Thorn

e of his heavy iron poleaxe vibrating a

e, the flare of his torch creeping wi

lamped over Kaelen's burning lips, my fingers ready to drive the steel scalpel s

take another step, Li

ocket, pulled out a fistful of heavy gold sovereigns, a

TER-

coins bouncing down the stone steps echo

acking the gleaming yellow metal rolling into the torchlight. Gre

the steps to scoop up the coins, his he

I exhaled int

w, half-collapsed servant passage, dragging him into an abandoned, drafty turret room on the fortress's west

clean hearth. This ruined garrison offered nothing but bare basalt fl

y knees buckled. I let Kaelen slide onto a pile of d

allow, wet rattle, and his skin radiated a terrifying neurogenic fever. The necrotic

ing with the cold precision of a triage surgeon. "There's no time or water for a proper therma

r Kaelen's

commanded. "The leather

es. With swift, mechanical precision, we stripped the stiff, soiled hide cleanly from his

act the cervical anchor before the shock terminates his brain ste

across his thighs, sobbi

rceps in raw spirits. Passing the steel jaws through the candle flame, I clam

wrenched backward wi

EEE

from his vertebral bone with

ps, biting into the flesh of my palms with numb, blistering cold. A plume of white vapor hissed into the freezing air, and tar-like, boil

convulsive spasm of agony, Kaelen's colossal frame arched off the stone like a bowstring snapping. His lungs emptied

alts-now!

arterial hemorrhage, binding the deep gouge with a tight swath of coarse linen. I carefully slipped t

e stillness. The remaining eleven spikes along his spine continued to hum with a faint, malevole

dark sweat from my brow. "Bolt the heavy exterior door from

spered, slipping out and pulling the

nce settled o

ard outside and the faint, sulfurou

ttle, and powdered crushed dragon-root-ancient alchemical reagents formulated to counter frost-silver corruption. I mixed the grimy powders with high-proo

e unconscious war

along his spinal ridge. The poultice sizzled as it sank into his burning skin, drawing out thr

sh, such raw, accelerated stimulation was a double-edged sword-it would awaken his beast instincts before his shatte

ers, tracing the rigid contours of his ribs down to the narrow taper of his waist. The heat radiating from hi

wiped the sticky green residue from my palms, and turned

was utter

ed. Not a single breath

to wipe the blood from my forceps when

en signal a dodge, a shadow rose out o

pped with five curved, razor-sharp black talons-

flush against my back, pinning me ag

lar, a deep, gravelly rasp scraped out of the dark-his

are