Page 7 of Ensii
“Come on,” Talitha muttered. “Come on.”
All around her, her people were fighting. Ilians battled Ilians and Lakeshans. Hudspethites fought with her people and northerners fought beside them. They needed her. It was her duty and it was her responsibility.
Meanwhile, she was facing down the greatest monstrosities she’d ever laid eyes on, useless to everyone. One beast was larger than the other, muscles so tight and knotted, Talitha half expected its skin to break.
“Talitha!” She recognized his voice, but she couldn’t see him.
“Ashek!” She straightened, searching frantically in the madness around her, but to no avail. She raised her head, but just then, the two monsters charged at once and Talitha barely got her shield up in time. The larger monster slammed into her shoulder, the impact sending a wave of shock up through the entire side of her body. The larger beast slammed her to the ground. The smaller one dove around her shield, snapping for her chest. Talitha raised her knife and jabbed it into the hollow of the creature’s breastbone—where the heart would have been on a man.
The creature gurgled and its claws sheered over her armor with a blood curdling screech. Talitha fought the urge to clamp her hands over her ears.
The larger grabbed the edge of her shield with its claws and tore it back. She couldn’t get her arm out of the loops in time and her left arm flew back with it. Something cracked in her shoulder and white streaks shot across her vision, but she was somehow separate from the pain—as if it were happening to someone else.
The monster’s jaws opened and Talitha saw for the first time that it had a forked tongue. The inside of its maw was as black and tar-like as the rest of it.
“Talitha!” A shape punched into the monster from the side, knocking it off.
The creature yelped as Ashek drove his sword through its ribcage, sinking deep into its chest cavity as he tackled it to the ground.
The monster roared and bellowed, claws and limbs and teeth twisting around to attack in its death throes. It’s claws caught Ashek across the shoulder and red blood spattered.
The dying monster on the end of her knife squalled and sagged, bracing itself on the ground. Talitha kicked it away and yanked her knife free. Her entire left side throbbed and she grit her teeth, clawing upright. “Ashek!”
Ashek pinned the beast and wrenched his sword out of its ribs. He stabbed again and again, until the writhing stopped, leaving a crushed and blackened pulp where the thing’s heart should have been.
“Ashek?”
“Talitha!” He spun around with blood dripping down his shoulder. He was there in an instant. “Are you alright?”
“AmIalright?” Talitha wheezed, the pain in her side finally catching up with her.
Ashek’s eyes found her shoulder, arm loose and hanging at an odd angle. “Come here.” He drove his bloodied sword into the sand before yanking her against his chest.
“Ashek, I—”
Ashek dropped his voice, speaking into her ear. “I need you to gather some of your fighters and take them to the southern corner, can you do that?”
“Yes, but I—” Talitha’s scream choked off her words as her shoulder popped back into place.
Ashek had been quick and deft. She hadn’t realized he was doing it. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, love.” Ashek’s lips found hers for just a moment. “We have to live. We have to fight.”
Coughing, Talitha nodded. Ashek handed her his extra sword. Blood slicked down his bicep, forearm, and wrist, yet he didn’t seem to notice.
“Talitha!” Zula appeared with a dozen warriors more or less armed with spears, swords, and shields taken from the dead.
“Let’s go,” Talitha ordered, turning from Ashek without a backward glance. “We’re sealing the southern breach.”
Gilsazi panted, joining them over the burning corpse of one monster and the melting remains of the other two. “What happened?”
Ashek nuzzled Talitha’s neck and clutched her hair for just a moment before letting go. It was a possessive, protective, and loving gesture all at once. “I don’t know, but they’re dead.”
“How many did we lose?” Talitha panted. She had seen several fighters fall, but in the chaos and struggle…
“I don’t know yet, my lady.” Gilsazi shook his head. “We think it was at least eleven.”
Across the courtyard, soldiers wrapped arms and reset dislocated joints. There weren’t many cuts and bites and claw wounds to be treated. No one who had been attacked by the monsters had survived—except Talitha.
“I grow ever less appreciative of my father’s creativity,” Shaza muttered, looking over the corpses of the monsters, either burning like tar or eerily human and nude. “On the bright side, they’ve solved the issue of how we get into the city.” The chamberlin looked with greedy eyes toward the holes the monsters had torn in the wall. “We don’t have much time to attack before they fortify it.”
