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(11) Suddenly Armadyl stopped. Ikov and the company stopped behind him. On their right they beheld a break in the side of the mountain. A chasm extended from the level ground before their feet all the way up to the broken summit. Within it they saw exposed the enormous shaft of the volcano, like the trunk of a tree split open by a bolt of lightning - it was filled with the creatures, thousands of the creatures, locked in frenzied activity. The creatures came in every size. Small ones slaughtered each other in pits below and upon the stone terraces throughout the atrium. Large ones feasted upon small ones, or crushed them against rocks as they hobbled about. Some fell from high places, only to be torn apart by those among whom they landed. From deep below to high above, layers and layers of volcanic stone overflowed with cannibalistic violence. And from walls riddled with caves poured forth more and more of the creatures who threw themselves into the gluttonous feast. The squeals and screeches of the debauchery echoed throughout the chamber, and the smell of blood met the company on a draft of warm air from within.

(12) Terror struck the hearts of the soldiers, but Ikov did not turn his eyes from the sight. He surveyed the scene until he found one creature unlike the rest, standing alone upon a terrace on the far side, hardly illumined by the red glow of magma beneath - it was like a man, with dark, reddish skin, and legs like a goat's. Two glowing, yellow eyes stared back at him. Ikov did not know how long he spent locked in the stare, but he felt Armadyl touch his shoulder and heard Armadyl order the retreat. Armadyl commanded that they run, quickly enough to keep warm, but no more quickly, because they would not be attacked that night. Ikov was pensive as he ran with the troops, considering the creature who oversaw the deranged feast. Soon the army arrived at the village, exhausted, and they slept.

(13) On the next day, Armadyl and Ikov walked together. "They are troglodytes, cave-dwellers," Armadyl said, "brought here by a demon of Infernus. I don't know where they come from, but I've encountered them in other worlds. They don't naturally act like they did last night. They're under the control of the demon you saw; he induces them to their disgusting ritual. He's using them, to spread fear in the land, to oppress, and to make his way into the hearts of the Asgarnians."

(14) "I don't understand," said Ikov, "He was just standing there in the open. Is he a spirit already manifested or something like us?"

(15) "The creatures of Infernus are like us; they have lives of their own and can die. But also like us, they have spiritual powers; they can project themselves into a world and work themselves into the land and people just like a spirit. This one probably wants to be invisible, but the land is newly inhabited, and it will take him time to seep into it."

(16) A little later, Armadyl spoke again, "You will have to face the demon, Ikov. You met him in your mind, and he is after the hearts of men. If you hold him fast, as you did against the spirit in the moors, the troglodytes will not be able to fight. I will lead the troops, and we will slaughter them, end their unnatural presence in this world. Then you can banish the demon."

(17) "Must we kill them all?" Ikov asked.

(18) Armadyl responded, "Yes, they have been wholly twisted by their captor; through them he maintains his presence here."

(19) Soon after the army had returned to the village, the report spread that thousands of troglodytes inhabited the mountain; the soldiers provided graphic accounts of their frenzied slaughter and of their strange commander. The soldiers remained gripped with fear, and many of the villagers wondered aloud if they should return to their former home. Armadyl and Ikov said little and allowed the troops to rest for a couple weeks. Then, Armadyl ordered the army to assemble.

(20) The god addressed them thus: "Soldiers of sea-folk, tribesmen, and woodsmen, you have served me, your god, and Ikov, my servant, with generous hearts. But our quest has not reached its end. The darkest days of winter are upon us, and we are to march into battle. You have seen the horror within the mountain, the horror we will efface from the world. We will march directly into the mountain, and there we will slaughter the troglodytes more thoroughly than they slaughter themselves. We will banish the threat from this land and fear from the hearts of its settlers. Do not fear marching directly into the house of slaughter, amidst enemies above and below and on every side. In every battle thus far, your commander Ikov has placed himself in as great or in greater danger than you. Remember that he alone faced the black knight among the last, resistant fief-lords; remember his vigil in the storm of hail. Once again he will face the spirit here. Remember Ikov, the justice he has won for you, and fear no troglodyte."

(21) In the late afternoon, the army of Armadyl and Ikov marched from the village. They marched slowly. All knew that the troglodytes and the demon waited for them in the mountain. Most shook from fear, but Armadyl and Ikov walked with absolute calm and confidence. The troops nearest them drew strength from their composure. The company crossed the isthmus of rock and then rounded the wall jutting west and again faced the freezing northern wind. Soon they stood before the gaping chasm. Arrayed upon every terrace waited the army of troglodytes, armed with tooth and claw and torch. Ikov did not attend to them but sought out the demon, standing in the same place as he was before. The two locked eyes, and Ikov lost track of time.

(22) The yellow eyes did not press upon his mind. Instead, they did nothing; they said nothing. They were simply there, damming up the passage of time. The expressionless eyes gave no reason for Ikov to return their stare, no reason for him to maintain his concentration. No time passed, and any reason Ikov had had to spend the timelessness locked upon the yellow eyes faded from his mind. But Ikov did not turn away; he did not accept the implicit invitation to relent. The eyes narrowed. Armadyl and the army had charged into the crater, had killed hundreds and hundreds of helpless, disoriented troglodytes. Ikov could find no reason to remain fixed upon the squinted eyes, but he persisted anyway. The eyes showed panic, and Ikov did not yield. Then the eyes fled: a shadow shot forth from where the reddish figure had stood. The shadow fled from the chasm and out into the west. Ikov blinked his eyes several times and looked about him. Without a casualty, Armadyl and his army had completed the slaughter; the troglodytes were dead, and the demon was gone. Far above him light shined upon the open summit; it was dawn.

(23) It took Ikov several days to recover from the confusion of the fight, from having lost his sense of time and purpose as he held fast the power behind the yellow eyes. But slowly he made sense of what had happened and returned to his old self. Meanwhile, Armadyl ordered the construction of a watchtower high upon the mountain. The company pitched their camp within the warm, volcanic bowels of the mountain during the weeks of construction. After the bodies of the troglodytes were burned upon the shore, the chasm and caves of the mountain fortified, and the watchtower completed, Armadyl charged the Asgarnian villagers with maintaining the tower, so that from it they might protect all the lands to the west and south, and watch for threats from the sea.

(24) Then Armadyl had the army assembled and spoke to them thus: "I am concerned about the flight of the demon into the west. I don't know what shelter he seeks there. We had planned to wait out the winter in camp, but now I think we should march west in pursuit and see what further challenge awaits us. Every one of you is free to choose whether to continue our journey or to remain here among the settlers." In the next days, the soldiers procured from the village what supplies the villagers could spare. Just over three hundred returned to continue the quest. In the dead of winter, Armadyl and Ikov led their army west, onto the frozen beaches of the northern coast. It had been two months since their departure from the moors.

Part 6: Coast

(1) After leaving their camp within the mountain, Armadyl, Ikov, and their company crossed the isthmus of rock. Within a mile of their march along the rocky coast, they came upon a massive pillar toppled on its side. It appeared to be cut from black, volcanic glass, to make a demonic figure: lionlike in the face, horned, winged and reptillian in the body; its expression was somber, its face pressed against gritty sand. The soldiers studied it as they walked by.

(2) Soon the company came upon rocks in their way, the beginning of a ridge running directly west for as far as they could see. On its right were piled dunes of sand, then a sandy beach exposed to freezing wind, and large sheets of ice which extended out into the sea. On its left lay the entrance to a gorge cutting deep into the earth, offering protection from the wind but also a long, narrow, and winding path, the end of which lay beyond their sight.

(3) For fear of what they might meet in the gorge, all chose to brave the winds upon the beach - they were prepared for the cold, wrapped in many layers of wool given to them by the Asgarnian villagers. For some time, they walked upon the soft sands among the dunes, which provided partial shelter, but which also exhausted them quickly. Soon they moved out onto the flat, hard sands of the beach, and there suffered constant, driving, freezing wind, carrying sand and bits of ice. Grit soon found its way into every crease and crevice in their clothes. Tears brought to their eyes by the wind froze upon their faces. At night they pitched camp in the shelter of the dunes, and at dawn they continued their march on the beach.

(4) After some days on the march, the company encountered a group of men - about a dozen of them, dressed in robes of black and carrying stone bowls; they were hurrying back and forth between the ridge and the sea. They ignored the approaching army, so Armadyl, Ikov, and the company stopped to watch what they were doing. The men in black formed two lines strung out from amidst the dunes, across the beach and ice, and stretching to the sea. Upon reaching the edge of the ice, one one would dip his shallow bowl into the water, filling it, and then shuffle back across the ice and sands and disappear amidst the dunes, careful never to spill a drop; then he would reappear to repeat the ritual, rushing back to the sea.

(5) Commanding the army to remain where they stood, Armadyl and Ikov followed one of the men into the dunes. There they beheld a break in the ridge, a cut bounded by two steep and jagged edges, through which they could see the far wall of the gorge and above it the blue sky and distant plains beyond. At the bottom of the break, at ground level, stood a large, rectangular stone altar. Its front face was smooth and flat; the top had cut into it two flat faces which slanted towards the gorge at its back. The man they followed dumped the water he carried onto the stone altar, so that the water ran along the crease between the two flat faces on its top and trickled into the gorge behind and below. Then the man turned around to retrace his steps to the sea. Armadyl and Ikov watched for some time as several men repeated the rite, spilling water upon the altar and into the gorge. Finally, puzzled and without any insight into the strange ritual, they returned to their army. Armadyl, Ikov, and the company continued their march, carefully avoiding the robed men as they crossed their path. That night they pitched camp again among the dunes and slept.

(6) Horns sounded the alarm in the camp at dawn. The men scrambled to prepare to fight. Armadyl and Ikov were informed immediately that the last sentinels on duty before dawn were missing, as well as several more. They ordered the surrounding dunes, ridge, and beach to be searched and for all to remain on alert. But no trace of intruders nor of the missing soldiers was found. Scouts reported that they could no longer see the men robed in black pacing across the beach as on the day before. With grim demeanor, Armadyl ordered the soldiers to continue the march; twice as many soldiers would be assigned to keep watch in the night, and the wood they carried would be used for fires to keep their surroundings lit. For another week, Armadyl, Ikov, and the army encountered no one on the beach and no change in the land. They simply endured the cold and wind and bleeding from the grit which collected around their necks and armpits, knees and elbows. All remained alert and uneasy at the disappearance of both their fellow soldiers in the night and the men upon the beach.

(7) Then, one day at midday scouts reported more robed men on the beach ahead - about a hundred of them. They enacted the same ritual as before, but at a much larger altar set within a wider break in the ridge. Furthermore, on the far side of the altar they saw dwellings cut into the dark sheets of stone which made up the ridge. In front of the dwellings, they saw women and children, also dressed in black, seated together around cooking fires, eating from large cuts of strange black meat, apparently cut from a giant serpent from the sea. "We must demand from them whatever they know of our missing soldiers," said Ikov, "If they do not speak to us, we will confront the women. If that does not work, we will interrupt their ritual. If they resist, we will avoid harming the women and children as best as we can." All agreed with Ikov's plan.

(8) They armed themselves and marched between the ridge and the dunes of sand so that they would emerge among the robed people at the site of their altar and village. When they arrived, the men continued their ritual, taking no notice of them, just as before. But the women and children got up from their fires or came out from their stone houses and gathered in a silent crowd, watching the newcomers from beyond the lines of shuffling priests. Ikov shouted to the women, "Who are you and why do your men perform these rites?" He received no answer. Then, "Some of our soldiers disappeared in the night. Do you know who or what is responsible?" Again no one answered.

(9) "Interrupt the ritual," said Armadyl, "Block their access to the altar." The troops moved forward. As the first soldier stepped between the altar and the priest closest to it, the man in black dropped his bowl and shoved the soldier onto and over the altar, so that he tumbled down into the gorge. The next soldier slew the priest where he stood. The men in black dropped their bowls and retreated quickly. The women and children likewise ran to join the men a hundred paces away. All of them remained silent. Then, all of them, even the children, drew silver swords from among their robes.

(10) "Lock your shields together; do not strike them unless you must," said Ikov, "We will drive them back." The crowd in black charged at them, but just as Ikov commanded they drove them back with their heavy shields; they slew only a few. The robed people retreated some hundred paces, and in silence gathered again. They charged again, and again the army drove them back. "Stop this," Ikov shouted to them, "or we will drive you into the sea." Again they charged, and again the company broke their charge and forced them to retreat. All the while, the enemy maintained their silence.

(11) Armadyl called two soldiers away from the defensive line and sent them to find the one who was pushed into the gorge. They quickly returned to report that beyond the altar lay a soft slope of sand which led to the bottom of the gorge; though they could not see him, they expected that the missing soldier was alive. Armadyl thanked them, and they rejoined the bulk of the army which had slowly pushed the people in black to the very edge of the ice. The robed people attacked one final time, and the army of Armadyl and Ikov pushed them into the sea. Some they slew at the edge of the water. Others swam away from the ice as if to regroup again, but soon they could not withstand the cold and sank forever beneath the waves. None of the robed people remained alive. All were silent; they heard only the wind and clapping of the waves against the thick sheet of ice. Armadyl ordered them to retreat to the ridge, where they would pitch camp for the night.