Savage Messiah

Every new tu

Another intersection loomed up ahead; it looked to be the largest one yet. When they reached it, they saw that fifteen separate tu

Uther turned to face them. He had the same haughty look on his face that he had given Adrian and Abbey. Ever alert, Agrippa widened his stance and raised the tip of his sword.

"This is the last of the intersections," Uther a

The warrior scowled. "What are you talking about?"

"I no longer care to live. As a farewell gesture I grant you the right to choose, because both of you are about to die with me."

The two warriors looked around warily. Nothing had changed. The place remained deathly silent. The wall torches still burned softly.

Agrippa gave Uther a hard look. "I ca

"Ah, but Faegan is not here. The wizard of the Vigors ca

"Very well," he finally said. "If you want me to select a tu

"Farewell," he said. Uther turned and ran down one of the tu

The warriors immediately gave chase. When they caught up to him, Flavius dropped the torch, grabbed the Valrenkian by the neck, and threw him to the floor. Without the use of his hands to break his fall, Uther went down hard. It looked like his right forearm was broken. But instead of crying out in pain, he only laughed. Flavius pulled him roughly to his feet.

"Are you crazy?" the warrior growled. "Keep going! Trying to escape us will do you no good!"

When Uther looked back at them, there was victory in his eyes.

"You fools!" he said. "Don't you see? There is no escape. The process has already begun. And as I told your herbmistress and your acolyte, even I do not know what form it shall take."

Almost as soon as Uther had finished speaking, the shrieking began. At first it was soft and distant, coming from somewhere down the tu

The wind extinguished the wall torches, and darkness descended. Flavius reached for his flint and steel to light the torch he had brought. But even if he could have struck a flame, it would have been u

As they raced toward Flavius, Agrippa, and Uther, their light grew in intensity. They were each about half as tall as a fully grown man, and jagged bolts of white light careened to and fro within their depths. The closer they got, the louder they shrieked, and the wind intensified to the point that Uther and the warriors could barely stand. Then the rushing lights began to change.

The fireballs had morphed into demonic faces, with dark blue slanted eyes and mouths full of long, pointed teeth. As they sped down the tu

It bit into him at his waist and picked him up as if he weighed nothing. As the thing's teeth crunched powerfully down into flesh and bone, Uther screamed. With savage, grunting sounds, the thing shook him back and forth as if he were a rag doll, then began to crash him against solid rock. Uther's head split open, and the demon dropped his corpse to the floor. Uther's blood dripped lazily from its mouth.

The beast looked at the two warriors, and let go a deranged laugh. Then it turned to look at the two other faces that waited there. As if giving its permission, it smiled. In a flash, the other demons set upon the Minions.

Flavius and Agrippa frantically swung their swords, but to no avail. The razor-sharp blades of their dreggans passed harmlessly through the monsters. The demons opened their glowing jaws and ravaged Flavius and Agrippa in the same ma

Their task complete, the demonic faces melted back into azure balls, which streaked back the way they had come. With their passing, the shrieking and the wind stopped, and the wall torches came alive again. When Faegan heard the terrible sound and saw the azure light flashing within the tu

"Everyone to either side of the entrance!" he shouted to the Minions crowded around him. "Hurry-your lives depend on it!"

But for many of them it was already too late. There was a terrible shrieking sound, and then three azure energy balls rushed out of the tu

After careening around the area for a few moments, the balls slowed and then vanished altogether. Faegan looked around. The occasional smoking boot or blackened dreggan was all that remained of many who had followed him here. The stench of burning flesh hung in the air. Closing his eyes for a moment, the ancient wizard hung his head.

Then his wizard's mind started working again, and he came to a stark realization. How could I have been so blind? he thought.

As he expected, the ground began to shake. It started gently at first, but it quickly grew to such intensity that the village's buildings started to collapse. The surviving warriors could barely stand. The wind began to howl, sending dirt and debris whirling into the air, blinding them all.

Thunder rumbled over the earth and lightning cascaded across the sky. To the Minions who had never experienced this phenomenon, it seemed that the world was about to end.

As the bluffs shook, the co

Hoping to save as many of the Minions as possible, Faegan raised his hands.

CHAPTER LVII

Her arms clamped firmly around K'jarr's nec Tyra

But the craft is stronger than any Minion, she reminded herself as the wind tore at her. If they didn't reach the litter with at least a little time to spare, they wouldn't have a chance.

She looked over at Scars. He was being carried by Lan, who was having a harder time of it due to the first mate's great size. The warrior was clearly spent, every motion of his wings seeming to be another desperate effort to simply stay aloft. Scars and Lan would be the first to perish, Tyra

As for Scars, his expression told her that he was resigned to whatever fate awaited him. Since the day they had first met, he had always said that his life would end in a cold, watery grave. Closing her eyes, Tyra