The Witch's Eye by Steven Montano, Barry Currey Read Free Book Online Page A

had turned away from the battle to come deal with the escapees.  Many of the prisoners were hampered by injuries or fatigue, but they ran for the ridge as fast as they could.  Ronan wiped blood and sweat from his face and followed, shoving Jade and Maur along ahead of him. 
    Licks of fire arched into the black sky and came down like burning rain.  Bursts of steam covered the ground.  The cages caught alight.
    T he prisoners dove over the ridge and moved down the hill.  Ronan came to the edge, where Maur and Jade helped a woman and a soldier slide down. 
    “ Could you go any slower?!” Ronan yelled.
    Jade scowl ed. 
    A gro up of Gorgoloth charged straight at them.  They were just ebon silhouettes against the backdrop of flames and beasts. 
    Ronan felt the air pull towards them .  Frost burned his tongue and turned his skin raw.  Jade’s spirit whispered as it gathered itself.  Crackling energy shook the air.  Jets of azure liquid shot out of the ground and gelled into a curtain of frozen mist that fell onto the Gorgoloth.  The ice burned through their skin and tore them to bloody chunks.
    “ Now we can go,” Jade said, and she started down the hill.
    Ronan laughed.
    “I guess she can come,” he said.
    “Maur thinks you are both full of surprises,” the Gol said.  He was about to slide down the slope, but Ronan grabbed him and insisted he climb up onto his back.  Maur agreed, reluctantly.
    Full of surprises? he thought.  He watched Jade as she slid down.  The flames made the air behind them orange and thick, but the marsh below was dark beneath the clouds.  Let’s hope not.
    They made their way down the slope, leaving the throes of battle behind them.
     
    They worked their way across the marsh and towards the ruins of Voth Ra’morg.  Ronan didn’t like the idea of going back, but one of the rescued, a young soldier named Moone, made an excellent point: some shelter was better than no shelter, and the best chance they had to defend themselves would be in the city.
    Ronan had rescued seventeen survivors from the Gorgoloth cages, not counting Maur and Jade.  That meant they had a group of more than twenty that needed protecting, and Ronan quickly grew tired thinking about how difficult that was going to be.  Most of the survivors were farmers, settlers and travelers bound for Kalakkaii, Vale or Fane.  The two soldiers, Moone and Kyleara, were on leave from the engineer’s core out of Ath, while the rest of the refugees were from remote settlements that had stood in the Gorgoloth’s destructive path. 
    Voth Ra ’morg’s buildings were silent and dark.  Stars burned cold in the pale sky.  A haze of smoke lingered in the air, and wind rattled the city walls. 
    The large group took shelter in an empty warehouse located just off the main city streets.  They started a fire and took stock of their meager possessions.  There wasn’t much food, and they quickly learned they weren’t any better off with their other supplies, either.  Things weren’t looking good.
    The fire raged and curled .  It wouldn’t burn forever, but it would keep them warm for a time.  The survivors huddled around the blaze.  The warehouse was spacious and relatively empty except for some old stone columns and a set of rusted storage lockers, as well as an ancient Buick with no engine block.  Though most of the windows had been shattered there was only one real way into the building, a large sliding steel door with a working lock.  Moone stood guard at the door with an M16, one of the few weapons they’d scavenged along the way. 
    Ronan surveyed the group .  Their ashen and exhausted faces glowed in the flickering light.  Most of them were adults, but a few teenagers were in the mix, scraggly and lean, their eyes hollow from the horrors they’d witnessed.  Most of the men were able-bodied enough, but Ronan could tell just by looking at them that they weren’t fighters.
    S urvivors, maybe , he thought.