04 - Rise of the Lycans Read Online Free PDF Page A

alarmed to see the wolves gaining on her. They tore up the trail at such
frightening speed that she doubted that her exhausted steed could long outpace
them. Tearing her eyes away from her rabid pursuers, she peered desperately
through the fog before her, hoping to catch sight of sanctuary.
    If she could just make it back to the castle!
    They burst from the woods into a rocky canyon. Gravel was heaped at the
bottom of steep granite, banks that rose sharply from both sides of the road.
Sonja braced herself for an ambush, which came upon her almost at once. A
snarling werewolf lunged at her from the right, its dagger-sized fangs and claws
extended toward her throat. Foam sprayed from the monster’s lips. Its cobalt
eyes blazed with carnivorous fury.
    Not so fast! she thought defiantly. Her own eyes shifted from brown to
azure. She slashed out at the beast with her sword, the silver blade cutting a
bloody gash across the werewolf’s chest. Roaring in pain, it somersaulted
backward, landing hard upon the floor of the canyon. Sonja smiled grimly behind
her helmet, but there was little time to savor her victory as a second werewolf
leapt at her from the left.
    The creature’s powerful forequarters slammed into Hecate’s side, knocking
both horse and rider into the canyon wall. The impact jarred Sonja to her bone
and threw Hecate off her stride, but, to her vast relief, the horse recovered
from its stumble and kept on running, even as the determined werewolf climbed up
its side toward Sonja. Its frothing jaws snapped at her back—until she buried
her steel-shod elbow into the beast’s mouth, breaking several of its teeth. The
move bought her a precious moment, which was all she needed to flip her sword
into a backhanded grip. She drove the blade through the wolf’s skull with all
her strength, then yanked it back out again. The slain beast tumbled to the
ground, throwing up a plume of pulverized dust and rock. Hot blood streamed from the claw marks upon Hecate’s flanks.
    Sonja didn’t look back. Instead she squinted through the fog to see yet
another werewolf racing to intercept her. The monster was several yards away
from her but closing fast. It seemed to grow before her eyes as it charged at
her like a shaggy black thunderbolt. Sonja realized she had to move fast if she
wanted to avoid another battle at close quarters. Despite her thick metal
gauntlets, her nimble fingers found a concealed latch on the guard of her sword.
She released the latch, freeing the two shining silver stars cradled in the
hilt. Steel points radiated from the miniature pentagrams.
    In a practiced motion, she swung the sword at the oncoming werewolf. The
stars spun along the edge of the blade before flying past the sword point as
though propelled by a slingshot. They whistled through the air to strike the
werewolf in its head and shoulders. Their keen edges, which had been honed to
razor sharpness, sank deep into the monster’s hide and the beast yelped in
agony. Acrid white fumes rose where the toxic silver burned the wolf’s flesh. It
crashed to the ground directly in the path of the speeding horse.
    Thank you, Tanis, Sonja thought. Although she had little respect for the
sniveling scribe, whom she regarded as both a toady and a lecher, she had to
concede that his ingenuity had it uses. The built-in throwing stars had been his
idea.
    Proving her valor, Hecate vaulted over the convulsing werewolf, who clutched
frantically at the poisonous missiles with its clumsy paws. Sonja left the writhing monster in the dust as the horse’s hooves thundered against the
ground. The opaque fog swallowed up the downed creature.
    But not, alas, the rest of the pack, who were in no way ready to abandon the
hunt….
     
    The shadowy crypt was the slowly beating heart of the coven. The cavernous
stone mausoleum was built into one side of the castle, buried halfway beneath
the ground. Granite ribs supported the high domed ceiling.