Green Rider (15 page)

Direct me
. The eagle perched as implacable as a statue, though his "voice" was tinged with irritation.

Karigan opened and closed her mouth, fishlike, unable to utter a word. Even if he could read her thoughts, they'd be an unintelligible jumble.

She did not know what to tell him. If he tried to fight the creatures, he could easily get tangled in the web, or the creatures could sting him, or… She looked hopelessly about for an answer, shaking a couple of hatchlings from her leg almost as an afterthought. She looked at The Horse's still body. He had fallen on the saddle sheath. If the eagle could reach her saber…

"My sword," she said. "It's beneath the horse. If you could pry it out and—"

The eagle, guessing her intent, launched from his branch to The Horse. He stood on the ground, his head cocked as if deciding how best to proceed. Karigan couldn't watch. Tiny silver disk shapes swarmed all over The Horse.

Her right leg was completely numb. At least she couldn't feel the pain in her ankle.

"Ow!" A hatchling bit her beneath her left knee. She shook her leg so violently that the hatchling smashed against the nearest tree trunk. She breathed hard with the exertion, and hung limp in the web like a marionette.

Here is the sword
. The eagle hovered just above her, the hilt of the saber grasped in a huge talon.

She extended her free hand as far as possible. The eagle lowered the saber carefully, trying to avoid becoming enmeshed in the web. She couldn't quite reach the hilt, and had to grab the blade instead.

"Ow!" It bit into her fingers and palm, and she almost dropped it. But her fear of the creatures was greater than the pain, and she kept her grip on it. She shifted it with her other hand, so she could grip it by the hilt.

Your horse still lives
, the eagle said.
I will do what I can for him
.

The Horse was alive! Joy surged through Karigan and she slashed through the sticky web and released herself. However, her numb right leg failed to support her and she fell face to feelers with a dozen hatchlings. She scrambled to her left foot and hopped back a step. She brushed or cut off any hatchling that still clung to her.

You must kill them all
, the eagle said. Using his sharp beak, he plucked a hatchling from The Horse and smashed it against a rock, much the way she had seen gulls crack crabs open along the seashore.
You must do it now while their shells are still soft. They harden as we speak. Kill them all
.

There must have been hundreds of the creatures scattered all over the forest floor. First she attacked those hatch-lings affixed to the hapless animals caught in the web. The doe and the raccoon were dead, their flesh efficiently stripped down to the bone. Then she released the birds and bats that were too high up for the creatures to reach.

The wolf still fought, but the weight of the hatchlings attached to his blood-soaked fur weighed him down. He yelped with every movement, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth, and yet Karigan paused. Too many people had told her, when she was little, that wolves killed the sheep people depended on, that wolves would eat a man if driven to hunger. Wolves, they said, were evil—products of Mornhavon the Black.

The wolf gazed at her with defiant amber eyes, as if challenging her. As if challenging her to release him. Just as suddenly, his eyes rolled back in a spasm of pain, and his hind legs sagged beneath him.

Without another thought, Karigan brushed the creatures from his fur with her saber. His sides heaved as he panted. Where the creatures clung to him with their mouths or claws, she speared them through the shells. When she had them off the wolf, she hacked them into pieces, their phlegmy yellow blood soaking into the ground. The wolf collapsed, his eyes half closed in exhaustion. Karigan slashed down the web to prevent any other animals from becoming ensnared.

Balanced on one foot, she single-mindedly hacked at the creatures. Without a ready source of meat, many just scurried in circles, their claws clicking at empty air. Some helped her cause by feeding on their brethren.

Agile as Karigan was, it was difficult to chase the creatures down on one foot. Her blade bounced off shells that grew harder with every passing second. Soon, the eagle deemed The Horse safe enough to be left alone, and took up the hunt, tearing the creatures apart with his powerful talons. His keen eyesight assured that not one hatchling escaped.

The Horse's chestnut hide was nicked and streaked with blood where the hatchlings had bitten him, but as the effects of the sting waned, he could lift his head and move his legs. Karigan wiped her yellowed blade on a clump of moss. The ground was littered with destroyed hatchlings. The wolf had disappeared in the mayhem.

Sensation crept into her right leg like the sting of a hundred hornets. She didn't even want to think about what the parent creature had done to her ankle with its claw.

"What are these creatures?" she asked the eagle.

They've come from
Kanmorhan Vane.
All things there are corrupt
.

"Kanmorhan Vane?"

The Blackveil Forest which your country borders
, he said. Kanmorhan Vane
is its Eltish name. A friend of mine, an owl, told me there is a breach in the D'Yer Wall through which the creature came. I've been tracking it for two days
.

Blackveil Forest figured in more stories about evil than Karigan had heard about wolves. She was inclined to believe those stories in light of her encounter with the creatures; stories of how Mornhavon the Black sickened the once verdant forest with his magic. Everything that dwelled there, it was said, became evil. After the Long War, Aleric D'Yer had begun a wall along the Sacoridian border where Blackveil threatened to spread its roots, even though the evil of Mornhavon the Black had been vanquished.

A block of granite from the wall was on permanent display at the Langory Museum in Selium, though she doubted many paused to consider its significance. The wall had stood for so long that it was taken for granted, and most information about Blackveil was held as superstition. After all, how could a mere wall prevent such a dark force from encroaching across the border? The stories about Blackveil, Karigan thought, could not have been exaggerated if the parent creature had come from there.

When you see your king
, the eagle said,
you must warn him of the breach. If the one creature made it through, others are bound to follow
.

When you see your king
… Karigan wasn't at all confident she would succeed after this experience, but she felt more hopeful than just a few minutes ago.

The eagle cocked his head, as if listening. In the moonlight, his gray feathers were not dull, but rippled with subtle blues, greens, and golds.

I hear the parent
, he said.

Karigan froze. The hand that held her saber shook.

It must not live
, the eagle said.
I will help you as well as I can
.

"What?"

You must slay the parent
, he said, annoyance in his voice.
It mustn't be allowed to lay any more eggs
.

"How am I supposed to—“

The underbelly is soft. So is the tissue between the joints.

Vegetation rustled as the creature drew nearer. How was Karigan to reach the creature's underside? She would have to be beneath it before she could reach with her saber.

Avoid its blood
, the eagle said.
It's not diluted like that of the hatchlings. It will burn you, and maybe poison you if you touch it
.

They didn't have to wait long. The creature scuttled into the clearing, driving a terrified red fox before it. When the creature saw the carnage of its young, and the destroyed web, it screamed in rage, a high-pitched whistle racking the forest. Karigan dropped her sword and clapped her hands over her ears. The fox kept running, and without a web to stop it, was safely free of the creature.

The whistle faded and Karigan uncovered her ears. The creature charged her. She stumbled backward and landed hard on her buttocks, gaping at the creature looming over her, its antennae whipping the air above.

The eagle dove between the creature's flailing claws, narrowly escaping being snapped shut in one pair. The creature shook tail feathers from its claw and hissed in fury. It swatted at the eagle with its tail.

The eagle dove at the creature's eyes.
Don't just sit
, he chided Karigan from mid-flight.
It must be killed
.

She curled her fingers about the hilt of her sword. An invisible pair of hands slipped under her arms and helped her up from the ground. There was no time to think about the unseen help as the creature made steady progress toward her, despite the eagle. The weight on her right foot sent the hornets prickling up and down her leg.

A claw whistled within inches of her nose. She ducked and felt the whoosh of air as it clamped shut where her head had just been. A frontal assault, evidently, was not the most advantageous. She limped away from the creature's line of sight and lethal claws, but it was quick. A claw struck her across the shoulders from behind, knocking her face first into the ground. She gasped for breath, trying to gain her bearings.

Messenger!

Karigan turned at the eagle's warning. An open claw descended on her, but a flurry of fur darted from the vegetation and straight at the creature. The wolf!

The creature paused its attack at this new distraction. The wolf snarled, wove between the creature's legs, and caused it to stumble.

Again, the invisible hands helped Karigan to her feet and handed her the sword. She ran-limped to the creature's rear, but it was too quick and swiveled around to attack her directly. The tail whistled overhead. Sweat slicked her back and every step on her bad foot was agony. She couldn't get close enough to the creature's belly without facing the claws or tail.

The wolf positioned himself before the creature. He glanced at Karigan with his defiant eyes, then leaped up and caught a feeler in his mouth. It broke with a crack. Oily black blood spilled from the severed appendage, and the wolf dropped the broken piece, his mouth foaming. Pain enraged the creature, and it snapped up the distracted wolf in a claw.

"No!"

Karigan moved between the claws, and holding the saber two-handed, chopped into the joint of the pincer that clutched the wolf. The claw and wolf crashed to the earth.

The creature whistled and hissed. Now Karigan dared to approach closer, hacking when legs or the other claw came too close. The eagle continued to harry it from above, constantly at its eyes, even more so now that there was one less claw to worry about.

Karigan dismembered the second claw and ducked beneath the body. Without ceremony, she thrust the saber into the leathery undershell and disemboweled the creature. Foul smelling blood and black ropy innards poured from the wound. The ground sizzled beneath the guts. She jerked the saber free and backed into the open night air. The creature shuddered, tripped over its own legs, and collapsed onto the ground. Karigan waved away the stench that rose up about it.

Her wrists began to burn. "My skin!" Black blood seared her wrists.

The eagle flew over to her.
Water. You need water to bathe in. I saw a stream this way
.

Karigan dropped her sword uncaring. Tears of pain filled her eyes. She limped through the woods behind the airborne eagle, stumbling from exhaustion. Branches snagged at her greatcoat and slapped her face. The dense canopy of the woods blotted out moonlight, and she fell twice. Groaning with the pain, she climbed back to her feet.

Quickly
, the eagle said.
It's not far
.

"My water skin would have been closer."