MySoultoKeep

by Dianna Hunter

  Kayla twisted in her saddle to look back in time to see him reach a hand into a bag on the back of the bike. The long-barreled handgun looked nasty even from this distance.

  “An’ we got her, then the next thing we do is fix that damned horse up right. Then we have some fun with that little girlie, hey?” he laughed cruelly as he rolled to one side of the bike to better aim the barrel of the gun at the running horse.

  With no other route left to them, Kayla let Hawk take his lead.

  The stallion suddenly danced sideways to keep from plunging into the creek.

  “Oh no! How could I have forgotten?” gasped Kayla as she fought to keep her seat.

  For most of its meandering length, a low bank bordered the creek…but not near the oak grove. Here, the extensive root systems of the trees had protected and trapped the soft clay and sand and kept the bank from washing away. Here, the creek bank loomed four to six feet above the slow-moving, deep body of water below. The far bank was an impossible thirty feet away.

  With the pursuit gaining on them, Hawk seemed to make his decision and circled back toward the creek, his pace increasing.

  “No, it’s too far,” she panted in his ear as she tugged futilely on his reins.

  With a shake of his head, Hawk jerked the reins from her grasp and leaped for the far bank.

  Knowing that her survival rested with the stallion’s ability to clear the waterway, Kayla leaned forward on his neck to give him all the help she could and squeezed her eyes shut. Under her, she could feel the massive muscles in the stallion’s body bunching as his powerful legs launched them into the air and felt, with relief, the bone-jarring thud of all four hooves as he landed, not in the creek as she’d expected, but safely on the far bank.

  Without so much as a backward glance for her would-be assailants, Kayla urged Shadow Hawk into a gallop, intending to put as much distance as possible between her and them. Escape from this threat to her life was her only thought.

  MySoultoKeep

  Chapter Two

  Tired and bruised from their wild race, Kayla eased back on the reins, slowing the stallion to a walk and finally to a stop. Twisting in the saddle, she searched their back trail for any signs of pursuit.

  “Easy, boy,” she whispered hoarsely as she rubbed one hand down his sweat-lathered neck. “It looks like we left them back at the creek. We should be safe now.” Mourning the loss of her hat, Kayla absently gathered the wet strands of her hair together and tied them with a leather strip she pulled from her saddle. She used the tail of her shirt to wipe the sweat from her face before leaning back in her saddle.

  Trying to gather her scattered thoughts, she took a good look at her surroundings and realized with a start that nothing looked quite right. The sky was too orange, almost like a sunset, yet she knew that it was only mid-morning. She could see the sun, almost red, high in the sky, and she’d never seen ferns so big, not even in Florida. A plant, very like a Palmetto, grew beside the path. Only the fronds of this one had red veins, as though blood flowed through them. Everything looked so odd, just like the time I’d gotten lost in the strange garden when I was only a little girl, thought Kayla, becoming a little more frightened.

  “Snor-rtt!” Hawk struck his front hoof against the ground impatiently and arched his long neck as he resumed walking along the path.

  “Yeah, I don’t want to go back that way either,” she said softly. She cast a final, leery glance at the path behind them. Shifting her seat in the saddle to a more comfortable position, Kayla noticed that the jeans she was wearing didn’t feel quite the way they should. On closer inspection, she discovered to her amazement, that the material was disintegrating.

  “That was some ride we took, Hawk! It seems to have worn the pants right off me,” Kayla joked nervously as she drew him to a stop and dismounted.

  She could only stare in disbelief and annoyance as the material of her jeans broke apart and fell to the ground. When she picked up a piece of what looked like very old, decayed material and rubbed it between her hands, it dissolved into tiny pieces.

  “I guess they really aren’t making things the way they used to!” Baffled, she inspected the rest of her clothing. Her silk underclothes seemed fine, as were her silk shirt and leather boots and belt. Thankful for the extra length of the shirt, she tugged at it in an effort to retain some of her modesty. Freeing the braided leather belt with the attached knife from the remains of her jeans, she buckled it over the shirt at her waist before remounting.

  Taking a moment to adjust her bare legs to keep them from chaffing on the leather saddle, she urged Hawk on. “Come on, boy. Let’s see if we can find a road or something so we can get our bearings.”

  They’d been following the trail for nearly an hour, frequently slowed by the necessity to push aside the heavy tropical foliage that, at times, threaten to totally obscure their path when, without any warning, they emerged into the welcome openness of a bowl-shaped valley.

  Stretching before them was a lush meadow bordered on two sides by the same dense growth they’d just left behind, but on the far side lay a glistening lake whose tree-lined shores beckoned with the promise of shelter from the mid-day heat in the cool shade of their spreading branches. With a grateful sigh, she let Hawk take them toward that promise.

  When they reached the shore of the lake, Kayla slid from the saddle and leaned against Hawk, waiting for the stiffness in her legs to ease and letting him drink from the cool water. She waited for the tingling in her legs to ease before stepping back and un-cinching the saddle. Pulling the saddle and blanket from his hot back, she released the hungry horse to graze on the rich grass.

  Hobbling to the shade of the nearest tree, Kayla dumped the saddle and the rest of her gear against its trunk before returning to the lake to slack her own thirst.

  She had to go upstream a couple of yards before she found clear water that her mount’s enthusiastic drinking and pawing hadn’t muddied. Kneeling in the wet sand, she scooped water in her cupped hands, eagerly consuming what didn’t seep between her fingers or drip in wet streams down the front of her sweat-soaked shirt.

  “That feels so good! I wish I could really get cooled off.” She looked wistfully across the inviting and beautiful lake but resisted the temptation of a swim. Kayla had lived most of her life in some part of Florida, and she knew this was exactly the kind of lake favored by alligators. And a lake of this size could easily be home to several granddaddy-sized ones. With a shudder, she thought of one she’d seen while on an airboat trip in the Everglades last year. That gator had been at least fifteen feet long!

  Cooled off some and her thirst quenched, she decided to retreat to the shade of the tree where she’d left her gear and let Hawk have more time to graze. Besides, she needed a little time to think.

  Along with the ham and cheese that she sliced into bite-sized pieces with the razor-edged blade of her knife, Kayla managed to digest the fact that, somehow, she and Hawk had entered another place like the one she’d entered through the old house when she was a small child.

  It wasn’t very hard for her to accept that the world was not quite what others seemed to think. She’d had glimpses of the strangeness lurking just beyond normal perception for as much of her life as she was able to remember. Kayla had always known things no one else did and saw things they did not, like the colored halos most people evinced. When she’d first become truly aware of these manifestations, she’d read everything she could find on the subject and had discovered that these halos were usually referred to as auras and that there were others who believed as she did, that the colors were a reflection of the inner soul of an individual. When Kayla had quizzed her grandmother on the subject, she’d received more conformation of her theories, but as usual, she’d gotten little additional information. Of course, Gram herself was a very unusual person. She could not be contacted by any normal methods. You didn’t pick up a telephone and call her or write her a letter. She would just suddenly be there when she was
needed.

  And then there was Shadow Hawk, a horse, well, sort of. But who had ever seen one as tall and gracefully slender as he, or one with such abnormal intelligence, and he could run faster, and jump farther than any on record. She knew this for fact because she’d checked. Kayla leaned back and stretched her legs out to ease the soreness in them. She was enjoying the relative coolness the shade provided from the heat until a breeze ruffled through the leaves overhead, bringing with it the faint stench of carrion left to rot in the sun.

  “Pheew! What is that?” Curiosity overcoming her tiredness, she decided to investigate.

  Following her nose to a narrow path, Kayla pushed her way between the thickets of sharp, thorny brambles and clumps of tall marsh grass invading the trail until she reached a high, muddy bank overlooking the lakeshore.

  Sniffing at the rank stench radiating from the lakefront and giving a woeful glance to her muddy boots, Kayla shrugged, “Oh well, guess they can’t get much worse.” Spying a stout stick laying beside the path, she picked it up.

  Using her new walking stick to help her keep her footing, she slid down the steep bank toward the bed of rushes growing along the shore. Moving cautiously, watching her footing on the soft ground, she soon found herself at the foot of a half-rotted boat dock that was nearly concealed by a heavy growth of swamp reeds and cattails. A large animal carcass floated, half submerged in a bed of cattails a few feet from shore.

  Kayla was so engrossed in her investigation of the bloated carcass, its blanket of quivering green flies, and with poking her staff into the reeds to discern the nature of the dead animal, that it was awhile before she became aware of Hawk’s shrill neighs in the background.

  “He is such a big baby! He just can’t stand to have me out of his sight for even a minute,” she mumbled to herself in mock exasperation. Distracted by Hawk’s calls, she was turning back to the path when the calm water beside her suddenly erupted in a frothing storm of flying reeds, mud, and snapping teeth! Only her instant and unthinking reaction saved her life!

  Jumping sideways, she swung the staff with all her might into the snout full of teeth snaking toward her. Roaring in outrage, the beast threw its huge head back, exposing a long, reptilian neck covered in bronze scales.

  “That is most definitely not an alligator,” she gasped. She continued backing up, trying to reach higher ground, but the sticky mud of the bank was treacherous. She yelped in surprise when her feet slid out from under her. Scrambling on all fours, Kayla had her eyes locked on the creature lurching through the reeds after her and didn’t even hear Hawk’s arrival until his hooves struck the muddy ground beside her. Throwing herself flat in the mud, she rolled clear and turned her head back just in time to see the stallion spin about and deliver a round of savage kicks with his powerful rear legs to the beast’s chest.

  Her relief was short lived when the angered beast reared up into the air, towering threateningly over the valiant horse. Kayla’s terrified scream echoed out over the water as she got her first good look at the monster attacking them.

  Jagged, ten-inch-long teeth lined the gaping jaws of the big, ugly head. The softer, bronze scales of its underside merged with an armored shell of hard, slimy, black scales that covered its bloated body all the way to the tip of the long sinuous tail that was thrashing back and forth, sending cascades of murky water to soak the bank. Balanced on thick rear legs, the giant reptile slashed at the stallion with the sharp talons of his short front arms.

  Refusing to be intimidated or to abandon her, Hawk repeatedly dodged the attack, spinning about to strike at his slower opponent with sharp hooves in an attempt to draw the reptile’s pursuit away from Kayla.

  Fearing for the stallion’s life, Kayla forgot about her own escape. Climbing to the top of the bank, she frantically searched the area for some kind of weapon. While retrieving her staff from the ground, she quickly gathered the tail end of her shirt into a pocket to hold the fist-sized stones that were the only things she could find to throw. Climbing to the top of a fallen log to gain a little more leverage, she began pelting the giant lizard with the stones, trying to score hits on the more vulnerable-looking areas around his eyes and nose.

  Finally growing annoyed by her persistent assault, the monster turned his attention back to Kayla and left his soft underbelly vulnerable just long enough for Hawk to score a direct strike at it. The stallion managed to tear away a large gob of flesh and scales with his teeth.

  Furious, the lizard bugled in pain as it lurched up the bank to give chase to the stallion.

  Hawk nimbly pranced away, staying just out of reach of the snapping jaws.

  Kayla took advantage of the distraction he was creating to search for more rocks. “Damn! I need something more effective,” she moaned as she racked her mind for some idea. “I know!” Snatching her knife from its sheath, she tugged the leather strip from her hair.

  She’d barely finished knotting the leather strip, securing the hilt of her knife to the staff when the beast turned once more to seek the slower and easier prey he’d left behind.

  Bracing her feet under her, Kayla waited for the gaping mouth full of jagged teeth to come within range of her spear before stabbing the tip into the beast’s fat, pink nose. Her ears were ringing from its bellow of pain and outrage as she threw herself sideways into a thicket of tall grass and brambles.

  Coming to her knees, she was still blinking her eyes and trying to focus them when she realized that she was staring into one of the reptile’s heavy-lidded eyes. Shaking in terror, she tried to force herself to retain eye contact with the reptile in hopes that he wouldn’t strike until she could muster enough strength to move.

  Slowly drawing her arm back, she plunged the tip of her makeshift spear into a red-tinged orb.

  The beast shrieked and reared up, towering over her, taking her only weapon with it.

  Scrambling backward as fast as her stiff legs could take her, Kayla frantically searched for some kind of weapon or shelter or any hope of escape. She caught a glimpse of Hawk as he made a run at the rear of the water dragon only to have his front legs sink to the knees in the heavy muck of the marshy ground, and she knew that he could not possibly reach her in time to stop the enraged beast from exacting his revenge.

  Giving in to her fear, Kayla screamed and turned to run and slammed full tilt into the solid wall of a man’s broad chest. The force of the collision would’ve thrown her to the ground if he hadn’t grabbed her around the waist with one arm and thrust her to the side. She was left scrambling for her footing on the slippery bank without so much as a word as the dark giant of a man turned away, swinging the long blade of his sword at the attacking beast.

  The blade cut through the thick hide like a hot knife through butter, and the great-scaled head toppled, splashing into the mud only a dozen feet from where she stood.

  Still shaking and stunned by her close call, Kayla stumbled to her feet and walked on wobbly legs to stand at the side of her unknown benefactor to watch as the body of the great reptile collapsed like a balloon with the air let out. Mud and murky water gushed over the bank, soaking her boots and splattering mud over her.

  Wiping at the mud that had splashed into her face and eyes with her sleeve so she could see, Kayla stared wordlessly at the severed head that was, if possible, even more ghastly now that it lay in the gory mess of putrid blood spouting from the stump of its neck and into the thick mud.

  “Th-thanks,” she managed to stammer as she stepped back to get a better look at this stranger who had come to her rescue.

  He didn’t answer or even look at her as he finished wiping the gore from his sword with a handful of long grass before returning it to the scabbard strapped across his back.

  In spite of his deep tan and weathered look, Kayla figured the man was probably somewhere in his early to mid-thirties. Standing well over six feet tall, he was clad all in black leather, and she noticed with surprise, that the boots he was wearing seemed to have been made from the
same odd lizard skin as her own were.

  Kayla felt entranced, as if she were a separate person standing off in the distance observing herself and the stranger. She boldly noted the way his tight-fitting leather pants encased his thick, muscular thighs like a second skin and the way the dark hair covering his broad chest was exposed by an open vest decorated with silver studs. And it was impossible not to admire the way the muscles of his wide shoulders and powerful arms rippled smoothly under the sun-bronzed skin glowing with a sheen of sweat.

  Strange feelings assailed Kayla’s senses. She’d never been aware of any man in quite this way before, and especially not an older man. In fact, until this moment, men over the age of nineteen had not really existed to her.

  “Well, do I pass?”

  His amused question roused Kayla from her reverie.

  “Are you hurt, girl?” He tilted her head up and looked into her glazed eyes.

  Startled back to herself, Kayla pulled away, blushing a bright pink as his bold look of appraisal reminded her of her half-dressed condition and that she was in a strange place with a stranger man who was running around dressed in leather, killing monsters with a very deadly sword.

  It took every ounce of nerve she could muster, but Kayla forced herself to look up into his calm, black eyes. “I-I’m okay,” she managed to stammer. “But who are you, and, and where did you come from and…” she spun around and nodded at the dead beast. “What is that thing?”

  Not waiting for his answers, Kayla walked over to the decapitated head. Grabbing hold of the shaft of her makeshift spear with both hands, she placed one booted foot on the side of the head and jerked it free of the destroyed eye.

  The big man cocked his head at her directness and said, “Well, to answer your questions, I’m called Garth, and I was traveling along the lake trail when I heard the ruckus.” He kicked the broad side of the reptile, disturbing the swarm of flies that had already begun to feast. “And that creature, whose interest you somehow managed to rouse, my dear, is called a Black Lake Dragon, and it is, or was, one of the most formidable predators in this land.”