Page 26 of Fang & Fury

Some broke and ran. Others never got the chance.

Ailsa’s breath seized.

There was a reason why the clag-doo was known as Albia’s most formidable predator.

It was all fang and fury, all teeth and claws. It moved so fast, barely a black blur in the murky morning light.

9: RUN

FORCING HERSELF TO turn from Darach, Ailsa realized it was drizzling, the sky above them leaden. The air, laced with peat smoke, was heady after so long being trapped inside that broch. But there was no time to enjoy her freedom.

Darach was right. Things were going to get messy from here on in.

Kayla grabbed Ailsa by the arm then and hauled her back.

Together, they retreated into the shadow of the stables just in time as Darach bounded forward and attacked the guards who’d almost closed the gate.

The men looked like they were about to shit themselves, but they held their ground anyway.

Brave idiots.

Darach tore his way through them, knocking aside blades like a violent wind.

Screams echoed against stone, and then the wet sound of rending flesh, the crunch of breaking bone, followed.

A heartbeat later, he was through the gateway.

Next to Ailsa, Fern’s head turned briefly into the wind, nostrils flaring—as if catching the clag-doo’s scent—before she pushed off the wall of the stables. “Come on. We must keep behind him.”

The three of them ran, boots squelching in the mud.

They fled the broch just as more warriors spilled into the yard, gazes surveying the carnage Darach had left behind him.

Once they were through the gate, Ailsa’s gaze snapped forward to where the clag-doo bounded ahead, taking the long street that curled its way down to the bottom of the fort.

Fortunately, it was heedless of them.

Halfway down the hill, Ailsa’s lungs started to burn. She’d done no exercise over the past moons. She panted now. Her leg muscles cramped.

Likewise, next to her, Kayla’s breathing was labored. They were both struggling.

Unlike them, Fern ran easily, her long legs eating up the distance.

The Shee looked as if she could have run for days. Her movements were so fluid that it seemed as if her feet barely hit the earth.

However, by the time Ailsa and Kayla entered the market ground, they were both gasping for breath, sweat pouring off them.

Meanwhile, Darach was savaging another set of guards at the lower gates.

The iron doors themselves were wide open, unsurprising for this time of day, as people would have been coming and going from the village beyond, bringing in supplies.

However, there was a crowd of hard-muscled bodies to get through.

Silver glowed in the warriors’ eyes as they formed a line in front of the snarling clag-doo.

Ailsa stilled. She didn’t know whether it was the earth magic in their tattoos, or whether these warriors really were fearless—but they faced the clag-doo down nonetheless.

Darach’s body coiled, and then he leaped, bringing down three of them in one go, tail lashing.