Chapter 230: Rotten Luck

The tall reeds along the drainage ditch parted with a dry rustle.

Four hookjaw scavengers crept out of the culvert and onto the gravel shoulder, their coarse gray hackles raised and their thick shoulders hunched low. They were ugly, heavy-necked beasts the size of timber wolves, with hooked lower fangs built for cracking marrow bones. Ropes of saliva hung from their jaws as their noses twitched toward the dark liquid dripping from the back of the tilted wagon.

Tethered to the front pole, the draft mule caught their scent at the same instant. The animal laid its ears flat against its skull, let out a shrill whinny, and stamped its iron shoes against the stones.

"Stay on the box!" Felix barked up at the driver and his young assistant, planting his boots on the roadside gravel and locking his forearm into the straps of Aegis Bulwark.

Arthur was already moving two paces to the left to clear his firing lane. He raised Whisperwind in his splinted left hand, drew a glowing blue Mana Quiver arrow to his cheek, and sighted down the slope as the lead scavenger lowered its head and bolted straight for the wagon.

Arthur loosed.

Thwip!

The mana shaft punched cleanly through the base of the creature’s throat mid-stride. Its front legs folded under it, and it tumbled across the gravel in a spray of dark blood, twitching once before going still.

Clean and easy.

Then the reeds shook again, and three more lean gray shapes scrambled up the muddy bank right behind the first pack.

They barely glanced at their dead packmate. Starved and drawn by the sun-warmed stench of six barrels of slaughterhouse offal sitting in the cart, the scavengers spread out low through the roadside weeds, angling straight for the dripping wagon bed and the tethered mule.

"Stray dogs, huh?" Felix shouted over his shoulder as two of the beasts split around the rear wheel. "You said we were shooting stray dogs, Vance!"

"Complain after we’re done!" Arthur called back, already drawing a second mana arrow.

Before he could loose, a scavenger darted around the front corner of the wreck and snapped at the mule’s hocks.

The terrified animal reared up in its harness, screaming as its front hooves pawed the air. When it came back down, it threw all its weight sideways against the wooden shaft. The sudden wrenching jolt dragged the front of the wagon across the gravel, and the shattered rear wheel slipped another foot down the crumbling lip of the ditch with a loud crack of splitting oak.

"The cart’s going over!" the driver yelled from the high seat, clinging to the iron brake lever with both hands as the barrels in the back shifted with a heavy, wet thump. "Hold that damn mule!"

"I’ve got him!" the young assistant shouted.

Ignoring the driver’s curses, the boy scrambled down over the front wheel and lunged for the iron hitch pin connecting the thrashing mule to the wagon tongue.

"Kid, get back!" Felix roared.

A scavenger was already streaking through the weeds toward the boy’s exposed back. Arthur tracked the beast with his bow at full draw, waiting for a gap, but the kicking mule and the boy’s flailing arms were directly in the way.

Felix didn’t wait for a shot. He charged around the front wheel and swung the heavy steel face of Aegis Bulwark like a battering ram, catching the lunging scavenger square across the snout with a dull crunch that sent it rolling back into the weeds.

On the other side of the wagon, Leon and Alicia moved in to cut off the pair trying to circle the back.

The first beast lunged low at Alicia’s boots. She sidestepped smoothly and whipped her blade across its shoulder, laying the coarse gray hide open to the bone. The wounded scavenger let out a shrill yelp and scrambled straight underneath the tilted wagon bed, disappearing into the dark tangle of broken spokes and axles where it started snapping wildly at anyone who came within reach of the wheels.

Its companion bypassed Alicia entirely, bounding over the wagon tongue to get at the assistant, who had finally gotten both hands on the jammed hitch pin while the mule kicked dirt into his face.

Leon threw himself into the gap. He shoved the boy hard against the mule’s neck with his hip and brought his longsword down across the scavenger’s open jaws. The beast’s hooked teeth clamped onto the steel crossguard with a screech of grating metal, its claws raking deep furrows down Leon’s leather greave as its weight forced him back a step.

Alicia pivoted and drove her point cleanly through the creature’s ribs from the side. The scavenger went limp, and Leon shoved the carcass off his guard with his boot.

"Watch your front!" Alicia snapped, her breath coming fast as she wrenched her blade free. "You nearly let it take your forearm off!"

"The kid was right under it!" Leon shot back, shaking blood off his sword hilt.

"Pull the pin!" Felix yelled from the roadside, bracing his boots in the loose gravel as a heavy male scavenger slammed into his shield, jaws snapping at the top rim of the steel plate. "This thing’s trying to climb over me!"

"It’s wedged!" the boy cried out, hammering at the iron pin with a rock while the mule jerked him off his feet.

Underneath the wagon, the wounded scavenger lunged out from between the front wheels, going straight for the mule’s exposed belly.

Arthur had zero angle for a bow shot through the wooden spokes. He lowered Whisperwind, letting the mana arrow fade, then slung the bow over his shoulder and drew his steel hunting dagger with his right hand.

He stepped into the wagon’s long shadow, fixing his eyes on the deep pool of darkness beneath the front axle.

Shadow Step.

The roadside blurred. Arthur stepped out of the shade right beside the front axle, dropping low as the wounded scavenger lunged past the wheel, and drove his dagger up under its jaw.

Hot, foul-smelling blood poured over his fist as the creature collapsed onto the stones. The rough hilt twisted against the bandaged rope burn across his knuckles, sending a sharp sting up his arm as he wrenched the blade free and kicked the body out from under the mule’s stamping hooves.

Before Arthur could even stand up from the wheel, Felix took another heavy body-check from two scavengers hitting his shield at once.

Felix’s heels skidded across the slick gravel, and his back slammed hard against the side of the wagon.

The entire cart groaned and lurched downward toward the ditch. Up on the box, the driver let out a yelp as one of the heavy wooden barrels in the back broke loose from its middle tie-down, sliding across the slanted floorboards and slamming against the low side rail above the ditch. Dark, bloody slush splashed over the planks through the cracked staves.

The remaining scavengers kept circling the wagon, drawn closer by the blood and rotten meat dripping into the ditch.

"How many of these bastards are out here?!" Felix grunted, shoving a snapping muzzle off his shield boss with a heavy bash.

"Enough!" Alicia called out, parrying a lunge near the rear wheel while Leon stepped over the wagon tongue to keep another beast off the panicking mule. "They don’t care about the steel—they’re just going for the blood leak!"

Up on the box, the driver stared helplessly at the leaking barrel. "Don’t let that thing go into the ditch! The boss’ll dock my pay for the whole month!"

Arthur backed out from beside the front wheel, wiping scavenger blood off his chin with his sleeve. His right hand stung under its linen wrap, his splinted left wrist was aching from holding the bow, and his boots were ankle-deep in roadside mud.

He looked at the snarling beasts circling the wheels.

Then he looked up at the cracked barrel straining against a single taut hemp rope along the low side of the tilted wagon.

The stupid animals didn’t want a fight. They wanted dinner.

"Leon!" Arthur shouted over the racket. "Get ready to pull the kid and the mule up the road!"

"The pin’s almost loose!" Leon yelled back, kicking a scavenger in the ribs as it tried to dart under the pole.

Arthur took five quick steps back up the gravel shoulder to give himself a clear line of sight to the slanted wagon bed, unslung Whisperwind, and formed a low-powered mana arrow on the string.

Up on the wagon box, the driver saw where the glowing blue point was aimed and went pale.

"What the hell are you doing?!" the driver shouted.

"Feeding your customers," Arthur said.

"That’s company property!"

"Then tell your company to stop attracting fucking monsters."

Arthur loosed.

Snap!

The rope snapped, and the leaking barrel rolled across the slanted wagon bed. It went over the low side, bounced down the muddy bank, and burst open against the rocks in the ditch.

A wave of rancid, sun-warmed slaughterhouse slop, clotted blood, and split marrow bones flooded the reeds.

The smell hit the road like a physical wall.

Ten feet away, Felix actually gagged behind his shield, his eyes watering. "Oh, gods—Vance, you bastard!"

The scavengers reacted instantly.

The heavy male pressing against Felix’s shield stopped snapping, whirled around on its hind legs, and bolted straight down the bank into the ditch. The three beasts circling Leon and Alicia abandoned the wagon in the same breath, scrambling over each other through the weeds to dive headfirst into the spilled pile of meat. Within seconds, the bottom of the culvert was a thrashing, snarling tangle of gray hides as the pack fought over the scraps.

Nobody was looking at the mule anymore.

Arthur lowered his bow and let out a long breath, trying to breathe through his mouth.

Up at the front of the wagon, the assistant gave one final yank with both hands. The jammed iron hitch pin slid free of the tongue with a metallic clink.

"Got it!" the boy gasped.

"Move!" Leon barked, grabbing the mule’s leather bridle with one hand and the back of the boy’s collar with the other, hauling both of them at a run up the gravel road toward the waiting replacement cart.

Alicia backed away from the tailgate, keeping her bloodstained sword pointed toward the ditch as the snarling pack tore into the burst barrel below.

Felix lowered Aegis Bulwark an inch and stared down into the culvert, his face twisted in disgust.

"You know we’re going to smell like that all the way back to the city, right?" Felix said hoarsely.

Arthur watched the scavengers ripping into their dinner among the reeds.

"Your share can pay for a bath."

"You’re paying for it."

"Put it on the merchant’s bill," Arthur said.