Dragons Don't Eat Meat (Valkyrie Bestiary Book 1) by Kim McDougall

Author:Kim McDougall [McDougall, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal
Publisher: WrongTree Press
Published: 2020-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter

19

There was no light at the end of the tunnel. We followed a narrow passage that sloped steeply upward, then turned down at a gentle angle and came out into a dark wood.

Simone didn’t hesitate, but pulled out a machete and cut through the undergrowth. The rest of us followed, pushing branches out of the way. Behind us, the bushes and trees were already regenerating. Within a few hours there would be no sign of our passage.

These impenetrable forests were common in the world left after the Flood Wars. Wards spent as much magic fighting back the encroaching foliage as they did protecting themselves from rival wards. Alchemists spouted all kinds of theories for the bizarre landscapes in the Inbetween. Some proposed that the bombs dropped during the war damaged ley-lines and so the magic ran amok. Others suggested that the sheer number of dead twisted the burgeoning magic.

I had another theory. I could feel it humming up through the soles of my feet. Every leaf on every branch tingled with it. The magic of the world. Terra was alive and sentient. And she was pissed at the humans crawling all over her like vermin.

Sheet lightening flashed but only seemed to highlight the darkness under the the trees. We stopped at a small stream to fill our canteens. No one spoke.

A branch cracked behind us and we all turned. The darkness was absolute. I held my breath waiting for some giant mutant badger to jump at us. Five agonizing seconds passed and nothing.

Ollie whined and hid behind Angus.

“Just a wee night critter,” Angus said. “Probably more afraid of us, than we are of it.”

I doubted that.

We moved on, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something watched us.

An hour later, the forest ended abruptly at the edge of a cliff, like some god had taken a giant cleaver and cut away the land. Below us, cattle grazed on a massive plain, the glowing grasses reflecting back on the low-hanging clouds.

“Look.” Simone pointed to a section of blackened grass that the cows avoided. Lightning filled the sky and thunder rumbled in the distance.

“What is it?” Mason asked.

“Dragon fire,” Simone said. “They came, burned the land and took the cows. We lost nearly a quarter of the herd.”

I squinted into the darkness. The scorch marks looked odd.

“They’re too regular, almost like footprints,” I said. “Are you sure these were made by dragons?”

“What else?” Simone scowled.

“Well, we’d better get all our ducks on the same page and check out those marks up close,” Angus said. He was chewing on the root of some plant he’d found, and his words were even more mangled than usual.

Ollie peered over the edge of the cliff and I dragged him backward before he got any ideas about flying.

“Is there some way down?” Mason asked. He wasn’t looking over the plains though. He stared into the shadows between the trees we had just left. So I wasn’t the only one feeling the creeping stare of unseen eyes on us.

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