The Ouroboros Cycle, Book One. G.D. Falksen

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СКАЧАТЬ it is,” he said, “I will kill it.”

      “With a pistol?” Babette asked.

      Such beautiful arrogance. What a typical hussar.

      The brush and branches a dozen feet away split apart in a torrent of leaves and splinters. A dark figure lurched through the opening, knocking aside a sapling and uprooting it in the process. At first Babette thought the creature to be a bear, for its massive, hunched body was covered in coarse brown fur. But its head was of an improper shape—too broad of jaw, flat of snout, and sharp of brow—quite unlike any of the skulls Babette had seen in Grandfather’s study.

      The creature lumbered forward, walking on its knuckles like an ape. It studied Babette with pale eyes for a moment and sniffed the air. Satisfied by something, it turned its gaze toward Korbinian, and its mouth split open to reveal pointed teeth, ivory amid hungry red.

      “Gott in Himmel!” Korbinian cried.

      He fired his revolver at the beast, but the beast showed no reaction, not even a hint of pain. It continued its advance with slow, measured steps. Korbinian fired again and again until his weapon was empty, but the beast merely grunted.

      To Babette, it almost sounded like guttural laughter. With each shot the beast seemed to smile.

      The beast lunged forward into the last two shots, taking them as easily as pebbles thrown by a child. First it struck Babette, backhanding her in the chest and flinging her away. The force of the blow made everything go black. Time vanished and, for what seemed like ages, Babette forgot who and where she was.

      The first sensation she recognized was the hard discomfort of the ground digging into her back. Babette forced her eyes open and raised her head. Scarcely moments had passed since she had been struck, though it felt like it had been ages.

      “Liebchen, flee!” Korbinian shouted.

      Babette looked and saw him draw a knife and lash out at the beast. The beast grunted and knocked the weapon away.

      Babette forced herself up on her elbows, every movement making her body shudder. Perhaps if she ran, she could get far enough away before the beast had finished killing and consuming Korbinian. Certainly that was what he hoped. But Babette would be damned if she left the man she loved to be eaten while she fled like a coward.

      Claire de Mirabeau might do such a thing, but not a Varanus.

      The beast drew back its paw and slashed Korbinian across the chest. Its claws, like knives, tore through the layers of Korbinian’s coat, waistcoat, and shirt with ease. Korbinian cried out in pain and stumbled. A moment later he fell in a heap on the ground.

      “No!” Babette shouted. She reached out toward her beloved as he collapsed.

      The beast turned toward her and looked at her curiously. The expression in its eyes was both intense and thoughtful, and it made her shiver. A beast in want of reason should not have known such understanding.

      The beast raised its claws, still dripping with Korbinian’s blood, and licked them clean with its thick tongue. The sight made Babette cry out again, and she struggled to rise. She could not find the breath to move, and her body rebelled. She fell backward into the dirt once more. The beast chuffed at her. It sounded like a laugh.

      Babette watched as Korbinian began to crawl toward his knife. It was a futile effort, but the refusal to succumb made Babette giddy for a moment.

      She forced herself to her feet, aching with every movement. The beast had turned away from her and now loomed over Korbinian, watching him as if amused by his futile attempt to escape.

      Babette looked about for a weapon. The pistol was empty—not that it had done any good—and the beast was between her and the knife. Her eyes fell upon the uprooted sapling that the beast had torn from the ground.

      It was an unlikely chance, but it was the only one that Babette could see.

      She stumbled over to the sapling and picked it up. The young tree was heavy and unwieldy, but under the heat of the moment, she found that she lifted it with ease. Babette spun around and saw the beast hunched over Korbinian, pinning his arms down with its massive forepaws.

      She hefted the sapling and ran for the beast. If the pistol’s bullets and the knife had been unable to stop it, a blow to the body with a glorified cudgel would be no better.

      Find someplace vulnerable… Babette thought.

      The eyes.

      Babette raised the sapling into the air as best she could and brought it down on the beast’s head with all her might. She had been aiming for the bridge of the beast’s snout, but instead she connected with the top of its brow. Her makeshift club struck and bounced off, making her stumble back a pace.

      But it had had an effect. The force of the blow made the beast lurch, though it showed no sign of pain. Instead, it looked up, having suddenly forgotten Korbinian, and patted the top of its head with one massive forepaw. Slowly it turned toward Babette and snarled at her.

      Babette swung the sapling again and struck the beast full in the face with its roots. The beast let out a snarl of pain and jerked away, lashing out at the sapling with its claws. Babette was thrown off balance and fell to her knees, but the beast withdrew a few paces as it rubbed its eyes with the heel of its forepaw.

      Hand, Babette realized. The beast’s forepaw was like a hand, fingers and all. Good God, what sort of creature was this?

      She picked herself up again and raised the sapling. With a roar that rose from her toes and into her belly, she charged at the beast and swung again, throwing all her weight into the blow.

      The beast reached out with one hand and snatched the sapling in midair. With a single, easy movement, it tore the weapon from Babette’s grasp and flung it away. Babette fell onto her side and threw up an arm to shield herself, expecting the beast’s next blow to be on her.

      When nothing came, she opened her eyes and saw the beast looming over her, watching her. It sniffed at her and grunted. For a moment it seemed to shake its head.

      What can be the meaning of this? Babette thought. Why had it not killed her?

      The beast chuffed. One massive hand took her by the shoulder and shoved her aside. Babette rose again as quickly as she fell. Grabbing the beast by the arm, she pulled herself ahead of it and flung herself upon Korbinian. The beast drew up short and snorted angrily at her. It reached for her again, but she pulled away from it, all the while keeping herself between it and Korbinian.

      The barking of dogs rose in the distance. The beast raised its nose and sniffed the air. Grunting, it looked into Babette’s eyes. Babette stared back and saw something there she never thought an animal could know: frustration.

      The beast turned and thundered back into the brush.

      Babette lay there, gasping for breath for a few moments. She could scarcely comprehend what had just happened, what she had just seen.

      What the deuce…?

      Another thought came to her:

      Korbinian!

      Babette turned and looked down at Korbinian. His eyes were closed, СКАЧАТЬ