Page 5 of The Iron Vow

Before Nyx could answer, a chilling wail echoed from the forest behind us. It rose above the trees, several voices crying out in agony, before drifting away on the wind.

Puck flinched, and we all turned to stare at the darkness. “Don’t look now,” he muttered, as a rattling sound drifted to us through the branches. “But I think our monster friend is on to us.”

Ash nodded. “Move,” he ordered. “Everyone into the town.”

We hurried across the bridge, which did indeed sink into the water under our weight, drenching my boots and the bottom of my coat. Across the bridge, the actual town became a labyrinth of walkways, structures, and narrow alleys between lean-tos. We ducked into one cramped, narrow corridor and peered back the way we’d come.

“I don’t see anything,” Keirran said. “Maybe it didn’t notice us after all.”

A cold wind, smelling of dust and rotting things, blew into the alley from the forest. As it did, the town around us...stirred. As if dozens of eyes suddenly turned our way. Beyond the lapping of water and the creaking of planks under our feet, I heard the faintest skittering sound.

“It’s coming,” Ash muttered, as that clammy chill raced up my back. He drew his sword, bathing the dark alleyway in the glowing blue light of the ice blade. “Everyone, spread out,” he ordered. “It’s one creature—it won’t be able to follow us into tight spaces very well. Use that to your advantage, and we can slow it down.”

A bloated, pale form rose out of the trees beyond the edge of the swamp. The Nightmare, looking like a hideous giant insect, swam through the air toward the town. Multiple jaws gaping, it let out a piercing wail that made my blood curdle, and shot toward us over the water.

2

RATS AND NIGHTMARES

“Go!” Ash said, and the five of us scattered. Puck and Keirran drew back, vanishing down another alley, and Nyx disappeared into the shadows. I turned and slipped between a pair of rickety buildings with Ash, drawing my sword as I did. He gave me a fierce, determined look over his shoulder, silently asking if I was ready. I met his gaze and nodded.

The Nightmare wailed as it came in, a hundred voices shrieking at once. Instinctively I reached for my glamour, opening myself up to the magic of Faery. The deadness in the air shocked me, reminding me that we were no longer in the Nevernever. This was Evenfall, and we were on our own.

With shocking speed, the Nightmare slammed into the space between buildings, reaching for us with a scream. Bony talons stretched into the alley, and Ash responded instantly, slashing the arm with his sword as it came in. As the Nightmare pulled back with a shriek, I darted forward, ducked beneath Ash’s arm, and plunged my sword into one of the wailing skulls. The skull shattered, and a wisp of something dark rose from the fragments and dissipated on the breeze.

As it did, I caught the faintest hint of magic, like a familiar smell, before the wind blew it away. Whatever it was, this Nightmare possessed magic that was absent everywhere else.

The Nightmare recoiled, backing out of the alley while trying to cover its many faces with its arms. As it pulled back, it changed. The body pulsed and writhed, skulls shifting and reforming themselves, becoming narrow and thin. It no longer resembled a bloated maggot but a bony, long-armed centipede. The horse skull at the front opened its jaws with a chilling scream and plunged back into the alley with us.

I took a breath and felt the last of my glamour rise to the surface, making the air around me crackle. If this monster couldn’t be killed by swords or blades, we would see how it fared with a bolt of lightning to the face.

A hand on my arm made me pause. “Wait,” Ash told me as I glanced up at him. “Not yet. It’s too cramped to fight in here. Fall back and regroup with the others.”

I nodded, and we fled, retreating from the monstrous creature slithering toward us. The Nightmare skittered along the wall, rattling off planks and loose boards, long strands of hair snagging on nails and sharp edges.

Ash and I ducked and wove through narrow spaces and tight corridors, hearing the scrabble and screams of the monster behind us, until we reached an open platform over the dark waters of the swamp. Whirling around, we stood shoulder to shoulder, watching the Nightmare snap a pair of low-hanging beams as it spilled onto the platform. With a hiss, it reared up, skulls and bones towering over us, the horse head gaping as it slithered forward.

A trio of spinning crescents flew through the air and struck the creature’s side, shattering skulls into a dozen bone fragments. With a screech the monster twisted around, just as Puck leaped from a nearby roof and bashed several skulls while Keirran stepped out to bring his sword smashing down through the creature’s middle. More skulls shattered and burst apart, raining bone fragments everywhere, and more tendrils of darkness coiled into the air before writhing into nothing.

Ash and I lunged forward, striking with our blades, severing skulls and cutting through flailing arms, forcing it back. Darkness swirled around me, and rage poured from this creature, its poisonous glamour leaking into the air and making me gasp. The creature radiated the glamour of Evenfall; anger, fear, hatred, despair. Like the Elder Nightmares we’d fought before.

As I realized this, the Nightmare screamed. Rearing back, it exploded, skulls flying outward until it was no longer one mass but hundreds of swaying heads. Dozens of skulls stared down at us, held together by long black strands, like a hydra made of bones and hair.

As we backed away, I became aware of a new sound: a scratching, chittering noise, coming from all around us. Dozens of feet and claws scrabbled over wood as a swarm of small, furry bodies appeared on the tops of the buildings, bridges, and wooden platforms.

I drew in a sharp breath. They looked like rats. Enormous, bipedal rats with glowing red eyes, tattered ears, and long naked tails. Their hairless fingers clutched simple weapons, like spears, slings, and bows and arrows, and their red eyes shone with intelligence as they leaped and scuttled forward. Chittering madly, they bared long yellow incisors at the monstrous Nightmare looming overhead, and the Nightmare wailed, its swarm of heads weaving frantically as it tried keeping track of so many enemies.

Puck staggered back a pace, eyes wide as he stared at the army of rat things. “What in the world?” he gasped, his voice nearly lost in the storm of wailing, scrabbling claws, and aggressive squeaks. “What kind of Pied Piper hell is this? Now we have to deal with rats as well as hair horrors?”

“No!” Nyx dropped from seemingly nowhere, landing in a crouch beside us. “They’re not enemies,” she cautioned as she rose, gazing at the army of rats with a sudden recognition. “Don’t hurt them,” she called, as Puck and Keirran glanced at her in surprise. “They’re Evenfey.”

With a flurry of squeaks and chitters, the rat swarm attacked. Spears, darts, and stones flew at the Nightmare, some missing the frantically waving heads, but many striking true. Skulls cracked, fractured, and imploded from the storm of projectiles, releasing a mist of dark glamour into the air.

The Nightmare howled and thrashed, skulls striking out madly. I dodged one swooping head and lashed out at another, cutting through a dog skull and splitting it in half. Furry bodies were flung through the air as the flailing heads struck rats from their perches, sending them tumbling into the water or crashing into walls.

As more skulls were destroyed, the dark mist grew thick on the air. I reached out for it, and the pulse of glamour coursed through me, angry and choking. But it was magic, the Nightmare glamour of Evenfall, and my own powers rose up in response.

“Stranger!”

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