Foundation of Courage (Shadow of the Dragons Book 1), page 13
She smiled. He would be stubborn. She worked her jaw. I owe you for that sucker punch. She would punish him. It had been a long time since anyone had hurt her, let alone knocked her out. She had let her guard down, assuming him to be no threat.
Ruan never made the same mistake twice.
“Go!” she commanded.
The charismatic hounds snarled and bounded forward.
“What?” Vounée asked as Euddán darted from the closed door to the table. He snatched up the thick piece of firewood he’d selected for a weapon.
“Euddán?” Rormée asked, staring fretfully at her son.
“She’s back!” he shouted. “And she’s got a pack of dogs with her!”
A wild braying filled the night. A terrible rumble of hounds barking together. The village mutts went silent. The hut shook from the intensity of the snarls. Lumi hissed from beneath the table before she leaped up onto Euddán’s shoulder. Her glowing tail curled around his neck.
Nettles darted between Vounée’s feet and peeked her head out the front of the girl’s skirt, hissing. Her tail swished back and forth, brushing the girl’s stocking-clad legs.
The barking grew louder. Then it was all around the house. The terrifying hounds snarled and growled. It was hard to tell how many of them. A handful? A dozen? Vounée trembled. She swallowed, her heart racing in her chest.
“Send the girl out,” the woman shouted, her voice bold and confident. “If you don’t, I’ll come in there.”
“Try!” Euddán roared back, full of bravado.
“I promised you, boy, defy me and die.”
Vounée shivered. The woman sounded so confident. So certain. She would do it. Vounée couldn’t let Euddán die. Her friend was too noble for his own good sometimes. She grabbed her pack, a hysterical thought bubbling in the back of her mind, I’m already packed to go with her.
Euddán glanced at her. “We’re running? Good idea.” He grabbed his pack and slung it on. “It’ll be dangerous. I’ll hit her again real hard, then we make a break for it.”
“Euddán,” groaned Rormée. “She has hounds. A lot of them.”
“I’m not running,” Vounée said. She marched to the door. “I’m surrendering.”
“No!”
Euddán swept before her, blocking the door. Lumi’s blue spilled over the angles of his face. He seemed so much bigger than usual. He felt like the large oak stump defying the farmer’s shovel and mattock. Roots too deep to dig up. Too tough to hack apart with an ax. Too stubborn to ever be moved.
“I’m not weak,” he said. “We can fight them. They’re just dogs.”
19
Euddán stood by the front door, ready to strike. The hounds were around the house, and he had a plan. “Open it, let one of them get in, then slam it shut and get clear, Vounée.”
“I’m helping you fight!” Vounée said. She snagged up her own thick stick and rushed over.
Euddán stared at her. He knew that look. It was the one she wore whenever she insisted on doing something dangerous with him. Climbing a crumbling cliff, sledding down snowy hills, running on the Timblewydth when it froze over, the treacherous ice threatening to break beneath their feet at any moment.
He nodded, Lumi’s warmth about his neck. “Open it.”
She grabbed the doorknob, Nettles at her feet.
His mother groaned.
“Get under the bed, Mom!” he shouted as Vounée wrenched the door open.
“Kya kyri!” Lumi shouted as if she charged into battle.
“Go suck on Hattuna’s poisoned teat!” he roared in defiance.
The first of the hounds burst through the door. The mastiff was bigger than any he’d seen. A ghostly image flowed past its head, a glowing twin to its snarling muzzle. As he swung, Vounée slammed the door shut. A heavy body thudded into it. A second dog yelped, trapped outside.
Euddán’s firewood club hurtled down at the back of the first hound. Blue light engulfed the end of the stick, arresting its movement before it slammed into the beast. He gaped at the magical force holding his weapon immobile.
The blue light had caught it.
“Will magic,” gasped Rormée.
The dog’s lips curled back to bare snarling fangs. Weapon immobilized, the hound leaped at the defenseless Euddán. Fear screaming through him, strength flooded his limbs. He wrenched the stick against the blue light. Bark burst into fine powder beneath his grip, the wood creaking.
The light burst into tatters and vanished. He ripped his weapon free and swung it at the charging hound in a single motion.
The club slammed into the dog’s head. The skull caved in while the club snapped in half. The end hurtled across the room, whipping through the dangling herbs, and struck the back wall. It burst into more pieces. The hound collapsed at his feet, legs twitching, blood and brains oozing out of its ear.
“Igwuti shine bright on us,” gasped his mother, staring at him.
A wave of fatigue washed through Euddán. He panted, out of breath. That one blow made him feel like he’d spent a day hauling rocks. Sweat poured down his brow. His hands relaxed their grip on the shattered cudgel. Powdered bark spilled to the floor. He had clenched so hard on it, he had compressed the wood, leaving behind the impression of his fingers.
Before he could react, blue light engulfed the house’s door.
The hound who’d struck the door kicked its feet as it struggled to stand. The others still circled, ready for anything. Ruan advanced, glaive in hand. She waited for the screams of pain. One hound had gotten in. Even a Foundation sorcerer should have a hard time dealing with the dog’s powers.
She heard none.
The hound who’d crashed into the door shook his head one last time, a ghostly sweep of blue chasing the muzzle whipping back and forth. A heartbeat later, azure light engulfed the door. Wood groaned. The entire door ripped off its hinges and flew over the hound’s head. The beast lunged inside as she side-stepped the flying door.
Other hounds rushed after. The girl appeared. Vounée swung her stick at the lead dog, but blue light engulfed her entire body. The hound faced her. The boy appeared, swinging a broken stick at the dog, but more of the pack surged in. One leaped, slamming Will into the boy and throwing him out of Ruan’s sight.
Ruan broke into a run and surged into the house. The first dog lay dead on the floor. Another had the boy, Euddán, pinned to the floor in a fist of blue light. The herb-witch huddled in the back. Vounée trembled in the grip of a third hound’s mind.
“No, no!” she screeched. “Don’t kill him!”
Euddán shouted and burst out of the blue grip. The second hound yelped at having its power broken. The boy rose to his feet and swung the stick at the dog. The hound jumped back, chased by its ghostly afterimage.
Euddán didn’t follow. Instead, he rushed at Ruan and slammed the snapped stick at her. She blocked with the haft of her glaive. The crack of wood echoed. The impact shivered through the weapon and stung her palms.
He used Foundation.
He swayed, though. Sweat covered his face. He burned through his reserves too fast. She smiled and swung her glaive, mist trailing from the lead blade.
Vounée trembled in the grip of the blue light. It held every bit of her, holding her steady like she had fallen into a viscous liquid. Into the glue the village made from sheep hooves. She struggled against it, but she didn’t have Foundation to call upon.
She was just a girl.
The dog stared at her with unblinking eyes. Behind the beast, Euddán cursed and jumped back. The glaive missed him by inches. Ruan thrust her weapon at his chest. He battered it to the side. She drew it back for another swing and struck the bare rafters, jostling her weapon. She cursed.
Vounée had to help Euddán. She strained. Groaned. Fought against the light, but the hound held her with its Will magic with contemptuous ease. She felt as helpless as when her father had tied her down to carve sigils into her flesh.
She’d sworn to herself she would never be that helpless again, but she couldn’t break free. She screeched against the magic holding her tight.
Nettles hissed and burst out from beneath her skirt. The hound holding her jumped at the sudden attack from the small shrub. The thorny cat’s weight was a fraction of the mastiff’s. Teeth snapped down at Nettles, but she had already bounded between the hound’s front legs. Jaws crashed closed, missing even the swishing tail.
Nettles twisted beneath the hound as it pivoted in place, struggling to get at the thorny cat. Nettles’s nimble body dodged the snapping jaws. The feline shrub leaped with a vibrating hiss. She landed on the side of the hound, thorns digging deep into the beast. It whimpered in pain as Nettles clawed her way up onto its back, leaving a trail of blood-matted fur.
The blue light vanished from Vounée and seized Nettles. It crushed down on the feline shrub, twisting the vines.
“NO!”
Vounée’s club snapped down.
She cracked it into the head of the mastiff. The dog yelped and staggered to the right. The blue light faded from Nettles. She hissed and raked thorns across the beast’s back. Vounée drew back her club and swung it down again.
The wood cracked across the top of the hound’s skull. Fury filled her. She had been helpless so long, and now she would protect something even more fragile than her. She swung her club a third time. A fourth. She crashed the firewood into the mastiff’s head.
Gashes appeared, skin scraped back to reveal a crimson-smeared skull. The dog collapsed on the ground, whimpering, twitching. Maybe dying. Maybe stunned. Vounée didn’t know. She raised her club and slammed it down on the beast with all her might.
“HURT! MY! NETTLES!” Tears stung her eyes as emotions roiled out of her.
Euddán stumbled back as the woman’s glaive caught on the ceiling. She wrenched it free, cutting through dangling herbs. He darted back to the firewood box. He grabbed a split piece of wood and hurled it at his enemy. She batted it to the side. He grabbed another as the hound charged at him, recovered from having its hold on him broken.
Cursing, he thrust the firewood at the beast’s mouth. Slathering fangs ripped into the wood and gouged furrows in it. He kicked at the beast. It leaped back then lunged again. Its teeth savaged his leg. He heard Vounée screaming loud defiance as pain drove into his thigh.
Blood spurted from the wound as the hound savaged him. Blue light flared around him again, freezing his swing. The woman advanced now, a cocky grin on her lips. Rormée screamed in the background.
“Kya!” Lumi hissed and leaped off of his shoulder. “Kyrriiiia!”
The glowing fox didn’t land on the hound’s head but flowed into the skull. The dog released his thigh and let out a whimpering bark of panic. It stumbled back, head waving back and forth like it was trying to dislodge her from inside its skull.
“What?” the woman gasped. “What is that?”
Euddán grabbed his bleeding thigh. Blood spilled over his hand. Before he could answer, the hound’s head swelled for a fraction of a second. He glimpsed eyes bulging, fur inflating. Then it burst into a thunderous explosion of blue light and gore.
The power swept through the entire hut. It threw the table into the woman, crushing her to the floor. Herbs ripped from their strings across the ceiling. Vounée fell to the ground, a dead hound tumbling beside her. Rormée landed heavily on her backside.
Euddán, the closest, took the blast the hardest. He slammed back into the wall. Though made of logs as thick as his biceps, he shattered through them. Instinctively, he drew on that strength to keep his ribs from breaking and his spine from snapping as he punched through the wall. The back of his head cracked against the top of the hole on his way out, plunging him into unconsciousness.
His body tumbled across the grass outside.
20
Ruan groaned. The heavy table pinned her leg. The roof groaned above. Huge swaths of the thatch had been blown away. Moonlight spilled down in tendrils. The hounds whined outside in pain. A luminous fox bounded from the ruin of the exploded hound and leaped out of the hole in the wall after Euddán.
“Hadey’s weakened Flesh, what was that?” Ruan muttered. The back of her head throbbed.
“Euddán!” Vounée gasped. She leaped over a third dead charismatic hound, a thorny cat running at her heels.
“Grab her!” Ruan shouted as she struggled to push the table off herself.
A fourth hound staggered into the house. It shook its head, looking drunk or dazed. What did that fox-thing do? snarled through Ruan’s mind. Is it a Will familiar? But how did it flow into the hound and make its head explode?
“After her,” she snarled and heaved at the table. It budged.
The herb-witch staggered to her feet, clutching her head. Blood trickled down her face from a cut on her brow. With a snarl, Ruan pushed the heavy table off of her legs and gained her feet. One of the hounds staggered to the hole in the wall then balked and whimpered.
“Come on,” she hissed. “Before they get away.”
This entire night was a debacle. She still couldn’t believe three of her charismatic hounds had died.
Vounée jumped through the hole in the wall and found two of the hounds. They whimpered and shook their heads. A third rolled in the grass. Out in the dark, she could see shapes, the villagers watching from a safe distance. Not a single one moved to help.
“Euddán!” she shouted, spotting him lying sprawled and unmoving.
Lumi reached him. Euddán had been thrown three or four body lengths from the house. Ruins of the wall lay around him. She couldn’t see how he lived. Her heart froze until she noticed that his chest rose and fell. His fingers curled like he fought to move. Blood matted his hair. More soaked his thigh savaged by the hound. Vounée stumbled to a halt over him, her rucksack bouncing on her back. He still wore his pack, his body sprawled at a bent angle.
“Kya krii!” Lumi said almost like she was apologizing to him. Then she rubbed her cheek into his.
Her light flickered and pulsed. She yelped in pain and jerked her head back. Euddán’s body spasmed. His hands curled into fists then his eyes snapped open. He sucked in a deep breath and bolted upright. Lumi scrambled onto his shoulders.
“What?” he asked, confused.
The hounds around them were shaking heads. The one rolling on the grass staggered to its feet. The blue glow that chased their heads grew stronger. Vounée didn’t know what they were, but they were recovering. Barking came from around the house, two charging after them. Ruan appeared at the hole in the wall and climbed through it, glaive in hand.
“Get them!” she shouted. “Shake it off and grab them!”
“Euddán!” Vounée grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet. “Run!”
He nodded and dashed away from the oncoming hounds. She ran with him, her pack bouncing, her skirts heavy around her ankles. Maybe she should run in a different direction? She threw a glance back. The hounds were gaining on them, tearing at the ground with sharp claws. They bayed. More of them were recovering. The woman ran at their heels, her body lean and athletic.
“Euddán!” Fear pounded through Vounée. How are we getting away?
“Don’t stop!” he shouted. “I have an idea!”
She nodded then realized what they ran toward. The Glowstones. They were hurtling towards the edge of the Dark Woods. Fear spiked through her. The sun had set. The darkenbeasts prowled the woods. Lumi’s blue glow swelled, spilling around them.
This is complete madness! screamed through Vounée’s mind.
The hounds snarled, almost on them. The pair ran between two of the Glowstones and crashed into the outer thickness of the woods. Evergreen branches snapped against her face. She battered through, thrashing to escape the dogs. They broke into the surprisingly open terrain of the woods. Tree trunks rose around them, dark shadows painted by Lumi’s blue light.
Some of those shadows moved.
She gasped as a slug with arms oozed down the tree. It was as big as one of the hounds chasing them. It wriggled away from Lumi’s light, smoke whisking off its bulbous flesh. Euddán limped on, staggering at a run and cursing with each step.
The hounds behind them growled in snarling fear. Shadows flowed all around the edges of Lumi’s light. Darkenbeasts leaped above in the boughs of the trees. One landed on the ground before them, standing on inky legs that resembled a rooster’s with a body not much different from the hounds. It opened snapping jaws and lunged at them.
Vounée squeaked in fright.
It hit the light and hissed in pain, shadows melting from a misshapen muzzle. It jumped back to the side as Euddán and Vounée barreled past.
The pursuing hounds snarled right behind them.
Euddán’s leg burned. He’d vowed to never go back into the Dark Woods, and yet here he was. Where else could they go to escape?
Luckily, we have Lumi, rang through his mind.
Energy blazed in his body, feeding his Foundation which strengthened his hurting flesh. He ran despite the agony, strengthening his injured leg. Blood soaked his pants. The hounds bayed right behind them. One sounded on their heels.
A heavyweight struck him in the back. It slammed him to the forest floor. Dirt filled his mouth. He spat it out as he struggled to get up. Lumi hissed and leaped off his shoulder. The hound snapped down at him but bit his rucksack. It snarled in frustration and released it.
Vounée slammed her hip into the beast and kneed its ribs. She knocked the hound to the side. It snarled and turned to snap at her then froze before its fangs ripped into flesh. She laughed.
“You can’t hurt me!” She kicked the hound in the chin, snapping its muzzle shut.
It yelped in pain.
Euddán staggered to his feet, grabbed her hand, and yanked her along back into a run. As he did, he realized the beasts weren’t grabbing him with their minds. For some reason, they weren’t using that power. Maybe whatever Lumi did to the one who blew up hurt the others? Her light is similar to the force.
