Page 56 of Skalterra By Nightmare
Orla’s blade sputtered out, and she pushed her goggles back with a knuckle.
“Is he dead?” she whispered.
“How should I know?” I kept my flail at the ready and tip-toed forward. I nudged the Grimguard’s shoulder with the toe of my shoe, which was still modeled off of Liam’s sneakers.
The Grimguard remained lifeless, and my flail dissipated with a crackle. I knelt down to roll him onto his back. His head lolled to the side, and his eyes stayed closed.
“Holy crap.” I sat back to better survey his condition. Large portions of his leather armor and tunic had burnt away to reveal patches of burned torso. What wasn’t crusted over continued to ooze blood and pus. Wounds puckered with inflammation, and the tell-tale signs of infection turned white skin red.
Tiernan’s explosive the other night hadn’t completely done in the Grimguard, but it had come close.
“Check his pulse,” Orla whispered overhead. I pressed a tentative hand against his neck. The faintest of heartbeats pressed back.
“Alive.”
Orla sighed and pulled her goggles back into place.
“Alright. Look away if you like. I’ll make it quick.” Her green blade reignited, and my mouth dropped open.
“Makewhatquick?” I positioned myself between her and the unconscious Grimguard. Her eyebrows drew together above her cracked goggles.
“He wants to kill Fana,” she said. “This is what we signed up for as Riftkeepers. TokeeptheRift,which he wants to open! With child murder!”
“That doesn’t mean we murder a defenseless man!”
“He would kill us if the roles were reversed,” Orla pointed out.
“That’s what makes him the villain and us the good guys!”
Orla pressed her lips together.
“My mother was killed by Grimguards.” As terrible as the words were, she looked more defeated than angry. “And if we leave him, he’ll die anyway. It’s kinder to put him out of his misery.”
It was a good point. The way his injuries looked, it was a wonder he was still alive. I peeled his cowl away from his face, as if that might help him breathe easier. His pale skin there was unmarred and smooth, though his lips were dry and cracked.
“Orla, he’s so young,” I said, but it was hard to read Orla with her tinted goggles fixed over her eyes. “I was brought to Skalterra to protect Fana. I won’t be a murderer.”
What if he had a family somewhere? What if they never found out what happened to him, like with Liam and his parents and cousin? If Skalterra was real, that meant this Grimguard was too, and even if he was evil, I would not let him become someone else’s Riley.
“You might not have signed up for this, but I did,” Orla insisted.
“You signed up to kill a defenseless kid?”
Orla nodded, but her chin quivered. I set my jaw and rose to my feet.
“Fine,” I said. “Do it.”
She gulped.
“I will.”
I stepped to the side, and Orla took my spot standing over the Grimguard, staring down at his unconscious body. Her knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip on her shaking blade.
She raised it, holding it directly over the Grimguard’s head. For a second, I thought I might have misjudged her, but then the blade dissipated, and she staggered backwards, pushing her goggles up her forehead.
“Dammit, Wren.” She hid her eyes behind her hand. “Then what do we do?”
I looked back towards the busy street. We hadn’t come too far from the inn, and Orla was right when she’d said the Grimguard would die if we left him in the alley.
