being lifted up. Two score of the creatures at least clutched him by his flesh and his clothes and were bearing him into the air. He watched in horror as the ground fell away beneath him. He flashed on an image of himself carried into one of the holes in the earth they'd seen earlier, his body reduced to bones, made part of a mound of the dead. Panic lent him strength. He kicked and squirmed frenetically, desperately.
'Egil! Egil!'
He tried to turn his body, slash with his blade, but only managed to writhe to no effect. A talon tore a furrow in his cheek, narrowly missing his eye. He twisted and squirmed wildly, fueled by fear and adrenaline. He managed to dislodge enough of the creatures that they lost some altitude, but they did not release him. Teeth sank into his legs, his arms. Blood dripped from his wounds, dotted the earth. He started to rise again.
'Shite! Egil!'
He glimpsed Egil a fraction of a second before the priest leaped high for him and tackled him back to earth. Nix felt the squirming, fluttering death throes of several of the creatures crushed between his body and the earth. He rolled to the side and climbed to his feet, swinging his blade at the hissing creatures attacking him from all sides. Egil did the same, his hammers reaping the creatures in twos and threes.
The priest grabbed Nix by the arm and propelled him along toward Baras and the horses, fending off the creatures as best he could with one hammer.
'I'm good,' Nix said, shaking his arm free and stabbing a creature with his dagger.
'Maybe put on some weight though, eh?' Egil said, grinning, his face bloody and torn.
'We need to find cover!' Baras shouted, hacking at the creatures attacking him and the horses. The poor draft horses kicked and screamed piteously. Baras and his fellow guards stood in a cluster near the horses, fighting desperately against the swarm that seemed unending.
'There is no damned cover!' Egil shouted, and slammed his hammer through another two scaled bodies.
Rakon's shout from within the carriage cut through the tumult. 'Get wood on the fire! Now, Baras! Right now!'
The creatures thronged the carriage too, coating it in their scaly, winged forms, but Rakon had pulled the wood slat windows closed except for a slit, and that appeared to have kept the creatures out.
'Now, Baras!' Rakon said.
Two of the creatures lunged for the slit, got their talons on either side of it, wings fluttering, and tried to pry it open and wriggle through. Their heads darted forward into the opening, teeth gnashing. Rakon cursed and slammed the slat shut on them, pinning their necks there, the creatures shrieking, flapping, and soon limp.
Baras ducked his head and ran for the fire pit. Nix, Egil, and Jyme followed, slashing, grabbing, stomping. The ground was crunchy with dead and wounded creatures, slick with blood. Nix stumbled as he ran, his arms and legs leaden. Before him, Jyme stumbled, fell, and the creatures landed on his back, tearing and biting. Nix stabbed three of them and pulled Jyme to his feet with a grunt. One landed on Nix's arm and bit him hard on his shoulder, but his jack turned it. Jyme ran it through with his blade.
Baras and Egil fought off the creatures as best they could while they tossed logs onto the embers. Egil crushed two with a swing of a log before he threw it on the flames. Sparks rose into the sky. The creatures shrieked in response to the spark shower, cleared away from the rising flames and smoke.
'More wood! They don't like the fire,' said Jyme, and moved to throw another log on. Nix grabbed him by the arm.
'You'll smother it!'
In moments the wood Egil and Baras had thrown onto the pit crackled and burned. But still the creatures came on, and Nix, Jyme, and Egil plied their weapons and tried to stay on their feet.
When the flames rose high behind them the door to the carriage flew open and the eunuch lurched out, followed by Rakon. Immediately scores of the creatures attacked them. A dozen of the scaled, toothy creatures flapped around the eunuch, biting and scratching his face and bare arms, but he seemed barely to notice, instead methodically grabbing the creatures one after another and squeezing them in his hands until they burst in a shower of gore and blood.
'Stay near the carriage, eater!' Rakon said to the eunuch, and stumbled toward the fire, hood pulled up, waving his thin blade wildly as he went.
Baras and two of the guards left the fire to meet him, shielding him from the creatures' attacks. Egil, Nix, and Jyme awaited them near the fire, slashing, stabbing, and cursing.
A short break in the attacks gave Nix a moment to look up and assess the swarm. He could barely see the stars through the fog of them. There weren't hundreds — there were thousands, wheeling in a dark cloud above them, diving to attack by the score.
'Keep them off me,' Rakon said to them.
'Aye,' Baras answered.
While Baras, Egil, Nix, and Jyme did their best to keep the onslaught of creatures at bay, Rakon stood over the fire incanting. The syllables he uttered hurt Nix's ears and seemed to excite the flames, which roared and danced in answer to Rakon's words. In moments the flames swelled to a bonfire and still Rakon incanted, his hands weaving in the air before the flames.
Nix stabbed a creature, slashed another, another. The heat from the fire grew uncomfortable. The crea tures squawked and squeaked, withdrew from the growing flames and smoke.
Rakon's cadence grew more rapid, louder, reached a climax. He threw his hands over his head and the fire erupted upward in a searing column that blossomed into a disc of flame, exploding outward in all direction, for a few moments roofing the campsite in fire. Nix turned away, blinking, his eyebrows and hair singed, as a collective shriek went up from the creatures and the stink of charred flesh perfumed the night.
Thuds sounded around them, the bodies of the creatures raining from the sky, scores of them, hundreds, maybe a thousand. Nix looked up and against Minnear's green light saw what was left of the flock fleeing into the distance.
'Gods,' Jyme breathed. He put the point of his blade in the ground and leaned on it. Dead creatures lay all around them.
Nix could only nod. The men stared at one another, hands on their knees, gasping, bleeding. Baras cleared his throat, wiped the blood from his face.
'We have to go after Lormel,' he said.
Nix presumed he meant the guard who'd been carried off by the creatures. 'Baras…'
'He's dead by now,' Rakon said, lowering his hood to reveal his own face scratched by a claw. 'Or will be before we can get there.'
'My lord-'
'He's dead, Baras. There's nothing to be done for him. We have to break camp and get moving.'
'Moving?' Baras said. 'My lord, the men are wounded, exhausted.'
'Truth,' Nix added, sagging to the ground.
'And the horses…' Baras continued.
Rakon looked past Baras to the darkness outside the firelight.
'Do as I say, Baras. The Vwynn will be coming. If they didn't see the light from the flames, they'll smell the sorcery. We must hurry or we'll all die.' He looked over to the horses. Two were down and bloody. The other two bled from many small wounds, but at least still stood.
'Yoke the two still standing to the carriage. Put the other two down. Divide the supplies from the wagon amongst the men and leave the wagon behind. I have poultices for the wounded men. Quickly now, Baras.'
Baras stared for a long moment, then said, 'Yes, my lord.'
'The bodies we saw on the road,' Nix said to Rakon. 'Those are the Vwynn?'
Rakon looked up at the moon, at the high walls of the cut that hemmed them in. 'Yes. The demons of the Wastes. Debased descendants of the people who once ruled these lands.'
Egil took a step toward Rakon, but the thoughts implied by his angry expression triggered the spellworm. He doubled over with a groan and Rakon sneered.
Nix gave voice to what he assumed to be Egil's thoughts.
'You knew about these Vwynn the whole time and see fit to tell us only now?'
'I'd hoped to avoid them altogether,' Rakon said. 'Now do as I've said. We must hurry.'
