Blood of the Fold

"Kahlan, I didn't know what the thing under the gravel was. I'd never seen anything like it before." He scratched his elbow. "All right, so, I was afraid of it. I was trying to be cautious. And I couldn't read the words, so I didn't know that this door was dangerous."

She shot a stymied look skyward. "Richard, you could have — "

"I didn't get killed in the Keep, I found the sliph, and I got to you. Now, come on. We need to get down to the city."

She put her arm around his waist. "You're right. I guess I'm just edgy from…" She lifted a hand toward the door. "From all that happened in there. That mriswith queen frightened me. I'm just thankful that you made it."

Arm in arm, they hurried through the towering, arched opening through the outer wall.

As they rushed under the huge portcullis, a powerful red tail whipped around from beyond the corner, felling them both. Before Richard could get his wind back, wings were beating overhead. Claws ripped at him. He felt searing pain in his left shoulder as a claw hooked him. Kahlan was sent tumbling across the ground by the thrashing tail.

While he was being hauled closer to the gaping jaws by the claw embedded in his shoulder, he yanked his sword free. The rage inundated him instantly. He slashed through a wing. The queen recoiled, yanking the claw free from his shoulder. The wrath of the magic helped him ignore the pain as he sprang to his feet.

He stabbed with the sword as the beast lunged at him, snapping her jaws. She seemed all wings, teeth, claws, and tail, plunging at him as he scurried backward. Richard stabbed an arm, and the queen drew back in pain. Her tail lashed around, catching him across the middle, throwing him up against the wall. He hacked wildly at the tail, taking off the tip.

The red mriswidi queen reared back on her hind feet, under the spiked portcullis. Richard dove for the catch lever and caught it with all his weight. With a squealing clatter, the gate plunged toward the raving beast. The queen twisted as the gate crashed down, just missing her back, but catching a wing, pinning it to the ground. She howled even louder.

Richard started in cold fright when he saw that Kahlan was on the ground — on the other side of the gate. The queen saw her, too, and with a mighty effort, ripped her wing out from under the gate, tearing it into long, ragged shreds.

"Kahlan! Run!"

Groggy, she tried to crawl away, but the beast pounced. It snatched her by a leg, holding her fast.

The queen turned and spewed a fetid odor at him. Richard had no trouble understanding the meaning: revenge.

With mad effort, he pulled at the wheel that lifted the gate. It rose inches at a time. The queen was wriggling down the road, dragging Kahlan by her leg.

Richard released the wheel and, driven by the fury of the magic, swung the sword at the flat bars of the portcullis, Sparks and hot shards of steel smoked through the air. Screaming in rage, he swung the sword again at the iron, ripping another gash through the bars. A third swing and a piece was cut free. He kicked it over and plunged through the opening.

Richard charged down the road toward the retreating red beast. Kahlan clawed at the ground in a desperate attempt to get away. When it reached the bridge, the queen hopped up on the wall at the edge, snarling at him as he came at full speed.

The queen flapped its shredded wings, as if it didn't realize it couldn't fly. Still running, Richard screamed out as it turned, spreading its wings in readiness to leap off the bridge with its prize.

The tail swept across the road as Richard raced onto the bridge. He lopped off a six-foot section. The queen spun, holding Kahlan upside down by her leg like a stick doll. Richard, beyond reason, swung the sword in a blind rage as she snapped at him. Sprayed by the beast's blood, he slashed off the front half of a wing, the bone splintering to white shards under his blade. She lashed her truncated tail at him as she flapped her other mangled wing.

Kahlan screamed as she stretched toward Richard, her fingers spread, just out of reach. He drove the sword into the red belly. A red claw pulled Kahian away as he tried to snatch her hand. Richard sheared the other wing off at the shoulder. Blood sprayed the air as the raging beast twisted this way and that, trying to get at him. It kept her from her hunger to rip Kahlan apart.

Richard took off another section of tail when it came close enough. As the reeking blood sprayed everywhere, the queen's reactions became sluggish, allowing Richard to inflict still more wounds.

Richard lunged and seized Kahlan's wrist, and she his, as he drove the sword hilt-deep up into the underside of the heaving red chest. It was a mistake.