"Are you crazy?" the warrior growled. "Keep going! Trying to escape us will do you no good!"
When Uther looked back at them, there was victory in his eyes.
"You fools!" he said. "Don't you see? There is no escape. The process has already begun. And as I told your herbmistress and your acolyte, even I do not know what form it shall take."
Almost as soon as Uther had finished speaking, the shrieking began. At first it was soft and distant, coming from somewhere down the tunnel. Then it increased in volume. A strange cross between the sound of a woman screaming and the wind rising from the worst possible storm, the noise quickly flooded the passageway. A ferocious wind erupted and tore down the tunnel. Its force nearly knocked them down.
The wind extinguished the wall torches, and darkness descended. Flavius reached for his flint and steel to light the torch he had brought. But even if he could have struck a flame, it would have been unnecessary, for the passageway was soon bathed in a different kind of glow. From the far end of the tunnel, three balls of azure light careered toward them.
As they raced toward Flavius, Agrippa, and Uther, their light grew in intensity. They were each about half as tall as a fully grown man, and jagged bolts of white light careened to and fro within their depths. The closer they got, the louder they shrieked, and the wind intensified to the point that Uther and the warriors could barely stand. Then the rushing lights began to change.
The fireballs had morphed into demonic faces, with dark blue slanted eyes and mouths full of long, pointed teeth. As they sped down the tunnel, the awful mouths opened wider. Screeching and howling, the first of them took Uther up in its jaws.
It bit into him at his waist and picked him up as if he weighed nothing. As the thing's teeth crunched powerfully down into flesh and bone, Uther screamed. With savage, grunting sounds, the thing shook him back and forth as if he were a rag doll, then began to crash him against solid rock. Uther's head split open, and the demon dropped his corpse to the floor. Uther's blood dripped lazily from its mouth.
The beast looked at the two warriors, and let go a deranged laugh. Then it turned to look at the two other faces that waited there. As if giving its permission, it smiled. In a flash, the other demons set upon the Minions.
Flavius and Agrippa frantically swung their swords, but to no avail. The razor-sharp blades of their dreggans passed harmlessly through the monsters. The demons opened their glowing jaws and ravaged Flavius and Agrippa in the same manner they had Uther. Soon the tunnel floor was awash in blood, and three mangled bodies lay still in the puddles.
Their task complete, the demonic faces melted back into azure balls, which streaked back the way they had come. With their passing, the shrieking and the wind stopped, and the wall torches came alive again. When Faegan heard the terrible sound and saw the azure light flashing within the tunnel, he knew that something had gone terribly wrong.
"Everyone to either side of the entrance!" he shouted to the Minions crowded around him. "Hurry-your lives depend on it!"
But for many of them it was already too late. There was a terrible shrieking sound, and then three azure energy balls rushed out of the tunnel. Those troops that couldn't get out of the way were vaporized instantly.
After careening around the area for a few moments, the balls slowed and then vanished altogether. Faegan looked around. The occasional smoking boot or blackened dreggan was all that remained of many who had followed him here. The stench of burning flesh hung in the air. Closing his eyes for a moment, the ancient wizard hung his head.
Then his wizard's mind started working again, and he came to a stark realization. How could I have been so blind? he thought.
As he expected, the ground began to shake. It started gently at first, but it quickly grew to such intensity that the village's buildings started to collapse. The surviving warriors could barely stand. The wind began to howl, sending dirt and debris whirling into the air, blinding them all.
Thunder rumbled over the earth and lightning cascaded across the sky. To the Minions who had never experienced this phenomenon, it seemed that the world was about to end.
As the bluffs shook, the connecting stone latticework that had trapped Faegan and his warriors began to crack. The cracks grew quickly, snaking through the stone web and breaking it apart. Tons of certain death rained down upon the warriors.
Hoping to save as many of the Minions as possible, Faegan raised his hands.
CHAPTER LVII
Her arms clamped firmly around K'jarr's nec Tyranny looked back at the Black Ships pursuing them. Their dark sails full, they flew above the sea like huge birds of prey, ungainly but unbelievably swift. The sun would be up soon, and the privateer desperately wondered how long the Minions could keep up the blistering pace-especially with herself, Scars, and Shailiha in their arms. She knew that if they were ordered to do so, the fiercely loyal warriors would fly until their hearts burst.
But the craft is stronger than any Minion, she reminded herself as the wind tore at her. If they didn't reach the litter with at least a little time to spare, they wouldn't have a chance.
She looked over at Scars. He was being carried by Lan, who was having a harder time of it due to the first mate's great size. The warrior was clearly spent, every motion of his wings seeming to be another desperate effort to simply stay aloft. Scars and Lan would be the first to perish, Tyranny knew.
As for Scars, his expression told her that he was resigned to whatever fate awaited him. Since the day they had first met, he had always said that his life would end in a cold, watery grave. Closing her eyes, Tyranny hoped that this would not be that day.
Beside herself with worry, she turned away. Scars had been by her side since the earliest days of her father's fishing fleet-long before she had turned privateer, and even before she had vowed to hunt down the demonslavers that had killed both of her parents, and abducted her only brother. Scars had been with her during every decision, every battle, and every storm at sea. She couldn't imagine being without him.
Even more important, she and her little band had certain proof that Wulfgar still lived. We have to make it home somehow, she thought. We simply have to. It can't just end here, over these cold, faceless waves.
Just as Tyranny was about to give in and cause the litter to glow, Crevin cried out. Taking one arm away from Shailiha, he pointed out over the sea. At first Tyranny couldn't see anything. And then, suddenly, there it was.
To the northwest the lifesaving litter bobbed up and down peacefully. To her delight, she saw Micah was standing up in it and waving frantically, trying to get their attention. Tyranny couldn't see the captured demonslaver that Micah had carried away from the Citadel. But since the warrior had made it back, it was probably safe to assume that the slaver was in the litter with him.
K'jarr immediately adjusted his course. Tyranny looked back to see that the Black Ships were gaining on them. Reaching beneath her jacket, she nervously fingered the parchment hidden there. This was going to be a very close thing. She placed her lips to K'jarr's ear.
"Get everyone into the litter as fast as you can, and keep them there!" she ordered. "Under no circumstances are you to fly back and try to attack those ships! We must escape!"
K'jarr nodded and adjusted his angle of flight to start down. Once he was sure the other two were right behind, he folded his wings back and dove down into a nearly vertical free fall.
As the ocean rushed toward her, Tyranny was sure that she was about to die. The wind tore by her so fast that she could barely see, and she couldn't begin to understand how K'jarr might recover from his suicidal dive in time. Then she heard his dark wings snap open and felt his strong shoulders move up and down as he buffeted the sea air.