The Lioness of Shadi

18 - The Demon of the Fallen Tree

The great wailing and gnashing of fangs split the otherwise silent night air, but the distorted echoes through the buildings of Sa Dul told Ilati nothing of where her quarry was. With the darkness beneath the crescent moon and the bloody light it shed, the advantage was most certainly with the demon.

Ilati took a deep breath and tightened her grip on her sanctified arrows as she watched the road from the east. She tried to focus as Eigou had taught her, not with her own two eyes, but with the inner perception he insisted was key to seeing into the world of such creatures.

The priestess closed her eyes, adjusting her hold on her bow and arrows. With only five, she had abandoned her quiver in case it slowed her down, preferring to hold her arrows in the hand holding the string. Then she heard it, a clatter on the street below so much closer than she had expected. She flicked the first arrow up and caught it, drawing it back without hesitation. The small symbols of protection etched onto her thumb ring burned hotter and hotter as the creature approached. Her perch on the roof of the granary would not be hidden long.

When she opened her eyes, it took biting her own lip almost hard enough to draw blood to avoid a gasp. Rippling and writhing, the hulking figure of shadow moved through the dimness in an undulating path, growing fresh limbs with every step and absorbing the old. Its many eyes flashed like a lion's in the moonlight, a maw full of needle-like fangs dripping ichor onto the city streets that burned and corrupted even the stone. Ilati had never encountered a beast so large, greater than even a bull. A thick mane of darkness wrapped around its neck, but its back and tail bore deadly-looking spines.

Not for the first time, Ilati felt her death close at hand.

Be brave, Ilati, she told herself. Be worthy.

She drew the arrow back further, anchoring at her cheek rather than her chin, and held her breath. In this, her aim mattered more than it ever had before. She let the arrow fly with a flick of her thumb and index finger. Light flashed as the arrow soared, like a crackle of lightning.

The arrow struck the demon in the hindquarters rather than the heart she had aimed for. Jaws opened and a wail shrieked forth that left Ilati deafened and stunned for a moment. It was muscle memory that drew her next arrow to her even as the horrible sound drove like a red-hot needle into each ear. Her eyes flooded with tears of pain and the muscles of her wounded leg quivered. Suddenly, her shot was not as clear. She pulled back away from the edge of the granary, hoping against hope it hadn't seen her.

A snarl told her otherwise. The ladder leading up to the roof disappeared, a horrible cracking telling her exactly what had happened: the demon had seized it and broken it. She had a ten foot drop on all sides to reach the street, and that was no salvation. Ilati let her arm slacken as her heart pounded with fear, hands trembling on the string. Even without a wounded leg, that was more of a jump than she dared make. A drop perhaps, but then she would have the demon upon her.

In a moment, it didn't matter.

The flash of seven rage-filled eyes at the edge of the roof announced the demon's arrival as its claws dug into the mudbrick of the granary walls, hauling itself upward with her arrow still embedded in its flank.

There was no time to think. Ilati drew her arm back and let the next arrow fly, holding her ground. This one struck the demon in the shoulder as it hauled itself up onto the granary roof. She could see the purity of the salt spreading in the wound she had created, a place of crackling light on the evil one's hide.

It was not enough, even as a second wail split the night air. She was more prepared for it now, but ice ran through her veins and her body screamed for her to flee even though she couldn't move.