Slaves of the Night

Chapter 8

Essie

We see the monsters almost as soon as we leave the castle. They rise up from the ocean, crawling up on the shore full of claws and teeth, dripping freezing cold water.

Rax takes off at a run, something I thought was impossible in snowshoes yet here we are. He charges towards them, casting spells almost immediately.

I follow suit as best I can, drawing my knives. Unless I want to lose a knife to a snowbank, I'm going to have to fight close range.

Rax casts a wall of protection around us.

"Take my hand---use some magic," he says as the stuff wells through him, bubbling through his throat so thickly he can't speak. I don't need a second invitation. I slap his back and snatch enough magic for all of my magical items, enough for my stars which will return to me, and my blades which are now much more lethal as well as guided.

We attack at once but the monsters keep coming, with Rax giving me more magic whenever I need it. I rarely get to fight with a mage, so the leveling up on demand is a real pleasure other than the part where the monsters are trying to kill us.

There are more of them than us, and hampered as we are in snow shoes and thick coats we're only so nimble. Both coats are enchanted it would seem and they repel most blows, but by the fifth time a monster pounces upon me only for me to dispatch with a knife to the throat, I'm well aware I'm going to be terribly bruised come morning. I hear my ribs crack and Rax instantly hits me with a healing spell, nearly knocking me over.

"Thanks," I mutter.

"Don't mention it—like really, don't mention it," he growls, spitting blood and green mucus from his mouth. He swings his dagger, summoning a glowing wolf to his side. The creature immediately leaps into the fray, tearing the sea monsters apart.

"You're a splinter?" I ask, surprised. Rarely, mages can splinter their selves into various forms, usually animal. They can usually also shape shift. It's rare and extremely hard.

"Just the one," he says, shaking his head as blood drains from his eyes.

I spin around to fight against his back as the kraken surround us, no longer interested in going to the castle when they have us to play with.

"Ever fought a Kraken before Ilara?" Rax spits out more blood as his splinter-wolf runs around us, snatching tentacles in its teeth and tearing them out to bleed grey blood into the thick snow.

"No, you'll have to come to Ilara with me someday and fight dragons, that's really fun," I say, using him to steady a jump to smash a kraken with my snow shoes. The splinter-wolf comes along to finish it off.

"That's a definite no thank you," Rax almost laughs as he chokes on his own blood. He's expending ridiculous amounts of magic here to keep us both alive. And the krakens keep coming. Will they ever stop? I don't ask if he is really dying that wouldn't be a nice thing to have a final conversation about.

A kraken grabs my arm, biting through the coat as it's eyes oogle me, inches from my face. I stab it off as another seals on my leg. Splinter-Wolf snatches the one finally from my arm as I feel hot blood rush onto my skin, only to freeze there.

"Enough."

The kraken's vanish. Rax and I both stagger and look at the source of the voice. Rising up from the sea is a creature in the shape of a woman—a beautiful woman made from kelp and ice and frozen water, her eyes are hollow and frozen, her hair kelp frosty with ice. She's easily twice the height of a normal man, and her voice is cool and strong like the ocean itself. I've seen my share of magical creatures—but none like her. She's something else, something incredibly powerful.