Page 7 of The Last of the Dark Lords

The stonework and metalwork around the outlets had been crafted in Ashfuror long ago, during the ancient times of peace. The system was intricate and, when fully functioning, unassailable.

Jelenna dismounted, walking up to inspect the metal grates and seals that protected this place of weakness in the wall. It was enough to give me nightmares, the thought that somehowthe armies of the Dark Lord would pry their way into the city through the water system, but thankfully none had been able to do so in our long history.

Giving a quick thumbs up, Jelenna hopped back onto Cherry’s back and we continued our northward ride.

Pride stirred in me at the sight of the well-maintained walls. The stonemasons of Greatfalls took great care to repair any flaws as soon as they were discovered. Every citizen of our city was committed to our security.

We approached the northernmost end of the outer wall, where it met the sharply rising mountain. The sheer cliffs made it impossible for approaching armies to flank the city. Perhaps half a league away from the wall’s end, Jelenna stopped and pointed.

“Do you see that?”

I squinted in the direction of her finger, but didn’t see anything unusual, except…yes. There was a slight movement at the foot of the wall.

“What is it?”

Not saying anything, Jelenna rode toward the spot, and I followed a few strides behind. Alarm twitched in my chest. Something about this was off. As we got closer the problem came into focus — writhing, furry bodies about the size of dogs, maybe forty? Fifty? More than I could easily count. We slowed, keeping our distance.

Jelenna identified them first. “Rock gories. There must have been a chink in the wall. They’re clawing at it, trying to open it up more.”

“This isn’t normal.” Rock gories were friendly creatures and stayed in family groups of three or four. They weren’t pack animals.

“It’s the drought. They’re desperate for water. They can hear the reservoir behind the wall.”

Stepping Blaze forward, I called out to them.

“Hya! Get out of here!”

There was a tiny hesitation as the mass of limbs and fur paused at the sound of my voice, and then resumed its work.

“Rock gories are usually afraid of people,” I called out to Jelenna. “They must be desperate. We can’t let them keep digging into the wall.”

Jelenna grabbed her bow from her back, stringing an arrow and letting it fly. It struck one of the animals with a thud, and it collapsed onto the dry dirt.

Once again the mass of furry bodies stopped, but this time the group turned toward us. Their small, beady eyes shone out of their square faces, as their long snouts sniffed at the air. As one, the gories growled and bore their teeth.

“What the hell!?” Instinctively, my hand went to my bow. “Rock gories are supposed to be easy to scare off!”

“Enough hunger and thirst will make anything violent.”

With a leap, the animals came for us, a turbulent river of fur and teeth and claws.

Jelenna and I began shooting, splitting apart and guiding our steeds to get on either side of the pack of crazed mammals.Another gory went down, then another, but it didn’t slow their advance. Soon they had managed to flank us both.

My arrows flew, one after the other, finding their target over and over again. A minute later, there were ten rock gories lying dead, but the others took no note of it. I was holding them off, but barely, and I didn’t have an unlimited supply of arrows. I’d run out sooner rather than later.

I couldn’t shoot fast enough to prevent them from getting to me. When the first clawed at Blaze, he sent it flying with a kick that crushed the rock gory’s skull. That didn’t stop the assault, though, as they nipped and clawed at us from all sides.

I jumped down, grabbing for the long dagger in my belt, slashing one gory’s throat and gutting another. Their bodies pressed against me, and I felt the sting of their teeth tearing into my leathers, but I jabbed back at them. Every Archer was schooled in knife fighting, in the event that an enemy got too close to shoot. My training kicked in, and my movement became unconscious. Thrust, slice, stab, again and again.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Blaze kicked and trampled, his hooves crushing the soft bodies of the rock gories underneath them. Between the two of us we managed to put down many of the animals, and I could sense the assault getting thinner.

Until a roar echoed on the empty plain. Piercing the air, raspy and feline, it could only be one thing.

“A zakar!” Jelenna yelled, although I couldn’t see her through the crowd of rock gories around me. “A zakar come down from the mountain!”

That was not good. A predator cat the size of a small horse, zakar were solitary and elusive animals. I’d caught a glimpse ofone once, hiking the nearby slopes. It had disappeared seconds after I’d even registered it was there. They didn’t attack people. At least, that’s what I’d always been told, but today I’d learned I couldn’t trust the conventional wisdom.

As I was sliding my dagger up the torso of one gory, the zakar roared again. It was louder, much nearer to me this time, and the shock pushed me out of my fighting rhythm. My feet slipped on the blood pooling beneath and slid out from under me. The rocky ground met the back of my head with a sharp pang, and the world flashed bright in front of me. I clenched my gut, fighting to hold on to my consciousness.

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