Chapter 87: Dark Hollow Road

The path stretched forward between two walls of trees. It remained almost perfectly straight, its surface packed flat by centuries of travelers and patrols. The blue lanterns revealed only a small section at a time, giving the impression that the road ended several paces ahead and rebuilt itself whenever they moved.

Mara studied the nearest trunks. She remembered the forest they crossed before reaching the Silent Sea, where trees had opened their bark to reveal flesh and dragged travelers beneath the roots.

"Are these Abominations?"

"No," Rook said.

She waited for reassurance.

It did not come.

"Which makes them worse," he added.

"How can normal trees be worse?"

"Abomination trees defend their territory. They attack other creatures, consume anything caught between their roots and keep most wandering Abominations away. You know where the danger is because you’re standing in it."

Rook moved his lantern across the trunks lining the road.

"These are ordinary trees. They don’t warn you when something climbs them, nests beneath their roots or follows you from one branch to another. An Abomination can prepare an ambush here without the forest trying to eat it first."

Mara looked upward. The lantern light reached the lowest branches and revealed nothing above them.

She lowered it toward the road.

The casual conversation ended after that.

Frederick led the expedition deeper into the Hollow. The anchor wielder remained several steps behind him, ready to bring the weapon down against anything blocking the path. The other three Reapers watched the trees and the ground behind them. Vanessa stopped touching Rook and moved with one hand near her curved blade.

Rook carried his lantern low.

He passed the blue light across the road, pausing whenever it revealed disturbed soil, broken roots or marks upon the trunks. Most belonged to old patrols. Boot prints overlapped one another along the center of the path, their edges softened by time and whatever faint wind managed to pass between the trees.

Mara tried to follow his attention.

Her lessons in the Forty-Second had taught her to notice obvious tracks, displaced stones and branches broken recently enough for the exposed wood to remain pale. The knowledge felt far less useful outside the classroom. Every section of ground contained dozens of marks, and she had no idea which ones mattered.

Rook stopped near the edge of the road.

A depression had been pressed into the soil beside a thick root. It resembled part of a footprint, though its shape was too wide and uneven to belong to any member of the group.

He directed the lantern toward it. "What do you think?"

Mara crouched without moving too close. "Something passed here."

"That describes every track."

"It looks like a foot."

"Better."

She examined the depression. Three rounded impressions marked the front, while a longer groove continued behind them. "An animal?"

"No animals here."

"Then an Abomination."

Rook pointed toward the ground behind her. "Check your own print."

Mara turned.

Her boot had left a faint impression in the soil, shallow enough that the edges were already crumbling. The track beside the root sank several inches into the same ground.

"That one is deeper," she said.

"Much deeper."

"Maybe the creature was larger."

"Size contributes. Memory contributes more."

Frederick and the others gathered around them. He crouched on the opposite side of the print while Rook moved the lantern to reveal several more depressions leading along the edge of the road.

"Abominations carry the memories they consume," Rook explained. "The more they hold, the heavier their remembered bodies become. You won’t always see the difference by looking at them. Some remain thin enough to fit through a doorway while weighing more than a loaded wagon."

Mara remembered the Fourth Rank. Its body had been narrow and almost starved, yet every impact carried enough force to break stone.

"So deeper tracks mean a stronger Abomination?"

"Usually older, fuller or denser. Any of those can kill you more brutally than something light."

Frederick pressed two fingers against the edge of the depression. "This is too close to the Bastion."

"That’s why we should pay attention," Rook said.

"We aren’t even a quarter of the way into the Hollow."

"Then something drove it toward the Forty-Second, or it came here deliberately."

The Reaper carrying the whip looked toward the trees. "Could it have been hunting travelers?"

"It could have established a perimeter," Rook replied. "It could also be watching the road to learn how patrols move."

Vanessa touched two fingers against the side of her neck. "Do you want me to check?"

"No," Rook and Frederick said together.

Vanessa raised both hands. "I was asking."

Mara looked toward the darkness surrounding them. "Wouldn’t this be the right time? We know something is nearby."

"We know something passed here," Frederick said. "That could have happened hours or days ago."

"The Bastion is still close," Rook added. "The weaker Abominations gather beyond the edge of its light. Most hide from patrols, but Vanessa’s Imprint would draw every one capable of sensing her."

"How many could there be?"

"Enough."

Frederick stood. "A swarm of First and Second Ranks can tear apart a patrol as easily as one powerful creature. Vanessa uses her ability only when we lose the Manager’s trail or reach an area open enough to control what approaches."

Vanessa lowered her hands. "I understand."

Rook looked at her.

"I do."

They followed the tracks.

The impressions remained close to the trees, appearing whenever the soil became soft enough to preserve them. Whatever made them had moved in the same direction as the expedition. It never crossed into the center of the road, preferring the roots and darker ground along the edge.

After several hundred paces, the prints vanished.

The last depression ended beside a patch of hardened earth. No broken branches showed that the creature had entered the trees, and no mark crossed the road.

Frederick directed two Reapers to check the opposite side. They found nothing.

"It could have moved onto the packed ground," Mara said.

"Could have," Rook replied.

"Or climbed."

"Could have."

She looked up at the interlocking branches. "Do you ever give definite answers?"

"When the ground gives me one."

They continued without knowing where the Abomination had gone.

Frederick remained at the front, checking the position of the trees against a weathered route map carried inside his coat. One of the Reapers walking near him glanced along the unchanging road and finally asked, "How far is the halfway point?"

"We haven’t crossed a fraction of the full road," Frederick said.

The man looked ahead. "And the Manager made it halfway?"

"According to the last signs recovered by the patrol."

"What signs?"

Frederick stopped beside one of the trees and raised his lantern.

A symbol had been carved into the bark at shoulder height. Three narrow cuts formed an open triangle, with a fourth extending toward the road ahead. The grooves appeared deliberate, made by a blade rather than claws.

"This is one of hers."

Rook approached the tree. He touched the lowest cut and scraped at the amber substance hardened inside it. A thin layer broke beneath his nail, revealing softer sap below.

"It hasn’t been here long," he said.

Frederick watched him. "How long?"

"Around two weeks. Maybe less."

"That matches the last patrol."

"Two weeks is still too long for clean tracks. Weather, patrols and anything crossing the road will have ruined most of them."

The swordsman looked toward the symbol. "Can you follow her?"

"I can follow the marks as long as she continued leaving them. Once we reach the final one, we’ll see."

Frederick motioned forward. "Then we keep moving."

The group resumed its formation and proceeded deeper into the Dark Hollow Road. Their lanterns passed across one tree after another, searching for the next carved symbol. No one spoke unless necessary. Even Vanessa’s earlier cheerfulness had disappeared as the light of the Forty-Second became a distant memory behind them.

Rook continued examining the road. Mara watched him and tried to imitate the pattern of his attention, checking roots, disturbed soil and the lower sections of the trunks. She found several marks and discarded each after noticing its age or shape. Her training had given her enough knowledge to understand how much she still failed to see.

The expedition moved farther into the Hollow.

Branches shifted above them.

No wind passed through the trees.

Something travelled along the edge of the lantern light, placing its limbs carefully between the roots. It paused whenever the group paused and moved whenever their footsteps covered its own.

The blue flames never touched it.

Its attention remained fixed upon the back of the formation, where Mara walked beside Rook and searched the ground for tracks.

It had been following her since they left the Bastion.

No one noticed.