Dead of Knight (The Gryphonpike Chronicles Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

idiot human started running when he saw Fade, but the mist-lynx caught him and had carefully shoved him to the dirt, putting a paw, claws sheathed, on the child’s back until we caught up. His brother was not so gentle.
    “You knucklebrained idjeet,” Alew yelled as he yanked Enil to his feet.
    “I gotta bury Da or he’ll turn into one of them burning dead!” Enil’s face was stubborn beneath the tearstains and streaks of dirt.
    “Argue later, boys,” Drake muttered, eying the hills around us.
    Fade’s low, continuous growl convinced them both. We turned back toward the village, running as quickly as we could, even Enil’s tired legs keeping a speed born of shame and terror as the last rays of daylight sank away beyond the now dark hills.
    We almost made it. The windmill reared up against a starry sky and the huddled lumps of houses marked how close we were when the first of the Saliidruin dead attacked. It was a sign of my extreme exhaustion that I broke one of the fundamental rules of adventuring.
    Always. Look. Up.
    The hrafen descended upon us from above. The huge bird, its body the size of a warhorse and its wings thrice that span, dropped down and snatched up both Drake and Enil in its foul claws before I could react. My dulled senses barely registered the foul wave reeking from its inky feathers. Drake’s yell and Enil’s scream turned me back in time to see the huge undead bird change course and start to pump its wings for altitude.
    Alew swung at it with his axe but its huge beak, as big as the boy’s torso, knocked him into the grass, batting the axe from his hands as though it were a toy.
    Fade crouched beside me, hissing, but seemingly unwilling to spring on this new monster. I let an arrow fly and had another pulled before the first stuck just above the claw holding Drake’s squirming, yelling form. He was stabbing the scaly claw over and over with a dagger, but it was my arrow that caused the fiendish creature to drop him. My second arrow sank out of sight into one of the wings.
    The hrafen gained more altitude as Drake tumbled to the ground and lay still. Enil’s screams were cut short as I was knocked from my feet by a final powerful buffet of its wings, the choking stench of rotting meat and sun-bloated bodies turning my stomach, blinding me to anything but my own nausea and fear for too long a moment.
    I lurched to my feet and aimed another arrow at the fiend, but it was a dark and shrinking blot against the stars now. Spitting blood and bile, I ran to where Drake had fallen.
    My friend wasn’t moving but I heard him taking uneven breaths as I bent over him, turning his body with as much care as I could in my haste. Tears stung my eyes as the wet metal scent of fresh blood cleared the stench of the undead. Drake’s eyes opened briefly, he almost seemed to smile, and then they closed. But he kept on breathing.
    Don’t you die on me, you damned bastard
, I swore at him in my mind. Unable to tell the extent of his injuries, I lifted him up, throwing him over my shoulder and steadying his lanky bulk with my left arm as I grabbed up Thorn in my right. Drake had a scant inch on me in height and some stone on me in weight, but my Elemental Elven blood gave me strength beyond the usual for mortals. Even if it hadn’t, I think I could have flown if I had to in order to get my friend to the dubious safety of the temple.
    A groan behind me told me Alew lived. He stumbled to his feet and stared at me with blank eyes. He had no grave injury I could see, so I turned away from him, moving as quickly as I could to the village, Fade a silent and deadly shadow ahead of us. A dead man’s voice rang in my mind, berating me for letting one of his children go and showing so little concern for another. I shoved the farmer’s accusing eyes out of my head. Drake was more important to me than any oath.
    Chaos greeted us. Azyrin and Makha stood outside the temple with Rahiel and Bill standing on the sloping slate