Possessing the Grimstone - By John Grover Page 0,47
the Neshing’s Achilles tendons with her twin blades. The creature roared and fell, both it and its familiar flailing. Anelle dove onto its back and severed its head from its body with her blades.
Pim’s trembling turned to shaking; it was as if he were coming out of a dream. “Gonnish… it’s nearly gone…”
“But your people are safe,” Shannara said.
“For now.” He walked away from her. “I should have been there.”
“Your place is here,” Tolan said. “You are saving everyone’s people. Your parents would be so proud of you, now. Were it not for you, we would still be sitting outside the stone gates.”
Pim blushed.
“Can we go now, guardian?” Drith asked.
“In such a hurry to see Mort A’ghas?” Tolan asked.
Drith ignored the question as Pim went to Drith and escorted him down the trail. “Your people wouldn’t need rescuing if they knew how to fight.” He said to Pim.
“Is that why you need a guardian?”
“Watch our tongue, boy, or I’ll cut it out. Kings of the South do not travel without escort.”
“And my people are farmers. Wivering create life, they don’t take it.”
“Wonderful. Some guardian you will make.”
Pim said nothing more, controlling the anger inside him for Drith. He knew why he’d lashed out at him: it really wasn’t about his peple—Drith was afraid. Suddenly, the King of the South didn’t seem so intimidating, anymore.
“Those two are going to make the best of friends,” Shannara whispered to Tolan. “I can see it now. Friends for aeons.”
Tolan couldn’t help but laugh.
###
After filling their bellies, the group pitched tents and settled in. Tolan and Shannara sat guard while the others tried to sleep. They made a fire in the center of their circle of tents.
Pim drifted as the smell of the firesmoke wafted past his nostrils. His eyes grew heavy, and sleep took him.
The darkness shifted and brightened. Pim found himself back home, in the fields. With his farmhouse to his back, he looked out over a sea of blue corn and smiled. He actually smelled his mother’s cooking: it was corn pudding, he just knew it.
He turned to head back to the house, and found the roof on fire. He screamed, but no sound came out of him. His feet wouldn’t cooperate as he tried to run. Pim stood, helpless, screaming silently as the roof collapsed. When he looked over his shoulder, the entire farmland was on fire, the corn wilting under the intense heat.
The front door of his home burst open, and his family rushed from the crumbling structure. Behind them, Neshing appeared, swinging axes.
Pim watched, horrified, as the beasts tore into his mother and father, chopped his younger brother into pieces, and devoured their flesh.
His screams went unheard, his feet refused to move; he raged at the nightmarish scene.
The image melted away, and Pim suddenly found himself on the battlefield. Chaos and carnage reined all around him. The sky filled with magic and arrows, boulders sailed past him, fire scorched the ground.
He found himself dressed in battle armor, and holding a short sword. As he looked up, a Neshing rider with its huge lizard steed was suddenly bearing down on him.
Pim swung his sword in blind defense, and the rider went right through him. He tried to dash off after it, use his fleet to take the creature down, but again, his feet were rooted to the spot. He watched soldiers falling around him, warriors being tossed from horses, men getting blasted to ashes, and wagons flipping over with ferocity. He was helpless, forced to watch the united forces of Athora crushed under the unworldly power of the Neshing.
A cry of agony caught Pim’s attention, and he turned to come face to face with Ono. Ono opened his mouth, and blood seeped out of it. “Pim,” he gargled. “How could you do this to me?” Ono’s body was riddled with wounds and gouges; his flesh hung in ribbons, and one of his eyes were missing. “I trusted you. You were my friend. I wouldn’t have come if it weren’t for you. I’d still be home… safe… with my family.”
Pim tried to respond, but no sound would come. He wanted to say how sorry he was. He wanted to say that he wished it was him out there on the battlefield being picked apart by the enemy, but not a single word could form in his mouth. At last, Pim reached his arm out, and Ono stepped away, fading into the cloud of war.
Pim opened his eyes and found himself in