Shadowscent by P. M. Freestone

Author:P. M. Freestone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

The hissing monstrosity bares its fangs mere inches from Rakel’s face.

I pull her back by the satchel strap and shove her behind me. My pulse quickens, hands and feet tingling as I bring my sword down on the snarling creature.

It shrieks.

This screech is different. Before it was rage. Now it’s an unmistakable cry of pain as the creature shrinks back on itself.

I brace a foot against its carapace and wrench my sword free, the blade dripping with green-black ooze. Whatever these things are, they’re thick-skinned. Tough, too. The wounded creature gathers itself to lunge again, and I barely avoid the snap of mandibles meant for my neck.

“Come on!” I grab Rakel’s hand. “They’re all fully formed. We must be too late in their season.”

More and more larvae are waking around us, roiling in their cocoons, as if their first instinct, no matter what stage they’re at, is to eliminate the invasion. Our invasion.

Rakel tries to pull away. “There’s still one that’s not moving. We have to get to it.”

“More like we have to get away from here!” I pull her out of range of another hissing monstrosity.

But she’s got that stubborn set to her jaw I’m beginning to recognize all too well. She yanks her knife from the belt at her waist. I know she tends it well, but that thing is for harvesting flowers. If she couldn’t pierce the creature’s armor with my dagger, she’ll have no chance with her own blade.

She rounds on me. “If we don’t get what we came for, we’re not just risking our lives, but Nisai’s, too!”

There’s nothing that would let me forget that, but I also haven’t forgotten that Rakel saved my life in the sandstorm. She could have left me there.

If we stay here, I’m not sure I can defend the both of us. But we both need this cure. And Rakel has shown time and time again she’ll make her own choices, regardless of what I think.

I flick the ichor from my sword and square my shoulders.

Then I stride past her and into the fray.

More and more of the larvae nightmares have torn themselves free of their cocoons. They undulate across the forest floor toward us, hissing and spitting and gnashing their pincers. Periodically, one will let out one of those ear-bleeding screeches. Then the others rear up, slamming their front ends back against the ground in rhythmic thuds, as if they’re communicating with the pattern of the beats.

I shudder in revulsion before bringing my sword down across the midsection of the closest beast. It glances along the thing’s carapace before biting deep where two plates meet.

“If any get near you, go for the joints!” I yell. “They’re weak points!”

At the edge of my vision, Rakel’s horse rears and brings her hooves crashing down on the closest monstrosity. Rakel lunges, slapping her hand across the black mare’s rump. “Go!” she shouts.

The horse turns tail and gallops toward the river.

Smart beast.

Pivoting, I avoid the clutches of the next creature, though not quick enough to escape a gash from barbed horns across my forearm.

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