Minstrel's Serenade. Aubrie Dionne

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СКАЧАТЬ breathing penetrated the night, the sound much like prowling hounds closing in on mouthwatering prey.

      “Kobolds.” Danika coughed, bracing herself for the fight. Smarter and leaner than trolls, their stench alone could kill a man.

      The leaves rustled around them, then silence. Not one of the monsters stirred.

      “Why aren’t they coming out?” Bron shook his sword at the woods in a challenge.

      Danika shouted over the next refrain. “Valorian’s music holds them back.”

      “I bid you flee the flames of foes

      Whose sharp blades cut the thickest hide.

      This battle cannot be won with numbers,

      Spears or forceful pride.”

      Bron tightened his grip on the hilt. “He cannot sing all night.”

      Valorian’s song had calmed Danika, as well as the beasts in the forest. With steady hands, she gripped her sword and pushed toward the nearest pair of eyes. “Then we’ll cut them down one by one while they’re spell-bound.”

      She reached the first silhouette and raised her sword. Beside her, a massive shape twice the size of the carriage barreled through the front line and broke into the clearing. Legs like hairy tree trunks stomped the grass and rumbled the food in Danika’s stomach.

      The kobold carried an axe with a blade as long as Danika was tall, the sharp edge glinting in the moonlight in the places between the smears of dried blood. Human skulls clattered in a chain hanging around his neck. A single horn protruded from his forehead in a sharp, spiraling twist.

      Valorian increased his volume, practically shouting the refrain as the beast swiped at her and Bron. They ducked and rolled as the axe hit the first row of trees. Branches crashed around them, one of them falling on the carriage. Danika thought of Nip and prayed to Helena and Horred for the boy to have enough sense to stay put.

      “Why isn’t the music working?” Danika shouted into Bron’s ear. The kobold opened a jaw as wide as his forehead and roared, showing rows of uneven, square teeth.

      Bron sighed and leaped up, brandishing his sword to block the princess. “Too dumb to understand?”

      “No, look!” Danika pointed to the monster’s head. Thick, pink membranes grew over malformed ears. “He’s deaf.”

      Bron swiped his sword and the beast matched his arc with the axe. The weapons clanged, sending sparks through the night like falling stars. Bron’s muscles bunched as he held the axe in place. “Just my luck.”

      Valorian widened his eyes, and Danika waved him behind her. “Keep singing. Hold the others back.” She’d handle this.

      As Bron pushed his sword against the axe’s weight, Danika rounded the kobold and stuck her long sword in its back. The monster wailed and lashed out, sending her flying against the carriage. The force of the fall knocked the wind out of her. Her head hit the carriage wheel and rang with dizziness. The kobold reached behind, trying to dislodge Danika’s long sword like a splinter in a slab of meat. The distraction gave Bron the opportunity to lunge with his sword and slice a gash in the kobold’s left leg.

      The carriage door squeaked open and Nip thrust his hand out. He whispered, “Come inside.”

      “No.” She had to help Bron and keep the monster from reaching Valorian. If he stopped singing the others would flood the clearing and there’d be no trip to Darkenbite. She held up her palm. “Stay there.”

      When Danika looked back, the kobold had pinned Bron on the ground with his fist and tried to stomp the warrior to death. Bron rolled from its grip, jabbing his sword whenever he had the chance. Each lunge made a superficial cut at best. Valorian kept singing, his fingers turning red as he strummed the metal strings of the lute over and over.

      Danika took a deep breath, stood and leaped toward her sword. She grabbed the hilt and hung from the monster’s back like a rag doll as the beast waddled back and forth, dancing on top of Bron. A thin dribble of purple black liquid dripped from the cut.

      Danika braced her feet against the monster’s back and pulled. The sword wouldn’t budge.

      Behind her, Valorian’s words nudged her memory.

      “Bestow a gift to the bearer

      At the most opportune time.

      Out of care, and something more

      An ivory relic that once was mine.”

      Valorian’s dagger! Danika swung herself into the air, head over heels. Her feet landed on the blade of her sword. She waved her arms to balance and shuffled toward the monster’s back. Grabbing onto the thick hair, she climbed toward its neck.

      The odor choked her and she gagged, her stomach threatening to spew the remnants of Valorian’s sweet peaches on the creature’s back. One thought of Bron flat as a coin hardened her will, and she scrambled down her boot for the dagger. She unsheathed the blade and held it in the air, contemplating the right spot on the wart-infested neck. She’d only get one chance.

      Danika drove the tip through the back of the creature’s neck, puncturing its wind pipe. The kobold wheezed and its shoulders heaved. Danika held onto the hair on his back as he fell to his knees and then his stomach, sending a crashing thump through the forest, louder than any falling tree. When the echo subsided, only Valorian’s melancholy song filled the silence.

      Danika pulled herself up from the hairy back. “Bron?” Her voice shook with worry.

      “Here.” The warrior stood with blood running down one of his arms. He offered his hand. “An impressive feat for a lady.”

      Danika slipped her hand into his as if it should rest there for all time. “I had a good teacher.”

      “And a great weapon supplier as well.” He leaned down and pulled Valorian’s dagger from the beast’s neck. Bron studied the markings of the House of Song before handing the dagger to her, ivory hilt first.

      She felt like such a betrayer. Danika took the hilt and slid the blade back into her boot. He was her bodyguard, dammit, not her suitor.

      A shaft whizzed through the air behind them and Valorian’s music abruptly stopped in mid-sentence. Danika whirled around just as Valorian and his lute hit the ground, a feathered arrow lodged in his shoulder.

      No, no, no. The gods would not allow it...

      She ran to Valorian’s side, her heart thumping wildly.

      Bron stood in front of them alone, a barrier of muscle, and held up his sword. The forest stirred around them as the beasts awoke from the spell.

      Valorian clutched the shaft with his good hand. The arrow had torn his richly embroidered riding vest and stuck right into the muscle. Thank Helena the tip hadn’t struck his lung.

      Danika placed both her hands on the wound and pressed against the flow of blood. “Hold still. Don’t move.”

      He grasped her hand with his bloodied СКАЧАТЬ