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“I’ll handle the werewolf, you deal with the penanggals,” I said. We changed our position, and I faced off with the werewolf. The beast was huge, tall as a bear. Its wolfish face snarled at me, the naked man’s body hard, muscular, covered in scars, and a thin coating of fur. It lunged at me, snapping, its deadly claws swiped for my face. I ducked then drove my dagger through the joint between its skull and its spine. It jerked, howled, and then crashed to the ground.
“With me!” Araki shouted.
I quickly leapt, so our backs were close to each other again. The pieces of our barrier lay scattered across the ground like glass, still glowing brightly. I carefully stepped over them as I slashed and stabbed, keeping the penanggal off us as Araki went for the wights. I lost count of how many beasts I killed and how many kept coming at us. A penanggal came at Araki from the side, and I kicked it away. A wight reached for me with ghostly, grasping hands, and Araki skewered it. Step by step, we worked together. Not daring to stray too far from our light source, knowing that the creatures would keep coming so long as they were drawn to the light. My arms started to grow tired, the cold sapping my strength as the blood soaking me grew frigid in the black night. Araki growled. I caught glimpses of Araki as we fought. He growled and fought like a madman, tireless in his attacks.
At that moment, I was glad Araki was on my side. But there were too many to keep going like this. My body ached, my hands trembled, and my feet were losing strength from the fight. I pushed myself harder, afraid I might collapse from fatigue or tire fast and meet my death. I noticed the fungi were starting to light up with that blue glow, revealing a large trunk with a hollow within it. If we could just get there, we could hold off the creatures while the others rested.
“Araki,” I shouted. “The tree. Let’s get to the tree!”
Araki grunted in response, as he took flight and slashed through two penanggal diving for us at once. He descended back and kept slashing through the creatures. I followed close, defending his back from the attacks. Finally, we reached the hollow. Araki planted himself before it, and I gratefully ducked behind him. My arms trembled, the adrenaline coursing in my body hardly enough to hold me up. My eyes caught sight ofanother beast. Another Werewolf stalked the trees, a low growl in its throat. I ground out a growl of my own, gripping my dagger tighter as I leaned into the tree's rough bark. The penanggal moved back, circling each other and the Werewolf as though deciding on their next attack mode. The wights hung back, flitting just shy of the circle of light. Their humming grew louder. The Werewolf suddenly stopped. The wights’ song grew louder. The penanggal drew back as its snarling tapered off. It wove back and forth while the penanggal started hissing in unison.
“What’s happening?” I demanded.
Araki darted forward, swinging his sword at the werewolf. It jumped aside, backing away slowly. I’d never seen a werewolf retreat in front of any creature before! I opened my mouth to call Araki again, but his head swivelled, and his eyes latched onto me. It lasted only for half a gasp, but that was enough.
Araki had changed. His fingernails were claws, sharp with wolf-like fangs in his mouth. His skin at first appeared to be lighter, but it was a peach-soft covering of his silver hair. His stature seemed to swell, growing taller. The scent of him hit my nose, but it was amplified somehow. No longer the patchouli and bergamot of his cologne, but something wild that sent a shiver of fear to the pit of my stomach. His violet eyes burned like flames. I was momentarily frozen. I knew the Forest twisted magic, but how… why…?
The Werewolf spun around and loped away on all fours. My heart jumped to my throat. Had it run from Araki? What was he? He turned, facing me once more. Our eyes locked, and I saw a wildness inside him that I’d never seen in anyone. It chilled me to my core. I backed up a step instinctively, like a rabbit facing a wolf. And like a wolf, his lips pulled back, exposing more of his fangs. He came at me, a beast-like snarl ripping from him. Ijerked my dagger up, moving to block the sword as it came at me—
But it swept past my head. A burst of warm liquid sprayed on my back followed by a wet squelching noise. I turned to see Araki had stabbed through a penanggal right behind me. His flaming eyes flickered briefly over my face before he shoved me with an open palm back into the tree hollow. The wights came at him all at once. He sliced them through, cutting them open. They burst apart, a shower of crystalline snowflakes hitting the ground, where they melted away.
Araki was beautiful as he fought. Terrifying, a deadly beast with wings, but dangerously beautiful. He moved fast and fluidly as though his fighting was a dance. The wights and penanggal retreated. Araki reached back toward me, not taking his eyes off them. I took his hand. His claws scraped against my skin. It made me shudder, but not entirely out of that fear that still slid in my blood. A powerful beast of magic and fury. He seemed to belong to the forest, yet he still protected me. Still retained enough of his mind to care whether I died… at least, enough to know if I died, so did he. The fungi grew steadily brighter as we left the campsite behind. Araki stayed in that beast-like form as he pulled me through the trees. Soon, the sound of water reached my ears. The river. Relief washed over me.
It was short-lived.
A cloud of fog burst from the ground, bringing the stench of rotten meat. A gurgling sound came from the mist. Araki and I halted and pressed back-to-back one more as a horde covered in open pustules attacked. I couldn’t tell if they had once been human or animal—and I didn’t care.
Kill or be killed.
Slashing and stabbing. A dance of death. Araki and I were at the centre of it. Our music was the howls of our enemies and the clash of our blades on flesh and bone. It echoed in my blood, pulsing like a wild drum. I found myself grinning madly as we fought. Araki was growling. I could feel his delight through our bond, the sense of invincibility, the pleasure of the beast in tasting blood.
Out of nowhere, a slice of pain shot through my side. I stumbled, one hand going to my ribs. My breathing came in gasps as I fell to my knees. But there was no injury on my body. I stared briefly, then saw Araki killing the last creature. It fell to the ground, but its arm remained lodged in Araki’s side. He yanked it out, and a spurt of blood burst from him. I scrambled to my feet, ripping one of my discarded sleeves from my waist. I needed to staunch the blood. Yet, before I could tell him about the bleeding, he had howled and raced forward. He crashed through a bush and stabbed something in the ground.
“Araki!” I yelled.
A swarm of brownies dropped from the trees. Their cat-sized bodies hit me in the back, making me stumble. Their sharp claws and teeth dug into the back of my neck. I howled in pain, slashing my blade back at them. More wights began to flitter around us. Araki howled, snarling out intelligible words. He continued to bleed heavily. He didn’t seem to notice, but he couldn’t keep going—and if he fainted from blood loss, I’d go down too. I was already dizzy, his injury bleeding through the Union spell. If we stopped fighting, we would die. We only had one chance. The consequences of using magic in the Forest be damned.
I ran toward him and wrapped my arms around his waist. As soon as I touched him, I teleported us. A blast of magic enveloped us both, a sweet taste, a bitter tang. Thunder exploded in my head. I tightened my grip around him, not caring where we went, just as long as it was away from the creatures attacking us. We landed hard, both our legs crumpling beneath us. I was freezing. My chest heaved, and my head spun. The blood loss. We were dying. Araki lay on the ground, his black feathery wings spread around him. His eyes were staring upward but glazed and unseeing. The features of the beast faded from his face. I staggered to his side, then pushed my hands into the gash. It still bubbled out, a fresh spurt every time he breathed.
“I don’t know any healing spells,” I blurted, looking into his face. “I never needed to be able to heal. If I die on a mission, so be it had always been the motto I lived by. I’m an assassin.”
Why was I telling him this? Why was I talking at all?
“We’re dying,” I mumbled weakly. My strength gave out, and I fell on top of Araki. Distantly, I heard shouting. My eyes moved from Araki’s face toward… rosebushes?
I blinked, fighting to pull our surroundings into focus. Oh. We were back at the palace garden. The shouting had to be the guards. Well. Even if Araki didn’t die, it looked like I would. Everything seemed to come from far away. Darkness crowded the corners of my vision, turning it into a dark tunnel. Something warm and heavy touched my hair. The last thought I had was of Nala… I hoped she would be trained as a healer instead of an assassin. I didn’t wish her to take the same path as I had.
Burden of Gold
Araki
Mother sat at my bedside, her slender fingers brushing through my hair. She hummed a lullaby. I lay still, pretending I was still asleep. I was getting older and couldn’t run to my mother for comfort whenever I got a scraped knee. But right now, it felt nice to have her at my side. To feel her cool hand on my feverish forehead.
“When will he wake?” a masculine voice said somewhere beyond where mother was.
She stopped her lullaby and looked over her shoulder.
“We can’t be certain,” another voice said. It was softer and womanlike. “Sleep is good. It means his body is healing.”
