Bound By Blood (16 page)

             
“When have
you
laid eyes on or spoken to a
NORS
Ŕ
AH?” Splazyk demanded to know.
Samanthŕa wondered the same.
“No
t even
I
have laid eyes on them!
”

             
“
I fed from a Phãegen this night. One who travels here to do trade with
Syŕos , oldest Ph
ãegen breathing. My prey's memories became mine and I know what he knows."

             
"Which is? You holding out on me Lesser? Are you foolish enough to do so?" Splazyk sneered.

             
"No! But I needed to be sure you had open- enough- mind to hear this for no one, not even of my own ilk will listen."

             
"Speak it then!"

             
"
They
, the NORSŔAH,
have started to come from their Arctic
Realm
and--"

             
"You lie!"

             
"No,
I swear
. Just ask Syŕos
,
for he is doing business with them now and again. It was
h
im
I seen speaking to them
through my prey's mind
”
t
he Nora answered.
"
Him
I heard them tell."

             
While
Splazyk
called him a liar, Samanthŕa
could tell
he was not.
Now
,
her curiosity was raised even higher
,
for the NORS
Ŕ
AH were the master bloodlines of the Phãegens, only
they
l
eft their Moppães
centuries ago
,
confining themselves to their Chrystalis
Realm
where no one had access but them
.
At one
time,
they used to trade their crystals, the ones
that
glowed
;
th
ey
could only be found in the Chrystalis
Realm
. No one knew why they
stopped coming and trading but Samanthŕa was determined to find out
,
especially if Syŕos was speaking to them
now
. Plus, she wanted to know more about this prophecy
immediately
.

             
She stood
and
began to
search for
the owner
when the doors
to the
T
avern
flew open. Cold wind rushed inside
,
knocking lanterns and candles over
,
nearly blowing out the fires inside the
ir
pits. Even the glowing
crystals struggled to keep ligh
t,
as if the presence of those standing now in the doorway were draining their energy
.

             
The
crystals alone were cause enough for Samanthŕa to become wary.

             
All
e
yes quickly turned to
the
seven intimidating
figures
who
’d
entered. Their powers were extremely dimmed
and
the hoods of their black cloaks hid their faces.
Samanthŕa
became
even more
nervous. She couldn’t tap into their energy to see past the dim
ness
they had cast. She could not tell if they were
E
vil or of
the
L
ight
s
.

             
Frozen, s
he watched them look about the room as though they were searching. Warning chills
turned
the hairs on the back of her neck
into bristl
ing
razors
. Her heart nearly stopped.

             
S
lowly
, she
moved against the
back
wall, hovering
to the shadows
, thinking
it best that she move closer to the back door. She was curious
,
but needed to be so at a safer distance.
             

             
The figures, she
decid
ed, had to be male. This was
obvious
from
how large they were. And they
were
large
, l
ar
ger than any she had ever seen.
What was even more amazing was that o
ne
of them
seemed to be even more of a
giant than the rest. He bothered her senses the most.
Her instincts were screaming for her to get far away from this place
,
all because of
him.
And yet
she stayed . . . her feet did not move.

             
T
ime sped up
to
twice its speed,
as
the large one leaped across
furniture and space
to the
Vaŕlok
. Without warning, he lifted Splazyk up by his neck, throwing him over the table with unbelievable power. The
Vaŕlok
struggled to shift into wer
e
-w
o
lf form but the
renewed
grip of the stranger
’
s hand se
emed to freeze the creature's
metamorphosis. All
the
other
various
spawn
in
the
T
avern
quickly drew their swords
or attempted to shift
, but
a strange power flew through the room
,
an invisible tidal wave of sorts,
thr
ow
ing them all down to the floor.
             

             
Samanthŕa
lost the wind in her lungs as the force reached out to her too
, t
hrowing her body hard against the wall she was working
her way
towards. She slid down to the floor, breath lost, trying to r
egain her wits. She watched the strangers
in cloaks move through the trembling masses, lifting
being
s up with mighty arms, a
nd
the
n
let
ting
them fall like
unwanted
but
broken toys
.

             
She was dazed
, watching,
immobilized
.

             
The
superior
one reached his hand into the mouth of
Splazyk
. He ripped open
his
head by
the
jaws. Blood splattered everywhere.
He held up his large arm, the sleeve of the black cloak slid down revealing strange black symbols. But that was not all. Bite marks from Splazyk's teeth had punctured the large one's palm. The venom spread up his arm turning his veins a dark unnatural green. He let out an ear-shattering roar before his own blood seemed to vanquish the poison. As if this wasn't unbelievable enough, by his roar, t
he crystals
used for
light literally exploded
throughout the room
.
             

             
Samanthŕa’s mouth dropped
open. S
he had never witnessed power like that,
ever
.

             
Tables broke
and buckled
as bodies were tossed
and or slammed
into them
. She heard growls escape the
foreigners’
throats. The bar wenches screamed
in
terror
, fainted or perhaps
died from fright. Samanthŕa didn't know. There wasn't time to properly understand anything.
The storm outside was raging
even more
than before
. In fact, it was right on top of them
.
It sounded as if the roof might be torn off.

             
But that stopped nothing. No, one by one, these beings of horror
searched the warriors and species that they
’d
knocked to the
ground
with their power, tossing some
away
merely unconscious
,
while others they viciously ripped to pieces
and destroyed.

             
They were sorting them out,
Sam
anthŕa
,
feeling her
frozen
limbs begin to shake
, attempted to form some sort of thought, opinion,
anything
amidst such mayhem
. They were not out to slaug
hter one and all, only certain creatures
--
but
which
ones?

             
She was tempted to mist back home
,
despite
Dĩas’ rage
,
but she
couldn’
t
. She knew
better
than
to leave a trail of power behind for these monsters to track her down. That would be the worst of all her crimes, to set her family up for unforeseen slaughte
r.
For the same reason
,
she did not mist to t
he Lycãons
either. She needed her horse so she could ride far enough away and
then
mist from there.

             
Now is no time to be foolish! Pull your wits together and move!

             
She
duck
ed
as tables and chairs were tossed through the air
. Her pulse rose to new heights as s
ome
managed to lift themselves from the floor and fight back.
Her stomach collapsed with failed hope. The bodies fell as quick as they rose. I
t was useless trying to battle
them
.
If these strangers had them marked, then they were already chosen to die no matter
how
they tried to
evade it
.

             
Shuffling through muck and corpse, trembling beyond control, f
inally,
Samanthŕa
reached the
door, though
she wasn’t sure how she managed to move
. She struggled to open it
, yanking while her knees burrowed
to the floor
. Its
rusted pieces were
stuck
,
although that wasn’t the reason why it wouldn’t open now.
The bodies in all their piles and pieces had the route to escape wedged shut!
She tried to pull part of a corpse out of the way
with one hand while the other still struggled with the stubborn door.

             
Curses!
Her mind raged in her desperation.

             
She
’d
t
aken
her attention off of the large one for only a moment when h
er heart completely
slammed to a
halt
.
Her joints locked into unmoving statues. A new winter stormed across her senses. Without breath, s
he heard the most hellish
roar
e
rupt from behind her.
It even flushed out the storm nearly ripping the Tavern off its foundations.
Through
out
all the noise, it was loud enough to reach down into her
very
soul and
twist
it
in
to
agonizing
pieces.