And between Paran and the carriage, half a hundred or more of the creatures, now wheeling towards him, claws raised and clicking. He drew out his sword again, and drove his heels into the horse's flanks.
The animal voiced an indignant grunt, then charged forward. Legs and chest battering bodies aside, Paran slashing right and left, seeing limbs lopped off, skulls opened wide. Hands closed on the shareholder and sought to pull her off. Twisting round, Paran cut at them until they fell away.
A beast landed in his lap.
Hot breath, smelling distinctly of over-ripe peaches. Hinged fangs spreading wide – the damned thing was moments from biting off Paran's face.
He head-butted it, the rim of his helm smashing nose and teeth, blood gushing into Paran's eyes, nose and mouth.
The creature reeled back.
Paran swung his weapon from above, hammering the sword's pommel into the top of the creature's skull. Punching through with twin sprays of blood from its tiny ears. Tugging his weapon free, he shoved the dead beast to the side.
His horse was still pushing forward, squealing as talons and fangs slashed its neck and chest. Paran leant over his mount's neck, flailing with his sword in its defence.
Then they were through, the horse lunging into a canter, then a gallop. All at once, the carriage's battered, swaying and pitching back reared up before them. Free of attackers. Paran dragged on his reins until the horse slowed, and came up alongside. He gestured at the nearest shareholder. 'She's still alive – take her-'
'Is she now?' the man replied, then turned his head and spat out a gleaming red stream.
Paran now saw that blood was spurting from the ragged holes in the man's left leg, and those spurts were slowing down. 'You need a healer and fast-'
'Too late,' the man replied, leaning out to drag the unconscious woman from the back of Paran's horse. More hands reached down from above and took her weight, then pulled her upwards. The dying shareholder sagged back against the carriage, then gave Paran a red-stained smile. 'The spike,' he said. 'Doubles my worth – hope the damned wife's grateful.'
As he spoke he fumbled with the harness buckle, then finally pulled it loose. With a final nod at Paran, he let go, and fell.
A tumble and a roll, then… nothing.
Paran looked back, stared at the motionless body on the bridge. Beasts were swarming towards it. Gods, these people have all lost their minds.
'Stebar's earned the spike!' someone said from the carriage roof. '
Who's got one of his chips?'
Another voice said, 'Here, down the slot – how bad is Thyrss?'
'She'll make it, poor girl, ain't gonna be pretty no more.'
'Knowing her, she'd have been happier with the spike-'
'Not a chance, got no kin, Ephras. What's the point of a spike with no kin?'
'Funny man, Yorad, and I bet you don't even know it.'
'What did I say now?'
The carriage's wild careening had slowed as more and more detritus appeared on the bridge's road. Pieces of corroding armour, broken weapons, bundles of nondescript clothing.
Looking down, Paran saw a slab of wood that looked to have once been a Troughs game-board, now splintered and gnawed down one side as if some creature had tried to eat it. So, here in this deathly underworld, there are things that still need food. Meaning, they're alive.
Meaning, I suppose, they don't belong. Intruders, like us. He wondered at all those other visitors to this realm, those who'd fallen to the horde of ochre-hued beast-men. How had they come to be here? An accident, or, like Paran, seeking to cross this damned bridge for a reason? 'Hedge!'
The ghost, perched beside the driver, leaned forward. 'Captain?'
'This realm – how did you know of it?'
'Well, you came to us, didn't you? Figured you was the one who knew about it.'
'That makes no sense. You led, I followed, remember?'
'You wanted to go where the ancient things went, so here we are.'
'But where is here?'
Shrugging, the sapper leaned back.
It was the one bad thing about following gut-feelings, Paran reflected. Where they came from and what fed them was anybody's guess.
After perhaps a third of a league, the slope still perceptibly climbing, the road's surface cleared, and although the mists remained thick, they seemed to have lightened around them, as if some hidden sun of white fire had lifted clear of the horizon. Assuming there was such a horizon.
Not every warren played by the same rules, Paran knew.