Page 38 of Shadow Master
There was a thrum in my veins that hadn’t been there on the other side of the mist. There was a strange energy churning in my breast above my solar plexus where the reassuring knot of warmth that signified my weaver thread sat.
We were making excellent time. The buildings in the distance took form. Ruined, blackened towers kissed by starlight. There had been a city once, civilization. But no longer. This world was a world ravaged. A world destroyed, and Brady was somewhere here. The ground rose up ahead.
I yanked on the leash. “How much farther?”
“Camp is over the rise,” Valmik said reluctantly.
I looked at Hyde. “We need to find something to gag him with.”
Hyde pulled a blade from his thigh holster. “We can use the leash.”
I held it out, and he cut a strip which he used to gag Valmik. The creature looked at me accusingly the whole time.
“What? Like you wouldn’t scream for help as soon as we got close.”
His lip curled above the gag in his mouth.
“Yeah, thought as much.”
We climbed, keeping low to the ground. The rise was steep, and thistles and twisted brush greeted us at the top. It was the perfect cover from which to survey the camp below.
Several fires burned bright in the clearing on the other side of the rise, and I counted five tents. How many men to a tent? The fomorians were large, and the tents weren’t. Two men per tent, maybe? This camp was smaller than I’d anticipated.
Would they keep Brady here? My gut told me no, but I needed to be sure.
“We circle to the left,” Hyde said.
I followed his gaze to the sparse forest that covered the rise to the left. The woodland trailed down to the edge of the clearing. The fires were on the other side of camp, leaving the forest in darkness. We’d have plenty of cover.
I nodded. “There can’t be more than ten men down there, at the most. We take out one tent at a time and even the odds as fast as we can.”
“Let’s do it,” Harmon said.
We skulked toward the forest and then dove in. Athos moved stealthily to my left, and Hyde and Harmon made up the rear. Harmon was silent and quick despite his size, moving between the trees like a pro.
The smell of wood smoke and meat drifted toward us, accompanied by the sound of conversation. This was their downtime. They wouldn’t see us coming.
I drew my weapon, reveling in the glint of the blade. Valmik was still on the other end of the leash, the gag tight around his mouth.
I was ready to cut and slice. Ready to fight. The nearest tent was about two meters from the forest.
We could do this.
A sharp crack cut through the silence.
Athos growled in warning, and then a bolt whizzed through the air, hitting its mark with athunk.
Hyde’s bellow twisted my insides. I ran toward him as he hit the ground with his knees, an arrow buried in his shoulder.
Whizz, whoosh.
“Get down!” I dragged Hyde to the cover of a tree. “Harmon, Athos. Get out of here.”
Fuck! I’d let go of the leash. Valmik ran through the trees, making a moaning sound around his gag. Hulking shadows slipped out from cover. Had they been there all along?
Harmon roared and attacked. Athos leaped and took one down.
“Run,” Hyde said to me.
