Grip of the Shadow Plague

The stallion curveted around the area, bucking and plunging, trampling the fallen enemy and scattering others.

Kendra looked around, and saw Gavin do a handspring to retrieve Tammy’s fallen tomahawk. Twirling his spear adroitly, he now held off four opponents. A pair of motionless bodies lay crumpled near him.

His gaze met hers, and after a final wide sweep of his spear, he sprinted toward her. The creatures gave chase. Kendra rose to her feet. As Gavin neared her, he hauled back one arm and flung the tomahawk in her direction. The weapon missed her by inches, the black stone bit embedding in the shoulder of a broad, lumpy man with a towering forehead and a deformed face. Kendra had not sensed him coming up behind her. The disfigured man fell with a throaty bellow, and then Gavin had her hand, and they were racing together through the rain.

Kendra heard hooves pounding off to one side. Handing Kendra the spear, Gavin seized her waist and heaved her up onto the chestnut stallion with astonishing strength. An instant later he had vaulted up behind her. He reclaimed the spear, using his free hand to steady her. "Go, Neil!" he cried.

Neil increased his speed to a furious gallop, tearing across the blustery mesa at a speed Kendra would not have thought possible. Blinded by the heavy rain, she was grateful to have Gavin stabilizing her. He appeared to have no trouble remaining astride the charging stallion, clutching the spear in his free hand as if he were jousting.

Blinking rapidly to try to peer ahead through the downpour, Kendra recognized the ruins coming into view. The horse leapt over a low fence, sending tingles through Kendra’s stomach, and then they were swerving around rubble and broken walls. With a clatter of hooves on stone, the horse came to a stop outside the empty doorway of the most intact building among the ruins.

The horse melted away beneath Kendra and Gavin, leaving them standing beside Neil in the rain. His former clothes were gone. All he wore now were animal pelts. "Stay in here until I return," he ordered, jerking a thumb at the yawning doorway. He rubbed his side as if in pain.

"Are you all right?" Gavin asked. "Holding my other form is hard," Neil said, nudging Kendra toward the building.

Lightning dazzled across the sky, throwing strange highlights and shadows across the ruins. Explosive thunder followed immediately, and Neil was a horse again, galloping off into the storm.

Gavin took Kendra’s hand, and she led him into the shelter of the building. Part of the roof had collapsed, but the walls were whole, keeping the wind out except when it gusted through the doorway. "I lost my flashlight," Gavin told her.

Kendra had hers dangling from her climbing harness. It was not as big as some of the others, but when she switched it on, the beam was bright. The water pouring through the open portion of the roof was running across the mud streaked floor and trickling down through an open hatch into an underground chamber.

"Look at you," he admired, "holding on to your gear even when savage rain dancers are trying to toss you off of cliffs."

"It was fastened to my harness," she said. "Thanks for saving me. You were great back there."

"It’s wh-wh-wh, wh-wh-wh. It’s wh-why they brought me along. Everybody has their thing. This is where I shine, whacking monsters with primitive spears."

Kendra felt embarrassed. Her behavior when they were attacked had made it apparent that she had no idea how to handle herself in a fight. She braced herself, realizing she had better ‘fess up before he could point out her deficiencies. "You were right, Gavin, I shouldn’t have come. I don’t know what I expected. You had to watch out for me instead of helping the others."

"Wh-what do you mean? Because of you, I had an excuse to ride out of danger on Neil. You did much better than I expected."

Kendra tried to smile. He was kind not to rub it in, but she knew she had been a liability. "I can’t believe Tammy is gone," she said.

"I hope you don’t blame yourself for that," he said. "It happened too quickly for anyone to have saved her. We didn’t really know what they had in mind until the hawk guy sent her soaring." He shook his head. "They definitely wanted us off of their mesa. We crashed the wrong party."

To make the loss less painful, Kendra found herself hoping that Tammy had been secretly working for the Society of the Evening Star. They waited without speaking, listening to the wind outside keening stridently among the ruins. The storm raged more forcefully than ever, as if exerting a final effort to sweep them off the plateau.

Somebody strode through the doorway. Kendra swung the flashlight over, expecting Neil. Instead the coyote man stood on the threshold, an angry gash visible beneath the wet, matted fur of his chest. She gasped and nearly dropped the flashlight. The intruder shook his staff. Even with the wind howling, Kendra could hear the rattles. The coyote spoke in a human voice, chanting in a strange, warbling language.

"C-c-catch any of that?" Gavin asked softly. "Nope."

The coyote man sidled into the room, snarling. Gavin stepped in front of Kendra, and then advanced with his spear. As the coyote and Gavin drew close to each other, Kendra wanted to look away. Instead, squeezing the flashlight like a lifeline, she shifted the beam so it shone right in the coyote man’s eyes. He wove his head to avoid the glare, but she kept the beam on him, and Gavin poked at him with the spear.

Slowly Gavin prodded the intruder back. With a sudden grab, the coyote man seized the spear just below the head and yanked Gavin toward him. Instead of resisting, Gavin sprang forward and nimbly kicked the coyote man right where his chest was injured. Staggering back and whining in pain, the coyote man relinquished the spear and dropped his staff. Gavin charged, the stone spearhead biting into his enemy until the coyote man fled the room nursing new wounds.

Panting, Gavin backed away from the doorway. "If he returns, I’m going to make you a souvenir-coyote-on-a-stick."

"He already left behind a souvenir," Kendra said.

"Does that mean you’re claiming it?" Gavin asked, stooping to pick up the staff with the rattles attached. He shook it gently. "It’s certainly magical." He tossed it to Kendra.

"Will he hunt me down to retrieve it?" Kendra asked apprehensively.

"If he ever tracks you down, give it back. I wouldn’t worry. Since the preserve surrounds this mesa, I imagine the coyote guy is stuck here."

"What if he comes to retrieve it tonight?"

Gavin smirked. "Coyote-on-a-stick, remember?"

Kendra shook the stick hard, listening to the crackle of the rattles. Outside, the wind rose, lightning flashed, and thunder erupted, drowning out the rattling. She kept shaking it briskly, trying to hear the rattles over the wailing gusts outside. The wind shrieked even louder. Hail began drumming against the roof and pelting through the broken portion. Ice pellets skittered across the floor.