Black Scars by Steven Alan Montano Read Free Book Online

a mass of bobbing shadows.
    Cross didn’t need to see the white spider. It was a guide, somehow, the world’s way of telling him where to go, only he’d seen it less and less those past months. He knew it was there, somewhere, out on a tree or crossing the path. They were supposed to be there, finding that crash.
    Follow and you will find .
    “ Dillon and I are on a mission,” he said. “We’re looking for something.”
    “ Pray tell.”
    “ The Woman in the Ice,” he said.
    Cross noted Lucan’s reaction: he stiffened like a board, and his eyes fluttered open for a moment, as if waking from a dream, and then closed again.
    Black flinched at mention of the Woman.
    “ You’re heard of her,” Cross said.
    “ Maybe,” Black said with a nod.
    Thunder approached the tree line. The Gorgoloth would break into the clearing in a few moments. Cross’ spirit coiled up so hard she weighed down his limbs. He breathed in deep, pulled her into his lungs, and held her there.
    “ I know you’re not supposed to be here,” he said. “You have a skeleton crew and only a handful of prisoners. Whatever you’re doing here, it’s not as a Revenger.” He had to raise his voice to be heard. “If we live through this…you and I have things to talk about.”
    The sound of the approaching force grew louder by the second. Inky silhouettes bled into view through the dying fog. A second later, and the Gorgoloth were there.
    A raucous battle howl rose at the edge of the trees, so powerful that the forest shook. Ebon-skinned nightmares charged out of the fog. They had stark white manes and ravenous blades, black flesh and white armor. They were harlequin marauders.
    The Gorgoloth had oversized mouths that bore simian teeth. Clawed hands held weapons made from obsidian and shaved stone. Their armor was made of snow serpent scales, white bear skins and blood wolf hides. There were over a hundred of them, easily. Each stood almost seven feet tall, and they had knotted dark muscles and lupine feet.
    The Gorgoloth horde charged forth, heedless of any danger.
    A hundred Gorgoloth , Cross mused, is not all that many . At least it wasn’t when compared to the droves they usually traveled in, but that didn’t matter. Against rifles and two mages, they might as well have been a thousand. The Gorgoloth found ways to prevail through their overwhelming numbers, their fearlessness, and their sheer brutality.
    The air grew thin as Black sent her spirit forward into the mob. A rain of hot razors fell onto the clearing. They seared through ebon flesh and burned the dead trees to the sound of howls and the stomach-churning stench of burnt skin.
    The charge faltered perhaps for a moment. They roared ahead, undeterred.
    A cyclone of dark fire leapt from Cross’ hands. It was small enough at first that he hurled it like a projectile, and as it flew through the air it exploded into a violent pyrotechnic twister the size of a truck. The black funnel was a whirlwind of ebon flames and blades that slashed through every Gorgoloth in its path. Blood and scorched flesh sprayed like steaming clumps of mud.
    Automatic gunfire erupted from inside of the ship’s wreckage. The first line of Gorgoloth were struck down by bullets and tumbled to the ground. White blood splattered like greasy milk. Cross sensed Black’s spirit pull back as she fired into the Gorgoloth with her Winchester; the rattle and rapport of the rifle was much louder than Cross expected, and Black fired with expert precision, pumping the lever so quickly after each shot that her arm became a blur.
    Gorgoloth fell in piles, tripped on one another, and crushed into the bodies of their brothers as they charged forward. Flesh and blood exploded. The air was a roar of battle cries and guttural yells.
    The Gorgoloth cleared half the distance from the tree line, and they showed little sign of slowing. More shadows threatened from the surrounding fog.
    Cross brought his spirit back. She billowed into