Apparently we should’ve been checking our right, which was where the… I don’t know how to explain it, but skulking toward us with serpentine grace was none other than a… well, a porcupine monster the size of a full-grown bear. The brown beast had foot-long quills jutting out all over its body. I tried to reconcile the beast with the tiny porcupines I’d seen up in Common, grimacing at the janky razor-sharp teeth sticking out of its long, dragon-like face. From the neck down, it was a porcupine, but from the shoulders up, it was a dragon. I bit off a scream and bolted as fast as I could toward the castle that was unrealistically out of reach. Annabelle clung to me, crying in worried gulps as she clawed at my neck.
“Run to the castle and bolt the doors behind you!” Bastien pushed us ahead, leaving us so he could fight off the peluda like the badass he was. Armed with nothing but a dagger and his crazy fighting style that held nothing back, Bastien hurled himself at the massive thorny beast. The peluda had a long neck and a pointy dragon-like head, and seemed to hiss like a super pissed-off snake. The porcupine-dragon stalked toward us with a slither that held a dark intent.
Bastien had a dagger, and thankfully Montel, who came to his aid. I glanced over my shoulder as I ran, and saw Bastien punch the peluda square in the wet, leathery face, like they were in a bar and the peluda had hit on me or something. The vendetta seemed personal, though with Bastien, you never could tell. He swung wildly, but with precision enough to draw blood.
I ran with Annabelle, feeling like a tool for leaving the guys to fight the monster without me. Unarmed as I was, my job was to get the girl to safety. I didn’t take my assignment lightly, but bolted through the village, not stopping to look at anything, but calling out a warning for everyone to get into their houses. “The peludas are here! Get inside and lock your doors!”
The trees whipped by us as I ran without slowing alongside the stream, Annabelle on my hip. A cry of relief broke from my lips when the palace came more fully into view.
“Papa!” Annabelle shrieked, stunning me temporarily with her sheer volume right next to my ear. “Help! Get Papa!”
I glanced to the focal point of her freakout and saw a peluda galloping toward us with a hungry gleam in his red eyes on the other side of the stream. He snorted and salivated, his claws pounding the dirt with determination. I took a chance and called out across the water, but didn’t slow my sprint. “Stop! The Voix is telling you to go away,” I ordered him, hoping my gift of talking to animals would work.
Bastien had been right; this wasn’t simply an animal, or it would’ve been able to communicate with me. This was some sort of hybrid that didn’t belong to the animal kingdom, and certainly didn’t belong in Avalon. It was bent on destruction, and had its sights set on us.
The stream was about eight feet wide, and was the only thing separating us. I renewed my speed, hoping the monster’s giant swinging belly made the distance too wide for him to leap across.
At some point, I’d like to think I would stop being surprised by the unpredictable things that happened in Avalon, but when a loud fart exploded out the back end of the peluda and a quill was fired in my direction, I began to realize how underqualified I was to walk around in this country. I screamed and ran when the quill landed in my path and inexplicably caught on fire. I veered away from the stream, hoping a little distance would make the thick, steely quills less accurate with their aim.
Annabelle was sobbing when the peluda flopped its body into the stream, but I kept running, charging toward safety. I finally had the presence of mind to switch her to my other hip so I could press my ring to my heart and whisper a desperate, “Kerdik, Kerdik, Kerdik.”
It was too much to hope he’d heard me, and way too much to count on him coming. If I’d been waiting on him when I was stuck in the well, I’d be a rotting corpse down there, for sure.
“He’s underwater!” Annabelle cried, though this didn’t sound like a victory, celebrating that the monster had drowned. “Hurry! The waves are coming!”
No sooner had she said this than the docile stream kicked up out of nowhere, turning a gentle lapping of two-inch waves into a multiplication of water. A rolling wave that was taller than me ripped through the stream from behind us, breaking and splashing too near for me to run unhampered. I tripped, but caught myself before face-planting.
I veered us further from the stream, astonished at the sheer mass of the waves piling high from such a modest water source. The peals crashed down, deafening us with their roar that was far louder than any beast.
I tried to keep my eyes on the castle, which was closer, but still way too far. I pumped my legs in desperation away from the stream until another porcupine-dragon monster came into view from the left. This one had light brown hair, but his quills were jet black and ready for battle. Angled back as they were, the quills looked like slick armor that moved with the wind. His dragon face snarled and hissed at us. As fast as I was, I knew we’d never make it in time.
“Link!” I screamed, hoping my voice would carry to the castle that was still a block away. I ran, though there wasn’t much hope for my escape.
My heart swelled when the cavalry came. It wasn’t Kerdik or Link, but a thick unkindness of ravens who swooped in and tried to peck out the peluda to my left’s eyes. I let out a mournful cry when the peluda opened his mouth and let out a gust of gas that was sort of bluish in the direction of his miniature attackers. One by one, the ravens lost their flight, their balance, and I realized with dread, their lives. Their black feathery bodies crashed to the grass in motionless heaps, the chirp of “Run, Princess!” dying on their beaks.
I tried not to cry, but tears misted my eyes anyway at the sacrifice that was too great to quantify. A whole flock was giving their lives for my escape, and I was just friggin’ letting them.
I was unarmed, and with a child. I wasn’t sure what else I could’ve done in that moment, but I knew that years later, solutions would come to me, and haunt my nights.
Annabelle clung to me when we finally neared the steps of the castle. “We made it!” I cried.
Of course, I spoke too soon. A steely quill shot out from the peluda who was closing in from behind me. The tip of the quill was sharp as an arrow, and sunk into the meat of my calf, tripping me and landing me with a smack on the grass.
Then the arrow burst into flame, lighting my dress on fire.
21
Too Late
“Run, Annabelle! Go into the palace and get help!” I shouted, not sure how I had the presence of mind to even form coherent sentences.
The poor girl limped off as fast as she could, tears drooling down her face as she hobbled up the steps in search of someone to let her in, and save her from the monsters.
I jerked around and frantically smothered the fire that had caught on the hem of my dress. I needed to take one second and catch my breath, but I didn’t want that satisfying inhale to be my last. Without bracing myself, I ripped the quill from my leg, howling as the blood poured out of me, soaking my shoe faster than I could scream about the pain. I tried to scramble to my feet, but my leg was being dramatic, and wouldn’t let me walk. “Link!” I yelled, hoping someone would open the tall, forbidding doors for Annabelle, who was pounding with her tiny fist and calling for assistance. “Link! Help me!”
I could hear the peluda running toward me, hissing and huffing like a chubby guy jogging as he neared. I knew there was nothing I could do but brace myself for the fight I would surely lose. There was nothing to shield myself with, and nowhere to hide. I was so close to the palace steps, I could almost touch them, but the peluda wasn’t about to let me crawl away.
Another quill shot into the same leg, just a few inches from where the last one sunk in. Volume like I’d never known erupted from me, reaching new heights and alerting the setting sun just how friggin’ bad getting shot at point-blank range with a thick steel arrow hurt.
Again the fire burst out the end of the arrow, lighting the blackened edges of my gown up with
orange flames, but it hardly mattered anymore. I was either going to die by burning alive, or by getting eaten by a magical porcupine-dragon. Bastien was nowhere near, though that was probably for the best. I didn’t want him to know what it sounded like when the skin melted off my leg, or when my body was inevitably torn apart by a beast – make that two.
I looked up to face my killer, and saw two of them ambling toward me, their pace slowing, now that their prey was down for the count. I managed to smother the flames from what was left of my skirt, singeing my hands and thigh in the process. I coughed wildly, wishing for just one more kiss from Bastien, one more hug from my dad and Draper, and one more everything from Lane. I only hoped there was enough of my body left for her to bury when all was said and done. I ripped the second quill from my leg, my eyelids flaring open and then drooping at the rapid blood loss my body was struggling to keep up with. I’d donated so much blood to Avalon already, yet it seemed Faîte wasn’t satisfied.
I gripped the quill to use as a weapon in my desperation, summoning with my crimson hand the courage to defend myself and Annabelle to whatever end was in store for us. My right hand pressed to my chest again, whispering the most fervent plea for my green BFF to come through for me.
My heart nearly leapt out of my chest when the front door banged open, the wood sounding almost angry with the thud it made to startle me and my attackers. I looked up, my vision blurring, my chest heaving, and saw him – Superman in all of his glory, wielding a kingly sword.
“Link, get my daughter into the house!” My dad bellowed, eyes fixed on the monsters who were circling their dinner.
I tried not to whimper, but the pathetic bleat couldn’t be helped. The porcupine-dragons were closer to me than my dad was, and though he stalked toward us with measured steps, all they had to do was lunge, and I was a goner.
Link had his dagger in one hand and a full-on axe in the other. He followed close behind my dad after he shooed Annabelle into the safety of the palace. “Stay still, Rosie,” Link instructed loudly, calculating the situation with clarity I couldn’t. “I’ll get ye out, but ye can’t make any sudden movements.” Then, disregarding his own advice, he jerked back and shouted, “Sluagh!” I glanced up to where he was pointing and saw ravens gathering in the sky, flying in from the west and forming a tight circle overhead. I couldn’t understand their noises; I could scarcely comprehend anything beyond the agonizing pain. “Urien, the ravens are circling overhead! He’s come for either you or Rosie. Rosie, come to me!”
That simple command was too much for the peludas to leave me open to a rescue. With a blast from their butts, a gaseous fire exploded out in a crack of thunder, lighting a line in the grass that separated me from the men who would save my life. Flames collected and grew, doubling and then climbing higher still as they licked at the earth around me. There was a line between me and the palace, and another that kept me from crawling back in the direction I came. The two peludas moved to either end of the dual rows of flames, boxing me in and making a clean escape impossible.
Link and Urien let out impassioned noises of anger and distress. The careful steps they’d moved to get near me was for nothing now. Untouchable as Link was, and royal as my dad was, it was all for nothing. Anger pricked my eyes when it settled in my stomach like an indigestible brick that I would die mere feet from my father and my friend. “Go!” I shouted above the roar of the flames. “You don’t want to see this! Get into the house so they don’t get you next!”
“We’re not leaving you!” My dad bellowed, though I could hear the frustration in his voice. “We’ll get you out, sweetheart.”
The wind shifted and blew black smoke at me, filling my face with heat and my lungs with ash. I screamed when cinders leapt onto my dress and caught on what was left of the singed fabric of my skirt. I could feel the sting on my legs as I tried to suffocate the flames. I coughed like a smoker in search of just one last pure breath. The peludas started moving closer, their sinister sauntering was much too slow to be anything other than toying with me. Had they worn waxed mustaches, I’m sure they would have been twirling them by now while tying me to the train tracks.
I heard shouting and grunting outside the flames, and wondered if more peludas had joined the party. There were animalistic screams that gave me hope that the guys would escape somehow. I had no such optimism for myself, but spent the last of what I had on them.
I gave my only desperate hope one last shot of saving the day before I succumbed to the monsters who were intent that this would be my last minute. Pressing the ring to my heart and twisting the stones so they sank into my breast, I shouted, “Kerdik! Kerdik! Kerdik!”
I struggled to stand, but fell three times before I realized there would be no escaping. I collapsed back onto the grass and coughed, clutching the quill in hopes that I could fend off my enemy with its own weapon.
When the wind blew the other way, allowing me to see again as the ash and smoke wafted away from me, I shrieked at the sight of half a dozen snouts surrounding me on either ends of the two rows of flames. There was a whole village of people, but they were intent on getting me, as if I’d been the target all along. My heart sank at the perfectly orchestrated attack that I’d fallen for. Morgan would know that poisoning the wells would have only one cure, and with Lane gone, I was the clear choice for who would be out in the open, dressed for my royal role, and sitting on a throne with a target on my forehead.
Link fought with a peluda that had him and my dad trapped on the steps of the castle, waving his axe around and finally chopping off the peluda’s head in the brawl. It was a victory, but it came too late. There were too many of them now, and I could see it dawning on my father as he fought with a second peluda who came up to take the fallen one’s place, that these might be his last moments, as well.
I clutched the quill in my hand and whipped it around as best I could to fend them off, vowing that if I was to die tonight, I would go down swinging.
I heard a crack before the peluda on my right charged for me, clearing the distance in two wild gallops. The teeth that bit down on the leg that hadn’t been shot with arrows were cruel, sinking into my skin and going straight for my ankle, crushing the bones without considering the fact that I totally didn’t want him to do that. Agony ripped through me, but the monster wasn’t satisfied with my howls. His clawed foot stomped down on the calf muscle I’d worked my whole life to maintain, shredding my skin to the bone like it was nothing.
Like, to the bone.
Like, I saw an inch of my shin bone.
The second monster shot me in the other thigh with one of its quills, bringing my screams to new heights.
Instead of ripping my leg off, the first peluda used his leverage on my shattered ankle to drag me away – to what end, I couldn’t tell you. The searing white hot pain was everywhere, and I sorely wished he would just get it over with. The smoky air that hit my exposed shin bone felt like a torture I wished I could lose my mind to, but unconsciousness eluded me, letting me feel every jarring movement as I was dragged through the two rows of flames.
My adrenaline spiked, but coupled with my blood loss, it was too much for my body to handle. I went into some sort of shock, my nerves feeling every bit of torture while the fire died from my view. I saw only the night sky and the blue moon as my vision started to tunnel, making the world impossibly smaller, while the agony stayed so very big.
I don’t know how I would’ve fended off the claw that came for my face, but as it ripped from my forehead down my cheek and across my chest, I wished for chainmail armor, or a flamethrower, or… something. Blood drooled and spurted out from my face and breasts, rendering me unrecognizable with half my face shredded so cruelly.
I heard a voice through my terror, taking me to a new level of get-me-the-crap-outta-here. It was that same gravelly, metallic voice belonged to the cloaked man who attacked me. Somehow he was here now, speaking to me from the opposite side of the flames, across the way from Urien and Link
. “Madigan’s new bride, at last. I told ye I would have your spirit,” he reminded me. His voice was accompanied by the sound of birds’ wings flapping, though I didn’t see any feathered friends nearby – they were too smart to hang out here.
Link’s voice, which was usually confident in all matters, quavered like a little boy’s. “Get back! Ye can’t have her.”
“Mine now. So full of fight. All mine,” the cloaked man chuckled darkly, and I heard him moving toward me.
The blue moon looked down on me in pity, wondering how I’d gotten into this mess to begin with. I blinked through my screams that somehow seemed separate from my body, sounding like they were coming from someone else. That can’t be me. I don’t scream like that. Poor girl sounds terrified.
The blue of the moon grew dim, and then mutated with a hue of green I couldn’t make sense of.
I blinked my one good eye again, and Avalon, Common, and everything inside of me that had once burned so bright, all faded to black.
22
A Star Named Britney Spears
“Do you need to be reminded of what will happen to you if she doesn’t wake up?” Kerdik’s voice roused me like a crack of a whip, sharp as it was.
Jean-Luc’s reply sounded scared, but determined. “Of course not. I know I signed away my life when I came to work for the king. Would you just back up? Hovering doesn’t help me get the job done.”
“Her face! You’ve sewn her up to look like an old rag doll on one side. She was beautiful, but you’ve made her an eyesore.”
“I’m doing the best I can! The peluda clawed clean through half her face! What healing powers do you imagine me capable of? I’m keeping her alive, which is a feat, let me tell you.”
Broken Girl: A Fantasy Adventure Based in French Folklore (Faite Falling Book 5) Page 13