“I don’t know,” Aerity admitted. “We have to keep quiet until we find out. Let’s get you up.” Her sister whimpered as Aerity helped her to her feet, keeping an arm around her waist. “We’ll find Wyneth and get out of here.”
They hobbled forward, Vixie keeping her injured leg bent to keep weight off it. When they neared the corner to the rear of the building, a shrill scream pierced the air, causing Aerity’s stomach to sink. The sound of old wood sliding and creaking came next, like doors being forced closed. Aerity felt Vixie squeeze her shoulder as the sisters froze, listening to the low, pleading voice of their cousin inside the building. Another deeper feminine voice said something indecipherable in response.
Tremors threatened to overtake Aerity as she put a finger to her lips and pulled her sister silently to the edge. She was fighting to take tiny gasps into her lungs when she peeked slowly around the corner—nobody was in sight. They must have been inside. Again, Aerity moved them forward, both girls creeping along to the large warehouse door.
“I told you, he will not hurt you,” came the accented female voice again, alluring and husky—perhaps Kalorian? “Now relax, girl, and tell me who you are.”
Aerity slowed their approach. As she got closer she released her sister to lean against the wall, and she found a gap in the door’s wood where she could look in. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimness of the cavernous room. What she finally saw made her slap a hand over her mouth. At the wide entrance area, just inside the rickety old sliding door, was their guard, lying in a thick pool of his own blood. His head was wrenched to the side at an unnatural angle, his stomach torn open.
Vixie leaned in toward the gap and gave a small gasp, her face horrified. Aerity tried to block her view, but she knew it was too late. Her sister had seen the grotesque sight for herself. Aerity got close to Vixie, taking her ashen face in her hands, meeting her eye to eye. “Stay calm,” she mouthed. Vixie’s eyes watered as she nodded.
Hearing Wyneth fumbling for her voice, Aerity peered in again.
“I . . . I’m . . . L-lady Wyneth, miss.”
“Lady?” The woman’s voice was calm, even happy sounding. “As in a royal lady?”
Don’t tell her who you are! Aerity wanted to scream.
“Y-yes. Wyneth Wavecrest.” Curses. Her cousin was rasping, terrified. From Aerity’s angle she could see her cousin’s profile through the gap, but not the other woman.
“Ah . . . it appears the luck of your seas is on my side,” said the woman, delighted.
Aerity heard another sound now, like the snuffling of a giant hog.
“Please, miss,” Wyneth begged, but the woman only chuckled.
“The winds have sent you right to me . . . exactly what I need.”
At Wyneth’s side, a giant creature with both hair and scales flopped itself down and curled up, bumping Wyneth’s hip, causing her to scream again and cover her mouth as she stared at it, trembling. Aerity and Vixie both jumped.
What on Eurona was it? Aerity stared, immobilized by fear.
“I told you, girl, he won’t hurt you. He’s trained to feed only from those with the scent of a grown man like that one who interrupted its sleep.”
This . . . oh, seas . . . this was the beast! And it had killed the guard, a good man with a family, a young son. Aerity, flooded with panic, swallowed back the urge to be sick. She had to help Wyneth. She had to get into that room, but this door was the only entrance into the warehouse area. Aerity looked up at the high roof. A weathered ladder was at the corner they’d passed, and sections of the roof were missing, caved in.
Aerity had to move fast. She held Vixie’s waist tightly, moving them back to the corner. She spoke in barely a whisper. “I’m going in.”
Vixie shook her head in panic. The girl’s eyes went up the ladder. “It’s not safe!”
“Hold it for me as best as you can while I climb. Then go to the shore and signal the hunters to come.” Vixie looked down at her sister’s leg. It was worse than she’d thought, gaping red muscle showing. A path of blood trailed where she’d walked. And the side of Vixie’s foot was swollen and bruised with scratches. Her face appeared drained, like she might pass out. Aerity wanted to tend to her, but there was no time.
Her eyes skittered around, searching for something she could use as a weapon, but all the fallen branches were too brittle, too small. Finally, she saw a jagged rock the size of her fist. She quietly bent to pick it up and stood again, flattening herself to the wall. Vixie grabbed a nearby rock as well, following her sister’s actions. They squeezed the rocks into their pockets.