Page 21 of Burn Bright
Cas had been tending the horses, but as I watched, his head jerked up, and his attention shifted to the north. In a second, all of his languidness vanished, and I could see the wolf rear its head.Something this waycomes...
Vashta's tits. A flash of heat went through me, and I reached for my bow, nocking an arrow to it before Evaron could even draw breath. The world turned silent, as I blocked out everything but the incoming threat, my gaze narrowing to that single passage along thearrow.
Only to findsilence.
No, that didn't seem quite right. Seconds ticked out, my lungs protesting the lungful of spent air sitting there arrested. Slowly, I eased it out. A shadow blurred out of the corner of my vision, and I spun, losing sight of it. The reluctant woodcutters were all watching me in curiosity, but nobody else seemed to sense the danger. OnlyCasimir.
"What were we saying?" Evaron mused. "Somethingabout—"
Eerie laughter rang out, echoing through thetrees.
Everyonefroze.
EspeciallyEvaron.
"You may wish to rethink your position," I muttered to the prince, turning toward the trees where the laughter hadsounded.
There was a faint crashing sound, somewhere far distant. Odd. I couldn't think of anything large enough to make that much noise from adistance.
"What in the darkness was that?" Evaron whispered, drawing hissword.
Last night sprang to mind. The skull. Theblood.
I gave a helpless shrug. "I told you—I don't know what lurks in here. I only know thatsomethingdoes."
Or somethings.
"If it laughs, then it can bleed," said Hussar, turning and spitting in the direction the laughter hadechoed.
Blood slashed his arms from the brambles. I had this horrible receding sensation, my father's voice coming out of nowhere:"Blood brings predators in Gravenwold. Bind your wounds as soon as possible, and burn any bloodiedbandages."
"Cover your wounds," I snapped, striding to the center of the clearing. Branches shivered in the distance, as if something shoved its way throughthem.
"What is it?" one of the mendemanded.
"The Darkness is upon us," anotherwhispered.
"It's not the Darkness," I snapped. The last thing we needed were these fools breaking and running. "The Darkness is an intangible thing, no?" At the look in their startled eyes, I pointed to where the canopy was shivering. "Something big is making those branches shake. That means we've got a monster coming. And monsters might have teeth and claws, but they can also bleed. Do we have any otherarchers?"
One man put up hishand.
"Fine. You're with me. We'll try and slow it down. Aim for the eyes. Some of these beasts have armor plating, or really thickhides."
Or so said the old stories. Doubt cascaded through me. I had no idea what we were facing. Or how to killit.
And something had clearly driven it toward us. Something with a high-pitched laugh, that moved at superspeed.
"Protect the prince," Casimir called, gesturing to a handful of men to keep Evaron out of the way. He looked at Hussar. "How do you want to dothis?"
"Burning ashes, how would I know?" Hussar snapped. "She's the residentexpert."
And you're the Huntmaster.Iseethed.
All of us could feel the urgency, as the ground began to quiver. It was moving fast, whatever it was. I leaned close to Cas, feeling as though something watched us through the trees. "Can you smellit?"
"It stinks like a swamp, but there's no otherscent."
"No swamp either," I pointedout.
