She just held her throat, blood coming up in gouts.

"It has gotten to her."

I threw my head back toward the sound of the guy’s voice.

"You! What are you doing?!"

He glanced at me.

"Quite surprising. You held on well."

A scarf covered the lower half of his face, muffling his voice slightly.

"I warned you not to go forward. You stupid dog. Now, your friend will die because of you."

My eyes darted between Ilse and the guy. Then I dropped to my knee.

"Please, help me. I’m sorry if I trespassed, but I can’t let her die."

He studied me for a few seconds, then folded his hands together.

"It’s the stench. The creature that made this operates like more of a coward. It’s not much of an attacker, but it can kill its prey with a stench strong enough to carry for several kilometers. Even I don’t know exactly how far. Once they’re dead, it comes around and feeds. I’ve been hunting it for a while..."

He glanced at Ilse.

"The only advice I can give you now is to take your friend as far from here as you can. The closer we are to the creature’s lair, the stronger the stench gets. And that’s even the easier part."

Before he could say any more, my Death Sense flared open again, and movement laced with murderous intent flooded my perception.

I threw my eyes around. He did the same, though calmer about it.

"It looks like they’re here..."

I turned to him, confused.

"Huh?"

"Some monsters are its prey. Others get recruited as its protectors. It all comes down to what kind of smell reaches them."

His hand found the hilt at his waist, and a neat, katana-like blade slid free with a cold metallic screech.