Taking another breath, she caught her own gaze, willing herself to find the strength to stand. The eyes staring back at her reflected the sun through murky water, blazing an angry yellow.
Swaying, the flower caught her attention as it danced in the breeze. Petals shimmering, the scent of honeysuckle thick and cloying. Making her mouth water.
Ears sagging and relaxed, she reached for it. A loopy grin distorting her lips as she stretched, fully extended over the surface.
A gust of wind pushed her hair back—but the flower remained fixed and rigid. Unnaturally so.
Head tilting to the side, she frowned. And, fingers frozen mere millimeters from touching it, she glanced down and met the eyes of her reflection.
Yellow, angry eyes. Elongated pupils that stood tall and slitted.
Alien.
With a gasp, she scrambled back just in time.
The flower straightened, then was sucked out of sight.
A great yawning mouth snapped open beneath the surface, leaving a void that splashed when it fell. And before that cavernous maw could close, she stared into a creature that could swallow her whole. An oblong disk, it lurked unseen, mostly flat. Disguised in less than a foot of water, this predator would simply wait until some hapless idiot was ensnared by a pretty dancing flower. Lured by the scent of finer things.
Water gushing everywhere, its jaw flapped shut, filtering the excess liquid through gill slits that ran along the visible part of its body. Geysers filtering what might have been her grave.
Overwhelmed, the girl laughed as she stood once more. Teetering toward hysterics, she embraced false security, presuming the creature was not land worthy with so ungainly a body, and turned from the water’s edge. Giving up her back, she set her gaze to the field of bodies and everything on her side of the moat.
Concrete, bones, and death. Nothing more, except the vague possibility that Hadim might be coming for her. The stark knowledge that no matter how much she hurt or bled, no matter the urge to lay down and sleep forever,she could not stay.
And so, with gritted teeth and throbbing tail bone, she pressed on. Searching for valuables amongst the dead, ignoring the worst of her wounds.
It wasn’t long before she was outfitted in leathers that hung from her slender frame, a backpack stuffed full of various other scavenged goods slung over the shoulder less damaged from her fall. Her wounds throbbing and screaming for relief, but the girl knew she couldn’t stop. Not until she’d devised some way over the moat. Not until the wall was out of sight and Hadim nothing more than a recurring nightmare.
Her eye caught on his banner—a red lava-kin on black silk—flapping in the breeze. Threatening and ominous, for it was attached to a spear. A spear that could only have been thrown from the wall above, impaling some unfortunate that had died many seasons past.
But to the girl, it was salvation.
Scrambling over a pile of bones, she climbed until she reached the summit. Retrieved the spear and finally returned her attention to the moat.
Her timing would have to be flawless, or it was all for nothing. Her unsteady balance compensated for. One shot, or she’d learn what was inside those ugly water dwellers that could swallow an Anhur whole.
Balanced on the edge of the moat, she approached the nearest flower. Scanning for gleaming yellow eyes.
It was a stupid beast. One that would try the same tactic over and over, until its hunger was sated. But it was that same lack of intelligence that served her so well, and with a deep breath, she found her balance. Took aim, then lunged.
The spear landed beautifully. With a heavythunkthat struck between the eyes. But she did not release her weapon, instead redoubling her grip, she leapt. Feet landing on the beast’s slippery skin, toes finding purchase in the gill slits, she clung to the spear’s shaft. Squealing at the top of her scratchy voice.
Already dying, the predator reared and took her with it. Spinning, it thrashed, lifting her and the spear into the air as it whirled. Flooding the banks. Displacing a tsunami that swept bodies by the dozen into the murky water.
But as it lurched away from the pain pounding into its primitive brain, it ferried her to the other side. Legs hanging perpendicular to the damp ground, her fingers clutching the spear with every last remaining ounce of strength, she simply… stepped off on the opposite bank. Making sure to yank her spear from the flesh before she went.
It was then, as she plopped down into the muddy bank with the wilds at her back, that she took notice of a much larger beast. In less time than it took her to blink, a void opened up beneath her boatman, and it slid into the gullet of a creature so large, it shouldn’t have been able to exist in water so shallow.
Smearing the muck from her hands down her thighs, she stood. Dressed in scavenged leathers, knowing she stank of death, the girl dared to smile—and it was terrible.
Chapter 7
Pressing her face deeper into the thin blanket of fur, she scowled and kicked. Uncomfortable. Sweating hot, yet unwilling to sleep in the nude, lest some uninvited guest stumble into the cave she’d chosen for the night. Her spear clenched between calloused fingers. For months, she’d been able to scrape by undetected, relying on the utterly foul scent that saturated her leathers.
Dead man’s fat.
It clung like nothing else. Saturated her scent with that of carrion and made her invisible to the males who roamed these woods.
