Aalis stood on the grass where darkened footsteps against the still frosted grass told of where she had come from yet hadn’t moved since the ringing of the bell. She heard the cries of the soldiers, the yells of fright and the mad clang of metal before the black serpent heads appeared over the top of the wall. She looked up at it, its yellow eyes darting across the landscape of fields, paddocks and extensive harvest…

  …before locking onto her.

  Multiple heads hissed at her in unison, their jaws quivering as their fangs were exposed, forked tongues whipping through the air. It clambered over the wall, its long serpent body given two foreclaws that it used to claw and grab while the rest of it slithered into an extended long tail with a rattle at the end. It fell from the wall, pooling into a slump before rising out of its tangle of body, clambering forward, heading straight for her.

  Despite the fact that the hydra was on the north side of the wall, Fereak was not ordering his soldiers to follow. Instead he ran to the trebuchet and began to order it to turn towards the north.

  “Turn, damn it! Get it northside! Archers! Continue to fire and slow its advance! If it makes the outer marker, it’ll be beyond our reach!”

  “You’re going to fire the trebuchet?” Judd cried, running towards him.

  “And send it back to Maul where it belongs…” Fereak’s countenance was dark and grim.

  “You can’t do that! There are people down there!”

  “And if I don’t, that thing will rampage through the north!”

  “Send your soldiers! Send me!” Judd yelled.

  “And what, pray tell, would you do down there?” Sir Fereak snapped at him. “Look at the size of it! A legion of soldiers would have no hope against it! With it on the ground and moving away from the wall, we can use the trebuchet on it.”

  Judd pushed his hands through his hair. He turned to Caste. “Give me some options, Caste,” he begged, “how do I get close enough to stab it in the heart?”

  “Blind it.” Caste advised. “Take out its sight without removing a head.”

  Judd nodded. “Right…that’s good. I can do that.”

  “How are you going to get down there before they load and turn the trebuchet?” Verne asked.

  Judd cringed and pointed to the black cords running from the wall to the ground.

  “You can’t be serious!” Caste exclaimed. “They will have lost integrity from the battering of the hydra! They could snap!”

  “It’s the fastest way down.” Judd picked up a pincer grip, picked a cord and sat on the edge of the wall. His stomach lurched and his vision blurred, blood thundering between his ears.

  “You’re really going to do the death drop?” Sir Fereak jogged over to them.

  “If I do…will you give me time to kill that thing?” Judd asked.

  Fereak closed his eyes and winced. “Fine…but while you’re bearing a sword without a sheath, you’ll only be able to hold on with one hand.”

  Judd nodded. “I know.”

  “When you reach the bottom, drop and roll. If you stiffen your legs, you’ll snap them like twigs.”

  “Got it.”

  “I’m coming too.” Verne announced, swinging his long legs over the wall, gripping a pincer in his hands, his bow hooked over his shoulder.

  “As am I.” Suvau added, setting up on the other side of Judd.

  “Caste?”

  “You’re not getting me on that!”

  “No,” Judd looked over his shoulder, “Giordi was in the village…let him know Aalis is outside the gates.”

  Caste nodded, or trembled, it was hard to tell.

  Judd couldn’t spend another moment in hesitation…or in even looking. He simply turned and slid off the edge of the wall, a yell of terror escaping his lips as he dropped like a stone for a terrible, gut wrenching second before the pincer grip caught the cord and he plummeted towards the ground on an angle, going faster and faster, heading vaguely near the hydra’s back half. His yell was more like a scream as he hurtled through the air, his right arm muscles bulging as they clung to the pincer, his sword braced in his left hand.

  It was only a few seconds to drop from the height of the wall, diagonally to the ground but it was long enough for Judd to question the meaning of his life. Thankfully such musings disappeared when he let go of the pincer and did his best to roll, flinging his sword sideways so he didn’t impale himself on it. His ankle was smarting and he was pretty sure his bladder was empty but Judd scrambled for his sword and, upon finding it, advanced on the hydra.

  But as fast as he ran, he couldn’t reach Aalis before the hydra did.

  Aalis stared at it, still swaying on her feet, the hydra’s heads biting at each other in their eagerness to get close, the distance between them closing within seconds. Fiendish yellow eyes fixed on her, black tongues darted in and out and the tail shimmied, the rattle echoing off the walls. The largest of the heads, the second one that had appeared and not been cut off, snarled into dominance and the other heads hissed and retreated, letting the alpha head rear above Aalis, braced on its tail, its foreclaws swiping the air in anticipation.

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  She could hear her name being called as the hydra readied itself to strike. A hand grabbed her and tried to pull but she was immovable, like a statue.

  “Aalis, run!” Ersha cried, trying to drag her. “Run!”

  Judd couldn’t see Aalis, his view completely dominated by the hydra’s blue/black bulk. So he turned and slashed at the hydra’s body, gouging deep into its hide, splintering scales and splattering green blood across the ground.

  The hydra howled and twisted, heads snapping towards the attacker, its left foreclaw coming down towards Aalis in a lopsided fall, big enough to squash her like a bug and drive her into a shallow grave.

  “Look out!” Ersha screeched, cowering as light was blocked out, the foreclaw plummeting towards them.

  Aalis stared at the rough underfoot of the foreclaw coming down on her…

  …and reached up her hand.

  Ersha was curled on his side, his mind grieving for his twins that would grow up without a father…when he realised he wasn’t dead.

  Stunned, he peered out from behind his hands and saw Aalis standing nearby, her hand raised towards the hydra’s foreclaw. The hydra had seized, convulsing in strange trembles, back and forth, jittering and hissing, its foreclaw frozen only inches from Aalis’ hand. The heads screeched and jerked, almost as if they were trying to get away from the young, defenceless woman.

  Ersha’s wide eyes stared at her, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. The air was full of energy, a strange pull washing over him towards Aalis. He looked at the ground and gasped, the colour leeching out of the grass and bushes, the shrubs curling up and dying and trees splintering as they cracked into blackened, leafless husks. The ground around Ersha was drying as well. He touched some of the fronds and they turned to dust. He lifted his eyes to Aalis, her hair shimmering with a pearlescent lustre and her fingernails, a darkened green.

  He gasped then yelped, scrambling backwards, further and further from Aalis who held the hydra in her small, insignificant grasp.

  At the back of the hydra, Judd couldn’t tell what was going on but the hydra had stalled in its attack and Judd wasn’t about to start questioning why.

  “Verne!” He shouted, unable to see the archer but hoping he was nearby. “Shoot the eyes!”

  “Judd!” Suvau had managed to land on the hydra’s back, sprinting up its long spine towards its heads. “Get ready!” He grabbed two of the heads with his hands and dragged them down with his weight. Judd slashed against their faces and they lurched back, thrashing blindly. “I’ll work on the eyes! You get to the front!”

  Judd nodded and leapt over a low stone wall, weaving his way through the trees that hadn’t been crushed beneath the hydra’s body. He dodged snapping fangs and hissing jaws, the unblinded heads doing their best to bite him in two. He ducked under the hydra’s raised right foreclaw which seemed to be swiping through the air at an invisible enemy and saw Aalis just standing in a patch of land that looked as though it had been scorched with fire. She was unharmed, reaching up to the hydra which was in a state of inexplicable spasm. Its foreclaw could not come down on her.

  Judd looked at where the chest of the hydra was, further away from Aalis than he could lunge.

  “Suvau!” He yelled. “Verne! Get Aalis out of here!”

  He had to trust them to do so, running towards the underbelly of the hydra, heads ducking down to snap at him, twisting to follow him as he hurtled towards its chest, sword raised, mouth filled with a ferocious bellow.

  He plunged his sword into the soft underbelly as far up to the hilt as he could. The hydra howled and writhed, still unable to move its left foreclaw, anchored in place. Judd yanked his sword out and stabbed again and again.

  “Where’s your bloody heart you wretched monster?!” He roared, thrusting over and over, covered in green blood as he made a complete hash of the hydra, scales flying and entrails sloping out over his feet.

  Suddenly it let out an almighty scream and its spasm that had kept it somewhat rigid was broken. Judd looked up as the hydra flailed its heads about, gnashing their fangs and shrieking in agony. Its body began to roll forward and Judd yelped, about to be crushed and unable to move in the sludge of innards.

  “Got you!” Suvau lunged at him, knocking him sideways and out of the path of body of the hydra as it slumped.

  Judd scrambled backwards from its enormous bulk as it thrashed and convulsed, its death throes something terrible to behold. Its tail rattled wildly, smashing against the wall and knocking trees over while its heads hissed, almost tying themselves into knots in agony. Judd clung to his slick sword, coated completely in green blood, staring in shock as the serpent gave a final shuddering spasm then slumped onto the ground, its heads dropping to the earth as if it had been a marionette and someone had cut its strings.

  Somewhere overhead, soldiers were cheering and applauding.

  “Judd LaMogre, monster killer.” Suvau chuckled deeply, his voice resonating in the silence. Judd looked at him, somewhat dazed. “I don’t suppose there’s a hydra on this monster kill list?”

  “No.”

  “Well…maybe you’ll get bonus points.”

  Judd managed to laugh then shuddered, realising just how covered in monster blood he was and that there were entrails caught over his boots which he kicked off with a shudder. “When they tell you about knights and their monster kills…they never mention the mess.”

  “Given the state you’re in, I’m not surprised.”

  Judd wiped his face.

  “Judd?” He looked up and nearly wept in relief. Aalis came stumbling towards him, unharmed, her expression frightened and desperate. “What…happened to you?”

  Judd turned to Verne, who had managed to get her out of the battlefield, shrugged. “She doesn’t remember a thing from the lake to here. It’s like she was sleepwalking.”

  Judd closed his eyes and shook his head. “I…I’m just so relieved you’re safe.”

  “Let’s get you back inside and cleaned up before someone mistakes you for a monster.” Verne held out his hand and pulled Judd to his feet.

  “Let’s hope they’ll open the gates for us.”

  “They should do,” Suvau nodded, “the monster is dead.”

  They headed towards the gate but had not gone more than a dozen yards when the warning bell began to ring out. They all turned and looked up.

  “What now?”

  “What’s that sound?” Suvau frowned. “Whistling?”

  “No, not whistling…” Verne’s eyes widened. “Projectile!”

  “Project…what?!”

  A chunk of burning red rock was hurled over the wall from the south, screaming in its descent, crashing into an orchard, the trees immediately turning into giant candles.

  “The mountain! It’s lost its mind!”

  “To the fort!” Suvau ordered and they bolted as more and more lava bombs were flung over the wall, striking fields, buildings and, fortuitously, the gates into the village. They were torn from their hinges. The people of Maul who had been so unfortunate as to be shut out when the soldiers had closed the gates, grabbed buckets and baskets, throwing water from the moat onto the flames until they could pass through. Aalis whimpered at the flames that snapped at the hem of her gown. Judd scooped her into his arms and lifted her over, his hand naturally finding hers as they sprinted into the village proper, more flaming projectiles striking buildings, the mountain, soaring overhead to burn yet more harvest and even hitting the fort itself. “Yolana!”

  “Let’s get up there!” Judd cried and they sprinted for the slope, Giordi joining them from the throngs of terrified people, Terras and Mauls alike.

  “Glad you found Aalis! I didn’t even get out of the damn gates before they closed.”

  “Did Caste come down here?”

  “Caste? No. Why?”

  “I sent him down from the wall.” Judd shook his head. “I hope he isn’t cowering in a corner somewhere. Whoa!”

  An angry red meteor screamed overhead, striking the slope behind them.

  “That was too close.” Verne shook his head. “We’ve got to get closer to the wall!”

  “Not without Yolana!” Suvau vowed and forced his legs to run faster, taking the turn towards his home. “Yolana!”

  “I’m here.” She flew out of the doorway into his arms. Her eyes darted over their company. “Where is Emeri?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She came down from the fort when the bell sounded but when I turned around she was gone…” Yolana’s eyes were almost wild. “Suvau…where is she?”

  Giordi pushed hooked hands through his cherub curls. “And where in Maul is Caste?”