Tesh didn’t have many options, and, as stupid as it felt, he did the only thing he could. He threw a sword at the creature. This wasn’t a technique taught in the courtyard and it showed. The sword slapped the raow on the back, not at an angle that could have cut it, but the force was enough to catch its attention. Only a split second was bought, but for a Fhrey that was plenty. Nyphron leapt back. He retreated out of his room into the hallway, but the starved raow raced after. “You!” The thing’s voice went shrill with recognition. “Yes, you—you and that other one! I’m out—free again. Oh, yes! And hungry. A feast—a banquet I will have this day before I sleep!”
Tesh followed. Outside the room’s doorway, Nyphron crouched like a wrestler, looking nervous as the raow salivated and curled its claws. “Such a sweet-looking face.”
Then the creature stopped, its sight drawn to the stairs.
Tesh reached the door’s threshold just as Sebek appeared with both blades drawn and a determined look on his face.
“Sebek, it’s the—” Nyphron said.
“I know—I know,” Sebek replied.
Nyphron fell back as Sebek stepped up. The creature turned his attention toward the threat with two blades.
“Where’s a cage when you need one?” Sebek asked.
“I admit, trapping it seemed like a good idea all those years ago—not so much now.” Nyphron said. “The real question is…can you take it?”
Sebek didn’t reply immediately.
“I think not,” the creature said.
For the first time that Tesh had witnessed, Sebek did not initiate combat. The raow did. The fight was inhumanly fast and vicious. Blades against claws slashed and jabbed. Sebek got in a cut, but the raow raked him back across the thigh, winning a grunt. Tesh had never seen Sebek touched in a fight. Wounded, Sebek moved wrong, shifted slower, weaker. The world’s greatest warrior was going to lose. With one sword left, Tesh considered helping, then he noticed something strange. The raow broke off its attack to avoid getting too close to a lamp.
It prowls beyond the fire’s light,
Steer clear of lonely hills at night,
The sunset shadows you must race.
Maybe there was a reason that tale was told through the generations, and not just to keep children close to home.
The raow lunged, and Sebek was hit again. This attack caught him across the chest. The claws tore his armor free so that the metal plate flapped uselessly, the broken wing of a bird of prey. A fast second strike stabbed Sebek with three dagger-claws. The Fhrey staggered to one knee. But the raow didn’t want him.
It has a deal with Meryl, Tesh thought, and, surprisingly, it plans to honor it.
The raow turned to kill Nyphron. “What a face,” it whispered.
Leaping up, Tesh pulled the wall lamp down—a clay cup filled with oil, its burning wick protruding from a spout. The lamp shattered when it hit the floor. Oil splashed, and the fire followed it, but little of the liquid got on the raow. The slow-to-burn oil merely pooled around the raow’s feet. Tesh was frustrated to see that the resulting fire wasn’t large, not even dangerous. Anyone could have stomped out the flames or just stepped aside. Instead, the raow shrieked in terror. Wide bulbous eyes filled with panic; it ran—and ran the wrong way. The raow fled into Sebek. Lightning pierced the raow’s chest, the tip passing all the way through its body. The Fhrey pulled himself up by the handle of his sword, and then Thunder answered, coming around and severing the raow’s head. It fell, bounced, and rolled to the stairs where it had just enough momentum to fall down the first step, then the second, and third. On it went while Nyphron, Tesh, and Sebek stood around the oil fire listening to the thump, thump, thump of the raow’s head bouncing its way down the steps.
In the gathering cloud of black smoke, Sebek dropped both swords and fell to his hands and knees.
“Tesh, get Anyval.” Nyphron moved to Sebek’s side and helped his friend move away from the fire.
“Who?”
“He’s our healer. You’ll find him down on—”
“It’s okay. I know where he is. You were the second target tonight.”
Tesh ran for the stairs. His legs felt rubbery. Training had helped, but nothing matched the demands of the real thing.
“Second?” Nyphron’s voice stopped him. “Tesh, did you come up here because you thought that thing was going to kill me?”
He nodded.
“You saved my life?”
Tesh wasn’t sure if that was a question or not. “Yes.”
Nyphron looked puzzled. “Go—go on! Get Anyval.”
Tesh ran down the stairs. As he descended, Nyphron shouted down to him, “Then wake everyone in the Rhist. That bell you heard ringing is from the parapet at the front gate. It means they’re here. The fane’s army is here. The war has started.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lighting the Fire