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- Herausgeber: Tami Veldura
- Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
A deadly blight sweeps across the land, driving people and animal alike before it. Two sisters flee from the overtaking poison, ready to fight for their lives and each other.
The Art of Magic is a short story about power, where it comes from, what we can do to change its course, and how
the acts we perform every day can stop the unstoppable.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
The Art of Magic
About The Author
Copyright
The Art Of Magic
By Tami Veldura
Korah grunted as she thrust her dagger deep into the rubbery neck of a creature twisted by the blight. It had once been a fox, perhaps. Or a racoon. But the poison and magic had rotted its fur away and given its skin a thick, bluish hue. The beast turned on her, long yellow fangs bared, but when Korah wrenched her dagger free, the creature gurgled as it choked on its own sappy blood. She hopped away in case the monster dove after her for a final death strike, but it collapsed to the ruddy dirt instead, twitching as it's blood dribbled into a pool of sticky purple ink.
Korah darted to her sister. Another blighted creature swiped at Justyne with curved claws. Korah hissed, annoyed at her lack of arrows, and tackled the beast from the side. She led with her dagger, plunging it deep into the beast's throat and ripping purple-blighted flesh as she tumbled away. Justyne staggered a few steps back, gasping for breath and holding one arm close to her body. Korah adjusted her grip on her dagger. It was wet with blighted blood. The beast coughed inky blood to the dirt and focused its small red eyes on Korah. She circled carefully, waiting for an opening that would let her put the twisted creature down for good.
It feinted a lunge at her, swiping the air and growling. Korah let it posture. When the beast fell from blood loss, Korah dove in aggressively. She shoved the weakened animal's head to the side and sliced it clean through.
Korah spun, quickly assessing the field for additional threats. She didn't see any more blighted creatures, but she and Justyne couldn't rest here. They were only just ahead of the spreading infection and as night fell, the blighted would find them again. They needed to keep moving.
Korah caught up with her sister at the edge of the clearing. Justyne had leaned against a tree and was using the last of her water bladder to clean the cuts in her arm. If rinsed clear of the tacky blood, they shouldn't see signs of infection, but they couldn't be too careful. Already the city of Lerean had fallen to the blight, people turning on each other with blistering sores and unusual ferocity. A bite or scratch from a blighted animal spread suddenly through human population, too quickly to stop. Justyne and Korah thought the neighboring settlements would be safe, but the blight had spread even there.
As Justyne emptied her water bladder, Korah watched the tainted drops soak into the ground and stain it purple. Already the blood from the creatures they'd killed was spreading, like a mold, across the sparse dirt. It wasn't enough to kill a blighted creature, their bodies and blood needed to be burned, the ground purified with fire and salt, the very air smudged with jasmine and sage.
No place was safe.
Korah helped Justyne cut away the ragged end of her torn sleeve, then the two of them plunged into the forest. There were no cart paths out here beyond the farming settlements. There was nothing but forests, wild beasts, and, in the distance, the mountain spine. Some people said the mountain was a slumbering dragon, but Korah hoped it wasn't. If the blight twisted a dragon, surely the whole world would burn.
Justyne stepped over a rock crag and into a shallow stream. She knelt to let the fresh water cleanse her cuts. Korah stripped herself bare and scrubbed both skin and clothes with sand. There was no telling what the tainted blood would do to creatures downstream, but Korah wasn't sure anything could be saved. Not anymore. Their only chance was to get ahead of it, then wait for the blight to catch up. Hopefully it would destroy itself from the inside out when there was nothing left to consume, the way a wolf pack died when they outnumbered the rabbits. Maybe there was a place so far away that the blight would die before it reached them.
Korah had little hope.
"Do you smell that?" Justyne straightened, fresh water dripping from her bladder. She gazed upstream.
Korah dressed in cold clothes and sniffed the air. "Fire?"
"No... Sage."
