The woman’s neck extended, eyes boring through him with a coldness akin to the wind on his frozen cheeks. "Infi problem?" she repeated. "You took care of the Infi last you were here. We've no more come up from the caves."
Dorian’s horse nudged his side impatiently. He glanced up at the sentries now moving atop the gates and then looked to the few that had come down the stairs and gathered in the doorway. "Take our horses for warmth and food," he said to the soldiers before looking to the woman again. "We can talk inside your gates."
The woman gave it thought, and then she snapped her fingers. Soldiers trudged forward to take the steeds, but not before Dorian grabbed his weapons from the saddle.
"Should we be concerned?" she asked upon his turning around.
Iron sheathing cut the air, and Dorian knew Corbin had swiped something over his sharpened scythe. They exchanged a daring glance, one that confirmed Corbin trusted what he was doing, and Dorian looked back to the woman.
"Only if you have something to hide," he answered.
And he could see the knowing expression in her eyes.
He hoped Reverie had found the Scrolls.
Because he was about to do something he might regret later.
His eyes met Corbin's once more, and Corbin nodded, scythe in his hand and at the ready.
He turned back to the woman as their horses disappeared through the doors. "Take us to the one in charge," he commanded. "And I don't mean your Elder."
Yellow eyes flashed. The woman's chin rose.
"Careful of your words, Prince Dorian,” she warned.
Dorian took two steps forward. His figure towering over hers, shoulders rounded and neck extended. His fist clenched around his dagger, and he allowed his eyes to blacken, for the world to vibrate around him.
Flames trickled onto the blade from his ashen fingers.
"I know who you are," he seethed. "I know whoallof you are. And if you do not wish to have yourselves engulfed in Promised fire, you'll do as I command." He pulsed back into himself, and the frigid wind whipped his cheeks.
"Show your true self and take us to the Infi you follow."
A smile that chilled Dorian to his core rose on the Infi's lips, and her irises bled yellow.
Bones cracked.
Muscles snapped.
Dorian looked to the walls. He watched as Infi shuddered and flinched. Limbs mutated. Faces melted.
A prominent vibration settled beneath their feet and shook the ground as every Infi in the town morphed.
The noise of their collective shifting made Dorian’s skin crawl.
The Infi before him rose taller and taller until its face unfurled to its true self directly in front of Dorian’s. The grey skin. The starved, yet trimmed and muscular, body. Elongated arms and claws grew on this one’s fingers. A guttural noise emitted from its throat, and it bared its teeth.
Rage that this creature was trying to intimidate him rose in Dorian's body.
His form consumed him. He didn’t realize he was leaned over the creature until he saw its back bending.Cowering. Dorian’s own restricted noise vibrated in his throat as he stared the Infi down. Until finally, it bent its head, and it moved away from him.
"Follow me," the Infi said.
Walking through the town chilled Dorian to his very spine. He remained half in his form, chin high, dagger in his fingers. Infi continued to jerk and shift as they passed through. No noise other than the whipping cold wind and their bones cracking sounded over the air. There were no merchants selling goods, no laughing Blackhands as they chugged their ale and told stories, and no children running.
The crippling silence of death gripped his core from every side.
And he breathed in the stench of it.
