Too far.
Spinning round, she saw the terrifying footprints closing in on her right. A low sound came from the left. Sigarni ducked down – just as talons ripped into her shoulder. The silver chain-mail she wore
stopped her flesh being ripped from her bone, but even so she was picked up and hurled ten feet through the air, landing hard on the snow-covered ice pool.
Both creatures now made their way after her.
Sigarni pushed herself upright and began to run. She had one hope now — perhaps the ice at the pool’s centre would not support the weight of the beasts pursuing her.
The creatures were closing on her and Sigarni could hear the pounding of their taloned feet upon the ice. The sabre was gone, but she still had her knife.
Damned if I’ll die running, she thought. Skidding to a stop, she drew the hunting knife and spun to face them. The swirling snow highlighted their bulk, plastering against the skin of their chests and bellies. In the moonlight they appeared as hairless bears. Flipping the knife and taking the blade in her hand, ‘Bite on this, you ugly bastard!’ she yelled, hurling the weapon with all her might. The point lanced home in the belly of the first; she saw its head go back and a terrible cry of pain and rage echoed in the mountains.
The creature took two steps forward, then fell to the ice. The last of them closed in on Sigarni. . . and stopped.
An eerie glow was enveloping it now, faint and golden. It was indeed a hairless bear, though the head was round, the ears and nose humanoid. The beast’s eyes were large, and slitted like a great cat. Malevolence shone in the creature’s golden gaze as it stood blinking in the strange light.
‘Kill her!’ shouted the man in red, beginning to run across the ice. ‘Kill her!’
The noise caused the creature to jerk its head. It blinked, then focused again on Sigarni. Thin lips drew back to expose a set of sharp teeth. Long arms came up, talons gleaming in the moonlight.
‘Step aside, girl,’ came a calm voice. Sigarni scrambled back.
The glowing figure of Ironhand was standing before the creature now, a two-handed sword held ready. He was translucent and shimmering, and Sigarni could not believe such an insubstantial figure could hold back the power of the beast. As the creature growled and leapt, the golden-lit sword flashed out, cleaving through the huge chest. There was no blood, and no visible wound. But the demon tottered back and then sank into the ice.
The red-garbed wizard looked horror-struck as the last of the
beasts fell. Ironhand swung to him. ‘It’s been a long time, Jakuta,’ he said.
‘You can’t hurt me. You might be able to slay a demon’s soul – but you cannot harm the living!’
‘Indeed I cannot. Nor will I have to. Is this not the third time you have tried to steal Sigarni’s soul? And where is your familiar?’
The wizard blanched. Slowly he drew a wickedly curved dagger. ‘There is still time,’ he said. ‘She cannot stand against me.’
‘There is no time, Jakuta,’ Ironhand told him. ‘I can see them now!’
The wizard spun. Heavy footprints were thumping down in the snow. Scores of them .. .
Dropping his knife, the wizard began to run. Sigarni saw him make fewer than twenty paces before his body was lifted into the air. His arms and legs were torn from him and his screams were awful to hear. They were cut off abruptly as his head rolled to the ice.
‘You should have called upon me,’ Ironhand told the stunned woman.
‘I needed to fight them alone,’ she said.
‘I would expect no less from Ironhand’s daughter,’ he told her.
Just as the dawn light crept over the mountains a tiny pocket of darkness opened like a black teardrop on the hillside overlooking the frozen falls. Taliesen stepped from it, leading a blindfolded Ballistar. As his feet touched the snow-covered earth Ballistar collapsed to the ground, trembling. Tearing loose the blindfold, he blinked in the light. Taliesen gave a dry chuckle. ‘I told you the way would not be to your liking,’ he said.