“Ogres incoming,” Freyia said, dashing my faint hopes as the ground trembled with their great weight. “I’d say six or seven, judging by the cadence of their footfalls.”
Of course they were. They were starving and had finished whatever mayhem they were causing in the other corridors. They’d caught on to our scent and hoped to feed more decadently.
“Harvadril, kill that wyrm!” Neve commanded, panic rising in her voice.
I grasped her forearm. She needed to keep her head. For that, I suspected Neve required a task, and I had just the one.
“Wife, shoot icicles at the wolves. Aim for their soft side.”
The cold in the underbelly of the coinary deepened as Neve called upon her magic for the first time in days. Since we’d traveled to Vitvik, we’d all saved up our powers, just in case disaster struck. The time to use them had come, and no one here possessed more power than my mate.
She released four spear-like icicles as long asSkelda. Three hit their targets, one shattered on the steep steps behind an enemy draugr—female by the looks of her. The corpse monster let out a roar, but as the lindwyrm was closing in on us, their faraway anger was the least of my worries. My stomach danced as Harvadril climbed a dozen more steps and approached the long, thin dragon.
The lindwyrm unfurled and wasted no time in spitting venom. As Harvadril was skeletal, it went right through him and shot down the stairs. Caelo, Luccan, Neve and I ducked, but paces behind us, someone screamed.
“Tanziel!” Bac shouted.
I twisted to see that Bac had hurled Balvor from his grasp. He must have also released Balvor from his powers for when the leprechaun rose to stand, a stream of curses left his lips.
“How is she?” I called, lunging forward and stabbing asection of the lindwyrm that had slithered too close while Harvadril battled the beast face to face.
“It’s burning through her cheek!” Bac yelled back.
“Here!” Neve ran down the stairs to the nymph and froze the skin of Tanziel’s cheek. “That might stop it from spreading.”
Tanziel moaned, but Bac’s eyes widened hopefully. “I think it’s working. I?—”
“They’re here!” Freyia screamed as eight ogres entered the chamber.
“Skies!” I shouted. “Target the wolves, Neve. Luccan and Caelo, stab the lindwyrm.”
Everyone sprang into action, and I flew back the way we’d come to take on the ogres with Freyia. They were pushing forward, attempting to overtake the vampire, but we had the high ground, the ogres were starving, and between Freyia and me, we had many turns of battle on our side. With swords skewering their eyes, we disabled four within seconds. An icicle shot from above to kill a fifth, right in the temple. I grinned, knowing it was Neve’s work.
The final three seemed the smartest of the bunch. They ran back down the steps and disappeared into the spokes of the coinary. We let them go, and I twisted back to the others in time to see Harvadril cut through the lindwyrm. With a violent hiss, the beast went limp.
Neve had lanced more wolves too. I did a quick count.
Only two wolves and two draugrs left.
“Up the stairs,” I shouted. “Harvadril, me, Caelo, and Luccan. Ogres might return. Freyia?—”
“Yes, yes, I know. I have theback.”
“Neve, help Bac and Tanziel.”
Normally, she wouldn’t have enjoyed being told to let others fight the hard fight for her, but Neve was heaving with the effort of taking down so many wolves so fast.
As we ran up the stairs, Luccan diverted to the lindwyrm. From its head, he pulled out a fang dripping with venom. He stuffed the fang in his cloak pocket. “Arie and Duran might want to study it.”
Brilliant. If we could recreate the venom, we could use it in a weapon.
Up the stairs we ran, Harvadril and me taking them two at a time, pulling ahead of the others. The other draugrs rushed to meet us and before I could brace myself, I was steel to steel with the female undead.
The only way I knew to kill one of these was to slice off its head. Of course, the undead creature did not make that feat easy. She defended. I struck. She leapt. I scrambled back.
The others possessed the sense to remain at a safe distance, but at the rate I was failing, I’d be next to them soon. Then what? The enemy draugr would be far too close to my mate.
“For the Blood of the White Hawk!” screamed Harvadril, and a skull flew by my shoulder, down the stairs.
