Page 97 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
I bend my knees and ready my blade.
Snow ripples in a serpentine as the snake whips toward me beneath its cover. She bursts from the powder, her mouth gaping, fangs dripping, her venom spitting at me with fury.
I roll to my right and come up with my blade braced across my shoulder. The toe of my sword slices through her scales as her momentum carries her body past mine.
Zida drops to the snow in a writhing mass, hissing in pain and rage. Steam billows from her hot blood as it melts the snow.
I stand and watch her, my chest heaving with pumping breaths. Her writhing subsides until just the end of her tail swishes in the snow. I look down at the sword in my hand and back to the snake.
“This is either really dumb, or really fucking smart,” I say out loud as I sheathe my sword and approach the demon beast. I bite into my wrist and she keeps her eye on me as I draw close. Her pink tongue flicks and she hisses when I touch her glistening scales. “Shut up now, snake. I’m trying to help.”
I place my hand on her again and drip my blood into the wound.
“Gasaan tiildibba me zi ab.”
Queen who gives life to the dying.
“Itti memes sa zumri uri u musaati sa qate uri lissahitma,” I whisper, closing my eyes as I drip more of my blood along Zida’s wound.
With the blood of my body and the cleansing blood of my hand, may it be taken away.
“Sharuuh laani epsis lukur dusangu.”
Powerful is the figure who makes an enemy into a friend.
I repeat the lines of the incantation, working my way down Zida’s body until I get to the end of the long slice. I finish just as the sound of howling hybrids flows toward us from the cover of the woods.
I look down at the snake and I know she’s looking at me. Her tongue flicks. The split fibers of her flesh are knitting back together.
“Sorry about your brother. My bad.”
The snake gives me a lethargic hiss.
“Right. It was worth a shot. You’re welcome, by the way,” I say with a salute before taking off through a break between the trees, leaving Zida to heal in solitude.
I start running up the mountain, trying to veer back toward where the others should still be in the thick of the fight. It’s slower going, which I guess is no surprise. The snow, the mountain, the exertion of the battle and the effort to heal the snake… it all takes a toll. I go slower on the way up but I still make decent time getting past two clearings. I manage to make it to the first meadow I crossed on my way down before I finally find what I was looking for.
Semyon Abdulov stands between me and the mountain.
“Koroleva piyavok,” he says as a smile spreads across his face. His dark, slicked-back hair and his charcoal wool coat look untouched by the elements. “You seem a little worn out. I have something that might help.”
I unsheathe my sword. “Douchebag. I bet you do. It’s running through your veins.”
Semyon laughs. “Well, what a surprise. You got your voice back. That must have been fun.”
“You bet,” I say as my grip tightens around the handle of mykatana. “I can show you, if you like. I know how fond you are of medical experimentation.”
He laughs again, his icy Alpha eyes glowing bright in the swirling snow between us. Two more of his pack materialize from the trees behind him in their wolven form. “I’ve got other plans for our reunion,koroleva piyavok.But you could make it easier for the both of us by just coming with me.”
I bend my knees and raise my sword. “Hard pass, motherfucker.”
Semyon’s eyes grow brighter. “Suit yourself.”
The wolves surge past him as the mist cascades across the field toward me. But I hear another sound too, coming from my left. Hybrids, crashing through the woods toward us.
Shit.
I keep my focus on the wolves closest to me. They attack with better coordination than the pack members further up the hill. They take turns snapping at me. They jump beyond the reach of my blade and come back hard. One grazes my calf and tears my jeans but misses the skin. I manage to catch it in the leg as it darts away. I take the chance to press on after the other wolf in an aggressive attack. No sooner do I kill them both than two more make it down the hill to take their place. But I keep my eyes on my prize across the field. Semyon Abdulov.
