Chapter 53 No Wind

A cliff hound landed on the upper sail.

Its weight turned the windmill's arms.

Another crawled out from beneath a cart. Two more stood at the rear of the convoy, lean gray bodies held low, long hooked foreclaws sunk into the road.

Four.

Jin saw a woman crouched inside a grain bin, both hands over a child's mouth.

Selene raised her sword.

The hounds scattered.

One leapt for the bin. A white barrier caught it in midair. Selene went after it, her first cut driving it away from the hidden people.

“Get them moving!” she shouted.

Lark ran toward the hound beneath the cart.

Kessa dropped her leather drawing roll into the wagon and seized a coil of rope. A frightened horse had twisted its harness around the nearest axle; every time it pulled, the cart lurched toward the ditch.

She went to its head instead of its trapped legs.

“Look at me. There. Look at me.”

A man burst out from behind the bin and made for his family.

The hound above them turned toward the movement.

Lark picked up a stone and threw it at the ladder beneath its paws.

Wood cracked. The animal crouched, shifting its weight away from the loosened rung.

“Wait!” Lark shouted at the man.

He stopped. Not willingly; Selene's barrier had closed the gap in front of him too.

She was keeping the creature away from the family and the family away from its teeth.

Her sword struck white against a descending claw.

The hound above them ran along the descending mill arm.

Jin set his start at the wagon's front wheel. Three quick strides carried him to a low millstone beside the road. He tested the landing, recorded the path and went back.

Four strides toward a cart's rear corner. Another firm arrival. He set the second branch and returned to the wheel.

The hound jumped.

He chose the millstone.

His feet carried him under the descending body instead of backing away from it.

A simple source fact: this copy came from the author's official page without consent; the author's posted chapter supports their work.

At the arrival, his planted leg held.

The borrowed blade went into the pale chest between its extended forelegs.

The weight hit him like a falling sack of stones.

His elbow bent. He let it.

He drove the point upward with his other hand and rolled as the jaws snapped beside his ear.

The creature struck the road.

His brace was gone. The blade was still inside it.

His wet fingers slipped on the hilt. He closed his other hand over them and wrenched the blade free.

The hound got its feet beneath it.

He had hurt it. He hadn't finished it.

It came in low this time.

Jin backed toward the millstone, knife close to his body. One hooked paw raked the stone where his knee had been.

The other paw reached for his shoulder.

He ducked inside the span of its forelegs and struck upward beneath the jaw.

The blade caught bone.

The animal drove him against the millstone. Teeth closed on the loose cloth at his collar.

He heard stitching rip.

Jin turned his head away from the jaws, pushed the guard against the lower teeth and dragged the edge across the yielding throat.

Blood washed his wrist.

The jaws opened.

He shoved the creature off him and struck again before it could recover its feet.

Gray hide dissolved around the steel.

Eight hundred.

Still not enough for Theo's ticket.

Jin wiped his palm against his coat and got up.

Lark was fighting beneath the cart, crouched so low his shoulder almost brushed the road. The second hound kept the axle between itself and his sword.

It had learned what the blade did.

Kessa freed the horse's harness and slapped its flank. It bolted toward the waiting people instead of dragging the cart into the ditch.

The hound under the axle lunged after it.

Lark caught the foreleg with his left arm, turning the jaws away from his face. His sword drove into the soft fold behind the shoulder.

The creature twisted.

Kessa snatched the folded tent from the wagon and threw it over the head.

The jaws closed on canvas.

Lark finished the cut.

The hound dissolved, leaving him tangled in his own tent.

For a moment he stayed crouched beneath the fabric.

Then his head appeared.

“That was mine.”

Kessa caught the child's mother by the wrist and pulled her out of the bin.

“It still is.”

The woman climbed onto the nearest cart. Her son clung to her neck, face buried against her hair.

Across the grass, Selene had kept her opponent away from them, white light flashing between the mill's shadows.

Jin reached for the wagon rail.

A claw struck the timber beside his hand.

The last hound had gone around the carts while he fought the first.

It stood between him and the little boy's open side of the wagon.

His start mark lay beyond its foreclaws.

He couldn't reach it without meeting the animal first.

Jin moved to put himself in front of the child.

The hound followed.

He wiped the bloody grip against his coat before tightening his fingers.

He raised the knife.

For a moment they stood almost still, watching each other.

He could wait for Lark. For the Hero. For somebody to make this a better fight.

Behind him, the child tried to stop crying and couldn't.

Jin stepped forward.

The hound sprang.