Wizardborn (World's First Wizard Book 3), Aaron Schneider [top 50 books to read .txt] 📗

“Gods of the First Wood,” he shouted, drawing every baleful eye to him. “Before we come to blows, may I humbly ask to be heard?”

There was tittering and jabbering at the request, the great wolf laughing the loudest.

“Begging for your life now, witch child?” Borjikhan chuckled in the back of its throat. “How disappointing.”

Milo couldn’t have asked for a better setup.

Forcing back a smile, he whirled and shot a furious glare, undaunted and shining with indignation, at the wolf.

“I will fight and die as is fitting, but I ask this,” Milo roared and pointed a condemning finger at the huge lupine. “Do not allow that unworthy cur to gnaw my bones! If I fall, it is in sacrifice to gods, not as a carcass for some cringing scavenger!”

The host of monsters fell silent, several of them blinking at Milo while a few turned their glowing gazes on Borjikhan.

A rumble like a building volcanic eruption shook inside the shadow-wrapped Hiisi as it glared at Milo.

“You dare!” it snarled. “You DARE!”

Milo threw back his head and laughed. The sound was forced and harsh, but he managed it with a leering smile.

“At least the mighty Tsar’Vodyanoy was brave enough to do battle with me,” Milo taunted, sweeping his hand at the blubbery monster. “Not only me but my allies as well. You slunk away like a whipped dog before me, and I expect you’ll let these true Hiisi bring me down before you come and nip at my heels this time.”

“LIAR!” Borjikhan roared, the sound rising to an ear-shredding level once more. “I’ll eat your heart for such blasphemy, such deception.”

From a broken window, a familiar croaking laugh sounded.

“No lies, Borji, no lies,” Lempo squawked as it rocked on the windowsill in the shape of a huge malformed raven. “Magus chased you away, he did, he did, and the Heart Eater ran, ran with tail between his legs.”

Borjikhan snarled to contest the mocking raven, but the words were lost in a howling chorus of laughter from dozens of monstrous throats. The great wolf turned its toothsome snarl this way and that, but all met it with derision and more jeering laughter. Doubt and rage twisted its features until with a venomous glare at Milo, it threw back its head and howled with mind-shattering potency.

“I CHALLENGE THE MAGUS!”

It took Milo a moment to realize that the silence which followed was not because of his ringing ears. Every Hiisi again alternated between staring at Milo and Borjikhan.

“A challenge has been called!” they wailed in unison, a horrible blood-curdling sound. “A challenge will be answered!”

Every inhuman eye fell on Milo. For a second, he fumbled for something to say and settled for a pugnacious sniff and a toss of his head at the huge wolf.

“About time.”

The gathered Hiisi screeched their approval and fell back several paces. It seemed the challenge was imminent.

“We don’t have time for this!” Zlydzen bellowed, struggling to his stand on his good leg. “Kill these fools and be done with it.”

The Hiisi growled and hissed at the injured dwarrow.

“You swore an oath!” he spat, but that was the wrong thing to say.

Every Hiisi turned unfriendly eyes on him, seething.

“We do things our way,” the standing horse growled as it pawed the ground with one jagged hoof, sending up sparks from the cobbles. “We are allies, not slaves, dwarrow.”

Tsar’Vodyanoy gave a resounding belch that filled the air with a charnel stink.

“And last I smelled, your store of offerings was greatly diminished,” the blubbery monster grumbled. “It seems you will be taking this service on credit.”

The dwarrow, undaunted by the host of unfriendly faces, flapped a huge bleeding hand at the bodies strewn across the bridge.

“There is flesh a-plenty. Eat your fill,” he growled, shifting his weight uneasily.

Every Hiisi visibly recoiled at the suggestion.

“The hollow stuff you offer is poor enough,” the pike-mouth rasped. “But shade-tainted meat? Is this how Zlydzen the Engineer treats his friends?”

The ogre looked around and saw the dangerous gleam in the eyes of the assembled congregation of horrors. With a heavy sigh, he took up his hammer, and with a sickening series of slurping pops, shrank to his stunted form, the hammer shrinking with him. He leaned on the stout-hafted hammer like a crutch and gave a slow nod of acquiescence.

“Fine.” He glared from underneath his eyebrows at Milo. “Have your pageantry, but make it quick. Who knows when reinforcements might be coming?”

The assembled Hiisi gave a monstrous cheer and turned to watch the spectacle.

Borjikhan padded forward, dragging the shadows with him like a cloak.

“I will make your death scream echo through the ages!”

The triumph Milo felt at challenging Borjikhan evaporated the instant the challenge began.

He’d managed to bluff the lupine Hiisi into retreat, but now he wasn’t sure how that had happened. The beast’s night-wrapped shoulder was as tall as a horse, and the long body padding forward seemed even more massive. It was as though someone had taken a wolf and decided the lean frame would be better served if an additional layer was applied. Despite the obvious mass, the creature's steps didn’t make a sound, and its clawed paws left no imprint upon the fresh snow.

As the great wolf began to stalk in a wide circle, Milo mirrored the movement and sent an urgent thought out to both Imrah and Rihyani.

All right, somebody tell me something useful.

Don’t get eaten, Imrah offered. And don’t be afraid. Hiisi savor the emotions of their quarry.

Borjikhan’s lips peeled back in a smile, revealing gleaming fangs. Milo fumbled a step as he considered the serious question of why every evil thing and its brother seemed to have teeth like knives. Being eaten would be unpleasant, he was sure, but why did they all seem to have dentistry that made such things so likely?

Don’t try to run away or even reposition outside of this circle, Rihyani whispered. Hiisi are notoriously picky, and even floating could provoke them all to attack.

Borjikhan’s damson tongue traced lasciviously across its fangs.

I am