Clara Mandrake's Monster by Ibrahim S. Amin

Author:Ibrahim S. Amin [Amin, Ibrahim S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Debonair Walrus
Published: 2017-12-12T18:30:00+00:00

10

The dagger froze. Moonlight caught its point and danced in the stranger's eyes. He gawped at Fahmaia's face. The weapon moved again. She kicked out. Both heels thumped his chest, knocked him back on his rear.

"Enemies!" Fahmaia let loose a noise like a hawk's cry. The Kharji danger signal tore through the night and her voice chased it. "Enemies!"

Bodies stirred nearby, dark shapes crawled onto the hilltop. She clutched at Allat's Earring. Her foe dived forward, seized the middle of the scabbard, yanked the weapon away. But her fist closed around its handle and she pulled. The sword flashed. His dagger thrust.

The mawlana hacked his elbow and the man screamed. Blood spurted from his stump. She slashed him across the chest and his life gushed out. Its warmth splashed her face.

"Allat!" Jamsheed struggled on his back, wrestled with the woman above him. "Goddess, help me!"

The woman tore her arm free, raised her club. Fahmaia cut and Allat's Earring sheared through her head. Half the woman's skull slid away. Lengths of hair fluttered in the moonlight.

Figures dashed across the hilltop. Kharji war cries bellowed in their wake. The mawlana's warriors stood in good array now, dishevelled as they were. Their enemies scrambled back down the hill.

"Allatu Akbar!" Jasmina ran after them, waved her sword around her head. It became a beam of pure silver. "Unbeliever scum!"

"Jasmina, wait!"

Fahmaia tried to catch her arm but missed. Jasmina charged down the hill, and a couple of the others moved to follow.

"No." The mawlana waved them back. "Stay here."

She sprinted, and was off the hilltop too fast to know if they heeded her. Shadows hurtled away below — as though they'd routed the darkness itself. Her foot caught on a rock. She lurched, scrambled, almost tumbled. But Fahmaia found purchase at the last moment and leapt onto the ground beneath.

Steel glinted ahead, vanished, glinted again. Jasmina still swung her sword, and it flashed like a sentry's signal. The mawlana flew towards it.

"Stop!"

"Argh!"

Something splashed. Fahmaia grabbed an arm, pulled the woman backwards. Jasmina's leg broke free with a second splosh. Stench wafted from the water. Rotten eggs and decaying vegetables.

"We can't blunder through a swamp in the darkness." Fahmaia drew her further back. Ahead, silhouettes disappeared and footfalls faded after them. "They know where to tread. We don't."

Jasmina panted. Water dripped from her leg.

"Sorry, mawlana. I-"

"Let's get back to the others."

They found them tending to their wounds. Two bodies lay in the camp, but neither wore Kharji garb.

"Who was on watch?"

"Samir," Jamsheed said. "He took over from me."

Only four warriors sat or squatted on the hilltop. Fahmaia pursed her lips. Jamsheed followed her gaze.

"Should I… Should I search for him, mawlana?"

"Tend to that cut. I'll look. Jasmina, dry yourself and help the others."

Fahmaia lit a lamp and shuffled down the slope in its glow. She paced around the foot of the hill, walked almost its full width before she found him. Samir lay in a heap. His head lolled, limbs straggled as though in the middle of a swimmer's stroke.

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