Chasing Evil by Adam Blade Page B

Geffen and the guard.
    â€œHe’s blind!” he said to Gwen.
    She was staring in horror at the sight below. The soldier left his struggle to climb the wall and seized Geffen by the shoulders. He yanked the boy up and spun him around, then shoved him toward the rock-eating Beast. Geffen sprawled across the ground. He looked up at Gwen.
    â€œWhy aren’t you helping me?” he called up. “Why don’t you ever help me?” Gwen let out a cry of anguish and started to scramble down the wall they were leaning against. The Troiden lifted one huge eye, searching blindly for the source of the noise. Tanner gripped her by the wrist and twisted her around roughly.
    â€œNo,” he said. “I won’t let you sacrifice yourself. It’s too dangerous.”
    Below them, Geffen curled into a terrified ball. The Troiden’s tentacle-mouths moved toward him.
    â€œI’m coming!” shouted Gwen. She pulled herself free and vaulted over the ledge, sliding down to the bottom, just managing to keep her balance.
    â€œGwen, no!” Tanner yelled.
    Gwen rushed forward to Geffen’s side and pulled her brother back as one of the mouths reached within a sword’s length. “You have to get to your feet and walk!” she shouted at Geffen.
    As the Beast reached for her, she slashed with her rapier, but the sharp blade hardly scratched the tentacle’s thick hide. Tanner picked up rocks from the ground and pelted them one after another at the Beast. But it was hopeless. The Troiden moved on relentlessly. He was less than thirty paces from them now, and the three victims were pressed up against the slope desperately.
    â€œYou have to work together!” said Tanner. “Geffen, stand on your sister’s shoulders and reach up to me!”
    It took Gwen a moment to understand what he was saying. She looked up the slope, as if weighing the distance, then held her brother’s face close to hers and spoke directly at him. He nodded briskly, his head jerking to look at the snorting, shuffling Troiden.
    Gwen crouched, facing the slope, and Geffen managed to get both feet on her shoulders. Tanner, lodging his feet against the rock face, leaned over the ledge as far as he could and reached down. As Gwen straightened her knees, Geffen stretched up with his hands. Their fingers touched.
    But the soldier below was clambering over Gwen, pushing her aside. “Let me up!” he said.
    â€œGet off!” shouted Gwen.
    The soldier didn’t listen and began to pull himself over Geffen’s body, too, ignoring the boy’s shouts of pain. Tanner’s fingers broke from Geffen’s, and the soldier latched onto his wrist, heaving himself up.
    Tanner tried to free his arm. As the soldier got a foot on the ledge, Tanner managed to shake himself loose from the man’s grasp. He fell away with a jerk, and the soldier plummeted back into the cave. Tanner heard him hit the ground with a thud.
    He jumped up and looked over once more. The soldier had fallen halfway between the slope and the advancing Beast. He lay on his back, moving his head groggily. His eyes opened, just as the first of the Troiden’s mouths latched onto his shoulder. Then he screamed.
    Tanner hardly dared watch as the other mouths shifted to their prey, attaching to different parts of his body. There was a dreadful slurping sound as each mouth took hold and the man’s flesh started to pull and pucker, blood bursting from his pores and running down his limbs in rivulets. His head fell back on his neck and his eyes rolled back as he foamed at the mouth, the pain making his body jerk. There was a dull cracking sound, and then a shaft of white bone broke through the skin of the man’s thigh. More mouths closed around him, and soon there was nothing but the awful sounds of snorting and chewing and breaking bones.
    Tanner reached over again and stretched toward Geffen. Their fingertips brushed. He reached