Page 100 of Consort's Dragon
The old soldier frowned.“Why?”
“I assume you’d rather not become Zhos’ puppet.”She dipped her fingers in the blood and dabbed it on his forehead.
Gustav’s eyes widened.“That has been an issue, hence the tethers.When one gets their mind taken, he’s yanked between the stones to set him right again.Makes for a tedious battle since they can only manage a few strokes before the fog takes them.”
“Hopefully, the blood marks will keep Zhos away.”Avera marched to the soldiers waiting and smeared them with blood, ignoring their frowns as she tried to explain how it worked.
Ifit worked.
“They’re coming,” Gustav announced ominously, holding his sword, the blade red with Avera’s blood.
Seeing as how Griff would rather be in bed with his wife, he charged ahead into the mist, unafraid, his courage fueled by the knowledge that if he took out the monsters quick enough, Avera wouldn’t have to put herself in danger.
He paused just past the pillars and listened.The cloying fog muffled sound.Then again, would he even hear the creatures, given their unnatural origin?The mist itself didn’t touch him.On the contrary, it recoiled from his presence.
Gustav joined him and said, “If Avera’s mark fails, don’t let me hurt her.”
A man who’d rather die than harm the little queen.
Seeing Gustav and Griff standing with no issue, the other men, armed with wolfframm blades, crept out.They radiated fear, forcing Griff to ramrod his spine and use his captain’s voice.“Steady boys.They’re close.”He couldn’t see them but his skin prickled.
The first creature lunged from the mist, silent in its attack.Only a shift in the swirling fog betrayed its arrival.Without thought, Griff swung, the blade lopping off the demon’s arm.It didn’t cry out or react to the injury, merely swiped with its remaining limb.A slash to its neck took its head and it collapsed into nothingness.
It was only the first.
More emerged from the fog, hideous beasts with mishappened features, their eyes aglow over slavering maws full of sharp teeth.
Griff and the men with their red marked foreheads and wolfframm forged blades formed a line and fought.Sword and daggers against things that felt no pain but also lacked the cunning of a living creature.
He’d slain his third beast when he heard his wife shout, “It works.”He took a moment to glance behind him, spotting her in a pocket clear of mist, bravely thrusting with a blade smeared in her blood.
“There’s more coming.We need more fighters,” Gustav yelled even as his sword swept through a monster’s torso.
Avera dashed back to the pillars where the men without the wolfframm weapons waited.Griff couldn’t worry about her as more monsters emerged, a veritable army of them.
Those who’d been crowding by the pillars, watching, came charging into the fray, their blood-smeared weapons allowing them to help against the wave.
And still they were too few.
Gustav fought with the deadly precision of an experienced soldier, so when he retreated from his area to near Griff, he wondered why.
The old man huffed, “This is more than we’ve ever seen before, and the men are tiring.We need to find their origin.”
The statement reminded Griff of the first time he’d encountered the mist beasts, rising from a puddle in a basin in the old mariner chapel.
“I’ll find the source,” Griff declared, even as he wasn’t sure how.He forged ahead into the mist, the moist fog parting as he passed and widening as Avera joined him.
“What are you doing?”he barked.
“Helping you.”
He could have snapped and told her he didn’t need help.It would have been a wasted breath.Avera wouldn’t leave his side or leave others to battle.
Monsters surged from ahead, their silence more jarring than their existence.He and Avera found themselves surrounded and fought back-to-back, grunting with exertion as they slashed.It seemed hopeless until a sudden light illuminated the area.The mist beasts cringed at its brilliance.
Starlight stood to their left, bathed in radiance.“Quickly now.It’s hard to hold the magic in this shape.”
“Let’s find the source,” Griff shouted and ran forward, Avera by his side.
