Right behind her, on a steep wall, pressing its claws into the stone, the beast was descending quietly, with its moving mane stretching the tentacles forward, its nostrils swelling large enough to draw in not just the air but all the stones around, and never blinking or moving its violently burning eyes off its prey.
Elcha cut her story and stared at me, bewildered – my face must have had too eloquent a palette of colors that were enough to get my feelings without a word.
“Run, Elcha, run!” I screamed pulling the blades out of the sheath and rushing to cover her. She immediately realized everything and, jumping off the boulder, tried to rush to the river, yet was definitely too slow against the monster. It jumped, too, and would have got her right there, but ran into my claw – I had released one of the chains a split second before.
The creature roared and fell onto the stones, while I quickly pulled the blade out still
wondering how I had managed it.
“There! Fast!” I pointed toward a small cleft between the rocks hoping the beast would prove too large to squeeze in.
I could hear stones rustling behind and then a growl followed, which was getting closer. I grabbed Elcha by the arm and ran pulling her along.
She is too slow, I realized with horror, but we have to make it, no choice, the only desperate thought was beating in my head.
As we reached the cleft, I pushed her thus both adding her some acceleration and attaching direction to her movement. She flew into the crevice like an arrow, and I turned around. The beast was running at breakneck pace yet came to a dead stop the second it saw me standing on the way, daggers in my hands. Now it was standing opposite, growling.
“What now, you stupid rubbish? Never seen anyone fighting you back?” I shouted. “Wanna try once again?”
It growled again, teeth bared, and I could hear real menace in it.
“There is a way here!” Elcha’s voice came from behind.
“Elcha, run as far as you can, don’t look back,” I shouted over my shoulder, never taking my eyes off the monster. That moment, on my right, with my side vision, I could notice some more movement. And as I turned my gaze I froze. Another beast was emerging slowly from the bushes, its eyes glued to me.
“And you?”
“I’ll catch up!” I said slowly, trying to keep my voice stable. And there I had a click in my mind, I won’t catch up with her, no way! I won’t even leave this place now. Ever!
“Ricka! You crazy! I’m not leaving you here!” she was not just panicking, I could hear she was nearly crying.
“Elcha, just leave!” I shouted at the top of my lungs still never taking my eyes off the beasts. “Leave now!”
I could hear quick sounds of two feet running over the stones and getting lost in the distance.
The monsters were grinning and growling, yet did not dare come any closer, just standing there with their tentacles stretching forth.
Only then I could see they were different. The one I already knew was black as ink, while the other one had a slightly whitish mane. But the pattern on their skins was the same.
I wished I had not left my bag behind, Nargara’s special action elixirs would come in handy indeed.
My heart was nearly jumping out of my mouth, but at the same time I felt some strange and frightening calmness inside. The main thing was to stretch the time thus giving Elcha a chance to go as far as possible.
“What now, you stupid mongrels? Got your tails between your legs?” I tried to stick a smile on my face, but I think even someone sentenced to the rope would have a happier smile before the execution. “Afraid of getting your miserable skins spoilt? Expected to get me on a silver platter, didn’t you? You, two ugly things! And you couldn’t get me last time, so now you brought help, right?” I asked the black beast stuffing my voice with as much sarcasm as I could.
They both let out a hoarse growl and began their advance.
And the next moment, the one with the whitish mane rushed forward.
I was so frightened I shot both claws, which left a dull sob behind as they entered the flesh. The beast bellowed with pain and collapsed onto the grass having jumped short of me. However, as it fell down, my chains remained under.
Here, Truvle! Really great! Tell me nobody can get me with this weapon. So it was neither Truvle’s work nor the lessons I learnt from Yoos that could help me anymore. I tried pulling the chains with all might, and pulled again, but all in vain. They chains stuck under the ugly carcass. Out of my eye’s corner I saw the other beast ready to jump, and despair seized me. I threw the handles and darted to the passage. Something cut through my shoulder, getting deep through both clothes and skin. I uttered a moan, my teeth still pressed tight.
And then suddenly I was blinded by a bright flash, and a disgusting howl nearly ruined my ears, followed with the smell of burning flesh. I yet took a few steps forward, stumbled upon something and tried to pull focus. It was Elcha – standing right in front of me, her face harder than stone, and her hand ablaze with fire.
“Have been dreaming so long of trying this!” she said as she gave a wolfish smile, and then a huge fireball jumped off her hand. The fist creature, which had my blades under it, was already up and rushing at us. Everything around seemed to be slowing down.
“Elcha!”
She turned around and let another spell at the beast, which was already halfway jumping. The ball got right into its disgusting jaws, throwing it back, and us – the opposite way.
I was quick to jump up and drag my sister to the cleft seeing that the black monster was once again on its feet, already shaking its head to come round.
“Oh, shit,” I couldn’t hold anger, “they are up again… We got to run now.”
We ran down the narrow crevice in the rocks, dodging between stones. The cleft was soon left behind and we jumped out of the other side of the cliff.
The Sun had already set, and twilight came. We ended up just a little way off the Karun valley, and now there was a huge green field stretching before us.
I knew the place. Local shepherds often brought cattle to graze here. A little left, there was the trade route, and further down it, was the Eagle’s Nest fortress.
“There,” I waved to the side where the city lights were flickering, and then turned to Elcha. She was standing there, staggering, all pale and her face fallen. I even thought for a second that she had grown several years older within just the last minutes.
“I read somewhere that combat magic drains your power. But I could never have expected the feeling to be such a nasty one,” she smiled tightly.
“Hold on,” I whispered, casting a nervous glance at the cleft. “Looks like we’ve broken off, despite the thin odds. I don’t think they’ll squeeze through the crevice. Now all we got to do is get home,” I grabbed her hand and dragged along.
“We need to get to the valley entrance… the valley is sealed, they said, sealed, they said they would not go there…” she muttered indistinctly under her breath, “now I understaaand …” she drawled and giggled.
I gave her a look full of suspicion.
Looks like she is delirious, I concluded, as she went on slurring over her words, “They picked up the trail, hee-hee… there was only a year left, he said, all you have to do is just hold out for another year, hee-hee-hee … and he also said, while one is alive we don’t need the other one. Yes, that’s what he said… And there was something else, something about the danger of
fights…”
“Who was saying that, Elcha?” I snapped. I was all in goosebumps seeing her going insane.
And what if she goes completely nuts and stays that forever!
“Who