Page 35 of A Dawn Of Blood

Sheer determination in my gaze, I keep standing at the edge of the cliff with Jaeger and her to my left and Dryden to my right.

I’m not letting the place scare me, and I have confidence in the plan.

After all, we’re capitalizing on the knowledge of the consequences of the only successful escape ever, the one Nuala told us about yesterday.

Some thirty to forty years ago, a man by the name of Synn Iarro made the guards turn on each other, engaging in a fight that ultimately led to a crack in the prison’s outer defenses.

Luckily for us, this has remained the most well-kept secret in the world, simply because there’s not a single soul, either Baldur’s or ours, that wants the people imprisoned inside to break out.

Nuala gives the signal.

Inhaling deeply, I follow her as she starts taking us through the series of steps to get to the crack, from which we’ll head straight for the entrance.

We successfully get to the crack and the entrance appears in my line of sight, my lips curling into a smile despite the tension. We’re so quiet and efficient, we should be in and out in no time.

But then the feeling starts overwhelming me. I’ve heard about it, I’ve read about it, I’ve tried to prepare for it.

But it’s like having all your worst fears magnified, drawn to the surface of your skin and given claws to tear their way out of you in the most agonizing way possible.

It makes it hard to breathe, let alone try to be quiet while executing a complex mission.

It’s only through enormous effort that I manage to push it down a little, but as soon as I do, I register the others struggling in front of me, Nuala in particular.

She seems to be glancing over her shoulder every couple of seconds, the look in her eyes becoming more and more panicked.

The next time she does, I catch her eye. It’s my intention to try to silently reassure her, but she throws me an angry look, opening her mouth to say something.

My heart pounds in my ears for that split second before Dryden seems to notice this as well and rushes to use his Tension Magic to absorb the sound she ends up making.

“What the hell areyoulooking at?” I read from her lips, but the words are inaudible.

Jaeger reaches for her and for a moment, I think we’ll just keep walking in silence, but then Nuala turns all her focus onto her and Dryden, thrashing to escape Jaeger’s grip while throwing daggers at Dryden.

The two of them keep her restrained and silenced long enough to get us through the entrance.

I breathe a sigh of relief, my eyes sweeping over the large, round plateau surrounded on all sides by bare rocky formations.

But as soon as we step onto it, this movement draws my gaze. I watch Nuala kick Dryden in the shin.

And the next thing I know, he’s losing control of his magic and she’s letting out a loud, dragged-out groan that seems to make the rocky walls around us come to life.

Chapter 25

Though it feels like eternity, it all happens in a heartbeat. Stunned, I watch these perforations in the walls appear, like holes in an anthill, figures spilling through them and starting to furiously crawl in our direction.

Even before my mind catches up, my body responds with a flood of visceral panic. Because the figuresarehumanoid, but there’s something so deeply wrong with them, even if you ignore the insect-like crawling.

The next thing I know, as one, they’re pushing off the ground and getting on their feet, maws opening and claws slicing the air as they lunge straight towards us. We have our backs pressed together and we’re doing our best to fight them off. Jaeger has her knife out, Dryden is shooting air blades at them, and even Nuala is snapping out of her haze and slamming her fists together, the earth below us shaking and cracking enough to swallow some of the attackers.

I myself am lifting my right hand and throwing it back, my Runes glowing as I use fire to keep them at bay.

The guards of Nasgard. I’ve read descriptions of them, but nothing could prepare me for the sight now before me. It’s like their bodies have been broken in so many places, they barely look human, and the maws are actually muzzles sewn into their jaws, my stomach churning as I watch them snapping at us.

“No matter what you do,” Nuala told me yesterday, “don’t let them bite you. The bite is venomous and the venom contains trackers so they can find you if you somehow manage to escape them.”

I keep fighting, avoiding the bites, but they’re getting closer and closer.

We’re losing, I think with desperation starting to flood me.

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