The House of Yeel - By Michael McCloskey Page 0,68

the back of his head, sending his helm flying. Another Quan attacked her so she had to stab at him rather than finishing the wounded one. Then she threw the fenlar at the throat of a third enemy and drew her sword.

Master Kasil yelled and stuck the Quan next to her clean through. Blood spurted across Jymoor’s legs. She caught sight of a Quan too late. A tremendous blow to the armor knocked her back. A vague memory surfaced. Her previous death.

I remember that pain.

Jymoor stood stunned. As the Quan readied to finish her, the spear of a Companion plunged into one of its eyeballs and out the back of its head, sending gore spurting out. Someone helped steady her. Jymoor gripped her sword a bit tighter and continued forward.

The Companions had carved through the makeshift defense of the enemy leader. Jymoor approached the litter. The Quan standing nearby, presumably the litter carriers, had weapons but no armor. As she closed in, Master Kasil at her side, Jymoor finally saw the leader. He stood up on the vehicle.

“Moon protect me,” she said. It wasn’t a he, it was an it.

A huge gash of a mouth crossed the entire head, filled with a hundred white needle-teeth. A single eye was the only feature above the mouth. There was no white to it: the entire eye was glossy black. The thing was even taller than a Quan. The shoulders were broad, like a man, and heavily muscled. It had dark blue skin. A long mace of bone, ending in a heavy knob, dangled from its long arm.

“That’s one ugly—” Kasil cried.

The thing screamed in anger. The horrible mouth was so wide it looked like the top of its head would flop off.

Kill it kill it kill it!

Jymoor felt herself move toward it as if she was disembodied. The creature swung. Jymoor took the mighty blow and staggered. She thrust with her sword, grazing the monster’s side.

Its awful mouth came down. The sun was blocked out. Jymoor heard the nightmare sound of dozens of tiny teeth scraping the outside of her helm. She felt needle-stabs of pain in her neck and her eyebrow. She must have screamed, but she heard only the intolerable scraping. Jymoor released her helm strap with her left hand. Then her helm was pulled off, still in the thing’s mouth. The giant bluish thing rose above her and spat the helmet out.

Jymoor took a deep breath of the thick air. She released a battle cry from her parched throat. Her sword swung up in a quick slice. The creature’s right arm went flying away. Jymoor grunted in effort. Her sword came back down. The thing’s left arm dropped to the ground.

It screamed again, but this time, it was a less frightening, more pathetic noise.

Jymoor thrust, impaling the awful monster through the chest. As it collapsed beneath her, Jymoor stepped onto its chest, holding the pommel of her sword which stuck straight up at the sky.

Was that really me? Did I just kill it?

“Well done,” Master Kasil called to her. “But next time just thrust and be done with it. Also, pull your blade back out right away. You may need it again very, very soon.”

Great moon, is this a battle or a lesson?

Master Kasil caught her look and laughed. Jymoor heaved her blade out and collected herself for more fighting.

***

The last of the war birds had burned and died on the stained stones before Yeel. But the creatures were simply replaced by the next threat: heavily armored Quan.

“Is their armor primarily iron based, or perhaps it’s mostly copper?” Yeel asked quickly.

“Iron,” Vot replied. “I’m thinking the same thing you are.” She handed Yeel a stuffed bag of powder.

“Oh! You brought more than I have,” Yeel said. Both of them started to swing the bags around on the end of long, powerful tentacles.

Ascarans charged by on the bridge to meet the Quan. They held the attack at first, but Yeel judged it couldn’t last. Yeel and Vot launched the bags, sending them hurling forward over the bridge. Vot’s struck right at the front, where Ascarans fought the advancing Quan toe to toe. Yeel’s missile struck farther back. The containers burst upon impact, covering the Quan and a few of the Ascarans in front.

Vot handed Yeel another bag. The consistency felt different. Yeel knew it would be a fluid this time. He swung the bag round several times, gaining speed, then released it. Vot launched her own a moment later. This