Winter – Chapter 35 – 04

“Again?”  Thom finally blurted, breaking the silence. “Did he just pull that stunt again?”

“If he didn’t, I’ve got no idea where they went,” Matt said from his perch.  “Because they’re gone.”

The sound of a gun’s report echoed off the walls.  “Don’t stop firing!”  Paul shouted.  “Because these bastards are still coming, general to lead or not!”

“Dammit,” I panted, fingers digging into Thom’s arm.  “God fucking dammit.  Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”  I wasn’t sure if I was saying it to Thom or to myself.  I straightened up and shook myself, cursing under my breath again as the world slowly spun around me, then righted itself again.

“Give me your bow,” Thom said.

I shook my head slightly.  “No.  Give me a boost back up.  I’m a better shot than you are.”

“You just fell off the wall.”

“Thom.”

His jaw firmed, a muscle twitching in the corner.  I met his stare without flinching.  He was the first to blink with a muttered obscenity and a shake of his head.

Then he boosted me back up onto the top of the wall.

The camazotzi were definitely still coming, but the ranks were thinning as their numbers dropped.  Perhaps two dozen were still moving—still able to move, not trampled under the feet of their fellows or incapacitated by our wards.  The gunfire and arrows we rained down on them from the walls was starting to have an effect, though.  They were slowly starting to pull back.

I counted two with the strange markings left.

Just need to take them out.  Maybe they’ll cut and run.

“Paul!”

“What?” he snapped from his perch.

“Twenty meters to your left.  Red markings on the wings.  Take it down hard!”

I could almost feel his grin.  “With pleasure!”

I took aim on my own target and filed in the same second I heard the sound of Paul’s rifle.

Two screams, two kills.

The rout began then.

With all semblance of leadership gone, the camazotzi swarmed together, less an efficient killing pack than a rabble without direction.  They coalesced into a pack, then spread out again, as if they were deciding whether to attack or run.  A few struck off on their own, in clumps of twos and threes, and headed away from the walls, only to stop and turn back.

Why don’t they just bolt?

A flicker of silver-gray drew my eye, out in the distance across the snow.  A fog was rising out there.

No.  Not a fog.

“Hell,” I whispered.  “What a time for Jay to be down or the count.”

In the distance, Death in one of her many guises lifted a hand to acknowledge me.  A shiver shot down my spine and I nodded slowly.

“We have them pinned!”  I shouted to my friends as I met her faraway gaze.  I couldn’t tell if it was the Morrigan or the other one we’d met, not at this distance.  “Put them down.”

Rory balanced on the top of the wall a few feet away from me, slowly rising to his feet and balancing there precariously.  “Pyrotechnics?”

I glanced at him, swallowed hard, and nodded.

He grinned and the flames lit his eyes a second before fire flowed from his fingers like water, splashing down onto the camazotzi below.

If I live a thousand years, I will never forget the sound of those screams.

In the moment, I didn’t care.  They were a threat and we needed to survive.  They were the aggressors.

They were learning how high a price someone could pay for coming after us.

They’d started this, and we finished it.

Twenty minutes later, it was all over.

At least for now.

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