Read Twice Drowned Dragon (The Gryphonpike Chronicles Book 2) for Free Online

another door if we don’t find a way in.” Drake shrugged and pointed at the steps. “Ladies first,” he said to me with a half-bow.
    I set one boot on the steps, testing for strength. The stone seemed solid enough, but this place reeked of age and I wasn’t sure how far the masons had gotten in their repairs. There were tracks in the dust going up the steps, and portions were worn smooth through constant traffic over many years. I took that as a good sign and moved upward, listening for any sign of danger.
    Wights, it turns out, don’t make much noise when they attack.
    A creeping chill oozed from the stone walls around me. I raised my bow as two wights appeared around the bend of the stairs above. They had once been human men from the look of them, but their flesh was dried out and grey-green with death, and the scales on their once-armored coats little more than rust marks. Their eyes burned with red fire much like the dragon’s had, and their hands had thick, yellowed claws where fingernails had once grown.
    Unlike the dragon, when I shot the left wight through the throat, it reacted. My arrow pierced its decaying leather gorget as if it were a corn husk and crunched into the wight’s spine, half-severing its head. It flailed and fell back onto the steps, crumbling to dust. The spent arrow clinked onto the stone, out of reach but apparently undamaged. Good, they can be killed easily enough and I’ll get my arrows back . A large improvement over that tree-damned dragon.
    Behind me I heard Drake ordering everyone back down the steps. I moved back down blindly, sending another arrow at the remaining wight. It twisted out of the way and my shot tore through its arm instead. The undead creature hissed, showing me a mouthful of jagged, blackened teeth inside a mouth mostly covered by his stringy beard. He leapt forward and swiped at me with its uninjured arm. I sprang backward, clearing the last few steps and slamming into Makha.
    She jammed her shield into the wall and kept upright as I dropped to one knee. The wight descended and behind him in an eerily silent procession came at least four others. I scrabbled sideways, reaching for another arrow.
    The first wight, my arrow still sticking out of his arm, jumped from the last step straight at Makha. She turned aside his body with her sword, severing his slashing arm. The wight hissed again, this time breathing out a thick white mist. It coated Makha’s breastplate like hoarfrost but she threw her head back and this time her sword severed its head.
    Two more wights left the steps and headed for Makha. Moving backward still, aiming to put the hearth at my back, I shot one underneath its arm as it clawed at the champion. My arrow found its heart as black dust exploded from it in a puff and then the wight disintegrated.
    Drake and Azyrin closed on my right, encircling the entrance to the steps as more of the wights streamed down. The steps were clogged with them.
    “Fireball?” Drake called to Rahiel.
    “Don’t think I can manage another, working on something,” Rahiel gasped out. I spared a quick glance at her and saw that she had a scroll in one hand and a blue crystal wand in the other. Sweat beaded her brow and her tiny green face was scrunched in concentration.
    Makha screamed and stumbled back. Spreading cracks opened in her armor and spikes of unnatural frost speared off the metal as it creaked and groaned.
    “Makha! Get back,” Azyrin yelled.
    She came away from the wall too slowly and another wight leapt onto her. I shot it through one glowing red eye, showering her in black ash.
    “C-c-can’t b-bbreathe,” Makha stuttered as she trembled and collapsed to her knees, dropping her shield. “T-t-too c-ccold.”
    “Killer, keep them off us,” Azyrin yelled in Orcish as he grabbed Makha’s pauldrons and dragged her backward.
    Two rapid arrows dissolved another of the uncanny creatures. Drake moved like a serpent, dodging and striking out with his rapier,