The Deer Prince's Murder: Book Two of 'Fantasy & Forensics' (Fantasy & Forensics 2) by Michael Angel

Author:Michael Angel [Angel, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Banty Hen Publishing
Published: 2014-05-03T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

“Galen!” I cried. “Stop Wyeth, any way you can!”

Galen let out a very equine-sounding snort. He glanced around at the trees, the tinder-like carpet of pine needles, and let out a curse. But he murmured an incantation and then flung up one arm to shoulder height. A burning, sooty smell filled the air, coated my tongue. Flavor of peppermint-stripe candy tossed onto a sizzling electric hot-plate. Walls of blue energy winked into existence thirty yards ahead of us, spanning a curve in the shape of a half-moon.

“I can only hold this a few seconds,” the wizard gritted, as he held his hand high. “Any longer, and this entire clearing will burst into flame.”

Sure enough, smoke wafted up like steam off of hot coffee everywhere Galen’s projection touched. Shimmering heat rose from the trunks of trees, from leafy underbrush, from the rug of shed needles that coated everything.

A wham! resonated back through the clearing. One of Galen’s walls shimmered as something large hit it.

A pause. The sound of hoofbeats rang anew.

Wyeth erupted out of the greenery next to me like a fawn-colored bullet. Liam pivoted, leapt to one side to intercept him. Galen only had time to cry out as he dropped his hand and his barrier spell winked out.

Time stretched to a crawl as my eyes met Wyeth’s. His were chocolate brown. But where they should have held the cute gentleness of a deer, there was only savagery. I had both hands down, pointing my gun towards the forest floor. My arms moved, but dream-like, they’d only gotten halfway to their destination before the mad Fayleene was upon me.

My face went pale. My knees felt weak.

I took a cue from them and dropped down.

Wyeth’s right-side antler razored the air above me, rippling my hair and making my scalp tingle with a thousand tiny needles of fright. A shower of piney splinters sprayed across my face as the Fayleene’s weapon gouged a four-inch gash from the tree I’d been standing next to.

And like that, time snapped back into focus.

I rolled, giving my leather jacket a nice coating of fine dust. I ended up on my knees, coughing, eyes streaming, as Wyeth barreled past us. Liam took off in pursuit, Galen hot on his heels. Dammit, I was the only one not on four legs and hooves, but I wasn’t about to be left so far behind that I couldn’t do anything.

Ignoring my tearing eyes, I took off like a sprinter from the starting blocks. I didn’t kid myself that I was gaining on my two friends, let alone our quarry, but if Galen managed to get another wall of energy up ahead of Wyeth, I wanted another shot at him.

Rays of sunlight alternately lit my path or left it in cold patches of shade. I leapt over tangles of tree root. Crashed and stomped my way through underbrush, leaving a trail that even a blind forest ranger could track.

Ahead, the forest grew brighter. Maybe it was thinning out, which would be a good thing.

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