this was different. I knew the razor-sharp fangs would rip into my throat, devour me. They had no mercy. They wouldn’t hesitate to destroy. To kill.
One of the beasts came closer, his form melted like liquid smoke, and then solidified much too near for me to feel comfortable.
Why are you here? the creature resembling a giant werewolf asked in my mind. Have you come to feed our hunger?
“The reapers said you can help us get to the Turquoise Forest.”
And why would we do that? the beast asked with a gargling sort of laugh, his jaw opening and then fleetingly disappearing before snapping together again like a trap. The gust of air he blew out from his nostrils tasted peppery and feral on my tongue. He lifted his face and then melted, reappearing a few feet to my right.
Outsiders. The scent of you tantalizes us, the head jackal said. You stir our blood with the slavering tang of your dread. It drifts over us lazily and invigorates us until we are crazed with what it promises. He shifted his head excitedly. We jackals have the strength of great boulders. Our flesh is as iron. Our teeth sharp. Our jaws steel traps. Your teeth are broken, dull. One of you lies weakened. Poison drinks his spirit. And you? he said right to me. You reek of fear.
I think the pack will dine well tonight.
I pulled an arrow of Isis from my quiver. Eleven left. The creature’s yellow eyes widened, his body turning to smoke. But before he could fully disappear, I jabbed the arrow deeply into the thick muscle of the jackal’s neck, hoping it would find purchase.
Fortunately, it did. An unearthly howl filled the air and was soon echoed by every member of the pack. I wondered if my actions had saved us or if I’d just given the hounds of hell the reason they needed to attack.
Drawing back my arm, I summoned my claws, preparing to sink them into the throat of the beast writhing beneath my arrow.
“How do we get to the Turquoise Forest?” I shouted.
We do not bend to your will. No matter who protects you.
“You will tell me, or you will die,” I hissed.
The jackal quickly turned his head to snap at my arm, but missed. His entire body shook while attempting to turn to smoke, but the arrow forced him to stay as flesh and blood each time.
We don’t serve her. Not any longer, he hissed. We are pledged to a new queen now.
“The Devourer,” I said, and I wondered then if I had made a grave error in thinking these beasts would be as easily pacified as the reapers. “Fine. You choose death, then!” I exclaimed, grabbing the arrow and twisting it deeper.
The beast cried out with a pathetic yelp. Wait! he spat.
“Change your mind?” I asked with an innocent-seeming air.
He didn’t answer right away, and I shrugged, moving to finish him off. He deserves it regardless, my inner voice assured me. The mongrel, scavenger of death. His kind is a plague on the grasslands. Unfit even for carrion birds. Their entire species needs to be eradicated.
What is going on with me? I blinked, trying to sort through my thoughts. I had never been vengeful. Especially when it came to animals. Sure, this one wanted to serve us up for dinner and I’d kill him if I had to, but my preference would be to scare them off at worst and wring the information we needed from them at best. These dark thoughts of killing each and every last one of them must be a sphinx thing. I hope. I have to hold it together.
“Look,” I said. “I’d rather not kill you.” The voice inside me screamed in opposition. “All I want is to get my friend to the Turquoise Forest. There’s no need for this to turn bloody.”
The only thing that prevented me from attacking—a gesture that would surely end in either my first death or Asten’s and Ahmose’s second, or all three—was reminding myself that Asten was deteriorating rapidly. He needed to get to the cure. That was much more important than any perceived need to kill the pack of monster jackals.
“Tell me what I need to know, right now!” I shouted to the group. “Tell me or your leader dies!”
I stared at the circle of blinking yellow eyes until I noticed a movement on my right. A smaller jackal, a female, crept forward. We have no choice but to obey you, though