Free Marauder Aegus by Aya Morningstar Page B

in the forehead, splitting into his skull and killing him instantly.
    I throw the second javelin, and then dive away from the ridgeline, still low on my belly.
    Gunfire erupts, but I’m clear of their line of fire.
    And then I hear metal friction–the sound of pins being pulled.
    Grenades.
    They couldn’t throw them when I was next to Anya, but now that I’m clear of her, it’s free license to blow me away.
    I hear a grenade land just behind me, and I shift to bear form and run.
    It explodes behind me, and I feel the heat of the shockwave on the back of my fur. Some broken branches and mulch hit me, but I clear the true force of the blast.
    I shift back to Marauder form and run back toward Anya. I need to make sure no one climbs the ridge and grabs her, and I need to get more javelins. Five left, and at least 17 soldiers still standing.
    Shit.
    I crawl back to the tree, and I feel sick to my stomach realizing that Anya’s presence is shielding me from being pummeled by more grenades and explosives, but I’ll use every edge I can to protect her.
    As I grab hold of a javelin, I see someone popping up above the ridge.
    He fires, and a bullet tears into me. I throw the javelin on pure instinct and see him fall back.
    I hear more soldiers climbing, but I see the soldier’s gun laying on the edge of the ridge. I have to risk going for it.
    I drop into a low crawl, and the leaves scrape against my gushing bullet wound. As I crawl, I hear a familiar whirring, and three flyers float up above the ridgeline. Darts hit me from all sides, and I start to feel light-headed.
    I take the knife and slash into my own shoulder, forcing adrenaline and pain to shock me back to full consciousness.
    It works, but I feel unconsciousness threatening to bring me down. I crawl for the gun, and just before I reach it, a soldier pops above the ridge and hoists himself over right in front of me
    I try to get up and drive the knife into him, but before I can slash him, an arrow appears in his chest. He grabs hold of it, gurgles blood from his mouth, and falls backward down the ridge.
    From down the ridge and all sides surrounding the soldiers, I hear...it sounds almost like a Marauder battle cry, but yet it’s different.
    “Yayayayayayaya!” The voices shriek in unison, and suddenly arrows, spears, and hatchets are flying out from the trees, sinking into soldier after soldier. The soldiers turn away from me and blindly open fire into the trees.
    The battle cry stops, and the soldiers begin reloading.
    More arrows burst from the forest, and more soldiers fall.
    I take the opportunity to grab a javelin, but when I cock my arm to throw it, I get so dizzy that I drop it and collapse to the ground. The javelin falls into the foliage beside me, and my vision begins to fade. The last thing I see before passing out is Anya breathing softly beside me, and I pray to the pure Seraphic Form that we will awake together–or at the least that she will awake –even if it means I have to die for it to happen.

11 Anya
    “ H ow do you know this is the Tsarevna?” a man’s voice whispers above me.
    “I’m good with faces,” a woman says. “I recognize her from a photograph.”
    “When did you see the photo?”
    “A few years ago.”
    The man huffs.
    I open my eyes, and I see the man and woman are both pale white, blonde, and naked as the day they were born.
    I’m lying flat on my back, and I’m in some kind of hut made from leaves. I look down to avoid embarrassment, but realize I too am totally naked.
    “Ah,” the woman says. “She’s awake!”
    “My dress,” I say, feeling my face burning. I try to cover my breasts with my hands and cross my legs, but the man doesn’t seem to be looking at me...at least not like that.
    “I told you we should have covered her,” he says. “Look at her blushing! If she really is the Tsarevna, you can’t expect her to walk around naked like we do.”
    “Aegus,” I say. “Where’s Aegus?”
    “Oh,” the