Glissa looked furtively at Ellasha, who let loose an agonized roar that shook the trees and made the elf girl’s teeth rattle. The leonin went mad, cutting into the remaining nim like a whirlwind. Glissa, fighting her rising gorge, charged in to help.
Leonin and elf worked as one unit, slicing, tearing, kicking and clawing through the ghouls that had slaughtered their friends. The nim fought as fiercely as before, but now Glissa and Ellasha were driven by something primal, and the zombies didn’t stand a chance. After half of minute of furious fighting, Glissa stabbed the last nim standing through the gut, and kicked the body toward Ellasha, who finished it off with one sweep of her longknife through the green tubes attached to the vile monster’s neck.
The sudden silence was made no less eerie by the green glow that suffused the mist as the dying nim spat necrogen smoke uselessly into the air. Glissa and Ellasha were covered head to toe in Dross muck and a foul mix of leonin and nim innards. Glissa staggered to the leonin and placed one hand on her shoulder. “Ellasha-”
“Do not say anything. They made their peace with the gods long ago, as all soldiers do. They died warriors, and we should be so lucky,” the grim leonin responded. She stooped and said a short, soft prayer over Darlosh’s and Tahk’s ruined bodies, which were closest to her, then slipped something from each dead warrior’s belt. She turned and handed Glissa Tahk’s longknife, which the elf girl accepted tentatively. Ellasha slipped Darlosh’s into her own belt.
“My sisters have gone to fight at the side of Great Dakan forever,” she said with a hint of ceremony. “I now claim the right of revenge.”
“That makes two of us,” Glissa said. “But their deaths were in vain if we don’t get Bruenna out of here.”
Ellasha nodded solemnly. “I can see why my Kha is fond of you, elf. You think like a leonin. There is a legend of an elf that fought at Great Dakan’s side, did you know that?”
“Uh, no,” Glissa said.
“His name is lost to history, but legends called him the Maneless One. He was a warrior of great skill, and ultimately gave his life saving the greatest of all leonin. You have the blood of the Maneless One in you, girl. I can smell it as surely as I can smell my own cubs. You honored them with your actions. Now don’t dishonor them with pointless mewling.”
Without another word, Ellasha turned on one foot and stalked toward the entrance to Yert’s lair. A stunned Glissa followed, sick to her stomach.
CHAPTER 15
Glissa tapped Ellasha on the shoulder and jerked her head toward a shadowed alcove they had just passed.
“What is it?” the leonin whispered.
Glissa didn’t say anything, but swung the heavy pack off of her shoulder and held it up meaningfully, looking from the bag and down the tunnel ahead. When the leonin just stared at her blankly, she decided to risk a few words. “This place. Too empty. It’s suspicious. Want to consult the head.”
“Good point,” Ellasha replied softly. “I expected light resistance on the way in, but I would have thought that once we got here it would be crawling with nim. Maybe this is just a little-used passage,” she added with a shrug. “I shall stand watch in the tunnel. Let me know what you learn.” The skyhunter took a couple of steps and leaned cautiously against the corner of the alcove, well hidden from anyone who might come down the hall but with a clear line of sight in either direction. Her ears cocked forward, scanning for the heavy, clanking footsteps of nim warriors.
Glissa could easily see why Raksha had trusted Ellasha as second-in-command on this mission. She certainly fought with a ferocity and dexterity Glissa had never seen, but the skyhunter’s composure was nothing short of heroic.
The elf girl flipped the pack open with one hand and clamped the other over Geth’s mouth. She raised a claw to her lips, and was satisfied when the severed head did not sound any kind of alarm, when she uncovered his mouth. Geth’s head crinkled his leathery brow and whispered, “What now?”
“Don’t talk unless you’re answering me,” Glissa whispered. “Where are they?”
“Who? Your kitty cats? Beats me. They were all alive when I went in the bag. What did you do to them?”
Glissa silenced Geth with a glare. “The nim. The last time I was here, the place was crawling with them.”
“Yeah, funny, isn’t it?” Geth said evasively. “Strange to be in the needlebug nest and not find any needlebugs, eh?”
“Geth, I’m going to step on you.”
“Okay, okay,” Geth hissed more loudly than he needed to. “Fine, no fun for Geth, just stick Geth in the bag….” Glissa’s eyes narrowed, and he hurriedly added, “All right, all right. Your leonin was on the nose. Yert’s sent almost all of the nim forces to the front lines. He thinks this is the perfect time, with the Golden Scrub away and his cousin in charge. The peace offer was nothing more than nim-waste.”
“Really,” Glissa said. “You’re sure it’s not to lure us into a sense of complacency before springing the trap?”
“You know, you didn’t used to be so paranoid,” Geth said. “I miss that innocent little elf girl who begged me to spare Yert’s life. That sure worked out well, didn’t it?”
“Answer the question,” Glissa said, struggling to keep her anger in check.
“Honestly? You might be right. I wouldn’t put anything past Yert these days,” Geth’s face took on an uncharacteristically thoughtful cast. “But you know, that’s what I would have done. You’re a fool if you don’t expect that.”
“Right,” Glissa muttered. “Great. Anything else?”
“Yes,” Geth said. “Duck.”
It took Geth’s warning a half-second to sink in, and if she’d waited any longer her own skull would have joined his on the floor. A nim claw slammed the rusted tunnel wall with a clang and a shower of blue sparks. Glissa dropped Geth’s head and let it roll into the corner, then spun in a crouch, drawing her sword and readying her weary muscles for another fight.
The nim loomed over her, blocking her from the hall and Ellasha, wherever the leonin was. Since she hadn’t warned her, she feared the worst for the skyhunter.
Glissa tried the same move that had worked before. With a yell, she jabbed upward with her sword, hoping to impale the nim through its relatively soft underbelly. The creature had taken her by surprise, however, and her strike was off. The hulking zombie caught the blade easily in one crustacean claw and wrenched it from her grip, then grabbed her roughly by the arm in another claw and jerked her to her feet. So much for her good shoulder.
The nim lumbered around slowly until it faced four more of its hulking, beetle-like kin. A pair of large, gray, ghoulish-looking humans that looked like mountains of necrotic muscle held Ellasha firmly between them, one holding a massive knotted hand over her muzzle. There was something about these humans that didn’t seem quite right to Glissa. She had seen animated corpses and things like the nim that were a result of the necrogen’s effect on those same zombies. She’d seen the towering monsters that Yert had once been tasked with controlling, the reapers. However, she’d never seen humans that looked both dead and alive. There was something familiar about the feral look in their eyes, but she couldn’t put her claw tip on it.
Whatever they were, Glissa was fed up.
“Well?” Glissa shouted. “Is this how you welcome invited guests, Yert? Because I have to say, I like Geth’s approach better. At least he didn’t play games!”
“A game, is it?” a cold voice called down the corridor. “I assure you, Glissa, this is very much the real thing.”
At that, the two large gray humans holding Ellasha stepped aside and Glissa got her first look at Yert since leaving the young keeper to Geth’s not-so-tender mercies. The elf girl hardly recognized him.