Sweat streamed from her brow and stung her eyes. She turned the last corner and a cold draft whispered down the stairwell, licking her damp skin. Stars gleamed beyond the open door at the top.
She lunged up the steps three at a time. A thump sounded below her, a creature hitting the wall. Pistols fired, the echoes deafening in the stairwell. Sicarius. Still with her.
A few steps to go. With a great push from her legs, she leaped the last couple of stairs and raced outside. Water roared in her ears.
Twenty meters ahead, lanterns burned in the windows of the closest tower. A large dark shape inside waved-Maldynado.
Amaranthe could not respond, not now. She focused on the ladder until she saw nothing else. She ran, ignoring the gusting wind as it tore hair from her bun and whipped it into her eyes.
Heavy, rasping breaths sounded behind her. That was not Sicarius.
Less than ten feet behind, a shaggy form towered, black against the night sky. No sign of Sicarius.
Urging her trembling legs to greater effort, she leaped for the ladder. She caught it several rungs up and climbed, fearing she would be too slow. With a single jump, the makarovi could tear her from the ladder.
Amaranthe tried to climb too quickly, and a sweat-slick palm slipped off a metal rung. She lurched and missed a foothold. She almost dropped, but thrust her arm through a hole. Her armpit caught a rung, but she dangled helplessly.
Hot breath stinking of blood blew into her face. Only a foot below, dark, hungry eyes stared up at her. She scrambled to find the rungs with her boots, but she knew it was too late. The fang-filled maw leered open, and the makarovi lifted a paw to tear into her.
She kicked it in the snout. The creature grunted, and its head lurched to the side.
A shadow leaped onto the creature’s back. Sicarius ran up the makarovi as if he were climbing stairs. His black dagger snaked around the shaggy head and plunged into an eye.
The makarovi reared and staggered. Sicarius leaped over its head and onto the ladder. Amaranthe glimpsed five more creatures charging across the dam before his body blocked her view.
“You should be climbing,” he said, already skimming past her. He did not so much as bump her with a knee.
Amaranthe righted herself and sailed up the last few rungs. Sicarius and Maldynado pulled her through the trapdoor.
“Sorry,” she panted.
Maldynado slammed the door shut and threw a bolt that appeared far too flimsy to deter the makarovi.
“Was…admiring your…nicely timed…intervention,” she finished.
Sicarius and Maldynado shoved a desk on top of the trapdoor as something smashed into it from below. Amaranthe doubted the creatures could use the ladder, but it might not matter if they could jump as high as the tower.
“At least they shouldn’t fit through the door.” Amaranthe forced her weary legs to stand.
“Their claws will,” Maldynado said. “And there’s no way to close these windows.”
He waved at the large openings on each wall. Lacking glass or shutters, they had been designed to provide a panoramic view of the lake, dam, and river, not keep monsters out.
“Ready that chain,” Amaranthe said. “Time to hook these fish and fling them into the sea.”
“On it,” Maldynado said. Thumps against the floor almost buried his words.
During their preparation, Sicarius and Maldynado had unhooked the crane from the floodgate it was designed to lift, and Maldynado had had time to familiarize himself with the controls, but he did not appear certain as he manipulated a pair of levers. “These critters don’t have belts or anything. What or where am I supposed to grab?”
“Between the legs,” Sicarius said.
“You want me to stick a hook in something’s balls? That’s terrible.”
Sicarius advanced, lifting a hand as if he meant to take over the controls.
“Let him do it,” Amaranthe told him. “I want you guarding.” She put a hand on Maldynado’s back. “You can handle this.”
“Ball hooking. Got it.” Maldynado pushed a lever and something ground and clanked beneath the floor.
She had been too busy climbing to admire the crane built into the base of the tower, but they had deduced earlier that the water of the dam powered the contraption. They thought the crane was maneuverable enough to do more than its original purpose.
“Just keep those things from bashing through the door,” Maldynado said.
The sturdy concrete tower did not shake or shudder as the makarovi jumped against it from below, but the wood of the trapdoor was a weakness. Even with the heavy desk on top, it splintered and groaned under the onslaught. Claws scraped and gouged.
Amaranthe grabbed her rifle from the corner where she had dropped her gear. She hooked her short sword and a pistol onto her weapons belt as well, fearing she would need them. And more.
The trapdoor shuddered and the desk jumped. Sicarius pushed it back into place with his foot.
She leaned out a window and shot the first makarovi she saw. The rifle ball disappeared into the unkempt fur without doing apparent damage. Sicarius merely waited, his own weapons ready.
As Amaranthe reloaded, Maldynado let out a war whoop.
“I got One-Eye!” he yelled over the clamor coming from below.
Amaranthe rushed to his side. He had snagged the makarovi Sicarius knifed. The creature yowled and thrashed, and she feared it would tear free, but its gyrations only drove the hook deeper. Maldynado chomped down on his lip, his brow creased with concentration as he maneuvered the makarovi over the side of the dam.
Amaranthe clenched her fist. “You’re doing it. It’s working.”
“Don’t get too happy yet, boss. I don’t know how to release it into the water.”
“Can you, uhm, jiggle it?”
The creature was still thrashing, unaware of the fall waiting, should it elude the hook. Maldynado manipulated the crane arm back and forth, trying to turn the makarovi into a pendulum. Between one eye blink and the next the beast fell, plunging out of view.
“Good,” Maldynado said. “One down and-”
A rifle fired. Sicarius stood before the back window. Despite his shot, a makarovi hung there, its arm hooked over the concrete sill. Amaranthe lunged past the desk, pulling her pistol out on the way. Sicarius lifted his rifle and hammered the clinging arm with the butt. She leaned out and fired into the creature’s fang-filled mouth.
It roared in pain, but clung to the sill. She fired her rifle as well, landing a shot in its right eye.
This time it let go. Before it dropped out of view, another jumped up, claws slashing. Sicarius dragged Amaranthe back as he leaped forward, his black knife leading. It sliced into the makarovi’s snout. The wound distracted the beast, and it fell before it could hook an arm over the ledge.
“That knife works better than the firearms,” Amaranthe said, backing toward the center of the tower to reload her weapons. “Are you ever going to tell me the story of where it’s from and how you got it?”
While keeping his eyes toward the windows, Sicarius poured powder down the barrel of his rifle and rammed a ball home. “You never asked.”
“I didn’t? Are you sure? I don’t usually miss an opportunity to pry.”
“I’ve noticed.”
The trapdoor lurched, heaving the desk into Amaranthe’s stomach. She grunted and shoved it back into place. Two makarovi caught opposite window sills at the same time.
“Might want to hurry it up, Mal,” she yelled, fumbling to finish loading her firearms.
Sicarius handed her his rifle and attacked the closet makarovi with his knife before it could pull itself inside. She raised the weapon and advanced on the second. It too clawed at the window, trying to pull itself inside.
Its meaty arms flexed, and the bear-like head appeared over the lip. She fired. Her ball bounced off the creature’s skull and ricocheted into the night.
“Unbelievable.” Amaranthe dropped the rifle, yanked her short sword out, and stabbed at the creature’s eye. It jerked its head, and her tip glanced off its cheek. She tried again. One way or another, she had to keep it from scrambling inside.
