He struggled to stand, but before he could push himself upright, the bulk of a massive Stone Guardian crashed atop him. His arms and legs were pinned beneath the creature. Its beady eyes and slavering jaws hovered a hand's breadth from his face, and a drop of its foul drool sizzled on his flesh.
The Hunter stared death in the face, and he felt only sorrow. Sorrow at failing to protect Farida, and now Hailen. Sorrow that he'd failed to put an end to the Sage. Sorrow that he'd never be able to look his mystery woman in the eyes and hear Her voice once more.
In the end, the Long Keeper comes for all, he thought. None of us can escape forever.
With a howl of triumph, the Stone Guardian bared its teeth. The Hunter expected the jaws to close around his throat, to feel the warm gush of his blood as it ripped him to shreds.
The pain never came.
A low humming filled his ears, setting the ground trembling beneath him. His eyes went wide. That sound!
A moment later, a wave of power burst from the standing stones.
Chapter Forty-Two
A wave of power sizzled above the Hunter's head, slamming into the Stone Guardian atop him and hurling the monster away like a ragdoll snatched up by a hurricane. The four other monsters that had clambered into the Dolmenrath were flung from of the ring of standing stones. Two pitched off the side of the cliff, and one hurtled back down the trail, bowling over more of the creatures racing up the hill. The fourth, who had been closest to the stone, was struck with such force that its stony skin ripped away. Its keening cries of agony filled the air as it staggered backward and toppled out of sight.
The Hunter's heart thundered as he levered himself up off the ground. Kiara stared, wide-eyed, at Hailen, who held his hand pressed against the nearest stone. The boy's face was pale, his eyes a deeper shade of violet than before, but a relieved smile stretched his face as the Hunter staggered upright.
"Hardwell!" Hailen cried, and raced over to embrace the Hunter. "I did it, just like you told me."
"Damned right, you did!" The Hunter grunted at the pain in his healing body, but crushed the boy to his chest. "It was perfect."
"Bloody fucking hell!" Kiara breathed. Her eyes darted between Hailen and the little bloody handprint on the black stone. "What in the Keeper's icy teats was that?"
The Hunter broke off the embrace with Hailen. "I'll explain later. Right now, we need to focus on staying alive." Even as he spoke, the rumbling howls of the Stone Guardians echoed up the trail toward them.
The massive monsters had fallen back, intelligent enough to fear the power of the stones. Yet he knew their biological imperative to attack would soon reassert itself.
The Hunter glanced down the trail toward Enarium. Three of the Stone Guardians charged up the path toward the standing stones, but the mountains beyond them were empty. The way to Enarium was almost clear.
A desperate idea struck him. He whirled to Kiara.
"Take Hailen and run as fast as you can."
Kiara's eyes narrowed. "In case you haven't noticed, there's not really any way we can go."
The Hunter thrust a finger toward Enarium. "Get there." He didn't know how he knew—perhaps a fragment of his memory returning—but he was certain that they simply had to get through the open gates and they would be safe. "Take my pack. In it, there are two iron daggers. Only use them if you find yourself fighting for your life. Otherwise, keep them hidden. Don't let anyone know you have them."
Confusion twisted Kiara's face. "What are you—?"
"I can't explain it all now, but I will when we're safe. For now, just trust me and get Hailen there now!"
"And the big stone fuckers in the way?" Kiara demanded.
The Hunter drew one of the red-and-purple toadstools from his pouch and held it out to her. "Use this."
Her eyes narrowed. "What about you and Sir Danna?"
"We'll be right behind you."
Kiara's face hardened. "And what's to stop you from just leaving her here?"
The growls of the Stone Guardians grew louder. It seemed the creatures' bestial nature had reasserted itself and they were charging up toward him. He didn't have time to argue.
The Hunter clenched his fists. "I swear, on my life, that I will bring her. Just get the boy to safety!"
Kiara hesitated only a moment before nodding. "Keeper have mercy on you if you're lying, Hunter." She snatched the mushroom, seized Hailen's hand, and leapt through the standing stones.
"Hardwell!" Hailen cried out, casting a fearful glance over his shoulder as Kiara half-dragged him down the trail.
"Go, Hailen!" the Hunter called. "Get to safety. I'm right behind you."
The high-pitched cry came again. "Hardwell!"
The sound twisted the Hunter's stomach in knots. He hated the thought of being separated from the boy, but it was the only way Hailen would survive. As long as most of the Stone Guardians focused on him, Hailen and Kiara could reach safety. The Hunter just needed to buy them some time.
He turned to face the first of the towering reptilian monsters pushing through the opening in the stones, and he tightened his grip on the greatsword. It was a weapon of power, he could feel as much, with the heft and balance only crafted by a master bladesmith. With a roar of rage, he brought the sword swinging down onto the monster's head. Two feet of sharpened iron chopped through stony skin and bone beneath. The Stone Guardian collapsed in a heap, momentarily blocking the opening.
A quiet groan behind the Hunter brought him whirling around. Sir Danna leaned on her elbow, a hand pressed to the back of her head.
"Good of you to join us!" the Hunter called out as he brought the sword swinging across, severing another monster's six-fingered paw. "I could use a hand here."
"What…?" Sir Danna's voice was thick, her words clumsy.
The Hunter growled. She wouldn't be much help anytime soon.
He hacked down another Stone Guardian, and a momentary lull gave him a chance to glance down the trail toward Enarium. His gut clenched as the three monstrous figures charged Kiara and Hailen. Kiara's hand flashed out, and the purple cloud erupted from the toadstool. The Stone Guardians tried to slow, too late. The spores enveloped them in the miasma of death. They fell back, shrieking, clawing at their eyes as their flesh sizzled and melted away.
The Hunter let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. The way was clear. They would reach—
A dagger of fear stabbed into his heart. Two more Stone Guardians started up the side of the mountain onto the trail, twenty paces behind Kiara and Hailen. He wanted to cry out a warning, but his tongue refused to form words. He could do nothing but watch, frozen in horror, as the two massive creatures pounded toward the fleeing figures.
This time, it was Hailen who reacted. Something colorful appeared in his little hand. He tossed it behind him—a pathetic throw from a weak arm. The Stone Guardians were so close on their heels they didn't even have time to slow before the toadstool burst at their feet.
Relief surged within the Hunter as the two monstrous creatures crumbled to liquefied flesh.
The roar of a Stone Guardian brought him spinning around, and he hacked down the creature as it tried to climb over one of its slain fellows. Two more shoved through the obsidian stones, forcing the Hunter to draw out the toadstool—his last—and hurl it in their faces. The beasts fell back with terrible howling shrieks of agony, their serpentine tails and heavily-muscled limbs thrashing wildly as they died.
For a single moment, there were no more of the Stone Guardians. Whether they feared the toadstools or the pitiful human that somehow managed to kill them, the monsters paused in their approach. The Hunter glanced toward Enarium in time to see Kiara and Hailen racing up the trail and through the gate. Without hesitation, he ripped Soulhunger from the skull of the Stone Guardian, then turned and ran toward Sir Danna.
"Time to go!"
She flinched back from him, her hand instinctively dropping to the iron dagger on her belt. "Stay away, Demon!"
"Really?" The Hunter shook his head. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying to keep you alive!"
Sir Danna's eyes came into focus, and she seemed to see the scene of carnage around her for the first time. Her eyes went wide as she stared at the Stone Guardian corpses, then up at the Hunter. She stiffened at the sight of Lord Knight Moradiss' greatsword in his hand.
"There’ll be time for you to kill or capture me later," the Hunter said as he reached for Sir Danna's arm. "At least, you can take your best shot at it. For now, let's just focus on getting the bloody hell out of here."
Though Sir Danna looked like she wanted to retort, the bump on her head hadn't knocked out all her good sense. She kept her mouth shut and allowed the Hunter to help her upright. She groaned, but managed to stay standing as the Hunter slung her arm over his left shoulder—he'd need his right to swing the sword—and half-dragged her through the circle of standing stones The smell of rot and decay faded as he helped the knight stagger down the short slope on the trail toward Enarium..
"Why?" Sir Danna growled in his ear. "Why not leave me there?"
"I promised Kiara," the Hunter answered through gritted teeth. "She thinks you're worth saving."
Sir Danna said nothing as they stumbled away from the Dolmenrath. Twenty paces from the ring of standing stones, the descending trail leveled out for a short distance, with two steep drops on both sides of the path. The Hunter tensed, expecting Sir Danna to try to knock him off. He felt her stiffen as well, doubtless fearing he'd do the same. A little grin spread the Hunter's lips as they began the climb toward Enarium.
The Lost City of the Serenii rose before him, proud towers mirroring the puffy white clouds and the brilliant blue of the sky above. The marble wall shone a blinding white that seemed to grow even more dazzling with every step closer. Up the steep incline, fewer than a hundred paces from where they stood, the open gate beckoned to them. Without the weight of the heavily-armored knight, he could sprint up the hill and reach Enarium in two minutes.
But he'd promised Kiara. For some reason, hearing that she admired him for being honest made him want to keep right on being precisely that. He would keep his word to help Sir Danna because she expected him to. It made no sense, but he didn't have time to question it.
"They're coming!" Sir Danna gasped beside him.
Sure enough, when he glanced back, he found half a dozen of the Stone Guardians charging through the ring of standing stones and down the trail toward them. More rumbling, thundering growls echoed from the cliffs on either side of the trail they climbed. He had no idea how many were coming, but certainly too many. He couldn't fight while hauling Sir Danna.
He stopped and slipped out from beneath her arm. "Go!" he told her. "Get to safety. I'll hold them off."
"Are you insane?" the knight screamed. "There's too many of them!"
The Hunter shrugged. "Maybe. But I'm going to face them head-on rather than be cut down from behind." He shot a wry smile over his shoulder. "A warrior like you ought to appreciate that."
Sir Danna's eyes were narrowed, her gaze piercing.
The Hunter hesitated. The knight had tried to kill him—more than once—so why was he saving her life? Why was he giving up a chance to be reunited with his wife and child, a chance to cure Hailen, and to stop the Sage?
He knew why. No one could ever accuse him of being heroic. He'd hurt others, killed—out of a desire to find peace, perhaps, but the blame for his actions could not lie exclusively at the feet of his inner voices. He'd made the choice to do those things. People had suffered and died because of him, and the burden of their deaths had grown too heavy to endure. He could not bear another.
"Consider this atonement for Lord Knight Moradiss and Visibos," the Hunter said in a quiet voice. "For everything else I've done. Just…promise you'll find a cure for the boy. And stop the Sage, no matter what happens to me. Save the world, Sir Danna. I'll be a bit too busy to take the job on myself."
The Hunter saluted the stunned Sir Danna with the iron sword, then turned toward the charging Stone Guardians. He had never truly feared death, and he faced it now without flinching. All that mattered was that Hailen and Kiara had reached safety. Sir Danna would take care of the Sage, and the world would be safe another day.
I'm sorry, Az'nii, he thought, swallowing the lump in his throat. He'd come so close to finding Her. Perhaps in another lifetime.
He met the Stone Guardians' furious rumbling with a roar of his own and brought down the first one with a great sweeping blow of the iron sword. He ducked a swiping claw and stepped back as the Stone Guardian slammed its hind paw down on the trail. The ground trembled beneath the impact, but the Hunter was already swinging the sword in a low horizontal arc. The iron blade sheared through its left leg and crunched into its right knee. It crashed to the ground to be trampled by the monster behind it.
The narrow trail forced the Stone Guardians to come at him one at a time, and the Hunter faced them without hesitation. Yet his heart sank as two more Stone Guardians climbed up on the trail below him. He gave ground, swinging his sword to keep the monsters at bay. He had to hold them off long enough for Sir Danna to get up to Enarium. The Cambionari counted among the most stubborn people on Einan—her head injury wouldn't stop her.
Gritting his teeth, he hacked out at the next Stone Guardian to attack. The blow severed the creature's six-fingered, clawed hand, and black blood spurted from its stump. The beast stumbled in its own blood, off-balance. With a growl, the Hunter drove the tip of the sword through the Stone Guardian's eye and into its brain.
But the next monster was already moving. It leapt over the fallen body of its comrade and landed on the trail behind the Hunter. The Hunter whirled to strike out, but the Stone Guardian batted the sword aside. The force of the blow nearly knocked the heavy weapon from the Hunter's grip, and only his inhuman reflexes saved him from falling off the narrow trail.
The Stone Guardian reared up on its leonine hind legs for an attack. The Hunter tried to swing the blade around to block or deflect its claws, but he moved too slowly. The Stone Guardian's taloned foreclaws slammed into him, knocking him the ground. The blow dazed him, and for a moment the world whirled at a dizzying pace. A dim part of his mind expected to feel the crunch of bone or the tearing of flesh.
Yet instead of a howl of triumph, he heard a bestial shriek of pain. He pushed himself up to one elbow, and through a whirling blur, he saw an armored figure crouched behind the Stone Guardian. The creature screamed again as the figure ripped a dagger free of its rear haunch.
The Hunter's mind struggled to comprehend what he was seeing. Sir Danna hadn't left him to die.
The knight drove her iron dagger into the back of the Stone Guardian's knee, and the creature sagged. With a roar, she seized the spines protruding from the monster's back and shoved it over the edge.
Sir Danna extended a hand. "Well, are you just going to lie there, or are you going to help me kill these bastards?"
Chapter Forty-Three
The Hunter accepted her outstretched hand and pulled himself to his feet. "What the hell are you doing?" He failed to conceal his shocked surprise. "I told you to run!"
"And leave you to have all the fun?" Sir Danna shook her head. "Not a bloody chance."
The Hunter had no time to reply before the next Stone Guardian charged. He brought the iron sword crashing down onto the monster's head, dropping it like a felled ox. A quick downward thrust drove the tip into the creature's brain. He ripped the greatsword free in time to block the swiping claws of the next Stone Guardian to face him. The Hunter's gut clenched as the iron sword shuddered beneath the impact. The brittle metal blade had already sustained far more damage than he'd expected, and he feared it would shatter at any moment.
But he had no chance to find an alternative. He chopped the foreleg out from beneath one Stone Guardian, removed the top of its reptilian skull with a vicious horizontal slash, and twisted out of the way of the next monster's attack. Th
e creature leapt past him, only to be faced by Sir Danna and her iron dagger.
"You trying to get yourself killed?" the Hunter growled.
"Saving you, more like." Sir Danna ducked the slashing claws and thrust her dagger into the creature's bicep. The Hunter drove the tip of the iron greatsword into the base of the Stone Guardian's spiked skull a heartbeat before it tore the knight to shreds with its long, razor-sharp claws. The massive monster crumpled into a limp heap at her feet.
"Here." Soulhunger screamed in the Hunter's mind as he drew the dagger and extended it to the knight. "You'll need more than just that little knife to stay alive."
Sir Danna seemed as surprised by the act as Soulhunger. She stared at the dagger in his hand as if she looked at a coiled serpent. She knew the dark power the blade possessed, and her face made her revulsion plain.
"It won't steal their souls," the Hunter told her, "if they have any. But it will get through their stone skin."
The knight hesitated a long moment before she took Soulhunger. She flinched, as if from a rabid dog, but the arrival of two more Stone Guardians forced them both to turn back to the path. The Hunter wielded the iron greatsword, hacking, slashing, dismembering, while Sir Danna used Soulhunger and her iron dagger to bring down any he let slip past.
Black blood slicked the stones beneath their feet. The Hunter's arms ached and his lungs burned, but still the Stone Guardians came on. It was all he could do to keep fighting, keep swinging the huge sword, all the while slowly taking one backward step after another. Sir Danna seemed to understand his plan for a fighting retreat, and she wielded Soulhunger and the iron dagger with devastating efficiency. She may not have trained to fight the Abiarazi, but she knew the dance of death as well as anyone he'd faced.
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