Days Of Light And Shadow Read Free

bearing down on it, long enough for one of the others to bury an arrow in its head. It didn’t. It just kept tearing at the trader, trying to eat him alive. Heartbeats later another dozen arrows were sticking out of it like pins in a pin cushion, and none of them made any difference.
     
    That was more than wrong. Even though none of them had found the creature’s head so many arrows lodged deep in its body should have killed it instantly, yet the creature didn’t seem bothered by them. It didn’t even seem to notice them as it went about its gruesome work. It just kept tearing savagely at its victim, biting him, tearing out chunks of blood red meat, hungry for the trader’s flesh. More than hungry. Ravenous.
     
    “Swords.” The captain gave the command, and just as they had practiced so many times, the rangers drew their blades and slipped off their horses’ backs in a single fluid movement. Thirty men and women advanced on the creature, covering the last few paces between them at a run. It paid them no more attention than it had the arrows, interested only in the man on the ground, in its prey.
     
    By chance Dura was the closest and she managed to put her spear straight through one of the creature’s arrow filled shoulders, lifting it up a little and driving it back from its victim. Suddenly she was unutterably glad to have been given the awkward weapon instead of a sword. Its length meant that she didn’t have to stand as close to it as the others.
     
    Hers wasn’t a perfect strike, but it was all it needed to be. The pike lifted the creature up off its victim and held it upright leaving it exposed. Swiftly the others struck, letting their blades slice through its flesh, separating its arms and head from the rest of it. It was only that last blow that finally seemed to stop it. Nothing it seemed, survived without a head.
     
    But even in death it didn’t die as it should.
     
    It stopped moving as its head rolled away, but where was the spurt of blood? Where was the bright red stain that should have been spraying everywhere? Nowhere it seemed. The creature’s blood wasn’t bright red as it should have been, it was dark, almost black. And it didn’t spray, it oozed. And where was the scream? It should have screamed. But the thing it seemed had known nothing of fear or pain as it died, only hunger. Madness and hunger.
     
    At least its intended victim was alive. He lay on the ground shaking and gasping for breath, his face white and his long red hair in disarray, and there was blood flowing from cuts and bites all over him, but he was alive.
     
    “By the Mother my thanks.” His voice was filled with the sound of gratitude and relief, but also fear. And for some reason he couldn’t seem to stop shaking. The man at least seemed to be in one piece, all his parts still working, as he tried to roll on to his hands and knees and then get to his feet. It took him a few attempts as his body didn’t seem to obey him quite as it should. And when he finally made it to his feet and looked down at the creature, his face was filled with horror.
     
    “It came out of nowhere.” The trader started telling his tale, though no one had asked him to. No one stopped him either.  “I was lighting the fire for the evening, and it just came from out of the trees. I couldn’t fight it off.”
     
    “I tried, I had no weapon, but I smashed it in the face with a burning brand. It didn’t even notice. I ran and it shuffled faster. And then it just jumped on me, screaming that horrid shriek, and tried to eat me. Alive!” As he said it, he was putting his hands to his wounds, and staring at the blood on them.
     
    “It bit me. Again and again it bit me. Even trolls don’t do that. What sort of man does that?” No one had an answer for him, save that it wasn’t a man. Maybe it had been once, but no longer.
     
    “You should get those wounds tended to.” The captain at least seemed to know what to do and Dura was