Page 26 of Skalterra By Nightmare
The largest of the Nightmares carried Fana on his back between Galahad and Tiernan.
“Is Orla alright?” Galahad asked. It was all he could muster before falling into a coughing fit.
“Idied.Your stupid Grimguard killed me!” I seethed. I kept pace with Galahad’s running stride but shoved my palm in his bearded face so he could see the fresh scar there. “What the hell is this? Whatis this?”
“Is Orla alive?” Galahad demanded.
“She should be fine, which must be nice, becauseIwas murdered!”
“Where’s the Grimguard?”
“Galahad!” I grabbed his arm, bringing his faltering sprint to a stumbling halt. The Nightmares surrounding us followed suit, and Tiernan was several paces ahead before he realized we’d stopped.
“Let go of him!” Tiernan charged back to rip my hand away from Galahad. “If the Grimguard catches up—”
But Galahad held up a staying hand from where he stood doubled over, fighting for air. The Grimguard had warned me the old man wasn’t good for much more than creating Nightmares, but whatever pity I might’ve felt was eclipsed by anger and panic at having woken up in my bedroom with blood dripping from my neck and a new scar to mark my most recent death.
“There’s a new mark.” I shoved my palm in Galahad’s face. “It’s there in the real world too.”
“The real world?” A bushy gray eyebrow quirked above Galahad’s goggles.
“Keldori,” I hissed. “The scar is still there in Keldori when I wake up. You’re going to kill me.”
“The Grimguard is going to kill us all if he catches up!” Tiernan watched the shadows behind us, tensed and ready.
“You fought him,” Galahad panted. “Where?”
I oriented myself for a moment, thinking back to when Orla had forked left, and I had gone right.
“That way.” It was hard to see the trees beyond the yellow and silver glows of Galahad and Tiernan’s weapons, but I was fairly certain I was pointing in the right direction. Galahad nodded and every Nightmare except for the one carrying Fana on his broad back rushed into the forest shadows.
“They were carrying all our supplies,” Tiernan growled.
Galahad straightened up, having somewhat caught his breath.
“We’ll restock in Trawler’s Bay.” He took my hand in his to inspect the scar the night had added. “I hope you gave him a good fight at least.”
“Send her with the other Nightmares,” Tiernan said through clenched teeth. He was the tallest of the group, matching height with the remaining Nightmare. “We don’t need her.”
“We are a young girl, an old man, and a rash, untrained warrior too eager to prove himself,” Galahad said. “The lucid Nightmare stays.”
“I’m not untrained!”
“Then you agree you are rash and too eager?”
“You can’t keep me here.” My voice quaked as I cut between the two men. Thiswasreal. I could die. “It’s- it’s inhumane!”
“This is nothing compared to what the Frozen God will reap if he is freed.” A burst of orange light in the distance flashed across Galahad’s face, but he ignored it. “Do you feel it yet? The gravity of the situation? You faced the Grimguard. Is that who you want unleashed on your world?”
“I—”
“And I wish I could say the Grimguard is the worst thing to exist in Skalterra, but I fear there is far worse, probably here in these woods with us right now. Last night you mentioned a ‘Gams’. Do you think she’ll be spared if our worlds are forced to collide? There was a reason the Four Magicians banished our kind here. There is a reason that here is where we must remain.”
The dark of the forest pressed in on our ring of light, and I wanted nothing more than to dissolve into dust like the Nightmare I was.
“I can’t help you.” I shook my head and stepped away. I glanced between Galahad and Tiernan before meeting Fana’s wide brown eyes. She stared at me from over her Nightmare’s shoulder. She looked so tiny on his back, and so horribly breakable.
“You can—” Galahad started.
