The Unmaking (The Last Days of Tian Di, #2)(27)

“Show me,” said Eliza.

Nia tipped her head back and opened her mouth wide. Suddenly it was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. A dark shape was crawling out of Nia’s mouth. It grew larger as it emerged, expanding and stretching, massive limbs reaching for the ground. It kept coming from somewhere inside her, a mass of darkness and flame, until it landed on smoking hooves, towering over Eliza. She took in curling horns, a myriad of spiked arms, the powerful thighs and hooves of a horse. Charred flesh flamed and smouldered around a colossal skeleton broken in too many places to count. Its eye-sockets burned in a face like molten rock and its immense wings were black and veined with fire. The hideous thing let out a roar that left cracks in the walls and showcased the bright white of its ribcage between the broken, burnt flesh. Then it lunged at Eliza. A part of Eliza that was faster than sight or sound spoke a barrier spell. It was a feeble barrier and the spiked fists scraped along it and tore it open but it gave Eliza just enough time to dodge its grasp and drive her dagger into its side. Lava poured out over her dagger. Before she could cry out for Charlie to stop, the half-hunter drove both his swords into the beast and made for its throat with his teeth. He emitted a strangled airless howl as lava poured down his face and the thing drove its razor-sharp spikes into his chest. The half-hunter crashed to the ground while Nia applauded from her vantage point on the pile of books. Eliza pulled her dagger out of the beast’s side, stumbling back, lungs bursting. The monstrous thing left its two foes on the floor and bounded to a tall window at the back of the Library, crashing through it and taking flight, black wings beating hard and trailing sparks behind him. Once he was gone, Eliza found herself able to take a breath. It was like emerging from the sea after diving too deep. She couldn’t gulp the air back fast enough.

“Isn’t he horrible!” exclaimed Nia, delighted. “I don’t like to brag, but I am brilliant, aren’t I? Do you know where he’s going now, Smidgen?”

And Eliza knew, with a heart-plunging-into-the-stomach kind of knowing, that everything was about to get even worse.

“He’ll stop in a few towns on the way and smash everyone in sight to bits,” said Nia cheerfully, “just to cause a bit of a sensation. I want people to know I’m back, you see, and this is the sort of thing they expect from me. But those destructive little jaunts will just be detours. He’s going to the desert, to find your lovely mother. He’s drawn to her, like a magnet to metal, and his one desire in this world is to tear her limb from limb.”

Eliza felt a pounding behind her temples. Nia was watching her with a curious little smile. She crawled across the floor to where the wounded half-hunter lay panting in weak gasps.

“Are you badly hurt?” she asked.

He struggled back into human form, and Eliza saw the nature of the wound on his chest. He was not bleeding in the ordinary way. He was leaking a sort of shimmering interplay of dark and light, his true form.

“Oh, Charlie,” she whispered, her heart contracting painfully.

Nia rolled her eyes and, bored now her creature was gone, picked up another book.

“I’ll be all right,” Charlie managed to say.

Eliza nodded. There was no time to waste. She had to go after the thing, but it was obvious Charlie was too badly hurt to carry her or engage in any kind of further battle. She took the potion Swarn had given her out of her pocket.

“Drink this,” she said, putting it to his lips.

“You might need it,” he said faintly, turning his head aside. “It’s really nay...that bad, Eliza.”

“Stop it.” She forced the mouthpiece between his lips and poured the thick mixture into his throat. He coughed and sputtered, but swallowed most of it.

“Disgusting,” he gasped when it was done. “Like kissing a giant.”

“Now you’ve got to get out of here,” she said urgently. “Go, Charlie. Please.”

“I willnay...” he began, and rolled onto his side.

“She’s nay going to hurt me right now,” said Eliza. “I’ll get one of the dragons, aye. But you have to go first. Please.”

“Dinnay go after it on your own, Eliza,” said Charlie weakly, getting to his knees. “Get help. Get Swarn.”

“Yes. And you fly clear, hide somewhere.” Her voice cracked with desperation.

“Poor Smidgen,” commented Nia. “Everything always seems so complicated for you. Too many attachments, that’s your real problem. It makes you such an easy target.”

Charlie began to change again as the shadow and light leaked from him. Wings strained from his back and his face lengthened into a great beak as he became a gryphon again. He limped across the battlefield of scattered books for the broken window, then looked back at Eliza over his shoulder. Nia was busy emptying another book and ignored them. She tossed it aside. Thunk.

Eliza gave a last look at Foss, frozen at the side of the room with his arms up in defense, and a powerful surge of anger pulsed through her, banishing all else.

“I’m going to kill that thing,” she told Nia. “And then I’ll come back for you.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t kill it, if I were you,” said Nia breezily, picking up another book. Eliza lingered by the hole in the wall long enough to see Charlie take to the air, then turned and ran.

“Good luck, Smidgen!” Nia called after her.