Shaper of Stone (The Shapers Book 1) (16 page)

I didn’t have any answers for
her. Instead I just held her in my arms and let her talk. For a time
I could forget what we would face in the next few days.

A couple of hours later I awoke. I was
damp and cold from the morning dew, but my right side was warm.
Abella was beside me. We had fallen asleep leaning against the tree,
and she had snuggled in close during the night.

I wiggled the fingers of my right hand
which sent shooting pins and needles up my arm. Gently I removed it
from around her shoulders and tried to work the circulation back into
it. She moaned softly and rolled toward me. I leaned forward and
kissed her on the forehead.

Crack!

What was that? I hated being in the
woods at night. The scariest noises always seemed to be made by the
tiniest things. Still I held my breath and listened.

I could hear Abella’s breathing
next to me, but other than that the night was quiet. I couldn’t
hold my breath all night, so I took in a deep breath and tried to
calm myself.

It was just a noise. Nothing to worry
about.

Then a shadow passed overhead. I looked
up, but couldn’t see anything. Whatever it was, it felt big.
Big enough to blot out the moonlight as it flew by.

I gently nudged Abella.

"Uh...what is it?” she asked
without even bothering to open her eyes.

"Shhhh,” I whispered. "I
think something is out here. We should head back to camp.”

In a flash she had a knife in her hand
and was looking into the darkness. I didn’t realize she had a
weapon. I was even more than a little surprised that she pulled it
out of nowhere.

In a low whisper, close to my ear, she
asked, "What do you think it was?”

"I don’t know. I think I
heard something moving in the bushes, then a big shadow passed over
us.”

"It might be nothing, but you are
right. We should head back to camp.”

We got as quietly to our feet as we
could and started making our way to the camp. We were not far away.
We could see the red glow where the fire had burned itself down and
the outline of the wagons through the trees.

The glow from the fire vanished in
front of us. Abella pulled on my arm, stopping me in my tracks.

She leaned in so close that her lips
brushed my ear, "Something is on the trail in front of us.”

-o-

Holy cow! Whatever that thing blocking
the path was, it was big. It was like trying to look around a
refrigerator. It seemed focused on the camp. We were only about
twenty feet behind it. Probably close enough to draw its attention if
we made the wrong move.

A roar tore through the night. Then
another, and within seconds what sounded like a dozen beast joined
together in a chorus. The creature in front of us threw its head back
and joined the others. Its roar echoed in its throat, amplifying it.
The sound was like a cross between a lion and fingernails going down
a blackboard. The muscles in my legs twitched. It was quickly
followed by a spasm in my arms and stomach. The shaking got worse the
longer the noise continued.

Unable to control my shaking body, I
stumbled forward and fell to my knees with a crash.

Abella was doing better. She was still
standing. Her hands pressed against the side of her head to cover her
ears. Her body was so rigid that it looked like she might snap at any
minute. She said something to me, but I couldn’t hear her above
the noise.

Still kneeling I followed her lead and
tried to cover my ears, but my hands were shaking so badly that I
couldn’t hold them in place to block the sound. White spots
started to form in front of my eyes. I was close to blacking out.

I closed my eyes, it wasn’t like
I could see anything anyway, and focused. It took all of my control
not to scream in pain as spasms wracked my muscles. The nerafpan
around my wrist was warm. Its presence was comforting. As I focused
on it, the pain faded even if the shaking continued. I visualized
drops of nerafpan rolling off the bracelet to form a ball the size of
a thumbnail floating in the air. A second ball floated into the air
next to the first. Without the slightest quiver, the balls rose to
either side of my head where they spread to cover my ears.

The spasms stopped immediately. It was
as if someone threw a switch. There was still an ache in my muscles,
but the nerve wracking pain was gone. The only sound I could hear was
my pulse beating like a sledgehammer in my ears. Man, that felt
better.

I pushed myself to my feet and opened
my eyes. Only a few seconds had passed since the attack started. I
quickly formed two more balls to create earplugs for Abella before I
saw movement out of the corner of my eye.

A creature blocked the way to the camp.
It had turned to face us, drawn by the soft green glow of the
nerafpan.

It crouched then threw itself forward.
Whatever it was, it was frighteningly fast, and the next thing I know
I had to roll to the side trying to avoid its attack. A massive gray
claw swung through the space where my head used to be. Instead of
hitting me, the beast ripped a chunk from a tree without losing any
momentum. It immediately followed with a second swipe.

Without conscious effort I shaped the
nerafpan into a shield, and caught the blow on it. I used my will to
project the nerafpan forward and away from me.

It didn’t work! It felt like my
left arm was torn from its socket when the shield was batted to the
side.

I immediately countered with my other
hand. Claws erupted from the nerafpan around my wrist while my fist
swung into its stomach. My blades struck the creature in a shower of
sparks and slid across its skin without leaving a mark.

I might as well have been a fly buzzing
around him. Scratch that. A fly might have bothered him more.

The damn thing was solid stone, like a
gargoyle from an old horror flick. It was bigger, faster and stronger
than I. It didn’t take me long to realize I couldn’t
stand toe to toe with the thing and survive. I needed another plan. I
needed to draw it away from Abella.

The trees in the area were big. I
couldn’t wrap my arms around most of them, and the ones nearby
weren’t any different. If I couldn’t stand and fight, it
was time to move.

I raised my right arm and summoned the
nerafpan to me before shooting it into the air like a strand of
dental floss trailing behind an arrow. When it hit the branch in the
upper reaches of the closest tree I retracted the nerafpan. It stayed
attached and I moved. I shot off the ground, flying toward the
branch.

I felt the breeze from another attack
pass behind me as I barely escaped the gargoyle’s lunge.

I was not up high, maybe ten feet above
the thing. Still within its reach if it decided to jump. I needed to
stay on the move. Draw it after me so that Abella could get to
safety.

I couldn’t hold on with my left
hand. I could barely move that arm after having it bashed to the
side. Instead I had to grab the branch with my right hand before
launching the nerafpan grapple toward a higher branch in another
tree.

Fortunately, I didn’t need to
have a free hand to aim since the nerafpan was guided by my thoughts
and not my body. Once it connected, I let go and swung out to the
other tree. The tree I abandoned shook beneath the blows of the beast
hunting me.

Instead of jumping after me, it had
started bashing the tree with its hammer like claws. It didn’t
even look up to see if I was still there.

I was behind it and at least fifteen
feet away with no sign that it had noticed I had moved. I took the
chance to catch my breath and look around. I tried to find Abella,
but I couldn’t see her. She probably had enough sense to get
out of the way when the thing chased after me. Looking for her, I saw
two more of the creatures attacking the camp.

One of the creatures was smashing a
wagon to pieces, trying to get to the people hiding beneath it, while
a crazy man ran toward it. From the way the crazy guy moved, it could
only be Tibron.

There was a second struggle where
Duncan and Talamas were holding their own. The two of them had
managed to shape the ground around the legs of one of the things. For
the moment they had it trapped.

The monster’s roar must not have
affected them, or they dealt with it better than I did. Duncan and
Talamas might have shaped earmuffs for the others, but from here I
couldn’t tell.

The tree I had been in shuddered before
it toppled to the ground. The gargoyle attacking it leaped into the
branches as soon as the tree fell in a futile effort to search for
its prey. The sudden motion drew my attention back to my immediate
threat.

Before the gargoyle could realize I
was gone, I swung to another tree and then another. On the fifth
attempt the branch I latched to snapped in mid swing. I fell hard,
bouncing from branch to branch before finally hitting the ground.

I was cut, scraped and winded, but I
didn’t think I broke anything new in my fall. I rolled to my
feet, frantically looking for the gargoyle.

It was gone. I stood there listening
for any sign of the creature before I remembered the ear plugs. I
pulled one out and was greeted by the sound of fighting from the camp
but nothing else. The roaring had stopped. Even better I didn’t
hear anything stomping through the bushes.

I double checked the area to be sure
that I was alone, then I ran to the camp. That was the most likely
place to find Abella now that the monster wasn’t chasing us.

-o-

In the camp one gargoyle remained. I
didn’t see the other. Maybe they destroyed it while I was busy
falling from trees.

The last gargoyle was unable to move
forward or retreat. Its legs were buried to mid thigh in the ground.
The creature ripped at the dirt around it in an attempt to free
itself, but as quickly as it cleared a space, Talamas or Duncan
flowed the earth back into the opening.

Garit, minus the crutch and bandages
from earlier, circled the gargoyle looking for a weak spot. Tibron
flanked the creature’s other side. Working together they forced
it to split its attention between them and away from the two Shapers.

Each of the warriors was wielding a
heavy stone hammer. From the construction, I guessed that one of the
mages shaped it for them.

It made sense. A sledgehammer would
break stone, so a big hammer might break one of these monsters. From
the looks of the creature, it must have been effective. A chunk was
broken out of one shoulder, and a web of cracks spread across its
chest and back.

I dashed across the camp trying not to
look too closely at the dark forms sprawled upon the ground.

“Keep out of its reach!”
warned Garit as I rushed to join them. “It’s stuck, but
it can still kill you if you get too close.”

I didn’t actually think I was
that close, but I followed his advice and moved a few steps back to
stand next to Shira and Tavi. I tried to do a quick head count, but
don’t see anyone else standing.

“Where’s Abella?” I
asked, but no one answered. Instead Talamas yelled at me.

“Where have you been?” he
demanded, “No, never mind. It doesn’t matter where you
were. I need you now. We don’t have the power to stop it, but
you do. You just lack the skill to focus it. Take my hand and
together we can defeat it.”

Was he serious? Did he really think I
was just going to let someone else leech onto me like a vampire? I
glanced at Duncan. He was biting his lip in concentration, but he met
my gaze without turning away. He understood. He must have refused
Talamas as well.

The creature roared and slammed both
fists into the ground. It struck the ground a second time, and the
shock of the blow rippled through us. It raised its fists a third
time to strike, but this time they weren’t empty. It had torn a
football size stone out of the ground and with a snap of its arm it
threw the chunk of rock at Tavi.

A block of stone shoot out of the
ground, blocking the throw. The force of the two boulders hitting
each other resulted in an explosion that rained shards of broken rock
down upon us. No one seemed hurt by the attack, but it served its
purpose. While Talamas and Duncan were distracted the gargoyle pulled
free.

Tibron jumped forward with his maul and
struck the creature across the top of the leg. He jumped back in time
to avoid a backhand from the beast.

Garit followed by throwing his hammer.
It tumbled end over end before slamming into the side of the
creature’s head. The crack of the stone shattering echoed
through the air.

It wasn’t enough. The creature
kept moving forward. Something was wrong with Duncan. He had fallen
to his knees with his hands clenched over his stomach.

“Now Devin! I need you now!”
shrieked the old man as he reached back for my hand. All I had to do
was stretch out my arm and grab his hand. He would be able to draw
whatever power he needed from me. Just like Vatrale did when the
carriage was attacked.

“No!” I screamed. Rage
flowed through me as I saw the beast rushing toward my friends. In
another instant it would be upon them. There was no way I could let
that happen.

The hammers were the right idea. They
could hurt the thing. We just needed a bigger one. But, all I could
shape was the nerafpan. A few pounds of it would never carry the
weight to do any serious damage.

Wait. I didn’t need a
sledgehammer. I needed a jackhammer. Actually, I needed a bunch of
jackhammers.

The nerafpan wrapped around my wrists
explodes into a half dozen ping pong size balls. In a blur they
sailed forward and circled the creature. As one they shot forward and
smashed into the thing’s waist. They struck, flew back, and
then struck again. Sparks flew each time the nerafpan made contact,
sparks and bits of stone.