Abattoir/Part 3

Alecto twisted enough that the claws merely carved a gash in her back instead of taking a chunk out of her spine, but she still screamed as she fell, rolling her battered body to come up on her bleeding knees. Teeth and claws and hellish eyes streaked toward her out of the mist, and she reacted without thinking, raising her hands and unleashing a tangle of Force lightning. The blue-white bolts struck home and the light in those eyes darkened as the thing was hurled away, but she couldn't keep up the intense attack for long, and she sank to one hand, panting.

"They'll have seen that!" Rassan hissed in fury. "You can't keep doing these things!"

"I'm the only reason we're still alive!" Alecto snarled back. The hand she pressed to her back came away damp; her clothes were already sticking to her wounds, and as her battle high faded it left deeper exhaustion in its wake.

A ululating howl rent the foggy night and ended the debate. Alecto could sense It out there, still coming for her. She struggled to stand, running a hand over what was left of her hair; she had left half her braid in the statue's grip, but she could barely see it even though it was meters away. "Let's go."

"This isn't familiar to me," Rassan admitted. "I don't know how we get out."

"We don't," Alecto said. "We descend."

Could Anzati turn pale? They were such ghostly things to begin with, but Rassan seemed to be trying. "Descend?! Have you lost your mind?  It gets worse the deeper you go!"

See my face of shock and disbelief, Alecto thought, giving Rassan a cold glower. She set off without waiting for him, picking her way over the uneven ground. Loose stones and bulging tree roots threatened a sprained ankle with a single careless step, but Alecto dared not hesitate for too long; the scent of roasted flesh and the rusty smell of her blood were already drawing the glowing flies…

Higher in the Abattoir there had been avians, Alecto remembered; she noticed their absence only when the silence occurred to her. She heard her boots scrabbling through the gravelly jungle floor, Rassan's quieter steps, and nothing else. And yet she sensed It getting closer as the quiet deepened, slinking invisibly through the shadows, deadliest of the countless wraiths stalking them—stalking her.

"You can't be serious," Rassan breathed. "No one lives to see the Heart of the Abattoir."

"Vandak did."

"Vandak was an Anzat. You're…"

He trailed off, but his voice carried the sneer Alecto couldn't see through the fog. She slid a little on a meter-high embankment, and the impact on the next level of ground sent a stab of pain through her lower back.

"You're bleeding, witch."

"Want to do something about it, or just complain?" Alecto snapped.

The outline of Rassan's body shifted back the way they had come for a moment before the Anzat dropped to his hands and knees, patting the ground and pulling up various weeds. "No…no…poisonous…here, this. Chew it for paste and put it on the wound, it may mask the scent.  For now."

Alecto took the clump of leaves he offered, her violet eyes narrowed in suspicion, but the blood flies were still glittering in the distance, and It was less than half a kilometer away now, so at last she crammed the leaves into her mouth and chewed, retching at the taste. The fungus had never seen the sun, but had endured the passage of many living creatures, and she was only too eager to spit the gummy muck back into her hands and press it into the open wounds on her back. It stung so badly she gasped, and for a second Alecto wondered if this was some trick—a poison or hallucinogen to make her easier prey for their tormentors.

She struggled on before she could let that train of thought get to her; Rassan was a coward and little use against the things that haunted the Abattoir, but she needed his Anzat senses to navigate the misty jungle. And besides, she might need bait eventually too.

They clambered on through the dark, Alecto following Rassan's Force signature as much as his body; the only light now came from bioluminescent mushrooms and the distant cloud of blood flies. Alecto placed her hand on the sharp bark of a gnarled tree, then grabbed a vine to steady herself as she walked over a fallen log. They were making their way into a swamp, she realized; the air was becoming dizzying, and the vines hung low over the ground. Alecto thought absurdly of swinging over climbing bars and giggled to herself. She sensed Rassan thought she was mad.

She stopped laughing when she grabbed the next vine and it ssssss-ed at her in response.

She jerked her head aside just in time; she could feel the passage of the air where her cheek had just been, and the snap of its fangs centimeters from her ear seemed as loud as a blaster shot. She threw it away with the hand holding it and lurched back; it was just out of range for its follow-up bite, but she saw the gleaming eyes and long, dripping fangs explode out of the fog toward her. She fell and the rotted log started to give under her backside. The snake dropped from its perch, landing on her legs and hissing as it tried to uncoil itself.

Alecto kicked frantically and felt her boot heel connect with its head. Sensing a moment of weakness, she lunged, heart pounding even as her hands slapped the slimy body. One palm came down on the head and she felt the mouth open under her touch. Seizing it in a rush, Alecto tried to twist the thing, but it was too dexterous for her to break, and it lunged wildly in her grip. Maddened with fury, Alecto brought its body to her mouth and bit it, tearing out half its width with her teeth. The snake gave a long hiss of pain as Alecto tore down with a second bite and felt her teeth scrape against bone. Shifting her grip, she snapped its exposed spine in half.

She could taste its blood dripping from her lips as she got to her feet on shaking legs. Rassan stood just at the edge of her vision, but even as the fog embraced his form Alecto could tell he was staring at her. Good, she thought savagely. He could use a little fear. "Keep going."

He did, seeming eager to lead the way for once, if only to put some distance between them. Alecto brought her snake along, dragging its head along the rocks so it would die in pain as she pulled more of its flesh off with her teeth, chewing and swallowing this time. The raw meat tasted like bad fish; each mouthful took a dozen bites to get tender; and she had to keep spitting out blood, little bones, and ligaments too tough to chew; but her stomach ached so badly from hunger that she kept eating.

Eventually she hopped down from the log—the tree must have rivaled Kashyyyk's smaller wroshyrs when it stood, Alecto realized—and the ground sank under her boots. Pulling her feet free from the muck, she warned, "We're going deeper into the swamp."

"Only way to lose them," Rassan replied, looking back past her yet again.

Alecto tried to expand her senses again, but danger was everywhere here. She knew It was still hunting her, growing maddeningly closer, but there were a thousand perils in this mire, and even the Force couldn't map them all.

"And if we lose us?"

"Just keep your balance and watch your step."

"And this way leads down?"

"We can't go down!" Rassan's fingers curled into claws. "You aren't Vandak!"

"I'm going down with or without you," Alecto warned. "If you think you can survive on your own…"

Rassan tensed and Alecto fell silent, dropping the remains of her snake to free her hands. The Anzat took deep sniffs of the air, his face twitching this way and that, turning his head to listen. "How many hearts does your species have?!"

"One, why?"

"I hear two heartbeats."

Alecto was conjuring up her most snide tone to point out the obvious when she chanced to recall Ta'azin's own caustic observation. Anzati don't have blood, or even circulation as we do. Her mind was still putting together the biological pieces when wet, hot breath brushed the back of her neck.

She threw herself forward, but something massive still struck her, and she cried out as her back and her bloody palm hit the ground. Rassan darted forward with inhuman speed, but a shadow moved through the darkness and knocked the Anzat down too. Alecto rose and raised her hands, her body aching in protest as she prepared another wave of lightning, but something slapped her upside the head—a tail? A tentacle? She couldn't be sure, but it spun her completely around and sent her face-first into the swamp.

She pulled herself out of the bog, spitting out rancid water and algae; she could hear the thing's breath, distorted to be wet and rattling through the water in her ears…or did it actually sound like that? Scrambling shamelessly like an animal on her hands and feet, she charged into the swamp, calling on the Force to guide her to safe footfalls. The splashes rebounded off trees and echoed through hollow logs, and Alecto sensed things awakening all around her, predators large and small wondering at the commotion. There was a sploosh as her attacker dove in after her, then splashes from its pursuit, so swift it sounded like the consistent thunder of rapids growing closer.

Alecto banged her foot against a rock, screamed in pain as it jarred her toes, and squeezed her eyes shut as they teared. Hobbling onto the rock with a grimace, trusting the Force, she bent her knees and leapt. Whatever was chasing her splashed to a halt beneath her, snarling and snapping its jaws. Alecto reached the apex of her dive…and her stomach rose into her throat as the rest of her started to descend toward the waiting teeth.

Her hand caught a vine as she flailed; the drop nearly wrenched her arm out of its socket, and as the vine snapped taut, she swung into a tree. Moss on the branch cushioned her impact just enough that she didn't black out, but spots of color appeared in what little she could see, and her grip on the vine slacked. She slid down onto a branch, landing on her back and ripping the half-dried fungus pulp off her wound.

Alecto curled her knees up to her chest, hugging them as she squeezed her teeth together, trying not to cry in pain. The smell of her fresh blood maddened the thing below, and she heard it sloshing through the water as it paced. There was a splash as it jumped, then another, louder, as it fell short of her branch and came back down.

Alecto tried to channel her pain into rage, enough to kill the thing and be done with this, but she hurt in enough places now that she thought it might do her more harm than good to try summoning more lightning. She had no idea what had become of Rassan. Looking at the tree, she was just wondering whether the main trunk had enough branches to support her in sleep when the whole thing shook and she nearly fell.

She dug her hands into the branch, but they came away filled with sticky moss and a second rattle nearly dislodged her. She heard the splash of water against the bark this time and realized the predator was ramming the tree—and it was hardy enough that the tree was giving. She sensed It was down there too, somewhere, waiting for Its chance at her.

A sudden, sharp pain lanced her finger, and Alecto hissed and brushed her fingertips together; the movement dislodged an insect that had been living in the moss, but the stinging spread down her finger from knuckle to knuckle. Why did everything hurt here?

The tree shook again, and Alecto forced herself up, knees trembled, grabbing another branch with her good hand, squeezing her bitten one into a fist. She hobbled to the center knot of branches and took off down one on the other side, limping until she felt the wood bending beneath her feet, then jumped. She could barely see, and the reeking funk of swamp water below turned what she could see into a blur of black and green. The Force carried her safely to one branch, but she wobbled on the next and had to seize a vine to steady herself on the one after that.

She fell off the fourth.

As she plummeted to the swamp, she wondered whether she would break her legs on the fall. She hit the water and submerged, and for an instant was glad of it; her body did not appreciate the impact, but all her limbs were still functioning, and even the tepid slime was a relief against the burning in her hand. Then she kicked and swam for the surface, but something caught around her ankle.

Lightning underwater would kill her too, but after a second of thrashing she realized it was not an eel or a dianoga—it was just a weed. As she struggled, though, it twisted around her ankle, and as she kicked with her free leg and fluttered her arms, it snugged and held her tight. She tried to sink and brace herself against the floor, but the swamp went much deeper than she had expected; the weed was the floating end of some long plant. She swam for the surface, and her fingertips breached the water to claw at the muggy air, but she could not pull herself up. Straining to the limit of her flexibility, she felt the crown of her head just breach and her shortened hair plaster to her head, but when she arched her neck her lips and nose were a few centimeters underwater. The air was so close…

There was nothing to grab; the water was deep enough to spare her the fatal fall because she was in the middle of the swamp. Alecto bent to pull at the weed, but her lungs were starting to seize and cry out for air, her throat twinging in pain, as she used up the last of the oxygen she had. Everything was dark all around her, and every pull on the weed was feebler than the last. There was a roaring in her ears, and she accidentally snorted and breathed in on reflex.

Trying to cough, she opened her mouth, and it filled with water.