Pathway

"No!" Chang Chang cried. She tried to crawl between the second beast's legs. Ju Feng had his arms around its head. His muscles strained as he attempted to keep the beast's teeth from his neck.

"Get up," Ju Feng hollered when he saw her weaving between the beast's legs. "They're beast. They'll trample you!"

Chang Chang lunged forward, but the second beast had already seen her. It dropped Zu Ruo in favor of a moving target. Curling sideways, it lunged. Its massive weight hit Chang Chang from the side and bore her to the ground.

She hit the planks hard. The beast's rancid breath was all over her. Bone-ridged jaws snapped inches from her face.

Chang Chang pushed against the beast's throat. Her hands slipped off the oily fur and down its chest. She had the brief impression of a wild heartbeat and stone-hard muscles. She would never throw the beast off. Her only advantage was the size of the raft. The craft bobbed wildly between the leviathan's bones and the bow of the Ferryman. The beast were positioned half on these shores and half on the raft.

Chang Chang couldn't see Ju Feng now, but she could hear his punches vibrating along the other beast's body. It squealed in pain, and Chang Chang heard a splash when its back legs skittered off the raft.

She kicked up, into her own foe's belly. It hacked a foul breath and became meaner. Nine feet of muscle and bone settled on top of her. Chang Chang couldn't breathe. She flopped back and tried to pull her chest free, but the beast latched onto her wrist and began to shake the appendage in its teeth.

Fire exploded up Chang Chang's arm. She cried out as the flesh was stripped from her wrist, exposing white bone. The pain was mythic. She felt the blood dribble down her arm and almost passed out. She tried to rip her arm out of the beast's mouth, but that only made the pain worse.

Haltingly, she chanted a spell. Her concentration was in shreds, her attention too caught up in her trapped arm. She imagined how the magic would go wild, but she didn't care. Any pain was better than watching the beast tear her hand off. It was playing with her, enjoying her pain before it ate her alive. She shrieked the arcane words and braced herself for the backlash.

Metal spikes burst bloodlessly from her skin. They were two inches long and curled at the tips. She felt them puncture the roof of the beast's mouth. Willingly she gave the beast her hand, driving the spikes deep.

With a high-pitched wail, the beast released her. The beast pulled its weight off her chest, but more of the spikes were growing from Chang Chang's skin. She felt each one as a tiny pinprick. They stuck and tore the beast's skin until both woman and monster were drenched in blood. The beast ripped free and retreated, whimpering pathetically. It limped to the edge of the raft and licked its wounds.

Chang Chang could see the wicked intelligence in its eyes as it re-evaluated her. She stretched out her wrecked arm, daring the creature to come at her and taste more spikes.

It watched her with those frightening eyes like the burning edges of coins, but it came no closer. That's right, Chang Chang thought. I'm not as weak as I look.

She sat up and looked around, careful to keep one eye on the injured beast. Ju Feng lay on his back; his beast had worked its way onto his chest, but it couldn't keep him still. He punched the beast in the side of its wedge-shaped head over and over. His fists moved in a blur, delivering quick, alternating punches down either side of the beast's flank. Distracted by the constant stream of hurts, it couldn't bite his fists or sever fingers. He would wear it down eventually, but not before he exhausted himself.

Not far away, Zu Ruo lay in a wrecked heap. Chang Chang saw she'd taken a bite to the neck before the beast had grabbed her. Her leg flopped in a blood pool. The stench of copper and oily fur was dizzying.

Chang Chang crawled to the dwarf's side. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the beast's deformed master pacing the air among the leviathan's ribs. He was agitated, his tentacles writhing over his chest. He propped the polearm on his shoulder, but he didn't throw it.

He won't risk hitting the beasts, Chang Chang thought. She tore her sleeve, wrapping it three times around the deep gash in Zu Ruo's leg. The spikes made it take twice as long, but she didn't want to end the spell yet.

When she was done, she tore her other sleeve and wrapped her own wrist as tightly as she could. Blood immediately soaked through the makeshift bandage. She felt light-headed. She prayed she could kill the injured beast before she passed out.

Standing on her knees, Chang Chang chanted again. The spikes sank back into her flesh and dissolved. On the heels of the dispel, she pushed her arms out from her body, the sweep encompassing both beast.

Blue missiles of magical energy shot from her hands. They hit the injured beast in the chest. The beast howled. The blue streamers sank into its flesh, briefly illuminating the beast's face.

Before the injured one could recover, the missiles rebounded, striking the beast Ju Feng was fighting in the spine.

In the explosion of pain and surprise, the beast lost its balance at last, its back legs collapsing underneath its body.

Ju Feng took the distraction and flipped himself onto the leu-crotta's back, raking his body across the beast's singed fur. The beast howled and bucked, trying to throw the boy off, but Ju Feng locked both arms around its head.

The beast turned and charged toward the water. It would force Ju Feng off one way or another. When the beast turned its head, Ju Feng sprang up, contorting his body so that his full weight landed on the beast's left flank. With his arms locked around the beast's head, Ju Feng had the beast disoriented. It tried to twist free, but Ju Feng pulled straight up and to the right with all his strength.

The beast's neck popped with a stomach-turning crunch. It sagged against Ju Feng, biting and snapping at random, its senses shattered by the trauma it had suffered.

Ju Feng grabbed the jagged remains of Zu Ruo's dagger and plunged it into the beast's throat. It coughed once and expired, collapsing half on top of Ju Feng. He shoved the body off into the harbor.

The injured beast howled furiously, a cry echoed by the deformed man. He hefted his spear, aiming it at Ju Feng, while the beast lunged for him.

"No!" Chang Chang cried. Ju Feng dodged, but the beast grabbed him by the shoulder, tearing out a chunk of flesh.

He crab-crawled back, putting a little distance between them, but the beast was already tensing to spring again.

Chang Chang gauged the distance and cast another spell. She twisted her arms together and waited, sweat from the pain pouring down her face, until the deformed man threw his spear. He aimed for Ju Feng's heart.

Chang Chang spoke a word, and Ju Feng and the beast disappeared. She untwisted her hands and instantly they reappeared, but they had exchanged places on the raft.

.

The deformed man stared, his jaw slack with horror, as his own spear punched a hole in the beast's flank. Its wicked point protruded out the other side, between two of the beast's ribs.

The beast collapsed—dead before it hit the ground—and Ju Feng was up and moving, grabbing Chang Chang, hauling her to her feet.

She sagged against him, her strength gone. She'd done too much. Three spells practically at once, and she was losing blood, despite the bandage.

"He's still armed," Ju Feng said, and as he spoke, the deformed man drew a broadsword from a ratty leather scabbard. He let himself fall out of the air, landing on the raft with a crash that sent Chang Chang and Ju Feng to their knees and jarred the beast's body.

Seeing the corpse up close seemed to incense the man more. He came forward, slashing wildly with his blade. Ju Feng let go of Chang Chang and rushed him. He ducked under the man's reach just before his slash would have come around and decapitated him. He brought his forearm up and blocked the slash at the man's wrist, leaving his other hand free for a counter attack.

One of the few things Chang Chang had learned to be true about Ju Feng —however much honor he showed as a thief, as a Mistshore fighter he would never fight fair.

So Chang Chang was not in the least shocked when Ju Feng brought his other hand up and snagged one of the tentacles writhing at the deformed man's waist. He wrapped it around his fist and yanked.

The man's sword arm flew out wide at the same time his face came down, until he was nose to nose with Ju Feng. The boy snapped his skull against the deformed man's and released the tentacle.

The deformed man staggered back. He tried to bring his sword up, but Ju Feng had him this time. The boy took his thick wrist in both hands, twisted and brought the sword point down, driving it harmlessly into the raft. The deformed man released the sword and it bobbed there, a scar in the wood.

Ju Feng brought his fist around and punched the deformed man in the stomach. He stumbled backward and off the raft. No spell held him as he plunged into the water.