The Kinshield Legacy by K.C. May Page A

and leapt at Calie’s shoulder. Every inch of it clacked like dozens of mouths snapping their teeth. Daia yanked the reins to the right. The horse veered and pranced, barely escaping the attack. Calie’s mane bristled.
    Cirang drove her blade into the monster’s body. It shrieked an unearthly cry. The ears of both horses went flat. Daia was sure Calie would bolt, but instead she pranced, turning. Daia twisted in her saddle in time to see the beyonder run limping into the woods.
    Take the initiative. Daia heard Aminda’s voice in her head and knew what she had to do. She heeled Calie and went in pursuit.
    “Daia, leave it,” Cirang shouted.
    Daia heard the command, but she was determined to finish the thing off. It wouldn’t live to attack someone else. She rode after the beast, surprised at how swiftly it moved despite its injuries. Calie’s labored breath sounded loud in the eerie quiet of the forest, punctuated by her hooves pounding the ground.
    The beyonder pulled up short and turned. Its teeth and armor plating snapped in the air.
    Daia reined hard, bringing Calie to a quick stop less than ten feet from the beyonder. Her own chest heaved, and she turned her mount to an angle and awaited its attack.
    It stood and watched her, teeth and armor clacking. Was it truly injured, perhaps unable to run further? Why didn’t it attack her?
    A girl’s scream echoed through the trees. Daia’s blood stilled in her veins.
    The beyonder before her opened its mouth wide. The skin inside its mouth oozed gray-green liquid that coated the teeth, and a thin strand of the saliva stretched from a top tooth to a bottom. It leapt.
    Daia drove her sword deep into the thing’s mouth, past the six rows of teeth and into the fleshy gullet. A flood of the gray-green liquid spurted from the wound and coated her blade as she drew it out and thrust it back in. Steam rose from the creature’s mouth as though it had swallowed fire. The beyonder went limp on the ground. The plates of its skin rolled downward and lay at rest.
    Daia pulled her sword out once more and turned her mount, digging in her heels and urging Calie to a gallop. The sounds of battle grew louder as she neared the road. Ahead, through the trees, Daia saw Cirang battling furiously from her horse. JiNese was on foot fighting with everything she had. Beyonders. At least four of them, and two more bodies lying still on the ground. JiNese’s horse lay on its side, neighing and trying to get up. A reddish beyonder leapt onto the horse’s neck and a spray of blood arched into the air.
    Daia burst through the trees and identified her first target: a slithering snake-like thing with smooth orange fur coiling to strike at JiNese’s back. Daia leaned so low to the side she risked falling out of the saddle. With a sweep of her sword, Daia took its head off as she thundered past. Calie circled around the wagon toward the rear. A ryna was trying to leap into the back with Naylen. A wooden gargoyle flew from the wagon, hit the ryna square on the head and bounced away. Another followed it, and another. The beast turned toward the horse and rider and sprang at the prancing hooves. While Calie danced to avoid it, Daia leaned first to one side, then the other trying to stab at it. Her horse started to buck in desperation. Daia leapt from Calie’s back and into the wagon. The ryna turned its attention to her.
    Daia thrust her sword deep into the ryna’s chest and gave it a twist. The smell of sulfur assailed her as the beast collapsed onto the ground. She jumped down and ran around the wagon’s right side just in time to see Cirang and JiNese slay the last beyonder with a pair of sword thrusts to its black body.
    Daia circled the wagon, looking for signs of more beyonders, but saw none. “Is anyone hurt?” she asked.
    JiNese bent over, her hands propped on her thighs. She shook her head, chest heaving.
    “Naylen!” Yardof cried. He climbed down from his seat.
    “I’m all right,”