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creature. On reflex, Chimquar's hand dropped near her left knee where a
spear-lance should have rested in its sling, but she had not taken time to
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saddle the stallion. She had not expected to need her lance.
A creature stood on its hind legs, dripping water on the rocks of the
passageway, its form vaguely human. Huge, saucer eyes in a frog-face gazed at
Chimquar unblinkingly. A
spiny ridge circled the lower part of its head like a down-
turned collar. Its high dorsal fin reminded Chimquar of a sail.
"Anna?" It twisted its head until the quivering ridge of spines and thinly
stretched skin touched its shoulder. Its splayed fingers displayed long
talons. Its mouth held several rows of sharp teeth.
"Aroana Defender!" Chimquar exclaimed low. "What kind of creature?
Other warriors might have turned and fled, but Chimquar had ridden into the
banewitch realm itself with her soldiers and ha'taren paladins of
Aroana scorching it to cinders after having turned back its invasion of her
lands. And nothing this side of Hell itself was enough to make her flinch.
She turned the trembling, shaken stallion and backed away from the creature
while she took its measure. It shambled forward, hindered by the rocks,
repeating its cries. Then it halted, seeing the person was not Anna. Its
nostrils flared.
"Food? Food, Anna?" It dropped to all fours and sprang half the distance
separating it from Chimquar.
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184
"Let it have the horse!" Anna shouted from her hiding place, as the stallion
reared in terror, ears back, and eyes wide. "It will go to sleep again."
Chimquar took up the slack in the reins, pulling the stallion's head in and
down. "Easy. Easy, my fine one," she murmured, controlling the well-trained
animal with her voice and knees as much as with the reins. Chimquar brought
him down, swinging the horse across the shelf to turn her sword hand to the
creature.
The water-creature gathered itself to spring. Chimquar raised her sword,
feeling the consecrated runes warm beneath her fingers, expecting the attack.
It watched her, wary of the length of shining steel. Then it sprang, coming
within a yard of Chimquar. The stallion shrilled, rising on his hind legs
again. Chimquar gripped the stallion tightly with her knees. The creature
lunged to attack the horse and Chimquar slashed it. The stallion, beginning to
panic, swung away suddenly, causing Chimquar's next stroke to fall awry. One
hoof slipped and Chimquar was thrown hard into the wall. Her sword, jolted
from her hand, lay out of reach. The stallion was between Chimquar and the
creature for a moment. The creature's claws raked the animal's flank and the
horse rose and fled down the narrow shelf the way Anna had gone.
Chimquar had no time to recover her sword, snatching instead the slender mate
to her stiletto from her boot. She rose in a shallow crouch, crossing her twin
blades briefly, then brought them back with a careful upward flip, completing,
without thought, the full salute of the Euzadi that singled readiness. "Go
find someone else to eat," she warned.
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185
Its tongue flicked in and out. The seeming lack of fear in the warrior puzzled
it. It moved from side to side, unable to circle its opponent.
Chimquar waited unmoving like a coiled snake, for she had no room to move in
her usual fighting style. He stomach knotted, her heart beat and breathing
quickened with the tension. The creature halted beyond reach.
"Go eat someone else, damn you!" Chimquar shouted.
The creature's hand raked the air inches from Chimquar's stomach. Its reach
was longer than hers. Her stilettos flashed, opening thin slashes in its arms
as she stepped back.
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The creature shrieked, and one clawed hand closed on her upper arm, dragging
her forward. Chimquar was Sharani, her strength more than equal to any male
her size, yet the creature was stronger. She braced her feet against the
rocks, throwing her weight back, momentarily halting its pull. She smelled the
stench of its breath. It ceased to pull and
Chimquar lost her balance, coming loose from the bracing rocks. Immediately
the creature jerked her up, bringing her within reach of its mouth. The
daggers shifted in her hands.
"Aroana!" The Sharani war cry echoed in the cavern. Her twin blows fell as
one, one stiletto driving deep into its shoulder while the other found its
throat. It released her, staggered back, clawing at the blade in its throat.
Blood ran from its cut neck. It collapsed on the rocks. Chimquar drew in a
deep breath, staring at what she had slain. Her sleeves were torn at the
shoulders and spotted with blood where long nails had dug into her skin. She
glanced at the cuts, then disregarded them, retrieving her daggers.
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186
"You needn't have killed it!" Anna cried angrily. She stood at the far end of
the cavern, the stallion's reins in her right hand and the torch in her left.
"Would you rather it had eaten me?" Chimquar asked sourly.
"You could have given it the horse," Anna snapped.
"Why? Was it your pet?"
"I found it here. I fed it. I understood it." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]