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. The 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.
Step by agonizing step, they fought to hold their ground as more Stone Guardians appeared from the mountains. Their presence stunned the Hunter—how many of the Abiarazi had tried to return to Enarium, only to be twisted and turned into the guardians of the Lost City by its curse? More than twenty stony corpses littered the Dolmenrath on the hill and the stony trail before him, and still they came on.
The Hunter brought a Stone Guardian to the ground with a powerful sweep of the sword, but the strike exposed his back to another creature. He grunted as long stone talons raked across his back, shredding his leather armor. Only Sir Danna's quick thinking kept him from being crushed beneath its upraised fist—the knight threw herself past him and charged the monster's leg. Soulhunger and her iron dagger bit into the creature's knee, eliciting a roar of pain. The Stone Guardian swiped at Sir Danna, but she ducked between its legs and drove Soulhunger into its spiny back, just above its flicking tail. The monster sagged, spinal column severed, and the Hunter hacked off its head.
A Stone Guardian charged Sir Danna and leapt high into the air.
The Hunter had a split second to shout. "Look out!"
Too late.
Sir Danna whirled in time to meet the Stone Guardian's slashing claws. Steel armor shrieked in protest as the huge talons raked across the knight's chest. Sir Danna stumbled and would have fallen from the trail, had not the Hunter seized the collar of her backplate. A moment later, the Stone Guardian whipped its powerful tail around to crash into the knight's midsection. Sir Danna gave a little grunt as she flew through the air and landed hard with a clatter of armor on the stony trail behind the Hunter.
The Hunter turned and raced toward the fallen knight. He wove a deadly blur of sharp iron to keep the Stone Guardians at bay, but he knew it would only stall them so long. Four of the massive creatures faced him, teeth bared, serpentine eyes fixed on him.
The Hunter bared his teeth in a snarl of his own. "Come on, then! Come and get a taste of what you truly deserve."
With a roar, the foremost Stone Guardian charged. The Hunter let out an answering bellow as he ducked beneath the attack and brought the greatsword across to chop through the monster's massive hind leg. The Stone Guardian stumbled backward and tottered on the edge of the cliff. The Hunter drove his shoulder into the creature's torso and hurled it backward. Its flailing arms caught the Stone Guardian behind it, and the two of them fell from the trail to plummet to the ground far below.
Growling his rage, the Hunter hacked at the next beast with every shred of his strength. The savage cut sliced through the creature's sloping brow and removed the entire right half of its head. Its growl cut off in a strangled cry.
The last of the Stone Guardians raced toward him, then leapt high into the air. Caught off-guard, the Hunter had no time to chop at the beast as it passed over his head. The trail trembled beneath his feet as it landed not three paces from Sir Danna's prone form.
The Stone Guardian let out a triumphant roar and brought a taloned fist down onto Sir Danna's chest. Horror writhed within the Hunter's gut as steel crumpled like paper, accompanied by a sickening crunch of mangled flesh and bone beneath. The knight gave a strangled gasp, and blood sprayed from her mouth.
"No!"
The Hunter raised the iron greatsword and raced across the distance toward the Stone Guardian. It brought its rear leg down hard again on Sir Danna's chest as it whirled to face him, striking out with its massive claw-tipped paw
The Hunter skidded to a halt, but the tip of one razor talon dug a furrow in his forehead. He brought the greatsword swinging around in a vicious arc, and the blade chopped through the creature's huge arm, severing it at the shoulder. The Stone Guardian threw itself at the Hunter, seeking to bury him beneath its bulk.
The collision hurled the Hunter to the ground hard, and air whooshed from his lungs. He barely managed to roll out of the path of the stamping hind leg. He swung blindly at the monster, and he felt a shudder run down his arm as the flat of the blade clanged off the stony skin. There came a sound like a thousand glass windows shattering, and the sword in his hand grew suddenly light. When he pulled the blade back for another strike, he found he gripped only the hilt with two hand lengths of sword remaining.
Pain flared in his legs as the Stone Guardian raked its talons from hip to knee. The Hunter tried to roll out of the way, but the Stone Guardian drove a spiked claw through his thigh. A bark of pain escaped the Hunter's lips. He struck out with the severed stump of the iron greatsword, severing the monster's hand at the wrist. The creature let out a roar of agony and reared up on its hind legs.
With all the strength the Hunter could muster, he gathered his legs beneath him and leapt at the Stone Guardian, shattered sword outthrust. He let out a growl of rage as he drove the shard of blade up under the creature's chin and into its brain. The thing crumbled backward and crashed to the ground, limp and lifeless. The Hunter had a heartbeat to throw himself off the body before
it rolled from the edge of the trail, taking all that remained of Lord Knight Moradiss' iron greatsword with it.
The Hunter stumbled to his feet and, ignoring the pain in his legs and back, limped toward Sir Danna. The knight lay on her back, eyes fixed on the cloudless sky above. One look at her caved-in breastplate, and the Hunter had no doubt Sir Danna would join the Long Keeper within minutes.
"Are…they gone?" Sir Danna gasped.
"They are, for now." The Hunter knelt beside the knight. Her vivid red hair and the splotches of crimson made her skin seem even paler, yet her features had lost their harsh, bitter edge. "You came back to help me, why?"
"Kiara. She…" Sir Danna broke off in a weak cough, and blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth. "She thought…you…worth saving, too."
The Hunter swallowed hard. "Still, you know what I am. What I did to Moradiss and…" The word proved surprisingly difficult to say. "…Visibos."
"Can't take…hate with me…to the Long Keeper." Her face twisted into a wry grin. "Visibos…would have said…that. Wise…man."
"I think he'd have gotten it from you." He took her hand and gripped it. "All those months ago, when we met on the road, do you remember what you told me? About being good?"
Sir Danna nodded weakly.
"What you said, it made me want to prove you right. I wanted to be that man you said I was. I wanted to be better." The Hunter's eyes fell away. "It's because of you I'm here, Sir Danna."
The weak smile returned to the knight's lips. "Ironic…I'm here…because of you."
The Hunter chuckled. "We've both come a long way since that day, eh?" He glanced around. After the scene of battle, the utter stillness seemed somehow eerie. No more Stone Guardians appeared in the mountains around him. He had no doubt more would come, but he could spare the dying knight a few minutes. She deserved that much.
Darkblade Slayer Page 31