Liberator by Bryan Davis Page B

erupted, the first casualty might be a vulnerable Starlighter. She glanced again at the men. The sound of the tromping boots drew closer, maybe three hundred paces away now.
    “You are a poor excuse for a priest,” Magnar said. “I will take her to safety myself.”
    Trembling, Braynor backed away another step. “I … I cannot allow it. Taushin is king, not you.”
    “Beware, Braynor!” Magnar’s growl strengthened. “I am larger than you and more powerful by far.”
    “Then I will have to rely on quickness and agility.”
    Koren slid farther away. A battle meant a delay in flying her out before the soldiers arrived. “Magnar,” she said, her voice rasping. “Warn the men!”
    Magnar raised his head high. “Soldiers from Darksphere! Heed my warning! If you come closer, you will be infected by a fatal disease.”
    “No!” Braynor leaped at Magnar, his jaws snapping at the bigger dragon’s neck. Within seconds, their beating wings blocked Koren’s view of the soldiers. Their tails shredded the ground as they fought, edging closer and closer to her.
    Koren rolled away. A cacophony pierced her senses— the thumps of whipping tails and the grunts and growls of cursing dragons. Pushing with aching arms, she climbed to her feet, then looked back. The men had stopped within a hundred paces, perhaps worried about the disease. Yet, one man leaped toward her and ran.
    Koren waved him back and staggered westward toward the river. The waist-high grass felt like whips against her aching legs, and every pounding step brought new throbs to her perforated shoulders. Blood trickled down her back, biting into lesions along the way. The consuming disease gnawed at her gut, worse than ever.
    As the sounds of battle subsided, the rush of water took over. The river came into view, maybe ten paces away. She stumbled over a stone and fell to her knees. Her palms slapped the turf and sent new shock waves through her shoulders.
    Koren crawled. So dizzy! Walking was impossible now. With her vision darkening by the second, the sound of water remained the only guide. Maybe the chilly currentwould provide a cooling wake up, at least long enough to get to the safety of the forest on the other side. With night approaching, she could blend in with the darkening shadows.
    When she reached the bank, she continued a painstaking crawl into the flow. The icy water knifed through her clothes. Forearms and biceps stiffened into rigid rods. The shock sent a rush of blood to her head, snapping her awake and clearing her mind, though it also ignited a blazing headache that felt like a red-hot hammer pounding her skull.
    Moving stiffly, she made her way to the center of the twenty-foot-wide river. The water buoyed her body, allowing her to stand erect and walk in the shoulder-high current. New claws, these made of icy water, dug into her skin. She gritted her teeth and drove herself onward. Now swimming, she drifted southward with the flow until her feet struck bottom again.
    She pushed against the riverbed and trudged toward shore. Shivers took over. Her entire body shook violently, and her teeth chattered, making the hammer pound more furiously. With every step, her clothes and cloak grew heavier, weighing her down. But the weight didn’t matter. She had to keep away from the soldiers. Maybe the man who ran after her gave up for fear of the disease, or maybe one of the dragons had stopped him.
    Finally, she climbed up to the bank and continued walking, now in a weaving, stumbling stagger. When she reached the forest tree line, the desire to collapse and hide felt like a crushing boulder. She shook her head fiercely. Deeper was better, far away from the dragonsand the soldiers. Someone would eventually search for her. She had to get away, hide in darkness, shiver alone where the chattering of her teeth couldn’t reach dragon or human ears.
    After two dozen more steps, her foot caught on her cloak. She collapsed, more like crumbling pottery than a