The Last Larnaeradee

by Shelley Cass

  We hadn’t had any particularly sheltered area to hide in that night and the trees were the only thing that provided us with any cover.

  “Oh Kiana …” Noal didn’t know what to say to her.

  I was reminded again of the beautiful village singer I had fallen in love with as a boy at a festival day in Bwintam, and felt a pang of remorse. I had mourned when I’d thought she had been murdered, but even though I was now quite certain that I had found her again, in many ways she really had been lost.

  Kiana rubbed her arms with the growing night’s chill, and I rose to fetch her cloak and drape it over her.

  “You’ll have us,” I reminded her.

  “A true gift,” Noal agreed.

  I felt her brief, grateful touch warm my hand on her good shoulder as she wrapped herself in the cloak. But then I had to rub my fingers together for heat as I crossed to calm Amala and Ila, who were stamping nervously and shifting their weight, their ears flicking backward and forward.

  I noticed that their velvety flesh was cool to touch, not radiating like usual. I rubbed Amala’s cold forehead, and Ila snorted nervously at me when I scratched at her twitching ears.

  “Your lips have turned purple,” I observed when I turned to Noal, who had started poking at the dwindling campfire to keep it going. It did suddenly feel as if winter had begun without bothering to wait its turn in the cycle of seasons.

  Kiana shifted, rubbing at her shoulder with a grimace.

  “It has got cold,” Noal complained, his breath producing misty clouds. “The fire won’t stay alive.”

  “The horses are sure skittish, too,” I commented, trying to keep my teeth from chattering.

  Kiana’s posture stiffened. “It’s near the end of spring,” she said alertly. “There’s rarely anything more than frost during this time.”

  “Sure there is,” Noal frowned, and he was shivering.

  “Not that feel this unnatural, when only moments ago the night was just a touch fresh.” Her words finally sank in.

  The campfire completely died now as Noal paused in stirring it. The shadows seemed to press in and the trees loomed darkly over us. Ila whinnied in fear.

  “Oh dear,” Noal uttered in a shaken voice.

  Kiana sprang to action at once. “Saddle the horses, gather your things, have your weapons at the ready.”

  “What are we going to do?” asked Noal, hastily stuffing things into his pack as Kiana started to saddle Amala. “What can we do?”

  “We are going to get out into the open.”

  “Is that such a good idea?” he gasped. “We won’t have any protection. They’ll be able to see us!”

  All of my equipment was packed and I began to saddle Ila for Noal.

  “It would be no use hiding from beasts that can smell us out just as easy as spot us.” Kiana pulled herself into the saddle and loosened her sword in its sheath. Her bow, quiver and arrows were slung over her shoulder within reach. “It will also do no good to have five beasts hiding behind trees, unseen by us.”

  “When you put it like that,” Noal looked ill as he swung himself up onto Ila.

  “We must confront them. They are too close for us to flee unless we do something to slow them down so we can escape.” She reached for a large, thick branch, hacking with her dagger, and then strapped the bough onto Amala as I mounted behind her.

  “There’s a place not far from here where a beast I once hunted unexpectedly exploded and scorched the earth into a perfect arena for us. And I have some tricks in my healer bag that could be helpful,” she explained.

  She was not in the slightest unnerved, though I could see Noal’s pinched face, and I felt my own heart racing.

  “I have a plan,” she promised, and then led us at a gallop away from the trees and across the green seas of grass.

  Chapter Forty Eight

  Yes, yes, yes, Agrona gloated to herself with each beat of her raven wings.

  The Evexus loped like panthers beneath her, crossing ground that was covered with the Awyalknians’ fresh scent.

  Before tonight, it had become too clear to deny that some unfathomable power had been deflecting her efforts as the hunt for the three Awyalknians had dragged out. Agrona’s doubt had flared up and festered into true loathing for the woman from her vision in that prolonged time of hunting. The infuriated Witch had been able to sense Kiana the whole time – in fact, Agrona had been almost able to taste the poisonous dart of her own dark magic branding the dark haired beauty – but every night the Evexus had failed to flush the three out of hiding, and Agrona’s hunger to end the threat had swelled.

  This was unheard of. She had never encountered a block like this.

  Ahhhh, but tonight the three hadn’t shielded themselves well enough. Tonight they would be hers.

  There was a growing light of fire in the distance now and the Evexus gained in speed, drawing towards an incredible, ballroom sized arena of charred earth, which was ringed by a border of flames.

  The three were standing in the middle of the strange pitch, back to back near their horses, with weapons drawn. Kiana herself was carrying a blazing torch as the Evexus fanned out around the intensely burning barrier, and Agrona could smell that the flames had somehow been created by chemicals. Possibly unquenchable chemicals. And the perfect circle of burned earth prevented the risk of the arsonists being burned alive themselves.

  Nevertheless, the Witch was not wholly impressed, because the fiery ring, even with those unquenchable chemicals, was not hot enough to deter the new Evexus models for long.

  Agrona smugly blotted out the diamond glow of the stars and circled high above the arena while Darziates’ five beautiful beasts awaited her call. They looked like nothing more than tricks of the flickering light, and the night seemed to hold its breath. Until Agrona released a commanding screech that made the three duck, and that sent the Evexus charging right through the blaze.

  The Evexus screamed in agony for but a moment as they passed through the inferno wall, but then they continued on, already healing.

  The female – Kiana, loosed a fierce cry before charging to meet the three Evexus closest to her, crashing fearlessly into battle with them. The raven hissed as Kiana skilfully spun and ducked and wove and sliced and parried and lunged and dodged their whirlwind attacks of frenzied, spiked limbs and biting cold.

  The two boys followed Kiana’s lead, hurling themselves into battle with the remaining beasts.

  It was obvious that the boys too had been well trained. As she watched, the dark haired, tall male was ducking instinctively beneath a spiked arm. The lad quickly pulled his sword out from between the Evexus’ ribs and dodged behind his winded foe, hacking at a new place on the Evexus’ body in a strategic effort to keep it off balance.

  Oh yes, Agrona could see evidence of fortitude and talent from each of the three, with none of them showing the self doubt she’d relished in each of them previously. But it would do them no good. Every strategy they could concoct would of course be unsustainable – the Evexus healed from any wound.

  She watched one of her Evexus snatch up the blonde haired lad, who struggled gallantly to reclaim the right to his life.

  Pointless, but fun to watch.

  Chapter Forty Nine

  Dalin

  Dark, treacherous limbs reeled around me, claws whipping past just inches from my nose as my heart thumped a maddened beat in my chest.

  With a grunt of effort I put my entire body into wielding my shining blade in an arc that whistled about my ears.

  The snarling fiend swung around as my blade sawed into its back, and I was suddenly confronted by snapping fangs and soulless eyes. I jumped away but it whipped an arm after me that sent me hurtling backwards.

  The breath rushed from my core as my back connected with the scorched earth and my head followed, smashing heavily so that I felt a throbbing ache erupt behind my eyes. Before my vision had cleared, the feeling of a crushing iceberg slammed into my chest, and more air whee
zed out from my slackened jaw.

  The coloured lights bursting before my eyes slowly evaporated so that I could see a gruesome foot pinning me down, pressing with enormous weight to prevent the oxygen that I craved from being sucked back into my desperate lungs.

  Claws were digging into my tunic and the massive weight on my chest increased as the beast leered down, bending so that it could look at me closely, as if I were a fascinating insect it had stood on.

  As it bent its long, knobbly leg to arch its body closer, pushing its ghastly, pointed face down towards mine, its spiked kneecap drew inches from my eye. However at the same time it had brought itself close enough to be helpful to me.

  Wheezing, I swung my sword as hard as I could into those cruel features, cringing as the blade squelched and crunched through one grisly white eye. Then I pulled it free again and cut deeply at the foot.

  Its flailing arms flew up and its leg stamped away from my constricted chest, so that I could suck in gulps of air, roll away and unsteadily pick myself up.

  The beast was clutching at its eye and screeching at an abominably high pitch as I lunged, stabbing at its legs to make it fall heavily.

  Behind its recoiling and kicking in the dirt, I saw Kiana moving like one possessed, jabbing and burning one beast with her torch while stabbing ferociously at another two in an unwavering attack that meant they could never get close enough to assail her. Instead they charged and stumbled away from her one after the other.

  Then my eyes sought Noal, and found him struggling in the grip of his beast, high in the air while it held him by his sword arm, his sword being forced uselessly upward.

  Noal was gallantly throwing his free fist into the beast’s face as I recklessly charged away from my own beast, across to where he was dangling.

  Growling, I drew my sword up and swung a mighty blow into the exposed, leathery belly of the monster. The beast doubled over with a grunt and Noal slipped from its grasp to land safely on his feet.

  “Thank the Gods I have you,” Noal panted at me. Then he jumped back into the fray, slicing and cutting different parts of the monster’s body like a crazed butcher dicing meat.

  Before I could even think to turn back to my own beast, it came for me. I was torn from my feet, lifted into the air and tossed far across the circle.

  The world disappeared in a wave of vertigo until I pounded into hard ground. I blinked stupidly, feeling as if I’d swallowed a slab of granite while the flavour of blood made my teeth taste salty. But before I could even peel my face out of the dirt, I felt the ground shudder as the beast landed next to me.

  The back of my tunic was suddenly pulled tight in the beast’s grasp, and I heard the quick tearing sound of claws ripping into the material. I groaned as the skin of my back was also pierced and pulled into a scrunched handful, and cold spread from the claws to seep beneath my broken skin.

  “Frarshk,” I wheezed as I was dragged backward across the dirt, then lifted over the beast’s shoulder at a great height. Then suddenly I was heaved away again, tearing out of its grasp as my skin ripped free, shredded out of its talons.

  I soared at top speed out of the centre of the circle, turning in the air and yelling while I hurtled down to land and drag along on my back until I was only an arm’s span from the border of Kiana’s chemical flames.

  I hadn't landed in the flames or broken every bone in my body, but with a surge of panic I realised my hand was unbearably empty of any weapon.

  I stared across the distance to see my beast bending close to the ground, getting ready to push off and soar through the air.

  So I did the only thing I could think of.

  Chapter Fifty

  “Kiana!” the dark haired male yelled.

  Agrona saw Kiana look over her shoulder at her comrade even as she stabbed an Evexus through its chest. While the Evexus she had impaled tried not to topple, two more were charging at her from different directions.

  Yet in a matter of moments she had pulled her sword free and climbed up the leg, back and neck of the buckling, wounded Evexus so that the other two Evexus raced uncontrollably into the first, sandwiching it while Kiana perched safely on its shoulders.

  As they all fell in a heap of knotted limbs, Kiana dived and rolled away, then pounced up to throw her sword, sending it arcing through the air much as the brunette boy had flown only recently.

  He clutched her hilt gratefully as Kiana in turn ran to seize his sword from where it had landed nearby, turning easily to face the Evexus once more – as if the great beasts were nothing.

  Agrona seethed. The fun was quickly winding up, and she began to consider killing the boys as well as Kiana, instead of just apprehending them for her master. This feeling heightened while she watched the galvanised brunette boy begin attacking his Evexus even as it landed from its great leap.

  He was struck to the side of the head, clipped by a claw that opened a red line across his ear and jaw, and he hardly seemed to falter.

  The blonde lad was even sitting on the shoulders of his Evexus now, chopping with all of his might at the neck in front of him, while the Evexus could only slap in a frenzy at his hacking blade.

  Looking back, Kiana had begun pinning her opponents to the ground, her daggers keeping one Evexus’ arms staked into the dirt as she aimed a blow in between its eyes that made it go limp. Agrona felt rage like a bubbling oil slick in her stomach as she saw that the Evexus was both trapped and unable to heal while the daggers remained in the wounds.

  The boys began to mimic Kiana’s strategy, and before long, another beast was impaled with a crunching sound as a blade was forced through its skull and driven into the ground by the brunette boy.

  “Dalin!” Kiana shouted at the brunette boy, as she ran with two Evexus on her tail. “Catch!” she called.

  She threw his sword and her burning torch to him before she drew her bow and loaded it quickly with an arrow. She fired her arrow directly into the chest of the beast gaining on her fastest, and it careened wildly away from her with a yowl.

  Not hesitating she again loaded her bow in readiness and ducked under the legs of the next charging beast, squatting down calmly as its massive legs passed over her head. She then fired her arrow straight into the back of its head so that it collapsed into a thrashing heap, sending scorched dirt everywhere.

  Kiana began conferring a plan of some sort to Dalin, and before Agrona’s eyes, her master was insulted as his creations laid disabled in the dirt.

  No, no, no, she thought to herself with each wing beat.

  Oh, the battle would begin for real now.

  Chapter Fifty One

  Dalin

  Kiana sprinted in my direction, free for the moment of pursuers.

  “It’s time for you and Noal to get the horses.”

  “And you?” I wheezed.

  “I have a plan. But make sure you retrieve my sword from that thing’s head before you go.”

  I waved my hand at her in exasperation. “If we’re getting ready to ride, what will you be doing?”

  “I’ll draw all of the beasts to me in the centre here, so I’ll need you two and the mares safe and ready for us to flee. I may need help at that point. Use the liquid in the red bottle in my healer pack to quench a small span of the flames,” she instructed inflexibly, glaring in a way that suggested I had no choice but to do as she said.

  “You can trust in me,” I responded reassuringly.

  “I know,” I heard her pant before she turned and began running back toward the beasts that had plucked the arrows from their bodies and had started to thrash upright again.

  She dodged them easily, darting and running around them, and they were forced to follow her in chase like confused puppies.

  She ran toward where Noal was being tossed around by his beast, and she sliced across its back with an arrow in her hand.

  Its attention immediately turned to Kiana as it registered how the other beasts all seemed especially intent on her too. It dropped Noal
with a squeak to the ground and joined in the chase of Kiana, who truly was the most dangerous of our group.

  I sheathed my own sword and then yanked Kiana’s blade out of the skull of the flailing beast in front of me, and didn’t wait for it to start to heal itself. Kiana would gain its attention somehow.

  I discarded the torch and ran back to where Amala and Ila were huddled in complete terror. But they didn’t bolt or buck as Noal joined me, and I tied Kiana’s sword safely down before mounting.

  “Kiana says she has a red bottle that can clear a way out of the flames,” I puffed to Noal, watching as the screeching pack of beasts tried to catch a dodging, spinning, arrow firing Kiana.

  “How is a red bottle going to save us?” Noal panted back incredulously. “Gods give me strength.”

  I rummaged in her healer bag and pulled out a bottle with red glass.

  “That looks explosive,” Noal groaned, but we kicked the horses into action and galloped across to the opposite side of the circle from where Kiana was madly shooting her arrows.

  From Amala’s back I quickly uncorked the bottle and poured the gluggy liquid straight over a length of the flame, breaking the perfect ring of fire with a doorway.

  We rode out into the darkness and safety beyond the circle, but still felt the terrible intensity of the arena as we watched Kiana wrench her daggers free of the final pinned beast so that she now had all five of them chasing her.

  We watched, dumfounded, as the raven above shrieked in fury. Vicious wings swooped with rage, and cries of spite echoed piercingly above the scene.

  Then suddenly I felt an odd surging density in the air – as if I were being pulled at or the atmosphere was building in pressure. It was a foul kind of thick sizzling that I could almost taste, and that left a toxic residue.

  “Can you feel that?” Noal whispered anxiously, gazing at the sky and the raven with dread.

  “Gods,” I moaned. “Of course the Witch wouldn’t let us just best her pets and then leave.”