David Dalglish - Blood Of Gods

Davishon glanced back at Carskel for a moment before he seemed to gather his wits. The elf ran along the line of terrified elves, picking out those few who held bows, and pleading with them to follow him. He snatched his bow as he ran, nocking it just before he reached the front of the line. Only twenty other elves joined him. Their arrows sailed high into the air before descending toward the charging beast.

“Aully, Kindren-with me!” Ceredon yelled. Aully looked away from the archers and saw her protector dashing through the crowd. She was too numb to argue, so she simply followed his command, grabbing Kindren’s hand and putting one foot in front of the other as if in a dream. Lady Audrianna shouted at them to stay put, but her voice was carried away by the ruckus.

Ceredon reached them, grabbed them both by the hand, and then yanked them through the crowd, where another contingent of humans awaited. Unlike the other humans, these wore simple furs and knitted breeches instead of armor. The oddly dressed man in the pointed hat was among them.

Aully felt herself flying forward as Ceredon shoved her and Kindren in the odd man’s direction. “That’s all you have?” the man asked.

“For now, yes. All that I know of. Now go!”

With that, Ceredon sped off, chasing after the stampeding humans on foot. Aully could do nothing but gape as she watched him run headlong for the towering beast.

“You two, get in line!” the odd redhead shouted. “If you have magic, use it!”

“Turock, they might be elves, but they’re children,” one of the other spellcasters added.

“I know.”

Aully’s head slowly turned, and she saw Turock, the redhead, frowning at her. He shook his head and faced forward, along with the other sixteen men who made up his troupe. “All you have!” he exclaimed. “Do it now!” Their arms raised, words of magic poured form their mouths.

Hands wrapped around Aully’s waist, pulling her away just before she was struck by the jagged stream of lightning that leapt from the hands of the man closest to her. Kindren wheeled her around, staring at her intensely. His cheeks were flushed, and he blinked rapidly as if he’d just awoken from a horrible dream.

“Aully,” he said. “Aully, we can help. I know it’s frightening, but together we can be strong.”

“Together we can be strong,” she repeated. She glanced down at her hands. There was a tingling in her chest, a sensation she hadn’t felt in far too long. “Together, we can be strong.”

“We can.”

They turned about and faced the rampaging beast. Arrows bounced off its thick scales, the spellcasters’ fireballs, bolts of energy, and electric strikes dissipated against its hide, seemingly to no effect. And yet the monster’s progress was slowed as the soldiers on horseback raced past it, lashing at its legs with their swords and axes, gouging it with pikes. The beast reared up, its lashing tail thumping a trio of riders, impaling one and knocking the others off their steeds. With its underbelly exposed, the soldiers on foot hurled spears, if they had them. A couple found gaps between the large scales and dangled there like ornaments. Most of them simply bounced off.

“Damn it all, if you’re going to help, help !” shouted the man in the funny hat.

Aully and Kindren nodded to each other before raising their arms. Aully quickly turned her eyes away from Kindren’s mangled hand, not wanting to see his thumb and small finger sticking out on either side of his fist like lost lovers separated by an ocean of scars. She focused on his voice instead, on the confidence with which he spoke. Suddenly, despite the hopelessness of what they faced, Aully felt at ease. She remembered what she’d lost, what she still had. She remembered traipsing with Kindren through the desert, eating foreign foods and laughing with the locals. She thought of the times they’d met in the crypts beneath Dezerea, of Kindren’s broad smile as he spoke to her of legends and days long passed.

But most of all, she remembered what it was like to love and be loved, to live each day knowing that no matter what might happen, she would remain strong, that the strength she held inside her was not hers alone, but a gift to be shared with everyone she loved.

Aully chanted, and a raging stream of fire leapt from her hands. It was thicker than those created by the other spellcasters, even the man in green. The stream arced through the air, blazing through the monster’s horns and lashing against its face like a crashing wave. The beast dropped down on all fours and turned its head to the side, seemingly wounded. Aully heard Turock utter, “That was unexpected.”

To her left, Kindren’s winding electrical charge zapped across empty space and struck the creature in the shoulder. The massive thing shrugged it off and took a hurtling step toward the soldiers clustered in the middle of the open ground. The men shrieked and tried to retreat, tripping over one another. The monster threw back its head and opened its hinged mouth. The horns that extended in front of its maw swung out wide like an insect’s mandibles.

“It’s going to eat them!” Aully cried.

Instinctively, she reached out and grabbed Kindren’s hand, in that hurried moment not caring it was his mangled one. She slid her fingers around the stumps of his. She squeezed her eyes shut, quickly mouthing the words of a spell she had never used. She felt Kindren’s inner strength, his connection to the weave, and then her eyes snapped open. Still chanting, she watched the ground in front of the soldiers rise and fold over, the solid bedrock beneath the cliff ’s surface forming a stone shield that curled atop the fumbling men. The beast’s head came down, maw cracking against the earthen shield with a solid crunch . The mandible-like horns snapped shut, wrapping around the shield and skewering two men, but the deed had been done. With the monster dazed, if only for a second, the soldiers were given their opportunity to flee. They scattered across the rocky field in all directions.

“More!” Turock shouted. “No relenting!”

The spellcasters, along with Aully and Kindren, continued their assault. Other Dezren stepped forward, joining with the others, their magics weak. But at least they were trying. The creature dislodged itself from the earthen barricade, shook its head, and was thrown into a rage. It lashed out at the soldiers on horseback that circled it even as its hide was pummeled with magical attacks. Two men died, then four, then another six, their armor shredding as easily as their flesh beneath the monster’s claws. The blood of men filled the air.

“The spells-they aren’t strong enough!” hollered Kindren, launching a weak salvo of energy at the beast.

“I know!” Aully said.

The creature rumbled to the right, using its tusks to knock men off their horses. No more arrows fell toward it-the elves had likely exhausted their supply-and the magical attacks were pathetic. The spellcasters were growing tired. Aully herself was drained almost to the point of collapsing. Finally, when she uttered the words and flicked her fingers, nothing happened. Her magic was gone.

Now unimpeded, the demon turned about and hurtled toward them. The throng of elves behind Aully shuffled backward. Screams filled the air as a few of them backed up too far, plummeting off the edge of the cliff, their bodies crunching when they hit the rocks below. The soldiers on horses, who had been attacking the beast, turned tail and fled. The demon’s eyes were like liquid fire, growing larger by the second, radiating both hatred and hunger. Aully grabbed Kindren and turned, running toward the lip of the cliff, searching for her mother. Lady Audrianna gathered the two youths in her embrace, and all three knelt down on the uneven, rocky soil.