Chapter 27 – The Shadow that Bites
The march began in silence, but it was a silence that screamed.
Uzo Melbourne stepped out of the protective gloom of the Silent Hold and into the blinding white glare of the Weeping Pass.
The air here was thinner. Colder. It tasted of ozone and impending violence.
Behind him, the Silent Legion moved like a river of black oil flowing over a white canvas.
Three hundred Barbarians.
They wore the newly forged Dead Iron plate armor ugly, matte-gray metal that absorbed the light. Over the metal, they wore heavy black furs to mask their silhouettes against the snow.
They made no sound.
The "Void" that Uzo had shared with them muffled the crunch of snow under their boots and the clank of metal on metal. It was a ghost army, three hundred strong.
Kaelen walked at the front, a monolith of obsidian skin and iron.
Ronnie walked beside Uzo, her eyes scanning the ridges. She held a map that was rapidly becoming useless as the landscape shifted with the magic of the North.
"We're crossing the border of the Null Zone," Ronnie warned, her voice tight. She pointed to a jagged ridge of black rock about a hundred yards ahead. "Once we step past that ridge, the rules change. Magic works again. Scrying spells works again."
She looked at Uzo.
"If Lazarus is watching... he'll see us the moment we cross."
Uzo adjusted the collar of his coat. It was a heavy leather trench coat he had looted from the body of Arbiter Xal. It was too big for him, but it offered protection against the wind.
He looked at his hands. The gray stain on his fingertips had stopped spreading thanks to the weeks of rest, but his fingers still felt numb, like they had been dipped in ice water.
"Let him see," Uzo said, his voice flat. "If we hide in the caves, we look like fugitives. If we march in the open, we look like an army."
He gripped the Lexicon in his pocket. It was vibrating. Not a warning a heartbeat.
They reached the ridge.
Uzo took the first step across the invisible line.
The air shimmered. The heavy, muted feeling of the Null Zone lifted, replaced by the sharp, electric buzz of active reality.
Nothing happened. No fireballs. No lightning.
Just the wind howling through the pass.
"Clear," Kaelen grunted, signaling the troops.
The Legion moved forward.
But Uzo felt a prickle on the back of his neck.
He looked up.
The Crow was circling a patch of gnarled pine trees ahead. It cawed twice a sharp, agitated sound. Then it dove, disappearing into the branches.
"Halt," Uzo whispered.
Kaelen raised a massive hand. The army stopped instantly. Three hundred giants froze like statues. The discipline was terrifying.
"What is it?" Ronnie asked, her hand drifting to the chain-dagger at her waist. "I don't see anything."
Uzo squinted against the glare.
"Look at the trees."
It was noon. The sun was high and bright directly overhead.
The shadows of the pine trees should have been short puddles huddled directly beneath the branches.
But they wasn't.
The shadows were stretching.
Long, thin, black fingers of darkness were reaching out from the base of the trees. They were crawling across the white snow like spilled ink.
And they were moving against the wind.
They were moving toward the army.
"Kaelen," Uzo said, a cold knot forming in his stomach. "Get the torches."
"Torches?" Kaelen grunted, confused. "Lord, it is day."
"Not for long," Uzo said.
As he spoke, the shadows detached themselves from the trees.
They didn't stand up like men. They stayed flat on the ground. They slid over the snow, ignoring the contours of the drifts. Fast. Impossibly fast.
"Defensive circle!" Ronnie screamed, realizing the danger too late. She ripped a red flare from her bandolier and threw it.
The flare hissed, bathing the snow in crimson light.
But the shadows didn't stop. They hit the front line of the Barbarians.
A Mute warrior a giant standing near the front raised his Dead Iron shield, preparing for an impact.
"Hold!" he grunted.
The shadow didn't hit the shield. It didn't try to cut his legs.
It slid under his boots.
The warrior gasped.
His eyes went wide. He dropped his shield. He clutched his chest, his mouth opening in a silent scream.
He didn't bleed. There was no wound on his body.
He just... turned off.
THUD.
He fell face-first into the snow, foaming at the mouth.
"Man down!" Ronnie yelled. "Medic!"
"No," Uzo said, pointing at the fallen giant. "Look at his feet."
Ronnie looked.
The warrior lay in the snow. The sun beat down on him.
But he cast no shadow.
It was gone. Severed at the heels.
"They aren't attacking our bodies," Uzo realized, the horror dawning on him. "They're attacking our reflections."
"SHADOWS..."
A voice hissed. It came from everywhere and nowhere. It sounded like wind blowing through a graveyard.
From the pool of darkness in the center of the path, a figure rose.
She wasn't made of flesh. She was wrapped in bandages of twilight that fluttered in a wind that didn't exist. She wore no armor, only a cloak made of living darkness that seemed to suck the light out of the air.
She held two curved daggers that reflected nothing.
The Eclipse.
She looked at Uzo. Her face was hidden beneath a cowl of smoke, but he could feel her smile.
"Hello, little Glitch," she whispered. "The King sends his regards."
Kaelen roared. "Protect the Lord!"
The Void Knight charged. He moved with the terrifying speed of the Hushed, covering the twenty feet in a heartbeat.
He swung his massive club a weapon that could shatter castle gates straight at the Eclipse's head.
WHOOSH.
The Dead Iron weapon passed straight through her body like smoke.
She didn't even flinch. She didn't dodge. She just let the weapon pass through her non-existent chest.
"You cannot break the dark with a stick, giant," she laughed. It was a wet, gurgling sound.
She flicked her wrist.
Her dagger didn't touch Kaelen's skin.
She slashed downwards, cutting the air.
The blade sliced through Kaelen's shadow on the snow.
"ARGH!"
Kaelen roared in pain, stumbling back.
He clutched his physical arm. A deep, invisible gash opened up on his bicep, mirroring the cut on his shadow exactly.
Black smoke hissed from the wound instead of blood.
Ronnie turned pale. She backed up, putting herself between Uzo and the assassin.
"We can't hit her," she whispered. "She's 2D. She's not on our plane of existence."
Uzo gripped the Lexicon. His knuckles turned white.
Lazarus hadn't sent an army this time. He knew Uzo could break armies.
He had sent a concept.
He had sent the one thing the Silent Legion couldn't punch.
The Eclipse spun her daggers, stepping closer.
"The sun is bright today," she hissed. "So many shadows to eat."