the rest must have been killed while airborne. That explains the last two explosions I heard, she realized. In anguish, Sigrid watched the grisly process unfold. Tears formed in her eyes as her fellow Night Witches began dying one by one.
Tyra was the first to suffer. She was already stripped naked and standing before the serpent master. He seemed to regard her with particular interest-perhaps because he had never seen a Minion before, Sigrid supposed. Finally he seemed satisfied. He snapped his fingers and his servants began the grisly process.
As four of the awful creatures impaled Tyra she screamed insanely and fought back as best she could, but it was no use. Soon the hideous task was finished, and the lower end of the sharpened stake was pounded into the ground among the bloody cobblestones. Then the dark master walked toward Valda, the next Night Witch waiting in line. As he neared, she shouted out a Minion epithet, then spat in his face. Unperturbed, the serpent master nodded, and the process started anew.
Nearly insane with desperation, Sigrid grasped her dreggan handle so tightly that her knuckles went white. She tried to ignore Valda’s screams, but it was no use. How she wanted to go charging into the square and somehow get close enough to the mysterious serpent master to cut him down! But she knew that would be suicide. Her chest heaving, she turned her back toward the wall and slid down it, squatting on her haunches. Placing the cool dreggan blade flat against her forehead, she closed her eyes.
Think! she ordered herself. You’re a Night Witch Commander! What will you do?
Suddenly Duvessa’s training returned. “Always remember these words, Night Witches,” she had warned them.“Your first responsibility is to survey and report, regardless of the circumstances. Bring your precious information home at all costs. Worry not for your own life. Because you are a Minion, it ended the instant you were born.”
Sigrid realized that she had to find a way to escape and get home. But that would mean leaving her sisters to their awful fates. Can I really do it, she wondered, only to forever know that I abandoned them?
She opened her eyes and looked around again. Perhaps there was another way out of the bell shop. If she could find it she might be able to take to the dark sky unnoticed. After several nerve-racking moments she saw a wooden door in the back wall. She looked again around the abandoned shop. What few exits she found were not promising.
There were few ways out. Using the front door or the smashed window frame was out of the question because each faced the square, and every other window was too small to crawl through. The gaping hole in the roof was a possibility, but she would need two uninjured arms to climb up and reach it. The only alternative was the far door, but she had no idea what horrors might lie beyond it.
Deciding that she had no other choice, she quietly crept for the far door. About halfway there she heard a strange tinkling that sounded like breaking glass. Holding her dreggan high, she swiveled around to look. Her blood ran cold.
One of the horrible man-serpents was slithering through the smashed window frame that she had just abandoned. Because the thing was about the size of a man, it barely fit through. As it came, bits of broken glass still lodged in the woodwork scratched at its body, became dislodged, and fell to the floor. Fully intent on squirming its way into the room, the monster hadn’t seen Sigrid. Holding her dreggan high with her good arm, the Night Witch quietly retreated, melting into the shadows.
Using its strong arms, the monster finally forced its way into the room. It quietly dropped free of the window frame and started slithering across the floor. After traveling a few feet, it stopped. Coiling its spotted tail, the thing reared into the air, much like a Eutracian cobra just before it strikes. Its yellow eyes darted around the room. After letting go a soft hiss, the beast opened its mouth and its red, forked tongue slithered forth to test the dank air.
Sigrid held stock-still, waiting for her chance. Can the thing smell me with its tongue? she wondered. Despite the coolness of the night, sweat started beading on her forehead and her hands became slippery. As the awful thing hissed again and tested the air, Sigrid did her best to steel her resolve.
She considered running for the nearby door, but then she realized that it might be locked. She could probably smash the lock open with her dreggan, but she didn’t know how fast the man-serpent was, and losing those precious seconds could kill her. And so she waited. Come to me, you vile bastard, she prayed. Come to me and we will do this thing.
Hissing loudly, the man-serpent started savagely ransacking the room. It seemed oblivious to the great ruckus it was making. Using its muscular arms it crazily scattered bells, threw hardware, and upended furniture as it scoured the place, searching for more Night Witches. Sigrid cringed as she begged that the clamor wouldn’t attract more of the awful things into the shop.
She looked down at the returning wheel attached to her left hip. She was an expert at throwing the wheel- some said that she ranked among the best. In these close quarters, missing was almost unthinkable. If she launched the wheel at the beast from the darkness of her hiding place, the thing would never know what hit it. Given all the noise the beast was making, even if the wheel sliced straight through it and struck one of the interior walls, the crash would surely mix with the ongoing clamor. But if she was going to do it, it must happen before the awful thing stopped rummaging about. She desperately needed to escape, and time was fleeting.
Silently sheathing her sword, she reached down to her left hip and freed the shiny, saw-toothed wheel from its carrying place. Raising it high, she drew it back over her left shoulder, coiled the muscles in her throwing arm, and waited. The beast was still rifling through the shop, angrily scattering things and turning over furniture with abandon. Just a little closer, she silently pleaded.
As though it had read her thoughts, the man-serpent suddenly stopped to listen. When it heard nothing, it used its long tail to propel it nearer the center of the room, scattering more objects as it went. Sigrid tried to calm her heartbeat, but suddenly her broken left arm shouted at her again, making her wince. Steadying herself once more, she watched the awful thing come nearer.
That’s right, she begged silently as the thing slithered closer yet. The red tongue appeared again to quickly taste the air, then disappeared back into the grotesque mouth.
Come to me, Sigrid thought. Come closer and taste my sharp surprise.
Still the monster neared. The time had come.
Throwing the wheel with everything she had, Sigrid held her breath and watched it go spinning across the room.
The monster’s reflexes were amazing. As the throwing wheel flashed through the beam of moonlight shining down through the hole in the roof, the beast moved with unheard-of speed and dropped straight to the floor. Sigrid watched in horror as her wheel flew harmlessly above the beast only to bury itself in the far wall.
Knowing that she had no other choice, the night witch drew her dreggan and quietly stepped from the shadows. Hearing Sigrid’s blade ring out, the monster snapped its head around and let go a vicious hiss. It quickly coiled upright again, its yellow eyes flashing greedily as they finally sighted their prey. Without hesitation it reared back, then launched straight for her.
As the creature sped near, Sigrid swung her dreggan in a flat arc, hoping to separate the monster’s head from its body with one swing. But again the man-serpent was too fast.
The beast deftly sideslipped the blow, and the dreggan severed nothing but air. Before Sigrid could summon another swing, the monster dropped flat to the floor again, this time raising its powerful tail. The tail cracked through the air like a bullwhip, its far end wrapping tightly around the hilt of Sigrid’s dreggan. The beast quickly snapped its tail again, ripping the sword from Sigrid’s grip and sending it flying across the room.
The precious dreggan skidded across the floor and disappeared into the shadows, putting the man-serpent squarely between Sigrid and her fallen weapon. The Night Witch nearly panicked as she realized that her sword might as well be ten leagues away for all the good it did her now.
As the beast hissed and glared at her, Sigrid quickly reached down to unsheathe her Minion dagger, but it wasn’t there. She had no time to mourn the loss, for the terrible creature suddenly launched itself at her again. Sure that she was about to die, Sigrid charged forward to meet it.
As the two enemies clashed in the center of the room, the monster swiftly took each of Sigrid’s wrists into his hands. The pain in her broken left arm lashed out and Sigrid screamed, exposing her injury. Seizing on its unexpected advantage, the monster let go of her right wrist while tightening his grip on her left one. Screaming again, Sigrid had no choice but to drop to her knees.
Helpless, she watched the awful thing move its face near hers. The terrible mouth opened again. Sigrid tried
