David Dalglish - Blood Of Gods

“Move!” Audrianna shouted. “Come now, one foot in front of the other. Quickly!”

They shuffled along the causeway, and that’s when the first of the humans appeared. They burst from the forest, their horses kicking up clumps of damp earth as they galloped. The soldiers wore armor painted black, with bits of silver, and Aully could see the red sigil of Karak’s roaring lion on their breastplates. They passed beneath the hanging platform, which hung only a few short feet from the tops of their helmed heads, but didn’t stop. They simply kept on going, leaning over in their saddles, disappearing into the trees on the other side of the clearing.

“Kill them!” Aully heard Carskel cry out. “Kill them all!”

Arrows rained down from above, and Aully shrieked. Kindren stopped lugging her along and instead tossed her onto the causeway’s wooden planks, then fell on top of her, shielding her with his body. He used his left hand to snatch Lady Audrianna by the hem of her dress and tug her down as well. There they huddled, swaying, as soldiers passed below them. The soldiers screamed. Arrows flew.

One of the soldiers yanked back on the reins, spinning his horse around. He flipped up his helm, revealing a youthful face with crystal blue eyes and strands of hair that were so silver they were almost white. Aully remembered seeing a man like that once, the one who had dueled with Ceredon Sinistel during her and Kindren’s betrothal, though in her panic she couldn’t remember the man’s name.

“We aren’t your enemy!” the man bellowed in the human’s common tongue. He pointed a mailed first toward the direction from which he’d come. “There is death coming, huge with horns and hooves! You must-”

Arrows zipped past him. One struck his horse in the flank and one clinked off his armored shoulder. “Fuck this,” the soldier swore, veering his horse back around and galloping into the forest.

“What are you doing ? Get off my betrothed!”

It was Carskel’s voice. Aully shoved aside Kindren’s arm to see her brother stalking down the causeway toward them, khandar in hand. “No!” Aully shouted as he reached down and grabbed Kindren by the back of his tunic. Kindren’s eyes widened in surprise, locking with Aully’s before he was forcibly lifted off her. Kindren was then cast aside, tumbling to his rear on the slatted walk. Though Kindren was the same height as Carskel, her brother had a great advantage in both age and strength.

Carskel raised his khandar, appearing ready to hack Kindren to bits. Aully scampered to her knees and lifted both her hands. The magic within her rekindled, and she uttered the words in short, sharp bursts. A small ball of flame formed inches in front of her palms, and she sent it flying. The spinning fireball struck Carskel in the back, setting his white frock aflame. He yelped and lurched away, beating at the flames with his free hand.

Aully glanced to the side, where Lady Audrianna was kneeling. “Mother,” she said, somehow calm despite the chaos. “Help Kindren. Get him off the causeway.”

“You are coming with me!” Audrianna pleaded.

Aully shook her head. “No, Mother,” she said. “I can handle this myself.”

A hard, determined look came over her mother’s face, and Lady Audrianna sharply nodded. She ran, hunched over, across the walk, until she collided with Kindren, who was halfway to standing. Her mother and betrothed both toppled over the side of the causeway, falling down among the charging soldiers below. Aully felt a sharp needle of panic plunge into her gut, but she did her best to ignore it. She had to trust that her mother knew what she was doing.

Aully reached down within herself, said more words of magic, and traced a line across her gown with a scorching hot finger. When she was finished she stood up, the billowing part of the dress falling away along with the train, smoking where it’d been singed. Then she stepped confidently toward her bastard brother, arms outstretched. Electricity sparked between her fingers, even as the arrows came down. Carskel finished batting down the flames, which had burned away a large portion of his frock. It dangled in two pieces from his back.

She stopped ten feet away from him. “Brother!” she shouted.

Carskel spun around, still hunkered down, khandar held at the ready. His eyes widened when he saw her. Aully thrust her hands forward and shouted the words, and lightning shot from her fingertips, arcing across the span between them and striking Carskel square in the chest. The elf fell flat on his back, the khandar bouncing away from him as his body shuddered violently. The electricity continued to course through him. Aully took one step toward him, then two, not letting up. Smoke rose from Carskel’s chest, and she could smell burning flesh. When she saw his eyes roll into the back of his head, she drew her hands back to her sides. The lightning ceased to crackle. Carskel fell still.

She snatched up the fallen khandar and knelt beside her brother, the would-be ruler of the Stonewood Dezren. He appeared dead, though his chest rose and fell. Aully crept along his side until she reached his shoulders. She placed the cutting edge of the khandar against his neck.

Carskel’s eyes snapped open, and amazingly, he grinned. Aully started in surprise, her moment of hesitation giving her brother the opportunity to shove the blade away from his neck. Stars then exploded in Aully’s vision as his fist connected with her cheek. She dropped the weapon and fell away from him, grasping at the side of her face. It was on fire. Her eyes watered, blurring her vision.

Still the arrows rained down, and the soldiers galloped.

“You have injured me,” Carskel said, almost playfully. “That will not do.”

The elf stepped toward her, bending over and picking up the khandar just as she’d done a moment before. His hand reached out and grabbed a handful of hair. Pain spiked in Aully’s scalp as he dragged her along the causeway. “You won’t do that again, sweet sister. Consider your precious Kindren’s life forfeited, as well as-”

Carskel doubled over, a wad of phlegm ejecting from his mouth. His grip on Aully’s hair loosened, and she pulled free from him, scurrying away on her hands and knees before turning back around. What she saw, she couldn’t quite understand. A shadowy elf was now on the causeway, his fists pummeling her bastard brother, knocking him from one hempen rail to the other. Carskel’s head snapped back; he doubled over when struck in the gut; he fell to the side when battered on the ear. Finally, the shadowy elf grabbed Carskel by the back of his breeches and tipped him over the rail. Aully’s brother disappeared from sight. The shadowy elf then turned to her, and for the first time she saw his face. Aully’s jaw dropped open.

“Ceredon,” she said.

Ceredon grabbed her hand and held it tight.

“Run.”

Above them, the forest city of Stonewood exploded in a shower of wooden shards.

“Run,” said Ceredon. His knuckles were bleeding from striking the elf that had been attacking Aully, and his entire body was sore from untold days trying to lead the demon Darakken away from Stonewood, a plan that he realized was doomed to fail from the start.

Aully just stood there, gaping at him. No time for this. The massive beast that was Darakken burst forth, demolishing trees and homes, forcing his hand. He snatched up Aully by the waist and lifted her, leaping over the side of the rope bridge just as it collapsed.

Behind him, Dezren elves screamed and wood shattered. Rising above it all was the demon’s trumpeting howl.

He landed on the hard-packed earth and held Aully tightly to his chest, shielding her from harm as they rolled. When they stopped, he hastily got back on his feet and glanced up at the huge, raging beast. The thing was clawing at Stonewood’s tall trees with its lizardlike claws, deeply scoring the bark and using its horns to pry into the still intact domiciles. Its spiked tail lashed from side to side, impaling an unfortunate soldier through the chest; the horse he rode galloped off riderless. The demon then plunged its snout into a treetop home, its horns collapsing the side of the structure. Its jaws snapped shut, and when its head withdrew, it had a female elf trapped in its maw. Blood poured from the poor elf’s mouth even as she beat at the beast’s scaly hide, pulverizing her own fists on its scales. Darakken tensed, its jaw trembling, and with a loud crack the elf split in two. Her upper torso and legs plummeted to the earth while the demon gulped down her midsection. From inside the ruined domicile, children shrieked. Ceredon’s stomach churned.