Page 98 of Gilded Curses

They still had no idea of his exact location, but they had a good idea. A sword whistled inches away from Alda’s face and skimmed his ear before crashing into the bricks.

The blade tore out chunks of the wall as Alda threw her hands over her head and ducked. Before he could get away from the area, the hands of another guard came down on his shoulders. To avoid being trapped, Orin threw himself to the side. He slammed into the man and staggered the guard back a step.

With a brief reprieve from their attack, he sought to rid himself of the now cumbersome weapons strapped to his back and sides. Ducking, he shrugged off the swords and threw them a few feet away.

They bounced off a guard’s legs and hit the ground with a clatter. The distraction allowed him to rid himself of most of the daggers, but he kept a few as the guards once again focused on his location.

Rising, Orin twisted to the side to dart away from Alda, but before he could move, another set of hands grasped his shoulders from behind. Throwing his head back, Orin caught the guard in the nose.

The coppery tang of blood filled the air as the man howled and released him. Lunging forward, Orin had nowhere to go as another guard drove his blade out.

Rotating away, Orin managed to avoid most of the blade, but some of it grazed his stomach and sliced through his flesh. A warm trickle of blood spilled down to stain the waistband of his pants.

Another guard crashed into his side, lifted him off the ground, and threw him into the wall. With a loud oomph, air burst from Orin’s lungs as his feet kicked out, connecting with Alda.

The impact of his kick staggered her away from him as more hands came down on his shoulders. They yanked him away from the wall, and a guard’s fingers tore at his arms and hand before falling on the sword.

When another one punched him in the nose, the first guard succeeded in ripping his blade away. Orin jerked against their hold and managed to yank his arm free as the stump slid beyond their grasp.

Spinning, he smashed his elbow into the face of another guard as a bone-crushing blow landed against his temple. Stars erupted before his eyes, and a loud ringing reverberated through his ears as his head spun.

He tried to shake away the lingering results of the devastating impact, but no matter how fast he blinked, he couldn’t see straight or break free as more guards grabbed at him. His shirt tore away as their fingers shredded his skin and spilled blood.

The ringing in his ears continued, but his vision was returning as they pushed him onto the ground. He didn’t know how so many guards could surround him in such a small space, but they managed to do it.

Jerking against their hold, he sank his teeth into one’s calf. The man howled as Orin tore out a chunk of flesh and spat it away.

When the guard staggered back, Orin lurched forward to try scrambling into the space the man had created, but they didn’t release him. The guards holding his arms bent them backward until excruciating pain screamed through his shoulders.

He ignored the pop in his arm as he freed himself from four of them. With their hold on him slipping, Orin dug his toes in to gain more traction on the ground.

He was so determined to break free, even if it meant tearing his arm off, that he didn’t see the boots that suddenly came at him from both sides. The guards lifted him off the ground as their feet delivered rapid blows to his head, ribs, and stomach.

Bones gave way with a crack, and one of his ribs shifted to dig into his side. Grimacing, Orin stretched for the sword between two guards. When his fingers fell short of the metal handle, a boot planted into the small of his back and shoved him to the floor.

Gritting his teeth against the agony tearing through his body, he barely processed the shout of surprise on his left. The floor beneath him quaked, and the guards gripped him tighter as more cries filled the hall.

Orin lifted his head but couldn’t see much beyond the guards’ calves as they crowded before him. Sounds of pain reverberated through the hall as metal clashed against metal, fists thudded against flesh, and the sharp, coppery scent of blood filled the air.

Five guards hauled him to his feet and slammed him between them as they encircled him. Blinking away the blood and sweat trickling into his eyes, Orin’s vision cleared enough to see between the guards. For a second, he swore he spotted Belda standing over some of the guards before the space filled in.

That can’t be possible. Do I have a concussion? Am I hallucinating? Or maybe I have brain damage.

They’d kicked him in the head enough times it could be a possibility. And some would claim he’d always had brain damage. They’d be wrong, but they’d still say it.

Orin shook his head to clear it of his wayward contemplations and instantly regretted moving it. Not moving was the best option, but he had to know what was going on because he wasn’t hallucinating the noise or the guards dragging him down the hall.

The guards dragged him back to stand near Alda and Aurora; they set him there while their brethren faced whatever was happening. Orin released the shadows since it was useless to still have them enshrouding him.

When he materialized between the guards, they leaned away from him even though they’d known he was there. His gaze met all of theirs as he bared teeth made bloody by the guard’s calf and a gash in his mouth.

A scream of anguish and the increasing clash of metal drew his attention away from the guards he’d marked for death. Looking back through the crowd, Orin swore he glimpsed Sahira.

A fresh surge of adrenaline tore through him at the idea of her with these monsters. It wasn’t safe for her here, but it wasn’t safe for any of them. And how was it possible for her to be here?

She couldn’t have broken free of those rooms and gotten past the guards there. They would have stopped her immediately, and she didn’t have any weapons….

But if Belda really was in the castle, then she would have brought weapons. Did the lycan decide to try crossing the Barren Lands again? Is that how she got here? But how did she get weapons into Epoch and arrive without the dagadon knowing?