The Raven Lord | Book I

XXVII. The Front

Without so much as a breath, Venatrix was above my head, crashing down in a swift arch to meet the spindly arm of the outstretched Whisper. 

It hissed but used the blow to throw me back. My head hit the stone with a crack and I slid to the icy ground. 

"It tries to fight us," cackled a Whisper perched above me, its pinchers clicking in anticipation. 

The world spun and shrank and grew. Warm blood trickled down the nape of my neck and I pressed a finger to it. Not good. 

The nearest Whisper sniffed the air, its spindly arms bent at the ready. "I have no quarrel with you," I said, my voice carried away on the wind barreling down the Pass. 

A hissing laugh. "Ah yes, but we have one with you." It moved toward me on crooked legs, its massive body barely a fit for the narrow Pass. I shifted sideways, clawing the earth for my blade. It sat just feet away, a steel melody clanging as the Whisper stepped over it. In an instant I was pried from the ground and pinned to the wall, four pinchers holding me there. 

Breath of rot flooded my senses as it spoke again, "You killed our brethren, Huntress." Bone clicked against stone, the ancient tune on the wind now silent. It dropped me to the ground and I bit back a cry of pain. It took my leg in its pinchers, and with a cackle, began down the Pass, dragging me behind it. "So weak. Weak indeed, yes. Better for the picking." 

The smell of copper and iron filled the Pass, and with icy realization, I saw my blood staining the snow. Too much blood. Not good. 

My vision narrowed then sharpened. 

Coming to a small crack in the wall, the Whisper folded its boney body inside, dragging me along. Its companions followed as we descended into a clearing of sorts: a ring of stone, left open only at the top where fresh snow fell into the darkness below. 

I was thrust to the center, bursts of light chiming in my head. 

"We shall make this slow." 

With a laugh of many voices at once, the Whisper studied me, running its empty eyes over my body. And then, ever so slowly, it began to change. Its body shrank several feet, trading its spindly legs for slender human ones. Its hideous face became human, delicate features forming where they had once been dull and rotting. Bronze hair fell in soft waves over its shoulders, and lastly, sea-green eyes shone brightly in the dark of the cave. 

It became me. 

Do not let it see your form, Silas had once warned. I cursed.

"Ah, we shall enjoy this form." It spoke but the voice was not mine. The two others stepped forward, molting and changing. I bit back a yelp of surprise when they became the mirror image of Silas. 

Oh gods. Had they found him first?

I started back but the one that wore my face, the one that dragged me here, stepped forward. "Did you ever wonder how we got our information, girl?"  It tapped a finger to its temple once, twice. "Every thought you have ever had, every desire, every fear, is now ours."

I spat at the ground, my fingers and toes now numb with blood loss, my breathing shallow. "Go to Hell." 

It sneered at me, kneeling at my side. "We've already been."

I twisted to the side as a blade came crashing down a hair from my face. A wave of nausea ran through me as I stood, grasping for the small dagger hidden in my boot. 

"You think you can best us?" It observed me, its face not quite mine. "For your bravery, we will offer one last morsel of truth."

"What is it?" I breathed, backing toward the crack from which we had come.