Lair of Beasts [Book I in the Curse Of Blood Saga]

Chapter XXIV - Of Love and Death

Foreboding snuck furtively into my heart and chilled my breast. Lucian's severe posture was so wrought with tension that I dared not breathe, let alone question him. I searched the shaded gloom for a sign of what he'd heard, twisting my neck around towards the spot that he now concentrated on. There was a slight rustling of dry leaves coming from close by that was followed by a low, pernicious grunting.

Lucian slowly unsheathed a dagger from his belt and eased me behind him with his other hand as he stared fixedly at where the sound had emanated from. No sooner had I been guided to stand at his back than a ferocious, deeply-pitched squealing erupted from the underbrush. It was directly preceded by the largest boar I had ever beheld, charging at us with a baleful screech and murderous intent blaring from its gimlet eyes.

The beast moved like a dark blur, its tusks curved wickedly and angled to inflict as much damage as possible. I had no warning before Lucian shoved me aside roughly in the last moment ere the boar attacked him. There was only a fugacious impression of dark, evil little eyes bearing down on us before I was thrust to the side by Lucian, my scream rending the morning with a strident harshness that sent the birds, that were roosting above, fleeing desperately from their nests. I landed against a rock and hit my elbow painfully as I came to a jarring halt.

Scrambling forthwith to my feet, I quickly sought my husband out and found him still grappling with the monstrous pig. Would that I had a weapon with which to defend him, but there was naught within immediate range save for a few sharp stones. Loathe to waste a moment more, I therefore grabbed a ready missile, with every intent to bludgeon the swarthy hog. But when I glanced up, I swiftly realized that my aid was no longer required for Lucian had by now immobilized the boar, and had done so when my eyes had been briefly diverted.

He was bleeding heavily from the left thigh as he, kneeling in the snow, held the animal locked in one brutal arm while it fought zealously to free itself. I watched keenly as he brought his long dagger down and slit its throat savagely with his free hand, dispatching it instantly as the blood spurted hotly into his face. Finally, the boar's shrieking struggles had become naught but hideous convulsing that lasted no more than a moment before finally ceasing altogether. 

I ran to him the instant that he relaxed his hold and watched as the carcass slid limply to the ground. "You are injured!" I cried, kneeling at his side. 

His face had become waxen, but he said naught and made no move to stop me as I maneuvered the shredded flap of his hose carefully aside to inspect the deep gash in his thigh. It was angry and much too deep, his blood hemorrhaging almost as thickly as the boar's had done moments ago. My own face turned deathly pale as I promptly realized what this could mean.

"No!" I whispered, horrified by the implications. Ripping long strips from my kirtle, with the intention of staunching the flow, I almost didn't hear the heavy footfalls approaching from behind me as of a stampeding army bursting on the scene; yet it was only two men who had arrived to aid us.

"Step aside!" Fendrel elbowed me, none too gently, away from Lucian.

Godwin immediately helped me to my feet, but restrained me when I bethought myself to move closer. Where were all the others? I felt as thought they must have surely heard my scream, if not the boar's, but it dawned on me suddenly that everything had happened in a matter of seconds and that Lucian had actually separated us quite a ways from the rest of our party. It was actually uncanny how instantaneously the two men had appeared in our midst.

Fendrel grabbed the strips of wool from my undergarment out of my hands and began constricting the streaming blood. Once the tourniquet had been secured across his nephew's thigh, he reached for the boar and affected his strangest behavior yet: dipping his fingers into the pig's neck, he smeared more of the hog's blood onto the pristine bandages he'd just applied and all over the rest of Lucian's leg as well as up the front of his surcote. The act was oddly grotesque.