David Dalglish - Blood Of Gods

He turned away from the morbid display, only to see that Aully was still staring. “Do not look,” he coaxed, gently touching her cheek to avert her head.

“Lolly,” she said with a whimper, her eyes bulging. “Hadrik, Mella. . ”

“Do not think of them. Just run.”

Aully nodded, but she still appeared too frightened to move. It was chaos all around them, with both elves and human soldiers storming across the clearing, trying to get away from the giant, ravenous beast. Not all of them fled mindlessly, however. A few of the soldiers paused to allow stranded elves to climb onto their horse with them. One of those was a woman dressed all in black, a beautiful creature, for a human, whom Ceredon recognized. He’d seen her when he raced past the human caravan on his way into the forest. The woman looked determined, but not overly frightened, impressive given what she faced. She rode off, followed closely by an odd-looking man wearing a bright green cloak. Then he too was gone.

It was time Ceredon followed suit.

He grabbed Aully’s hand and began to run, but the young Dezren princess fought against him. “No!” she shouted.

“We have to go , Aullienna!” he yelled back at her. The demon continued to feast on elves in the treetops.

“No, we have to find Mother, we have to find Kindren !” Aully exclaimed. “I won’t leave without him!”

Ceredon nodded, fighting off the urge to throw her over his shoulder and scamper off. She seemed to have shaken off her paralysis, and though her flesh was still pale as the sky on a cold winter’s day, there was a determination in her eyes that he couldn’t deny. He hadn’t come all this way to protect just her; he knew he couldn’t turn his back on the others.

He took her hand, and together they ran toward the center of the clearing, where the remnants of the hanging bridge now lay ruined. Human soldiers still charged through the clearing, looks of pure terror on those faces not covered with helms. They flashed by on either side of Ceredon and Aully, so close that wind whipped through Ceredon’s hair. There were bodies littering the ground, and horses trampled them. In their terror, a couple of the soldiers blindly ran down the fleeing Dezren, crushing them beneath heavy hooves. Bones snapped. Blood flew into the air and seeped into the soil. It was pandemonium.

“There!” Aully shouted.

Ceredon followed her gaze, and finally he spotted Kindren and Lady Audrianna, holding one another while they limped across the frenzied clearing. A man on horseback veered too close to them, clipping Lady Audrianna in the process. The Lady of Stonewood was tossed aside, falling on top of Kindren. They lay there shouting while another soldier passed by, missing them by mere inches.

“Come!” Ceredon shouted. He grasped Aully and took off.

He swerved through the turmoil, his feet moving with a survival instinct all their own. The gap between him and the huddling pair was crossed in seconds, and Ceredon and Aully both reached down, helping them to their feet, then shuffling them toward the tree line. Aully bathed Kindren in kisses, and the young prince reciprocated her affections, oblivious to the horror going on around them. Tears cascaded down both their cheeks.

Another riderless horse came hurtling toward them. Ceredon shoved the three frightened elves away and dashed for it, reaching at the reins. He snared them, though just barely. With the reins firm in his grip, he dug his heels into the ground. The horse’s momentum yanked him off his feet, but it had obviously been well trained. At the pulling of the reins, the beast slowed and then stopped, shuffling nervously in place.

Ceredon stood up, his knees shredded from being dragged across the stony earth. “Aully, Kindren, now !” he shouted, bringing the two young elves running. Ceredon helped them into the saddle, Kindren in front and Aully behind. “Now go. Follow the soldiers.”

“But Mother!” yelled Aully.

“I will care for your mother. Now go !”

He whacked the horse on its flank as hard as he could, and the beast took off, disappearing with its precious cargo into the surrounding forest. Ceredon quickly made his way back to Audrianna.

“Come now, Lady Meln,” Ceredon said to her. “Take my hand.” The dazed woman’s fingers wrapped around his palm and he lifted her. She clung to him as if her life depended on it. He began to trudge forward as fast as he could, Audrianna quivering in his arms. When he glanced behind him, he saw that Darakken had finished its treetop feast. The demon crashed down to earth, shaking the ground beneath Ceredon’s feet. Its blazing red eyes stared hungrily at the fleeing elves. Its trumpeting howl sounded once more, and the beast lurched forward.

Lady Audrianna screamed in Ceredon’s arms, her body quivering like jelly. He lugged her into the shelter of the forest, the demon closing in from behind. It batted aside trees with its tusks, its hoofed rear legs tearing through the underbrush. He could almost feel the evil creature’s rank breath on his back. All around him dashed Dezren elves and human soldiers, forming a bulging line as they fled from the beast.

I did not come this far for nothing! In the seemingly endless days since Darakken had resurrected itself, he had spied on the beast as it learned to be alive once more, constantly trying to lure it away from Stonewood until finally, the day before, it had turned around and started headlong for the forest. If I had simply come here as I’d planned, we could be far away by now.

Too late for regrets now, he knew. So he just kept putting one foot in front of the other and prayed Lady Audrianna wouldn’t stumble and fall. If that were to happen, they would end up food for the demon.

Somehow the Lady of Stonewood kept her footing as they tramped over vines and roots. Even when they slipped on a thatch of slick leaves, all it cost them was a momentary stumble. The demon continued to track them somewhere off to the right, the sound of its feet striking the forest floor like a constant, raucous drumbeat. Trees broke and splintered. Ceredon’s arms grew weary and his legs, numb. Breath was hard to come by. Lady Audrianna suffered the same way; she’d stopped her screaming and now simply wheezed.

He glanced to the side and saw Darakken’s slick, scaly hide flash between the foliage, much too close. The thing then lurched to the left, colliding with a thick elm. The roots tore free from the ground and the tree toppled over. Ceredon squeezed Lady Audrianna and forced his feet to move faster, running diagonally, knocking over a fleeing soldier in the process. The tree landed behind them with a whoosh , crushing the soldier and a group of unfortunate elves. His mind was awash with both fear and confusion. Darakken was acting oddly, running alongside them like a shepherd’s dog, threatening, but not attacking, as if penning them in.

When he finally exited the thick wood, running at full speed, Ceredon discovered that’s exactly what the evil thing was doing.

Darakken had forced the fleeing masses to the southwest, where Stonewood Forest pressed up against the Corinth River. A two hundred yard stretch of flat, rocky grassland spread out before him, leading to a sheer cliff that dropped to the mouth of the river below. To the south was a line of thick trees that abutted the cliff; to the north, a slender patch of land with an upward slope. Those who fled had been hemmed in, trapped between the forest and the river. A large contingent of panicked elves attempted fleeing along the slender northern corridor, but Darakken burst through the trees, snapping a few of them up in its jaws. Other elves fell off the cliff screaming.

Then the demon disappeared back into the forest.