Song of Dragons The Complete Trilogy - By Daniel Arenson Page 0,254

him and saw the statue crash into its brothers, scattering them.

"Damn thing's going to ruin my day," Kyrie muttered and nocked another arrow. He aimed at the giant mimic's head. The helmet had only a thin slot for the eyes. If I can only shoot my arrow in there....

The giant kept moving, lashing its arms at statues. Kyrie stayed still. He closed an eye. He aimed. He caught his breath... and fired.

The flaming arrow pierced the night. It slammed into the helmet, an inch above the eye slot, and fell.

"Stars damn it!" Kyrie said. He gritted his teeth and reached for another arrow, but had no time. The giant howled and leaped toward him.

Kyrie cursed and jumped back. The mimic giant swiped a hand at him. Each finger, Kyrie realized, was made of a man's arm. He ducked, and the hand flew over his head. He raised his sword and sliced into the hand. Blood showered.

"Pup!" Agnus Dei shouted somewhere in the battlefield.

The giant tossed back its head and howled. Kyrie leaped, ran, and sliced his sword across the giant's calf. It roared, and Kyrie ran behind it. Before it could turn toward him, he nocked an arrow. When it started racing toward him again, he had aimed and fired.

The arrow glanced off the giant's helmet.

"Damn it all!" Kyrie shouted.

He raced across the crater. The statues were hacking at the mimic's legs, but it kept kicking them away, like a man kicking away nipping dogs. Lacrimosa and the twins were firing arrows, but they barely fazed the giant. A dozen arrows soon covered its torso, but it seemed not to feel them.

"Aim for its eyes!" he shouted at the girls.

Agnus Dei groaned. "Pup, I don't tell you how to kill mimics."

The giant heard her and ran toward her, feet cracking the earth. It swung its hands at her. One finger slammed into her shoulder, knocking her down.

"Agnus Dei!"

Dread filled Kyrie like a bucket of ice inside him. He shouted, ran, and leaped onto a pile of fallen statues. He vaulted forward and landed on the giant mimic's back.

The stench assailed him. Kyrie thought he might pass out. The mimic bucked and reached over its back, and its hands slammed against Kyrie. He grunted. Each blow felt like a hammer. He dug his fingers into the mimic's flesh. Its back was woven of a dozen human bodies slung together, a jumble of arms and legs and gasping faces. The giant kept leaping, and the blows fell onto Kyrie, but he clung on. He drew his dagger. He drove it into the mimic's back.

Rot sprayed. The giant screamed. Kyrie grimaced and twisted the blade.

"Pup!"

"Kyrie!"

The giant thrashed and its hands slammed against Kyrie's back. The pain bloomed. Kyrie thought he might pass out. Statues kept attacking the giant's legs, but it kept kicking them aside. Arrows kept piercing its chest, but it barely noticed. It kept reaching over its back and lashing at Kyrie, knocking the breath out of him.

"No way," Kyrie managed to say, the blows raining against him. "No way, my friend. You are going down."

He pulled his dagger free. Blood and halved worms covered the blade. Kyrie shoved his fingers into the creature's back and pulled himself up, until he reached its neck. With a cry, he shoved the dagger down.

Blood flowed from the giant's neck.

It wobbled.

It pitched forward.

"Pup!" Agnus Dei cried.

The giant hit the ground. The world shook. Kyrie tumbled off it, rolled across the ground, and stopped at Agnus Dei's feet. She knelt over him, ran her fingers over his cheek, and her eyes were red. He could barely see her. His eyes fluttered and stars floated before him. Gloriae and Lacrimosa rushed to him too.

"Pup, are you alive?" Agnus Dei shook his shoulders. "Get up! Get up, pup, or I'll kill you!"

Kyrie pushed himself to his feet. He turned to face the fallen giant. It was struggling to rise. Its arms, each one woven of a dozen severed limbs, flexed as it pushed itself to its knees.

"This one's mine," Kyrie said hoarsely.

He reached over his back and took his last arrow. Legs trembling, he walked toward the giant mimic.

It stared at him. Kyrie could see red, blazing eyes inside its visor, each the size of a human head.

He lit and nocked his arrow.

The giant roared.

The arrow flew.

This time Kyrie shot true. The flaming arrow flew through the slot in the visor—it was only three inches wide—and drove into the giant's eye.

Its scream was so loud that the