Page 29 of Tiger's Tale
The smile slowly died on his face, and his hand tightened on Nik’s shoulder until the younger man cried out. Whipping around, the Death Draughtsman laughed, and the sound was terrible indeed. Nik could almost see darkness gathering around the man as he whipped off the heavy fur-lined cloak. “You!” he said, in a seething voice, half mad, half gleeful. “You thought you could hide it from me!”
“Veru!” Nik pled, ripping a knife from his own vest. “Run!”
He plunged the dagger into the man’s chest. Blood spurt out from the wound, sliding across the knife and onto Nik’s hands. The man screamed in rage and pulled out the knife, tossing it to the floor before using his power to throw Nik across the room. The younger man thumped into the wall, hitting his head hard. The twins ran back into the room along with several new soldiers. Swords drawn, the soldiers engaged the Death Draughtsman but fell under his stupor one by one.
Only Stacia and Veru were left to battle. They fought hard, but their would-be suitor used his power to hide in a fog, only reappearing to grab hold of one sister and then the other. The twins, instinctively, turned back-to-back, protecting one another. They spun slowly, circling, and waiting for an attack that didn’t come. Sweat broke out on Stacia’s forehead, and she cursed the skirts that constantly threatened to trip her. Veru nervously passed her deadly sharp knife between one hand and the other, her eyes equally as sharp, waiting for the moment to strike, but it never came.
When the chanting of the monk-turned-suitor began, they froze. The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Light suddenly filled the room, and a beam of it shot out from the fog, then it split in two, hitting the twins right in the chest. They screamed, and each one clutched the pendant they wore around their necks. Then they dropped to the polished floor on their hands and knees, their carefully coiffed hair tumbling around their faces.
Pain filled both Stacia and Veru as the blood pounded in their veins.
Nik, groaning and stumbling as he tried to stand, dashed the blood dripping from a cut over his eyes and gasped in horror as the two young women he knew, one he loved more than anything, the twins who were to rule an empire, changed into something monstrous and terrifying, something nightmarish made of teeth and claw.
The beasts rose and attacked. Then came the smell of blood and fur and magic mixed with his own vomit. The hot stench of his own death and fear hit his face, the warmth exploding over his skin until it was all he could smell and taste. Bile rose again, and then he knew no more.
9
LUCK RARELY APPEARS WITHOUT MISFORTUNE’S HELP
“Snap out of it, you fool!” Water was thrown on his face, and Nik struggled to rise from the nightmare, knowing the moment he opened his eyes, he’d be facing a worse one. A rough hand shook his shoulder. “Come on, durak! Hurry. The tsarevnas need you.”
“Wh... what?” That did it. For a moment he’d been back in the barn with his old horse, him covered in his own vomit, his father waiting for him to wake up for another beating. Now he remembered: he was in the capital, and he’d made a terrible mistake. “Where’s Veru?”
“She’s here. She needs your help.” The hussar trying to wake him shook his head in disgust, yanked off his own cloak, and tossed it to Nik. “Here. Clean your own sick off yourself and get up.” When Nik didn’t immediately move, the older man took hold of his arm and yanked him to his feet. “We need to get them out of here before he comes back. They managed to chase the sorcerer off for the moment, but he’s powerful, and the others have sighted his army.”
“His army? His undead army?” Nik paused in his wiping. “They’re coming? We’ve got to hide. They’ll kill everyone!”
“I know, boy. What were you thinking leading a wurdulac to our tsarevnas? He could have destroyed them. He still might.”
“What do we do? He’s too powerful. There’s no way to stop him.”
“We must preserve the tsarevnas at all costs. Despite what you’ve done, they seem to trust you. The question is, can I?”
Nik nodded furiously. “I’ll do anything to protect them. I swear it. I’ll even fight the beasts if I have to.”
The older man gave Nik a strange look, then shook his head. “Very well. Do you know any hidden ways out of the palace and into the woods?”
“Yes. Give me your sword. I’ll lead them out. I can protect them.”
The man grunted. “I think they’re fairly capable of protecting themselves. They’ll just need a little help with the doors.”
Nik grimaced. “Right. They’re fighters. Better than myself. We’ll head to the stables, get horses.”
“No. You’ll go on foot.”
“On foot? Why? Riding is faster.”
That’s when Nik heard the clicking of claws behind him. His heart leapt in his chest. Patting his vest and reaching at his hip for a sword that wasn’t there, he cried out and spun, hands out. He couldn’t help the scream that leaked from his mouth when he saw them, the two huge beasts from his nightmare. They were real. And almost more frightening than the undead, with huge fangs protruding from their jaws and powerful striped bodies. They paced back and forth, watching him carefully.
One sat and began licking its paw but kept a close eye on him like a large cat teasing a mouse. He darted behind the older man and trembled, placing his hands on the man’s shoulders, saying in a whisper, “If we back up very slowly, we can find the twins and escape. Maybe we can seal these two... whatever they are, in the room so they can’t follow, and then let them deal with the undead army when they arrive, yes?”
“I don’t think so,” the older soldier replied, shrugging off Nik’s hands and turning his back to the beasts.
Gaping at his nonchalance, Nik slid one foot and then a second one slowly behind him, thinking that at least the soldier would be likely to lose his life first. It didn’t make sense. His demeanor was as calm as if he were simply having a meeting. Nikolai thought him crazed.
“I’m afraid you don’t understand,” the older soldier said, gesturing to the large animals behind him. “These two beasts, as you call them,arethe tsarevnas. They are not, in fact, monsters, or nightmares, but in this form, they are the bol’shoy kot, ortigers. Have you never heard of them?”
Nik swallowed. “They... they are much bigger than wolves.”
