It was a borog, or some new, terrible version of one.
Wings.
And all at once, things finally made sense. The way that its tunnels were so far apart, with no signs of it walking between them.
It did not need to walk between them, or burrow great distances underground.
It could fly.
And now, it was flying right for our mountain.
Our people.
Nazreen.
My hand burned with the ghost of old acid as I did everything in my power to make Yeralk move faster than he ever had, faster than was even possible for him. The loyal creature did his best, his body straining, pulling slightly ahead of Warrek and his mount. But it was not enough.
The borog roared, a caterwaul of doom. And then it dove.
For a time –too long, too long!– we lost sight of it between the Deep Sky peaks. When we finally caught up with it, we found it in the lake, at the brolka pasture.
Good.I let a small wave of relief wash through me, though I did not let it slow me down. Perhaps the beast would take some brolka and be satisfied enough to leave. At least for now. At least long enough for us to regroup, make new plans now that we knew that it could fly. I had no doubt that even with its wings, Linnet could escape the thing if she were on her braxilk. In fact, there she was in the air above the creature now, flinging ineffectual arrows down upon it.
Leave it!I wanted to shout at her. But there was no breath in my lungs to do it. My entire body was tense to the point of cracking with singular purpose. To get there, get therenow. Protect my people. Find Nazreen.
And then, as if my desire had conjured her, I saw her, and horror like nothing I had ever felt, not even when I’d seen my dying uncle’s ruined body, ripped through my guts.
She was down there. How?Why?
She was not the only one. With her were Tilly and Zaria. The three of them were running to the rocky slope and narrow valley that would lead them out of there. Oxriel, Zoren, Valeria, Grim, and Arton were standing in a messy line, weapons in their hands. But when the borog launched into the air, they began running, too. Not away from the thing. But after it.
Because now, it was hunting Nazreen, Tilly, and Zaria.
The three females slipped into that narrow band of space between two high walls of stone. The borog landed atop it, and I couldn’t see her, Vrika help me,I couldn’t see her.
When it began smashing its head upon the stone, making it crack, I felt those lethal blows as if inside my own body. Already, I had my bow in my hand, but the arrow I loosed did nothing at all. Neither did the spears that Oxriel and Zoren threw.
I would never make it in time.
The first weakened piece of stone fell away. Fell down to the place where Nazreen and the others were, and I had never felt a fear like it. It was a fear that told me nothing would ever be worth it, nothing would ever be enough to keep my pathetic body alive, if I could not save her. The borog kept on smashing its brutal head against the rock, another terrible crack forming.
“No!” The word ripped itself from my throat, a pitiful sort of prayer that I knew would do no good. Foam of exertion whipped backwards from Yeralk’s beak as we thrust ceaselessly forward.
The stone cracked more. And then it fell away.
At the same moment, Valeria halted and aimed her hands up at the borog. A new sound rang out, a sound that made me think of a log cracking in a fire, but deeper, louder. The borog screamed, its head jerking back as if struck by something, though I had not seen what.
Whatever it was, it pained or angered the creature enough that it once more took to the air, screaming and writhing. It swooped aggressively towards the brolka, taking two in its massive jaws before slicing its way out of the valley.
“It is fleeing, Gahn!”
I barely heard Warrek. I barely cared. Let the borog come back and smash me to bits if it wanted to. What was it to me? All that mattered was Nazreen and the others. Down in that narrow place where the rocks had fallen.
“No.” Again, a word that did nothing. A word that I could not stop myself from hoarsely uttering anyway when I saw her.
I did not even wait for Yeralk to land. I leaped from his back, landing roughly on the loose stones of the slope and running to her.
She was laying on her belly, entirely limp. Her two friends knelt over her. Tilly’s small brown hands were stained a dark and terrible red.
