Jim Butcher - Furies of Calderon

He flicked one glance over his shoulder as he ran and saw something through the glowing trees, at the base of the monolith, the opening he'd fled through He saw something tall, glistening- alien It stood just within the central tree, just behind the doorway Tavi could not quite see it, but he could feel it in a way both horribly intimate and beyond simple description

The lower-pitched whistle that went out through the trees felt, to Tavi, like some sort of hideous, mocking laughter

Tavi fled and did not look back again

He ran over the croach until his legs were burning and his limbs felt as though they would be ripped apart by the demands he placed on them He almost didn't see the strip of blanket that he had torn off and tied to a low tree branch before he left to mark his way back He headed for it, and from that flag spotted the next, and the next, laying out his escape route back to the ropes at the base of the cliff

"Aleran'" came a voice from before him Kitai dropped from a tree branch ahead of him "Do you have it'"

"Got two'" Tavi yelped "Couldn't get any more'"

Kitai extended her hand, and Tavi shoved one of the mushrooms into it "Run! Go, go go'"

Kitai nodded once, then stooped to the ground Tavi hesitated behind the girl, dancing in place as he looked back over his shoulder "Hurry," he panted "Hurry, hurry, hurry "

Kitai drew out the firestones smoothly, her expression cool, and struck them together Sparks fell from the stones onto the oil-soaked blanket that lay on the croach before them Kitai watched the flames leap up, then moved quickly, reaching up to grab the end of the fishing line that Tavi had soaked in the icy water before he left She jerked the line toward her, hand over hand The other end of the line looped up over one of the higher branches of the tree, up where living leaves grew above the grasp of the croach, and then fell back down to where it was tied at one corner of the oil-soaked blanket Kitai hauled the line in, and the blazing blanket rose up into the tree's branches and snagged among the living leaves

Fire leapt up from the tree in a blaze, sudden and high, and once again, from the direction of the central spire, whistling shrieks rose up in a solid

wall of terrifying sound-one underlaid, this time, by that deeper whistle, one that overrode the shrieks and continued over the silence

Kitai stared at Tavi, her eyes suddenly wide "What is that?"

"I don't know," Tavi said "But, uh I think, uh I think I woke it up "

They looked at one another once more and, in silent accord, turned together and fled toward the ropes a few yards away, toward the safety at the top of the cliffs To either side of him, Tavi saw the Keepers flooding toward the fire through the trees, closing on them in a carpet of glowing eyes and knobby limbs and leathery shells

Tavi had reached the ropes and Kitai was only a few paces behind when something dropped down from one of the crouch shrouded trees above them, something tall and slender and horribly fast Whatever it was, it wasn't a Keeper, because it reached out with one long limb and wrapped hard-looking, chitmous fingers around Kitai's ankle, hauling her to the ground The girl let out a scream of sudden terror and twisted in that grip

Tavi only saw what happened in bits and pieces He remembered turning to see something that he thought was like some kind of hideous wasp, semitransparent wings fluttering in the glowing light of the crouch, It bent over Kitai, weirdly humped shoulders flexing as its head whipped down, as mandibles sunk into her thigh Kitai let out a horrible scream and struck down at the thing's head with her fists, once, twice Then her eyes rolled back in her head and her body started jerking and twisting in helpless spasm, limbs flailing She kept trying to scream, but the sound came out broken, irregular

The wasp-thing, covered in the glowing slime of the croach, lifted its head and let out a signal-whistle that echoed around the chasm like the tones of some vast bell It shook blood from its mandibles, and Tavi caught a flash of multifaceted eyes, of some kind of yellowish fluid at the edges of Kitai's wounds

"Valleyboy!" shouted a distant voice Tavi looked up to see Doroga, one hand on the rope, leaning far out over the cliff, and even from so far below, Tavi could see that his face was anguished "Aleran! You cannot save her! Come up!"

Tavi looked back and forth between Doroga and the Marat girl on the ground, the horrible thing crouched over her twitching body Terror rose through him, a horrible taste in his mouth, and he couldn't see, couldn't seem to focus his eyes One hand tightened on the rope in helpless frustration

Kitai had saved his life

She had trusted his plan to get them both out of the chasm alive

He was the only one who could help her

Tavi let go of the rope

He turned and ran, not toward the thing crouched over Kitai, but past it, around several glowing trees and to the one they had set on fire Keepers crowded in all around him He could hear them coming through the forest toward him, shrieks and whistles resounding

Tavi leapt up to the lowest branches of the tree, hauling himself into them and started scrambling toward the top, toward the fire Halfway there, he hauled himself up and found himself face-to-face with a Keeper, which reared back from him in surprise, its mandibles clacking against its shell

Tavi didn't have time to think His hand flashed to where he'd put Fade's wickedly curved knife at his belt He slashed it at the creature's eyes It scuttled back from him Tavi followed it, wriggling forward, thrusting the knife at the thing's face

The Keeper let out a shriek and fell backward, out of the tree, its limbs flailing It hit the ground twenty feet below with a crunch and a wet-sounding splat, and Tavi looked down to see it writhing on its back, legs flailing, its broken body trailing glowing fluids out onto the forest floor

Tavi heard more Keepers coming He hauled himself up higher into the tree, until he reached a branch bare of the crouch, slender and unable to support his weight Farther out along the branch hung the burning blanket Fire spread along it, toward the trunk of the tree

Tavi hacked at the branch with the knife, the steel biting into the soft wood Then he gripped the knife in his teeth and hauled at the branch with both hands

It swayed and then broke, peeling away from the tree Tavi scrambled down, trailing the long branch with its flaming leaves, the oil-soaked blanket, and when he had reached the forest floor, he ran toward Kitai

The thing crouched over her saw him coming and turned toward him with a hiss, its mandibles spreading wide, along with its chitmous arms Though its eyes glittered and reflected the light of the fire from a thousand facets, it had a horribly slime-covered, unfinished look to it, as though it hadn't finished becoming whatever it was to be Half-born, half-alive, the huge wasp-thing rattled its wings in a furious buzzing sound and whistled to the Keepers around them

Tavi screamed and swung the branch in a broad, clumsy arc, fire trailing

The thing hissed and drew back from the flames, jerking its wings back sharply

Tavi seized on the advantage, shoving forward with the branch and driving the hissing monstrosity back from Kitai's still form The girl lay, pale and silent, her eyes open but unmoving, her chest heaving in labored breaths Tavi slipped an arm beneath her and, in a rush of terror, hauled her up onto his shoulder He staggered beneath her weight, but grasped the branch and spun about, wildly swinging the blazing wood and leaves and blanket about him

The creature leapt lightly away from him, landing on the wall several yards down from the ropes, horrible eyes focused intently on him