Stopping Edmar
Roland heavily debated the best way to stop Edmar. Killing him would be the easiest way to stop his machinations, but the halfling would have to die as well.
The hope that the Commodore's son would turn from his evil ways was a slim one at best. Could he afford to delay for that, given that giants in his world could mean utter devastation for the human race?
He didn't want to make that decision now, but it might be wise to consider all the possibilities before he got into a situation where it would need to be made suddenly.
Judah made a slight sound beneath him and slowed. The giants had reached their destination and were now gathered around a large puncture in the land.
Roland patted the animal as they came to a stop a short distance from the giants' feet.
Above them, Edmar was talking to the giantess. He spoke loudly enough for Roland to hear, and the enormous woman whispered back… although her whisper was as great as a yell.
"Beautiful Jarnsaxa! How wonderful it is to be held by you. I wonder if, perhaps, you could stop holding me above the edge of the bottomless abyss?" Edmar asked. Roland couldn't see the man up on the giant's hand, but his voice held a strained edge.
"Oh, but my dear little Eduardo, it's not bottomless at all, and that is where your Tamas will take us." Jarnsaxa replied.
"Do you pledge your loyalty to Tamas?" Shouted the halfling, whose face was purple as he hung upside-down from a giant's fist. Roland was a little surprised he was still conscious. It looked as if he was being squeezed rather tightly.
"Of course, of course. However, if he does not perform this task for us, he may not be worthy of it." Jarnsaxa warned.
"Put me down, please." The halfling whined.
"Hugi, put the tiny person down." Jarnsaxa boomed.
The young giant pursed his lips but complied. The halfling was deposited roughly on the earth, and Roland slid from Judah's back into the shadows. Having a person roughly at eye level increased his chances of being seen.
Looking up through the leaves of the jungle trees at the giants had been one thing.
Assuming that the halfling wouldn't peer into the trees was quite another.
Judah seemed to melt into the dappled patterns of the jungle. His greenish spots blended seamlessly into the surrounding foliage. Roland shuddered. That the fierce and effective predator had chosen to befriend him was a stroke of luck he hadn't anticipated and did not deserve in the slightest.
Ducking low to the ground, Roland peered around the tree he hid behind. The halfling was drawing something from his pocket and raising it with one hand while he held his other hand open to snap.
A gaping hole of Darkness appeared in front of him the size of a doorway. Jarnsaxa knelt to peer into it. Her wounds had almost stopped their bleeding, and she seemed irritated at so small a portal.
"I must go summon Tamas," The halfling explained, and disappeared into the Darkness before the giants could snatch him. The giantess tried to stuff one of her hands through the portal, but it would not fit.
Jarnsaxa turned angrily to Edmar, who was still in her other hand, her glare demanding an explanation from him. He merely shrugged noncommittally.
"Will it come back?" The older male giant asked.
Roland winced at the volume.
"Soon, Tamas will come." Edmar assured them. "And I know he will be able to take you to the Below, where your people are. How long has it been since you heard from them?"
The distraction tactic was a weak one, but it seemed to work.
"It has been long since we heard from the others. Two hundred years, at least." Jarnsaxa went back to whispering, but still did not set Edmar down. She held him in front of her on an open palm as she knelt.
Roland frowned, and grabbed his pack. He drew out the bow and quiver of arrows he'd borrowed from Haf. He had a clear shot through the trees to Edmar.
A well-placed arrow to his heart, or even one that knocked him off of the giantess's hand and into the chasm, would be his cousin's death.
"Two hundred years? How long do you live?" Edmar asked with interest. "You look so youthful!"
"We can live indefinitely, providing we don't starve to death." Jarnsaxa tilted her head. "Which happens. It is, in part, why we went Below before. The land here had been stripped of all its food, and we were going to starve. We even tried eating those pests, but they are… inedible." She grimaced. "Thankfully, things have grown back, as you see. We are surviving, but life must be better in the Below."
Roland frowned and nocked the arrow, rising to a kneeling position. He could wait, but another opportunity like this might not come… and if the giants took Edmar into the Below, Roland wouldn't be able to follow. Or stop them. Or get back to his own world.
"But it's been so long since you heard from them! Are you sure they're all right?" Edmar pressed.
"They are survivors. I'm sure all is well. Perhaps they have even flourished and born a child or two, as I have," She glanced at the younger giant.
Roland pulled the bowstring back as far as he could, thinking back to the archery training he had received during his time with the Klain army.
His aim had been fairly good back then, brief though his time with them was.
"You make a beautiful mother. Did you say two?" Edmar continued his obvious method of distracting the giantess from the fact that Tamas had not yet appeared.
Roland's stomach clenched as he pointed the arrow at his cousin's heart. Haf had put him in charge of this mission, admitting that he was unable to be objective when it came to his eldest son.
"Resources were scarce, as I said. Sometimes sacrifices must be made." Jarnsaxa shrugged.
Would Roland be alienating the newfound branch of his family by killing a member of it? He shrank back from the thought. They could not fault his logic, but might hate him for the outcome.
He could bear it, if it was a step towards saving the world.
Couldn't he?
Could he snuff out a man's life so easily, and bear the guilt of it? The shame? Would he be able to face Haf and tell the man how his son died by his own hand?
A cold lump of logic, and a lifetime to live with the consequences of it. No, he couldn't. Not like this. In defense of his own life or others, perhaps, but not like a coward from the shadows.
Especially when it might not make one bit of difference in stopping the Void.
He lowered his bow and put it away. As he did, his hand brushed the compass Caspian had given him at the start of this journey. His heart ached. Judah's nose nudged him, drawing his attention to the black doorway as a man stepped through.
A handsome man with an ageless face, white hair, and black eyes.
"Hello," He greeted easily, with a confident tone. "I am Tamas, the one to whom you have pledged your loyalty. You will be greatly rewarded for it."
The man's appearance sent a shiver down Roland's spine. His features were eerily similar to Titania's, and his hair the same color. He wore similar clothes, and the same black amulet around his neck that she had always had. It seemed the Void favored a similar appearance no matter how it manifested.
"You are the mighty Tamas?" Jarnsaxa whispered skeptically, glancing at the puny human in her hand and then back to the newcomer. The new man flickered slightly, in and out of existence, and frowned.
"Do not doubt!" He shouted.
The form of the man exploded into a familiar black smoke. The same black smoke Roland sometimes had nightmares about.
It grew in volume and rose higher into the sky, growing darker and more solid. Suddenly, Tamas was as tall as the giants, in perfectly dazzling form. His white hair glinted in the rising orange sun, and his dark eyes were all the more ominous for their size.
Roland shrank behind the tree. Those large eyes. How well could they see? The giants were facing away from him, but now the Void had its back to the chasm, facing the three, and Roland behind them.
"I am Tamas. Roy tells me that you would like me to deliver you to the rest of your people, and that all of them will pledge their loyalty as well." The charming voice floated easily through the air, without booming like the giants.
"Welcome Tamas. I am Queen Jarnsaxa. My people are Below." The giantess's voice was regal, as if putting on airs to impress the obviously-powerful visitor.
"Would you like me to confirm that before you make the journey?" Tamas's question held a slightly amused tone.
"What? He's gone!" One of the male giants boomed.
Roland chanced a look around the tree. All three giants were looking into the hole now.
"He just jumped down it and turned into smoke!" The other replied. "Jarnsaxa… what is it? What have you pledged us to?"
"Survival." She replied with a smile in her voice.