The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1) by Gwyndolyn Russell (100 best novels of all time .txt) 📗

go the other way, claws scraping at the loose soil below. The creature shoved its whole body into the wolf, forcing it under the water while it took to the deeper end.

This was its element.

Streamlined fish, with saws for noses, and tall dorsal fins, swam against the bottom of the lake. Some jumped upward, mostly to get away from the skuladr, but that forced them against Fenris, their toothy noses cutting right through the soft parts of the wolf.

Jackal could feel the panic that overwhelmed the valkyrie. It no longer fought. It only focused on getting back to dry land. When he opened his eyes, he saw in a shade of red. Saw what the valkyrie saw. The crisp images of the world. The slow motion of the leaves a hundred meters away dancing in the wind. The cold water rippling against the valkyrie’s body as it clawed through to stay grounded.

Jackal shut his eyes again. This time when they opened, he did not see through Fenris’ eyes, but his own as if Fenris were looking through them.

“He needs help.” Jackal took off, pulling away from his Captain to rush to Fenris’ aid.

“Jackal, wait!” Reaper ran after him for a few meters before stopping.

He spied Yaaranam helping Vactubstein up to his feet. He hurried over to them.

“Are you two all right?”

“Yes!” Vactubstein said, squeezing his daughter’s shoulder. “What is wrong with your wolf?”

“I think he might be hurt. Yaaranam, if you’re up to it, I need you and Mjolnir in the gunner seats.”

“Yes, sir.” She nodded. “I’ll find him. Father are yo---”

“Go. Help them.” He cut her off.

She gave another nod and ran off to where two of the trucks had been pulled up over a few valkria corpses.

Once she was out of earshot, Reaper looked back to Vactubstein. “Are you still battle ready?”

“Please, don’t tell her, but I fear I may be getting too old for this. A hundred years is quite some time.”

“I didn’t know eldiravan could live so long.”

“Many of us die before becoming elders.” He patted Reaper’s back. “Let me get Tunaaka and we will go help Fenris and Jackal.”

Reaper waited. He watched Vactubstein check on his mount for a moment, then looked around. Almost all of the eos had vanished. Only the daring valkria remained, and they stayed at a good distance. If they were not watching the humans and ensuing fight between the valkyrie and skuladr, they were feasting on the fallen, and fighting one another. Even larger theropods joined in to steal the scraps.

Jackal had rushed into the water up to his waist. Black blood seeped into the crystal clear liquid, clouding it over in darkness. He winced as a series of sharp objects sliced into his hip.

"Get up!" Jackal said, grabbing one of its arms. "Come on!"

Fenris didn't budge.

The skuladr was coming right for them now. Its body slithering side to side as it swam through the water. The bones that decorated its metallic spines rattled, growing louder and louder by the second.

"Fen, you have to move!" Jackal pulled on him.

The valkyrie grumbled, pulled on its own frame only to get nowhere. It cringed and snapped its teeth.

"Shit. You're stuck, aren't you?" He figured it was the cloak. Snagged on a log, or a rock.

Fenris reached up towards his face, a claw grazing his cheek. His eyes were still glowing.

Jackal took a deep breath and dove under the water. Through the murk of blood, he went down to the bottom where he found the end of the cloak suspended freely. He tugged on it and it followed his motion. That wasn't the issue.

He looked around Fenris' legs to find one of the looser bits of chains had gotten punctured by some object; long, lightly curved and pointed. Pulling on it showed it was embedded into the ground, caked by mud held down by stones. More similar objects lined perfectly at either side, mirrored across the way, but further into the mud.

Jackal pulled on the chains to no avail. He pulled on the object, shaking it side to side. He opted to kick it. That made the object budge.

A torrent of water crashed down over him, threatening to take him further into the lake. He clung at the ground and the rocks that littered it. Massive claws swung through the water. In the haze of black and red blood and the bubbles of rushing water, Jackal could see Fenris’ mass forced away and under the water. The object it was stuck on, lifted up out of the mud, shaken free of dirt and rocks.

An enormous rib cage. Stuck several feet under the dirt. It was lifted away easily, the single rib the chains were stuck on snapped in half and Fenris was taken out of the water.

Jackal hurried back up to the surface to find himself stuck in the middle of the fight. A bleeding and weakened wolf stuck in the jaws of that overgrown monster. The valkyrie was right where the beast wanted it to be. Between those deadly, conical teeth to be punctured repeatedly. Fenris fought back, clawing, biting, and breathing out khexide directly into its maw. A tooth nearly as big as Jackal had been ripping out from the narrow jaws of the monster. He barely dodged it as it crashed into the lake.

Not about to let Fenris go down without a good fight, Jackal, with his newfound sight, waited for the opportunity to scale the beast. When its arm swung back down into the water, Jackal grabbed one of its fingers. Lifted up from the lake, the beast didn’t even seem to notice the puny pest. Holding on tight, he grabbed the blade from his thigh. Up to its face, its claws smacked against one of Fenris’ larger arms which was pushing down on one of its teeth. Jackal stabbed the knife as hard as he could into the creature’s cheek, just a few feet under its eye.

With a snarl, its arms swung down again and its head shook