Finally, she found one small enough to step over, and so she did. But was being surrounded by these giants really better than being on the outside? No time to worry about that now.
The rocks in the pile were of that curious lightweight kind formed by ancient volcanoes. The rocks were craggy and pitted, but lighter than any rocks she’d ever lifted. The ax blade in her hand was heavier than half the rocks in the pile.
She set the blade down and began removing rocks carefully. She scraped one against the other, and almost jumped at the sound. Apparently what they lost in weight they more than made up for in noisiness. They all but screeched when touched together. Maybe that was part of the alarm the Gul’nog had created around their treasure.
So she lifted each rock silently off the rock beneath and set them a distance apart from one another in the dirt. They were so light she wanted to move quickly, and the blue light that began beaming out made her want to rush before it shone in a monster’s eyes. But she knew that if the rocks came screeching down upon themselves, the whole camp would wake up, and she’d be done for.
One rock off — quietly now … one rock down — not touching any other rock. Another rock off … another rock down.
Finally, she could see for sure what was making the blue light. The talisman! Its six-sided star pendant pressed into the larger amulet from Captain Ceres.
She plucked it off the stack and held it before her. At last.
Julia turned toward the trees. Time to quit pressing her luck and get out of here. She reached down to get the ax blade, and the horn slipped out and almost fell to the ground. This was crazy. She left the axe blade in the dirt and drew the horn out of her garment. She would do this with the horn in one hand and the talisman in the other. She went back to the skinnier Gul’nog and stepped one leg over.
And that was when the guard roared.
CHAPTER
10
The second guard! Julia saw it all the way across the camp. It was running toward her at full speed. It passed a weapons rack and pulled a spear off, roaring the whole time.
All around her, the Gul’nog began waking up. Some jumped up, ready to face an attacker. Others sat up more groggily. Either way, Julia’s luck had run out.
She bolted for the trees.
A Gul’nog stumbled in front of her, rubbing its eyes. She zoomed past it and hurdled another still on the ground.
She’d gotten halfway to the trees, but her moment of surprise was over. The creatures took up the guard’s roar and reached for her. Julia heard the clang of weapons being drawn. She ran as fast as she could.
Ahead, the bushes shook, and Gregory burst out. He held a sturdy-looking tree branch, but he was hardly a threat to the monsters. Still, a couple of them turned toward this new surprise, and Julia got past a few more.
From the corner of her eye she could see the creatures running beside her to catch up. Some ran surprisingly quickly, and she saw that they intended to get in front of her and cut her off.
Only one Gul’nog stood between Julia and the woods now, but it was a big one. It released a roar so frightening, so carnivorous, that she almost passed out from sheer terror. Its jaws unhinged to a monstrous width and revealed lines of saliva stretched over sharp teeth. It lunged for her, and Julia knew she was caught. Its mighty claw grasped her by the head and lifted her up.
Then abruptly dropped her.
The Gul’nog fell over. Along with half of Gregory’s branch.
Gregory tossed the other half at the other Gul’nog warriors, who stood trying to figure out what had happened. He yanked Julia’s hand — the one with the talisman — and pulled her into a run.
Julia’s head was still spinning from the thought that she was about to die. “What … happened? Why did it — wait, you’re running the wrong way.”
Gregory was leading her not into the trees but beside them. The forest sped by on their left side, and the Gul’nog swarmed toward them on their right. Ahead, the second guard awoke from his napping spot beside the cliff and looked around sleepily.
“I know,” Gregory said, huffing with effort. “We’d never get away that way. They’re too … fast.”
“But where—”
The only thing in front of them was a dead end. The cliff over the ocean stood right before them, with the wide sea beyond. The guard was on his feet now.
“No!” Julia said. “You’re crazy!”
“It’s the only way!”
She pulled her hand away and stopped. “No, it isn’t.” She turned to face the Gul’nog chasing them.
The creatures were so surprised at this, they stopped too, with the back ones running into the front ones.
To Julia’s left, she saw the boss Gul’nog fly out of his hut in a rage. Apparently, he’d noticed something missing.
It’s now or never, Julia.
She turned to the Gul’nog mob and raised her arms to the sides like an opera singer, the horn in one hand and the talisman in the other. She gathered her voice and let loose her very best scream.
The Gul’nog fell before her.
At least, one of them did. Someone had tripped him from behind. The others just stared at her. A few snorted something that sounded like a laugh.
The Gul’nog who had fallen got up and ran toward her. The others charged behind him.
Julia turned and ran.
Gregory stood looking at her. “What was that?”
“Nevermind!” She grabbed his hand, and they ran together toward the cliff. “That should’ve worked.”
Julia wanted to take a minute to stop and see if there was really water below the cliff or just an open jaw of jagged rocks, but she could hear the Gul’nog right at her back. One reached out and narrowly missed her hair.
As she ran, she brought the horn to her lips, monster spit and all, and tried to blow.
Pfft.
Pf — oot.
Pffff.
“Oh, nevermind. Here!” She flipped the horn over her head and hoped the Gul’nog would stop and fight for it and leave them alone.
Judging from the sound of colliding bodies behind her, some had. But if the thumping right at her heels was any indication, not all of them had. And to their right, the boss Gul’nog was coming up fast. The guard fell in behind him.
Julia risked a look at Gregory, running beside her. His face said this was possibly the last stupid thing they would ever do.
The cliff’s edge was just three meters ahead now. Dried plants clung to the edge next to pebbles and water bird nests.
Two meters now.
Water below still, but right below the cliff? Close enough for them to reach it? She couldn’t see.
One meter.
The Gul’nog right behind. Were there rocks down there? And, oh, it was much farther down than she —
With one hand clasped in Gregory’s and the talisman clasped in the other, Julia threw herself over the cliff.
There were rocks below. Julia saw them as she hurtled down in freefall. Ocean waves crashed against the rocks, sending up plumes of white spray that reached her feet nearly as soon as she’d entered open air. The roar of the surf circled her as if she were falling into a dragon’s open mouth.
But it looked like her jump had been just crazy enough and propelled by just enough fear that she had landed beyond the rocks.
She was aware of Gregory falling beside her. And something else. From behind and above her came the sounds of scratching, fumbling, and finally animalistic yelping as at least one Gul’nog tumbled off the cliff as well.
The water and rocks rushed up toward Julia, but she had enough time to realize that she would miss the rocks only to be bombed by a hairy, smelly monst—
Splash.
The water was shockingly cold, but it beat landing on rocks. She gripped the talisman with both hands and kicked sideways — away from the rocks, she hoped — away from the falling Gul—
Splash.
Splash-splash-splash. Splash.
I
t was raining giants.
Julia kicked to the surface just in time to see another Gul’nog fall into the sea. She caught a glimpse of the creatures beating the water’s surface all around her.
Above her on the cliff, scores of Gul’nog looked down, shaking their fists and weapons at her. They jostled each other, and one started to fall. It grabbed for the two beside it, and all three fell. They had not jumped far enough to clear the rocks. As an incoming wave raised Julia’s position, she saw them land in a gruesome heap on the boulders.
A strong hand grabbed her arm.
“Aagh!” she screamed.
The hand did not let go. It tugged her and spun her around, though she tried to fight.
“No!” she cried. “I won’t die here! I won’t!” She yanked her wrist and pulled her feet up to kick the attacker away.
“Julia, wait!” It wasn’t a Gul’nog attacking her — it was Gregory helping her.
She stopped fighting.
Gregory had a nasty-looking scratch on his forehead. Blood dripped down onto his right eye, and when a wave crashed over him and washed his face clean, the wound oozed more blood down his face. “Do you still have it?”
“What happened to you?”
“Do you have it?”
“Do I have what? Oh, the talisman. Yes, it’s—”
Something long and heavy sliced into the wave beside her. That was no Gul’nog.
“They’re throwing spears!” Gregory said, looking up at the cliff. “Come on!” He began swimming away. Not out to sea, exactly, but toward the forested shore about fifty meters away from the cliff.
Another spear came hurtling right toward Julia.
She lurched in the water and lunged back. The spear skewered the water where her head had just been.
“Julia!” Gregory shouted over the sound of the breakers.
It was then that Julia noticed the Gul’nog in the water around her were no longer splashing. In fact, she couldn’t see them at all. It made her remember that some of the creatures had seemed to fall, but not bob back up to the surface. Even without armor, they were all muscle and dense bone — maybe they sank like rocks.
Or maybe they were great swimmers and could hold their breath for an hour, and maybe they were right now creeping up under her feet about to pull her down.
With a tiny screech, Julia kicked after Gregory, clutching the talisman in one hand, but using the other arm to make her go faster.
The spears came faster now. They plopped and splashed all around her. And it wasn’t only spears but swords and clubs and the occasional thrown Gul’nog. But the beasts appeared to have terrible aim, and nothing touched her.
After five minutes of hard swimming for Julia and Gregory, the Gul’nog either ran out of things to throw or realized it was kind of dumb to toss all their weapons into the ocean, and the deadly rain stopped. The Gul’nog moved around the cliff’s edge, following Julia’s progress as she swam. But eventually they reached the far edge and had to stop.
She wasn’t sure, but Julia thought she saw the Gul’nog leader gesturing and giving orders. Soon the remaining beasts left the edge of the cliff, and Julia couldn’t see them anymore. The odds were good that they were even now running around to the forested spot where she and Gregory were going to try to get out.
Julia swam harder.
The waves didn’t push her as much here. Instead, she felt an even colder current coming from the direction of the land. A wave swell lifted her high enough to see. The forest ahead was split where a stream entered the sea. That was the source of the cold water, she figured, and it might be the thing that could save them.
No wonder Gregory was swimming this direction. If they could make land there, on the right side of where the stream spilled into the ocean, the Gul’nog would have not only a long way to run from the cliff, but also they’d have to cross the stream. With any luck, there would be no bridges nearby and they’d all stand there at the edge trying to figure out if they wanted to get into the water. That was something they clearly didn’t like doing.
Maybe, just maybe, Julia and Gregory would get away.
CHAPTER
11
“Is he out?”
Peter watched Trevor creep over to where peras was supposedly asleep against one of the oversized logs on the third raft.
Trevor reached forward silently and waved a hand in front of peras’s face. Nothing. He waved again, more broadly this time. Nothing. He looked over at Peter and shrugged.
“All right,” Peter said. “Everybody come here, but keep quiet.”
The nine men from Aedyn — Orrin, Trevor, Mitchell, and the rest — crept across the three rafts until they encircled Peter on the raft farthest from Peras. The sky overhead was gloomy because of the Shadow. Peter could see the sun as a feeble brown circle trying unsuccessfully to burn through the dark cloud. The seas had become rougher over the last half hour, and the rafts bobbed and creaked together in the turbulence. But none of it seemed to interrupt Peras’s sleep, which was fine with Peter.
“What are we going to do?” Limas asked.
“Yes,” Orrin agreed. “Because if that long-haired spawn of a Gul’nog is a messenger of the Lord of Hosts, I’m a twiddlepat hummingbird.”
One man snickered. The rest stared stonily at Peter.
“That answers my first question,” Peter said. “I wondered if I was the only one thinking it.”
“Did you notice that the current is not carrying us toward Aedyn?” Trevor asked.
Mitchell looked around as if he hadn’t noticed this. “But he hasn’t told us to paddle. I thought the water would just, I don’t know, push us there. By the Lord of Hosts’ magic, maybe.”
“You’re right,” Peter said. “Look, Khemia is still right there, just as far from us now as it was hours ago.”
They all looked. The volcano island was a good couple of kilometers away, but it was not receding into the distance. Nor was any other landmass coming into view ahead of them.
“Should we start paddling?” asked Kelman, a skinny man with a pockmarked face.
Trevor lifted his hands. “Which direction would we paddle?”
Peter leaned in and spoke in a harsh whisper. “I’m done with this,” he said. “I made a mistake. How Peras made me believe we could leave the others behind and come back, well, I don’t know. But it was the wrong thing to do.”
A gust of wet wind sprayed his face. “I don’t know who this person is, but I agree with the hummingbird here,” he said to Orrin. “Peras is no angel. And if he sleeps, he’s no demon either. Which means he’s human like us.” Peter pulled the short knife from his belt. “I say we jump him, all together and all at once, and tie him up in some vines. We paddle back to land, and we go save the rest of our people.”
The others looked at each other uncertainly.
“Are you sunbaked?” Limas said. “That man can lift us up with one hand. You’ve got a little knife, but what do the rest of us have? It would be suicide.” He backed away from Peter. “Forget it. I say we just ride it out and trust that he’s really taking us somewhere that we can’t see right now.”
“Now you’re sunbaked, Limas,” Trevor said. “We’re out of food, and we never had much drinkable water. If we don’t get to land soon, it won’t matter if Peras is an angel or a … or a—”
“Or a what?”
Peras stood over them like an agent of doom. The wind tousled his long blond hair, but he no longer looked angelic. Behind him, the volcano spewed ash into the sky, and the Shadow reached over them like a trap closing in.
“It was him!” Limas shouted, pointing at Peter and backing away. “He’s trying to turn them against you. But I defended you!”
“Is that so?” Peras almost smiled. He grabbed Kelman by the hair and held him out over the ocean with one arm. Kelman screeched, but Peras shook him as if holding a kitten by the scruff of its neck. “Planning a little rebellion, are you, Peter?”
The others looked at Pet
er tentatively, but they all seemed to subtly back away from him.
Peter’s pulse pounded in his ears. “Fine.” He drew his knife and held it out toward Peras. “Put him down, Peras. This is between you and me.”
Peras’s eyes grew wide, and he actually laughed. “Look who’s got a wittle bitty bwade. Gonna clean under my fingernails, wittle man?”
The tip of Peter’s knife dipped. What was he doing? This man might not be superhuman, but he was a lot closer to being superhuman than Peter, a schoolboy from England, was. Peter suddenly felt like he had when his father had screamed at him for being unkind to his stepbrother, stepsister, and stepmother.
The thought struck him like a tidal wave upending the boat. It was as though he were right back in their home on the east coast of England, and Father was shouting at him again. Peter had just gotten sent home from school after getting in the fight with Mason. Peter Grant was a weakling compared to Mason, a problem to the headmaster, and a disgrace to his own father. Peter should show good sportsmanship, Father said. Peter had dishonored the family name, Father said. Peter might as well crawl away and die, Father said. Or might as well have said, anyway.
For a trembling instant, Peter wished his mother were still alive. He did feel like a weakling. He wanted to run and hide himself in her skirts.
But Mother was dead. And Father had turned into a creature like the Gul’nog. And his stepmother was Queen of the Underworld whose spawn were Bertrand the beast and Louisa the … Well, Louisa the healer.
Somehow, thinking of Louisa brought strength back into Peter’s muscles. The tip of the knife rose again. If Louisa could overcome her natural tendencies and become something better, so could he.
Lord of Hosts, give me strength.
An image of Gaius flashed into Peter’s brain. The old monk stood in his mind’s eye, urging him to courage.
Peter gave Peras a calculating look. This was no angelic warrior. This was nothing more than an overgrown schoolyard bully. A good man once, perhaps. A father figure who had lost his way. But now he was a brute, terrorizing the little ones around him.
Darkness Shall Fall Page 7