Page 77 of The Courting of Bristol Keats
“No, Liam,” Glennis answered. “We’re the ones who failed you. We—” Her voice broke, and she pressed her palm to her mouth.
Tyghan’s eyes glowed with heat. He briefly closed them, like he was shutting down his fury. He brushed stray hair from Liam’s brow. “Go to your deserved rest, my friend. Paradise awaits you.”
“I’m sorry,” Liam repeated, still struggling to speak. “I’m sorry I failed you.” His eyes closed, but with his last bit of life, he said softly, “Run . . .run now.”
CHAPTER 53
Tyghan laid Liam’s head down gently on the ground, then rose to his feet, searching the sky. “Get the recruits underground!” he shouted.
Bristol’s heart thudded. She saw it too. A small black cloud undulated in the distance. It was moving closer.
Horns sounded, piercing the air with warning.
Kasta, Glennis, and Quin were all moving, shouting orders as they went.
Tyghan swiped his hand overhead, leaving claw marks across the bright sky. Black, churning clouds spilled through the jagged tears like bubbling ink, until, almost instantly, the sky was dark and charged with webs of lightning. Bristol froze, stunned in the midst of the chaos. Booming cracks of thunder shook the air. Tyghan shouted more orders to Sloan and his company, then swept his palm upward in an angry motion, commanding the elements around him into more impossible things. The ground rumbled, and huge, spiked crystals broke through the soil, creating a sharp, deadly rampart.
The knights’ white steeds arrived in seconds, already summoned from their stalls, and knights mounted them with swords and spears in hand. Archers spilled out onto the grounds, taking positions at the spiked barriers.
“Hurry!” a knight yelled to the recruits and ushered Avery and Sashka toward an unknown destination.
Cully tugged on Bristol’s arm to get her attention and waved to Julia and Hollis. “This way!”
But Julia ran in the opposite direction. “I can help!” she shouted.
Cully called her back, and that was when Bristol broke free too. Rose was still in the maze.
She ran toward the middle entrance. “Rose!” she called.
Didn’t Rose hear the pandemonium? The horns and shouts? Unless she did and couldn’t find her way back out. Bristol raced inside, still shouting her name. Without the team to activate the obstacles, there were no poles jamming into her gut, but the trees themselves were alive, branches and vines batting and clawing at her as she passed. She ducked, she rolled, but one hit her square in the head, making her stumble. She kept running, her forehead stinging, and when she swiped something from her eyes, she saw blood staining her fingers. She ran faster, certain Rose was in trouble. She was a shape-shifter, after all—she could have changed into a hawk and flown out.
Only a short way into the maze, the deafening sounds of battle began screaming overhead. Whatever the creatures were, they were already there, and their shrieks of attack were horrific. Bristol glimpsed dark, fleeting shadows in the overhead canopy as she ran. The screeching of creatures, the ringing clash of metal, and the shouts of knights were a thunderous din around her. Pieces of creatures fell onto the pathway, and sprays of blood rained down. The heavy stench of burnt flesh hung in the air, making Bristol gag. She swallowed and kept going, rounding turn after turn, desperate to find Rose. She finally spotted her hanging upside down beneath a tree. She was tangled in vines, her arms and legs pulled in awkward directions. At first Bristol thought she was dead, but when she called her name, Rose’s eyes weakly opened.
“I couldn’t get out,” she said, the small effort making her wince.
“Shhh,” Bristol ordered and got to work, pulling on the vines around Rose’s face and neck first, but they returned as fast as Bristol pulled them away, determined to keep their prey. Bristol finally resorted to biting and breaking through the tangled mess. The vines wept with red sap and reluctantly shrank back until Rose fell free. She coughed and choked and finally managed a deep breath.
“Can you walk?” Bristol asked.
Rose nodded, but when Bristol took her by the arm to help her up, she cried out in pain and clutched her arm to her stomach. There would be no flying out for Rose.
Bristol managed to get her to her feet, and Rose limped forward, her leg injured too, but as they headed down the path, a creature fell in front of them, blocking their exit. The beast was mortally wounded, snapping at the air and kicking its clawed hooves. One of its thick-skinned wings flapped wildly. The back half of the creature was missing entirely, and Bristol imagined Kasta’s enormous sword slicing through it. How long would it take to die? They needed to get past it.
And then Bristol noticed something else—it had a saddle.This creature once had a rider.
She held her finger to her lips and listened for other sounds, afraid the rider might be in the maze with them, but with the melee above them it was impossible to detect anything.
“We have to go,” she whispered to Rose. “The other direction. There’s another way out. This time we’re going to find it.”
The sky teemed with sharp-clawed hyagen and the hideous restless dead who rode on their backs. Tyghan, Quin, and Kasta fought side by side, the swarming cloud of beasts darting around them, while the dead wielded their scythes and swords. As they fought, the knights dodged still more creatures that rained down around them, already dead from the web of lightning overhead. While Tyghan worked to maintain the electrifying force above them, he also fought off attackers, slicing them in two with single sweeps of his sword. Their putrid black blood spurted through the air, showering down on the archers.
“Below you!” Kasta shouted.
A demon on a hyagen had swooped low and now lunged upward toward Tyghan. He sent August into a spiraling maneuver, but the creature rose up too rapidly, knocking Tyghan from August’s back. The hot sting of a claw slashed his thigh as he tumbled through the air. The sharp ramparts below were coming up fast to meet him. Tyghan couldn’t fly, but he was able to slow his descent by summoning an updraft. It gave August time to dive and swoop beneath him, catching Tyghan, and now they were the ones flying upward to the creature, who had moved onto Glennis.
She battled two at a time, her swords swinging and reflecting flashes of lightning. “Glennis,east!” Tyghan yelled, freeing her to fight the creature on her right as he took on the other. He cut his unsuspecting target in half, sending rider and steed into a free fall, until both were skewered on the ramparts below. Glennis lunged and speared the demon she battled between the eyes and on her return swing lopped off the wing of its hyagen. The creature’s screech split the air as it plummeted to the ground.
Sweat trickled down Tyghan’s face as he battled one creature after another. It was the largest pack he had ever encountered, but finally the onslaught seemed to thin. Then he heard a familiar voice. On its heels, the power of spellwork slammed into his back. It jostled Tyghan momentarily to the side of his saddle, but that was all. It was only weak magic, which was why the dead loved their scythes more. Another slam. They served as distractions as Roleck moved in, aiming his curved blade at Tyghan’s head. August knew what to do. The horse banked and spun, and now Tyghan’s sword met the scythe.
