Destiny's Blood by Marie Bilodeau (best authors to read .TXT) 📗

the tar creatures were oozing out of the entryway, already sliding their way down.

“Faster!” Zortan screamed and the three broke into a wild run through the crops, sliding a few times on the wet earth. Avienne tumbled once and fell, but was back up in an instant, her entire right side covered in mud.

Ggggrrrrrggggggggg. Yoma could hear the odd sounds of the creatures behind them, and she pushed her body harder, her lungs screaming and burning.

Crack! Another stalagmite broke free and landed a few feet from them. The ground shook from the blow, a shudder that vibrated through Yoma’s body.

Avienne was the first to reach the stairwell. She climbed the circular stairs three at a time, hopping and leaping as the creatures gained ground and the roof crumbled. Yoma was not far behind, and Zortan hovered protectively behind her. She reached the top and dared but a quick glance at the grounds below, unable to see the greenery through the fallen rocks and smears of tar.

“Where?” Avienne screamed to Yoma. She pulled a small explosive charge from her belt and motioned the other two through.

“Back here,” Yoma screamed as she passed Avienne, who unhooked the charge and threw it on the balcony. They did not stick around to see the result. The whole palace shook from the explosion, statues and paintings flying off the walls and shattering at their feet.

Think, Yoma! Exits and entry points.

“Shouldn’t you know this, oh captain of the Royal Guards?” Avienne asked Zortan behind her.

“This was built after my time,” Zortan responded casually, his breath betraying none of the fatigue that laced Avienne’s voice.

Concentrate! Yoma let her feet guide her, fumbling through her memories. Her mind was becoming foggy, and Yoma hoped it was simply fatigue and not a vision.

She felt tugged in a direction and she followed her instincts. They had never been this insistent, but they had often proved right. Another stairway. She heard Avienne groan behind her.

She took the stairs, two at a time, energized by what memories and instincts told her. Upstairs. By the royal rooms, which looked out of the cliff side. The exit would be there. She was certain of it.

Yoma broke onto the main floor and ran past her rooms. The door was open and the blood red light glowed all around them. She ran to the end of the corridor, flung open the last door and entered the small room beyond it. It was empty, save for the statue of a woman.

“It’s here,” Yoma said between breaths. She ran her hands along the walls, feeling for a fissure, a crack, an irregularity, anything that would point to a hidden opening. The stone was smooth and betrayed nothing to her well-trained fingers.

“Blood and bones, Yoma. This is an empty room! In a tower with no other way out! We’ll be trapped!” As if on cue, gurgling sounds began to carry along the hallway. Zortan quickly closed the door and bolted the heavy metal lock.

“They wouldn’t have such a big lock unless it was to protect something valuable,” Yoma mumbled. “And it wouldn’t lock only from the inside unless it was most valuable when someone was in here.”

Avienne smiled. “I’ll buy that.” Without warning she threw herself into the statue, which teetered warningly. Before it could settle, the smuggler threw herself onto it again, toppling it over with a great crash that shattered it.

“Well, I’ll be.” Avienne bent down and brushed crumpled stone and dust away, and pulled on the door in the floor where the statue had rested. She flung it open.

It led to a dark drop. Avienne kicked a piece of the broken statue into the hole, and Yoma heard it strike ground in less than a second.

“Sounds good to me.” Avienne grinned and jumped down. Yoma and Zortan were treated to a string of swears as the smuggler landed on the piece of statue.

“I have a flashlight,” Zortan said. He pulled it free and shone it down the hole. Avienne’s brown eyes blazed up at him.

The door shook and cracked, and tar seeped in from under it.

“Move,” Zortan said, half pushing Yoma in. She fell beside Avienne and scrambled aside for Zortan as she got to her feet.

The sound of splintering wood echoed throughout the long hallway. “Go,” Zortan said from beside them. His light illuminated the way.

They ran, the corridor lit only by Zortan’s bouncing light, the three not speaking for fear of wasting their precious breath. The further they ran, the louder the screams and shells became ahead of them. The grunting and gurgling of the tar creatures neared behind them, although they dared not stop to glance back.

Yoma swallowed what little saliva she had left, her throat dry and aching, her breath harsh in her own ears. Red light illuminated the end of the passage, and she would have laughed if she still had the energy. She had feared all this time that they had been heading toward a dead end — dead in too many ways for her liking.

Avienne slowed and let the other two pass her as they neared the exit, pulling something from her pouch. Yoma and Zortan broke free just as the mountain shook, rocks tumbling around them. Avienne cheered as her last explosive barricaded the tunnel.

Yoma looked around her. They were just above the docks and the scene below was horrific. Panicked masses of people were gathering around the ships, the crews desperately trying to control the flow as everyone tried to get on board. People trampled each other and some were knocked off the walkways. Echoes bounced off the cliffs for a few seconds after the abrupt halt of their screams.

“Let’s go,” Zortan said. He scaled a stairway down, and Yoma and Avienne stuck close behind him.

“Lady!” Yoma heard the shout before she saw Gobran Kipso, running toward her. “I knew you would find your way. I kept the Victory on hold for your arrival. Quickly!”

Gobran grabbed her wrist and jerked her into the crowds, pushing people aside easily with