The Killing Fog (The Grave Kingdom) by Wheeler Jeff

Author:Wheeler, Jeff [Wheeler, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-02-29T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Truth of All Things

Bingmei dodged the beasts, rushing away from them. The mother lion was about to snatch her in its jaws when she reached into her pocket and invoked the cricket. She was far enough from the walls that the magic worked, just as she’d hoped. Bounding high and far, she sprang like the creature whose likeness she held in her pocket until she’d outdistanced the lions. Then she ran as fast and hard as she could. Bingmei’s heart pounded until it hurt, her lungs burning with the exertion. The broken rocks spilled away, making the footing unstable. But still she felt the presence of the unseen guardian. She risked a glance over her shoulder and nearly tripped. Her vision doubled, and she saw something huge and black soaring over the walls. Something made out of nightmares.

She saw spiny wings and huge yellow eyes that burned like coals. Compared to this creature, the lion sentries were smaller than puppies. It squatted on the rooftop like a man, cords of muscle rippling beneath its scales as it gripped the balustrade with two longer armlike appendages. It was wreathed in shadow that seemed to exude from it in tendrils like smoke. And then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, it blinked out of view. There and then gone and then there again, sniffing the icy air, staring at them balefully.

She knew it was a dragon, and yet it was nothing like the images she’d seen carved into stone. No craftsman could capture the malice. No artist’s skill could evoke such danger. She’d seen its huge shadowy wings hulking on its back. It blinked out of sight again, but she could still sense its presence.

They had awoken a dragon from the past. The certainty of it chilled her heart. The Dragon of Night was not just a season of darkness. It was darkness personified. And although she didn’t understand how, she knew in her heart it was an extension of Echion. That the two were inextricably linked.

She felt but didn’t see the great beast swoop off the roof toward her.

The panic that flooded her heart made her run all the faster. Kunmia and the others were scrambling toward the ice caves, spurred on by her urgency.

It was coming for her. She pumped her arms, racing against the inevitable. How could she outrun something that could fly?

And yet she reached the low-hanging shelf of ice. She plunged into the tunnel, her strength renewed, and felt the monster veer away. A wave of its stench followed her into the tunnel, and she recognized the smell as that of the man who had awakened from the sleep of death.

Bingmei stopped after turning the corner, huddling against a pillar of melting ice, and began to weep. She gasped for breath, trying to control the raw feelings that raged inside her like a storm, but it was impossible. Again she wondered what she had done. Was it her power that had awakened the monster? She’d

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