by Bec McMaster
I stared sightlessly into the trees. I didn't know Euric, but the more I heard of him, the more I wanted to thwart him. "We'll find the firebird," I said firmly. "And Evaron can use its heart to heal the king if he wills it. And I promise I'll do my best to see the prince get out of this forest alive. If he succeeds, then the king can't disinherit him, can he?"
I'd almost like to see King Euric's face when his son returned triumphant.
Casimir tilted his head toward me. "Thank you."
6
Sometime during the middle of the morning, we reached the boundary of the Heart of the Forest.
Thorns and brambles laced together, cutting off the narrow track we'd been following. The men barely spoke, and even the horse's soft whickers had vanished during the course of the morning, as the light that managed to seep through the vast canopy slowly dwindled.
"Here we are, my prince," I called, gesturing to the thicket in front of us. "This is the edge of the Heart."
"Vashta's tits," Hussar spat, digging his spurs into his horse's sweating flanks and driving it forward. He kicked at a thorn bush, and of course it merely shook.
Idiot.
"Perhaps if you glare at it a little harder it might remove itself?" I suggested.
The glare transformed itself to me, and Hussar swung off his horse inelegantly, leaving the horse to shy away. "Surely there's got to be some way around this."
"Not as far as I've seen." I gestured along the wall of brambles. "Though you're quite welcome to search for it."
Slinging my pack off my back, I sat on a fallen log and crossed my heels, prepared to wait.
Hussar withdrew his sword. "I'll remove it myself. Axes out!"
The huntsmen swung off their horses, breaking out their axes. Soon they were stripping off their heavy coats, as sweat began to gleam. The brambles seemed never-ending. I took a wizened old apple out of my pack and nibbled on it.
"I wonder what made the thorns grow like that," Evaron mused, seating himself beside me.
Apparently princes didn't get their hands dirty.
The wall of thorns was remarkably straight. Someone either planted it, or these were magically grown thorns.
Witch-grown.
The thought shivered through me as I chewed mechanically. "Did Casimir tell you—"
"Yes," Evaron said, cutting me off mid-sentence.
And we were not to speak of it in front of the men. Evaron's pleasant expression never wavered.
"It seems wrong," I whispered. "They should know. They should be able to prepare themselves."
Something had warned us. And we hadn't heeded that warning.
"This is Gravenwold," I stressed. Mad king or not, Fire Priests or not, Gravenwold was the blade at our throats. We would have to survive the woods, to be able to worry about the seismic ripples denying King Euric's decree would cause.
"It's different in the cities," Evaron murmured. He looked at me. "Out here you grow up hearing stories of your Old Ways; to cast salt around the house to ward off evil spirits; to gift the forest with a sacrifice in return for your safety within. In the cities we believe in the Way of the Light. The Light will protect us. And if it doesn't, then it is because we let Darkness into our hearts." He wavered, looking at his huntsmen. "These men were raised in the cities. They believe in the Light. Let us not put shadows in their hearts, not just yet, or we may open the way for Darkness to enter."
Sounded like a heap of frogshit to me.
"All the better to prepare them," I pointed out, casting the apple core into the bushes for the squirrels to consume. "What happens when something leaps out and rips their throats out because they're not ready for it?"
He smiled, and patted my knee. "You yourself have said you've only been this way once, and you came across no monsters then. You remind me of Cas—all grim warnings and dire consequences. We've made it this far, haven't we?"
Unbidden, my gaze slid to the prince's Hound. Casimir's dark hair served as stark counter-point to his red cape, but it was his eyes that arrested me. I shivered. "He sounds like a smart man."
And we are not alike. Not at all. Despite a certain sense of pragmatism.
"Are you trying to cast doubt on my intelligence?" Evaron laughed.
I shrugged. "You're the one who doesn't believe in monsters."
Cas had been tending the horses, but as I watched, his head jerked up, and his attention shifted to the north. In a second, all of his languidness vanished, and I could see the wolf rear its head. Something this way comes...
Vashta's tits. A flash of heat went through me, and I reached for my bow, nocking an arrow to it before Evaron could even draw breath. The world turned silent, as I blocked out everything but the incoming threat, my gaze narrowing to that single passage along the arrow.
Only to find silence.
No, that didn't seem quite right. Seconds ticked out, my lungs protesting the lungful of spent air sitting there arrested. Slowly, I eased it out. A shadow blurred out of the corner of my vision, and I spun, losing sight of it. The reluctant woodcutters were all watching me in curiosity, but nobody else seemed to sense the danger. Only Casimir.
"What were we saying?" Evaron mused. "Something about—"
Eerie laughter rang out, echoing through the trees.
Everyone froze.
Especially Evaron.
"You may wish to rethink your position," I muttered to the prince, turning toward the trees where the laughter had sounded.
There was a faint crashing sound, somewhere far distant. Odd. I couldn't think of anything large enough to make that much noise from a distance.
"What in the darkness was that?" Evaron whispered, drawing his sword.
Last night sprang to mind. The skull. The blood.
I gave a helpless shrug. "I told you—I don't know what lurks in here. I only know that something does."
Or some things.
"If it laughs, then it can bleed," said Hussar, turning and spitting in the direction the laughter had echoed.
Blood slashed his arms from the brambles. I had this horrible receding sensation, my father's voice coming out of nowhere: "Blood brings predators in Gravenwold. Bind your wounds as soon as possible, and burn any bloodied bandages."
"Cover your wounds," I snapped, striding to the center of the clearing. Branches shivered in the distance, as if something shoved its way through them.
"What is it?" one of the men demanded.
"The Darkness is upon us," another whispered.
"It's not the Darkness," I snapped. The last thing we needed were these fools breaking and running. "The Darkness is an intangible thing, no?" At the look in their startled eyes, I pointed to where the canopy was shivering. "Something big is making those branches shake. That means we've got a monster coming. And monsters might have teeth and claws, but they can also bleed. Do we have any other archers?"
One man put up his hand.
"Fine. You're with me. We'll try and slow it down. Aim for the eyes. Some of these beasts have armor plating, or really thick hides."
Or so said the old stories. Doubt cascaded through me. I had no idea what we were facing. Or how to kill it.
And something had clearly driven it toward us. Something with a high-pitched laugh, that moved at super speed.
"Protect the prince," Casimir called, gesturing to a handful of men to keep Evaron out of the way. He looked at Hussar. "How do you want to do this?"
"Burning ashes, how would I know?" Hussar snapped. "She's the resident expert."
And you're the Huntmaster. I seethed.
All of us could feel the urgency, as the ground began to quiver. It was moving fast, whatever it was. I leaned close to Cas, feeling as though something watched us through the trees. "Can you smell it?"
"It stinks like a swamp, but there's no other scent."
"No swamp either," I pointed out.
Leaping up onto a branch, I worked my way higher, trying to get a good vantage point. This thing was big.
>
"Spread out!" Casimir bellowed. "Make sure you've got room to move, and keep those axes in your hands. If you can hamstring it, aim for that."
A pair of daggers flashed in his hands. Insane. I couldn't imagine trying to bring down something this big with only a pair of daggers, but as I watched, he twirled them, crouching low as if to spring. A wolf in man's clothing, with claws of pure steel.
The thorns tore apart as something exploded through them, towering almost ten feet tall.
"What in the darkness is that?" someone yelled, diving out of the way as an enormous set of teeth crashed down where he'd been standing.
Horses screamed, taking off in a flurry. I could see men flying, tossed aside like ragdolls as the huge beast crashed into the clearing. One went beneath its hooves, and I caught a flash of his face, mouth agape in silent agony.
It all happened so fast. My first arrow went wide, glancing off one of the curling horns that swept away from its bear-like face.
My mind was slowly connecting the dots; its enormous horns and the shaggy fur hanging from its hide, dripping with moss; those serrated teeth; and its cloven hooves.
"It's a volgur," I breathed, staring at one of the monsters fresh from my childhood stories. The heat drained from my face. Sweet Vashta!
"A what?" Casimir demanded, darting in with his knives, and vanishing beneath it.
"A volgur!" I yelled, my head whipping around, trying to find some means to escape as the beast turned toward me. I leapt off the branch. "You know! They live in swamps or stagnant water, and they only eat meat. Preferably fresh, and preferably screaming."
"Protect the prince!" Casimir bellowed, rolling out from beneath the volgur, and barely escaping the infuriated stomp of its hoof.
Evaron was immediately surrounded by a half dozen of his guards, his wide blue eyes locking upon us across the clearing. The group was split in two, leaving us with Hussar and two others. It seemed like everybody wanted to be guarding the prince—and not dealing with the volgur.
The monster reared up onto its hind legs, revealing bear-like paws on the front end. I scrambled into the bushes, hemmed in by a row of brambles. Nowhere to turn. Nowhere to run. I faced it helplessly, setting another arrow to my bow.
An enormous set of claws lashed out toward me as my arrow streamed toward it, and at the last second, a heavy shape hit me hard, driving me into the ground.
It drove the breath from my lungs. I looked up into Casimir's face. An enormous tree branch crashed down behind us and his weight pushed me into the dirt. He looked up at the monster, the muscle in his throat cording, as I gaped at the branch that could have killed us.
"Move!" He dragged me to my feet, and it was as though I could think again.
Screams echoed behind us as a pair of the king's huntsman drove forward with spears. The sharp steel-tips couldn't penetrate the volgur's enormous shaggy hide, and it swiped them out of the way. One crashed into a tree trunk with a steely splat and fell to the ground, where he didn't move.
"How do we kill it?"
A strange light-headed feeling swept through me. "What?"
"How do we kill it?" Casimir repeated grimly.
"You don't!" I racked my brain. "It's impervious to iron or steel, and its hide is so thick you won't cut through it." What did the old stories say? "Grave dirt! If you throw grave dirt at it, the volgur will retreat!"
"Sadly lacking any grave dirt!" Casimir snapped.
And spinning around on one foot, while hopping. No. That seemed ridiculous... I wasn't even going to mention that. "Fire can't burn it. There's too much water in its fur. It lives in water."
Hence the moss.
The volgur turned, lashing out with its reptilian tail. I screamed and slid to my knees, the tail whining past my nose as I hit the dirt again and rolled under it.
A horn sounded, its base notes shivering through the clearing, before it started climbing higher. Hussar's face turned red as he blew out the note, drawing the volgur's attention to him and the pair of archers at his side. I distinctly remember asking for archers, and only seeing one hand rise, but here were two more.
"Now!" Hussar roared, and steel-tipped arrows flashed as the archers loosed.
The volgur stumbled back, turning its bear-like face away from the arrows. One drove into its nose, and its eyes flashed red in fury and pain. Then it charged the archers, crushing through them.
"Come on, Neva! Give me something I can work with!" Casimir yelled, grabbing hold of my upper arm.
"I don't know!" I yelled. "It's supposed to be an old tale, nothing more!"
"Fine." He drew his sword and turned to face the volgur grimly. "We've got to get it away from the prince."
"It didn't like Hussar's horn."
"Start yelling then."
"Hey!" I bellowed, waving my arms and trying to catch the creature's attention. "Hey bear-face!"
The volgur bellowed again, its head turning toward us.
"Keep yelling. The second it attacks, I'll lead it away," Casimir said grimly, pushing me into the safety of a small thicket, and darting forward, directly into the center of the clearing.
"Casimir!"
He stared up at the enormous volgur, his shoulders straightening. "Come on, you cursed bear. Come and catch me!"
"Cas, don't!" Evaron yelled, but I threw a rock at the beast for good measure.
Its eyes flashed red as they locked on me. I'd seen that sort of look before, when a mercenary tried to grope me in the inn, and my father pushed to his feet across the room, his teeth baring. That was the equivalent of, 'You. Me. Outside.'
Shit. I started scrambling through the undergrowth, thorns tearing my skin. My unstrung bow caught on a sapling, and I forced my way past, yanking the bow clear. "Cas!"
"Coming!" he yelled. "Don't you dare stop! It's locked on you for some reason!"
An enormous crashing sound loomed behind me.
"Not planning on it!"
I strung my bow, leaping up over a fallen tree trunk. Branches whipped past as I sprinted, the forest a blur of white, brown and the few flashes of evergreen trees... The volgur simply plowed through the trunk, sending shards of it ricocheting past me. Something stung my ear but I didn't dare stop. Too close. It was right on my heels. I could barely breathe, my lungs working furiously, and the hot rasp of its breath steaming across the back of my neck in a fog of stink that made my gut clench.
Grabbing an arrow, I nocked it in one smooth motion. Another fallen branch barred my way as I sprinted toward it.
"Neva!" Cas yelled somewhere behind me, and I knew I'd never make it.
Launching sideways off the branch, I twisted in mid-air, catching a glimpse of those reddened eyes and enormous head turning toward me, even as the volgur's body slammed through the branch and crashed onward. Time seemed to slow. I could feel my heart skip a beat as I stared down the shaft of the arrow and loosed.
Steel flashed. The feathers waved at me as my arrow buried itself in the volgur's eye, its scream piercing my ears. Then its rump clipped my feet, and time smashed back into the world.
I hit hard.
A tree. The ground. The world blurring around me as I tumbled head over heels. There was a moment where I lay there breathlessly, trying to figure out which way was up.
Then pain stabbed through my right shoulder. The scent of blood filled the air.
Casimir slid to his knees at my side, grabbing me by the left arm and hauling me up into a sitting position.
"Ow!" I shoved at him instinctively. A tree branch had speared in me in the shoulder.
"It's getting up," he said, and hauled me to my feet.
Getting up? "What?" I'd shot it in the eye.
"I think you really pissed it off now, Neva." He shoved me in the back, and my thighs ached as I forced my tired legs into a run.
Grabbing my bow, I looked for the arrows that had spilled from my quiver, but they were all over the leaf litter on the floor.
And the volgur bellowed behind
us, its roar shaking the trees themselves.
Run!
I didn't need to be told twice.
This time Casimir was beside me, forcing me at breakneck speed through the forest. My wretched human body couldn't keep up with him, and my lungs couldn't fill quickly enough. I fought to find the peace I felt within the forest, trying to force my legs to run as tirelessly as they had the other day. And suddenly energy streamed through me, my stride lengthening to match his.
Casimir shot me an incredulous look, but then I was passing him, leaping trees and ducking beneath branches with my useless bow in hand.
Light bloomed in front of me. I shot out through a pair of enormous trees, my boots finding flat ground, and a glittering clearing of snow.
And then the world seemed to run out of ground.
A waterfall roared, and I scrambled across a jumble of rocks, coming to the edge of slate gray waters that sped past me. Two hops took me halfway across the rapid river, and then I was stuck. The edge of the waterfall fell away beneath my feet. My vision swayed as I peered over it, but all I could see was the churn of white water far below me.
A roar thundered through the air behind me.
Casimir caught up to me, and we both turned to stare as the volgur smashed into one of the trees, slowly uprooting it.
The beast paused, its foul breath steaming around it, and its flanks heaving as it sighted us again.
"What are we going to do?" I gasped. One of my arrows was sticking out of its eye, but the volgur only seemed infuriated by the attack, not wounded.
Casimir grabbed my arm, and we leapt to an enormous rock in the middle of the river. My boots slipped, and my arms windmilled. I lost the bow, and it vanished over the edge of the waterfall. I could no longer hear the volgur bellowing. Only the crash of millions of liters of water.
"Cas!"
The volgur paused at the edge of the river, pacing. It dipped one cloven hoof into the edge, and then looked up, and I swear, it almost seemed to smile.
"Jump!" Casimir bellowed, and shoved me over the waterfall.
7
I surfaced with a gasp, the sheer shock of icy water seeming to shrink my lungs three sizes.
