Chapter 11, Part 2

Shadow Fang

Back inside the general store, Edana prevailed upon Sheridan to help her lay down a rug on the main floor path leading from the front door. The eight foot circle of silk and wool served her purposes nicely. The effort of moving it, and their desire for silence meant bought her time before she would explain her purpose.

“What’s coming for us has excellent hearing,” was all she said, and put a finger to her lips.

Once they finished, Sheridan crossed to the center of the rug and faced the doorway. Arms folded across his chest, his posture exuded impatience. But he said nothing as she took a coin pouch from her belt. The fruit of her labors in her earlier office raids. From the pouch she drew forth a Zanbellian coin. Moonboow steel. The light of the lunar rainbow, brought to Thuraia when the Huntress pulled it from the sky and sowed it across the world.

And now, proverbial bullets for her sling.

Starting from the back, behind Sheridan, Edana set down coins along inner edge of the rug. When she came to Sheridan’s right he glanced at her. Again she put her finger to her lips. She continued on, along the edge of the rug. She left nothing in her pouch, covering circumference of the circle. Sheridan now arched an eyebrow, clearly intrigued.

Edana came to stand beside him in the center of the rug. “Now,” she whispered. “De-activate your wand.”

Without waiting for his response, she removed her flame-shaped glowlight from its oil-lamp shaped base. Immediately the room darkened. After a moment’s hesitation, Sheridan unsheathed his sacred knife. Then he uttered a word. Shadows descended at once, swallowing them up so they could not see each other.

In the darkness Edana fingered her silver bracelet, tracing with her finger the Eitanite symbol for life engraved into it.

Pat-pat.

Pat-pat.

Pat-pat.

Closer. Shadow Fang’s footsteps on the snow grated on Edana’s nerves.

“What’s coming for us?” Sheridan demanded. Then he lowered his voice again. “What did you expect to find at the cistern?”

“It’s more what I was hoping not to find. Do you know of battles?”

Silence. In her mind’s eye Edana pictured him staring at her as if she were crazy.

After a while he said, “What does it matter? Were you a soldier?”

“No. Most of what I know of war comes from my father’s stories. When he was my age, he was conscripted into the legions of Rasena Valentis. He served with Bessa’s father. What concerns us now is what he said concerning tactics. If the goal of an army is to destroy they will burn the crops, salt the fields, and poison the wells. If their goal is conquest they will do none of those things, because the crops, the field, and the wells will belong to them.”

“And …?”

“The Conservationists slew the Unificationists and tossed their bodies into the cisterns. Which means they had no intention of returning to this fortress. They didn’t mean to re-use it. And they meant for the survivors of their massacre to die. Athyrii people. Though we call them Zanbellians, their ancestors were from Athyr-ai. Tregarde said the Athyrii of old didn’t share our perception of death magics. And I believe him, because of something my father experienced.”

Pat-pat.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Their stalker had reached the barricades. Mundane carts and wagons would not deter it, Edana knew, so she put no faith in them. Steeling herself, she took two steps forward, and maneuvered herself in front Sheridan.

“Stay behind me,” she said.

Fulfilling her expectations, loud crashes filled the air. Ah, so Shadow Fang was indeed corporeal. Papa was right about that.

Then came the growl. Loud, guttural, and deep.

Heart pounding, Edana fixed her gaze in the direction of the doorway.

Yellow eyes peered back at her.

“What is that?” Sheridan no longer bothered with a whisper. Not that she blamed him; stealth was not an option now that the enemy could see them. And she knew their enemy sensed them. Sensed Sheridan in particular.

Movement behind her told her Sheridan was charging forward. Likely he intended to stand beside her and face the monster. Immediately she shot her free hand out at the height of his chest, smacking into it.

“Stay behind me,” she snapped. “This is their enforcer. Shadow Fang. Note how the eyes are low to the ground. That’s because she takes the form of a crocodile. Stay behind me.”

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To her gratification, Sheridan did as she asked. Trusting her? “A crocodile?”

“In Karnassus,” she continued, “a sorcerer sowed darkness. He did so by breaking all of the customs of the Athyrii concerning their dead. No burials, no entombment or rituals. Just murdered people and left their bodies hidden in hard to find places. Papa said the sewers were a favorite spot. Cellars, too. And then, in the cover of night, the sorcerer invoked Shadow Fang. She Who Swallows Souls. Intercepting the souls of the dead so they couldn’t even go to the Place of Judgment. Not to the Everlasting, or the Abyssal Serpent.”

“Another kind of Interceptor?”

Edana jolted, struck by his insight. “Yes…”

Crack!

The crocodile snapped its jaws. And ever forward came the yellow eyes.

Right over the eagle-eye symbol of the Huntress it stepped.

The battle joined, Edana crossed her wrist over her face.

The beastly thing sees all too well in the dark.

So Papa had groused in his telling of the story. For him the dark-sight of Shadow Fang was a bane. But its ability suited her purposes just fine: the symbols on her bracelet would be visible to the monster’s eyes.

Ssssss!

Shadow Fang’s hiss told her it recognized her now as a threat.

Now Edana spoke loudly, allowing her voice to ring out into the darkness. “I know what you are. Shadow Fang. She Who Swallows Souls. I am no meal for you.”

The boast must have angered Shadow Fang, for she snapped her jaws again. Boldly, Edana stepped forward.

Insatiable. That croc starts feasting on the dead. Starts. But that’s not how it ends.

“Have you starved here, Shadow Fang? No one to eat after all this time? You’re hungry?”

Of course. Shadow Fang was territorial. Never did it stray from the place of its first victims. That was the infernal genius of the spell. But the soul-swallower would sense Sheridan. Sense him, and hunger for him.

“Don’t come closer, or I will destroy you,” Edana threatened.

Thwap!

Shadow Fang’s tail, perhaps, lashing the floor.

A challenge? Well, then. Fall back.

One step back.

Clickety-click-click as crocodile claws scrambled against the stone floor.

“Your doom shall be sweet,” Edana replied.

Second step.

This time, she reached back, her fingers grasping for Sheridan’s clothes. In answer he seized her hand, yanking her backwards. Yelping in surprise, she crashed into his chest. But Sheridan held steady, and Edana righted herself quickly.

At that moment, Shadow Fang lunged. Hot, fetid air washed over Edana as the shadow-crocodile snorted.

“Light! Light, Sheridan!”

Silvery light bloomed. All at once the room was illuminated, birthing light and shadow both.

That was when they saw it. Only a hand’s-breadth from Edana, a powerfully built, nine-foot long crocodile snapped its jaws. Its eyes narrowed in the brightness. The beast growled, in rage or challenge or both. To their shock and horror, Shadow Fang reared up at once on its tail. Should it crash down it would land right on top of them …

With eye-blink speed Sheridan dodged. Taking Edana with him, he made for the right of the circle.

Edana unsheathed her moon bow-steel knives. “By the light of the heavens I banish you! By the Life Giver, I abjure you!”

Shadow Fang crashed down. Denied her prey, she whirled, facing Edana and Sheridan.

Rays of light shot up from the floor. Each filament of light, sized according to the coins Edana had planted, shot forward and joined the white flames of Edana’s knives. She crossed both knives over her face, directing them outward towards the crocodile.

She Who Swallows Souls reared up once more. But the roar died in her throat as the light pierced her shadowy bulk. Pinpricks of light formed in her belly.

Then came the screams of agony. Loud, long wails.

Souls.

Edana’s breath caught, but her hands did not waver. Fearlessly she advanced upon the now-helpless devourer of souls.

“Release them! Release them and begone!”

Whether Shadow Fang willed it or not, her jaws opened. Wide. And wider. Torrents of golden light poured from her mouth. Still her jaws widened, unhinged.

With a war cry, Sheridan flung out his knife. As though plunging into a pool the knife struck deep into Shadow Fang’s belly.

All at once golden waves of light burst through her jaws and belly. Against such light, She Who Swallows Souls dissolved.

Shadow Fang was no more.

Golden columns of light swirled around her and up, up, up. Into the ceiling and through it. So entranced was she that Edana stood motionless, staring slack-jawed.

Souls. She had freed souls. Whatever eternal fate awaited them, they could go to them now, unhindered. Their gratitude washed over her.

Thank you.

This voice on the wind she did not mind at all. A tear came to her eye, and she let it flow freely.

“You’re welcome,” she replied.

Sheridan’s touch on her arm broke her reverie. “Look.”

Her gaze followed where his finger pointed, and her heart somersaulted.

Outside, nothing was obscured in darkness. Now, at long last, daylight covered them.

Triumphant, Edana ran outside, Sheridan fast on her heels.

Though the edges of the inner complex remained in darkness, for everything else within a radius of the main square, daylight had come.

Edana squinted upward, in search of a sun. But no such celestial orb graced the sky. Where was the light coming from? Neither moon nor star showed itself to them, either.

Again, Sheridan broke her reverie. “So this is how we fight. Let’s go get the others.”