Page 2 of Knight's End
We set off walking through the trees, our pace steady but not quite fast. We were all worn down. I flitted from knight to knight, trying to keep their spirits up—or, at least, keep them from sinking too far down—distracting them with discussions of what we might do when we returned to the castle, about how we needed to send messages to each of the provinces, how we needed to send militias to the borders. I tried to keep them talking, keep their minds focused on anything but the loss of their magic. I couldn’t tell how successful I was, because each time I would turn to another knight, the last one I’d spoken with grew quiet and somber again.
Clouds roamed overhead like fat white cows, grazing on blue sky, eating it up until their swollen bellies covered the sun. The wind picked up, and a storm seemed imminent. Dammit.
Rain fell in fat, round drops and within an hour, we were trudging through muddy roads, without a single shelter in sight.
Quinn gave a huge, exaggerated sigh.We should never have trusted the wizard to bring us here.He sent us all mental pictures of Donaloo and the dragon, holed up in a nice warm cave, the dragon sending a thin stream of fire toward a rabbit Donaloo had speared on a stick. Donaloo held the stick up and he and the dragon then alternated bites, and behind them—out of nowhere, a string quartet appeared and started playing a romantic waltz. Donaloo’s unpatched eye fluttered flirtatiously.
I laughed, but my laugh turned into a cough and Quinn cut off his mental entertainment. Connor came over and checked on me, because what I’d thought was a mere cough started to hurt when I couldn’t stop it. Ryan came over and pressed his hands on me, forgetting for a moment he didn’t have power. When his pink light didn’t show, he cursed.
“Sarding hell!” His hands fisted and he stomped off, smacking a tree branch out of his way. His arm was so strong that the branch cracked and fell, nearly braining Blue.
Blue yelped and jumped back, but when Ryan turned to apologize, Blue said, “I’m okay!”
My coughing eased after another minute, but Ryan’s face stayed angry, even when I came and slipped my hand into his.
Tensions were high as we continued our journey.
Declan slipped in a puddle a few minutes later and landed with a splash. Mud splattered his face, painting him like an Appaloosa horse.
This is shite,Quinn thought, as he yanked on Declan’s arm to help his fellow knight out of the mud. Quinn sent us all a mental image of a squadron of gargoyles.Wouldn’t it be nice if a whole fleet of gargoyles just appeared? It would be like your mother sarding had in the last Fire War.
“I wish,” Ryan muttered.
Me too, I wish we—
Quinn’s thought cut off as the sky went black. At first, I thought the storm clouds had grown thicker. But then trees broke around us, branches cracking and falling; the ground vibrated as a hundred different obsidian stones hurtled toward the ground and landed in the mud. We ran, trying to avoid them—were Isla or Raj using a catapult? Had they discovered us? Were they launching stones with spells?
We ran, going this way and that—down hills, through streams—but we couldn’t get away. No matter how deep into the forest we fled, the rocks kept chasing. A spell, then. No catapult had such range. Perhaps the sultan had come for us. Was he angry that I’d freed Blue?
My chest and calves burned as I tried to suck in enough air to keep pushing.
There was no escape. Once the stones began to land in front of us and cut us off, Ryan held out a hand and halted our progress. We ended up in a huddle in a bit of meadow, and all around us stones as tall as my giant, pelted the land, creating huge divots.
My heart beat frantically in my chest as we formed a small circle. I latched onto Declan’s arm and Blue’s, the knights on either side of me. We clung to one another, no one bothered to hide their fear. Goodbyes formed in our eyes and leaked down our cheeks, even as I struggled to find some way to get us out of this impossible situation. I was the only one left with innate magic. But peace didn’t work on stones. Cerena’s hedgewitchery was no use. Her potions couldn’t stop boulders from falling from the sky.
I moved my eyes from knight to knight as another stone fell two feet in front of us. Sard. Was this it? The end? This soon? We hadn’t even had a chance—
The boulder in front of us rolled closer, and an awful screech filled the air. Suddenly, massive wings erupted from either side of the stone. A face formed in the side of the rock; it resembled an etching with two glowing yellow eyes. The face erupted from the rock slowly, a rasping, scraping noise filling my ears as the etching became three-dimensional. The monstrous face pushed itself into existence and then stretched its neck. Two twisted horns crowned its head, and the glowing amber eyes blinked, lighting up a wide nose and a mouth with two tusks shooting upward, grazing its cheeks. A gargoyle stared at me as its arms and legs erupted beneath it.
“Holy sarding hell,” Connor whispered.
I glanced at my knights, but barely had time to look at them before the awful screeching surrounded us and wings popped out of every stone that had fallen from the sky. My hands flew to protect my ears. We all stood and stared, with our hands as muffs, while gargoyles sprang into existence all around us.
The fear that had churned in my stomach lifted, and awe took its place.
“What the sard is happening?” Ryan asked.
It was Blue who reached over and squeezed my arm to get my attention. I turned away from the sight of a hundred gargoyles growing legs to see what he wanted. Blue’s hand went to Quinn’s shoulder and he turned the other knight to face us.
Quinn’s face was pale. His eyes were wide. And unlike the rest of us, who wore a mixture of confusion, relief, and astonishment in our expressions, Quinn’s face was terrified. His grey eyes met mine and his lips opened and closed.
“Quinn?” I reached for him. He grabbed my shoulders and stared at me desperately. His eyes squinted and his face scrunched, but he didn’t say anything. Didn’t send me any silly images. “Quinn?” I asked again.
He shoved my hands up to his forehead and put his face closer to mine. The desperation in his eyes started to scare me.
“Quinn, what is it?” I whispered.
His only response was to throw his head back and scream at the sky; a wretched, broken sound erupted from his unused vocal chords.
