Chapter Twenty-Two: Flight to the Font

  There was nowhere to go … but the woman with the glowing sword was pulling Xahn along, anyway. The two of them were trapped between the wall of rubble behind them and the wide-open doors to the demonspawn filled Great Hall they were sprinting towards. He watched in horror as several of those huge, ebony lizard men scrambled into the main hallway and started galloping towards them. And the warrior woman his father had called Gabby wasn’t slowing down at all, just barreling forward toward the oncoming monsters.

  “Shouldn’t we be turning or … or something?” Xahn shouted as he stumbled trying to keep up with the woman who held tightly to his hand. He began to panic as he watched the fierce, snarling creatures getting frighteningly close to them.

  “Good idea,” Gabby responded, as if having a conversation over tea. How could she not be out of breath at all? “I hadn’t thought of that.” It took Xahn a second to realize she was teasing him. Without warning, she dropped his hand, leapt forward toward the lizard men, and shouted, “Stay there! Do not move!” Uncertain of what else to do, Xahn did as she told him.

  As the woman jumped at the monsters, the group split up, some running directly at her, two crawling and high speeds along both walls, and another two running across the ceiling. Their long, hooked claws dug deeply into the white stone of the hallway, leaving ugly scars in the once-beautiful architecture. Xahn could see the creatures were surrounding the dark-skinned warrior woman. He was certain they would overcome her in seconds and continue to sprint headlong to kill him.

  He was wrong.

  Just as they all reached for Gabby at once, the warrior woman gave a defiant shout, spun in midair, and swung her glowing golden sword in complex patterns that were too quick for Xahn to follow. By the time she landed, so did multiple dark, wet chunks of the lizards. The spray of their black blood remained suspended in the air, descending gradually, like a raincloud from which pieces of lizard fell. They hit the marble floor with soft, damp sounds.

  “Hurry!” Gabby told him in a desperate whisper, holding out her free hand. “That blood cloud will only block their vision for a few seconds. We have to—” The warrior woman stopped abruptly and stared at what appeared to be a shadow in the corner of the ceiling. Without so much as a twitch from her, the glowing sword shot a bolt of what looked like golden lightening into the dark corner. The shadow shrieked and fell to the floor, limp and unmoving.

  “Damn,” the dark-skinned woman quietly cursed. “Phantombats. I haven’t seen their like in … well, not since the Void.” She remained in a crouched position and slowly pivoted on one foot, her eyes darting about the ruined hallway. “There are at least a dozen more in this part of the building that I can see.”

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  “What are they?” Xahn asked breathlessly, finally finding his voice.

  “Spies,” Gabby told him. “The eyes and ears of the Goblin Horde. Not dangerous of themselves, but with them—”

  A high-pitched screeching roar rang out all around them. Several enormous fiends burst through the thinning cloud of black blood, bat wings flapping up a hurricane and sharp teeth gnashing grotesquely beneath eyes like pits of night. Before Xahn could finish a gasp of shock and terror, two of the beasts lay on the floor without heads or wings. He didn’t even seen Gabby jump, but he saw her land before him in a read-to-fight-pose, crouching with one leg close, the other outstretched. She held the sword before her in one hand, steadied herself on the floor with the other, her head up, eyes darting about the room looking for danger.

  Gabby didn’t have long to wait.

  The remaining creatures swooped down from the high ceiling in tight formation. Instantly, they were upon the young man and the warrior woman. Before Xahn could breathe, Gabby grabbed him with her free hand and pulled him close to her. She dragged him down low to the floor and swung the brilliant sword overhead with the blade flat, parallel to the ground. Xahn shut eyes tightly in fear, but a golden light filtered through his lids. He felt rather than saw the dome of light cover them and the crackling thump of energy as the flying monsters tried to penetrate it over and over again.

  Three snicking sounds penetrated the sword’s shield, one after another in quick succession. Then there was total silence. Xahn cracked open one eye and peeked out. Gabby still crouched over him, sword held overhead, golden light streaming out of the blade in a vault of protection around them. No shadowy figures could be seen through the brilliant glow—no flying monsters attacking.

  “They’re gone,” said a confident female voice on the other side of the light. “But we need to get moving. More are coming.”

  Gabby stood up, the glowing shield vanishing as she did. Xahn also got unsteadily to his feet and his breath caught. Standing before the young man and the warrior was a Hahnin woman dressed in a torn and dirty yellow dress. There were four dead gnal at her feet.

  “Ginsook,” Gabby said. “You are Dool-jjeh Dahr-uee DDahl. I saw your brands. I wasn’t aware you and your sisters could handle demonspawn.”

  “We’ve never had to before. I think I did alright.”

  “You did a damn site better than alright,” Gabby—M’Randa—told her. “But as you said, we have to get moving. Valen and his soldiers aren’t going to give up until all humans on Neworld are either enslaved or dead.”

  “You can’t get out the way we came in,” Ginsook reasoned out loud. “And I don’t recommend trying to crawl through the wreckage in the hallway like I did. It’s too unstable.” She turned toward Xahn and M’Randa. “You must be heading to the Font.”

  “How did you … never mind! Could you help us get there?” M’Randa asked. “We could really use someone to watch our backs.”

  “That’s why I’m here,” said the Hahnin woman. “Oh, and to give you this.” She held out her hand. In it was Ekatern’s diadem.

  Tentatively, Xahn reached out and took the silver ring with the green crystal. “My sister Dahn sent you, didn’t she?” Xahn asked.

  “She did. She told me her mother directed her to do it. I assume your mother … has passed away.” Xahn nodded, but before he could say anything, M’Randa interrupted them and said, “They’re on the move. Let’s go!”