One was Nina’s aunt, lying limp with her eyes open and unfocused.
Another was a sheggam.
It was already on its hands and knees when she noticed it, blinking blearily as it tried to get to its feet. Erianna didn’t waste any time. Ignoring the grinding pain in her head and shoulder, she pushed herself off the wall and threw herself on the sheggam’s huge, leather-armored back.
How she’d managed to hold on to her knife, she had no idea, but she made use of the advantage. Yet blinding pain erupted from her shoulder as she tried to raise the knife. The sheggam swung its elbow back, connecting with her arm and throwing her off its back. She fell to the ground with a thump, spots of light filling her vision. Her hands were empty. She’d dropped her knife.
The sheggam slowly turned as it rose to its full height, clumps of its hair curtaining its eyes as it leveled its gaze at her. Lips peeled back to reveal teeth. Erianna could tell she hadn’t injured it at all with her pathetic attack. Merely annoyed it.
Now it loomed over her, taloned hands reaching back. Erianna knew what would happen next. She could see it all play out in her mind. Those hands would swing down, clap both sides of her jaw, breaking it. She would choke on broken bits of teeth, feel them rip through her throat. Her lungs would fill with blood, but she wouldn’t die. Not before the sheggam mist came down here, worked its way into every little cut, and changed her into one of them. She knew that would happen, because that’s what happened to slaves who dared to live free, a lesson she’d always known and heeded—until today. She flinched, waiting for that inevitable fate.
It never came. The sheggam roared as it fell to a knee. Blood sprayed from a deep cut on the back of its leg. A figure rose behind the sheggam, gripping Erianna’s bloodied knife—not Chad, not Nina’s aunt, but one of the wounded that had fallen through the ceiling. An old woman, wearing a simple brown woolen dress. She had the look of a farmer. Strands of her iron-gray hair clung to the mix of blood and sweat that streaked her pale, lined face. Without any hesitation, the old woman seized the sheggam’s mane in a tight grip, yanked back its head, and plunged the knife into its eye.
The sheggam’s cry faded to a gurgle, then a soft wheeze. Its arms went slack at its sides and it fell forward, yanking the knife out of the woman’s grasp.
“Thank you,” Erianna whispered.
The old woman smiled in answer before an arrow took her in the neck and threw her to the ground.
More arrows fell out of the blackness of the ceiling, some bouncing harmlessly off the strange, spongy ground while others found targets. The sheggam remaining in the square likely saw their companion and their quarry vanish into a hole and decided to investigate with a storm of arrows. Shafts as thick as her thumb whistled past Erianna as she scrambled towards the wounded. One arrow left a slash along her left thigh, just below the protection of her mail shirt—not that mail would do much good against these arrows. Sprawled atop two others was Nina’s aunt, alive and unharmed. Though her eyes were open, she didn’t so much as flinch when an arrow plunged into the stomach of a man she lay on, mere inches from her face. Erianna seized her by the wrists and yanked her out from under the hole. She half-led, half-carried her to where Chad huddled against the wall. Eyes wide, the boy was hugging his knees tight against his chest and shaking uncontrollably. Erianna sat the young woman down next to him.
“Chad.” Erianna rubbed his arm. “Chad. You did it. You saved Nina’s aunt. Look, here she is.”
When he didn’t respond, Erianna worried he’d fallen into the same mindless state of shock as the young woman. But as she continued to rub his arm, his shaking lessened and he spoke. “Not the others.” Without looking at them, he tilted his chin at the wounded—though none of them could be called that anymore. The arrows had stopped falling, yet some of the bodies sprouted nearly a dozen. More sheggam must have filled the square. How long until they came down here to investigate?
“Chad, where are we really?” Erianna shook her head; wrong question. “How can we close that hole?”
He exhaled deeply. “Only I can do it.”
Erianna nodded; she’d thought so. She had no idea what this place was, but she knew that it was as good as Chad’s realm. She stood and helped him up. “Then let’s get it closed.”
Yet when she turned, white mist was already spilling out of the ceiling, stark against its blackness as if materializing out of nothingness.
Erianna’s blood turned to ice. She knew with her wounds she wouldn’t last long in the mist. Even a scratch could spell the end of her. Instinctively, her hand went to her throat, where the Warden’s sword had nicked her. It was closed, but the wound on her leg was fresh.
She snatched Chad by the waist and hurriedly lifted him to the hole, submerging him fully in the mist. “Do it now! Close it!” She could feel the mist’s wet touch curling about her wrists.
“I can’t see!”
“Just do it, Chad!” The strain of holding him like this was making her arms shake. “Do it now!”
The mist was all she could see now, like a blanket draped in front of her eyes. It wouldn’t be much longer before it found the blood dripping down her thigh. Chad’s weight shifted.
“Okay,” he said.
Erianna staggered back, clutching him tight against her chest. The mist cut off, yet what remained continued to drift down and cover the dead. At least none of them would turn. A sickening high note, but at this point, Erianna would take what she could get.
She lowered Chad, coughing and sputtering, to the ground a good distance away from the mist before slumping against the wall next to Nina’s aunt. Exhaustion overwhelmed her. But they couldn’t rest for more than a few moments. The mist didn’t look to be dissipating. With a groan, Erianna stood, helping up the young woman too.
“Chad,” Erianna said.
He looked up at her.
Erianna gestured to the ceiling. “Don’t you ever do that again.”
Chad stared at her, tears welling in his eyes. For a moment, Erianna thought she had gone too far, but then Chad erupted in laughter.
“Yeah,” he said, standing and dusting off the seat of his trousers. “I don’t reckon I will.”
Erianna smiled. “Let’s go find that caravan.” She took one of Nina’s aunt’s hands as Chad took the other. “Who knows? Maybe Nina will already be there waiting for us.”
Chapter 68: Harmony
Asingle guttering lamp sat in the corner of the wood shop’s back room. Half-finished chairs, bowls, and tables lay on the three benches that stretched across the room, casting wavering, skeletal shadows. An assortment of tools—planes, files, mallets, chisels, squares, hand saws—lay on the benches, abandoned next to the unfinished projects. A single worker lay mauled in the shop’s front room, his back torn out, his blood sprayed on the many finished works that served as the shop’s displays.
Even here in the back room, where Tharadis crouched to catch his breath, he could smell the blood. The wood shavings that covered the floor didn’t mask the scent, instead merely adding a sweet, tangy undertone. Tharadis was disturbed to find he was getting used to the smell of blood.
He had killed both sheggam after Erianna and Chad fled but had run into more during his search. Sometimes running away was easier than killing them, sometimes not. His lungs burned and his thigh muscles ached. He didn’t want to rest any more than he had to, but he knew that if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be much use out there. He couldn’t find Nina if he was dead.
Four sturdy support posts stretched up to the ceiling, bracketing the work bench in the center of the room. The only window was in the front room of the shop, now shuttered, but thin bars of dim light filtered through the slats and ran across the floor. From where Tharadis crouched, he could see through the door leading to the front room and watch the second door, leading out to the street. He didn’t like being cornered like this. But he didn’t plan to stay long. Just long enough to catch his breath.
Tharadis scratched an itc
h on his neck. In the lamp light, he saw blood on his fingers. Not his own, he realized as he checked his neck again. He wiped his hand on the floorboards, leaving a red smear.
Something passed in front of the shutters just outside the shop, blocking the light. Tharadis gripped Shoreseeker in one sweaty hand and pushed himself to his feet, heart thumping wildly. He didn’t know how much more fighting he could take. His hands ached; his muscles burned. He didn’t know how many sheggam he’d fought, nor how many brushes with death he’d had. Fighting a sheggam wasn’t anything like fighting a man. They were far less interested in self-preservation than causing harm. Tharadis had had to adapt to their ferocity, and he’d had to do it fast.
Those who hadn’t adapted fast enough littered the streets of Garoshmir with their corpses.
The shadowy form outside the window was far too large to be human. It stood frozen in place, as if scenting the air. Tharadis hoped it would just keep on moving, but he knew such hope was fruitless. It would have moved on already. Somehow it knew he was here.
Gripping Shoreseeker before him, Tharadis lowered himself into a defensive crouch.
The curved edge of a giant axe exploded through the window, spraying glass and wood in the shop. The pale, clawed fist holding the axe punched out the remaining glass and bits of shutter, revealing the monster’s snarling face. Its crimson eyes found Tharadis.
With a roar, the mail-clad sheggam launched itself through the window before landing on clawed feet and rushing toward him.
* * *
Up the stairs, Nina. Quickly!
With the sound of her heartbeat loud in her ears, Nina scrambled up the dark, narrow steps as fast as she could.
Quietly!
Nina did as her mother commanded, creeping up the steps so the bent wooden steps didn’t creak so loudly. It was hard not to run with those monsters so close behind her.
Outside, a few moments ago, her mother’s voice had suddenly urged her to run down a side street and into a large apartment building with lots of little windows, saying monsters were coming after her. Nina hadn’t questioned her. Walking through the city, she’d already heard the screams and seen the smoke—she’d even seen all the hurt people, lying down in the street and not moving, as much as she wished she hadn’t. She’d even felt the faint touch of their ghosts as she had passed them.
She had run, and even now in the still darkness of the stairwell with only the sound of her heart and her heavy breathing, she could feel the monsters just as easily as if they were here in the stairwell with her, staring at her.
At the top of the stairs, Nina came to a long hallway with a bunch of doors. A window at the end of the hall looked out on the wooden siding of the next building over. She couldn’t see anything out that way, not unless she wanted to poke her head out like a fool. A few feet to the right of the staircase, one of the doors was open. Four long scratch marks were carved into the wood. Seeing those only made her more terrified. But all the other doors were closed, and she didn’t want to risk opening a door with squeaky hinges.
Yes, that room is empty. It’s safe to go in. On your belly, dear. It will make you quieter.
Nina nodded at the wisdom of that, slowly creeping along the bare wooden floor toward the open door as her mother instructed. The Raccoon Family, still clutched in one hand, dragged loudly against the floor. Nina wrapped them around her neck, twisting the last two Raccoons into a loose knot. Crawling was easier and quieter after that.
Smart girl. Your father must be proud.
Nina smiled at the thought of her father as she entered the room, feeling a little less scared—but only a little. Lucky for her, a long carpet stretched across the floor of the tiny apartment. There was little else in the room—a low bed made of wood planks, a small stove with no fire in it, a few shelves with a bunch of things Nina couldn’t make out in the darkness. Across from the door was a large opening big enough to be another door, its curtains pulled back to reveal a balcony.
She crept forward along the carpet to get a look. She didn’t like the moonlight spilling in. It made her feel like anything could see her—which was silly, of course. The monsters were down on the streets, not running around on the rooftops.
She hoped.
Nina stopped when she could just see the street down below over the balcony’s edge.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Sheggam, came her mother’s voice.
Nina wouldn’t have believed it until she saw the hulking, pale creatures with her own eyes. Two of them padded forward on all fours, sniffing the air like dogs. The third one stood on just his back legs, like a person—but not quite. As if it were only pretending to be human. All three of them were naked, but the one walking on two feet carried a long chain in one hand, dragging it along the paving stones.
Nina, I’m sorry, her mother said, but we’re not safe here. I’m going to look for a way out. I want you to stay here and whatever you do, don’t move a muscle.
Nina wanted to cry and tell her mother not to go, but she was too afraid to even open her mouth. She desperately wanted to back away from the balcony’s edge—she knew they would spot her up here, she just knew it!—but she feared to move in case the floorboards happened to creak under her. All she could do was wait and trust in her mother.
The monsters would leave eventually. They had to.
Sudden shouting from down below startled her.
The three monsters spun as ten or so soldiers rushed out of a pair of dark alleys feeding into the side street, swords flashing as they ran at the monsters. Nina looked away and started shaking when the first soldier was … when he lost the fight. Nina didn’t like the sounds the soldiers made when they lost. But a bunch of them did right away. Nina had never heard such horrible sounds, and certainly never so many all at once.
She lifted the Raccoon family close to her lips and whispered, so afraid she was barely daring to breathe. “Mom, are you there? Mom, get me out of here. Please.”
When the sounds finally died out moments later, Nina looked up. Five soldiers still stood, wiping their swords.
“I say we get out of the city while we still can,” a burly soldier said, his low voice carrying up to the balcony.
“You afraid?” asked a tall, thin man with red smeared on his armor. He stood lopsided, like his leg was hurt.
The burly man looked away. Even Nina could see the shame in his face, but she didn’t understand it. Only stupid people would be brave right now.
“We’re Sentinels,” said the tall man, tapping his fist to his chest. “And we have our orders. Until we get word that she’s been found, we keep looking.”
The burly man snorted. “A fool’s errand. The Warden and his niece are likely already dead.”
The Warden … and his niece? Nina’s breath caught in her throat.
They were looking for her?
She didn’t move. She didn’t even blink. She’d seen what they did to those monsters.
That’s what they would do to her if they caught her. She was a monster, too, after all.
The soldiers didn’t stay, and once they were out of sight, Nina collapsed on her side, sucking breath after breath between racking sobs. She buried her face in the crook of her arm to stop the sounds, but it did little to muffle them. Someone—or something—would find here her, and then they would come to get her.
Why did everyone want to hurt her? It wasn’t her fault that she was a fensoria. It wasn’t her fault that she was a monster.
Nina.
With a yelp, Nina leapt to her feet, searching for the source of the voice. Relief filled her when she realized whose it was. “Mom!”
Shh, darling. Keep your voice down.
Nina nodded, holding the Raccoons close. “Can we leave now?”
Yes, it’s safe to leave. But before we do, I need to see where we can go. I’m afraid I must ask you to wait a little longer.
Nina didn’t like waiting, but she nodded, slowly creeping back into the
relative darkness of the apartment and sitting on the bed. There she waited with her knees tucked up tight against her chest, counting her breaths until her mother returned.
She was relieved when she heard her mother’s voice again. All right, my love. Head back down the stairs.
Even knowing the monsters were dead and the soldiers were gone, Nina padded down the stairs softly. “Where’s Aunt Esta?”
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t find her.
“What about Uncle Tharadis?”
Uncle. There was something very sad about the way her mother said the word. Tharadis is your … Her mother paused. He’s close by. But it’s not safe where he is.
Maybe it wasn’t. But Nina knew that it would be safer with him than anywhere else in the whole world. “Take me to him, mom. Please.”
* * *
Points of light flared in Tharadis’s vision as his head smacked against the wall. He tried to lift Shoreseeker, but his hands were empty. He wasn’t even sure when he’d dropped it. The fight had only lasted moments, but in that time, the sheggam’s axe had become firmly lodged in one of the support posts, its handle snapped off. Tharadis had managed to get a cut on the sheggam’s thigh, what would’ve been a crippling blow on a man, but the sheggam barely limped after.
Tharadis tried to steady himself and failed, sliding to the ground in the corner of the room. The sheggam shoved aside a cart, toppling it and spilling tools across the floor, to stand before Tharadis. It stared down at him with its lips peeled back, large chest heaving beneath its grease-blackened mail shirt.
Tharadis dropped his gaze to the sheggam’s claws. He knew the next time those claws moved, he would die. A gnat could defeat him now. He’d lost Shoreseeker somewhere, but the sheggam had only lost its axe; its claws and teeth could kill Tharadis just as easily.
The sheggam’s image split in two. Tharadis squinted, trying to keep it in focus. He’d hit his head harder than he had realized.
But the sheggam didn’t rip him apart. Instead it crouched down to where the tools had scattered, pushing them aside as it inspected them. It paused, and then picked up a long, coarse wood file.
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