Chapter 122: Surviving in Murky Waters

A hand closed around Mara's ankle.

She kicked backward, scraping her heel against the stone. Rook drove the tip of his scythe through the reaching wrist and pulled. The hand came away, leaving its fingers hooked around her boot.

"Get it off. Watch that opening."

Mara pried the fingers loose and threw the hand outside. Something landed on it before it stopped moving.

Rook lowered himself beside her and slipped out of the coffin's chains. There was barely enough room to lay it on its side. He rested the scythe across his knees, opened the lid a few inches and reached inside.

Claws scraped over the slab above them. Dust fell onto Mara's hair as she shifted toward the gap behind them. Another pale hand pushed between the stones. She stabbed through its palm and forced it back, but a nail caught her knuckles before it withdrew.

Blood ran down the dagger's handle.

Rook pulled out two thunder charges and the powder pouch. He shoved them into his coat, shut the coffin and dragged it back onto his shoulders.

"We're going around the right side," he said. "As soon as it goes off."

"The noise will bring more."

"I'm counting on it."

He took one charge from his coat and rolled it through the opening. It struck the road, bounced beneath a wing and disappeared among the creatures gathering outside.

Rook pressed Mara's head down.

The blast struck hard enough to shake grit from every crack around them. A wing slammed across the opening. Pieces of flesh and stone rattled against their shelter, and the cries outside rose together.

Rook put on the coffin, grabbed the lantern with his left hand and the scythe with his right.

"Move!"

Mara scrambled out behind him.

A flying Abomination lay across the road with one leg twisted beneath its body. It reached for Rook as he passed. He cut through its fingers without stopping, stepped over the limb and drove his shoulder against Mara's back to keep her moving.

They ran between two piles of rubble.

Behind them, wings beat against the concrete as the creatures struggled over one another to follow. Mara ducked when something passed above her head. Its feet struck the barricade ahead, nails tearing long grooves down the stone.

Rook turned sharply around the other side.

A smaller creature sprang from beneath the next slab. Its hands caught his coat, and its open mouth struck the coffin beside his neck. He hooked the scythe beneath its shoulder and dragged it around the corner, smashing its back against the stone.

It kept hold.

Mara saw its ribs split where the blade tore through its chest. A grey knot pulsed inside.

She reached for her Death Imprint and drove the dagger into it.

The blade passed through bone without slowing. The knot broke beneath its point, and the hands gripping Rook opened. The creature collapsed against the barricade, its body breaking apart as Mara pulled her weapon free.

Rook was already moving.

She followed, leaving the remains behind.

They crossed the next stretch at a sprint. A wingbeat sounded to Mara's left, close enough that she felt the gust against her face.

"Down!"

She bent forward as long fingers swept over her.

Rook twisted away, but the second foot caught him across the thigh. His coat tore. Blood struck the concrete, and his next step gave beneath him.

Mara reached toward him.

"Keep going!"

He caught himself against a block and pushed off it. The creature banked past the parapet, turning for another pass. Shirking gleefully for having drawn blood.

Rook pointed with the scythe toward two slabs leaning together ahead. Mara dropped to her knees and crawled through the narrow opening beneath them. He followed sideways, the coffin grinding against the stone as he forced it through.

Something struck the roof before his boots were inside.

He pulled them clear. A set of fingers swept through the opening and closed on empty air.

Mara pressed herself against the back of the shelter. The slabs blocked the road on both sides, leaving only a low gap through which she could see passing feet.

Rook set the lantern down and took out the powder.

"Cover your mouth."

She pulled her sleeve over her nose while he shook powder across the opening and over their clothes. It settled upon his bloody coat and the top of the coffin. A pale hand reached through, paused, then jerked away.

The scratching above them continued.

Rook held the scythe toward the entrance and waited.

Mara looked at his leg. Blood had soaked the cloth below the cut and was running into his boot.

"You're bleeding."

"I noticed."

A heavier sound rolled beneath the bridge.

Both of them went still.

It came again, followed by a scrape that travelled along the underside of the roadway. Through the gap, Mara saw the flying creatures lift their heads.

Something hauled itself over the parapet.

Six hooked legs gripped the concrete. A broad body covered in grey plates followed them, scraping pieces from the railing as it climbed onto the road. Its head was low and wide, with a mouth that split almost to the base of its legs.

One of the flyers dropped between it and their shelter.

The plated creature lunged.

Its jaws closed around the flyer's chest. Wings beat against its head, and both long feet clawed at its eyes. It shook the creature once and slammed it against the roadway.

More flyers descended.

One landed upon its back. Another reached past it toward the shelter, only to be caught by a hooked leg and dragged beneath its body.

Mara looked at Rook.

"That came because of the explosion."

"Yes. It wants us too."

The plated creature shoved its head toward their opening. Stone scraped as its jaws pressed against the slabs. Before it could force its way closer, a flyer struck its side and hooked both feet beneath one of its plates.

It turned to bite.

Rook lifted the lantern.

"Out the other end. Now."

Mara crawled through the narrow gap behind them and rose into a crouch. Rook squeezed out after her. The coffin caught for a moment, and he pulled hard enough to tear a strip of wood from one corner.

They ran along the far side of the plated creature.

Its body blocked the flyers from reaching them. Mara saw feet closing over its back, searching for a hold as wings struck the road on either side. One head turned toward her.

Rook slashed across its face as they passed.

The flyer recoiled into the larger creature's reach. Its scream followed them down the bridge.

They rounded another barricade, and a small Abomination shot out beneath Mara's feet.

She tried to jump it.

A hand caught the back of her boot. Another raked across her calf, tearing through her trousers and dragging her down onto one knee.

Pain shot up her leg.

She stabbed at the arm holding her, but the creature pulled itself closer. Its narrow chest was pressed between her boots, broken ribs opening around a dull lump of memory.

Mara used her Imprint.

Her dagger passed straight through its chest. The core broke, and the hands around her boot loosened. She kicked free and pushed herself upright.

Rook had stopped only a few paces ahead.

A flyer had caught the chain across his shoulder.

It pulled him sideways toward the parapet, wings beating hard enough to lift the bottom of the coffin from his back. Rook planted his feet and hooked the scythe into the base of one wing.

The blade cut through the membrane but stopped against bone.

The creature pulled again.

Rook's wounded leg buckled. His hip struck the parapet, and the lantern banged against the concrete.

Mara raised her dagger, ready to reach for her Imprint again.

"No more!" Rook shouted. "Cut its foot!"

She stopped herself and drove the ordinary blade into the fingers gripping his chain. It met resistance this time. She had to saw through the flesh while the creature kicked at her.

A nail tore across her sleeve and opened the skin beneath it.

She kept cutting.

The fingers loosened.

Rook dropped his weight, dragging the trapped wing down with him. The joint cracked. He pulled the scythe free and struck again, opening the flesh around it.

The flyer's remaining foot caught his shoulder.

Mara saw the nails sink through his coat.

Rook swore and drove the blade into the wing a third time. The bone gave. The wing folded against the parapet, hanging by a strip of torn flesh.

The creature toppled onto him.

He braced his back against the coffin and shoved it away with his forearm. Its split jaw snapped beside his face. He turned his head, pulled the scythe across the remaining flesh and severed the wing.

It fell onto the road.

The Abomination staggered against the parapet, beating its remaining wing. Rook kicked it in the chest.

It did not go over.

Its fingers closed around the top of the wall, and its other foot struck his injured thigh.

Rook's breath broke into a harsh grunt. His boot slid through his own blood.

Mara stepped beside him and chopped at the fingers gripping the concrete. The first blow cut halfway through one. The second broke it free.

Rook drove his shoulder into the creature.

Its body tipped over the wall, but the remaining fingers held. Mara struck them again while Rook pushed, his boots scraping for purchase.

The grip finally broke.

The Abomination fell out of sight. Its one wing struck the outer wall twice before the sound dropped away beneath them.

Rook caught the parapet with his elbow and straightened.

Mara reached for his coat.

"I can stand," he said. "Run."

They made it to the next barricade before another flyer reached the road.

Rook forced Mara beneath a broad slab, then crouched beside her with the scythe across the entrance. He set the lantern against the stone. His left hand shook as he released it.

Mara pressed her palm over the cut in her calf. Blood seeped between her fingers.

"I could have Culled that one."

"You've used it three times."

"I only killed two."

"The leg counts."

She looked at him.

"The one you cut off before this started," he said. "Missing the core doesn't give you the use back. That was one. The two you Culled make three."

Mara lowered her dagger.

Rook reached into his coat and pulled out the remaining thunder charge.

"A fourth and you start losing consciousness. Five puts you down for a day. I can't keep you alive out here if you're unconscious."

A claw scraped across the roof.

He glanced toward it, then pressed the charge into her free hand.

"Use this instead."

Mara tucked it into her coat and shifted her weight off the injured leg. Rook scattered another handful of powder across the entrance. This time, he rubbed some into the blood running down his thigh.

For several breaths, nothing reached inside.

Through a crack between the blocks, Mara watched the plated creature tearing at a flyer pinned beneath one of its legs. Others crowded its back, biting between the plates. Smaller Abominations crawled toward the struggling bodies, reaching for anything they could drag beneath the rubble.

More wings passed overhead.

The first blast was still bringing them in.

Rook leaned close to the opening and studied the road ahead.

"There's a gap on the right. Stay behind me until we reach that tall block. Throw the charge back toward this pile when I tell you."

Mara nodded.

He picked up the lantern and slipped out.

She followed him around the edge of the shelter, keeping low. Her calf hurt with every step. Rook's stride was uneven now, but he kept moving, scythe held out beside him.

A crawler dropped from the rubble onto his coffin.

He ducked beside the tall block and scraped it off against the stone. Before it could climb back up, he cut through the arms nearest him and kicked its body into the open road.

A flyer landed upon it.

Rook pushed past while the creatures struggled beneath its feet.

"Throw it!"

Mara pulled the charge from her coat and hurled it back toward the shelter.

It struck the sloping slab, rolled down and disappeared beneath the mass of reaching limbs.

Rook turned behind the next barricade. Mara followed and crouched with both hands over her head.

"EXPLOSION IS ART!" She screamed a mix of panic, fear, and an frivolous amount of excitement that had no reason being present in the current situation.

The explosion hit.

Broken stone flew over their cover. Something heavy struck the other side, hard enough to knock dust from the blocks around them.

Mara looked up too soon and caught a mouthful of grit.

Rook was already getting to his feet.

The shelter they had left had collapsed. Wings and pale arms thrashed beneath the fallen slab. The plated creature charged toward the movement, pushing through the flyers still trying to reach the road.

One of them rose with a small Abomination caught in its feet.

Another struck it from the side.

They tumbled together, fighting over the struggling body as more creatures descended around them.

Rook raised the lantern toward the clear strip of road ahead.

"Go."

Mara ran.

A flyer broke away from the fighting and came after them. Rook moved close to the next barricade, forcing it to turn sharply to keep him in reach. Its wing struck the stone. He cut at the foot sweeping toward his head and kept moving while it stumbled across the roadway behind him.

Mara cleared the next pile and almost fell when her wounded leg landed.

She caught herself against the block, pushed off and followed the blue light.

Rook was only a few steps ahead. Blood marked the concrete beneath him, and his scythe hung lower between attacks.

There was still no sign of the other side.

Behind them, the fighting grew louder. Ahead, something climbed onto a barricade and spread its wings.

Rook lifted the blade.

"Left of that one. Keep running."