Empire of Night (Age of Legends 2)

"No!" she shouted.

He realized his mistake in time and grabbed for the tree branch instead. The fiend dog hit the trunk just below Tyrus and fell, but another was already leaping.

"Higher!" she said. "We need to go higher!"

And what good would that do? It didn't matter how high they went. It was like running from them--they could not escape.

"Begone!" she snarled, throwing all her power into the word. "I command you, begone!"

The beast evaporated in a puff of black smoke. Another was already coming up, not leaping but climbing, scrabbling up the tree as if it were merely a steep incline.

"Begone!" she shouted.

It kept coming. She kept shouting, louder now, until her ears rang, but the beast continued climbing. She gripped her dagger.

What good will that do?

Probably none, but she had to try. The fiend dog was almost an arm's length from Tyrus now, and she wasn't letting it get any closer. She pulled back her dagger--

The fiend dogs below hit the trunk all at once. The tree jolted so hard it knocked the climbing beast to the ground. She went to grab the limb, but it was too late. Her dagger fell and she followed, one arm still wrapped around the branch, holding on as tight as she could as her legs dropped. Then hands grabbed her around the waist.

"I've got you," Tyrus said. "Just find your balance. I've got--"

The fiend dogs hit again. Tyrus's eyes widened, and she realized he wasn't holding onto anything except her. She scrambled to grab him, but as soon as he started to drop, he released her.

"No!" she shouted.

He fell, dropping into the leaves and the darkness below. To the fiend dogs below. A snarl sounded overhead. Then a dark shape leaped past her. Daigo jumping down, branch by branch. The fiend dogs snarled and snapped. Tyrus let out a stifled cry. Moria was already climbing down, right behind Daigo, but that way was slow, too blasted slow. She remembered the horses in the grove, ripped to pieces, and she let go, hurtling like a rock toward the ground. Toward Tyrus. Toward the fiend dogs.

FORTY-SEVEN

When they stopped for the night, Ronan figured they were still nearly a day from Okami's compound. They made camp by a stream.

"Do you think Tyrus will be there yet?" Ashyn asked as they ate dried fish and fruit.

Ronan shrugged. "Equally likely either way."

Which was the only answer he could give, and the one she expected. She'd asked in hopes of starting conversation, but he lapsed into a silence that forbade small talk. She waited until he rose to wash his hands and then followed him.

"He said to wait at the inn until he arrives," she said. "Which sounded simple, but now that we're getting close . . . Should we stay at the inn or make camp nearby?"

"We'll figure that out."

They bent to wash their hands in the stream and refill their water skins.

"Are you angry with me?" she asked.

"Of course not, Ash. I'm just tired."

"Perhaps we ought to have made a quick stop in the city. Quickly. I know you truly wanted to check on--"

"They're fine."

"But you--"

"I'll be there soon enough."

They began walking back to the campsite.