Heir of Dust and Wind

Chapter 5 - Attack

Trygve knew they were in trouble even before the newcomer had fully entered the shop. His smell hit him instantly: the sickening sweetness of rotting flesh, foul decay, and death.

Apparently, the strength of the young woman's signature had carried as far as the Realm of Darkness, and Dunstan's minions had been sent to extinguish any possible threat right away. 

Now he needed to be quick.

Still not being able to move, he had to make her release him. If wasn't able to reach the pocket in which he carried the magic orbs that Frode begrudgingly provided for his missions, both of them would die a horrible death. Dunstan's men weren't known to be swift or merciful and so, even while he craved the end of his suffering, Trygve wasn't willing to take his chances with them.

"I know you have no reason to trust or believe me, but you have to let me move again," he said, doing his best to sound reassuring.

If he couldn't make her trust him enough so he could block the attack, which would undoubtedly follow in mere moments, and then portal back to Frode's headquarters with her, they'd be screwed. Talented or not, no novice could take on this kind of enemy.

Behind him, he felt the fallen Dracaeni enter the room. Energy prickled across his skin giving him goosebumps. The creature's stench was becoming less bearable by the second and burned in his nose. He did not dare turn around and focused completely on the woman behind the counter.

"Please," he tried again. "I swear to you by the first of the seven stars that my only aim is to protect you from him and to take you to safety."

*****

When the shop door had opened, something had visibly changed in the stranger's body language, which was funny, she thought because he still seemed to be frozen on the spot. He appeared as if her words had bound him in some kind of spell. 

So, when the jingle of the shop door sounded, he had become very tense, even though he did not turn around and look who had entered. Apparently, he was not completely immobilised because he had finally started speaking, low and urgent, swearing that he only wanted to protect her. 

She was about to tell him that she didn't need protection from her customers when the man that had just entered came into view. It made her change her mind immediately.

He was just ... wrong. Ava simply couldn't think of another word to describe the man who had just entered properly. It was as if his mere presence made her mind freeze in terror. Her gut feeling was confirmed, when an overwhelmingly disgusting smell hit her like a punch in the stomach. 

He too had the strange, snake-like eyes that the first man had. But while the former's were bright and radiant the latter's were colourless and dull. Just like his hair and skin, as if something had sucked out all colour and liveliness and left an empty shell, only that this shell very much seemed living and breathing. He was tall too, albeit not as tall as the first man, and certainly not as broad.

However, his wiry frame didn't do anything to ease her growing panic. Still standing at the entrance, he was scanning the room, taking in his surroundings, the stranger, and finally settling on her, a predator eyeing his prey.

While she was in no way convinced that the stranger did indeed have her best interest in mind, she decided that he was still the significantly lesser evil to what had just entered the shop. It was as if the colourless newcomer radiated danger in thick waves.

Slowly she nodded at the stranger, permitting him to come towards her, just as the pale man by the door drew a shiny black dagger.

The stranger whirled around, while simultaneously producing a small disc from his right pocket. Almost too quick for Ava's eyes to see, he threw it behind himself. It flared brightly, casting a fine blue net around the man with the dagger, stopping him mid-motion. 

He then turned to Ava again, another disc already in his hand.

"We don't have much time, this isn't going to stop him for long," he said. "As soon as I drop the orb, the portal is going to open and ..." 

Behind him, the man was beginning to stir beneath the blue net.

Ava did not speak or move. She just looked at him in confusion. 

What had just happened? What did he mean by portal?

The stranger continued almost beseechingly: "I'm going to explain everything to you once we're out of here and you're safe. I swore to protect you and even if I wanted to, I could not break this oath. Once I drop this," he indicated at the disc still in his hand, "it will turn into something that looks like a small pool. Step in and hold on tight. Do you understand?"

The pale man was now moving his arms, fighting the blue net which, apparently, was turning into something gooey and sticky. Although his restraints were becoming less binding, they still kept trapped. But even to her, it was obvious that it wouldn't stop him from attacking them much longer.

Ava's mouth was dry as paper. She swallowed and nodded slightly, then slowly came around the counter to where the stranger now had dropped the disc on the floor. It had indeed formed a pool of shimmering green.

"Step in," he urged her.

Hesitantly, with wobbling legs, she did as she was told. The green pool engulfed her ankles like velvet, whispering softly on her skin. It was unlike any sensation she had ever experienced before. But then, none of what had happened in the last couple of minutes had been an ordinary everyday situation.

Just when he was about to follow her into the pool, a sound made the stranger pause, then turn. The pale man had finally managed to untangle himself from his restraints. Just as Ava thought he would be lurching towards them, he threw the dagger. Not at the stranger, she thought with a start, but at her.

In a blur of motion, the stranger pushed himself to stand in front of her. With a shocked gasp, she reached out her hand to stop him from hurting himself. Just as her hand touched his shoulder, the shimmering green of the pool rose around them and swallowed them both.

***
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