Chaosbound (32 page)

At that moment, Aaath Ulber lunged, throwing all of his speed and strength into one terrific burst, his hand blurring as he sought to strike.

The wyrmling was fast. He roared a battle challenge and knocked the pig out of the air as easily as if it were a pillow. He reached back and slid his ax from its sheath, twirled it as he threw it the air, and then caught the handle—too late.

Aaath Ulber's diversion had served him well. He slid his long fish knife into the wyrmling's armor—prodding for its kidney, then twisting. Black blood spurted from the wound, warming Aaath Ulber's hand. The wyrmling roared in pain and surprise, then tried to step back. Aaath Ulber placed a foot behind the monster's heel and threw his shoulder into the creature's chest, using the wyrmling's momentum against it, so that it tripped and fell.

Aaath Ulber grabbed one of the monster's poisoned war darts and palmed it as the creature dropped.

The second wyrmling had already gained his weapon. This one pulled his “knife” from its sheath and halted for a moment, warily.

Already Aaath Ulber had palmed his knife again, and now stood with both hands in fists, so that the creature wouldn't know which hand held a weapon. But of course, at the moment, Aaath Ulber had a weapon in each hand.

The Muyyatin knife tricks, Aaath Ulber thought. That might do it.

The Muyyatin assassins had made an art of hiding weapons, of pulling daggers from hidden folds in their clothing, or switching weapon hands as they whirled about, seeking to gain the element of surprise.

The wounded wyrmling roared in frustration and scrabbled up from the ground. Aaath Ulber hoped that the creature had only seconds to live, but he couldn't be sure. The wyrmling was enormous, over eight feet tall, and the fish knife might not have reached all the way into monster's kidney.

I'll know soon enough, Aaath Ulber thought.

If he'd hit the kidney, the monster would go into shock within seconds.

His companion raced up behind and roared like a lion, urging the fallen wyrmling into battle. All around, the folks in the marketplace were screaming, fleeing, so that a battlefield was opening up around them.

The second wyrmling swatted with the back of his hand, slapping aside a woman who was carrying a small babe. The blow took her head off and sent a spray of blood over the crowed. People shouted in terror and lurched back.

In that instant, it seemed that a curtain of red dropped before Aaath Ulber's eyes. He drew a breath in surprise, and his heart pounded, so that he heard a distant drumming in his ears.

He lost all conscious thought as a berserker's fury swept over him.

18

From where the sun stands and from this day forward, I swear to fight evil where ever it may be found—first in my own heart, and then in my fellow man
.

—Oath of the Brotherhood of the Wolf

The morning sun could not quite penetrate the patches of mist that veiled the village, and Rain felt as if her old clothes were becoming too worn, too insubstantial to keep out the chill. But when the wyrmlings appeared, she felt a thrill run down her spine bitterer than the cold.

She heard the deep growls behind her, like something that might come from a frowth giant, then turned to see the wyrmlings.

Her first thought was that they were beautiful. They had carved on their bone armor and helms for thousands of hours, gouging in strange pictographs and various knots, so that their work rivaled the finest scrimshaw carved into ivory that she had ever seen.

But then she saw the wyrmlings' eyes—soulless and cruel, a pale green that made them look like pits of ice. Their cheekbones were thick and their foreheads were thickened, as if over the millennia they had bred armor into their own bodies, and their mouths with their overlarge canines were impossibly cruel.

All of her perception of them was gathered in a split second as the monsters raged past.

Then people in the marketplace began to shout. Vendors threw blankets over their wares, while townsfolk sought to escape.

A big man shoved Rain in his hurry to reach an alley, throwing her
down. She still hadn't gained her land legs yet, and so her balance was off.

Children were screaming, but the townsfolk didn't clear a path fast enough, and flecks of blood rained through the air as one of the wyrmlings knocked a woman out of the way.

Rain leapt to her feet just in time to see Aaath Ulber attack. He had no endowments to his name, but he had a lifetime of training—no, she realized, two lifetimes of training.

He moved with blinding speed, stabbing. He seemed to leap into one of the wyrmlings, slugging it, but then Rain caught a glimpse of a flashing knife. The second wyrmling burst toward him with blinding speed, wielding a huge ax.

Aaath Ulber met him with a scream, a strange animal howl that Rain hadn't heard since he'd butchered her father.

Now he took his rage and lashed out at a wyrmling that towered above him. The wyrmling's ax fell in a blur, and Aaath Ulber reached up and grabbed it. As he did, he leapt in the air and kicked with both feet, crushing the wyrmling's knee.

The wyrmling fell back, snarling in pain. His companion had been knocked over, but now he regained his knees. He lunged, swinging a meat hook down low, and caught Aaath Ulber in the calf of his left leg. Viciously the wyrmling jerked, pulling Aaath Ulber down.

After that, Rain didn't see much of what happened. The crowd was screaming, and several people rushed in front of her, making for the alley.

“Run!” some woman shouted. “The guards will be down on all of us!”

Just then, Rain heard a strange clacking sound—bone on bone—and peered down the street. A dozen more wyrmlings were rushing around a corner.

She heard Aaath Ulber snarling, while wyrmlings shouted and roared, and she suddenly realized that Aaath Ulber could not hope to win against so many.

A wise man might have run, but Aaath Ulber was in his berserker's fury, striking out blindly against wyrmling runelords, though he didn't have a chance in the world.

Many of the townsfolk stood riveted by the spectacle. Some men even dared shout words of encouragement to Aaath Ulber.

Rain put her back to a wall and stopped for a moment, staring. The crowd opened enough so that she saw Aaath Ulber on the ground, grappling with a much larger foe, struggling to rip the wyrmling's throat out with his teeth.

But one wyrmling, bleeding furiously from the face, had leapt to his feet, and now he kicked Aaath Ulber in the ribs so hard that Rain heard bones snapping.

Aaath Ulber rolled into the street, snarling and furious, bereft of weapons. The bloodied wyrmling blurred into motion, leaping on Aaath Ulber, grappling with him, throwing punches with a steel gauntlet.

He struck Aaath Ulber in the face, once, twice, then gave a mighty blow that felled the giant, so that he dropped limp to the ground.

The wyrmlings then turned on the crowd and took vengeance upon those who had urged Aaath Ulber on. One of the wyrmlings grabbed up a great sword from the booth and swung, decapitating two men in a single blow.

By then the rest of the troops were arriving, and they circled Aaath Ulber, kicking and growling like a pack of wild dogs, while others fell upon the townsfolk.

It appeared that even being here, even watching Aaath Ulber fight, was deemed a crime worthy of death.

The townsfolk were rushing away. Merchants had ducked behind their stalls, often with women and children leaping in to seek cover.

A young man raced past Rain, grabbing her wrist. He pulled her toward the alley, and she resisted. He yanked her so hard that it lifted her from her feet, and he half-dragged her around a corner.

“Come on!” he said, his voice full of terror. She stumbled and ran, trying to keep up, as he raced across the street, into a stable.

“This way!” he urged as he pulled her toward some horses. The horses neighed in fear, while a few chickens that had been strutting about squawked and raced under the horses' feet.

The young man reached a small ladder that led to a hayloft, ten feet in the air, and shouted, “Up—go up!”

She climbed the ladder swiftly, found that there was a huge mound of hay, and scrambled to get over it.

The young man raced up behind her, urged her over the hay, and then pulled the ladder up and set it behind the pile of hay. Then he just lay back for a moment, panting from fear, and tried to still his breathing.

Rain did the same. Her heart was pounding hard, and it seemed to her that she saw everything in preternatural detail.

There was little light in the room. Most of it came from a small open door above them, so that sunlight streamed through the gloom. Motes of dust hung in the air, floating upon every breath of wind.

Aaath Ulber is dead by now, Rain realized, and despair dropped on her with a massive weight.

That can't be, she told herself. The Earth King said that he has to help Fallion, he has to help bind the worlds.

Has he failed already? Did he fail so easily? Was it dumb luck that brought him here?

“What, what will happen to that giant?” Rain asked.

She looked at the young man. He had long golden hair with a hint of crimson, almost the shade of cinnabar. His chin was strong, his nose narrow, and his eyes smoldered a deep blue.

“He's dead,” the young man whispered, putting a finger to his lips, warning her to be quiet. “He's dead. And anyone who walks the streets now will die with him.”

“But, but . . .” Rain tried to imagine Aaath Ulber dead. She leaned back in the hay, fear tightening her stomach. Involuntarily, she began to twist the ring on her finger. It was an old habit, each time she felt in danger.

“You're from Mystarria,” the young man said. It wasn't a question. “Did you know that . . . giant?”

Rain wasn't adept at lying. She hesitated. The man had saved her, and she hoped that he was an ally.

Would he turn me over to the wyrmlings if he knew?

“I didn't know him,” she said, too late.

“Your lips lie, but your body tells the truth,” he said. Rain found that she was trembling in fear, and that it was everything she could do to hold back her tears.

“They knew that you were coming,” the young man said. “For weeks the wyrmlings have been searching for a giant, a man with red hair, a man that they fear.” There were shouts in the street outside, the sound of running feet, and the growl of a wyrmling. A man screamed as the wrymling took him.

The young man peered over the pile of hay, making sure that no one had entered the stable, and whispered, “There are two wizards with you, yes? We must get word to them, before the wyrmlings find them.”

Rain shook her head, trying to make sense of this. There was only one wizard in her group. Yet she suspected that he was right. The wyrmlings were looking for them. There
were
two wizards in Draken's family, and that was so rare that Rain had never heard the like. “How could the wyrmlings know that we were coming?”

We told no one, she wanted to say.