Page 16 of Pawns of Fate
It stalked closer to them, and Rose screamed. Nicholas brandished his sword and yelled something to the effect of “stay away from the fighting.” He needn’t have bothered. Rose had no intention of going any closer to the foul creatures and was fighting the urge to run all the way back to Robson Castle.
Rose shuffled backwards with a motion that essentially amounted to a very ungainly crab walk until her back pressed against a pine tree. The solidity of the tree gave her the illusion of safety, enough that Rose turned her eyes to the battle in front of her.
The ogres were immense; one was at least nine feet tall, and all had arms thicker than tree trunks. However, the knights were faster and worked together with an ease that suggested this was hardly their first battle. One ogre had already fallen, and Rose watched another lose an arm to a skillful stroke of a broadsword.
The thought that her aural magic—were it strong enough to put the monsters to sleep—would be helpful in this situation crossed Rose’s mind. Hiding under a pine tree felt worse than useless. She turned her attention to Nicholas.
Despite his claims that his magic was weak, sparks of electricity surrounded Nicholas’s blade and burned the ogre each time Nicholas struck. He stabbed the yellow-tusked ogre’s abdomen, and the beast bellowed. Indigo blood gushed out of the wound when Nicholas pulled his sword out. Rose felt nausea fill her stomach like a balloon; the smell of the ogre’s blood andburnt flesh was worse than rotten fish.
She turned away from the battle and wandered just a little deeper into the forest, desperate to find a private place to empty the contents of her stomach. Unfortunately, Rose didn’t realize that ogres were hardly the only monsters in the forest. She unwittingly stepped into a nest of twiddletoads.
A shocked squeal left her lips as what she’d thought was an innocuous circle of large, colorful mushrooms came to life, hopping this way and that. Each time the toads jumped, shimmering powder spewed from the spotted mushrooms on their backs. Rose wasn’t an expert on the flora and fauna of Onanish, but she was sure that the ever-thickening dusty haze was poisonous—black dots formed at the edge of her vision.
She stumbled in her attempt to escape the twiddletoad’s poison, but the little monsters followed her. Rose fell to her knees. The black dots at the edge of her vision grew to spots. She put a hand on the forest floor, trying to steady herself, but it was in vain.
Right as Rose fell to the forest floor, she caught a glimpse of a large black snake with golden eyes.
“Help,” she groaned. “Somebody, help.” Even just those three words caused great pain. Her throat burned from the chalky poison.
Did the black snake wink at her? That couldn’t be. But it did strike out and ruthlessly catch one of the twiddletoads in its mouth, causing the other toads to disperse and the air to clear.
Rose slipped into unconsciousness.
The snake spat out the toad’s corpse and then slithered nextto Rose’s sleeping form, observing the rise and fall of her chest and the sound of breath escaping her lips. Metallic footsteps approached. A male voice called, “Rose, Rose!”
The snake slipped into the bushes just before Nicholas entered the clearing.
NICHOLAS
Panic viciously squeezedhis heart when he saw Rose’s figure lying on the forest floor.
Nicholas dropped to his knees and checked for her pulse. When he felt her heartbeat, Nicholas felt a relief stronger than almost any other emotion he’d felt in his life. He glanced around and noticed the corpse of a red-capped twiddletoad beside his fiancée. What the hell had happened here?
He picked Rose up. Twiddletoads could be lethal if a person breathed in too much of their poison for too long. They usually lived in large groups, but only one corpse was nearby. Perhaps this one was already sickly, abandoned by its group, and hadn’t had enough toxicity to kill Rose, just knock her unconscious.
Syzman came up beside him. “You found her,” the shadow mage commented, then he bent down to examine the twiddletoad’s corpse. “Odd. Only one toad.” Syzman straightened up and shoved the little monster into his satchel. “She should be dead.”
Nicholas’s eyebrow twitched. Syzman was technically correct, even if the words were harsh.
“Sorry, my lord. I’m glad she’s alright.”
“Do you have any smelling salts?” Nicholas asked, carrying Rose’s limp form back to their party.
“No. Rest might be better, anyway,” Syzman said, following behind. “We’ve sent a few men to fetch more horses, but it will be an hour or two before they return. She might feel better simply waking up in the castle than waiting in the woods next to dead ogres.”
Nicholas bit the inside of his cheek. Once again, Syzman was correct, even if his words were blunt. He wanted to ask Rose what happened. He’d seen her scurry over to the pine tree, putting a safe distance between herself and the fighting. She’d seemed scared, but in control of her faculties.
Then he’d turned his attention to dealing the ogre a final blow. When he’d looked back again, Rose was gone. She hadn’t gone far, but you didn’t have to go far in this forest to run into danger. He let out a breath of frustration? Relief? Nicholas wasn’t sure. Adrenaline and too many emotions were bouncing around inside of him. He’d never felt this strongly about much of anything before.
He looked down at the beautiful woman in his arms. His very soon-to-be wife. This certainly wasn’t how he’d wanted to introduce her to Onanish, but nothing seemed to be going how he wanted where Rose was concerned. He cradled her body alittle closer, a little tighter, and wondered how he’d ever get this woman to trust him now.
ROSE
Rose woke tosoft sheets surrounding her body and a fluffy pillow cradling her head. It felt nice, but… wrong. She’d been in the middle of a forest, watching a… snake. Yes. A snake killed one of the twiddletoads. She felt her body for bites or lingering signs of venom. Her nose and lungs burned, but she suspected that was from the twiddletoads. Apparently, the snake had not bitten her.
A soft snore grabbed her attention. Nicholas was holding her hand and had fallen asleep in a chair beside the bed. Silver locks fell across his face, obscuring it from Rose’s view and tempting her to gently tuck the strands behind Nicholas’s ears.
She looked around at the large, feminine bedroom. The floors were white marble but covered with delicate, patterned rugs. The furniture and textiles used a simple, pastel palette, creating a light, airy effect for the whole room. Afternoon sunbeams filtered through a square window and danced on a large vase of pink roses on the coffee table.
