Dragons on the Sea of Night by Eric Van Lustbader

Author:Eric Van Lustbader
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497654945
Publisher: Open Road Media

ELEVEN

EVE

Chiisai was dying, slowly and painfully, as Kaijikan had predicted. Without the magus’s protection, the invisible energy of the ancients was seeping into her bones, intent on eating her from the inside out. On the other hand, it was more than likely that the wounds inflicted by Kaijikan would kill her first.

Chiisai opened her eyes. The reed torch had burned itself out, but fitful illumination was provided by the veins of the white metallic substance in the earth floor of the cavern. She knew she had lost a lot of blood; she had trouble breathing. Her lungs felt full and there was a pink froth at the corners of her mouth.

Death crouched beside her, stinking, its bones bleached a hideous yellow-white, cracked with age. It hunkered close to her, her sole companion. She was a warrior, and death did not frighten her. But she had never imagined dying, lost and alone, life seeping from her, second by agonized second. Defeat in battle, an honorable death, was one thing. This was quite another.

She felt the fear creeping through her as death spread its clanking arm across her shivering shoulders. No! she thought. I cannot allow this! I will not! But she knew there was no way out for her. She had neither the strength nor the stamina to crawl her way out of the cavern. And even if by some miracle she managed that, then what? She did not know how long she had been unconscious and by the time she made it out of the mouth – if she could – she would no doubt be so saturated with the death in here, she would die anyway.

Oh, it was cold! She could feel death’s chill breath on her cheek and she shivered, then coughed, hacking up blood. This frightened her even more and she determined to move. Where? Anywhere; do anything but sit here and wait for death’s icy kiss.

She turned her head convulsively away from her companion and that was when she saw her dai-katana stuck horizontally in the fissure.

The Bridge.

An idea was forming in her mind. It was so lunatic that for an instant she thought surely the invisible energy was already destroying her from within. Then she threw her head back and laughed. Why not try it? she told herself. What did she have to lose – her life? She laughed again, a harsh, sardonic noise that rattled through the cavern like the last wheeze of the damned.

Terrified, she pressed her back hard against the cavern wall and tried to stand. She cried out more times than she cared to count and, more than once, her breath failed her and the cavern spun around crazily. She concentrated on breathing, spitting blood, and going on, moving on rubbery legs along the wall, until she could reach out and grab the hilt of her dai-katana. Then, she climbed upon the flat of it.

What she was about to do terrified her to such an extent that she had to shut

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