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gray dust.
Hydeia scrambled through the hole after them. Rustus was
shaking his head, pushing up to his knees. A short Eaglekin
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by Clover Autrey
male was facedown on the rubble, blood coating his leg and a
dark haired woman moaned, cradling her arm.
Lannis threw a chunk of wall off of herself and rose fluidly,
her gown in tatters and coated in gray dust. She looked every
bit a vengeful spirit rising from the floor.
The veins in her arms and neck, down her forehead
bulged, growing like blisters ready to burst. Her eyes blazed
with hatred and madness, past the brink of any safe return.
Her fist rose above Rustus's back and without thinking,
Hydeia shoved him aside and rolled into Lannis's legs. They
toppled back with a resounding thunk, cracking the stones in
the floor into a myriad of spider web lines. Dust and small
pieces of stone flew up over them.
Taking advantage of Lannis's momentary shock, Hydeia
lunged off the floor and ran down the hall, hoping the woman
would follow her away from the others and also hoping that
she wouldn't.
By taking too much reyn at once, Lannis had become
unconquerable or at the least, difficult to stop, and she
didn't show any signs of tiring or any indication that her
wounds effected her endurance and strength.
Lungs heaving, Hydeia rounded a corner and found herself
in the street-facing room where she'd encountered the first
Queenswatch and who's short sword she'd taken. He was no
longer there.
Maddened shrieks echoed after her and the wall to her left
burst apart as Lannis simply smashed through it. She was as
intent on her prey as any raptor ... and Hydeia had become
the prey.
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Hydeia pushed open the main door and fled into the
narrow street, her boots slapping on the hard cobblestones.
She charged into an alleyway and out onto a crowded street.
She plowed into several people, knocking them from their
feet while she screamed for them to run.
Crashes and screams followed her onto the street. Hydeia
looked over her shoulder and saw Lannis fling people out of
her way. The street erupted in chaos as people fled into
buildings.
Running was not the answer. Hydeia was only getting
people hurt, nor could she keep up the pace indefinitely.
Hydeia searched for solutions as she dodged right into
another alley and right again, running back toward the more
deserted vagrant parts of the working city. She ran through
endless alleyways that began intersecting narrow curving
ditches that snaked between close buildings where water
sluiced into small streams.
She cut into one of them, splashing and sliding on the slick
stone. Startled rats squealed and fled into the darker
shadowed recesses. Filtered light barely reached the
waterway far below between the narrow canyon of buildings.
The water rose around Hydeia's ankles as she fled down the
sloping channel, realizing it must lead to the river.
At the river she might have a chance. Most Eaglekins
avoided large bodies of water. As she had.
Hydeia's side ached. Her muscles and lungs burned. Her
boots slipped on the slimy wet surface. A hideous scream full
of anger and madness and loathing pierced Hydeia's ears,
coming from just behind her.
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Wincing, she looked over her shoulder and found her shirt
grabbed as Lannis yanked her backward, slamming her into
the side of one of the buildings. She bounced forward onto
her knees, shaking off the daze and felt herself hauled up
once more.
This time she pushed her legs against the opposite
building, and wedged herself mid-air against Lannis. Using
the limited mobility in the confining space, and Lannis's own
forward motion, Hydeia knocked Lannis's head against the cut
and layered stones.
Streams of blue glimmering liquid ran out of Lannis's nose.
The throbbing vein on her forehead seemed to decrease. Eyes
widening in horror, Hydeia slapped a palm across the vein,
snapping Lannis's head back, and the skin ruptured, spitting
out a burst of reyn. The warm liquid ran down the side of
Hydeia's face, down her arms and chest.
Enraged, Lannis flung out her arms, sending Hydeia flying
to the ditch's watery floor, and crouched over her while she
held a palm against her oozing head.
Hurting all over, Hydeia pulled herself up and rammed her
fists into Lannis's abdomen, punching, squeezing, pressing as
hard and as fast as she could. Beautiful reyn flowed out of the
gaping wound left from the short sword. Cloth from Lannis's
gown and raw flesh were dragged down with the flowing
liquid.
Screaming, Lannis backhanded Hydeia, throwing her into
the wall, then flew on top of her. Hydeia tried to make herself
as small a target as possible, pummeling the woman's
midsection. Warm liquid spilled over her.
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