Page 79 of Vow of the Shadow King

“My King!”

It’s Lur. She’s angled her beast down close to us. She extends a hand to Yok. “Catch it, boy!”

I hold still long enough for the lad to adjust his grip on me and reach out with one hand. His fingers just brush against Lur’s.

A cave devil launches itself out from the cavern mouth. It leaps straight for her morleth, savage and snarling and utterly mad. Her beast rears back in the air, and Lur curses as she nearly loses her seat. Thewogghafalls, shrieking. Others are coming, streaming out from the cave mouth. Many of them fall too, while the rest flow up the side of the cliff as easily as though running on level ground. There’s no way I can outpace them.

“They’re coming!” Yok cries.

“I’d noticed,” I growl through my teeth. Up above, one of the other men on the wall makes a leap for his morleth as it swoops by. He misses, falls, and the beast plunges after him. I can only hope it will catch him but cannot turn to see. I climb, climb, as fast as I can.Wogghastream up the cliff on either side of me. One of them catches at my leg, claws hooking into the armor. It tugs, and I nearly lose my grip.

Abruptly, it lets go, utters a hideous scream, and falls. I turn to see Lur flash by on her morleth, sword stained with devil’s blood. The other riders are doing their best to keep the beasts off me. But where is Knar?

Anotherwogghadraws level with us on my right. It turns its hideous, eyeless head, as though suddenly aware of us. Its mouth opens. Its long tongue lashes hungrily as it alters course straight for us. I let go of the wall with one hand and punch it straight in the flat part of its bone-plated skull. The blow seems to shock it, but only for a moment. It roars and lunges again, claws lashing at my face.

I feel Yok’s arms tense. His breath catches in my ear.

I know what he’s about to do. Before I can react. Before I can move to stop him. I know.

The boy springs from my back, catches hold of thewogghaaround its neck. There he dangles, broken leg useless, hands struggling for purchase. He adjusts his hold, squeezing hard. His one good leg kicks wildly against the wall.

“No!”I lift one hand, try to swing myself toward them. My other hand slips. I’m forced to grab the wall. “No, Yok!Stop!”

Yok wrenches hard and adjusts his grip, locking his arms around the beast’s throat. It shakes its head, its whole body writhing. Yok doesn’t let go. With his one good leg, he presses into the wall. I see him grit his teeth. His eyes flash to meet mine for just a moment.

“Yok!” His name rips from my chest in a furious roar. I reach out, my hand grasping, desperate. Too late, too late.

He pushes off from the wall. Wrenches the devil’s claws free of the stone.

They fall. Tumble. Still grappling together. Plummeting through shadows and down to the fiery river far below.

34

FARAINE

“Princess? Faraine, can you hear me?”

Hael’s voice echoes distantly, beyond the hideousthrob-throb-throbin my temples. My whole being shudders with pain. I cannot see. The darkness is too great, too overwhelming.

All around me, I hear screams. Hundreds of voices crying out in terror, each voice battering my senses like an individual blow. I’ll soon be bludgeoned to death and all without my body bearing a single bruise.

I fumble blindly, grasping for my pendant. My hand finds it and squeezes hard. Its vibration is just enough to clear a small, narrow path of awareness through the dark, through the throb. Enough to realize I still lie on the ground with Hael crouched over me, her rough voice barking, her fear adding to the rest of the assault. Another javelin thrust straight to my brain.

But if I’m on the ground, then . . . maybe . . .

I put out my other hand, press it palm-flat against the floor. And there. I feel it. Deep down in the stone. The answering vibration of other crystals, small, but alive and responsive. I draw the vibration into me. Slowly, slowly, they drive back the pulsing power and pain of all that emotion, giving me a small space in which to stand, to exist.

I open my eyes. Hael is there, her face alarmingly close to mine. Her eyes blaze with concern. “Princess?”

I groan, grimace. We’re on the balcony still. How long have I been unconscious? It feels like hours, but it may have been mere moments. Even with the song of the crystals in my head, I can still hear those screams. So many screams—vicious, animal, shredding at the edges of my sanity. “What’s happening?” I ask. The words shudder as they fall from my lips.

“I don’t know.” Hael supports my shoulders, and I pull myself into a seated position. “You fainted. I thought you were—” She stops as a scream rends the air, this one audible to her ears. Whirling in her crouch, she springs to her feet, stares out over the balcony.

Another scream. And another.

They’re coming from the city, beyond the palace walls.

“Something’s wrong,” Hael says. Her hands grip the rail so tightly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the stone cracked. “Something’s happened.”

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