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She pulled her knives,the beast’s speed and the difficulty of ducking the horns to leap on to its back
The beast let out a bloodcurdling roar and lowered its head, telling her in no uncertain tere masters would not allow her to leave this place alive And for one dark moment, she feared that was exactly ould happen That she’d never see Fox again, never see Ariana or her sisters Fear curled inside her
She had to kill this thing and kill it fast
The beast charged, but he was h her side and she looked down to find her tunic torn, blood flowing freely Dammit! She stumbled away froain Despite the pulse thundering in her ears, she reed her Readywaiting
At the lasthi his head She leaped back, but not quite fast enough, her attention stolen for one h her thigh, flinging her up and over hiled to her feet, sinking, as her injured leg buckled, watching with disbelief as the beast charged her again, already healed
Melisande pulled her sword, willing her thigh to knit more quickly But the beast was nearly upon her She was out of ti froly, he’d been able to snag it as the four of the him down to the watery bottom some twenty feet below If he fell, there would be no escape As it was, escape was problematic He eyed the lip of the hole just out of reach So close and yet so far
And he had to get out, daers into the dirt wall, down by his knee, seeking another root that her, he could, pray to the goddess, ht hies would attack hi the water, they’d disappeared
He’d listened to the sounds of battle, desperate to reach Melisande and cover her back But one silent She hadn’t answered when he’d called And noracked with fear because there was no good answer Either she’d been taken by those savages, or she’d slipped, alone, into the next world
Or she was dead
His heart clenched, his control slipping as a vicious roar built deep inside hi to keep his wits about hiood if he fell into this pit
Finally, he found what he was looking for, a loop of good-sized root still firerly, he held on tight to the first root and pushed hiht Go slow He could not afford to fall In both worlds, now, the attackers had fought not to kill hiht in the traps First the vines Then this pit And in both cases, the moment he was trapped, his opponents had walked away Or disappeared
All evidence pointed to the Mage wanting him taken alive And he could only assume it was because of whatever it was that Inir had done to the fox anie didn’t want Melisande The labyrinth wanted her dead
Goddess, he had to reach her
He shivered, then wondered what useless bit of untruth his gut was about to offer hietting hiainst hiive him exactly what he wanteda way to find Kara? While he’d never in athem to accomplish that feat, he couldn’t deny the satisfaction he’d derive frout would know it But, while getting captured by the Mage ht be a way to reach her, there had to be a better way than becoe captive himself
If he were to be captured, Melisande would stand no chance
No He wasn’t giving up and letting hily slowly, Fox dug one foothold then handhold after another until, finally, he was able to pull himself up and out of the pit
Sweat ran down his back and chest as he searched for signs of Melisande She wasn’t dead At least he didn’t think so Phylicia had quickly turned to dust after she died The pain that went through hione, all trace of her existence wiped fro She was still alive He had to believe that
Maybe she’d fallen into one of the pits and been knocked unconscious Perhaps that’s why she hadn’t answered his call
"Mel!" Still no answer He beganinto each, searching for sign of her The last thing he wanted to do was to slide into the next world with her still trapped in this one
But with his next step, snow covered his booted foot, and he kneas done He’d left the island At the same time, he heard the roar of a beast and whirled to see Melisande flying through the air over the strangest creature he’d ever seen--a beastie with six sharp swords for horns A monster as about to kill Melisande
Chapter Fourteen
In a running leap, Fox shifted into his animal, four feet able to traverse the snowy field better than his human two as he raced to save Melisande Even as he ran, the six-horned beastie turned and began to charge her as she struggled, bloodied, to her feet She pulled her blade, but though her leg appeared to be healing, it wasn’t happening fast enough Goddess, she wasn’t going to be able to move out of the way in tioddess that he’d followed her from that world to this As he neared the beastie, he shifted to human form and pulled his blade, then leaped onto the beast’s back and stabbed it through the neck
But the creature didn’t slow It was alh theFox over its head into the snow, but as Fox leaped up again, Melisande took his place on the struggling ani it in the neck over and over
"It keeps healing," she called to hiive me a hand with his head?" She asked the question as cal for help with an unwieldy suitcase
He grinned, his relief at finding her whole and alive bursting froive you a hand" He strolled to the pair of them and with a pair of hard hacks, cut off the beast’s head A moment after Melisande leaped clear of the carcass, the creature disappeared
He sheathed his blade and turned to Melisande, barely opening his arht they’d caught you," she cried, throwing her aring to hi his nose in her hair, shaking from relief and joy and an eht I’d lost you," he breathed "I wasn’t even sure you’d survived" How had she come to mean so much?