Page 8 of Shadowed Summer Sun
Clearly, a being of the Pit, when I could finally see what I was looking at, the Hungry appeared to be nothing but skin and bones and yet had considerable strength. Its hands and feet were tipped in inky black claws that seemed to tear through its fingertips and toes. It sank them into my forearm as I shielded myself, attempting to angle my boline so that I could hook its wrist.
Badb screeched at it, drawing its attention as she lashed her talons through its back. The Hungry howled a terrible sound that sent my stomach into horrid flip-flops, but I managed to curve my blade around the thing’s arm.
With a quick flick and a prayer for sharpened steel, I sliced through the Hungry’s wrist, separating its hand. It quickly lost its grip with the other as it screamed. I rolled out from under it and leaped to my feet.
The conjuration was still itching in my fingertips, and a flame sparked to life as I snapped them. The grass around Ironwing was dead and yellow. It quickly went up in a whoosh as I sent my magic toward the Hungry’s feet.
It bellowed in pain as the fire crawled up its body, consuming him in seconds. The foul stench of burning rot suffused the area around him, and I stifled a gag. The Hungry’s eyes glowed an evil red against its black skin.
But it did not die.
It launched itself at me again. I dodged out of the way, pulling roots from the Earth to trap the thing against the ground.
I pointed to the husk. “Did you do this? Is this your doing?”
It glared happily at me, and unable to speak, it pushed its defiled spirit voice into my mind.
“Cannot stop it. Too much. Too big. We will feast when it walks. We will feast.”
“Alright, then.”
Knowing it had no will to lie, I squeezed the roots tighter as I approached the Hungry. I reached into my bag and retrieved the holy water once again.
“Drink your fill, demon. Be satiated at last.”
The Hungry eyed the water eagerly. Betty had explained that they were cursed to be forever devouring and never full, and the Hungry lapped up the liquid without thinking. For a brief moment, he was satisfied, the pang of hunger, of want, gone. Then the water cut through its insides, cleansing it of the evil that animated it.
Inhuman, anguished cries echoed in the clearing around us as its form melted away. Within minutes it was nothing but a pile of long-decayed and frail bones, twisted from their previously human construction into something wrong.
I sensed others watching from the mine. They made no move to attack but tortured my ears with their heinous giggles as they sat protected in the dark of Ironwing Mine. The work was not done, and I would have to return.
Warning prickled at the edge of my consciousness, the message appearing like a waterlogged note. What did it wish to tell me? Something about the Hungries and their connection to the force that festered and fed. I tried to pull on the thread, but it quickly unraveled, leaving me only with a sense of dread.
“Dammit. You know, if you know something, this would be the time to speak up?”
I eyed the Shadows of the forest before me, waiting with no expectation of an answer from His Highness.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” I grumbled curses under my breath as Badb returned to my shoulder.
Leaving the bones to stand as a warning, I brushed off my skirts and headed down the dirt road toward the eastern forest where the Ol’ Willowies lingered.
The way around Cottlewick Lake was long, and it ate at me that I couldn’t simply travel across. But the landing and boat I’d prepared for the ceremony were gone. The Lake didn’t want me to go that way yet. It wasn’t time.
I thought of the large sand bar at the center of the watery obstacle, where I’d travel once I’d made my offering at the lake shore, and looked toward the thick mist that obscured it from view. The blueish fog hung over the water’s surface despite the high Sun and radiant heat.
He was in there waiting.
A chill ran down my spine, and Badb gently cooed at me, pecking my shoulder. We’d arrived at the Green Lands of Vinemire Forest, and as I took note, the ground beneath my feet changed, softening as more and more moss and cool grass appeared before me.
I sighed with a smile. Spring and faerie thrived in the Green Lands, a place unchanged by the surrounding seasons and populations. It stood protected against outside folk, only luring in those who did not heed the Warnings.
Twinkling behind a shadowy crop of trees, a blue-green light quickly danced across my peripheral vision. A lovely sighing sound appeared and disappeared with it just as fast, and then another light winked out from the shadows a few feet further in.
“That was fast.”
I imagined that locating the Ol’ Willowies would take time, but I was more than grateful it did not. Each of the Three Challenges and the Invoking Ritual needed to be completed in a single day,thisday, and the idea of missing my opportunity stung in my chest like a spike.
“Stay close, but take off if there’s too much trouble. I’ll not have you contend with him.”
