The power animating the hand felt dark and ominous. Its presence skating along the nerves as it whispered of death.
A countless number of green lines the color of plants ran from the hand into the dark surrounding it. They wound around and through it, like a puppet master’s string, controlling each flex of the fingers and swipe of the palm.
“Someone’s controlling it,” I noted.
Liam nodded. “I know.”
Which meant our true enemies hadn’t even revealed themselves yet.
Bright flares of that same green, wound with small strings the rich dark brown of freshly turned dirt, appeared in the ground surrounding the hand.
I backed away, tugging Caroline and Brax with me. “Multiple hostiles incoming.”
Seconds later, blobs appeared from the ground, dirt falling away to reveal skeletal forms made of rock and wood, their “tissue” that of mud and leaves.
Around them a whip of green flame searched across the ground, its movements sinuous and questing as if hunting for prey.
I edged further back, not wanting that thing to touch me. It gave off a sense of wrongness. I sensed it wouldn’t mean good things if it caught hold of any of us.
“Golems,” Liam spat.
Many of them. I counted at least fifteen.
“Damn it, I hate those things,” Nathan complained.
“Can they be killed?” I asked, even knowing it was a pointless question.
“Anything with form can be destroyed,” Liam said grimly.
True, but not always easily or efficiently.
“The problem isn’t killing them; it’s keeping the golem from re-assembling,” Nathan explained.
The golems rushed forward, their hunched forms remaining on all fours in a loping gait as they surged out of the ravine.
“Run,” Liam barked.
I didn’t wait to be told twice, half carrying Brax with me as I raced away. A dry rattling sound followed us, like dead sticks being slammed together.
I didn’t turn around.
Liam and Nathan brought up the rear, guarding our backs as we moved.
Even as I strained for every scrap of speed in me, Caroline doing the same at my side, I knew it wasn’t going to be enough.
The golems were too fast, their odd skittering movements eating up the ground, and we were too slow. Even if Brax had been able to run on his own, I doubted we would have been fast enough.
They were playing with us, veering close and then falling away.
Liam punched through the chest of one as it leapt for the three of us. His hand emerged on the other side. The huge hole in its middle didn’t seem to bother it as it writhed and wiggled, trying to tug itself closer.
Liam grabbed its torso with his other hand, ripping it in two. It crumbled into so much dirt, the flame at its center winking out.
Nathan was similarly occupied on the other side of us, this time with two golems that had started to merge into one, like some weird variation on a Siamese twin. Only the head of one had disappeared, leaving the main torso with too many arms and legs in an awkward amalgam of the two.
“I need to change,” Caroline said, fear in her voice.
Any effects from the alcohol and fairy tears were gone, leaving both of us stone-cold sober.
