“Ōbhin!” she cried in desperate horror.
One pace.
The rotten stench filled her nose. She turned and shrieked, slashing wildly before her in a panic, taking off a reaching hand at the wrist. The blade slashed at another, cutting off three fingers. But two corpses still lunged for her.
Ōbhin gained his feet and slammed his gloved fist into the corpse’s face. It stumbled back into a skeleton with brackish bones covered in gristle.
“Here!” she shouted, pressing his sword at him before she retreated, falling into familiar footwork.
He swung the sword with a grace that was almost mesmerizing. The weapon’s pitch swelled to a humming whine. The blade cut through a bloated torso and severed the horror’s arm in the process. The lower half collapsed, dropping the upper to the ground. Its good arm grabbed Ōbhin’s booted foot and pulled. The corpse bit at his toe, digging into the leather.
His sword slashed, cutting through the head. Purple burst from it as he severed the gem.
“Run!” she shouted at him, trembling, backing away from the shambling horde. There were four dozen more corpses stumbling at them. Skeletons reached with their sharp finger bones, jaws snapping.
Ōbhin pivoted, his sword severing a skeleton’s head before he raced after her. She turned and ran for the intersection. People screamed. Others fled from the horrors, drunks racing in stumbling flight. Her heeled boots smacked on the wet cobblestones.
Above, wings flapped like a mighty gull hovered over her.
*
Before him, Avena ran fast, her tattered skirts flaring about her legs. His chainmail rattled, almost drowning out the sounds of wings. Ōbhin furrowed his brows as she looked up at the sky. Then something hurtled out of the night. A massive bird slammed into her, driving her to the ground.
She curled up into a ball to protect her body. The bird flapped wings, shedding black feathers, a leathery head stabbing down at her face. She smacked it back with the binder, wrapping its mouth in purple energy. The thing looked like a Khissan vulture, but bigger, the size of a jackal. Another abomination. It clawed at her flesh.
Ōbhin slashed. He severed half a wing and the thing’s long, featherless neck. The thrashing head landed on Avena’s side, the neck undulating like a snake. She shrieked and threw it off of her, the body falling limp.
“How many more horrors?” she demanded, her eyes wide.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. “I don’t know. Keep moving.”
The air whistled.
Something punched Ōbhin in his upper back. It ripped through his chainmail. Tore through his leather jerkin. It buried into his skin and struck his rib. Metal ground on bone, agony flaring through his side. He stumbled, reached his left hand behind him.
He brushed a shaft embedded in his flesh.
He glanced behind him and glimpsed Handsome Baill through the fog nocking another bodkin-tipped arrow. Ōbhin dragged Avena to the right, rushing for the nearest alley. A loud hiss. The missile streaked behind him before they vanished into cover.
“Ōbhin?” she gasped. “What?”
“Just go,” he snarled, stumbling. Blood spilled down his back. The steel point of the arrow scraped against his rib, torture bursting every time he moved or breathed. His heavy steps jolted pain through his body. “Don’t stop!”
*
Avena’s back and shoulders throbbed. Her dress clung to her in tatters around her neck. Scratches burned across her body from the massive bird. She hurried down the fog-choked alley, Ōbhin stumbling behind her. She could hear shouts. Screams. The meaty smacks of the fleshy corpses’ footsteps and the bony rattle of the skeletons’.
Terror wanted to consume her.
She burst onto a fog-choked street and went right out of instinct. Ōbhin stumbled after her. She glanced back and gasped at the arrow lodged in his back. A new fear spilled through her.
“How deep is it?” she asked, itching to stop and tend to him.
“My armor blunted it,” growled Ōbhin. “It can wait.”
She nodded, the throbbing in her scratches intensifying. She raced to the next block, the fog rippling before her, and then darted into another alley. Ōbhin lumbered after. She felt winded already despite how little they’d run. They had to keep moving. Get away.
Above, wings flapped. Ice spilled down her spine. Are they gulls, or some of his creatures?
Dje’awsa wants us both dead. That almost had her gibbering in fear. He’ll turn me into one of those corpses. Elohm’s bright Colours, one of those must have been Carstin. Twisted and transformed into something hideous.
She’d never despised anyone so much in her life. She’d fought hard to keep Carstin alive. She’d stayed up at night to tend to his collapsed lung and feed him medicine and tea to fortify his blood and stamina. She’d stood up to Ust to keep him from dying.
She’d failed.
It sickened her to know his body was so abused. Not allowed to rest in the ground. Did bringing it back to a mockery of life trap poor Carstin’s soul in there? And what about the other corpses? These thoughts lashed at her as she led Ōbhin through the streets.
They couldn’t be caught by Dje’awsa.
“Avena,” groaned Ōbhin.
She glanced back at him. He staggered to a stop and sheathed his sword, groaning as he did. Then he leaned against a building, wooden exterior whitewashed and coated in a layer of sooty grime. He sucked in wheezing breaths.
Screams echoed on a nearby street. The corpses were close.
“I’m afraid to take it out,” she said as she studied the arrow. The lighting was bad. “You sure it’s not in deep? It could be stopping arterial bleeding. It’s better to leave it in.”
“It hit my rib,” he grunted then snarled something in the musical tones of his native tongue. “We have to move. Rip it out. We need to get to
