Sandu caught at her to steady her. A hellhound clawed at him, hooking sharp nails into the skin of his back and dragging him off the scorpion. Howling, the hellhound began to run, galloping back through the forest toward the thickest of the fog. Three other hellhounds broke off to join it. Sandu couldn’t shift or dissolve, not with the claws hooked into his body. He was dragged relentlessly along the ground.
The hellhounds went into a frenzy, spinning around, rushing after those shepherding Sandu to some unknown destination. There had to be a portal open, one the hellhounds were coming through, one Nera was bent on dragging Sandu back through to bring him to her mistress, Lilith.
Go after him, Adalasia demanded of the guardians. You can’t let that beast take him to the portal or whatever gate is open.
She felt desperate, needing to get to Sandu before the hellhounds could take him to their ultimate destination. The portal had to be close, the way the hounds were reacting.
The demon scorpion bucked and rolled side to side in a frenzy in an effort to dislodge her. She rode it out, balancing on its back just behind the neck as she’d been taught since she was a child. She swung the sword, desperate to cut through the scorpion’s head. She had to get it off, cut all contact between Nera and her army. There it was, that armored plate again. She got the head halfway off, but now it was swinging around, trying to spray venom at her. She dumped the consecrated water right on its head. The demon screamed and shrieked.
Sandu, help me.
In spite of his body bumping over tree limbs and rocks, Sandu, with the hellhound’s poisonous claws hooked deep in his flesh, sent his strength to her without hesitation. All of it. Together they sliced through the scorpion’s head. She leapt off the scorpion’s body as it crumpled to the ground.
Catch the sword. Slam it into the ground. Hurry, Sandu. Coming behind you.
Adalasia knew it was an impossible feat, but she believed in him. She believed in them. Crouching, she sent the crystal sword spinning low to the forest floor, directing it with her mind through the mist, around the trees, through the legs of the stampeding hounds and right into Sandu’s outstretched hands. His fingers closed around the grip.
We have to stop him right now. He’s too close. I can feel the triumph pouring out of the portal. I can feel the danger reaching for him.
She felt Sandu gather his strength. She poured hers into him. The brethren did as well. She swore, within the portal, something or someone else, quite powerful, joined with them to add to their combined strength. Sandu slammed the consecrated sword deep into the earth. The hellhound came to a sudden, abrupt stop, unable to move even a few steps.
Benedek and Siv were on the beasts instantly, shooting arrows into their eyes while Nicu and Petru took on the other hellhounds that had accompanied the one carrying Sandu back to Nera.
Simultaneously, Danutdaxton yanked Adalasia from the ground as the last scorpion attempted to slam his stinger into her.
Adalasia paid no attention to where he took her. She sprinkled more of the consecrated water into the air and allowed it to settle over the forest floor. “I ask Mother Earth to seal the portals against all that would do harm. I call upon all that is good and pure and ask them to stand with your defenders against the demons and all that is foul. Seal earth. Seal air. Seal water. Seal fire. East. West. North. South. Above and below. Let no small fissure be left that evil may creep through. So be it.”
The moment she had finished the sealing ceremony, she reached into her coat and pulled another sword free. Her gaze was on the last scorpion. It rattled its thick tail as it tried to follow the false trail Danutdaxton had left in the cloudy mist. She waited until the scorpion turned slightly, the tail stabbing down at an illusion Dax created, then she leapt down, slicing cleanly through the segmented tail. It was so much easier to get through than that of the gigantic scorpion, she nearly put too much strength into the cut. The stinger dropped to the forest floor, and she ran up the back, right over the eight eyes, and took another swing at the head. The body shook and the head ducked. Two hellhounds attacked from either side.
Danutdaxton shot arrows at them, but as he did, a hellhound ran up a fallen tree trunk and used it as a springboard and hit him square in the back, sending him tumbling through the sky. Dax shifted out from under the heavy body, dissolving into mist. The hellhound fell to the ground, landing hard, knocking the breath out of it. It stood up slowly, red eyes filled with rage and madness, locking onto Adalasia instantly.
Sandu felt as if his arms had been jerked out of their sockets, and the claws had ripped flesh and muscles all the way to the bone, but he shut off his ability to feel pain, reversed his energy and strength and yanked the sword from the earth. He rubbed the blade along the backs of his thighs, where the hyssop oil was the thickest, and then, with one swipe of the sharp blade, sliced off the hellhound’s front legs with those terrible claws embedded in his back. He couldn’t see them, but he felt them, and his strike was true.