Free Sorceress Found by Lisa Blackwood Page A

rolled.
    Before he could recover, another streak of
ginger and black colored fur blurred across his line of sight. With a flash of
teeth, a smaller Death Hound bitch snapped at his throat. He lunged. His teeth
sank into her thick ruff. Altering his grip, he slammed the hound into the
underside of the balcony’s stone railing. Stone chips and white powder dusted
the air.
    Blood coated one side of the hound’s wide head.
She flexed her broad shoulders, freeing herself from the rubble. A snarl
exposed steel gray teeth.
    When she came at him again, he raked the hound’s
belly with his hind feet. Without the hardness of maturity, his talons didn’t
penetrate the thick fur. The beast sunk her teeth into the meat of his thigh.
He grunted in pain and bashed the creature in the side of the head with one
fist. Desperation lent strength to his weary muscles, and he disengaged the
hound.
    A second beast leapt on his back. It clawed and
bit at his wings as it sought a firmer hold on his exposed neck. He snaked his
tail around the beast’s middle. With a snarling effort, he heaved it into the
first creature. Both beasts slid through the hole in the stone railing and
their surprised yelps slowly faded into the abyss beyond his range of vision.
    His heavy panting rasped louder than the roar of
the wind to his own ears. Ignoring the throb of new injuries, he scooped the
child up into his arms.
    After catching his breath, he leapt onto the
balcony’s outer stone wall and dug his claws into the surface. Balancing there,
he looked out toward the misty wall of the Veil. It stretched as far as he
could see in either direction. The wind whipped past him, constant in its
attempts to scour him from the side of the tower. He wrapped his tail around
the railing and closed his eyes, praying the Divine Ones would give his
Sorceress strength enough to survive the Veil.
    The baying of more Death Hounds decided him.
Wings extended to their fullest, he launched from the balcony, hurtling toward
the mists. Even braced for a second trip through the Veil didn’t lessen the
surprise when he hit its outer border. Syrupy mists slowed his flight, sticking
to him like burning honey. He pumped his wings harder, desperate for speed.
Magic plucked at him, shredding his personal shields.
    The first tendril of mist touched the child. She
arched her back and sucked in a deep, gasping breath as her eyes snapped open. Her
cry of anguish sliced through him, stabbing into his soul. She screamed as fast
as she could draw breath.
    Please, he begged of the Divine Ones. Please let her survive
this. I can do whatever I must to mend what was done to her, just let her live.
    After a time, the child quieted, unconscious—not
dead, but he still didn’t relax. The journey through the Veil felt like a
lifetime. With each powerful wing beat, he fought the swirling currents of
magic within the Veil, but made little headway.
    Terror uncoiled in his middle. The Sorceress
would never survive the trip back to his Realm. It was taking too long. He
changed his course and flew with the current. Faster and faster the magic
swirled around him. The current drew him along until the outer edge of the
Mortal Realm’s Veil appeared in front of him. He sensed the deadness beyond—the
Mortal Realm’s lack of magic. Seeing no other escape, he closed his eyes and
prayed.
    With a heave, the magic spat him and his small
burden out into the Mortal Realm. Cold, thin air shocked his body. His wings
collapsed.
    Panicked, he flailed, trying to find which way
was up. A single moon shone in the night sky. He oriented himself and levelled
out his erratic flight enough that he didn’t spiral out of control.
    Gliding, too exhausted to maintain his height,
he drifted lower. Below him a well-tended road with a line painted down its center
vanished off into the distance. On either side, a row of smooth wooden poles,
like trees stripped of their branches, lined the too-perfect road. Wires
suspended between the