Free Destroyer Rising by Eric Asher Page B

gentle curve of the pack mark on my
forearm. It glowed golden, brightening and dimming with my
heartbeat.
    “Odd …”
    Bubbles bumped me with her hip. I looked up just as
the branch hit me square in the forehead.
     
    ***
     
    There are headaches, and then there are “a sentient
tree smashed my head with a log” headaches. I hoped to never have
the latter again.
    I knew I was in the Burning Lands when I opened my
eyes, so at least my mental faculties hadn’t been shaken up too
bad. People shouted nearby, and it made my head feel like a ripe
melon, ready to split at a moment’s notice.
    “Quiet,” I muttered into the sandy dirt, but the word
came out slurred and mangled. It was only then I realized I was
lying on my side in the shadow of the mountains I’d seen earlier.
Golden lights waited nearby. Maybe that hit had jumbled my
brain a bit. I touched my forehead.
    By the time I had enough self-awareness to roll over,
a growling werewolf waited above me, thin and golden and filled
with a startling promise of violence.
    “Look what decided to join us,” the wolf snarled. He
punched me, and my head rebounded off the ground, sending my vision
into a blur of stars and darkness. I yelped at the pain and almost
puked.
    I tried to say something over the ringing in my ears,
but squinting at the godawful lights was all I could do.
    “Jimmy!” someone shouted.
    My vision cleared enough to see Vicky leap forward
and kick the werewolf so hard that the stone cliff cracked behind
him. “Back off, wolf. You are nothing here.”
    “Vicky?” I asked. “Bubbles, we found Vicky!” I winced
at the sound of my own voice.
    A golden arm reached down and picked me up. “How was
the journey? You don’t sound good.”
    I recognized the voice as the world tilted and nausea
struck again. I blinked and squinted and focused on Carter’s golden
eyes. Maggie stood behind him, a completely inappropriate grin on
her face.
    “What has you so happy?” I half slurred, half
whispered.
    “You can take a punch,” she said.
    I gave her a snort of a laugh and stretched my back,
regretting the movement immediately.
    “How did I get here?” I asked, looking back at the
distant forest.
    “Bubbles dragged you most of the way here,” Carter
said. “Maggie carried you the rest.”
    I closed my eyes and raised my eyebrows, testing my
headache. “Thank you.” I found Bubbles staring up at me when I
cracked my eyelids open again. “Thanks, pooch.” Her tongue snapped
out and ran down her muzzle.
    “Welcome to the Ghost Pack,” Carter said with a
sweeping gesture around the small group.
    Some of them looked unimpressed, but Carter and
Maggie were the only ones I really knew. Jimmy had died shortly
after I’d met him. I hadn’t realized he still hated me so
thoroughly.
    My gaze froze when it came to a bulky wolf with an
odd splotchy covering. My bell had definitely been rung. It took a
moment to realize it wasn’t a wolf at all, but a ghost panda.
“Happy?” My legs wobbled a bit and I decided to sit down before my
balance failed me.
    The panda snorted and settled onto a grassy patch of
dirt. Bubbles trotted over and flopped down beside the bear.
    An even stranger creature shuffled up from the
shadows. It looked familiar somehow, but it wasn’t until its horns
caught the unmoving sunlight that I realized why. It flexed a pair
of leathery wings, and then took a knee in front of Carter.
    It could have been Mike the Demon’s little
brother—not in his human form, but in the brain-searing incarnation
I’d seen only a handful of times.
    “What news?” Carter asked.
    “The Smith has been sighted outside of the fifth
fortress. I have delivered your message.”
    “Thank you, Vala.”
    “Free my brother, Great Wolf, and I will serve your
allies for all time.”
    “It will be done,” Carter said.
    “Then I swear upon the noble Ronwe, the words I have
spoken are truth.” The demon stood and bowed to Carter before
walking into the shadows