First chapter
Previous: Chapter 19
Chapter 20 (A haunting monster)
Ekanli’s voice died, but the
sickness in her belly didn’t, and she puked into the gore covered room.
Everything
smelled like the mountain river before the Regime’s companies had to stop dumping
metal shavings from the stop floors into it. That, mixed with the lemon-sour
gunk clinging to her mouth, gave the small entry room an expansive feel. The
cramped walls with one door to the right and the stairwell to the left seemed
to quiver as her voice echoed back into the room.
Then
something howled.
Ekanli’s
breath caught, and she stumbled to the side, bracing on the doorframe that led
into the kitchen behind her.
The howl came again, clearly from the room
to the right.
“No, no, no,”
Ekanli said to herself before bolting into the stairwell. “Igu! Modaj! We have
to—”
A bald
woman with the metallic tattoos of a Regime Hunter stepped in front of Ekanli.
The woman’s clothes were singed, and several burn marks decorated her exposed
skin. She gritted her teeth and pulled out a pair of daggers, lunging at Ekanli
with the speed of a wind wielder.
Ekanli
pressed her back against the wall then danced around the woman into the open
room by the stairwell. “Stop.”
“You!” The
woman righted her footwork and lashed out with a tendril of wind as she moved
forward, but her hands shook, and the tendril shot low, knocking Ekanli from
her feet instead.
The wind
adjusted and wrapped around Ekanli’s leg, digging into her flesh, and she let
out a hoarse scream.
“I don’t
know what did,” the woman’s voice cracked, and her lips quivered, “but I’m
going to put an end to it now.”
“I didn’t
do anything.” Ekanli pushed herself backwards with her hands. “But this tower
is—”
A malformed
shadow appeared out of the stairwell behind the woman, its form roiling
forward.
Ekanli’s
eyes bulged, and she pointed behind the woman. “Monster!” Ekanli scrambled to
her feet despite the tendril still ripping away at her leg and took a step.
“You think
I’d just let you go?” the woman asked. “I—” She screamed, and hot blood
splattered across Ekanli’s back.
Heat filled
the room, and sweat beaded Ekanli’s forehead as a howling gale rose up behind
her. The floor shook, and the wind around her leg vanished while she hobbled
out of the room. She moved from room to room, trying to find the stairwell down
in this maze of a tower. Left, right, right, left.
Ekanli had
turned around so many times and moved through so many rooms everything started
looking the same. She crossed through a room she had been in before and took a
right.
The
stairwell down waited for her across the room.
She started
forward, heart pounding in her ears.
A blood-curdling
roar reverberated through the walls
all around her. It came from the room she had just come from. From the
stairwell. From the room to the left. It sounded so close.
Tearing the
tendons in her leg as she took the stairs down two at a time, Ekanli gritted
her teeth and ignored the pain. She made her way towards the exit.
In the room
by the gaping front door, in a pool of blood and scorched clothing, Igu lay
behind Modaj, both of them flat on their backs staring at the ceiling.
“Get up;
get up; get up!” Ekanli put her weight on her good leg and leaned over to shake
Modaj first then Igu.
Igu
stirred, blinking up at Ekanli. “Terrible. Monster.”
“I know.”
Ekanli pointed at Modaj. “Help me get him to a horse.”
Igu
stumbled to her feet and helped Ekanli hoist Modaj, doing most of the work with
her gift of fire. They started out the door, and Igu glanced down. “You’re
hurt?”
“Better
than dead.” Ekanli gestured at the group of horses. “Can you lead a horse while
you ride?”
Igu nodded.
“Probably.”
Together,
once again with Igu doing most of the work, they flopped Modaj over the saddle
of one of the Regime Hunters’ horses then climbed into their own saddles and
rode out of the tower then towards the city, not bothering to look back.
Next: Chapter 21
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