The Night of the Hyenas (Shioni of Sheba Book 6) by Marc Secchia

Author:Marc Secchia [Secchia, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2017-06-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14: Night of the Hyenas

DUCKING HER HEAD TOWARD the black silk where she had entered, Shioni recoiled as an unseen body slammed into her shoulder from the outside, knocking her back against the couch. Samira made no sound whatsoever, but she sensed the lioness’ attack. Yelling something like, ‘Other way!’ and, ‘Lions! Lions in the camp!’ Kifle’s footsteps dashed along the tent’s flank. The heavy material folded away from a running cut he opened with his dagger, exposing the camp to the Captains’ startled gaze. Half-seeing, half-sensing the thrashing blow of a sword, Shioni rolled beneath the couch. Trapped! No. Grabbing the unprotected ankle right in front of her nose, she sank her strong teeth into the man’s lower calf muscle with the enthusiasm of Samira tucking into a choice hunk of meat.

“Lion!” screeched the man.

Close enough. Palming her sword, Shioni began to pull herself through the couch’s squat legs, only for a blade to hiss narrowly past her skull. She struck out as best she could, hampered by the narrowness of her rather ill-chosen concealment, she realised now.

“Aduk!” With a mighty roar, the Hyena-Man knocked over a brazier as he sprang for her.

What followed was almost comical. Aduk’s upraised right paw snagged in the tent’s roof, twisting his body mid-air so that she glimpsed a huge, stitched-up wound on his belly before Aduk crashed hips first into the couch, cutting off the cries of the man up there with horrible finality. The tough old wood cracked but did not splinter; instead, the huge beast’s momentum took him over the couch, flipping it onto its side, and half of the tent followed, swaddling them all in layers of very heavy cloth. Aduk thrashed about, bellowing horribly, but only succeeded in snarling himself tighter and tighter in the folds. Shioni took a couple of free stabs at his flanks – or whatever part of his body was nearby, she did not truly care – before she smelled smoke, and realised the danger she was in.

Sawing away with the sword, Shioni cut herself free, gratefully accepting Kifle’s strong hand to haul her out and … WHOOOSH! The tent fabric burst into flame. Aduk screamed an eerie, ululating wail, thrashing about as he dragged the blazing tent, its furnishings and at least one of the Captains across the camp, razing several further tents in the doing. He rolled over and over in a blind panic, perhaps trying to snuff out the flames, but every time he stopped for some reason the fabric caught alight once more. Chaos! If Captain Yirgu was watching, he could not have asked for a clearer signal – the Wasabi and Nubians were creating more than enough of a hullabaloo on their own.

As they stood side by side, gaping at the spectacle which had already destroyed a dozen tents, Kifle said, “Aduk’s having a bad week, isn’t he?”

Shioni laughed, “Too right!”

Samira swirled past, taking a flying swipe at a Wasabi warrior. “Mired in mud? Come on!”

They ran!

* *

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