When I remain silent, he turns a little toward me, a smirk building. “Do tell. There’s got to be a good story there if you can’t bring yourself to tell me.”
“I met a woman.”
When I don’t go on, his brow arches. “And…”
I look away to gauge how long we have before they get to us. My aggravation leaks through my words. “And she stole it.”
Silence greets me. When I again look his way, his blade lowers a foot. He’s smirking as if this is somehow wildly amusing. “A woman?”
“Not just a woman. But I hadn’t ascertained what she was…is exactly before she escaped. First, she’d… well, stolen Calixis and…”
He’s fully turned toward me now, putting his back to the enemy approaching us. He chuckles. “I don’t think I heard you correctly. Please repeat that.”
“I will not. Not if you’re just going to laugh at my expense.”
He holds up his gauntlet-covered hand. “Wait…wait…wait.” A hearty laugh now. “A woman stole your horse, and then your sword?”
“I’d caught her and put her in the bloody dungeons for it. But she wasn’t faring so well there, so I’d brought her up to my room to seek some answers.”
“And?”
“And while I’d been out of the room, she’d gotten loose and stolen my sword.”
In an incredulous tone, he asks, “I hope you bloody well went after her.”
Every word that leaves my mouth is one I know I’m going to pay for because he will never let this die. “See, that’s the thing. I would have if she hadn’t kicked me off my damn balcony. I was a little too busy healing and charming the minds of those who witnessed my fall to go running after her.”
The cackling now almost reaches the pitch of the beasts gunning for us, except at the end it turns low and warm. “Who the bloody hell was she?”
“I don’t have a name or know exactly. I call her the White Witch because I’m pretty sure she’s not entirely human. She carried divine light in her veins, and looked much like Orán, and I do.”
“What? How is that possible?”
“That’s what I was trying to ascertain. But between taking my horse back, and trying to avoid her blades, and falling thirty feet to my temporary death… she somehow got the better of me.”
Hearty laughter greets my statement, and I bear it because this is my punishment for letting down my guard and being so caught up by her beauty that I momentarily lost my mind.
Kahill raises his sword and waves it like a flag as if calling all demons, even the ones we can’t see in the vicinity, to us. “When this is over, you are going to tell me everything. And I do mean everything. Nothing left to the imagination. Then we’ll track her down because she sounds like the kind of Pandora I’ve been looking for, one who’d like to open my box…”
“Not likely. She’s just taken it and disappeared. Because that’s apparently what she does.”
“Well…still, someone I would definitely like a formal introduction to.” He shakes his head as he twists in place and plants his boots in the soil under our feet. “A woman who can outbest you and steal your pride.” His grin is now permanently affixed to his face. “Didn’t know there was such a being.”
The demons come into view. They sink sharp claws into the earth, kicking it up as they propel themselves toward us. The piercing wails come again, and we brace as best we can against the audible onslaught as we both prepare to engage.
This blade may or may not kill them, and for that, my little white one is going to pay when I find her, because this is going to be a damn sight harder than it needs to be.
There are three of them, and one is dissimilar to the others, one more hound than human with a long snout and lengthy canines. It outruns the other two humanoid spider-like creatures and reaches us first. It must sense I’m the lesser threat because it comes straight for me and launches itself into the air at me. I duck and spin, swiping up as I do so and delivering a wound that splits its hindquarters open.
It lets out a sharp bark of pain, but doesn’t look worse for wear as it digs its claws into the earth and rotates around to come at me again.
I sense the next threat coming, but the creature veers off at the last second to attack Kahill at the same time as the other one comes for his left side.
The hound comes at me again. It stays low and goes for my leg. Then it dives under my next swing and slashes its claws out. They ring against the metal of my boots, doing little damage. I eye the claw marks for a brief second before pressing my advantage and moving it away from Kahill, so I have room to move and distance from the other creatures in case they turn their focus toward me.
The hound settles and begins to circle me, but I move with it. Its body vibrates as it gives off a menacing growl, peeling back its lips to show me its not-so-pearly teeth. They’re jagged, knife-like, and half the size of my forearm, and by the looks of them, he’s in dire need of hygiene standards and a good deal of floss.
Bones jut out under his rib cage. Its distended belly is nearly touching the ground, as if it’s eaten more than its fill recently.
