Page 34 of The Cruel Dawn
A beast with the head of a lion and a bright blue shell, five skinny legs, and one giant claw scuttles behind me.Sagird!Another creature—it’s an ape, no, it’s an owl, no, it’s both, it’s an ohty—gallops and flies in front of me. Both animals are shadowed overhead by an otherworldly creature with a long snout and leathery wings.
I pull Fury from the scabbard with my right hand and thrust out my left hand at the lion-crab-sagird, using wind to send it splashing into the sea. I swing my blade at the ape-owl-ohty, but my sword bounces off the beast’s fur, only stunning the creature, but giving me enough time to drive Fury into its neck.
Almost immediately, golden light shines upon the ohty, and the fallen creature writhes in its spot.
This can’t be.
I look up to see a beam of golden light emerging from the mouth of the leather-winged flying thing.What the…?
The ohty waggles its head and staggers onto its feet.
What. I blink—Am I seeing this?This…resurrection?
My temples pound—from the fighting, from breathing toxic air.
Not only is the recently arisen ape-owl-ohty charging at me, but so areone, two…six, sevenother ohtys, fangs bared, their movements made quicker by the promise of life after death. From the sea, three more lion-crab-sagirds roll out of the waters, acid still hissing from their shell-backs and dripping from their antennae. Two more leather-winged flying creatures now circle above the sea, ready to resurrect any creature that I destroy.
The formerly dead ohty swipes at me.
I duck in time to save my unprotected head, and I roll…right into another ape-owl-ohty.
It swipes at me with its giant paw and slams me into the acrid earth. The pain feels like burning sandpaper, and I scream and thrust out my hand to launch a ball of fire from my fingertips.
Fwoosh!That ball consumes the ape-owl like it was made of paper.
I throw another fireball.Fwoosh!That ball consumes another ohty.
Claws snap at my ankle.
I cry out as fiery pain spills down to my toes. I roll this way and that way, tears whipping from my eyes, as another claw grabs my greave-covered shins. I shout, and my breath is snatched from my chest. Somehow, I find the strength to swing Fury again, chopping off that claw but not killing the lion-crab-sagird connected to it.
You will fail, Lady.
You do nothing but fail.
Crawling now, I grab that severed claw and swing it at the ohty. I try to balance on one knee as I swing and swing, but I’m hurt, and none of these otherworldly are dying, at least not for long. My vision turns wet and wavy and the world blurs. Will the leather-winged flying things bringmeback to life if I die on these shores?
One lion-crab-sagird grabs my wrist, and I drop the claw. Another lion-crab-sagird grabs my already injured foot, and the two sagirds pull me in opposite directions, trying to tear me apart. Now, I feel nothing as my body goes numb. I squeeze my eyes closed and throw my head back and shout, “Abbey!” and—
I’m no longer fighting for my life at the Sea of Devour. This time, I’m dropped like a piece of trash and splayed on the ground in the middle of a long corridor that stretches without end. Moths whirl around me, helping the power of Spryte ferry me from one place to another. Job done, the eclipse flutters down that corridor and vanishes in the distance.
I whisper, “Please don’t go.” Too late.
The shiny black floor is made of stone with veins of golds and blues. This floor isn’t cold and hard as marble, nor is it soft as wood. This floor is otherworldly.
There’s a long gray wall to my right and a long blue wall to my left. My limbs feel too heavy to move. The bloody gashes on my hands don’t sting as much as those on my cheeks and chin. The armor below my waist feels wet on the inside, filling up with blood from my cut-up calf and foot. I may just drown in my own blood.
At least it’s quiet here.
At least it’s clean here.
Maybe I could stay here forever.
I’m the only stinking, bleeding thing in this place—not that there’s much to see. I turn my head to squint down the hallway, rubbing my thumb against the pendant and shuddering from the buzzing energy now living inside of it. Bleeding and swollen, I lie there, on that otherworldly floor, I don’t know for how long, clutching my amulet and listening to my blood drip onto that floor, pain biting at my neck, wincing every time my lower back flares. My brain tries to pull out of this fog—feels like I’m sleeping with my eyes open.
It’s so nice in this place.
But in the back of that fog-brain, a part of me whispers.
