To Tame a Dragon - Tiffany Roberts Page 0,18

the weapon. The blow didn’t break the creature’s natural armor, but it was enough to stun it.

The shorelurker halted for a moment before curling away, chittering and shrieking as its legs and tail thrashed.

A huntress is the heart of her people—steady, brave, unwavering.

She lunged after the retreating creature, guiding her spear toward the spot where the shorelurker’s tail and armored head met. The creature’s wild, erratic movements caused her thrust to miss its mark. The stone spearhead grazed the outside of the shorelurker’s tail. Flesh tore open, and dark blood oozed from the wound. The creature’s frenzy intensified.

The shorelurker spun again and scrambled toward Elliya, snapping its claws and rattling its mandibles. She retreated hurriedly, jabbing at it with her spear over and over, seeking any opening, any weakness, but none of her blows landed with enough force to cause any damage until the tip plunged into one of the creature’s eyes.

The shorelurker shrieked, swinging its clawed appendages as though to clear away its eye, but the spear had already been withdrawn—and the wound, oozing dark ichor, seemed to little slow the creature as it resumed its attack.

I am a huntress, and my heart beats fierce…and it also beats true.

It beats…for my dragon.

Elliya did not know where that last thought had come from, and she didn’t have time to consider it—her spear found its mark for a second time that very instant, hitting one of the shorelurker’s arms at its first joint and tearing the whole limb off. The shorelurker recoiled with an agonized cry.

Its tail whipped forward, striking Elliya’s thigh. The force of that blow twisted her leg, making her stagger aside and leaving her knee suddenly weak. She gritted her teeth and growled against the layered pain—a sharp sting on the surface, a dull, pulsating ache in the muscle and bone beneath.

The shorelurker coiled its tail and leapt at Elliya again, turning down its head to present those poisonous spines.

“I am a huntress,” she grated, swinging her spear with all her might. Again, fire flared in her heart, but it was stronger this time, arcing out into her limbs.

The shaft caught the side of the oncoming shorelurker’s carapace. Elliya followed through with the swing, her muscles straining, despite the jolt of impact that ran through the wood. Whether she knocked the shorelurker aside or shoved herself away from it she could not determine. The spiked carapace flew past her face a mere hand’s span away—close enough for her to see the beads of venom glistening atop each spine. One of those hard, spindly legs struck the side of her head, dazing her briefly.

Her aching leg buckled, and she stumbled back before catching her balance, feet coming to rest on damp sand. Elliya was suddenly aware of the river immediately behind her, of its sound, of the cool air flowing over its surface. Apparently, she’d been turned around during the skirmish. Her heel sank in the soft ground, and her body swayed. Her heart leapt into her throat.

The shorelurker’s tail swung at her from the side, striking her heavily in the chest. The air fled her lungs, and she fell backwards—directly into the river. Her fingers lost their grip on the spear shaft, and the current swept the weapon away.

As the water closed in around her, filling her ears with the quiet, soothing sound of its flow, she thought she heard a roar again—not just from outside the water, but from somewhere deep within her.

Elliya righted herself and kicked to the surface. Both her sandals had fallen off, just as lost now as her spear. She gulped in air the instant her head emerged, filling her burning lungs and releasing a sputtering exhalation before taking in another desperate breath.

Her time beneath the surface had been enough for the current to catch her. She was already near the middle of the river, watching the shore drift by.

Movement on the bank caught her attention, and she turned her head in time to see the pale form of the shorelurker plunging into the water.

Eyes wide, she set her arms and legs into motion, swimming for land as hard and fast as she could. The shorelurker remained visible, if only barely, as a red-tinged form speeding toward her just beneath the water’s surface.

Elliya’s breath was ragged as she clawed her way onto the riverbank, heaved herself out of the water, and crawled forward.

I will not die here. This is not my fate.

There was a splash behind her. Heartbeat becoming thunder in her ears,