Anne Bishop - The House of Gaian

He flung himself off the horse, giving it a slap to send it to the stables. He tried to lift Breanna, but she clung to the ground, making horrible, mindless noises while she stared at the tree. He glanced at the tree. Idjit's barking had become frenzied, and Brooke had slowed down, her attention also caught by something in the tree.

Wind riffled the leaves, just enough for him to catch a glimpse of a dark shape hiding in the branches. Something too big to be a squirrel.

"Mother's tits!" Fiona burst out of the kitchen, a poker in her hand. "Can't I have a minute to tend the fire without having to deal with some kind of ruckus?"

He closed the distance between them without realizing he'd started to move, grabbed the poker out of Fiona's hand, and ran just as the nighthunter jumped out of the tree, its flaps of skin turning the jump into a gliding fall. Heading straight at Brooke.

Heat pulsed under his skin, but he couldn't unleash the fire because Brooke was standing between him and the creature. He couldn't burn one without burning the other.

He ran as if his world depended on it—and knew he wouldn't reach her in time.

The nighthunter landed, but before it could leap on the girl, Idjit attacked, sinking his teeth in the flap of skin and bracing his legs to play a deadly game of tug.

Shrieking, the creature turned on the dog, ripping and tearing.

Liam reached Brooke. Grabbing the back of her dress, he flung her behind him, then braced for the attack.

The nighthunter, crouched over the still dog, lifted its face. Blood spilled over its chin. As it gathered itself to leap at him, Liam stepped forward and swung the poker at its head with all his strength. He heard the sharp crack of bone. Felt the poker sink into something softer. Watched the poker slide out of the smashed skull as the body slumped over the dog's haunches.

And saw the perfectly shaped human foot. The birthmark on the back of a pink-skinned calf. A birthmark a distraught mother had described to the guards who had searched for her missing child.

He dropped the poker and backed away. He'd seen, briefly, when Ashk shot the creature that Keely had prevented from attacking Breanna. He'd seen, but his mind had refused to understand.

His gorge rose as he remembered the feel of the poker connecting with that small head. He turned, caught a glimpse of Elinore running out of the house while Fiona tried to comfort Brooke, who was crying hysterically. Then he stumbled away from them as far as he could manage before he fell to his hands and knees and was violently sick.

Breanna slowly got to her feet. On legs that felt as fragile as cracked glass, she walked toward the tree, wobbling as if she'd been ill for a very long time. Her legs buckled before she reached the tree, so she crawled the rest of the way on her hands and knees. She saw a foreleg twitch, heard the bubbly, labored breathing as she crawled to the dog.

Nothing to be done for him. His belly was ripped open, and blood bubbled from the wound in his neck, soaking his fur and the ground under him.

He whined when he saw her. Tried to lift his head.

She bent over him, petted him, whispered to him. "Idjit. You foolish dog. You foolish, brave, idjit of a dog. Thank you for loving her. Thank you for saving her. We'll give you back to the Mother at your favorite spot under the tree, where you liked to nap. That way you'll always be with us. And Aiden will write a song about you so you'll always be remembered."

The dog sighed out a breath—and didn't breathe again.

"Merry meet, Idjit. . . until we meet again." She gave the dog a final caress, and whispered, "Keely."

Then she laid down beside the dog, too broken inside to do anything else.

Liam staggered to his feet and moved away from the smell of sickness before it brought him to his knees again. Fiona must have taken Brooke into the house, but Elinore waited for him. Edgar stood beside her, glancing uneasily at the figures under the tree.

His heart lurched when he saw Breanna on the ground beside the dog. Before he could decide if Breanna or Elinore needed him more at that moment, a rider came through the arch, paused long enough to have one of the boys point at Liam, then trotted to the kitchen door. The rider glanced at the figures under the tree, then averted his eyes.

"You have news?" Liam called, moving quickly to join Elinore and Edgar.

"Yes, sir. The Hunter said to warn the ladies of the house that the fighting has started along the road to the village and the low rise where she sent some of the men this morning. I'm to ride to the camps around here and give the word they're to come and be quick."

"Go on then, and be quick yourself," Liam said. "Ashk didn't send enough men to hold that rise if the Inquisitors start throwing companies of men at them."

The Fae rider wheeled his horse and galloped toward the pasture gate. Before any of the boys around the stable could run to open the gate, his horse cleared it and kept running.

Liam stripped off his coat. Pulling Edgar aside, he thrust the coat into the man's arms. "I want you to stay here."

"Aye, that's what I was told when the rest of the men headed out with Varden's huntsmen this morning." Edgar smiled grimly. "Everyone agreed we needed one man to stay to keep the boys on their chores, and I drew the short straw."

In more ways than you know , Liam thought grimly. Keeping his voice low, he said, "Cover the nighthunter with the coat, and make sure it's completely covered. Then get Breanna into the house."

Edgar nodded. "I'll get a hand cart and take the creature away from the house before I bury it."

"You'll take kindling and lamp oil with you. After you dig the hole, you put that thing in and burn it before you finish burying it."

"Burn it!"

Liam gripped Edgar's arm hard enough to make the other man wince. "Listen to me. That creature, no matter what it once had been, was a nighthunter, and we burn nighthunters. That's all the ladies need to know. That's all they ever need to know."

"All right, Baron. If it's that important to you, I'll do just as you say."

Stepping away from Edgar, he approached Elinore.

"Where's Keely?" Elinore asked quietly.

Liam swallowed hard. "Keely's dead."

Elinore looked at Breanna. "You have to go. I know that. But be careful, Liam. Please be careful. Not just for my sake, but for hers."

He kissed her cheek. "I'll be back."

"See that you are. We'll look after Breanna."

Since he could think of nothing more to say, he strode to the stables, mounted his horse, and rode away toward the battle.

When they were in sight of the low rise, Ashk and Selena reined in.

Ashk scanned the land in front of her, troubled by the smell of burned meat that hung in the air. There were too many men moving toward the rise for her to see much, but the skittish way they swung around objects caught her attention.

"What's burning?" Selena asked.

At that moment, a ball sailed over the low rise and smashed into a company of men. Blood fountained from the neck of one man as he fell. Others screamed as clothes and skin burst into flames.

"Mother's tits! What is that? " Ashk saw one of the western Fae riding toward her and raised her hand in a commanding summons. When he reined in, she looked at the barely conscious man he carried in front of him and felt her gorge rise. She hoped he was a stranger and that was the reason she couldn't recognize his face. "Report."

"We're outnumbered," the huntsman said. "And spread out too thin. Our longbowmen have managed to keep them from coming up the rise, but there's hundreds of them marching across that field and we—" He glanced at the burned and wounded men.