Page 65 of Crownless Heirs

Kyron gave a reluctant nod. “Alright.” His hand was on his thigh.

Just then, Sorcha noticed a familiar flicker of shadow beside her. Noctis was bounding toward her, tail wagging as she approached.

“Did we lose you for a moment?” She smiled as Noctis leaped onto her, knocking the wind from her lungs as the massive hound tackled her to the ground.

Noctis nuzzled against her face as she gasped for air.

“Okay, okay, I’m happy to see you too,” she laughed. “But please get off me you’re crushing me.”

Noctis tilted her head, gave her a side glance, then finally leaped off and sat down next to Kyron.

“Your hellhound is awfully sweet, in a peculiar way,” Maelan said as he watched the hound’s smoky form drift away before curling back onto itself.

“Yeah, she is special,” she said as she got to her feet, absently rubbing the black veins that wove along her shoulder.

Kyron walked alongside Noctis and Sorcha, silence hanging between them while Maelan walked a few paces ahead. The forest was quiet. The sounds of animals and birds lingered in the air, occasionally interrupted by the steady beat of large wings flying overhead. Their shimmering scales reflected the fading sunlight, casting glittering shadows across the land. Small creatures trailed behind them. They moved swiftly, darting in and out of sight, quick and nimble. Their goblin-like bodies had oddly distorted features, their forms twisting through the undergrowth as if they belonged to a world just slightly out of sync with itself. Their soft giggles and whispers crept through the air as they watched from a distance.

The sun was beginning to dip below the trees, casting a hazy glow of purple, and pink across the forest. A quiet stillness settled over the path, the playful whispers fading into silence. The shadows beneath the trees suddenly lengthened, snapping out across the dirt path like trapdoors. From the dense brush, the laughter multiplied into a deafening chorus of frantic screeching. The screams and grunts came from creatures that emerged from every angle, a wave of goblin bodied Púcas charged through the forest. From the right, the brush exploded as massive, twisted horse charged. They were terrifying caricatures of stallions, their skeletal ribcages tearing through rotting flesh, and thick, black sludge crying continuously from their hollow, weeping eyes.

“Brace yourself!” Kyron yelled.

Maelan and Kyron immediately pivoted to anchor the left side. Kyron was rushed by a Púca, but his blade cleaved straight through its collarbone and a torrent of dark blood sprayed across his face, but three more scrambled over the corpse of the first. Maelan moved beside him like a flash of lightning, he lunged and parried. His star steel blade pierced throats and severed wrists, but the sheer volume of the horde was pressing them back, their boots skidding in the dirt as the creatures tore at their armor with jagged claws.

On the other side, Noctis unleashed a feral blood-curdling howl. It was a terrifying, monstrous sound. The massive hound launched herself directly into the chest of a charging horse. Noctis’s jaws split impossibly wide, clamping around the horses throat and ripping a massive chunk of rotted windpipe completely free. A thick ooze gushed over her smoky coat. Noctis didn’t pause; she swiped her heavy claws across the skull of another sending flesh flying into the grass. She was a whirlwind of terrifying violence, enjoying in the carnage as she tore the limbs from the twisted beasts, painting the grass in a dark canvas of gore. Sorcha stepped up to back her hound, the carnelian stones on her scimitar flaring into a blinding, angry crimson. With a sharp snap of her wrist, she unleashed it. A blazing ribbon of golden light shot from the tip, unfurling into a crackling whip of concentrated sunlight.

She slashed it horizontally. The golden whip hissed through the air, severing the front legs of another lunging horse. The solar energy seared into its corrupted flesh, steam and black smoke billowing instantly from the contact as it crashed into the dirt. Sorcha brought the whip back around, cracking it down on another beast’s skull, melting through the bone like wax.

Despite the gory slaughter, they were losing ground. For every creature Noctis tore apart or Sorcha burned, more crawled from the bleeding shadows. Kyron’s breath was a ragged gasp as a claw sliced across his shoulder, and Maelan’s movements were slowing under the weight of the endless horde. The circle was tightening, pressing the three of them back to back.

A massive shadow blotted out the remaining sun, rushing into the forest.

The Ellén Trechend descended. The monstrous, multi-headed dragon Sorcha had met earlier plunged into the clearing. With a vicious, earth-shaking roar from all its jaws, it unleashed a torrential wave of fire. The inferno swept over the entire clearing, completely engulfing the remaining Púcas. The creatures didn’t even have time to shriek; they turned to ash in a heartbeat, the black sludge in the horses’ eyes boiling away into nothingness. The heat rippled against Sorcha’s skin, drying the sweat on her brow instantly.

The dragon stood amidst the smoking ruins of the battlefield, its massive wings kicking up clouds of ash. One of its towering heads lowered, its massive, reptilian eye locking directly onto Sorcha.

It tilted its head, offering her a single, slow nod of respect. Then the Ellén Trechend snapped its massive wings, launching itself back into the sky with a force that knocked them all back a step. It vanished over the tree line, leaving them alone in the smoking, ash-covered quiet of the forest.

Sorcha stared up at the empty sky, the golden whip of sunlight slowly receding back.

“Everyone still in one piece?” Maelan asked, wiping a thick smear of blood from his jaw with the back of his hand.

Kyron leaned heavily against a scorched tree trunk, checking the tear in his armor where the claw had grazed his shoulder. “I’ll live. But I’d rather not hang around to see if that witch has any more pets nearby.”

Sorcha nodded, her knuckles still white around her hilt. She looked down at Noctis, who was panting heavily, her misty coat slowly settling from its jagged, terrifying edge back into a smooth, rolling fog. “Good girl,” Sorcha whispered, reaching down to press her hand against the hound’s silky fur. Noctis gave a pleased nuzzle against her palm, the bloodlust completely vanishing from her eyes.

“Let’s find that water,” Kyron muttered, pushing himself off the tree. “The dragon just gave away our position to anything within ten miles.”

With Maelan leading the way, they quickly left the smoking, ash-covered clearing behind.

Crumbled stones began to form the forest path while skeletal remains in various stages of decay littered the ground. Within minutes, the trees were growing through abandoned stone arches and the remains of buildings were half buried and reclaimed by the earth.

Sorcha paused, stopping dead in her tracks. “Maelan, you never said anything about this.” She looked around at the creeping shadows weaving through the forest, the air suddenly feeling heavier than before.

Maelan met her gaze and shook his head, looking genuinely bewildered. “This wasn’t here.”

Kyron’s brows furrowed, worry creeping into his voice. “What do you mean it wasn’t here? How do you miss a city?”

“I’m telling you, this trail was completely clear when I looked down from the trees!” Maelan snapped. He darted up a nearby trunk, looking out over the canopy, and leapt back down just as quickly. His face was pale. “I don’t know where we are. It’s an abandoned city.”