Page 5 of Ensii
Chapter Two
Nothing prepared her for the force of the creature’s charge. The monster collided with her like a hammer, claws and hard joints knocking her to the ground.
Talitha couldn’t breathe and the next thing she knew, she was sideways on the ground with her sword trapped under someone’s foot and the monster on top of her. She yanked her legs up under the shield and hunkered down.
Shouts and cries rang from every direction and it was impossible to know what was said or who said it. Talitha held onto the shield—that was all she could do.
Overhead, the monster clawed and gouged at her shield, scrabbling for purchase on the sleek disk. A screech rent Talitha’s ears and a strip of metal was sheered off the bronze, slashing a hole in the shield.
On the other side, Talitha glimpsed black flesh and snapping teeth. It was only a matter of time before the creature sliced through and—
The thing let off a terrific screech, back arching as it reared in anger. Hot coals rained down, most of them glancing off Talitha’s shield, but some hitting the ground not far from her ankles.
“Ensaak!” someone shouted.
Talitha winced as an ember hit her neck, falling through the hole in the shield.
The monster finally whirled around, away from its prey. Through the hole in her shield, she saw the monster rise and flex in the other direction. It hissed, black spittle oozing from between its teeth.
She glimpsed Gilsazi with a smoking bucket in one hand and his spear in the other. Growling, he threw a second round after the creature.
The monster struck backwards and Talitha shoved the shield off the same instant. The monster lunged and Talitha stabbed for the underside of its chest in a last hope effort.
The hot flesh parted easily, bone and cartilage snapping with unsettling ease as she drove her sword between its ribs. The flesh bubbled and blood simmered up as if to seal the wound, but this time the creature screamed.
On her knees, Talitha jabbed harder, forcing her sword into the creature’s chest. The monster screeched.
Talitha had one moment of awareness that the monster’s claw were coming for her face before they struck.
Gilsazi hacked and stabbed along the creature’s back with a surge of swords that came from all directions.
Talitha pivoted her feet under her and lunged, driving her sword all the way to the hilt through the creature’s chest. The claws struck and pain flared along the side of Talitha’s neck, but…she still had her head. How did she still have her head?
The ensaak blinked in shock as the form before her buckled and folded into naked man. He was perhaps twenty, a soldier from the look of him. Every stab and slash suddenly burst from his skin like so many sores.
Talitha barely had time to react before another of the creatures shrieked from her back, bearing down like a storm. She swung around, bruised, but invigorated. “Aim for the hearts!” Talitha shouted. “Take the hearts!”
As best she could see, the other three monsters were still fighting—tearing, clawing, devouring. They lunged for the chests of their victims, gnawing open every ribcage they could find.
Talitha’s heart sped and she found herself looking for Ashek. He was nowhere to be seen.
“Aim for the hearts!” Gilsazi bellowed, his voice carrying far and loud like a true general.
“It’s the hearts!” others began to echo from around them. “Take the hearts!”
Talitha snatched up a shield—an undamaged one—and charged after the nearest monster. “Ilians, with me!” In the madness, there wasn’t time to organize or to form ranks. “Go for the hearts!” she yelled.
A shadow slammed into her shoulder from the left. Talitha skidded and spun at the last second and the creature overshot, skidding past her and slamming into the wall of a counting house. The stone cracked and fractured and the creature snarled, but was on its feet and charging straight for her again the next instant.
“Come on,” Talitha muttered, clenching her sword in her free hand. “Let’s go. He sent you for me, didn’t he?”
There was no way it could have heard her. Everything was madness and chaos andnoise. Still, she could have sworn the creature cocked its head to the side, listening.
The second monster charged at full speed, covering entire sirrush lengths in a single bound. Talitha tested the weight of her sword in her hands, bracing herself. The creature charged and she waited, waited, waited. It seemed she waited for an eternity, but it couldn’t have been more than an instant.
She dropped at the last possible moment, rolling out of the way and springing back to her feet. The monster overshot, careening into the dark again. With a howl of fury, the animal spun around.
“Talitha!” Gilsazi yelled, catching up to her.
