Enthralled by Tiffany Roberts
Chapter 18
The yatin wasa nightmarish amalgamation of beasts. Ivy’s brain couldn’t decide which Earth creature it resembled more; there were hints of boar, moose, bull, and elephant, and it was larger than all those animals. Even Ahnset would look small beside the yatin, which had to stand at least fifteen feet tall at its hulking, powerful shoulders—and it was likely twice that in length.
Ivy wasn’t sure whether to call the massive bony protrusions on the sides of its head antlers or horns. They were terrifying either way, broad and flat like moose antlers in some places but flaring into wicked points. A pair of thick, stained tusks jutted from its mouth, curving upward into blunt but deadly hooks. Its body was bulging muscle beneath a scarred, light brown hide, with a large patch of shaggy fur at the top of its thick neck that swept back past its massive shoulders.
Before now, the only thing she’d known about yatins was that the vrix used their hides to make leather.
Even the supplest leather isn’t worth facing that.
And Ketahn, Rekosh, and Telok had turned to battle the beast.
“Come! Hurry, hyu-nins,” Urkot bellowed in vrix, waving for the humans to pass beneath an arch-shaped vine studded with inches-long thorns.
Ahnset skidded to a halt, her thick legs gouging the ground, and spun to face the yatin and the other males. Ella was clinging to Ahnset’s hindquarters with desperate strength that belied her condition.
With an ear-splitting roar, a second yatin just as large as the first burst out of the undergrowth from a different direction, its huge hooves tearing a path of destruction. It slammed into the first beast. Hide and muscle rippled with the impact. Horns and tusks clashed with sharp, echoing clacks of bone against bone.
“Take Ella,” Ahnset called.
Ivy looked at her to see the female vrix working at the rope that kept Ella securely atop her; Ahnset’s large fingers were fumbling with the knot. Before any more time was lost, Ahnset hooked a claw under the rope and sliced it apart.
Rushing to Ahnset’s side, Ivy reached up and helped Ella down. The sick woman slumped over with a gasp, her full weight coming down on Ivy. Fortunately, Diego had also hurried over, and he helped catch Ella before she and Ivy could fall.
Throwing Ella’s arms over their shoulders to support her weight, Ivy and Diego carried her to the archway, ducking their heads to pass beneath.
“Come, Ahnset,” said Urkot.
“I will not fit,” Ahnset replied, taking her spear in her right hands and tugging the club studded with blackrock shards off her belt with her upper left hand. “Bring them in deeper.”
“Quickly, hyu-nins,” Urkot growled. Hunched low, he pushed ahead of the others and delved into the thorny vines, moving along an oddly tunnel-like opening.
Roars and crashing vegetation from behind made Ivy glance backward as she and Diego followed the others.
She couldn’t see Ketahn or the other males. Only Ahnset, standing firm before the low opening, and the second yatin beyond her. It had broken away from the first beast—and it was charging at the female vrix.
Ivy’s stomach twisted into knots, and ice formed in her blood. Her legs felt like they weighed a thousand pounds.
Ahnset leapt aside at the last moment. Ivy thought she saw the vrix’s spear plunge into the beast’s ribs just before the yatin crashed headfirst into the mass of thorny vines.
There were screams from the other humans as the vegetation broke and shook with the yatin’s thrashing, and bits of wood and thorns sprayed inward. Ivy didn’t know if her own voice was amongst the screams—or if she’d made any sound at all.
Though she couldn’t look away from the beast and its tusks, each of which looked nearly as long as she was tall, she somehow kept her legs moving.
Nostrils flaring with great, snorting breaths, the yatin shoved its head deeper into the thorns. Just enough light broke through the crumbling vegetation for Ivy to see dark blood glistening all over the beast’s snout.
With a series of pained huffs and grunts, the yatin dragged itself free of the thorns.
Urkot shouted in his deep, rumbling voice for them to move; his tone was enough to shatter the language barrier, as all the humans hurried to join him. Ivy’s breath sawed in and out of her lungs, and every muscle in her body burned, even with that cold fear in her blood. Somehow, she’d held onto her spear through all this. She doubted it would do any good against such monstrous animals, but it was something.
The group delved deeper still, ducking and twisting as thorns snagged at their hair and clothing. Ivy felt a few of those thorns bite hard enough to break her skin, but the pain didn’t come. Adrenaline was taking care of her.
At least for now.
The noise from outside the bramble was barely diminished; it sounded like a herd of stampeding beasts was knocking down the entire jungle. Roars, growls, and snorts filled the air, some aggressive, some pained.
But she did not hear the other male vrix.
Please be okay, Ketahn. All of you, please be okay.
“Careful through here,” Diego said, drawing Ivy’s attention forward again.
Urkot and the others had gone through a wide, low space—he must’ve crawled on his belly to fit—and now it was Ivy, Diego, and Ella’s turn. Thankfully, Ella had strength enough to move her legs while they were crouched. After a lot of struggling and battling countless grabbing thorns, they emerged in a surprisingly open area where it looked like the plants and vines had been deliberately cleared away. Urkot and the others stood in the center, their forms shadowed and grim in the gloom.
“Ready your spear, Ivy,” Urkot said in a tight voice that barely carried above the din of the battle outside. His legs were spread in a wide, solid stance, and his gaze was fixed on the far side of the clearing, where there were several more paths through the vegetation just like the one through which they’d just come. They were like tunnels bored into to the bramble, and Ivy was not eager to find out what had made them.
“Um, can you manage alone, Diego?” Ivy asked. The knots in her stomach were doubling, tripling, growing impossibly heavy and sinking lower and lower.
“I’ll help.” Ahmya stepped over to them.
Ivy traded spots with Ahmya, draping Ella’s arm over the smaller woman’s shoulders. Ella slumped a little more to that side, and Diego stooped slightly to compensate.
“Got her,” Diego said. “You doing okay, Ella?”
Ella offered a shallow nod. “Mhmm.”
The trio joined the others. Ivy grasped her spear in both hands and walked around the group. Her boot bumped into something small and hard, and she looked down.
The ground was covered with dried grass, leaves, and debris that was thickest at the center. Some of that debris was twigs, branches, and crumbling bits of vines. But despite the poor lighting, she knew some of it was clearly…bone.
This is a nest.
“Shit.” Cole kicked a piece of bone away with the toe of his boot, having apparently reached the same conclusion.
Swallowing thickly, Ivy assumed a wide stance beside Urkot. She wished there’d been more time for Ketahn to teach her how to use her spear, that there’d been more time to practice. She wished that they weren’t in a situation in which people’s lives might depend upon her ability to use the weapon.
Most of all, she wished Ketahn was at her side, safe and sound.
He’s a hunter, Ivy. A warrior. He’ll be fine. Right now, you need to focus on getting your own ass out of this alive.
Something moved within the tangled plant growth ahead, and Ivy set aside her wishes to face reality, adjusting the positions of her clammy hands on the spear.
Someone moved into her peripheral vision, and she glanced over to see Will and Cole standing beside her, each holding a survival knife. Both wore sheens of sweat like face masks in the dull light.
“Xiskals,” Urkot said, mandibles twitching, “and we are in their nest.”
For all the noise of the raging fight beyond the thorns, this clearing—this nest—was deathly silent. Ivy was certain everyone else could hear her pounding heart, which seemed likely to hammer straight out of her chest at any moment.
Urkot released a low, rumbling growl. “Tell them. Close together. Tight group.”
Nodding, Ivy relayed the message. The humans packed closer together; Lacey and Callie, knives in hand, joined Will and Cole in a small defensive ring with Ella at the center, still supported by Diego and Ahmya. Just as their group formed, all hell broke loose.
Something shrieked ahead—the call was reminiscent of a bird of prey. It was answered by similar calls from all around. The sounds built into a menacing chorus.
Someone cried out; it sounded like Callie.
Urkot was in motion before Ivy could even register what was happening. He lunged to the side, right arms darting out with his spear as a black shape leapt at Callie from one of the openings in the thorny vines.
The creature yelped in pain as the head of Urkot’s spear met it in midair, abruptly reversing its momentum and slamming it to the ground. It was writhing on the end of that spear, pinned down, when two more of the things rushed out of other tunnel like paths.
All at once, the surrounding bramble came alive with hisses, growls, and shrieks. Ivy saw Urkot tug on his spear, which seemed to be stuck on the first xiskal, before hefting the weapon like a club and using the flailing beast to beat away its companions.
Another xiskal emerged closer to Ivy. Her heart leapt into her throat; her glimpse of the creature was brief, but it was enough to etch its visage forever into her mind. Four gleaming eyes, a leathery, mottled hide, long, hooked claws, and a row of spikes along its spine.
She thrust her spear hard before fear could paralyze her. The blackrock head struck the creature’s forward shoulder, jolted against what must have been bone, and glanced aside, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.
More of the beasts came. Ivy’s thrusts were fast, wild, and not especially accurate, but she fought with her all, creating a wall of thrashing blackrock to shield her companions. She was aware of human shouts, screams, and curses mingling with the beasts’ shrieks, yelps, and hisses, mingling with the thunder of plodding hooves and the crashes of shattering vegetation beyond the bramble. She was aware of Urkot, his spear broken in two, using both halves of the shaft and his claws to fight the swarming beasts.
But more than anything, she was aware of the people—human and vrix alike—who she was desperate to protect, who she already cared about.
She was aware of the male she loved, who was battling to save her even now. No matter how scared or worried she was, she would not let his effort, his risk, be in vain.
Ivy screamed, pouring all her tightly wound emotion into it, and plunged her spear into a xiskal’s chest.