Adept (The Essence Gate War, Book 1) - By Michael Arnquist Page 0,89

enough to cut you down like the murderous jackal that you are, if you are foolish enough to make your strike. The healer’s life is the only thing protecting yours at the moment.”

“Your kind cannot match my speed,” the Wyrgen snarled, but Halthak could feel the great form tensing. Those dark eyes darted back and forth as Amric and Valkarr spread out to either side of him.

“We are prepared this time,” Valkarr said, his scaly tail lashing behind him as he crouched. The Sil’ath warrior’s gaze raked over them, from the blood soaking both of their clothing and fur to the fresh spatters on the flagstones beneath them. “And you are wounded now. Unsteady.”

Grelthus bared his fangs at Valkarr in a rumbling growl.

“And,” said Amric, “even if you can escape ‘our kind’, are you so confident you can escape your own?”

The growl sputtered and died, and Halthak felt the talons twitch at his throat. “What do you mean?”

“Your beloved people are scaling their way up the chamber’s levels to reach you as we speak. I would wager we have no more than a minute before they arrive. We cannot spare the time to fence with words.”

Even as Amric uttered the words, however, several hunched shapes darted onto the terrace from the lower stairs, back in the direction from which he and the others had come. Eerily silent, the corrupted Wyrgens cast about in a flurry of motion, their muzzles upturned to taste the air. Their glowing gazes fell upon the group across the arc of the balcony wall, a scant two hundred yards away, and they broke into triumphant, strident howls. The call was answered from the depths below as a sudden cacophony of savage cries filled the vast chamber.

More shapes spilled from that distant stairwell and over the stone railing to drop into crouches on the flagstones. The creatures lunged forward into loping runs, bounding toward them.

“You were right, Grelthus,” Amric said, his lips pressed into a grim line. “Your kind are indeed fast.”

A frantic whine escaped from between the Wyrgen’s clenched teeth. Gazing upon the thundering horde that approached, Halthak had to agree; he felt like whimpering himself.

“Release the healer,” Amric said. “We run or die, now.”

“You said it yourself, human,” Grelthus said, his frantic gaze flicking between the approaching Wyrgens and the warriors surrounding him with drawn steel. “The Half-Ork’s life is the only thing that ensures mine. Else you will surely cut me down.”

“Release him, and we can settle matters between us once we escape your people,” Amric commanded. “You cannot outpace them while wounded and carrying a captive. Release him, or we all die here.”

Grelthus hurled Halthak from him with a roar of fear and rage, then wheeled and bolted back in the direction from which he had come. The healer stumbled and was caught by Syth.

“Quickly, follow Grelthus!” Halthak shouted. “The glass wall is raised in the room we left, and we can shut out the creatures if we get there before he shuts us out as well!”

They raced after the Wyrgen. Ahead, more hulking lupine shapes were pouring onto the terrace beyond the stairs that led to the viewing chamber they had to reach. Behind, the savage tide hurtled after them.

Amric grimaced as he reached the foot of the narrow stairway. Like its twin on the other side, it led from the terrace to a landing atop a square bulkhead, which then opened onto the much wider steps before the viewing chamber. He had hoped to defend these narrow access points until the wall could be lowered, but he could see now that he needed a new strategy. Several of the beasts crowded up the narrow stairs on the other side, while still more hurled themselves at the bulkhead with prodigious leaps, catching at the edge to haul themselves over the side. One of the corrupted Wyrgens caught Grelthus on the broad upper steps, and the pair fell to grappling, snarling and thrashing back and forth as they tore at each other with claw and tooth.

Amric’s mind raced. The lower stairs were already overrun, and could not be held in any event since it was obvious the creatures could scale the bulkhead with relative ease. The open wall of the viewing chamber was too wide by far to hold with their current numbers. The chamber might have a confined stairwell like the other, but the swift Wyrgens would drag them down before they could reach it, and he was loath to gamble their