Free The Pinnacle Of Empire (Book 6) by C. Craig Coleman Page A

stared at the intruders then crunched down on the fish, cutting it in two. The great beast chewed slowly, deliberately, then swallowed the half in its mouth. Its claws held the falling tail. The foodoo stared at the men for a moment, apparently decided not to attack and plunged back down out of sight into the frothy current.
    The men rode on, watching this way and that for lurking foodoo. About half a mile further on, a bull elk dashed out of the forest and jumped into the river to escape three foodoos in close pursuit. The elk crossed the river with some difficulty. The foodoo moved through the water faster. As the elk bolted up on the river bank in front of the emissary’s party, a great foodoo jumped from the river onto the elk’s back. It dug its claws into the terrified deer’s flanks and bit down on its neck. The neck bones cracked. The head fell limp as the elk collapsed. The pursuing foodoo grabbed the elk’s hindquarters and dragged the huge deer into the underbrush and shadows, disappearing in an instant.
    “That beast leapt from the river as if the rushing waters were no hindrance. It crushed the massive elk’s neck like a twig,” the Neuyokkasinian captain said.
    “Nothing can withstand a foodoo’s attack,” the escort’s captain said.
    “Why don’t they attack the wizard and then us?”
    “They know brute force but not wizard-fire. They think the wizard can’t be killed. If they were to learn otherwise, no man would pass through these mountains again.”
    The party rode on, passing several foodoo crunching the bones of victims along the way. By late afternoon the party had grown accustomed to the sight of lion-headed beasts feeding, but then, while watching one devouring a wild boar, the emissary felt a rush of wind coming from just up the pass. It quickly grew stronger.
    “What’s that?”
    “That’s flinik, come to investigate us,” the escort captain said. He visually located the huge, approaching creature and pointed to three high above the cliffs.
    “They’re bigger than a man!” the emissary exclaimed. The flinik flew down through the gorge, into the dark shadows above the river but out of range of the men’s spears.
    “Indeed,” the escort said. “They feed on the same game as the foodoo except they don’t fish the river. The foodoo don’t advance up the cliffs into flinik territory.”
    As if to make its power clear, a flinik flew away and within minutes returned with a mountain goat dangling in its spiked arms. It hovered for a moment above the men then dropped the bloody goat. As the carcass fell, suddenly, a dozen or so foodoo appeared from nowhere, slapping their claws in the air to catch the falling feast. Two caught the animal in their claws and tore it in two, each taking half back into the shadows. The others beasts loped behind and soon muffled roars filtered back from the forest.
    “How many foodoo are there here?” the Neuyokkasinian captain asked, looking this way and that, fearing an attack.
    “No one knows, but generations ago, when the Powterosian Emperor sent his army into the pass, only two soldiers returned to tell the tale of the army’s total destruction.” The escort’s captain grinned at the Neuyokkasinian captain then the emissary. The group stayed close together, each man’s head jerking from side to side, watching for an attack.
    On the third day of their journey, the narrow gorge opened up abruptly onto a great grassy plain where the mountain range temporarily spread apart. Large herds of elk, deer, three horned buffaloes, and wild boar grazed like patterns on a green carpet. Here and there a flinik would fly down, or foodoo dash out, and snatch a beast grazing too close to the mountain walls. The scene was deceptively peaceful except for the flash attacks.
    One soldier dropped behind when his horse began to limp.
    “Keep up with us,” the Neuyokkasinian captain yelled back to him. The man nodded he’d heard but then dismounted. The emissary