David Wells - Cursed Bones

They broke and ran and the wraithkin gleefully picked them apart a man at a time. Soldiers, all of them women, entered a few moments later, carefully surveying the scene, moving quickly through the room and making sure that any survivors died quickly before regrouping and pushing farther into the fortress.

Four soldiers remained behind to secure the entry hall. Isabel looked at Ayela and held up four fingers as she drew her dagger and started building her rage. It came easily, almost too easily, boiling into nearly uncontrollable fury in just a few seconds. Recognizing the influence of Azugorath, she reined it in … but not too much.

Seeing the glittering anger dancing in her eyes, Ayela almost looked afraid of her as Isabel began muttering the words of her shield spell. Once the bubble of protective magical energy formed, she motioned for Ayela to open the door and began her next spell.

When the door opened, Isabel stepped out and burned a hole through the chest of the nearest soldier, charging the next without hesitation and catching her by surprise. The woman flailed with her sword, attempting to ward against Isabel’s reckless attack with her blade but it bounced harmlessly off Isabel’s shield. A moment later, Isabel sliced the woman’s throat and moved past her.

The other two spread out, raising their shields and facing the sudden threat. Isabel sheathed her dagger as she knelt down to retrieve a sword. Still kneeling, she unleashed a force-push at her farthest remaining adversary, then lunged toward the nearest.

The woman raised her shield and thrust into Isabel, stabbing hard against the magical barrier protecting her, but Isabel was already spinning, lending the inertia of her motion to the force of the blow that fell against the side of her opponent’s neck, taking her head in a single stroke.

She stalked toward the final soldier, the woman staggering to her feet, facing Isabel in a crouch, looking around like a cornered rat. Isabel surged forward suddenly, catching the top of her opponent’s shield in her off hand and pushing it down across her body, pinning her sword arm in the process as she crashed into it with her shoulder, knocking her off balance and slamming her against the wall, exposing her left side. Isabel brought the tip of her sword up against the thin section of armor under the woman’s armpit and thrust the point through her ribs and into her heart.

The entire battle lasted about twelve seconds. Ayela stood, wide-eyed and frozen in place, watching Isabel survey the room, looking for more enemies. Finding none, Isabel retrieved a sheath for her new sword, collected another dagger, two waterskins and some food before peering up the tunnel leading to the surface.

“We should go,” she said, willing the rage out of her voice as much as possible. The tunnel was cut through the ground at a shallow angle leading to a natural cave. When they reached the top, Alexander appeared before them, motioning for them to stop and wait. Isabel knelt down, linking her mind with Slyder and calling him to her.

A moment later they heard a shout from outside.

“Hey, you there, stop!”

“Follow him!” another voice said.

A few moments later, Alexander appeared again.

“Go out and to the left,” he said. “Follow the base of the ridge for a league or so and you’ll come to Hector and Horace. I’ll make sure they know you’re coming. Hurry.”

Isabel nodded, already moving as he faded out of sight. Ayela followed close behind her into the thick jungle.

Several hundred feet from the cave entrance, Isabel stopped and linked her mind with Slyder again, looking at the terrain through his eyes, locating the four soldiers at the cave entrance who had followed Alexander’s projection and given up the chase in favor of returning to their post. It didn’t look like they’d noticed Isabel and Ayela’s escape. Good enough. She called Shadowfang to her and then they pressed on, traveling quickly but quietly through the dense brush until Ayela stopped her with a hand on her arm.

Isabel squatted down.

“What is it?” she whispered.

“We can’t go that way,” Ayela said, pointing to the course Isabel was taking. “We have to go around.”

“Why?”

“Grapple vine,” Ayela said. “See those bright red flowers on that patch of ground cover? That’s grapple vine. If we try to go through there it will entangle us and we may not be able to cut ourselves free.”

Isabel frowned questioningly.

Ayela picked up a stout branch and tossed it into the flowers. Within a few seconds, several thick vines coiled around it and pulled it to the ground, holding it in place tightly before once again taking on the appearance of a harmless patch of flowers.

“I see what you mean,” Isabel said. “What happens to its victims?”

“The vines are covered with tiny barbs that secrete a potent poison. First it paralyzes, then it causes rapid decomposition. A person caught by the grapple vine dies within a day and their body is often completely gone within a few weeks. It dissolves into the soil and feeds the plant,” Ayela said.

“That’s terrifying,” Isabel said, appraising the bright red flowers. They were beautiful and alluring, the kind of thing she might put in her hair on a warm spring day … in another life, anyway.

“I’m glad you’re with me, Ayela,” Isabel said. “I would have walked right into them.”

Ayela smiled, motioning to a safe route around the deadly jungle flora.

Isabel spotted Hector and Horace through Slyder’s eyes and adjusted course to rendezvous with them. Within the hour they approached the well-hidden brothers.

“Hector, Horace, it’s Isabel,” she said softly.

They both seemed to materialize out of the jungle.

“Lady Reishi, you’re a welcome sight,” Hector said.

“Lord Reishi was most distraught when he discovered your absence,” Horace said.

“I imagine,” Isabel said. “This is Ayela Karth. She helped me escape-protect her as you would me.”

Both Hector and Horace bowed formally to Ayela. She flushed slightly and seemed a bit flustered at their deference.

Shadowfang slipped between the brush and into the little clearing. Ayela nearly screamed, slapping a hand over her mouth. Hector and Horace drew swords as one, positioning themselves between the cat and their charges.

“Stop,” Isabel said, moving between them and scratching the jaguar affectionately under the jaw.

“This is Shadowfang … he’s my friend,” she said. “He won’t hurt any of you and he should keep some of the other predators away from us while we travel.”

“The jaguar is my house crest,” Ayela said. “They’re revered as well as feared. How can this be?”

Isabel shrugged. “Magic.”

“Forgive me,” Ayela said. “For so long, magic has been forbidden to the people of Karth. We’ve always believed it to be evil, so this is difficult for me. I saw how the Sin’Rath witch killed so many so horribly with her spells and then watched you dispatch four soldiers with almost casual ease. I was coming to think that witchcraft is only good for killing, and then you presented Shadowfang. He’s so beautiful and regal, I’m finding it hard to reconcile everything I’ve been taught all my life with the things I’m seeing.”

“The things you’ve been taught about magic are mostly lies,” Isabel said. “The Sin’Rath have controlled this entire isle, both your family and the Regency, for centuries. They’re the ones who forbade magic, and they did it to protect their power over your family and the Regency leadership.”

“But we’ve been at war with the Regency for so long,” Ayela said. “Why would the Sin’Rath want to perpetuate such suffering?”

“You saw the one that died in the entry chamber,” Isabel said. “They’re not human … they’re monsters. As for their motives, I couldn’t tell you, except to say they’re totally insane.”