Читать книгу Minstrel's Serenade - Aubrie Dionne - Страница 10

Horn of the Undead

Day gave way to shadowy twilight, and the forest grew dark with lurking threats.

Danika’s horse heaved underneath her. Although the minstrels had lent her a fine stead, the stallion slowed with fatigue. Valorian’s horse slackened as well, struggling to keep pace in the patches of filtering moonlight. Even Nip’s horse dragged its hooves and he had hardly ridden the beast all day.

Surely, whoever followed them couldn’t have tracked them this far. Even so, staying to fight would give their horses much needed rest. Either way they’d have to confront their pursuers. Running made Danika feel like a fugitive. She pulled back on the reins as they broke through into a clearing where the white moon illuminated the glade. “Enough.”

Valorian followed her lead. He jumped from his horse and offered the stallion water from his sheepskin.

Danika sniffed and pulled up by his side. “The air smells clear.”

He held the sheepskin to her horse’s steaming muzzle. “You forget we are upwind.”

Valorian slid his hand into a secret pocket in his vest and brought out a dagger with an ivory hilt carved with the same spirals that decorated his lute. He handed her the silvery blade. “Be careful.”

She had her long sword, but she wasn’t about to refuse another weapon. “Thank you.” Danika slipped the blade into her boot. Why would a minstrel carry such a weapon? She thought music was all they needed for protection.

Bron caught up and the carriage rumbled to a halt. He leapt from his seat as if he’d awaited this moment all day.

Danika rushed to him, drawn to his strength. “Are they gone?”

A flock of starlings took flight from the forest behind them. All eyes turned toward the darkness between the trees. Bron shrugged. “Better to be safe than slayed. We’ll set up a perimeter defense using the carriage and the bags of rice.”

Valorian lit torches as Bron stacked the bags against the carriage on either side. Danika grabbed Nip’s sword as he swung the blade at the low-hanging branch of a tree. “Get in the carriage and stay there until morning.”

“I want to fight.” Nip pouted with his lower lip jutting out. He looked so adorable, she had a hard time saying no.

“We need to keep you safe so you can lead us to Darkenbite. Remember, you’re our guide.”

“I cannot leave Thunderhooves unguarded.” Nip struggled to cross his arms and hold his sword.

Danika furrowed her brow. “Who?”

“The boy’s horse.” Bron unsheathed his claymore and swung the blade in an arc over his head, stretching his muscles.

“I named him myself.” Nip stared at her as if she would deny him the ridiculous name. She almost did. He hadn’t spent more than half the day on the saddle before he lost interest and wanted to fiddle with his sword. Now he’d give his life for the beast? More likely he used the horse as an excuse.

Danika smoothed the wild hair on the boy’s head. “Thunderhooves will be fine with the other horses. This is no place for a little boy, no matter how courageous.”

Nip bit his lip. “I’m strong enough.”

“Yes, you most definitely are.” Valorian handed Nip a pendant with an emerald framed in gold. The stone caught the firelight of the torches, sparkling. “Here. You stay in the carriage and keep this safe from robbers.”

Nip’s eyes widened. “What is it?”

Valorian smiled. “On the back is the royal crest of the House of Song, a lyrebird. The insignia proves I’m their prince and the rightful heir.”

“Whoa!” Nip held the amulet close to his heart. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep it safe.” He ran to the carriage and shut the door.

“You have a kind way with children.” Danika gave a gentle smile.

Valorian brought out his lute and grinned. “If only my charms worked on Bron.”

Primal hoots from the forest stifled Danika’s laugh before the sound left her throat. Bron aimed the tip of his sword into the shadows. “Let them come.”

Beside her, Valorian breathed deeply. He strummed an open chord on his lute, opened his mouth and sang. His honeyed tenor voice echoed through the woods, challenging the darkness with light.

“Who so thrives to hunt this night

Rest your wearied souls.

For a sweet languor

In the eve’s stillness

Lingers to console.”

She drew out her long sword, a miniature replica of her father’s blade with the silver pommel formed in a lion’s head and three rubies lodged in the hilt. Her blade wasn’t as thick as the late king’s, but the lighter bulk allowed her swift movement for quick, superficial cuts. As Bron had taught her, she needed all her weight behind her to lodge the tip through a man’s heart.

Hulky shapes formed in the shadows. Pairs of red eyes glowed. The air reeked of rotten eggs, rancid sweat and wet dog. Heavy breathing penetrated the night, the sound much like prowling hounds closing in on mouthwatering prey.

“Kobolds.” Danika coughed, bracing herself for the fight. Smarter and leaner than trolls, their stench alone could kill a man.

The leaves rustled around them, then silence. Not one of the monsters stirred.

“Why aren’t they coming out?” Bron shook his sword at the woods in a challenge.

Danika shouted over the next refrain. “Valorian’s music holds them back.”

“I bid you flee the flames of foes

Whose sharp blades cut the thickest hide.

This battle cannot be won with numbers,

Spears or forceful pride.”

Bron tightened his grip on the hilt. “He cannot sing all night.”

Valorian’s song had calmed Danika, as well as the beasts in the forest. With steady hands, she gripped her sword and pushed toward the nearest pair of eyes. “Then we’ll cut them down one by one while they’re spell-bound.”

She reached the first silhouette and raised her sword. Beside her, a massive shape twice the size of the carriage barreled through the front line and broke into the clearing. Legs like hairy tree trunks stomped the grass and rumbled the food in Danika’s stomach.

The kobold carried an axe with a blade as long as Danika was tall, the sharp edge glinting in the moonlight in the places between the smears of dried blood. Human skulls clattered in a chain hanging around his neck. A single horn protruded from his forehead in a sharp, spiraling twist.

Valorian increased his volume, practically shouting the refrain as the beast swiped at her and Bron. They ducked and rolled as the axe hit the first row of trees. Branches crashed around them, one of them falling on the carriage. Danika thought of Nip and prayed to Helena and Horred for the boy to have enough sense to stay put.

“Why isn’t the music working?” Danika shouted into Bron’s ear. The kobold opened a jaw as wide as his forehead and roared, showing rows of uneven, square teeth.

Bron sighed and leaped up, brandishing his sword to block the princess. “Too dumb to understand?”

“No, look!” Danika pointed to the monster’s head. Thick, pink membranes grew over malformed ears. “He’s deaf.”

Bron swiped his sword and the beast matched his arc with the axe. The weapons clanged, sending sparks through the night like falling stars. Bron’s muscles bunched as he held the axe in place. “Just my luck.”

Valorian widened his eyes, and Danika waved him behind her. “Keep singing. Hold the others back.” She’d handle this.

As Bron pushed his sword against the axe’s weight, Danika rounded the kobold and stuck her long sword in its back. The monster wailed and lashed out, sending her flying against the carriage. The force of the fall knocked the wind out of her. Her head hit the carriage wheel and rang with dizziness. The kobold reached behind, trying to dislodge Danika’s long sword like a splinter in a slab of meat. The distraction gave Bron the opportunity to lunge with his sword and slice a gash in the kobold’s left leg.

The carriage door squeaked open and Nip thrust his hand out. He whispered, “Come inside.”

“No.” She had to help Bron and keep the monster from reaching Valorian. If he stopped singing the others would flood the clearing and there’d be no trip to Darkenbite. She held up her palm. “Stay there.”

When Danika looked back, the kobold had pinned Bron on the ground with his fist and tried to stomp the warrior to death. Bron rolled from its grip, jabbing his sword whenever he had the chance. Each lunge made a superficial cut at best. Valorian kept singing, his fingers turning red as he strummed the metal strings of the lute over and over.

Danika took a deep breath, stood and leaped toward her sword. She grabbed the hilt and hung from the monster’s back like a rag doll as the beast waddled back and forth, dancing on top of Bron. A thin dribble of purple black liquid dripped from the cut.

Danika braced her feet against the monster’s back and pulled. The sword wouldn’t budge.

Behind her, Valorian’s words nudged her memory.

“Bestow a gift to the bearer

At the most opportune time.

Out of care, and something more

An ivory relic that once was mine.”

Valorian’s dagger! Danika swung herself into the air, head over heels. Her feet landed on the blade of her sword. She waved her arms to balance and shuffled toward the monster’s back. Grabbing onto the thick hair, she climbed toward its neck.

The odor choked her and she gagged, her stomach threatening to spew the remnants of Valorian’s sweet peaches on the creature’s back. One thought of Bron flat as a coin hardened her will, and she scrambled down her boot for the dagger. She unsheathed the blade and held it in the air, contemplating the right spot on the wart-infested neck. She’d only get one chance.

Danika drove the tip through the back of the creature’s neck, puncturing its wind pipe. The kobold wheezed and its shoulders heaved. Danika held onto the hair on his back as he fell to his knees and then his stomach, sending a crashing thump through the forest, louder than any falling tree. When the echo subsided, only Valorian’s melancholy song filled the silence.

Danika pulled herself up from the hairy back. “Bron?” Her voice shook with worry.

“Here.” The warrior stood with blood running down one of his arms. He offered his hand. “An impressive feat for a lady.”

Danika slipped her hand into his as if it should rest there for all time. “I had a good teacher.”

“And a great weapon supplier as well.” He leaned down and pulled Valorian’s dagger from the beast’s neck. Bron studied the markings of the House of Song before handing the dagger to her, ivory hilt first.

She felt like such a betrayer. Danika took the hilt and slid the blade back into her boot. He was her bodyguard, dammit, not her suitor.

A shaft whizzed through the air behind them and Valorian’s music abruptly stopped in mid-sentence. Danika whirled around just as Valorian and his lute hit the ground, a feathered arrow lodged in his shoulder.

No, no, no. The gods would not allow it...

She ran to Valorian’s side, her heart thumping wildly.

Bron stood in front of them alone, a barrier of muscle, and held up his sword. The forest stirred around them as the beasts awoke from the spell.

Valorian clutched the shaft with his good hand. The arrow had torn his richly embroidered riding vest and stuck right into the muscle. Thank Helena the tip hadn’t struck his lung.

Danika placed both her hands on the wound and pressed against the flow of blood. “Hold still. Don’t move.”

He grasped her hand with his bloodied fingers. Branches creaked in the darkness. A wiry kobold, no bigger than Nip, stepped into the clearing. A sly grin spread through his pasty lips. Bark and pine needles stuck out of his ears. Clever bastard.

The kobold fired again, at Bron, and the warrior deflected the arrow like a chicken leg at dinnertime. Laughter erupted from the shadows as the kobold’s friends slowly woke up.

Danika gazed down at Valorian and his eyes watered with pain, yet held a determination she hadn’t seen before. “I have to sing.”

Just as Valorian began a ring of kobolds entered the clearing. Some stood three heads taller than Bron, and others only came up to his knees. They wore patches of leather around their groins and various-sized teeth around their necks. Some had one horn, whereas others had two or three sprouting from their heads like defiant fingers.

The horses whinnied, gazing skittishly around them. The lead pair pulled on their harnesses. Thunderhooves snorted with unease. Danika glanced at the carriage. Would Nip stay put?

“Red streaks adorn

The starling’s breast.

As he flies the twilight skies,

You think you’ve won

Oh, foul hunter

But the game has just begun.”

Valorian’s voice, although still sweet, shook from pain, and there were no chords to support it. Valorian’s voice fell to a whisper on the second verse. The kobolds hesitated long enough for Bron to get a good swipe then pounced on him in a horde. The warrior pulled them off, one after another, flinging their broken bodies into the forest. For every kobold he tore down, another three came at him. They bit his legs, jabbed at his eyes and climbed up his back, scratching his bald head.

Behind her, they climbed on the horses. Thunderhooves reared, kicking two with his front hooves, but another three took their place, this time holding sharp daggers.

Danika’s heart tore in two. If she left Valorian he’d bleed to death, but if she stayed, the sheer number of kobolds would overwhelm Bron.

Either way, their mission had failed. The kingdom would fall to the fires of the She-Beast, and man would no longer reign in this world.

The call of a low horn echoed over the battle in a long, primal swell, tearing the bottom from Danika’s heart. She’d know that sound anywhere. The call belonged to the dead army of Sill.

The kobolds stopped at once, their ears perked to the sky. Bron kicked the closest ones away and scanned the trees.

Danika had thought the night couldn’t get any worse. Fate had misled her.

The horn blew again as if answering everyone’s question in an ugly bleat. The kobolds cried and scampered into the forest, leaving them alone in the clearing. The wind picked up, sending boughs creaking and pine needles rustling as if the forest breathed in anticipation.

Bron turned to Danika with sorrow in his eyes. A thousand stolen glances could not deliver the pain and longing in that one gaze meant only for her.

Danika mouthed the words, unable to speak. “It cannot be.”