Grym Prophet (Song of the Aura, Book Three) by Gregory J. Downs Read Free Book Online Page B

fire-blinded eyes closed against the enclosing shadow, and soon she was asleep.
     
    ~
     
    Gribly’s dreams were convoluted and filled with the twisted face of his mysterious look-alike.
     
    Gramling. The draik had called him Gramling.
     
    “Like what you see?” the Pit Strider grinned, and his teeth were bloody. His hands tapered into black, bloodstained claws as he slashed and clutched at a villager’s body until it fell limply away. A small, friendly-looking hamlet burned like Blazes behind him, and smoke billowed from every window.
     
    Gribly tried to open his mouth- to curse, to weep, to do or say anything to stop the horrific massacre, but no words would come out. His arms felt like lead and his legs seemed to crumble to dust beneath him.
     
    “So astute, prophet ,” sneered the Pit Strider, and struck Gribly in the face. He reeled back under the insult and the blow, and his back felt like it was snapping in two. Blood ran in his eyes, and a horrendous black shape loomed through the murderous haze. “Finish him, Bonedale,” ordered the sorcerer, “We can’t have him eavesdropping on us while he’s asleep, can we?” The demon-horse that appeared by Gribly’s head reared up, neighing in triumph.
     
    Then its hooves crashed down on his head.
     

Chapter Five: Grim Laughter
     

     

     
    Mythigrad in ruins. The Suthway Cath wrecked on the city’s shores, two of her enemy vessels in pieces beneath her. A second ship sunk, a second crew dead, a second battle lost.
     
    But Captain Bernarl was a Zain, and Zain were hard to kill. His coat was in tatters, his body bruised and bloodied, his hair burnt and one of his eyes put out by an explosion that had torn a hole in the Suthway’s side. Stumbling away from the half-submerged wreckage of his ship, the nymph captain and part-time pirate still clutched his precious anchor-blade by its chain, letting its heaviest part drag in the snowy slush behind him. There was blood on the blade.
     
    Hard to kill indeed.
     
    Gazing listlessly around him, Berne took in the situation with a practiced eye. The mysterious enemies were inside Mythigrad now. He could see the fires of destruction raging throughout the city, and knew that his duty lay in making a last stand with the Reethe.
     
    Another explosion threw him to his knees, and he sprung up again, cursing. The ships!
     
    The ships. He turned and looked at them with a predator's eye. Was he a good enough pirate to take an entire ship captive on his own? It would give the Reethe a fighting chance, if they had one of those ships...
     
    “Captain... what in the Blazes is happening? Where did these ships come from??” It was Yan, the wheel-mate, struggling up from the surf, spewing water and blood as he tried to expel the sea from his body.
     
    “Hard to kill...” muttered Berne under his breath, in the nymphtongue. “We haven't lost yet, Yan,” he said aloud.
     
    “But we've lost the Suthway !” Yan lamented, stumbling over. He looked to be in shock, but there was not much else wrong with him.
     
    “Indeed...” Berne mused, as more explosions and screams perforated the blood-hazed air. “But we're not lost yet, Yan. How would you like to be a pirate?”
     
    “Captain? I don't understand...”
     
    “We're going to take those ships, Yan. We're going to save Mythigrad.”
     
    ~
     
    Gribly stared out over the inner world of the Grymclaw, trying his hardest to figure out a way down the cliffs. He had Sand Striding, and, it seemed, Stone Striding on his side; the problem was knowing how to use them. He had thought of warping part of the cliff face into a flight of stairs, lengthening it as he and Elia traveled further down, but he just didn't have the finesse needed.
     
    Then, quite suddenly, the answer came to him.
     
    “Stand back,” he told the girl, and she did, looking at him worriedly.
     
    “What's your plan?” she asked hesitantly.
     
    “Just watch... and stand back a little