Faintly behind the water was the sight of a small fire going, a being was bent over it, blanket covering its mangled body. Aydra could not make out much of it, but what she could tell looked like a skeleton child, flesh milky white and balding. It was so different from the men whom she’d beheaded that she almost began to argue with the Venari.
But when it turned its head and stared at them through the water with bulging yellow eyes, her stomach dropped, and she knew she’d seen the creature before.
“If he runs, shoot him in the neck,” Draven said fast.
Aydra didn’t get a chance to respond. Draven was already creeping around the fall towards him. She gave Lex a nod, and Lex started to creep around the opposite way. Aydra stood her ground and slowly pulled an arrow from the quiver on her back.
The creature had spotted her, and it watched her continuously. She noticed it was crouching down, inch by inch, as though trying to hide itself in the shadows of the fall.
A sudden wind wrapped around her, and a deliberate chill ran down her spine. She wobbled on the spot, blinking as her breaths shortened. Incomprehensible whispers filled her ears. The beach began to spin around her.
The creature ran.
Draven shouted something. Aydra shook off the nauseating rush and blinked back to reality. It was then she realized the creature was running straight at her. It thrust itself through the water and on the edge of its pool, not seeming to give thought to it burning his feet. The rate it ran towards her was faster than any creature she’d ever seen. It’s wild yellow eyes paralyzed her on the spot.
“SHOOT IT!”
Its mouth opened, and she saw scratches of teeth lining its gums. The blanket flailed off its shoulders. It seemed to be growing taller as it ran faster and faster towards her.
“AYDRA! SHOOT IT!”
Aydra finally moved. She pulled the arrow through and let it fly through the air. It hit the creature in the shoulder. But it barely slowed, still running at her. She didn’t have time to pull another arrow.
—Her sword caught the creature’s throat as it jumped in the air towards her.
A spray of thick black blood shattered over her, and the creature landed in the sand at her back.
“What thefuckwas that?” came Draven’s angered voice. “You see an Infi creature running full towards you and you paralyze on the spot?”
Aydra spat blood from her mouth and glared at him. “I—”
His own sword thrust into the head of the Infi behind her and he shook his head. “I said shoot it in the neck. Do they not teach archery here in this kingdom?”
“It is dead,” she argued. “What is the problem?”
“I’ll have them put that in the Chronicles where it asks for your last words,” he spat as he knelt beside it. His knife ripped through the creature’s grey flesh, and Draven’s hand plunged inside it, only emerging to the surface again when he’d its heart in his hand.
“Catch.”
He tossed the heart towards her without a glance. She nearly dropped it when she realized it was still beating.
“Oh, Architects,” Lex mumbled upon reaching them. “It’s still—”
Draven stood then and pressed his knife into Aydra’s open hand. “To kill an Infi outside of Duarb’s territory, you have to remove its heart and keep it separate from its bones. Otherwise, it will merge back together before you can reach the Hills for Duarb to take it back. The body and heart must be taken to the Hills, which means we’ve two days ride ahead of us.”
“Two?” Aydra repeated.
“Your territory stops at the Bedrani pass,” Draven explained. “Duarb’s roots cannot reach past there. It’s why so many Infi travel to the mountains and now, I suppose, to this realm to hide.”
“I’ll get the horses,” Lex said as she took off into a run.
Draven gave an upwards nod to the knife in Aydra’s hand. “Knife into the heart, and it must stay there until we reach Bedrani,” Draven told Aydra. “The only way to stop its beating is for Duarb to take it back.”
“Is it this hard to kill a Venari as well?” Aydra asked.
Draven’s jaw tightened. “The Infi are an immortal curse. The Venari are not.”
CHAPTER FOUR
