Talon hissed and lashed out with her tail, missing the gorc’s face by inches. Durza took a few hesitant steps back. She was wearing a different dress today, this one blue with short sleeves. And she had a wig on her head, with long curly dark hair.
Talon hissed at the gorc again. Was that dream Durza’s doing? “You did thiss? Givess me thiss dream?”
“Dream? N-no, I-I I’m sorry. I waked you up, Mistress Talon. You was sleepin’ a long time,” the gorc babbled.
Talon scowled. Why had it been so hard for her to wake from that awful dream? The slightest sound or movement should have done it. Her instincts were honed. The moonrat mother was surely looking for her. Why had she continued to sleep?
Maybe it was the stupid feather mattress. She tore at it and tufts of downy feathers spilled out. “No!” she said, instantly regretting it.
“I-I can fix it Mistress Talon,” Durza held out a jar of those spicy sausages Talon liked. “I brought you some foods to eat.”
In the two weeks Talon had been there, she had eaten most of the sausages. There were only a few left. Talon had nearly killed the gorc the day before when she had found out Durza had been hiding some of the jars away. Durza was trying to save them so they wouldn’t be all gone, or so she said.
The gorc was a nuisance. Talking all the time, complaining when Talon broke things and then cleaning up after her. Talon ordered her not to clean up the broken things. She liked broken things. But Durza would wait until Talon left the room and clean it anyway. Then there was her habit of calling Talon ‘Mistress’. Talon hated that.
“Why did you wakess me?” Talon asked.
“Th-there’s sonethin’ outside wants to come in,” Durza said hesitantly. “I-I been usin’ my witchy-witch magic to make it stay away, but it keeps sniffing ‘round.”
“Doess it?” Talon asked. She darted to the window and peered into the street below. “I seess nothing.”
“It’s on the other side of the house,” Durza said. “By the kitchen place.”
“What iss it?”
“I don’t knows. It feels like . . . like you, Mistress Talon,” Durza said.
“Like me?” Talon smiled. Could it be Deathclaw? Had he found her?
“Yes, its brain feels like you. It wonders why it don’t want to come inside this place.”
Talon’s smile faltered. If it was Deathclaw, he could be a nuisance. If he found his way inside the house, Talon would have to fight him again. That would be fun but she could no longer stay in the house. The house was her hiding place. Without it, the moonrat mother would find her.
“I go,” Talon said. She would lead Deathclaw away. Lead him far into the forest. “I will be gone for some dayss. Then I will come back.”
“Really? You must go?” The gorc looked heartbroken. “Don’t leave me, Mistress Talon.”
“I am not Misstress!” she hissed.
“Can’t you just kills it and come right back?” Durza pleaded.
“No,” she said. Not this time she couldn’t. Deathclaw was not to die. “I will comes back. Wait here.”
Talon crept down the stairs and peered out the window by the front door. She thought she saw movement in the street. She moved through the sitting room and the dining room into the kitchen and looked out the narrow crack between the door and jam.
Durza crept up behind her. At least she was good at being quiet. The gorc leaned towards Talon and whispered. “It’s in the house crossed the street. It smells somethin’ there, I think.”
Talon knew what Deathclaw smelled. It was her. She had been careless and let herself bleed on the floor in that house when she had cut herself out of boredom one day.
She raised the bar on the door and slipped outside, nodding in satisfaction when she heard Durza bar the door behind her. That wouldn’t keep Deathclaw out, but it could help if anything else came while Talon was gone.
Talon crept along the street in the opposite direction of the house Deathclaw was in, releasing the pheromones that would mask her scent. She couldn’t let him find her too close to the house. He might come back if he thought she would return there. She paused at the city gates and turned off the pheromones. She urinated to be sure he would smell her, then chirped. It was a teasing command, one they used as small ones in the desert sands. It meant follow me. She heard a crash from within the walls and knew he had heard her.
Talon darted into the forest, staying west of the road, away from the places thickest with moonrats. It was mid-day and unlikely they would be hunting, but it never hurt to be cautious. She left her tracks visible, knowing it might make him suspicious, but also knowing he would follow anyway. After an hour of running, she paused and waited to see if he had.
She listened intently for the slightest rustle of leaves. If he was as eager to chase her as he usually was, he wouldn’t bother to stay silent just yet. Five minutes passed by and there was nothing. Was it possible he had lost her trail? Surely he wasn’t that inept.
A moonrat moan echoed through the forest. Talon turned and sniffed the air. The sound had come from the south of her. Another moan echoed out, this one to the west. Those were hunting calls. Moonrats didn’t hunt during the day.
She heard the rustle of leaves a moment later. Finally he was coming. She climbed the nearest tree. It was tall, with thick branches. A good place to hide in. She would pounce on him when he arrived.
She waited and another moonrat moaned, joined by several more. These were also to the south, but closer now. She must make this fight with her brother quick. She would defeat him, then run to the east towards the road, then double back with her pheromones active, leading him to think she was hiding in the moonrat mother’s lair. These moonrats would make things even better. They would give him a merry fight, giving her more time to sneak away.
Finally his steps approached her tree. Talon tensed up in anticipation. More moonrats called out. To the east and west, but this did not matter. Deathclaw was here, except . . . The creature that walked under her tree was not her brother.
For a moment she had no idea what it was. It was female, with a shape similar to hers and a long tail with a barbed tip. But it had a full head of hair like a human. Long flowing red hair. Then she understood. This was a raptoid. A new raptoid. Ewwie had been busy.
It looked up at her and Talon saw that it had lips just like she did as well. But its skin was not the same grayish green. This creature’s skin was a bluish green unlike any raptoid Talon had ever seen.
“Talon,” it said. “You are Talon?”
She dropped from the branch and landed on the ground before the thing. She peered up at it with a questioning chirp. “Yess. And what are you, thing?”
“I am Clara,” it said. “I am a raptoid. King Ewzad sent me to get you. You must come home.”
“Ewwie ssent you?” Talon’s laugh was a throaty hiss. “No. The moonrat mother ssendss you.”
Clara cocked her head. “The Mistress follows King Ewzad.”
“Sshe doess not,” Talon spat. “You know this, Clara thing. Sshe hatess Ewwie. Sshe betrayss Ewwie.”
“She did not send me,” Clara said, Ewwie had given her thick eyebrows and she raised them earnestly as she spoke. “King Ewzad misses you. King Ewzad loves you. He says come home.”
Talon stood to her full height. She noted with satisfaction that she was slightly taller than this new raptoid. “You lie. The moonrat mother ssendss you.”
“Why do you say this?” Clara asked, and by the way the color of her face deepened, Talon knew she was angry.
“Your eyess,” Talon said.
It blinked at her with eyes an azure blue. “They are gnomes eyes. King Ewzad gave them to me.”
“Not those eyess,” Talon pointed a long finger at the orange eye embedded in the center of Clara’s forehead. “That one.”
“The Mistress guides me. Tells me King Ewzad’s words,” Clara said with an angry hiss.
Talon slid up to her and reached out to cup Clara’s jaw.
“Sshe hurtss you, yess?” She traced Clara’s lips with one taloned finger. “But not like Ewwie. Her hurtss make you obey. Her hurtss are not fun.”
Clara slapped her hand away. “You will come with me. King Ewzad wants you home. He has work for you.”
“I will not have one of her eyess in me,” Talon said stepping closer, moving her body sensuously in the way that Ewwie had shown her, the way that would unnerve her prey.
Clara leaned forward and whispered into Talon’s ear, her voice sounding like the moonrat mother’s. “You will have no choice. You will be mine, Talon.”
Moonrat moans echoed again, this time from every direction. Talon stepped back and hissed. She crouched in attack posture, tail curved, claws extended. Moonrats streamed in from the forest all around her. Their green eyes gleamed even in the dappled sunlight. Talon could feel the weight of the moonrat mother’s mind upon her.
She heard the female voice in her mind and Clara’s lips mouthed every word. “You will come to me, Talon. Your precious Ewwie has given you to me. I will reign you in and if you are obedient, I will place you in charge of these new raptoids.”
“No. You will not,” Talon hissed.
“Then you will be punished.”
Talon felt it then, the sensation she dreaded more than anything else. A numbness crept in on her, starting from her fingertips and toes and creeping up her body.
“No!” Talon screamed. She clawed out the eyes of the moonrat closest to her.
“Stop now,” the female voice commanded. Clara took a threatening step forward and the numbness continued to spread.
“No!” Talon stabbed another moonrat with her tail, piercing its heart.
“Stop it!”
Talon threw herself at the moonrats, killing another, then another.
“Stop!” Clara collided with her, taking Talon to the ground, her long claws piercing Talon’s flesh. Clara rolled to the top, pinning Talon’s legs with her knees and grasped Talon’s wrists in her claws. “You will obey.”
Talon barely felt the pain. The numbness spread further. Her vision weakened. She would not let this happen! She whipped her tail about and pierced Clara’s lower back near the base of her spine with her hollowed barb. She pumped Ewwie’s poison in to the raptoid’s body. “Die.”
Clara hissed and trembled, then rolled off of Talon and stood on her feet. The raptoid’s breathing was labored. “King . . . Ewzad thought you might do this. He has made me . . . strong against the death . . . whisper poison.”
“That much poisonss?” Talon asked. Ewwie had made her poison gland very large. Even if the strength of the poison was somewhat diluted, the amount she had used was the equivalent of a hundred death whisper stings.
“I . . . am . . . strong!” Clara insisted.
Talon leapt at her, claws extended. But Clara was fast. The raptoid moved aside before Talon could reach her. Clara lashed out, her claws scoring deep gashes in Talon’s side.
This was a pain Talon felt and she gurgled in pleasure at it. “Thank you, Ugly Clara.”
“You . . . thank me?” The raptoid was still breathing heavy. She frowned and cocked her head. “Ugly?”
“Your ugly hairs,” Talon taunted. She began circling Clara, struggling to fight off the encroaching numbness. “Your ugly colors. Your ugly orange eye! You are ugly as the moonrat mother!”
Clara screeched in rage. She darted forward, quicker than Talon had anticipated. Clara dove for the ground and rolled, whipping her tail forward. Her tail barb slashed diagonally across Talon’s chest, scoring down to the bone.
“You . . . are the ugly one!” Clara hissed. “Bald! Gray!”
Talon gurgled a laugh. The wound hurt. She focused on the pain. Her vision cleared. She began circling Clara again, ignoring the spurts of blood that poured down her belly.
The moonrats smelled the blood. Despite the mother of the moonrat’s tight reign on them, some of them began feeding on their dead. One came too close to Talon’s legs and she stabbed out with her tail, piercing its green eye and into its brain.
“Talon is beauty. Clara is ugly!” Talon said, readying herself for another attack. Clara hissed but did not charge this time. The raptoid’s legs were shaking. Talon blinked, thinking of another taunt she could say. Then an idea came to her. Something Ewwie had said. Something the moonrat mother did not like. Talon smiled. “Mellinda.” Clara tensed up. “Mellinda is ugly!”
Clara screeched and charged again. She dove forward in her rolling attack again, but this time Talon was ready for her speed. Talon caught Clara’s tail in her left hand and when the raptoid tried to roll to her feet, Talon slashed out with her right hand. Her claws raked Clara’s face, tearing her lips and splitting the orange eye on her forehead.
Clara screeched and thrashed on the ground, clutching her head. Talon’s numbness faded and she shuddered, enjoying the return of sensation to her limbs. The moonrats growled and began to back away.
“Mistress! I can’t hear you!” Clara hissed.
Talon frowned at her. Was this raptoid broken too? “You are free from your misstress, Ugly Clara. You will kill these moonratss with me?”
Clara stopped her writhing and climbed to all fours. She glared at Talon with her wounded face and hissed, her tail swaying back and forth. “You will come back. The Mistress wants it! King Ewzad wants it!”
“No! I lovess Ewwie, but I hatess your misstress!” Talon declared.
Clara sprang at her. Talon let her come. She grasped Clara’s reaching hands and fell backwards, bringing her knees up to her chest. Clara came down on top of her, biting into Talon’s neck.
Talon kicked out, digging the claws on her feet deep into Clara’s abdomen, tearing through scales and muscle. Talon shoved her to the side, enjoying the way the raptoid’s teeth tore her throat. Clara tried to stand, but the poison had weakened her and her insides were pushing through the tears in her belly. She clutched at her stomach, trying to hold them in.
“Would you comess with me, Ugly Clara?” Talon rasped, her torn throat making it hard to speak. “We will come to Ewwie when the moonrat mother is dead.”
Clara glared. “No.”
Talon thrust out with her tail, piercing up through the soft underside of Clara’s jaw and the roof of her mouth. Talon squeezed her remaining poison into the raptoid’s brain. Clara went still.
Talon turned to the moonrats, who had watched the exchange without comment. She could feel her wounds closing already, and enjoyed the itching sensation of her flesh knitting together.
“I will have you,” the female voice said.
Talon licked her lips. She could not return to Durza. The moonrat mother would find her there now and both of them would be captured. There was only one thing left for her to do.
“I will killss you, Ugly Mellinda,” she promised with a gurgling giggle. “Then I will returnss to Ewwie.”
“Come then, foolish thing,” Mellinda replied. The moonrats turned and slunk deeper into the forest.
Talon smiled. Then she set about removing Clara’s head just to be sure she stayed dead.
Chapter Nineteen
Hilt put his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “I’m sorry.”
Beth stood at the gate of Pinewood. She looked inside the walls, one hand raised to her mouth, her brow furrowed. “I-I knew what I would find, dear. It’s just strange. I expected more . . . destruction.”
Deathclaw looked inside the gates and saw what she meant. The glass in most of the buildings was broken. There was clothing and odd garbage in the streets, but the town was more or less intact. It just felt empty. Suddenly a scent wafted to him.
Deathclaw’s heart raced. He ran to the edge of the open gates and crouched down, sniffing the metal hinge at the bottom. “Talon was here!”
“Here?” Charz turned around as if expecting to find her on his back.
“Do you smell her?” Hilt asked, though his attention was still focused on his wife.
“She . . .” Death
claw tried to think of a word he could pronounce. Not peed. “Watered here.”
“She drank something?” Charz asked. “You can smell that?”
“She . . .” Deathclaw mimed squatting and gestured.
“Ohh,” Charz said.
Now Deathclaw was glad he had stayed. He had nearly left his companions several times since Justan’s thoughts had suddenly disappeared from the bond three days prior. The only reason he knew Justan wasn’t dead was the dull certainty remaining that he was somewhere to the south and west where the Mage School was. Charz had communicated with Alfred and found out that Justan was injured, but alive. Beth’s assurances that Justan was in the care of the best healers in the known lands had been of little comfort.
Deathclaw looked around for sign of Talon’s trail. The urine was over a day old. Why hadn’t Talon bothered to hide her scent? Did she know he was here? Did she want him to find it?
“Is there anyone alive in there?” Charz asked. “Can you tell with your magic?”
Beth shook her head. “I can’t feel any . . . any . . . wait!” Her eyes widened. “Get your swords ready.”
Hilt drew his weapons and took one step in front of her. Deathclaw drew Star. He could feel an odd pain when the star emblem on her grip touched the star-shaped scar still embedded in his palm.
“Is it Talon?” Deathclaw asked.
“I don’t think so,” Beth said. “But I felt a hostile resistance to my magic just now. I reached out to hide us from Mellinda’s eyes and I contacted another magic that was trying to do the same thing.”
“Are you saying there’s another witch? Here?” Hilt asked.
“That’s how it feels,” Beth said. “When our magics touched, it recoiled, then it sent threatening images at me.”
“Ain’t scared of witches,” Charz said as he walked through the gates. “Where should I go?”
“I’m feeling that out,” Beth said. She had her eyes closed and one hand was held out, reaching towards the town. “I think . . .” She blinked her eyes open. “I think it’s coming from the center of town.”
They stepped cautiously through the gates and down the main road. The streets were criss-crossed with the footprints of humans and moonrats pressed deep into the dry dirt. It had been muddy the night Pinewood was attacked and whatever rain had fallen since then hadn’t fallen hard enough to destroy the signs of the battle. From the way the various moonrats and occasional troll tracks were overlaid on top of the human tracks, Deathclaw knew that the monsters had roamed around the place for a while after the humans left.
The Bowl of Souls: Book 05 - Mother of the Moonrat Page 24