Page 6 of The Wind Dancer
The remaining two froze, realizing they had misjudged the situation. That moment was more than enough.
I lunged forward, staying low. It was almost always a stupid idea to be lower than your opponents, but I wasn’t going straight for them.
I slid across the floor, grabbing the dagger from the dying man’s ribs. I lunged. One slash, and then another. One of them recoiled, clutching at his bloodied side.
The other man was faster to react, his saber flying straight at my head. I hastily blocked, the blade bouncing off my concealed steel bracers with a muffled clang. I gritted my teeth, and freeing one arm, I stabbed my dagger into his leg. Before he even had the time to scream, I let go of the dagger, grabbed his wrist and yanked him toward me. Already off balance, he fell on top of me, and straight onto my other dagger, which sank deep into his guts.
I twisted it and then pulled it out at an angle to widen the wound as much as possible. Just as I was taught. Blood came gushing out of the wound like a stream.
His body jerked, his fingers loosened, and the saber fell to the floor with a clang. I yanked the second dagger out of his thigh and kicked him off me.
I may not have been an assassin, but I was good with a pair of daggers.
The last cultist realized that he was alone and wounded. I could see his fingers trembling on the hilt of his saber. He tried to attack, but the fear made him sloppy.
I moved past the attack with ease. One dagger clanged against his blade pushing it off course, and the other sliced through his side again. He roared in pain, but he didn’t back down.
I took a step back, twisting my wrist, which activated the mechanism hidden in my bracer. A light press, and there were three quiet clicks that signaled it was ready.
Three short arrows shot out with a whizz. One hit his thigh, the second his shoulder, and the third grazed his ribs. He howled, staggering, but then he did something I didn’t expect — he turned around and rushed out of the room leaving a trail of blood behind him.
I got carried away!
Chasing him down was pointless, I had to complete the deal and leave.
The dragonblood smiled as I dashed over to the chair.
“Good fight,” he said and I plunged the daggers into his heart and temple. “Seeing you were sent here to die...” And those were his last words.
“May the Heaven receive you as a warrior.”
The request was complete, and I anxiously turned toward the safe to get the rest of its contents.
But as soon as I took a step forward something flew into the room. And I regretted taking this job up even more than I already had.
The creature standing in the doorway looked like a grotesque approximation of a human. It seemed to be stitched together from various body parts and random bits of meat. The shoddy stitches oozed blood and pus, and in most places the muscles and tendons were fully visible. Just looking at it made my blood run cold, but its face made me sick to my stomach.
The nightmare fuel face was made up of so many different pairs of eyes, mouths and ears, and I now knew where all those missing body parts from the staff and guests went. The thing moved on mismatched limbs, bending over the body of a cultist, not taking its eyes off me. And then the flesh from the corpse started merging with it.
Oh Demons!
I jumped back, spinning around, aiming for the window again, but another horrifying creature emerged from the surrounding shadows, cutting off my escape route.
CHAPTER 3
Everything ground to a halt. Cold sweat trickled down my spine, and I could’ve sworn my heart was about to jump out of my chest. Whenever I heard stories of changelings and other creatures, I honestly thought they were crap they made up to scare kids. And now here I was, cornered by them.
The fleshy creature rose from the body and slowly started moving toward me, its eyes fixed on me. Its ragged breathing filled the room with the stench of rot and decay. It may have been slow and easier to dodge, but the place could be crawling with them.
The window was still my best option. The issue was getting past the other creature. It was smaller than the flesh pile, but was still quite a piece of work. Its body was covered in scales and its back bristled with sharp quills, like some nightmarish porcupine. The glow of its green eyes was unsettling, but the fact that the saliva that dripped from its jaws was sizzling through the floor made me even more reluctant to face it.
I swallowed hard.“If a way out doesn’t exist, make your own.”My old man’s words rang in my head, guiding my next steps.
I gripped the daggers tight, preparing myself. Even cornered prey fought back, and I was more than just prey. If I’d die, I’d go down fighting.
I moved, and then everything sprang back into motion. The creepy porcupine moved toward me in sync with the fleshy creature.
I threw a dagger toward the spiky creature, which tracked it as it stabbed into the wall right next to it. That took their focus off me for just a moment, and created an opening.
