Free The Grim Wanderer by James Wolf Page B

the last. Out of a shaggy mound of hair, protruded two massive horns, a huge snout of sharp teeth, and two red eyes gleamed. Taem saw Logan’s sword flash in the torchlight. Logan ducked as the Narg swung its club. The Sodan Master drove his sword forward and up. His Sodan blade speared the monster through its gut and up into its heart. Taem looked back, and saw more looming shadows running towards them from the Boot and Fiddle Inn.
    ‘They’re behind us!’ Taem shouted. ‘We can’t get to the stables!’
    Fire sprung to life in Hirandar’s fist, and she launched it at the charging shadows. There was a terrible shrieking as one of the Nargs was engulfed in flame.
    ‘Run!’ Logan pulled Taem and Hirandar along with him.
    They sprinted down the street. Taem saw Nargs off to one side, tearing a corpse to pieces, feasting on the flesh and drinking the blood. Taem felt his stomach turn, and he thought he was going to be sick . The Nargs looked up with beady red eyes, and soon began running after Taem. Up ahead, some townspeople ran screaming from a house. Two Nargs came bounding after them, pouncing on the people. The Nargs hacked and slashed and ripped out the people’s throats. Logan was too far away to do anything, and Taem had to avert his eyes. Logan knew the old Wizard would never be able to keep this pace up. Up ahead there were clashes of steel on metal, as many shadows battled in the dark. Taem saw men fighting the Nargs in the dark street, outside a large inn.
    ‘Head for the inn!’ Logan shouted as they ran.
    Taem watched in horror as a Narg skewered a merchant’s guard with a great spear. The Narg screamed as it hurled the dead guard away like a ragdoll. Two other merchant’s guards managed to hack a Narg down with their swords, by coming at it from both sides. But most of the guards were backing away in terror. The Nargs were surrounding them, huge shadows coming forth from the night, red eyes glinting with evil intent. One Narg leapt forward and brought a great axe down. It cleaved one of the merchant’s guards in two. The Nargs roared and screamed, calling for more blood.
    Logan ran at the Nargs, his sword trailing behind him. The Nargs had their backs to him, as they faced the dozen merchant’s guards. The Sodan Master leapt up high and decapitated a Narg. Logan landed, turned and thrust his sword through the back of another. From behind Taem, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck go stiff. There was blinding light. Hirandar launched lightning bolts into the two Nargs either side of Logan. The monsters were lit up with blue light, and screamed as they burned.
    ‘Inside the inn!’ Logan shouted at the terrified merchant’s guards, and everyone followed him through the door.
    Taem saw many horrified townspeople in the inn, all looking up as if they had seen their worst nightmares come true.
    ‘The Light protect us,’ one of the shaking merchant’s guards mumbled.
    ‘Bar the door!’ Logan shouted at the guards, shocking them, and they jumped into reinforcing the door with benches and tables.
    ‘Taem, go with those two,’ Logan pointed at a couple of quivering merchant’s guards, ‘go and check the back door is locked.’ Logan grabbed Taem’s arm, ‘Be careful! Don’t hesitate. Go!’ Logan pushed him towards the door behind the bar.
    Taem crept into the dark kitchen. Nothing moved in the shadows. All he could hear was the sound of his own breathing, and the frightened gasps of the two guards behind him. Every moment Taem expected a Narg to jump him. From under one of the tables, out from the corner of the worktop. Taem’s heart was thumping through his chest as he slunk to the other side. He could hear one of the merchant’s guards shaking so much that his sword was knocking against the metal on his belt. They reached the other side of the kitchen and started down a passage. One of the guards picked up an oil lamp and lit it. Taem was expecting the light to reveal a great Narg