Emissary- Beasts of Burden by Silas Post

Author:Silas Post [Post, Silas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-02T22:00:00+00:00

14

I climbed halfway down, then jumped from the cliff and rolled to a stop. Rikki latched onto me immediately.

“Let’s not start this again,” I said, stroking her horns with the back of my hand. “We have an invasion to curtail.”

“We were always too late,” Jarah said. “I thought Greenloft hadn’t sent its warships from the capital.”

“These are cargo ships, like the others,” I said. “Imagine all the soldiers they could fit inside the hulls. That’s all they need against an undefended island: a corps of guards with sharp swords. They kept their cannons and catapults behind, ready for a separate siege.”

“We saw what they did to Jarah’s brother,” Rikki said. “They will kill every last cyclops before they calm their swords.”

“They will not,” I said, pinching my amulet and centering its gem on my chest. “With Redelia as our witness, we will stop this war. That is why we came, so she could capture the light of an island’s relief at a crisis thwarted. This is the moment we sought, to empower our goddess and revive her resplendent soul. Fate stands on our side!”

We rushed back through the village, passing the houses and shops that lay idle and dark on our first pass. Now, the streets were crowded with cyclopean villagers, rushing from the central square and seeking haven in their homes or down dark alleys.

“Come!” I yelled to the fleeing people that pushed past us. “Let us stand against Greenloft’s assault and turn away their vile aggression!”

Yet, Jarah was the only cyclops willing to confront this war head-on. We ran further into the heart of the settlement as her people fled and cowered.

A royal foot soldier paused in the middle of the path ahead, a sword in one hand and a series of black shackles hanging from his belt.

“Aho,” I yelled, balling my fists and wishing I still had a polearm — or any weapon, really — to meet against his blade.

“Aho,” he said back, appraising the threat we three might pose while his fellow soldiers yelled and fought with Jarah’s people in the square behind him. “We’re here for the one-eyed freaks, not our own kind. You can even keep your pet if you turn back.”

“You shouldn’t have said that,” I replied.

The second the word “pet” escaped that man’s mouth, Rikki bolted forward on all fours, her hooves stamping against the dirt road and her tail whipping to each side behind her. Massive horns, diamond-hard, preceded her as she lowered her head toward the man’s legs.

He pulled a pair of cuffs loose from his belt, two dense bands of black metal connected by an equally black chain. The sword he clasped in his other hand faltered as he focused on the shackles.

Rikki’s horns cracked into the man’s knee and split the bone open audibly, a violent crack that sounded in unison with his agonized scream.

As he fell, bloodied and limp, Rikki turned back and stomped at the ground, prepared to trample over him on her way back toward us.

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