Page 43 of The Last One
I hop back, but the tip of his weapon still rips my skirt.Damn it!
The soldier inches forward, cocky now that he’s actually made contact. His breath comes loud and fast.
The hoe’s handle has softened, squishy and wet now with blood and bone. The blade wobbles at the end of the stick, one swing away from flying off completely.
With a fierce cry, the soldier lunges.
I jab using the blade for the last time. The metal wedge falls off, leaving behind a splintered end. Perfect. I spear the jagged wood into the soldier’s mouth and up through his nose. Down he goes. And then there’s silence. Except for the booming of my heart. And the groans of dying men. And the clucking of manic chickens. The ground oozes, slick with blood. The emperor’s men lie dead and defeated around us, their armor and swords glinting dully in the torchlight.
Before I can knead any tension from my shoulders, something shifts in the darkness toward the edge of the village. And then, out of a bank of smoke,hesteps forward. A titan of a soldier protected by a mine’s worth of iron.
Jadon whispers, “Shit.”
I gawk at the behemoth headed our way. “What the hell is he? Not human.”
“Otaan,” Jadon says.
“How do you know?”
“His mouth.”
Long canine teeth. Severe underbite. No lips. His forehead and his bald scalp bristle with pointy spikes. And he’s completely covered in blood.
“Cannibals, Kai, that’s what they are. Wake’s soldiers always travel with one, as insurance against loss. He’s been eating dead villagers.” A swatch of blue tunic is caught in his teeth. Jadon glances over at me. “And a few of his fallen fellow soldiers.”
With my eyes still fixed on the giant, I wrest away a sword from the clutches of the closest dead soldier. The handle is slick with blood, and there is no time to clean it. I tighten my grip as best I can and ask Jadon, “Can he die?”
“Probably?” Jadon pushes out a breath. “Ready?”
My amulet heats, and my muscles tense.
The titan closes the distance between us, bringing with him the smells of fire, rotten meat, and the musk of all humanity. The Otaan looks at me, and his eyebrows lift.“You.”There’s a spark of recognition in the giant’s eyes that I can’t place. He snarls at me, and his hatred rolls toward me in waves. Whoever he is, he’s no friend of mine.
“Remember why we fight,” Jadon says, almost to himself.
To keep Jadon and Olivia alive. To reverse the wrongs I’ve done but can’t recall. To succeed instead of failing at something I don’t even remember.
The mountain of a man charges toward us, clumsy in his armor, a bear in a teakettle.
Jadon and I rush to meet him, a battle cry erupting from the depths of our souls, perfectly entwined. I swing first, and the giant’s great sword clashes with mine. It sounds like thunder, and the vibrations traveling up my arms make the sword wobble in my hand.
The giant notices my momentary confoundment and slaps me away from him.
My feet leave the ground, and I fly back until I hit an overturned wagon.
Oomph!All the air leaves my body, and sharp pain zips up my spine.
The Otaan lurches toward me. “You let them come,” he growls, his voice as heavy and jagged as stone.
What?Through watery eyes, I see Jadon swing his sword, and the blade bounces off the behemoth’s breastplate. I letwhocome?
The giant blocks another swing, then backhands Jadon just as he slapped me, sending him crashing into the remains of a chicken coop.
The Otaan rushes over to him the moment he hits the ground, swinging his sword at Jadon. The blade whooshes as it misses Jadon’s head by a hair.
I see a weakness: the titan’s breastplate has no back. He’s too big for a full suit of armor. His undertunic has ripped, and round bony knots the size of crabapples run from the top of his bare spine to the end of his lower back. His skin looks as tough and leathery as a lizard’s.
But that is exposed skin—even if it’s tough. And if he breathes, he bleeds.
