The Misjudgment by Justin DePaoli

Author:Justin DePaoli [DePaoli, Justin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Conduit Books
Published: 2016-06-14T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

We were a good three hundred feet away when their heads swiveled around. About ten feet later, the prisms framing their eyes flared across the beady ground.

“Balls!” cried Mamus. His boar, which had headed the charge, squealed like it’d been stuck with a hot poker, then catapulted head over heels.

Mamus soared through the air like a bowl of jelly, flopping and flapping. I imagined he landed, but I didn’t get to see that part.

Soon as the torrent of vibrant colors washed over my boar, there was another squeal. The tiny-hoofed animal twisted, turned and lost his balance. That was the moment a coin-sized chunk of flesh was ripped from my face. I skidded across the ground, tumbling over and over, losing my helmet in the process.

“Lavery!” someone shouted.

“There, there! Go over there. No, over — fucking hell.”

The voices seemed to echo endlessly in my skull, dying off into disconnected whispers.

I lay on my back, looking into a blurry sky. Feeling the breath leaving my chest faster than it was coming in.

Footsteps raced from somewhere nearby, their thumps rippling into my bruised side.

As…

Ast…

Astul.

“Astul!” That voice shot into the side of my head suddenly and sharply. “You’re bleeding, but not bad. Can you feel—”

Tink.

A piece of blue agate, no bigger than a clipped nail from your finger, deflected off Lysa’s pauldrons and fell onto my chest.

She turned her head in the direction of what appeared to be the personification of savagery.

And savagery was walking toward us.

“Get up, get up!” Lysa urged.

She yanked at my arm, attempting to pull me to my feet. After a few tries, I finally had the clarity of thought to act with a little urgency, and sat up.

“Fuck!” I said, throwing myself into Lysa, knocking her to the ground. A fan of splintered gems whizzed overhead.

The Custodian strolled forth, a bodily illumination of jasper and malachite and bloodstone and a hundred other gems, all glinting. Pieces dislodged themselves, breaking from the Custodian’s arms and legs and torso, as if invisible fingers were prying them away. They hovered in the air for a moment, then shot outward, racing toward Lysa and me.

Tink, tink, tink. They deflected away harmlessly.

A shadow lurched in from the violet haze.

“Hey, you ugly bastard!”

The Custodian turned, spinning a brilliant flash about. Lavery’s sword cut through the air and sliced into the gemmed side of the creature. Chunks of rubies and sapphires fell to the ground.

“Oh, shit,” I said, watching as Lavery struggled to free his sword. “Stay here. Do some crazy stuff like you did to the Wardens if we get in trouble.”

“But—”

I didn’t stick around to hear Lysa’s buts and what-ifs. I had to go. We couldn’t afford to lose Lavery, or any member of Orell’s crew. The time for their sacrifice hadn’t come just yet.

With an ache in my ribs and burning gashes across face, I willed myself to my feet. One step later, something clonked against my greaves.

“Good idea,” I said to Lysa, grabbing my helmet and taking off.

Lavery collapsed into a heap, his face smashed in by a jeweled fist.

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