Page 41 of Ensii
Chapter Twelve
At her back, the creature howled and roared. Booming strides loped after her, shrieking in ferocious rage.
“Talitha!” Ashek’s voice cried after her, but she was already running.
Most the people had fled in the direction of the gates, so Talitha raced to the inner courtyard. It was the center of the palace, where the most important sacrifices and ceremonies had been performed for generations—as far back as the palace memory stretched.
No one met her in the shadowy hallways. Though the shadows seemed to thicken, Talitha charged on.
You defied me!The thought pierced her mind like a knife.You’ll die with the other heretics!
“You tried that!” Talitha yelled over her shoulder.
The monster screamed, smashing through stone. Its front shoulder buckled, one eye a fiery abyss. Despite that, it gained ground with every stride, closing in.
Talitha heaved breath in and out, arms pumping at her sides. It was just her and the monster, running, rushing, a race to the end.
The stairs to the courtyard were at least a hundred paces away, farther than Talitha could stay ahead of the thing and yet she had to try. The monster was gaining, but if she could get it away from the others, far enough away that it couldn’t get back in time before it burned away to ash—
I didn’t bring you this far only to bring you this far.
The second voice was calm, thick. If Anakti’s voice was tar, this was myrrh oil. No sooner had the second voice spoken than a window opened to Talitha’s right.
It opened over a slanted roof, running parallel to the courtyard. Below, just as it had this morning, the bonfire of Anakti’s idols, icons, splintered boards from Her shrines, smashed ceremonial jars, ceremonial robes, and all the regalia of Her worship lay burning in a central heap. The fire roared bright and fierce as a third sun, like the third sun of the Ilian crest.
Talitha didn’t question, she didn’t hesitate. She leapt through the window, landing heavily. Her foot slipped and tiles went skidding, crashing on the cobbles below.
She didn’t dare look down. Catching her balance, Talitha kept moving forward, arms out for balance, her bow still clutched in one hand. The fire burned below, taking up more space than Talitha remembered from a moment ago.
The demon—Nehemian, Anakti possessing Nehemian, or whatever it was—crashed out of the window after her. It tore a gaping hole in the wall, misstepping and sending half the tiles crashing to the courtyard in an avalanche of clay.
Snarling with one eye ablaze, the creature stalked along the gables, keeping its balance with surprising grace. Where it had once appeared as a giant man-beast, it had now lengthened and stretched, growing leaner and lither. It resembled a massive mutant cat with a long tail held out for balance, narrow body crouched expertly on the center of the gables.
Talitha’s heart pounded and the monster’s ears twitched. A long tongue as red as blood licked over its jaws, sweeping over oily black saliva.
“Come on,” Talitha cursed. There was nowhere for her to go. The gable ended in another window, one that would lead her away from the courtyard. The only way to get it into the fire was down and it was too far down for Talitha to jump.
The monster’s skin broke, spilling black, oily intestines and organs down the slope of the roof. They burst into flames in a cascade of burning sludge. If the monster noticed, it only seemed annoyed. The creature growled, stepping over its own blazing entrails to stalk closer—still gaining.
Talitha struggled to stay ahead, looking back again to find the monster a hair’s breadth away. It swiped, claws catching Talitha’s lower back and part of her right arm. Pain ripped through her, knocking her to the ground.
She clung to the edge of the gables, scrambling backwards as fast as she could.
“Talitha!” Ashek’s horrified voice rang out from the window, too far behind the monster to make a difference.
“Ensaak!” someone else shouted and Talitha caught their shadowy outlines from between the legs of the monster.
The monster was on fire, its entire body ablaze, yet it still scrambled for her. Teeth and claws swiped, about to pounce.
Still clutching her bow, she dragged out an arrow. Arms shaking, she pulled back the string and let it loose.
Talitha shouldn’t have hit it. Her hands shook, her right arm buckled the instant she pulled the string back. She was lying on the ground with the monster close enough to make out the sinews and veins beneath its tar hide.
But the arrow stabbed through the monster’s right eye socket.
The monster reared back, roaring and screeching to the sky. It crashed down the side of the roof, tumbling into the courtyard.
It shouldn’t have fallen into the fire. The bonfire had been built in the center of the courtyard and it should have been too far away.
