The Green Wyvern: Volume One by Matt Heppe

Author:Matt Heppe [Heppe, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

Another porter, Mikhel. And top it off if you would. It was a bloody fight, and it left some scars. Some of your porter will make the telling easier. Bah, if only your porter would help me forget! That would be a blessing.

Shall I set the stage for you? Caelor and I stood by the passage we’d all entered through. Directly across from us, Vassryn and Garwulf were inspecting the tracks on the floor. And to our right, Ulutai stood watch near the barricade. He was the most attentive of all of us, and it was a good thing he was, as the greatest danger came at us from that direction. No one watched the passage to our left.

Our enemies came at us from all four directions. It was a perfectly coordinated attack. Ghouls and their revenant leader, the Wolf of Darra. Why was it perfectly coordinated? Well, I only learned the reason much later, but pyren and revenants have a special bond with ghouls—can send them messages in their minds—at least that’s how it was explained to me.

As I said before, at the moment of the attack, I was somewhat distracted by the smudge of dirt on Caelor’s brow. Even as I say it now, it sounds ridiculous. What can I say? I was seventeen and easily distracted. I heard a shout and then a horrible wail from the corridor. Caelor thrust out her staff before I could react, and there was a brilliant flash of light and a thunderclap. The light blinded me for several heartbeats.

I heard warning shouts and cries of alarm from every entrance. Just by happenstance, I was facing the unguarded hallway—the one to the left as we entered—and when my eyes cleared, I saw four ghouls come boiling out of it. Two came for me while two went for Vassryn and Garwulf.

Ghouls—they are a hideous sight. Thin, wasted, pale with black eyes. They wear the clothes they wore in life but take no care of them and are often in rags or are naked. They are fast and have a vicious animal cunning. Their only thought is to consume your life force in service of the master who created them.

They carry no weapons—I think they lack the wits to use them—but seek instead to grapple you and rip your flesh with their hands and teeth. Yes, they consume your flesh, but with the dark magic that created them, they do more than that—they draw the life force from your body.

They came for me faster than I’d ever seen any human move. Luckily, they had to cross some distance to get to me. I stepped in front of Caelor, whirled my threshal, and brought the flail head down on the nearest ghoul. I just clipped the side of its head—the brunt of my blow came down on its shoulder. The sound of shattering bones could be heard across the room as the impact drove the ghoul to the floor.

Before I recovered for another swing, the second ghoul was on me, so I instead smashed it in the face with my threshal’s staff.

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