Hyden just wanted to lie down and die. All the moving and sweating was doing nothing for his body except spreading the venom deeper and deeper into him. He was glad that Mikahl, Phen and the Princess were all right. He’d seen Mikahl cleave Shaella’s head, and he’d felt the rage surge through the thing that used to be Gerard after it happened. How he’d survived the monster’s wrath was beyond him. As best as he could figure, he had been so out of it that Gerard probably thought he was dead. Or maybe, a tiny bit of him hoped, some inner part of Gerard had fought through to protect him. He’d seen his brother’s eyes when they first recognized him. The thing had even spoken his name. A shiver ran through Hyden and he started to cough again. He fell to his knees, leaned forward, and hacked for a very long while.
For a time, he thought that this was it. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t focus. It was over. Thick drool ran from his mouth. It tasted strongly of blood and was full of tiny granules of his dissolving body. After a while, where all he could do was gasp for air with deep rasping heaves, he leaned his head back and said a prayer to the White Goddess.
It was a short prayer, and not very polite. Why she would send him so far into hell just to die in a puddle of his own fluids was beyond him. He longed to be with Talon just one more time, to fly through the heavens and feel the air rushing past him, or maybe to climb to the heights of the nesting cliff, where Gerard had found the hawkling for him, so long ago. He coughed again and nearly heaved when he had to spit small bits of rotten flesh from his mouth. Tilting his head back to draw breath, something registered in his brain.
“Light.”
Hyden cocked his head. Had he heard that? Or was he just losing his mind as well as his innards? He looked around. The lyna was a few feet away walking in a curious circle. Hyden wiped his sweat drenched face with his shirt sleeve and tried to stand.
“Light.”
He heard it that time, but knew that he hadn’t heard with his ears. He looked at Spike. The lyna stopped and returned his gaze. He could barely see the little cat-like creature, but he knew it was what had spoken to him.
“Light, follow,” Spike said and started off again.
Hyden stumbled after the creature. He finally caught his pace so that he was walking more than falling. After a short exhausting jaunt, the lyna stopped.
“Light,” it said simply.
Hyden looked ahead of them. There it was, like a single star shining in the sky-a speck of light. It was impossible to judge how far away it was. A thousand yards maybe? A league? Who could say? Hyden didn’t care. He had to get to it before he collapsed into a fit. He knew he couldn’t survive another one.
The light grew as he approached. Was it a doorway? A lantern? He couldn’t tell. After a few hundred more steps his heart sank. It hadn’t grown at all. It was still just as far away. To make things worse, he began to hear a scraping, grunting sound coming from behind him. Deep heavy breathing accompanied the noise. He wasn’t the only thing attracted to the light. He hurried his pace as best he could without falling down. He was sweating so profusely that he was leaving a trail of wet footprints. A glance back revealed a huge spidery shape with several legs. It was dragging something laboriously as it came, but it was coming nonetheless.
“Hurry, light,” said Spike.
“I’m falling apart,” Hyden replied out loud, thinking that the lyna didn’t understand, or care. Spike’s response surprised him.
“The light can save you.”
“Aye,” Hyden grunted, remembering the White Goddess saying something similar to him. In a rush of determination he focused his gaze on the illumination and pushed his pace. What the glowing speck in the distance was, he had no idea, but he told himself he would get there before the thing behind him caught up, or he would die trying.
The long grueling hours of practice that Mikahl pushed himself through every morning paid off in one quick instant. He was on his knees at the edge of the water in grass that was as tall as his shoulders. The waterline was completely hidden, for the grass grew out of the water, as well as on the muddy bank. Mikahl was splashing handfuls of cool liquid up into his burning eyes. He didn’t see the wide swath of grass parting as an ancient snapper slithered toward him. His splashing masked any noise it might have made, except the exploding roar as it shot its huge bulk up out of the water at him.
Mikahl’s lightning quick reflexes and brute strength allowed him to use the snout of the huge beast as it came down at him. He pushed himself just out of the snapping jaws and rolled away through the muck as fast as he could. For once he was glad not to have his chain mail on. If he had been wearing it, the marsh monster’s teeth would have surely caught in it.
He could barely see as the low-bodied gator ran at him across drier ground. Its mouth was a gaping pink smear against a darker background. It was huge. He could tell that it was big enough to bite him in half if it got a hold of him. He jabbed Ironspike at the thing and the sharp blade dug into the roof of the creature’s mouth. It stopped its charge then and backed away hissing. Mikahl could barely see it, but he took advantage of the snapper’s hesitance and charged. He waved Ironspike around menacingly until the big creature turned and slithered back into the water in search of an easier meal.
It took a long while for Mikahl’s thundering heart to slow down. It took even longer before he felt that he could see well enough to chance the bright horse again. By the time he made it back to Lakeside Castle to look for Phen, the sun had long since sunk beyond the ocean. It came as no surprise to find that Phen was nowhere to be seen.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Through the night, Mikahl waited for Phen to show himself. He sat on the balcony of Queen Shaella’s bedchamber looking out over the destroyed garden area where he’d left the boy. He called his name every so often, but there was no reply. He even walked the corpse strewn yard using Ironspike’s light to search the bodies. He didn’t find Phen, but he learned that Shaella’s head and body were no longer there. He was woken from a nap he’d fallen into when someone started banging on the door to Shaella’s chamber. He used all the shields and guards he could find in Ironspike’s symphony and then threw open the door ready to fight. What he found was a trembling young zard girl.
At that moment Mikahl realized something: Westland was still full of zard. He couldn’t just vent his rage and start killing skeeks, though. He looked over the zardess and saw a trio of others at the end of the long, wide entry hall. Two skeeks were guarding a human woman. The woman took a step back and her hand lifted to cover her mouth. Mikahl vaguely recognized her as Lady Able of Eastwatch.
“It’s true, then?” she asked through tears of joy. Almost immediately, her shoulders squared and she shoved her way past the two startled lizard-men who were guarding her. Her walk was dignified and she held her head proudly as she strutted toward Mikahl. When she neared the door she spoke to the young zard girl. Her voice, though tender, had a cold edge to it. “Tell your kind to leave the castle at once, Fslandra,” she said. “Your Dragon Queen is dead,” she looked at Mikahl for confirmation of the fact. He nodded. “The zard have no place here anymore. Tell them, Fslandra. Go.”
Mikahl was dumbfounded. He wasn’t ready for this. “M’lady,” he said to Lady Able. “Leave them be for now. Come, I will take you to a place that is safe.” A thought occurred to him. “Are there any others who need to be escorted to safety?”
She looked at him as if he were mad. “The people of Westland don’t need to be escorted anywhere, they need their king.” She looked him in the eyes and her expression deflated. “You’re not here to take back our kingdom?”
“Soon, m’lady,” he said, feeling awkward and foolish for not expecting to be needed in such a way by these people. “There’s only myself and this.” He indicated Ironspike’s softly glowing blade. “I cannot defend the entire kingdom alone.”
