In The Lair of the Draca (Book 2)

In the Lair of the Draca (Book 2) Chapter 58: Violation

Sashek awoke to the sounds of tiny waves frothing at the sides of her kayak. Cautiously, she opened one eye and peeked out into the world.

Her kayak rested askance on a grim, desolate-looking beach; I must have run aground into some coral after passing that Water Beast, thought Sashek blearily, lifting a hand to her brow (it ached faintly) and easing into a sitting position. In the bottom, where her feet were resting, a few of the planks had splintered in what had obviously been a small collision, causing a leak that now covered the tips of Sashek's toes. Gasping at the coolness around her thighs-- some of the water had soaked through Pomoq's cloak-- she rose and gripped both sides of the swaying kayak with white-knuckled hands.

Across from her, a greasy-feathered carrion bird glared from where it had perched on the hull, fluttering matted wings and thrusting forward a heavily-browed skull. Glittering eyes scoured her hungrily.

"Get off! Get away!" Sashek clambered to her feet and tried to steady herself. She had hoped her height would scare the bird away; instead it cawed, resettled its wings some feet away, and snapped its beak.

Sashek shuddered inwardly, trying to regain her balance as the kayak tipped and let in more water.

My oars!

She looked round eagerly, aware that this bird had no intention of leaving her alone, and scanned the bottom of her kayak for the oars. One had drifted off and disappeared into the waters, but its chipped twin remained. Sashek snatched it up and faced the avian, gripping the oar solidly, like a bat.

Her People were quite familiar with these dingy-looking carrion birds. They tended to congregate on the opposite side of the Ice-Capped mountains, where the run-off in creeks and rivers contained tripe and the bones of dead animals, Draca, and even People. These birds could find ways of stripping meat and marrow from even the most bleached of bones, but it was not beyond them to circle above a small party of travelers and eventually make off with an unattended toddler. For that reason alone, the carrion birds were loathed.

Steeling herself for impact, Sashek drew back the oar, poised rigidly, and swung it forward. Wood met with gamy flesh in an unsavory smack; feathers scattered, and the bird, clamoring shrilly, hopped to one side. She had managed to strike it squarely in the chest, but it was quickly proving more difficult to dispatch this trouble-maker that she'd thought. Although she had thrown all her force into the blow, it was little different than striking a semi-pliable tree trunk. The carrion bird was solid and compact, and Sashek's oar proved too weak to withstand the force of contact. The wood splintered with a sharp crack, and poor Sashek finally lost her equilibrium.

Back into the water she landed, knocking her head on the back of a notched boulder and flailing in brief panic before realizing that the water only came up to her knees. The chill of it set her teeth to chattering: the mouth of the river stretched sixteen feet lengthwise, framed on either side by a high wall of icy mountain so sheer that had she looked up just then, she would have been unable to see their peaks. Parchment-thin plaques of floating ice scraped the skin off of her hands as she floundered, drawing pain and beads of blood; she ignored them. Just ahead, the beach, awash with broken bits of shell, pebbles, and knobby white femur bones, resumed on land beneath an eerie stretch of

star-mottled sky that almost seemed foreign. Sashek struggled for the beach with outstretched hands, thinking that she could even see Dragura's Fortress against the cyan-black of the horizon-- and was knocked right back into the water by a squat, feathered creature whose beak jabbed excitedly for her eye-balls.

"Blasted bird!" Sashek hissed, spitting mouthfuls of mountain water out of her mouth. "I'm not even dead yet, you hellion!"

It was no matter; she would teach this bird.