Page 99 of Shield of Fire

We reached what looked to be an old rockfall area, which momentarily slowed our pace as we scrambled through the gap Cynwrig had obviously cleared earlier. A few seconds later, we hit a T-intersection.

This tunnel was wider, the footing smoother. Mathi went right and increased his pace. We’d barely taken a dozen steps when the goddamn fingers came to life, scuttling up the shield’s fiery surface and clamping around Lugh’s neck.

He made a gargling sound and reached up, trying to pry the wooden fingers away. Mathi spun and reached for one wrist, but new fingers erupted from the top of the creature’s hand, swiping at him with knife-like precision.

I swore, drew my knives, and flipped one to Cynwrig. “Stab the knife through the remains of its wrist. It’s the only way to stop it.”

He nodded and as one, we stepped forward, and thrust the blades at angle through the wooden wrists, aiming the blades away from Lugh’s neck.

The fingers stiffened in shock but didn’t release. Lugh dropped to his knees, his face red, his lips turning blue. I swore, reached past the knife, and gripped several fingers, trying to pry them away. Knife like-splinters erupted from still living bits of wood, slashing desperately at my hand. A gun hilt appeared between them and my fingers, taking the brunt of the blows. I continued to tug uselessly at the creature’s fingers as new shoots of wood erupted and desperately swiped at me. But the deadness now flowed across the back of the creature’s hand, over its knuckles, and down into its fingers, stopping the growths. I snapped one finger free, then the next. Mathi removed the others, then pried the hand away from Lugh’s shoulder. He threw it on the ground, drew his gun, and shot it. A heartbeat later, a second hand joined it. As Mathi shot it as well, flames flickered around the edges of the first hand’s wound. Both hands were being held lifeless by the blades, so neither could create new fingers to remove the bullets as their trunk had.

As the flames intensified, I dropped to my knees beside my brother and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, comforting him as he sucked in great gulping gasps of air that shook his entire body.

The hands burst into flame and were consumed. Cynwrig gathered the broken bits of fingers and tossed them on top of the small fire. In very little time, there was nothing left but ash. I raised a breeze and scattered it to the four winds.

From behind us came a distant roar, and the ground underneath shook.

“We need to go.” Cynwrig’s voice was grim. Strained. “I can’t hold it back for much longer. Lugh?”

“I’m fine,” he said, sounding anything but. “Let’s go.”

He pushed to his feet, and I rose with him, keeping close in case he needed a hand. He didn’t, but he didn’t look great, either. There was deep bruising around his neck, and several bloody puncture wounds where the fingers had burrowed into his flesh. They were bleeding but not profusely, and his sweater and jacket were doing a good job of soaking up the blood.

We ran on through the wide old tunnel as the creature raged behind us. Up and up, we went, past offshoot tunnels in which ghosts lingered and keened, their sad song jarring against the fury chasing us. These ghosts hadn’t been killed in the god’s destruction but rather the aftermath. They’d tried to save the unsavable and had lost their lives in the process.

Even elves with the power to move a mountain could do too much. Push too far.

I glanced back sharply at Cynwrig. He caught the movement and smiled. “I’m fine.”

“That seems to be a common response in this outfit right now, and I no more believe you than I did Lugh.”

“We’re close to the surface exit. That creature will not follow us outside.”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

“It lives in darkness, draws strength from blood, and is burned by silver. What other creature does that remind you of?”

“No myth I recall ever mentioned anything about vampiric trees.”

“That does not mean—” He stopped abruptly. “Fuck, here it comes. Run. Run hard.”

I wasn’t sure any of us other than Mathi had the capacity to increase our pace, but we nevertheless did our best, speeding through the tunnel and moving ever upward. The voices of the dead got louder and louder, as if in warning of the danger that now dogged our heels.

Then those voices were drowned out by a sharp keening, and the entire tunnel began to fracture. As thick chunks of stone slammed all around us, I thrust up a hand and created a swirling umbrella of air to protect us. But every chunk of roof hitting my barrier felt like a physical blow, and it was sapping my strength fast.

I couldn’t last. Wouldn’t last.

Then, from up ahead, came a glimmer of light.

Mathi and Lugh somehow found new strength and began to pull away, but I had nothing left in the tank. Lugh must have sensed it, because he paused, reached out, and caught my elbow. Cynwrig grabbed the other, and the two of them lifted me and ran on.

The light grew stronger, even as the keening grew louder.

It was close, so damn close.

I glanced over my shoulder. Saw, through the dust and falling stone, the thick fingers of wood reaching toward us.

Then we were out of the tunnel, into the air, into the rain.

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