Chapter 15 Kasira #2
“Thank the goddess you’re here.” He clasped his thin hands together, feet fidgeting in place. “There’s a Coscara within the town walls. I think it was drawn by the harvest.”
All Kalish towns were walled to keep out beasts.
It was rare one got in unless it could go through or over the barrier.
Which made it particularly odd for a Coscara, a scavenging creature known for its instinct to flee, to have gotten in.
Odder still for the town’s head to have contacted Amorlin rather than the Malikinar.
Kalthos usually only called on the Library for true emergencies.
She expected Allaster to question the story, but he only asked, “Which way?”
The man pointed toward the back of the room. “The storage building in the center of town. Please hurry.”
“Stay here. Corynth, with me.” They stepped out into a mild Kalish morning, the sun just skirting the edges of the trees.
The town bordered the Isherwood, far enough inland she couldn’t hear the rush of the Seven Veils.
It was quiet, its inhabitants likely holed up in their homes, most of which were built of stone to resist beast attacks and possessed little ornamentation.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” she whispered to Allaster as he drew an arrow but didn’t nock it. “How did a Coscara get inside the walls?”
“Likely, they let it in.”
Kasira ground to a halt. “What?”
“Keep moving,” he ordered. “You’ll look suspicious.” They traced their way back along the building they had appeared in, heading deeper into the eerily empty town.
Kasira’s grip on her staff flexed nervously. “If you knew something was off, why didn’t you say anything? There might not even be a beast here.”
“There is. And regardless of the reason for their trick, I intend to see it delivered safely back to the forest.”
“This seems like a very good way to get ourselves killed.”
Allaster drew up short, regarding her with blatant reproach. “This is what being Librarian means, Corynth. Your life for theirs. If you can’t see that, then you still don’t understand our purpose here, in which case, you can go wait by the door.”
Considering this was her last opportunity to prove herself to Allaster in time for Vera’s deadline, that really wasn’t an option.
So she hefted her staff and followed him past a line of houses that opened into the town square.
Allaster cursed, and she spun to see what he had: A trail of silver blood led out from a large building on the far side of the square, the door in shambles and the stone of the frame cracked deep.
“A Coscara couldn’t have done that,” she said.
Allaster’s face hardened. “Go back to the door.”
“What?”
“That’s an order.”
“I’m not—” A high-pitched keening rang from the building, followed by a bellowing roar. The building shook, the ground tremoring. Cold claws raked down her spine. She knew that roar.
It was a Zeras.
Allaster was already running across the square, the arrow nocked.
And though facing a Zeras with nothing but a wooden staff was akin to sticking herself inside its jaws, she ran after him.
They burst into the carnage of the storage building.
Crushed barrels of barley and crates of root vegetables were strewn across the floor, mingling with silver blood.
Near a stack of crates in the back stomped the Zeras. It was easily twice the size of a horse, with a craggy gray hide and a horned, bullish head it was slamming into the crates, sending them flying. Its venomous, clawlike tail snapped erratically, easily the length of its body.
“We have to neutralize its tail.” Allaster drew back his bowstring. “If it feels its tail is threatened, it will retreat.”
“Your arrow isn’t going to do anything against a Zeras’s hide,” she replied, sorely missing her vylor sword.
The bowstring twanged. The Zeras moved impressively quickly, and the arrow missed, striking a crate and encasing the entire thing in ice. Kasira had one moment to wonder at the power of the weapon before a two-ton animal came racing toward them.
Allaster seized her arm, snapping his fingers, and they reappeared on the other side of the warehouse. The Zeras tried to turn aside too late and slammed lengthwise into the wall they had been standing by. The building shook, cracks spiderwebbing across the stone.
Allaster released her, breathing a little heavier. He’d had to touch her to move her, and what had looked effortless in the Library now seemed to have exacted a toll on him. “You’re weaker away from the Library, aren’t you?” she realized.
He nocked another arrow. “I need you to distract it.”
Kasira clutched her staff. “If you wanted me dead, there are quicker ways to do it.” She didn’t stay to enjoy his stunned expression. As the Zeras cleared its head with a shake, she darted across the warehouse. It followed with a roar, the world shaking with its heavy steps.
Allaster’s bowstring twanged, and she threw a glance over her shoulder in time to see the arrow transform into a weighted rope.
It tangled around the Zeras’s back legs, but the beast strained all of one moment before ripping the bonds apart.
Allaster nocked another arrow and fired.
His aim was true—until the Zeras’s tail knocked the arrow from the air.
It clattered uselessly to the ground, the tip glowing a faint blue.
Kasira cast aside her staff and dove for the arrow. Her fingers curled around the shaft, and she rolled, coming up in a low crouch. At the same moment, something moved in the corner of her vision. A small, silver-white form edged out from behind a crate, its leg a mess of fur and silver blood.
One of its eyes was a knotted scar.
Kasira smelled rancid flesh and heard the sickening thud of metal into bone, saw the Alkatir mother fall in a bloody heap, its cub wounded and afraid.
Saw herself let it go, only for it to end up here.
The cub hobbled for the door, one wing dragging limp and useless on the ground.
The Zeras lifted its head, scenting the air, and locked its beady black gaze on its prey.
Kasira was forgotten as it charged after the other beast.
She leapt, sliding to her knees before the cub as the Zeras ground to a halt, its venomous tail whipping around.
She caught the edge of it with the arrow’s shaft, the blow jarring her arm nearly numb and cracking the wood.
Then she drove the flat-tipped arrowhead into its tail.
Ice sprang from the point of contact, encasing the tail up to the Zeras’s hindquarters.
The beast bellowed and backed away, then fled through the open door. Allaster vanished after it.
The numbness in her arm grew stronger. It crept toward her shoulder, accompanied by a feverish exhaustion.
She fell back, her legs splaying out before her.
Distantly, she was aware of the heat of the Alkatir cub against her side, and some part of her knew she needed to move.
Even young and wounded, Alkatir were dangerous beasts, but her body wasn’t responding.
Allaster reappeared before her. “It’s gone back into the forest. The ice should melt soon, and it’ll be fine. The back gate is open, and there’s a trail of silver blood leading here. I think—Corynth? Corynth!”
His words reached her as if through honey. He seized her hand, lifting it to reveal a black, angry wound. It was the last thing she saw before darkness overtook her.