The Tethered Blade (The Tether Bond Book 3) by Dan Michaelson & D.K. Holmberg

Author:Dan Michaelson & D.K. Holmberg [Michaelson, Dan & Holmberg, D.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ASH Publishing
Published: 2023-11-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

We reached the first of the Sundered quickly. They were around a small bend in the shoreline, standing and looking back, away from us. We had the element of surprise, and both Veela and I took advantage of it. The Sundered were horrifying creatures. Now that I knew they once had been rangers, they were even more horrifying. They had strange, tense skin, smooth features, and looked as if they had been scarred. They radiated a malevolent energy, though as they stood there, I couldn’t tell what they were doing. Perhaps drawing upon some power? If so, the question remained what they were doing, and why. Whatever it was had to have a purpose.

Veela darted forward, flowing like water, her blade flashing, catching some of the moonlight on the surface of the flat gray blade.

He turned at the last moment, flicking a long, slender blade of his own, blocking her.

I followed, darting after her, and lunged, stabbing in the way that Davond had instructed. I wasn’t using any technique. It was simply a brutal, simple sort of attack.

When I struck, Veela turned, sweeping her blade, and drove it down, piercing the Sundered in the chest. He collapsed.

She looked at me. “That was not what I expected.”

“Harder?”

“Unfortunately easier,” she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “I would’ve thought that I would have a hard time harming someone else, but it seems like it comes all too easy to me.”

“You’ve been a hunter your entire life,” I said. “You are a swamp rat.”

“What am I now?”

“You’re still yourself,” I said.

I couldn’t see anything other than the faint water splashing at the shoreline, the lone figure that lay motionless, and could feel the faded energy of the tether connection that I shared with the drake. It needed to be stronger, I knew, but unfortunately was not.

“I’m not sure that’s what I want to become,” she said. “Maybe that’s what you want, but…”

“It’s not like I want to be a killer,” I said. “But I also understand that sometimes we need to be practical. That’s what our time as swamp rats has taught us.”

“That’s not what it taught me,” she said softly.

“You can go back. Stay with Grellum.”

“I’m not leaving you,” she said.

“Then let’s get moving,” I said.

We jogged forward, staying along the beach, along the shoreline, using that to help guide us.

I could see the waves, the sand shifting beneath it, and occasional creatures—crabs, I suspected—scurrying along the shore as well.

At one point, I noticed something larger that seemed to have emerged from the water before throwing itself back in and disappearing into the waves.

I pointed to it and Veela stared, but she didn’t say anything.

Then we came across another of the Sundered.

Grellum had said that he saw five, but there had to be more than that. For the drake to be captured, they had to have some way of concealing their presence from him, or perhaps the distance from him was enough that it made it difficult for him to see clearly.

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