Free The Undead Hordes of Kan-Gul by Jon F. Merz Page B

heard the unmistakable growl of beasts from all around them. Jysal’s eyes widened, and she looked at Ran. “I don’t think they like you slowing down. They’ve been keeping pace with us as we walked, and now you’re not moving.”
    Ran frowned. “I don’t like walking into an area like this.”
    “As you said before, we don’t seem to have a say.”
    Around them, the growling continued. Ran saw the hungry eyes staring him down, daring him to try to make a move. Whatever they were, the beasts seemed supremely confident of their ability to kill Ran and Jysal without too much effort. Ran sighed and then motioned for Jysal. “All right then.” He turned and walked into the tunnel of trees.
    Under here, it was significantly cooler. And the farther they traveled, the colder the air got. The thick humidity they’d experienced for the majority of their hike through the swamp and forest was now gone. In its place, Ran could see his breath as he exhaled. The shadows all around them made seeing clearly a difficult task. But Ran knew enough to use his peripheral vision instead of trying to look directly at something. As he did, he saw shapes and movement. But he resolved to keep his head down and keep moving ahead. The memory of the growling beasts still filled his head.
    The ground continued to slope upward, forcing Ran to bend slightly forward and put the strain of exertion on to his thigh muscles. Behind him, he could hear Jysal breathing hard. She was clearly struggling to keep up. He looked back, but she only gave him a close-mouthed smile and pointed for him to keep going. One thing was certain: Jysal might have the appearance of a beautiful woman, but she was pretty tough as well. The hike would have taken a lot of sturdier warriors down. But Jysal was still gutting it out. Ran respected her for that.
    The air lightened around them as they plodded up the hill. On either side, the trees still loomed close, their twisted, gnarled trunks a slate gray wall. But ahead, the shadows retreated. Ran could see things now.
    He stopped.
    Waited.
    But no growls chased him.
    Ran smiled and then turned as Jysal stumbled into him. “Why did you stop?”
    “They’re gone.”
    “What?”
    “The beasts. They’ve left us.”
    Jysal took a big gulp of air into her lungs and then turned, looking around, but then looked back at Ran. “When did they vanish? I could have sworn they were with us every step of the way.”
    “I think that was their job,” said Ran. “To make sure we didn’t stray from the path and to make sure that we entered that tunnel of foliage.”
    “But why? What was the point? And why did the first one attack us?”
    Ran turned back and stepped forward. He waved Jysal closer to him. “Perhaps it thought we were easy prey, and once we killed the leader, the rest came to herd us.”
    “Herd us where?”
    “There,” Ran replied pointing to the west.
    In front of them, the ground broke into an open plain devoid of any sort of cover for hundreds of yards in every direction. As Ran scanned the ground, he could see no place where they could hide and observe the massive stone fortress resting in the center of the plain.
    It might have been built from giant stone bricks, but from the distance they stood it looked as if it had been vomited straight up out of the earth in some sort of molten geyser before cooling to a dull, lifeless gray appearance. Spires jutted toward the sky, which had grown as gray as the fortress. Arrow slits pockmarked the walls, and the ramparts looked more like rows of serrated teeth than they did proper fortifications.
    “It’s terribly ugly,” said Jysal. “Who would have created such a terrible castle?”
    “Kan-Gul,” said Ran simply. “I think we’ve arrived at his home.” He shivered unintentionally as a cold breeze blew over them.
    “And what happened to the warm air?” asked Jysal. “It’s gone frightfully cold.”
    Ran set his jaw. The answer was as obvious as everything