David Wells - Cursed Bones

When the jungle gave way to a clearing occupied by a giant tree, she started to get the feeling that they were being watched. Then she saw Shadowfang perched atop a stout trunk that rose twelve to fifteen feet and split into five giant branches, each radiating away from the base and extending toward the sky. The jaguar’s tail was flicking about and his yellow eyes were fixed on a spot in the jungle.

Isabel looked where he was looking but saw nothing.

“What is it?” Hector asked.

“I’m not sure,” Isabel said, “but I don’t like it.”

As one, Hector and Horace drew swords and fanned out, searching for any sign of threat. The jungle was deathly silent, all of the birdsong, buzzing of insects, and chattering of small mammals silent.

Isabel started casting her shield spell.

“We’re being stalked,” Ayela said, drawing her dagger, black with poison.

“By what?” Hector asked.

Before anyone could answer, a shimmer raced toward them from out of the jungle, more like a blur in the air than a distinct shape. It hit Hector, knocking him to the ground, the raptor becoming almost visible. It was large, easily seven feet tall, with razor-sharp talons and a long snout opening in a powerful mouth filled with rows of needlelike teeth. It snapped at Hector but he became a cloud of vapor, and the beast roared in frustration.

Then the spot in the jungle where Shadowfang had been watching started to move toward them-it looked almost like a mirage, but fast and deadly.

Horace stabbed the chameleon lizard twice in the side, once with each short sword. It flinched and roared in pain and fury before racing away into the jungle, vanishing from sight before it reached the cover of the dense foliage.

Then Isabel was hit from behind. The attack came without warning, knocking her to the ground and pinning her beneath the beast as it snapped at her head, its teeth landing on her shield instead. It leapt back in frustration, turning its attention to Ayela. Isabel called out to Shadowfang.

Isabel and Hector regained their feet at the same time. The beast leapt on Ayela, shoving her to the ground, her struggling impotent against its weight and strength. Isabel released a force-push spell, knocking the beast off Ayela, but not before it raked her with its talons, leaving six deep gashes across her chest and shoulders.

Hector faced the beast charging toward them with swords at the ready, but Shadowfang reached it first, hitting it broadside and tumbling to the ground in a furious whirl of claws and fangs. They separated, both bleeding but both still focused on the other as they circled.

“Hector, Horace, get Ayela into the tree,” Isabel shouted.

She cast a light-lance at the chameleon lizard, but instead of burning through it, the focused beam of intensely hot light hit the creature and refracted in every direction, creating a brilliant display that lit up the surrounding jungle. The chameleon lizard turned and bolted away. Before Shadowfang could follow, Isabel ordered him back to the tree.

Hector transformed into vapor and gently floated up to the crook in the giant tree. A moment after he retook solid form, Horace tossed a rope up to him, then looped the trailing end around Ayela’s waist. He quickly climbed the tree and he and Hector pulled Ayela up to safety while Isabel watched the jungle for any sign of the chameleon lizards.

She didn’t have to wait long. Two of the creatures came at her from different angles. She could hear their rhythmic footfalls more than she could see them. Bracing herself against the trunk of the tree, trusting her shield to hold, she drew her sword and waited. A moment later she was knocked sideways by the first, landing hard and trying to roll out of the way when the second pounced, landing on top of her and pinning her to the ground, trying to crush her skull with its powerful jaws.

Her shield held, but only just. She could feel it failing under the force of the attack. Looking into the mouth of the beast, she stabbed wildly with her sword, hitting the lizard in the leg, not deeply, not seriously, but enough to get its attention.

It leapt back in pain and surprise, opening the way for the second to attack. It landed on top of her, one foot to the side and the other on her chest. When her shield failed, its talons gouged holes into her armor, piercing her flesh. Then Hector was there, stabbing the creature in the side, driving his blade deeply into its chest and pushing it off Isabel.

She struggled to her feet. The lizard roared in frustration at Hector, who was now facing it, swords drawn.

“Get to the tree,” Hector said.

Isabel didn’t hesitate. She reached the rope and expended the last of her strength scrambling to the relative safety of the tree just as the first of the three chameleon lizards reemerged from the jungle, racing toward her. It leapt for her, missing her by inches, snapping at the air and clawing at the side of the tree.

Horace took her hand and shouted to his brother, “I have her!”

Hector transformed into vapor and floated into the tree, leaving the two chameleon lizards below, wounded and circling, hissing in fury at the narrow escape of their prey.

Ayela had lost consciousness, her face was pasty and uncharacteristically white.

“You said you still have healing potions,” Isabel said.

Horace nodded, digging into his pouch for his last of the magical draughts.

“Help her sit up,” Isabel said, gently slapping her face. “Wake up, Ayela, you have to swallow this.”

Ayela blinked and murmured something.

“Tip her head back and hold her nose,” Isabel said, carefully pouring the potion into her mouth. Ayela coughed and sputtered but managed to swallow most of it before slipping back into unconsciousness.

“Take the other,” Hector said, holding the last of the healing potions out to Isabel.

“No. Save it,” Isabel said, stiffly unbuckling her armor. “I’ll just use some of the salve you brought.”

Hector handed her a jar barely a quarter full of Lucky’s salve. She carefully spread it into her wounds under her tunic and lay back against one of the giant limbs.

“Keep watch while we’re out,” she muttered, already succumbing to the effects of the magical salve.

Alexander appeared moments after she woke, groggy and disoriented.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I think so,” she said. “How’s Ayela?”

“Still asleep,” Hector said, “but it looks like her wounds are healing well.”

“What about the lizards?” Isabel asked.

“They’re lying in wait,” Alexander said, pointing out two different spots in the jungle. “One’s right over there and the other is there.”

“And the Regency?” Isabel asked.

“About an hour away,” Alexander said.

“Then they’ll be here before nightfall,” Isabel said. “This isn’t exactly the kind of ambush I had in mind.”

“The lizards might take care of them for us,” Hector said. “If we’re quiet and stay low, they may not see us.”

“I guess that’s all we really can do for now,” Isabel said. “Ayela won’t be able to move until tomorrow at the earliest. How far out are the Sin’Rath?”

“Still a day behind,” Alexander said.

“At least there’s that,” Isabel said.

“I’ll be watching until the Regency soldiers arrive,” Alexander said. “If the lizards kill them all, good enough, if not I’ll try and draw off those that remain. Try and get some rest while you wait. I’ll warn you just before they arrive.”

She smiled at him as he faded out of sight.

***

Isabel waited quietly, her shield firmly in place, while Ayela slept. Hector and Horace had concealed themselves as well as possible, lying on the broad branches of the banyan tree, trying to blend in with the growing shadows. Alexander had come a few minutes before to warn them of the approaching enemy soldiers, and was now unseen but watching.