To Tythonnia’s far left was the encampment, the men, women, and children there frozen between fear and curiosity.
“Par-Salian, over there.” Ladonna pointed to the camp. “Help them escape; they’re too close! I’ll save Tythonnia!”
Par-Salian didn’t argue. He ran straight for the camp, waving his arms to get everyone to run. Nobody moved. They were all too dumbfounded to uproot themselves.
Ladonna ran toward the ritual circle, praying she could reach it in time. As if in terrible response, the first of the blight shades dropped to the ground.
They had been alien to Ansalon … until that moment.
The heavens were uncorked, the evil unleashed. Tythonnia watched in frozen horror as the first creature fell through the iris above them and landed nimbly on the ground. It appeared humanoid, with a tattered hood for a head, and a black cloak covering its otherwise naked body. Shadows wreathed its emaciated limbs and sometimes, when they parted, the creature’s skin vanished as well to reveal an oily bundle of exposed muscles. Tentacles of shadow rose from its body. A terrible and bitter chill emanated from the aperture above Tythonnia, an aperture into a world where a ruined keep stood on mud-cracked earth and the orange skies smelled of sulfur.
What frightened Tythonnia even more than the gleaming embers for eyes that glowed inside the creature’s cowl, or the hint of a puckered orifice for a mouth, was the dozens-or perhaps hundreds-more creatures that ran-no
One of the sorcerers outside the circle saw the creature and cried a warning. Those who could turned to look, but they all had bigger problems. Dumas was almost upon them, the men accompanying her not two seconds behind.
The creature remained low to the ground on arms and legs bent at unnatural angles. It seemed more wolf than human as it turned about and examined its surroundings. Then ignoring her and the four others in the ritual’s confines, it bounded out of the circle and barreled into the first sorcerer it saw, a woman.
Tythonnia watched in horror, helpless, as the creature swiped at anyone near it and tore terrible gashes into two sorcerers. The poor woman it attacked directly writhed in pain as the shadows surrounding its body seemed to drill into her flesh. She cried out, her skin graying and cracking, her body succumbing to a living putrefaction.
Then suddenly, the creature leaped onto another sorcerer and started a new attack. It hadn’t killed the first woman, but neither was she in any condition to defend herself.
More creatures dropped through the threshold, and the men with Dumas hesitated then stopped in their tracks.
Ladonna was about to cast a spell to smite the blight shade when it lunged and attacked a renegade outside the circle. She realized those in the circle were being bypassed. They fueled the gate; they would die last.
That suited Ladonna just fine. She had returned to save only Tythonnia, everyone else be damned. Par- Salian saving the children was merely a ruse to get him out of the way, protect him against his more noble nature. Anyone near the gate right then had little chance of survival.
Ladonna was close to the circle when five more blight shades dropped to the ground. They glanced around, searching for prey, and immediately bounded off in different directions. Two attacked the nearest sorcerers. Another passed by the closest wizards and headed straight for the men with Dumas. The last one headed right for her. She quickly prepared a spell and prayed Dumas would stop to fight the creatures.
Dumas, however, ignored the blight shades, and instead cut down the first sorcerer in her path.
What is she thinking? Ladonna wondered, but the only words that emerged from her lips were,
Look at the depths of their evil, Dumas thought as she reached the first sorcerer. See how they consort with those … things.
Her blade danced of its own accord to deflect another barrage of arcane darts. The sorcerer, a young man of farmer stock, backpedaled, trying desperately to prepare another spell.
This is all their doing, she thought. The three renegades summoned these monsters! Dumas’s blade seemed possessed, though the huntress knew it was the magical tome that honed her skills and protected her. Her blade found the sorcerer’s throat, cutting through it and the spell that he stuttered to unleash. She went for the next renegade.
See how the creature obeys-
Kills them? Why is it killing them? Something is wrong. A searing pain filled Dumas’s thoughts, like a hot needle sewing a filament of fire directly into her brain. She struggled to deal with the agony; her eyes shut; she fell to her knees and dropped her sword as her hands went to her temples. She felt as though she had just suffered a fatal wound. Was she dying?
Dumas opened her eyes despite the searing pain that followed. To her horror, she was still on her feet. She still held her sword and she still fought, running a sorcerer through with her blade. She was a puppet, guided by the instinct of the book.
Belize …
No! she thought. He had nothing to do with this. He wasn’t at the meeting with Astathan, Yasmine, and Reginald-Belize was alone. He did not demand the murder of three wizards for his own personal gain-in the courtyard where he opened my book.
The pain redoubled upon itself, and Dumas felt as though she might vomit from the agony. She couldn’t think clearly. She struggled to regain control of herself, but every time she forced her eyes open, she was killing someone else. She laughed hysterically.
Are there an infinite number of these creatures? Why are they killing their masters … unless? She wanted the pain to go away. She wanted to think clearly again and have purpose, direction.
Then say it, something said inside her head.
The three renegades summoned them, Dumas thought. And then turned on their allies. They are evil. Nothing is too degenerate for them.
Good girl.
The pain evaporated, and Dumas almost tripped over herself in regaining control. It was like a surreal race, she trying to catch up to her own body when her body suddenly stopped and she slammed into it. But she was focused again … and just in time.
A sorcerer with ebony skin and a look that could slaughter children was about to unleash a spell against her. He didn’t incant any words; he didn’t fumble for reagents or make his fingers dance. The arcane simply coalesced around his body, wild magic made manifest. Unlike the others, he looked reasonably competent. He would make for good practice before she got to Tythonnia.
Shasee wasn’t sure what he feared more, the monsters or the sword-wielding woman who seemed positively possessed as she cut through their ranks. Her expression seemed fluid, insane even. It shifted from a berserker’s fury to frightened and maniacal to resigned and then back to battle-frenzied. Despite being divorced from her actions, her body moved with unnatural grace. Even her own men seemed scared by her battle frenzy and fought at a distance. Distance was good. Distance was a magician’s friend.
To Shasee’s left a woman cried
The demented woman had hesitated. Her cloak shifted. Shasee finally saw the metal tome strapped to her chest. He knew then who she was, all the more reason to stop her, the blood-enemy of sorcerers and Vagros alike.
