Cursed Bones: Sovereign of the Seven Isles: Book Five (32 page)

“Any chance you could distract them again?” Isabel asked.

“I tried already,” Alexander said. “The witches have figured out that I’m just a projection, so they’re not falling for that anymore.”

“How far is the swamp?” she asked.

“At least a day, maybe more,” he said. “The jungle looks pretty thick between here and there.”

“Will we make it before they reach us?”

“You won’t have much time to work on a raft before the first Regency hunting party gets to you,” Alexander said. “Fortunately, there are only ten left.”

“We killed six plus the wraithkin,” Isabel said. “The jungle must have gotten another four.”

“I’m glad you got the wraithkin,” Alexander said. “I’ve been worrying about him.”

“Me too,” Isabel said. “If we can ambush the rest of them, maybe we can buy some time to build that raft before the Karth hunters arrive.”

“Is my brother with them?” Ayela asked.

“I don’t know,” Alexander said. “Can you describe him?”

“Black hair and dark eyes, tall, but thin and wiry. If he’s with them, he’d be leading the men.”

“He’s there,” Alexander said. “The two witches only talk to him, completely ignoring the rest of the men, and he seems totally charmed by them.”

“Isabel, promise me you won’t kill my brother,” Ayela said.

“Ayela, if we have to fight them, I’m going to focus all my efforts on killing those two witches. With them gone, I’m hoping the men will come to their senses.”

Ayela nodded. “He and my father are all that’s left of my family. I can’t lose them.”

“I understand how you feel, Ayela,” Alexander said. “Let’s focus on avoiding them, all right?”

She nodded.

“I’ll be back when I have more information,” he said, fading out of sight.

Despite their fatigue, they pushed hard for most of the day, trying to widen their lead over the Regency soldiers, hoping to avoid a confrontation or to at least buy the time they needed to prepare an ambush if it came to that. As they neared the edge of the swamp, the jungle seemed to grow denser, the trees larger, ancient and wild. Isabel started to feel like each footstep was a trespass, an affront to a place that wanted to be untamed.

When the jungle gave way to a clearing occupied by a giant tree, she started to get the feeling that they were being watched. Then she saw Shadowfang perched atop a stout trunk that rose twelve to fifteen feet and split into five giant branches, each radiating away from the base and extending toward the sky. The jaguar’s tail was flicking about and his yellow eyes were fixed on a spot in the jungle.

Isabel looked where he was looking but saw nothing.

“What is it?” Hector asked.

“I’m not sure,” Isabel said, “but I don’t like it.”

As one, Hector and Horace drew swords and fanned out, searching for any sign of threat. The jungle was deathly silent, all of the birdsong, buzzing of insects, and chattering of small mammals silent.

Isabel started casting her shield spell.

“We’re being stalked,” Ayela said, drawing her dagger, black with poison.

“By what?” Hector asked.

Before anyone could answer, a shimmer raced toward them from out of the jungle, more like a blur in the air than a distinct shape. It hit Hector, knocking him to the ground, the raptor becoming almost visible. It was large, easily seven feet tall, with razor-sharp talons and a long snout opening in a powerful mouth filled with rows of needlelike teeth. It snapped at Hector but he became a cloud of vapor, and the beast roared in frustration.

Then the spot in the jungle where Shadowfang had been watching started to move toward them—it looked almost like a mirage, but fast and deadly.

Horace stabbed the chameleon lizard twice in the side, once with each short sword. It flinched and roared in pain and fury before racing away into the jungle, vanishing from sight before it reached the cover of the dense foliage.

Then Isabel was hit from behind. The attack came without warning, knocking her to the ground and pinning her beneath the beast as it snapped at her head, its teeth landing on her shield instead. It leapt back in frustration, turning its attention to Ayela. Isabel called out to Shadowfang.

Isabel and Hector regained their feet at the same time. The beast leapt on Ayela, shoving her to the ground, her struggling impotent against its weight and strength. Isabel released a force-push spell, knocking the beast off Ayela, but not before it raked her with its talons, leaving six deep gashes across her chest and shoulders.

Hector faced the beast charging toward them with swords at the ready, but Shadowfang reached it first, hitting it broadside and tumbling to the ground in a furious whirl of claws and fangs. They separated, both bleeding but both still focused on the other as they circled.

“Hector, Horace, get Ayela into the tree,” Isabel shouted.

She cast a light-lance at the chameleon lizard, but instead of burning through it, the focused beam of intensely hot light hit the creature and refracted in every direction, creating a brilliant display that lit up the surrounding jungle. The chameleon lizard turned and bolted away. Before Shadowfang could follow, Isabel ordered him back to the tree.

Hector transformed into vapor and gently floated up to the crook in the giant tree. A moment after he retook solid form, Horace tossed a rope up to him, then looped the trailing end around Ayela’s waist. He quickly climbed the tree and he and Hector pulled Ayela up to safety while Isabel watched the jungle for any sign of the chameleon lizards.

She didn’t have to wait long. Two of the creatures came at her from different angles. She could hear their rhythmic footfalls more than she could see them. Bracing herself against the trunk of the tree, trusting her shield to hold, she drew her sword and waited. A moment later she was knocked sideways by the first, landing hard and trying to roll out of the way when the second pounced, landing on top of her and pinning her to the ground, trying to crush her skull with its powerful jaws.

Her shield held, but only just. She could feel it failing under the force of the attack. Looking into the mouth of the beast, she stabbed wildly with her sword, hitting the lizard in the leg, not deeply, not seriously, but enough to get its attention.

It leapt back in pain and surprise, opening the way for the second to attack. It landed on top of her, one foot to the side and the other on her chest. When her shield failed, its talons gouged holes into her armor, piercing her flesh. Then Hector was there, stabbing the creature in the side, driving his blade deeply into its chest and pushing it off Isabel.

She struggled to her feet. The lizard roared in frustration at Hector, who was now facing it, swords drawn.

“Get to the tree,” Hector said.

Isabel didn’t hesitate. She reached the rope and expended the last of her strength scrambling to the relative safety of the tree just as the first of the three chameleon lizards reemerged from the jungle, racing toward her. It leapt for her, missing her by inches, snapping at the air and clawing at the side of the tree.

Horace took her hand and shouted to his brother, “I have her!”

Hector transformed into vapor and floated into the tree, leaving the two chameleon lizards below, wounded and circling, hissing in fury at the narrow escape of their prey.

Ayela had lost consciousness, her face was pasty and uncharacteristically white.

“You said you still have healing potions,” Isabel said.

Horace nodded, digging into his pouch for his last of the magical draughts.

“Help her sit up,” Isabel said, gently slapping her face. “Wake up, Ayela, you have to swallow this.”

Ayela blinked and murmured something.

“Tip her head back and hold her nose,” Isabel said, carefully pouring the potion into her mouth. Ayela coughed and sputtered but managed to swallow most of it before slipping back into unconsciousness.

“Take the other,” Hector said, holding the last of the healing potions out to Isabel.

“No. Save it,” Isabel said, stiffly unbuckling her armor. “I’ll just use some of the salve you brought.”

Hector handed her a jar barely a quarter full of Lucky’s salve. She carefully spread it into her wounds under her tunic and lay back against one of the giant limbs.

“Keep watch while we’re out,” she muttered, already succumbing to the effects of the magical salve.

Chapter 27

Alexander appeared moments after she woke, groggy and disoriented.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I think so,” she said. “How’s Ayela?”

“Still asleep,” Hector said, “but it looks like her wounds are healing well.”

“What about the lizards?” Isabel asked.

“They’re lying in wait,” Alexander said, pointing out two different spots in the jungle. “One’s right over there and the other is there.”

“And the Regency?” Isabel asked.

“About an hour away,” Alexander said.

“Then they’ll be here before nightfall,” Isabel said. “This isn’t exactly the kind of ambush I had in mind.”

“The lizards might take care of them for us,” Hector said. “If we’re quiet and stay low, they may not see us.”

“I guess that’s all we really can do for now,” Isabel said. “Ayela won’t be able to move until tomorrow at the earliest. How far out are the Sin’Rath?”

“Still a day behind,” Alexander said.

“At least there’s that,” Isabel said.

“I’ll be watching until the Regency soldiers arrive,” Alexander said. “If the lizards kill them all, good enough, if not I’ll try and draw off those that remain. Try and get some rest while you wait. I’ll warn you just before they arrive.”

She smiled at him as he faded out of sight.

***

Isabel waited quietly, her shield firmly in place, while Ayela slept. Hector and Horace had concealed themselves as well as possible, lying on the broad branches of the banyan tree, trying to blend in with the growing shadows. Alexander had come a few minutes before to warn them of the approaching enemy soldiers, and was now unseen but watching.

Isabel held her breath when she heard the rustling coming through the brush in the early evening gloom. The first soldier entered the clearing cautiously, stopping and scanning the area a step from the brush line. When the woman saw the dead lizard, she froze in place, looking for any hint of a threat. After a moment, she signaled those following as she quietly, slowly drew her sword.

Several more women slipped into the clearing and spread out, looking for sign of their quarry. Two soldiers carefully examined the tracks and markings from the fight while the rest fanned out and formed a perimeter.

One soldier screamed, then vanished into the brush. Followed by another. The remaining soldiers fell back into a tight group, their shields and swords pointing out toward the jungle, haunted looks ghosting across their faces as they listened to their companions screaming in agony and terror. Then there was silence.

They waited, their tension palpable in the way they flinched at the slightest noise, their fear barely held in check.

“What was that?” one said.

“One of those,” another answered, motioning to the dead lizard.

“Do you think they got Lady Reishi?” yet another asked.

“There aren’t any bodies.”

“Maybe they dragged her off into the jungle.”

“What difference does it make?” another said. “We won’t make it through the night out in the open.”

“Over there!” one shouted, pointing toward the far edge of the clearing. Isabel looked down and saw herself crouching in the brush. Her image got up and raced off into the jungle.

“Stay together,” one of the soldiers said, motioning for the remains of the Regency platoon to give chase. Within a few moments, sounds of their movement through the jungle faded into the distance.

Isabel started breathing a little easier until a scream shattered the calm evening air, followed by another. Several minutes later, three women crashed through the jungle, stumbling back into the clearing.

“I don’t understand.”

“She just vanished.”

“At least we got one of those blasted lizards.”

“Yeah, and they got seven of us.”

Isabel almost felt sorry for them. She started casting her light-lance spell, but stopped when a blurry patch of air pounced on one of the women, pinning her to the ground, taking her head in its mouth and quickly snapping her neck. The other two attacked, stabbing the chameleon lizard in the side, fatally wounding it, then pressing their advantage, they stabbed it repeatedly until it lay lifeless and mutilated.

Bloody and alone, the two soldiers looked around frantically. Night was falling.

“What do we do now?”

“What else can we do? We go back and try to find the rest of our battalion.”

“Shouldn’t we wait until morning?”

“I’m not staying here,” she said, looking around the clearing at their dead companion and the two dead lizards. “This carrion is bound to draw scavengers.”