toward the sound until he saw the source — two Vwynn, idling at the base of a low hillock of jumbled stones.
He watched the scaled, inhuman demons for a time, fascinated and disgusted. The slits of their nostrils pulsed wetly with each breath and they seemed to communicate in a guttural, clicking tongue. They kept their eyes on the ring of ruins, beyond which was the caravan and the sea of glass.
He circled wide around. He spotted more Vwynn within easy earshot, dozens of them, some in groups of five and six, others perched singly and in pairs atop megaliths, their silhouettes dark and sharp in Minnear's light. All of them eyed the ruins, a demonic congregation of the faithful.
He would have to quick. They'd be upon him fast if they heard anything.
He stalked back to the original pair he'd spotted, went around to the opposite side of the hillock and belly- crawled up it. When he reached the top and glanced down, he saw that they remained where they'd been. He waited for the wind to put a dark cloud in front of Minnear. When it did and the darkness deepened, he rose, tensed, and leaped down.
He swung his falchion two-handed as he descended, neatly splitting the skull of one of the Vwynn. Blood and brains spattered his hands and it died in silence. The second Vwynn whirled on him, lips pulled back from its teeth in an angry snarl.
Before it could respond further, Nix slashed its knee. His blade's edge knifed through flesh, bit bone, and the Vwynn fell, shrieking. It lashed out with a claw as it went down, clipping Nix's cheek. Blood, warm and sticky, flowed down his face.
He jumped atop the writhing, screaming creature, put a knee on its bony chest, and slammed the hilt of his punch dagger into its face. The blow would have felled an ox but it seemed only to make the Vwynn angrier. Claws tore through his cloak, his leather jack, and bit into flesh.
Spit sprayed from the Vwynn's mouth, the rope of its tongue lashed about, and its fangs dripped poisonous ichor. Nix struck it again, again, again until it finally moaned and went still. He quickly checked his hand and arms to ensure he hadn't caught a poisonous bite. He was clean.
Growls and snarls out in the darkness, the rapid tread of approaching Vwynn.
'Shite.'
Adrenaline fueled him. He shoved his falchion in its scabbard, grabbed the Vwynn, slung it over his shoulder in a side-carry, and pelted back through the ruins.
It occurred to him only then that he had no guarantee the ring of ruins would provide him safety. The Vwynn seemed unwilling to breach the ring, but would they respect its border when they saw Nix, realized that he was carrying one of their own? What if seeing him triggered such rage in the creatures that they all breached the ring and pursued him back to camp?
Too late to worry about it. He ran as fast as he could.
A Vwynn bounded atop a megalith to his right, crouched on its haunches for a moment, snarled, and bounded down. Nix pulled one of his throwing daggers from a belt sheath and threw it underhand, on the run. It caught the Vwynn in the leg as the creature came toward him. The Vwynn screamed, lost its footing, and flipped head over heels down the pile of stone. Nix ran past it without slowing, its shrieks of pain chasing him through the ruins. He could hear more of the creatures behind him, to the right and left, the scrape of their claws over stone, their wet chuffing.
'Shite, shite, shite,' he muttered.
His legs burned; his lungs ached.
He reached the road, saw the border ring of ruins just ahead. It was twenty paces away, ten.
He stumbled with fatigue. He managed to keep his balance, but the error had cost him. The Vwynn behind him gained, closed on him, their snarls hot in his ear. He prepared to turn, fight, and die.
Crossbow bolts sizzled out of the dark, whistling past his ear. They struck Vwynn flesh with heavy thunks, summoning screams and angry shrieks.
'Run, you damned slubber!' Jyme called.
The hiresword stood on the road, in the pseudotunnel, just inside the tall ring of ruins. Baras and two of the other guards stood beside Jyme, all of them now reloading crossbows.
'Keep running!' Baras said, laying a bolt in his weapon.
Another volley from Baras, Jyme, and the guards hissed past. More thunks, more screams.
Nix staggered into their midst. Jyme and Baras caught him up and started retreating down the road under cover of the other guards.
'They're not coming,' shouted one of the guards.
The Vwynn outside hissed and snarled in frustration but did not pursue. Instead, they slunk back into the ruins, into the night. Nix set the unconscious Vwynn down for a moment so he could catch his breath.
'My thanks,' Nix said to them, gasping for breath.
'I give what I get,' Baras said, and thumped him on the back.
'Help me get this thing back to camp,' Nix said, nodding at the Vwynn.
Together, they carried the bleeding body of the Vwynn. The guards who'd stayed behind rushed toward them as they came out of the tunnel. Everyone crowded around the naked, scaled figure of the Vwynn.
'How's Egil?' Nix asked one of the guards.
'Alive still,' the man answered.
The creature stirred, rolled onto its side. Claws slipped out of the sheath of its fingers and it growled, showing fangs. It remained unconscious, but wouldn't stay that way.
'We need to bind it,' Nix said.
'Get rope,' Baras said to a young guardsman.
The guardsmen hurried to the wagon and returned with rope for Baras. Nix snatched it from him.
'I know how to knot,' Baras said.
'I slipped yours back in Dur Follin, Baras. I'll handle this.'
Nix bound the creature at wrist and ankle with a triple hook slip. He tested them, found them satisfactory.
'Help me, Jyme,' he said, and the two of them dragged the creature close to the fire, beside Egil. The priest lay flat on his back, pale under his beard, his breathing shallow, his forearm swollen and discolored.
The creature's slit eyes opened, reflected the firelight. Muscles, veins, and sinew surfaced in its hide as it strained against its bonds. The guardsmen backed off a step, expressions nervous, weapons at the ready. The Vwynn's lips peeled back from its teeth and it hissed.
'Rakon,' Nix called to the carriage. 'We're ready.'
The eunuch emerged from the carriage and assisted Rakon out. The sorcerer bore a black bag in his hands, his own satchel of needful things. He said something to the inscrutable eunuch and the huge man took station outside the carriage. Rakon eyed the Vwynn as he approached, his expression unreadable.
'Hold it down so it doesn't move,' he ordered. He kneeled and started rifling through his bag.
'Get its legs,' Nix said to Jyme, while Nix took position at the creature's head. He held it flat by its bony shoulders, its scaled flesh cool and dry in his hands. The Vwynn twisted its neck to bite at him, hissing and spitting, but could not reach.
'Mind the teeth,' Jyme said.
The Vwynn's legs flailed wildly, catching Rakon and causing him to drop a small container he'd been holding. Rakon cursed irritably.
'Just get its legs, Jyme!' Nix said.
The hiresword wrapped up the Vwynn's legs. The creature continued to struggle, squirming, hissing, and snapping its teeth.
'Get a blade to its throat, Baras,' Nix said, struggling to hold down the creature. 'See if it understands that.'
'Aye,' Baras said, and put a blade at the Vwynn's throat. The creature did not still at first so Baras pricked it with the blade.
The Vwynn cried out in pain as a line of black blood flowed. After that, the Vwynn went still. The creature's slitted eyes darted wildly here and there, and it respired wetly from the lines of its nostrils.
'Do it, Rakon,' Nix said. 'Hurry.'
Rakon removed two metal bloodletting tubes and a ceramic mortar and pestle from his bag. He jabbed one of
