Page 19 of Feast

Still, she managed to rip the fabric of the creature’s uniform and cut its scaly flesh, drawing a spurt of black blood and a squeal of agony from the monster.

Not bad.

In a matter of seconds, Ika had wounded two of these creeps. Maybe the nith weren’t so fearsome after all.

There was a sound from behind her. A crunch of a booted foot in the snow. One of the nith was trying to sneak up on her.

With a warrior’s cry, Ika spun around, slashing blindly with the spear.

Scaly, claw-tipped fingers caught the shaft, stopping the spear mid swing. With a twist of its wrist, the nith broke the wooden shaft in two, tossing the spear tip away into the snow.

Okay, perhaps Ika had underestimated her attackers.

But she wasn’t about to give up.

She drew the splintered spear shaft back and swung it like a club at the face of the nith who had broken it. The creature blocked the strike with its forearm.

Not good.

The nith’s hand shot forward, clutching a fistful of Ika’s hair in its scaly grasp. Her roots burned, and her eyes blurred with tears of pain.

Still, Ika refused to give in. She would fight to the end.

She would use the only weapon left at her disposal.

Her teeth.

Ika’s teeth had always been a source of shame and feelings of inadequacy. A proper ukkur like Rolf had sharp upper fangs and curving tusks that protruded from the lower jaw. By contrast, Ika’s little teeth were blunt, paltry things.

But right now, her teeth were all she had, and she intended to use them.

Ignoring the sting of her pulled hair, Ika twisted in the nith’s grasp and chomped down hard on the flesh of its wrist, which was exposed by the sleeve of its uniform.

The nith yowled in pain.

Blunt though Ika’s teeth might have been, they were enough to draw nith blood. Warm coppery fluid filled her mouth, and her stomach lurched in repulsion, but she only bit down harder, refusing to let go.

“Shoot it!” the bitten nith shrieked. “Shoot the rotten beast!”

“No,” another nith voice chittered. “I want it alive. There’s good meat on those bones. Tranquilize it.”

Tranquilize? Ika did not know that word.

It must have something to do with the sudden sting that nipped at the side of her neck. It reminded her of the tizrak that had stung her when she was a child. But that time, the pain had lasted for days, even after Rolf had applied a healing herbal salve. This sting, however, dissipated almost immediately, replaced by a warm, numb feeling that spread all through her body.

Ika’s muscles became stiff and insensate. Her jaws relaxed, letting go of the nith’s mangled wrist, and the creature drew back with a whimper.

Ika was totally numb now. As unfeeling as a pillar of ice. She didn’t even realize that she was toppling backward until she saw the stars in the sky streaking across her field of vision.

As she fell, Ika thought of Rolf. She thought of how he would wake soon to find her gone. He would search frantically for her, but it would already be too late. The nith would have taken her away.

All because of her stupid curiosity and disobedience.

I’m sorry, Rolf. I’m so very sorry.

Ika collapsed backward, and her stiff body hit the snowy ground with a hard whump. But her mind just seemed to keep on falling, tumbling away into a neverending darkness.

CHAPTER 8