Willow by Wayland Drew Read Free Book Online Page A

who has seen something so terrible that she wants to blot it out completely, wants to remove it from the Earth and from all memory. “Look out! Look out! Look out!”
    Meegosh had just taken her off his shoulder. She was standing on the ruin of an old wall, pointing north. Her eyes were shut tight.
    “What is it?” the crowd asked, seeing nothing. “What’s wrong with that child? Is she having a fit? Is she . . .”
    Vohnkar’s shout of warning joined Mims’s scream—too late!
    A Death Dog rounded the bend at full speed and was among the revellers before they knew it. The brute was one of the largest and strongest of Bavmorda’s creatures, bigger than any Nelwyn. For several days it had run hard on the faintest scent, pausing only to lap water from the Freen and to rip apart an occasional fawn or rabbit. Its pace quickened as the scent grew stronger, leading it down at last into Nelwyn Valley. Its eyes blazed as it charged. White froth had formed a crust across its chest and shoulders. Great muscles and sinews rippled under its hairless skin.
    Willow seized the High Aldwin’s arm. “ Do something!”
    The old man looked at him in surprise. “ I do something? I , Willow Ufgood?”
    The beast ripped through the village, straight for Mims. The scent was so strong it was crazed by it. It snapped and tore at random. The Wickerman toppled at a blow from its shoulder. A heavy cradle from which a screaming mother barely had time to snatch her baby crumpled like twigs in its fearsome claws. People scattered in all directions from the mayhem.
    Only Mims held her ground. As the dog bore down on her, the child standing on the mound of ancient stones grew calm. She stopped her screaming. She ceased jumping up and down. As Willow shouted her name and ran toward her, Mims opened her eyes. Wide. She looked at the dog.
    The creature was only three bounds away, its blood-flecked jaws open to strike. But in that instant it faltered. Its left forepaw folded and its knee hit hard on the flinty path. It snarled in fury and was up again at once, but the instant was all that Vohnkar and his men required. Willow reached Mims and swept her aside just as two stout arrows slammed into the dog, the first narrowly missing its heart, the second slicing up through its throat and into its jaw. Howling, it reared on its hind legs, clawing air. Vohnkar moved in, struck once, twice with his sword, dancing under the lashing talons. All Vohnkar’s band were shouting now, the ululating war cries of Nelwyn warriors that had struck terror into the hearts of bigger men. Moving like lightning, another warrior leaped up and slashed the dog across the head and Vohnkar came in again to deliver the coup de grace with a lance through the creature’s heart. Dead but still snarling, still slavering, the dog yet stayed on its feet until a swarm of ordinary Nelwyns hacked it down with spades and sickles.
    Throughout, Mims surveyed the tumult as if she had seen it all before, seeming quite calm in Willow’s arms. “Mommy,” she said. “The baby.”
    “Beware!” Vohnkar shouted above the chaos. “Watch out for more! Look to your children!”
    “Ranon! Come on!” Willow looked wildly for Meegosh, but he was busy on the other side of the common, tending to wounded. Carrying Mims and clutching Ranon’s hand, Willow ran for home, a dozen horrid images in his mind. But when they burst in, Kiaya was peacefully rocking beside the window, feeding the baby.
    “Thank goodness!” Willow exclaimed, embracing her. “Thank goodness you’re all right!”
    “Why? Willow, what happened !”
    “A dog,” Ranon said. “This big. It attacked the fair. Killed people.”
    “No!”
    Willow nodded, biting his lower lip. “I knew it! I knew something awful would happen!”
    Kiaya held the baby close. “You think it’s her fault? It’s not !”
    “Of course it’s not her fault, but it happened because she’s here. I know it! We have to take her to the Council, now.