Mageborn The Line of Illeniel, Michael Manning [best ebook reader for laptop txt] 📗

as he felt himself starting to weaken he slammed the hilt of his sword into the monster’s face. The blow had little effect on the creature but it gave him enough room to swing the sword properly and he used the opportunity to hack at the arm holding him. He failed to completely sever it, due to the awkward angle but he cut deeply into the elbow and dislodged the hand from his throat. “Get off me damn you!” he ground out the words as the hand came loose from his throat. He would have backed away but the creature’s other arm, the one missing a hand swung up to club him in the side of the head, sending him reeling.

Royce wound up falling sideways onto the hard cobblestones but he kept his eyes on the creature as it turned to follow him. One step and it was to him but he didn’t wait for it to fall on him. If it landed on top of him he knew he would never have the strength to get out from under it. Sweeping the sword low to the ground he took the thing’s right foot off at the ankle and it toppled away.

Scrabbling backward he looked over to see what had become of Tanner and what he saw wasn’t pretty. The other man had collapsed and the thing that was latched onto him was cooing softly, like a small child. The monster that had been Rebecca Miller had a look of rapture on her face while both of her hands were gripping the older man’s head. David’s eyes had rolled upward and he seemed completely unconscious now.

Royce tried to stand and for a brief moment he considered attacking the girl, but his left leg failed to hold his weight. Old age, always knew it would be the death of me, he thought as he saw the one he had been fighting crawling toward him. He raised his sword, wondering if he could take off another appendage before it got to him when a mailed boot swept out and kicked the creature away.

Dorian Thornbear stood over him, his enchanted mail sparkling in the lantern light, “Sorry it took me so long to get here.”

“Better late than never.” Royce answered as he eased himself up on his good leg and hobbled inside the gate. Dorian was methodically hacking the bodies of the two creatures limb from limb. He was efficient at the task but despite his thoroughness the body parts continued writhing on the ground.

He might have kept at it longer, to see just how many pieces you needed to cut one into before it quit moving, but Royce called to him from the gateway, “Get inside there’s more coming!” Looking up Dorian saw several dark shapes approaching in the lantern light. He grabbed Tanner’s limp arm and dragged the man back with him, while Royce and Sam shoved the gate doors closed behind them. They all breathed a sigh of relief when the bar was finally in place.

Royce leaned over and checked Tanner, to see if he was alright. David had been alive and healthy only minutes before but he wasn’t breathing and there was no pulse. “He’s dead,” Royce said.

“How? He doesn’t have a mark on him!” Sam shouted. The normally reliable craftsman was close to panic.

“When that one touched me a minute ago I could feel it drawing the life out of me. As soon as one of ‘em touches you you start to feel weak. I’d guess he got a bit more of that than I did,” Royce answered.

“We need to get up on the wall and see what they’re doing. The rest of the men will be here in a few minutes,” Dorian stated calmly.

“What do we do with David?” Sam asked.

“He might turn into one of them,” Royce replied.

“He’s dead!”

“So were they, unless I miss my guess,” Royce answered flatly. “We probably need to cremate him or something but there’s no time right now. We’ll figure it out later; if he does turn it probably won’t be right away... I hope.” He turned and followed Dorian up the stairs to the top of the wall. Not knowing what else to do Sam went with him.

“Dammit!” Dorian said as he looked down from the top of the wall, “They’re climbing up.”

“How? I cut a foot and a hand off one of ‘em,” Royce was incredulous, until he looked over the top himself. A crowd of people had emerged from the darkness, gathering at the base of the wall near the gate. Three of them had started climbing the wall, gripping the rough stones in their hands. The walls weren’t smooth, and everyone knew an agile child might manage a climb of some distance, if he were foolish enough. Generally though most adults were simply too heavy to manage it with the small handholds the rough stone afforded. That wasn’t stopping these things; they clung to the stones with amazing finger strength, pulling themselves steadily upward, hand over hand.

The rest of the militia had finally arrived and began spreading out along the top of the wall. Many carried hunting bows and began firing into the shapes climbing up the twenty foot wall, which had no visible effect. “Stop shooting! It doesn’t do any good. Use your spears to knock them loose when they get near the top,” Dorian shouted.

Joe McDaniel had reached the wall as well and began organizing the men. “I need five men to return to the other gate, and ten more to spread out along the wall... that way!” he pointed in the direction he wanted them to go. “You... you... you...,” he singled out men and sent them out to keep watch along the rest of the wall. “The last thing we want is more of them climbing up while we’re all over here.”

Within minutes he and Dorian had a good quarter of the militia spread out to watch the rest of the walls, while