Set in Stone (23 page)

Shona stood defiant in some kind of battle stance with sword raised. She shouted, "By the fates and furies, I'll kill you!"

The pedra screamed again.

Standing behind Shona, Connor had a clear line of sight straight through both sets of jaws, so he took the shot. The arrow disappeared down the monster's throat and for a second it wobbled. Shona leaped forward and struck one of its grasping paws. Her sword glanced off, dripping water, and she rolled away.

With a battle cry that shook the valley, Rory vaulted high into the air, thrown upward by four of his men. He caught one of the beast's wings, dragging the monster down with his weight.

The pedra lashed at Rory with its horrible fangs, but the impact sounded like stones cracking together. They hit the ground fifty feet beyond the line of soldiers. Men charged, intending to swarm the monster and destroy it with brute force.

The pedra was just as deadly on the ground as it was in the air. While Rory landed on his back, his entire focus on holding the wing down, the pedra landed on its catlike feet. It turned on Rory and attacked with terrible fury.

The two rolled over each other as the beast raked at him with its sickle-like claws and, opening its outer jaws wide, engulfed half of Rory's head in its maw. It began shaking him violently, the corded muscles of its neck standing out in sharp relief.

Rory let go of the wing and grabbed the monster's outer jaw. There was no blood, but as Connor watched the fight, he wondered how the Captain could possibly still live.

As soon as Rory's grip relaxed, the pedra threw him aside. The soldiers were almost upon it, but it bounded away, and within seconds returned to the air.

It rose high above the valley while the soldiers re-grouped. To Connor's absolute amazement, Rory sprang to his feet, wiped water from his face, and started shouting orders. His face bore several white scratches, like the marks of chisels on granite. He growled at the men to make ready. Several of them prepared ropes while others gathered more rocks.

The pedra did not return. It flew high, crossed the river and disappeared beyond the thick forest on the far side.

"Coward demon spawn," Shona spat after it.

Rory ordered the men to remain vigilant while the Healer treated the man whose legs had shattered. Connor drew near, curiosity overruling revulsion. He circled wide around the Healer until he could get a look at the wounds.

The man's feet ended in jagged stumps, although it looked like the Healer had already stemmed the bleeding. The old man was bandaging them while soldiers prepared a litter to carry the injured man. Connor sidled over to where the man had fallen. The shattered remains of his feet were still lying there.

Connor frowned and bent down to inspect them. They didn't look right. There was no blood and they were shattered in a way he'd never seen in living flesh. He cautiously reached out to touch one, but hesitated.

The fragments looked more like . . .

He touched it, and recoiled.

Stone.

He dared pick up a piece of stone that looked like it had been a toe. He turned it over in his hands, fascinated and horrified at the same time. If he hadn't known that only moments ago this had been part of the soldier's body, he would have thought it was broken from some sculpture.

He glanced over at the injured soldier who slept after having taken some draught from the Healer, then shivered and dropped the stone toe. The other Guardians had already returned to their normal size, but Connor had glimpsed their incredible powers.

What have I gotten myself into?

Chapter 24

"It's coming back."

Connor easily picked out the dark shape of the huge pedra against the blue sky to the east.

This monster was clearly not made of flesh and bone. Why then would it bleed water? What did they mean it was conjured? Did a Petralist turn into this great stone bird? What magic allowed such a vast weight to pull itself off the ground like a living animal?

Not knowing made it all the more terrifying.

The soldiers formed tight battle lines with Shona in the center. Connor stood close to her, an arrow nocked even though he knew it wouldn't do any good. He couldn't face this threat with no weapon. At least with the bow in hand he didn't feel completely helpless. The lie helped a little.

The pedra crossed the river with a large mountain deer dangling from its claws. The beast stayed about a hundred feet up in the air, out of effective range of their missiles.

"What's it doing?" Shona asked.

Maybe it wants to trade.

The stone monster seemed focused only on Shona. For whatever reason, it wanted her and her alone.

The pedra hovered directly over the company. Everyone tensed, waiting to see what it would do.

It screamed. Instead of the catlike hunting cry, this scream pierced their brains like needles. The high-pitched sound vibrated deep into Connor's chest and set his teeth aching. He stared in horror, comprehension giving wings to his fear.

"We have to get out of here," he shouted to Rory and pointing at the distant trees a couple hundred yards upriver. "We've got to get to cover."

Before Rory could reply, the pedra began tearing at the carcass in its claws. In a matter of seconds, it ripped the dead animal to pieces. Blood and chunks of flesh and bone rained down all over the company. The soldiers muttered angrily but the gore didn't bother them.

"Listen, Captain," Connor insisted. "That sound. It's calling more pedras."

That got Rory's attention. "What are you talking about?"

"That's a bloodlust scream. They don't do it often, only when they're in a blood frenzy, just before they mate. Other pedras can hear it for miles around. They answer the call. They come to kill."

"There can't be more stone beasts like that," Shona said. "Flesh and blood pedras won't bother a hundred armed men."

Connor raised one gore-splattered arm and said, "In a blood frenzy, they will. We're marked. They won't be able to resist."

In his mind's eye, Connor again saw the bloody remains of Tam, Alasdair's previous hunter. He'd been caught in a bloodlust and been ripped to pieces. They'd only been able to identify him by the shredded remains of his hat.

Rory began barking orders. A third of the troop sprinted upriver ahead of the main company, making for a large rock that lay halfway to the promised shelter of the trees and rose ten feet above the field. The rest of the company followed at a quick trot. The stone pedra hovered, watching.

Before they reached the sentinel rock, the cry of a hunting pedra floated down from the north, followed a few seconds later by another, and then a third.

The company paused and took up battle positions. Pedras appeared in the distance, coming fast. Six, ten, fifteen. Connor wouldn't have believed so many pedras lived within the range of the call.

He'd actually witnessed a pedra bloodlust slaughter once from a vantage high on a mountain with views down into the next valley. The pedras had been hunting there, miles from him, but their screams of blood rage had terrified him. Five pedras had answered the call that day and together they'd slaughtered an entire herd of mountain goats.

Connor had run all the way back to Alasdair.

The pedras gathered above the company, swirling overhead like a living, black tornado with a dead gray heart. Their cries merged into a continuous scream.

"I don't think they're going to attack," Shona said. "Not a company this size."

Almost as if in response to her words, the stone pedra folded its wings and plummeted straight toward her.

The other pedras followed.

"Brace! Brace! Brace!" Rory shouted.

Guardians swelled with strength and their skin shifted to gray as their powers transformed them into living stone. As the conjured pedra plummeted toward them, every Fast Roller launched heavy stones up at it. The monster snapped open its wings and veered away, dodging the missiles and banking hard around the company, skimming the ground so low one of its wing tips scraped a watery furrow in the soil.

The other pedras attacked the company, screaming in blood lust, lashing out at the soldiers. These beasts were smaller than the great stone pedra, but also far more agile. They spun and twisted, dodging sword thrusts and snatching at soldiers.

One man on the outer edge of the battle line staggered from a blow to the head and fell two paces from his comrades. Instantly two pedras pounced, grabbed him with their clawed forelegs, and lifted him into the air.

Connor shot one of them. The arrow took the beast in the hind quarter. It screamed and lost its hold on the soldier. The other beast, overburdened, lost altitude. The soldier twisted in the beast's grasp and slashed with his sword.

The pedra fell dead to the ground, its severed head still biting at the empty air. Half a dozen men broke from the main battle formation and raced to cover their comrade. Several pedras converged on the smaller group just as they would on animals fleeing a herd, but the men held them off with wild swings of their swords while, step by step, they fought back toward the main line.

The stone pedra completed its tight, banking turn and swooped through the melee on its single-minded pursuit of Shona.

Rory struck first.

The captain swung a heavy war hammer he'd borrowed from another soldier and slammed it into one of the beast's front legs. The leg shattered, exploding into a cloud of muddy chunks. The impact rocked the beast and knocked Rory to the ground.

As it passed, Shona and several other soldiers all struck at it with their swords, scraping across the monster's torso and wings. One great gray feather broke free and landed next to Connor. With a sweep of its giant wings, the huge pedra pulled itself airborne again.

Connor knocked a fresh arrow and looked for a target. Behind him, a soldier shouted, "Look out!"

He spun just as a pedra struck him in the chest. The impact sent him flying back off his feet and knocked the bow from his hands.

He didn't hit the ground.

Vice-like claws clamped over his biceps and punched through his thin shirt, sinking deep into the muscles beneath.

Connor screamed as the monster hauled him into the air and away from the soldiers. Its hind legs scraped against his sides, trying to gain purchase on his body. Connor hung close under its black hide, nearly overwhelmed by its heavy, oily scent despite the wind of their passage. Its torso rippled with corded muscle as it carried him away to slaughter him.

In a panic, Connor beat at the monster's underbelly with his free hand. His Curse roared to life as his normal control slipped and its maddening itch rolled through his torso, completely unrestrained. Even his head itched.

He tried to focus the Curse to punch the beast out of the air, but the monster screamed its ear-piercing shriek of blood lust. The sound scattered his concentration. The monster struck with its hideous head, outer jaws flapped open and inner jaws gaped wide.

Connor couldn't dodge. The itching of the Curse spiked to such intensity all through his body, it felt like his skin was cracking. He twisted his head away from the beast in a desperate but futile gesture.

The pedra's outer jaws enveloped Connor's head while its inner jaws bit down on the back of his skull with stunning force.

Pain exploded in his head. Connor's scream became muffled as the wide flaps of the outer jaw wrapped around his head and over his face, the curved teeth digging at his neck.

Connor thrashed wildly in the creature's grasp. The intense itching of his skin faded and all feeling drained from his body. The pedra bit at his head again.

He couldn't imagine how he was still alive, but something wasn't right.

Of course not. A pedra was trying to eat him alive. Maybe panic had addled his brain because the pain seemed to fade even as the monster's inner jaws scraped against his skull.

He'd heard that the most severe injuries were sometimes like that. People felt fine just before they drew their last breath.

The outer jaws dug at his face and neck, but they didn't puncture into his flesh. He couldn't breathe with it meaty jaws over his mouth and nose. When he tried, he got only a mouthful of pedra saliva that burned his skin and nearly made him vomit.