Chapter 29 #3
The hem of her skirt tugged against the twiggy branches of a pea-shrub, producing a soft rustling as the small green leaves brushed against each other. Iryana stilled.
One of the dakii, tall with two long sets of horns and a smaller pair just growing in, turned toward her. The creature’s eyes were so black they reminded her of looking down a deep hole on a moonless night.
She had wanted the advantage of surprise, to take out one or two before they had time to rush her. Iryana cursed her luck and drew her arrow-forging the rest of the way, and let it fly.
It smacked the dakya above its left eye, sending it stumbling back a few steps.
Iryana let the arrow dematerialize, and a trickle of inky black blood dripped out of the now-empty hole in the beast’s head.
The creature made a sound that was half-growl, half-whimper, sending chills up her back.
Two more dakii peered at her through the trees.
How many were there?
Iryana loosed two more arrows. They shot between the trees, glistening silver in the beams of sunlight streaming down.
She saw the other dakii tense, their muscles coiling and readying to spring. Iryana had injured their pack leader, and now they seemed even more desperate to kill her.
Iryana turned and bolted, heading away from the fortress and toward the densest bit of trees.
She panted, slipping between the birches and pines.
Their low-branches and bark pulled at the armor on her shoulders, the sides of her skirt.
She ducked to narrowly avoid a thick branch, but it caught on her black-dyed scarf, which now clung to her braids as she ran on.
She could hear the dakii behind her, trying to weave through the trees but slowed by their size. The trees creaked and groaned as dakii slammed into them.
Iryana risked a glance behind her as the trees thinned slightly and sent two more arrows toward her chasers.
As the forest continued to thin, the dakii drew closer, spreading out to flank her on both sides. Iryana fired a few more times, but didn’t think she had taken any down. There were at least five still chasing her, and she had no idea how she had missed their numbers before.
She was a fool to go after so many alone.
Had the soldiers guarding the supplies realized so many dakii raced after her? Surely they heard the commotion. But they wouldn’t abandon the supplies, and the others were likely too absorbed in their own fight to come after her. She couldn’t count on anyone coming to help her.
Then she saw a bath of morning light ahead, a break where there were no more trees.
Panic clutched her, and Iryana gasped, fighting her desire to turn another way.
But there were dakii to either side, dakii behind her.
She could do nothing but run straight forward, or else they would be on her.
Once the forest opened up, and the dakii could reach their full speeds, she couldn’t outrun them either.
“Curse you all,” Iryana screamed as she released her bow and formed her long spear instead. She would not be chased down like a hare; she would go down fighting.
Iryana prepared to turn and hold her ground as the clearing drew close. Then she got a clear look at it.
With a strangled cry, Iryana tried to stop, throwing herself into the last tree of the forest as the ground opened up before her.
It was a cliff.
Two roars echoed through the brisk air as Iryana watched three dakii launch off the edge of the cliff. Iryana watched, shock freezing her, as their blue-gray bodies twisted in the air. How far had she run? Was there a cliff this big so close to the fortress?
She didn’t have time to search through her mental map of the area to figure out where she was, because a deep snarl sounded from right behind her.
Iryana spun, pointing the deadly sharp tip of her spear at the two dakii that were prowling toward her. Their skin stretched even tighter away from their mouths as they growled, shoulders slinking up with each step.
Her chest hurt from how hard her heart was pounding; her muscles screamed at her for pushing them so hard. The adrenaline was failing her, and her hands were shaking.
The dakya on the right, the leaner one with a single pair of horns, leaped toward her. Iryana aimed her spear at the side of its shoulder and twisted at the last moment. The beast had too much momentum to turn and slid off the cliff with her spear embedded in its chest.
The dakya hadn’t tried to avoid her spear, avoid the cliff.
It had meant to throw her off with it, fully aware it would fall.
A shiver flew up her. The dakii had always fought past the point most creatures would surrender, always lacked much self-preservation, but this calculation went beyond that.
A monster willing to sacrifice itself for her death.
She scrambled to her feet. Calling the forging back to her hands, Iryana pointed the spear at the last dakya.
This one didn’t race for her like she hoped; it stalked forwards, body vibrating with its growls.
Iryana charged the dakya, putting as much distance between herself and the cliff’s edge as she could.
The beast opened its mouth wide, aiming a bite at her shoulder. Iryana sunk the end of her spear into the beast’s shoulder, hitting bone. The force slammed up her arms and forced her back, heels digging into the dirt. Teeth gnashed right before her face.
She didn’t have space to retreat, to dance around the dakya.
Iryana slashed with her spear, swinging it in front of the dakya. She caught its leg and grazed the side of its head. The dakya growled behind the spinning spear, not wanting to charge into the blade. But one tactic never worked for long with the dakii.
With a cry, Iryana threw herself aside as the beast slipped past her spear with a perfectly timed lunge. She didn’t have time to form her shield, and a paw slammed into her chest. The spear went flying.
Pain erupted across her chest as the beast’s claws ripped back out of her chest, having sunk right through her leather armor. Momentarily stunned, she stared at the pine needles swaying above her against the pale blue sky. Was this how she’d die?
Realizing she was lying on the forest floor, vulnerable, Iryana forced her mind to clear and focus on the beast stalking toward her.
“No,” she screeched, as the dakya leaped toward her prone body.
With another scream, she threw the last bits of her unforged magic into strengthening her shield as the dakya landed on her, trapping her arms between the ground and the weight of the dakya against her meager shield.
It sounded as if there were more screams in the forest than could have possibly come from her.
There was no room to summon her forging, and she was going to die if she didn’t. Already her shield was about to fall.
Iryana tried anyway, fist pressed against the shield, which pressed against the beast. Her magic strained hard, but nothing happened. One couldn’t form into resistance, but she was about to die, and she knew it.
So she tried harder. Her veins screamed as she forced her magic harder than she ever had. The shield rippled. Pain ricocheted through her.
But then the hilt of her dagger was solid in her hands.
The blade solid in the dakya’s head.