Page 138 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
They whispered their acceptance, creeping forward towards the head of the party. Hairs stirred on the back of Aislinn’s neck, pricked like the brush of a needle. Something scurried along the walls.
They were not alone.
The party moved forward, silently, carefully, the ears of their mounts flat against their heads. Aislinn could sense hers wanting to growl, but holding it back, as if even he knew it would invite danger.
Beau was whispering under his breath, a spell to ward off danger. It might work with something minor, but the energy to repel anything larger…
Aislinn swallowed.
Something stepped into the light, something with large, padded feet.
Aislinn drew her breath; a few others did too. “What is it?” Minerva asked.
The light sharpened around the silhouette, and Aislinn hissed at everyone to stop. It was the size of a shire horse with the body of a lion. A thick, tangled mane sprouted around its grotesquely human face, housing wide eyes and a mouth full of fangs. Thick, leathery wings protruded from its back, and its body ended in a long, barbed tail, like that of a scorpion’s.
“Manticore,” Aislinn announced.
The party sucked in its breath.
“Winged?” Bell asked.
“Yes.”
“Has it spotted us?”
“I don’t think so.”
Silence followed.
“Can we avoid it?” Minerva asked.
Aislinn stared at the ground, and the shaft of light ahead depicting the end of the cavern. “Maybe,” she said. Everything was so difficult to guess in this light. “I’m not sure. Beau?”
“I think so.”
“We should evade,” Minerva said. “In this light… it’s too risky.”
“I’ve got the anti-venom!” Flora whispered.
“Enough for all our mangled corpses?”
“Ah—no. Fair point.”
“Lead us,” Minerva urged them.
Aislinn nodded, realising after the action that that was widely unhelpful in the dark, but the words were stuck in her throat. The wargis understood, creeping forward after her. She was not used to this, used to guiding this many people. She’d never led a party of so many, and certainly not so many she cared about.
“Steel yourself,”came the words of her parents, overlapping with the faint, familiar tones of Miriam, her mentor, the captain of the knights.
She could not fail them. She would not.
She stuck as close as she could to the walls, though the wargis shirked from them and the rockmoved.Not rock. Scuttling, wriggling insects as large as her face—but she dared not look for long.
Onwards, they marched, slow and careful. The light inched closer.
They were not yet past the manticore.
A crack sounded behind her, followed by a yelp. Luna let out a soft cry.
