Chapter Eleven
***Contains swearing and violence...***
Kieran gasped for breath as he and the others slammed themselves against the wall of the city. He pressed his back against it as hard as he could, wanting to melt into the bricks so the Harpies wouldn’t spot him. On his left, Rhogan and Lilac-Eyes both took an arm of the guy Kieran had taken hostage. They’d picked up Kieran’s other guard on the way to the city and he stood next to Lilac-Eyes, his hands on his knees as he struggled for breath. A nasty gash on his head dribbled blood into his eyes and the sword he held in one of his hands was broken in half.
Kieran swallowed and tilted his head back so he peered straight up at the sky. He leant forwards slightly then flattened himself against the wall again when the silhouette of a Harpy appeared. Slowly, he slid his gaze to where Rhogan stood, watching him, and shook his head.
Rhogan turned to the others and nodded.
“What are you doing?!” Kieran hissed, breaking the silence.
“We will meet them in battle in a moment’s time,” Rhogan replied, moving past Kieran with the body and Lilac-Eyes. “Why prolong that moment?”
Kieran was nearly at the point of ripping his hair out at Rhogan’s stubbornness. “Because I’d rather have one more bloody moment of safety before those Harpies get the chance to rip my face off!”
Rhogan ignored him and inched toward the tunnel leading into the first level of the city. Kieran growled to himself and fell into place behind Lilac-Eyes, wincing at every Harpy’s shriek and cut-off scream from the guards.
After what felt like a century, they reached the tunnel. Rhogan and the body disappeared, followed by Lilac-Eyes. Kieran took a deep breath and forced himself to turn the sharp corner into the tunnel.
The shadows the Harpies cast across the tunnel floor looked like someone was trying to do shadow puppets right after they’d stuck their hands in a blender. The sounds were even worse. In the tunnel the shouts and cries were muffled, like somebody trying to scream through a gag. It reminded Kieran too much of the master’s ‘sessions’, where Leo and others would teach the newer Black Dragons how to work through pain. Excruciating pain.
Kieran swallowed again and gagged as the earthy scent of mould punched the back of his throat. He winced, told himself to get used to it, and followed Rhogan and Lilac-Eyes, hating the darkness and length of the tunnel. Kieran was growing sick of the fear squeezing his stomach all the time. Was one moment where he could relax and not be thinking of all the things that had gone wrong today too much to ask?
Rhogan stopped and turned to face Kieran and the others.
“When we reach Phonan’s Keep-” Rhogan paused and looked at Kieran. “Phonan’s Keep is the first level, the soldier’s level, we are about to enter.” He turned his attention back on the two guards. “Dehk, Hahli, I want you both to join the fight. I will show the stranger to the armoury houses and lay Halmunn there until it is safe.” He turned his eyes on Kieran. “Stranger – keep close to me. We cannot risk your life in this fight. You will have to remain with Halmunn.”
Kieran frowned. “But I can fight. Where I come from, I’m a fighter.”
“You have no experience of fighting Harpies. You will be killed before your sword can strike one.”
“I’m a fast learner. Gotta be. I can help you.”
“No. Don’t make me waste time on an argument you will lose.”
Kieran opened his mouth to protest again, but Rhogan cut across him.
“If you are killed by a Harpy, it is not only you who shall loose your head, but I shall too – for letting you fight.”
“I was gonna ask where the armoury houses were,” Kieran lied, trying to man up and keep a pout from appearing on his face.
Rhogan nodded to a line of white box-like buildings. Sure, they looked safe enough. The only major snag was how they would manage to get to them. Between them and the houses was a cobblestone clearing filled with soldiers fighting the Harpies. The Harpies were cheating: they pushed loose, heavy stones off the top of the wall separating the first and second level, making them crash onto the guards below. It was like some kid dropping stones on ants; the soldiers had no chance.
Lilac-Eyes made a sharp sound in the back of his throat. “They’re blocking the entrance to Phonan’s Keep!” he cried out in dismay. “The soldiers from the other levels can’t get in!”
Kieran turned his head, searching for a blocked gateway. All he saw were several Harpies dodging the arrows fired at them and the spears thrown, their wings beating furiously as they carried huge rocks in their arms. They dropped them onto a growing pile, a sharp crack ringing out as the rock smacked against the others in the pile and the part of the wall they were covering.
The other guard shoved Kieran from behind, and Kieran saw Rhogan and Lilac-Eyes run into the middle of the fight.
“This way!” Rhogan shouted to Kieran, waving his sword in the air and dragging the body behind him.
Kieran went after him, running in zigzags to throw off the Harpies going for him. One plunged down beside him and he yelled, nearly falling on top of her when he lost his balance. He threw his weight backwards and stumbled away, nearly into the arms of another Harpy.
“Heck!” he yelped, feeling like he was caught in a video game again. Except this time it was dodge-the-harpy, not dodge-the-tree like he would’ve preferred.
Desperately, he searched the stone courtyard for Rhogan. The guy had vanished, lost in the clouds of dust and fighting soldiers. Right now, Kieran would’ve given anything just to see Rhogan’s flowery ass. Instead he saw the bodies of soldiers sprawled across the stone floor and only three unmoving Harpies. The rest were either in the air or on a guard, mauling him to death.
Kieran tripped over the body of a soldier and realised he’d been stumbling backwards, unconsciously trying to get away. Stomach churning like he’d just eaten something nasty, he turned away. A squashed head with bulging, glassy eyes and a jaw missing wasn’t the nicest thing to see before dinner.
“Stranger!”
Kieran jumped to his feet and tore in the direction Rhogan’s voice came from. He stopped outside one of the white houses, searching for a door or window to dive through. Bits of debris from a smashed rock hit him in the back, sending him stumbling forwards. He put his hands against the wall of the building to steady himself, but they went straight through.
He fell through the wall.
Seriously wondering when the weirdness would stop, Kieran rolled onto his back, struggling to get some air into his lungs. He waited for his heartbeat to slow, grimacing as his ankle throbbed like it knew tomorrow wasn’t coming. When he opened his eyes, Rhogan’s blood-splattered face came into view, brown eyes looking unusually concerned.
“I’m okay,” Kieran panted.
“Then I will leave you now and come back when the Harpies are killed.” Rhogan straightened and strode toward the patch of wall Kieran had just come through.
“Wait.” Kieran pushed himself into a sitting position. When Rhogan turned and looked back at him, Kieran locked his eyes on him and said, “Even though I’ve only known you for about half an hour, and in that time you’ve been a complete ass to me, I still hope you don’t get your head chewed off out there.”
Rhogan’s eyebrows lifted like he didn’t know how to take that. After a brief moment, he frowned and nodded at Kieran. Kieran didn’t like his expression: it was like he didn’t expect to see him again.
Rhogan faced the wall again and strode forward, knife in hand. As soon as he hit the surface, the wall rippled like water and turned see-through, letting Kieran get a glimpse of tawny wings and flashing swords. The shouts and screams hit him, making him break out into a sweat all over again. He hadn’t realised how silent it was in the armoury. The silence returned as soon as Rhogan went through the … door. The wall wobbled and returned to normal when Rhogan made it to the other side.
For the longest moment, Kieran just sat there, not sure what he should be doing exactly. He decided to look around, which took about half a second. The building he was in was only one room. There was a bed, which the guy who Rhogan had been lugging around was lying on, and shelves stacked with robes and swords and whatnot. Well, this was the armoury.
He got to his feet and began looking through all the stuff, wincing as his muscles screamed in protest. The faint, spicy smell of the armoury tickled his nose, making him sneeze and knock half the equipment off the shelf.
Jumping a mile in the air as it clattered to the floor, Kieran turned and looked at the body on the bed, ready to apologise. Which was a joke. The man was dead; somehow Kieran figured loud noises wouldn’t be annoying him any more.
A sudden crash sent him spinning around, but he saw nothing. Then something thumped him on the shoulder, making him fly to the floor. Or what he figured was the floor: he couldn’t quite see it through the thick cloud of dust that swallowed him. The jarring impact gave him a clue, though.
Pain bit down on his leg and he cried out, only to chomp on his lower lip to stop his scream when it felt like his leg had turned to mush. Goddamn, something must be broken. Well, didn’t he have all the luck in the world?
He turned his head and froze. Some of the rocks had landed on a part of the bed and the wooden frames had splintered under the weight. Now his favourite dead body was lying face to face with him.
Choking on the dust, he pushed himself up on his elbows, really not wanting to be so close to this guy. His shoulder throbbed in protest, but soon faded from Kieran’s memory when he looked up and saw what had caused part of the roof to collapse on him.
A Harpy.
It rose from the debris, spreading its wings out like some vampire with a cloak. Its dry lips parted, revealing teeth so rotten they’d make any Victorian jealous. A weird, creaking sound escaped its mouth, getting louder and louder like the snarl of a chainsaw. The hairs on the back of Kieran’s neck stood to attention.
Oh, shit. This was not a good situation to be in. Trapped in a room, nose to nose with a dead body was bad enough, but an unhappy, adrenaline pumped Harpy dropping in for a visit too?
Absolutely frickin’ fabulous.
Kieran dropped down onto his stomach and played dead. That was what you were meant to do with bears, right? Except bears and Harpies were pretty different… Whatever; it was too late now. Rocks skittered across the floor as the Harpy made its way toward him and the real dead body.
Kieran kept his eyes open, because there was no way he was going to be happy if he had no clue what was happening. As his eyes began to sting, he realised there was one major drawback to this: dead bodies don’t blink.
He stared hard at the body in front of him, his eyes watering. The changing light made it look like the dead guy’s eyelids were flickering. Then the Harpy’s freakish shadow fell over them, blocking out the light entirely, and Kieran had nothing else to blame. The guy’s face was …moving.
The body’s eyes opened.
“Ah, Christ!” Kieran yelled, scrambling as far away as possible from him. Only to hit something solid, something that stunk to the high heavens, something that…
Something that was the Harpy.
Kieran jumped toward the patch of wall he’d fallen through earlier, but his leg gave way underneath him and he crumpled to the floor. The Harpy, obviously realising that Kieran wasn’t dead, gave chase. It leapt at him and grabbed him by the throat, trying to drag Kieran back toward it. Kieran struggled for breath and stretched out his arm, the tips of his trembling fingers brushing against the wall.
The Harpy jumped onto his back as hard as it could. Kieran yelled and choked, tasting brick dust at the back of his throat as he breathed in the dust. He heard the Harpy’s breath hissing in his ear, felt its hot breath on the side of his neck and knew it was going to go for the jugular.
He yanked his arm back and jabbed his elbow into the Harpy’s side as hard as he could. Grip weakened for a split second, the Harpy had nothing to hold onto as Kieran rolled onto his back and squished it beneath him. The tables turned when he pushed himself up and jumped on the Harpy’s stomach, drawing back his fist to deliver a well-deserved punch to its head. Except he ended up just scraping his knuckles on its tough skin rather than knocking its lights out like he’d hoped. So he moved on to the next best thing before he lost his grip on her.
She spat and shrieked at him as he grabbed her head, her eyes little more than slits of fury as she hissed at him. Her hooked nails raked into his back and she kicked and bucked beneath him. Kieran slammed her head against the floor as hard as he could. Then again. And again. And again…
Until she stopped moving.
He sat on her, breathing hard, blinking her blood from his eyes. His heart thudded in his chest, going so fast it nearly made a bid for freedom up his throat. After a while, it began to slow and his chest loosened enough for him to take a long, deep breath.
That had been too close.
Kieran felt the whoosh of cool air and heard rocks clatter as something landed behind him. Dread formed a lump of lead in his stomach as he turned around. A second Harpy had dropped in for tea, only to find Kieran sitting on her sister, her misshaped head in Kieran’s hands. It didn’t take a genius to work out he’d killed her. It also wasn’t rocket science that she was into the act of revenge.
“Won’t you give me a break?!” Kieran yelled as he scrambled for the wall.
The Harpy hissed as it sprang toward him, sending rocks rolling as it leapt into the air. It followed Kieran through the wall, into the fight outside Kieran had all but forgotten about. It flew higher into the air, ready to hurtle toward him.
Kieran searched desperately for something shiny and sharp in all the debris. All he found were rocks and dust-coated bodies. He looked up at the sky and saw the Harpy flying backwards, using its huge wings to slow it down so it could hurtle toward Kieran and turn him into a smear on the ground.
He stared at her, frozen into place. While everything else seemed to darken and grow quiet, every little detail about the Harpy jumped out at him. He could see every feather of her wings and the flash of yellow as her lips pulled back from her teeth in a snarl. He saw her eyes widen, the reflection of himself sitting next to the murderous fury in her growing pupils.
He saw her scream and clutch her head as an ear-splitting shriek rang out.
Kieran too cried out and threw his hands over his ears, trying to block out the shrill voice that echoed around Phonan’s Keep. All around him, Harpies dropped to the ground, forgetting to keep their wings moving as agony ripped through them. The soldiers rushed to finish them off, swarming like ants over an invading insect.
Kieran peeped up at the sky through watering eyes. The bowl that had been closing around the city had finally covered it all. Now a voice shrieked at them, a voice none of the guards seemed to hear, or pay attention to. Only Kieran and the Harpies fell to the ground, writhing in agony. Only Kieran and the Harpies understood what the voice was saying to them.
“Nothing will keep death from taking you!” it screamed. “You will rot in the ground alone forever!”
Kieran’s heart thumped hard in his chest, growing faster and faster until he thought he was having a heart attack. Pain gripped him as terror ripped through his body, turning his blood to an icy slush.
“Feel the worms crawl through your spine! Feel the flesh fall from your body!”
Kieran slammed his head against the ground, trying to feel something other than the numbness that now gripped his limbs. Alarmed voices sounded, but Kieran ignored them, still slamming his head against the ground as hard as he could.
Hands held him down, stopping him, keeping him numb, keeping him dead. The taste of blood on his tongue was so sharp it stung. He opened his eyes wide. Rhogan’s flower-covered face loomed at him, mouth opening and closing like he was talking.
“Nothing will stop the maggots climbing through your eyes!”
Kieran screamed. Maggots swarmed toward him, millions of white, wriggling shapes. He tasted them on his tongue, felt them in his ears. Blood roared in his ears, growing louder and louder as his heart beat faster. His chest tightened unbearably as his heart exploded.
Kieran was wrapped in blissful silence as the black claimed him.
