[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.One of the men turned back.Morgynn could see the fire of youth and anger in his eyes.Rhaeme attempted to stop the boy, grabbing at his cloak but missing.The boy drew his ready sword, still protruding from the ground where he'd first drawn his bow.His voice, raised above spell and storm, was full of the early pitch and tone of manhood."As Savras sees, so shall I see you fall!"Morgynn finished her spell in a crescendo of sound, drowning the boy's voice and opening her mouth wide beyond its natural ability.Her scream became a buzz of noise as red-eyed insects flew in a mass from between her thin lips.Each locust was the color of dark wine and onyx.Their eyes glowed, giving the swarm a hellish light as it streamed forward to meet the charging hunter.The boy met the mass head on, swinging his blade valiantly, but the locusts were too many and quickly found small openings in his armor and clothing, landing inside his hood and hungrily feasting on his scalp and neck.Morgynn sighed as her jaw popped and resumed its natural shape.The boy's companions sprinted forward to retrieve their swords, determined to make their ends proud and honorable.Morgynn wondered what thoughts crawled through their minds as the dawning realization came that they would likely die here.Ahead of their grim charge, the boy's writhing body was lifted into the air.His boots scraped the ground for a moment before the momentum of the swarm bore him down, stripping his flesh to the bone.The locusts' buzz drowned the young hunter's muffled screams.Morgynn watched as the warriors advanced.She saw death in their eyes and hated them for their acceptance of it.Righteousness fueled their spirits, and the sight of it sickened her.Whispering a drone of grating syllables, she pulled the threads of the Weave to her will, determined to teach them the true nature of death and their foolish choice born of courage.With a single word, the lead hunter's sword flashed and steamed as cold flames enveloped its length.He screamed as his fingers froze and became fused to the hilt, the flesh burning and brittle.He tried to push past the pain, to wield the weapon against the spell's mistress, but the sword cracked and split, shattering in an explosion of metal that left his arm a cauterized stump and blinded his eyes.The next man was closer, and Morgynn had no time to cast again.She spun away, but his blade glanced across her left arm, opening a small wound that sent shudders throughout her body as her blood recoiled from the open skin.Growling another quick spell, she roared the words madly and swung her right arm around before the man could strike again.Her fingers grew, extending into long, blackened claws like swords of shadow.She raked these across the hunter's face and chest.Like ephemeral knives of ice, they melted through flesh and bone, leaving gaping scars in his spirit and mind.The man's eyes rolled and his arms went limp.Dropping his sword, he spasmed but tried to maintain control of himself.Her claws had rent his mind and he babbled nonsense as he fell to his knees.Rhaeme was last, just a few yards away, and she pitied him for a moment—a morbid, mocking pity as she whispered quietly to the dagger at her belt, freeing the clasp that held it in its sheath.She touched its jeweled pommel once and it flew at her command, slamming into the lone hunter's gut with a force born of old Nar magic.It knocked the wind from his lungs and laid him flat on his back.The carved figures on the dagger's handle squirmed against one another and mouthed quietly.Picking up his dropped sword, she stopped to watch his slow agony.He refused to scream and met her gaze, grasping at the dagger planted in his stomach but unable to pull it free.Her black eyes looked straight through his, not really seeing him, focused on the branching rivers of blood beneath his skin.The bleeding streams of her eyes changed shape on her cheeks, mimicking what she saw inside him.They matched his swift pulse in a red image of twin trees, stripped of leaves and laid bare for winter."They barely know they're alive," she mumbled as the rage bled from her limbs, dispersed by her arcane tantrum, "then they die."Around the pair, the locusts moved from body to body, devouring the fallen and eliciting howls from those not yet passed on.Long she stood, lost in thought as the swarm finished each body, leaving naught but bones under loose armor and clothing.Finally, they gathered in a cloud around her legs and she considered the command that would send them feasting on this last body.Deciding quickly, Morgynn hissed a sibilant word and the swarm faded into thin air, returning to that foul realm that had spawned them."You serve the whores of Savras?" she asked emotionlessly, drained for the moment.The hunter tried to spit, attempting to show some defiance to her face, but it was all he could do to breathe and force back the burning vomit in his throat.His pulse said so much about him.Strong and stubborn, righteous and honest
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]