Glass Throat - Chapter 2

Elia sidestepped, feeling the breath of the claws kiss her face as they swept past. She drew her sword and swung, but the beast had circled further away.

The others were squinting now, focusing on her.

She lunged towards the one that had charged her, stabbing with her broadsword, but it pumped its gossamer wings and flew back a few metres, safe.

Sensing danger, Elia spun with her sword. The other beasts backed up. They were surrounding her now.

A few breaths and Elia lunged again. She managed to catch one in the shoulder as it backed up. It squealed in pain and bared its fangs.

And Elia was breathing heavily. … Why?

She was an immortal warrior of Sigmar. She could fight for hours without getting tired.

Her energy thrummed, and where it would normally float in her body waiting to be burned, she could feel it moving — through her arm and towards her lantern!

The light shining from the lantern was being fed by her own lifeforce!

She willed the lantern to dim, and immediately felt a boost of energy. But the beasts started to fade from view in the darkness.

Elia willed the lamp to turn off and then closed her eyes. Let her recover her energy. She instead focused all her attention on her other senses.

Pebbles crunched under her armoured feet as she shifted position. She could hear the whispers of the beasts’ wings in the darkness.

Those whispers were growing slowly louder. The beasts were closing in on her.

Elia stilled her breathing and concentrated all of her energy into her senses.

Suddenly loud cawing cut through the silence. It echoed through the chamber and made it impossible for her to hear anything else.

Damned smart beasts, she thought. One of them dropped back to make noise and mask the others. Must have realized I was listening for them.

Pausing a few heartbeats, she tried to sense them. Act too soon, or too late, and it might be the end. She didn’t know if it was instinct, scent, or something deeper — but suddenly she knew: act, or die.

Taking a single breath, she pulsed a loud push of energy into the lantern.

The world turned red through her closed eyelids, and she opened them just as the lantern was fading again but before it had turned completely dark. Two of the beasts were an arm’s length from her, clutching at their faces. A second longer and her throat would have been cut.

Total darkness descended again, but she swung her sword in two graceful arcs where the beasts had been, and felt the sword bite deep each time.

The cawing that had stopped with the light pulse was replaced with howls of pain. She took a step forward and swung her sword again where she thought they might be. The first swing hit nothing but air, but the second one struck something solid and one set of howls abruptly cut out.

The other howl receded and soon she was left alone in the darkness.

She trickled a little energy into the lamp, just enough to see the path by, and she started walking forward.

~

Within a few minutes, the realmgate came into view. It towered over her, its dark surface sucking all the light that came into contact with it.

She walked up to it, noticing the whispers and lies of the shadows pull at her attention.

Elia breathed out once, steady. Then cut the lantern’s light and stepped forward into Ulgu.