The Enemy Within Read Online Free Page B

the alley—
    —to see that his erstwhile captors’ flight had accomplished
nothing. The serpent could fly faster than they could run and had manoeuvred to
cut them off. At the moment, it hovered in the air ahead of them.
    Its behaviour suggested it was more interested in Jarla and
her ally than in Dieter. Was it possible that if he simply stayed put, it would
kill the cultists and go away? It seemed worth a try.
    Except, what then? He wouldn’t be any closer to accomplishing
his task. Indeed, if he allowed Jarla to perish, he might be forfeiting his only
hope of ever succeeding. Whereas if he saved her…
    That, of course, was assuming he could. His training had
included some battle magic. Afterwards, serving the Empire as a journeyman
wizard, he’d even fought in a few skirmishes. But never without a rank of
soldiers standing protectively in front of him, and never against a foe like
this.
    Still, he decided to try. He stepped out into the alley, and,
as the serpent whipped itself around and dived at Adolph, raised his hands to
the heavens and rattled off an incantation.
    Power shivered through him, and despite his desperate
circumstances, he thrilled to its exhilarating touch. He thrust out his right
arm parallel to the ground, and a dart of blue light streaked from his
fingertips.
    Down the alleyway, the serpent’s fangs clashed shut in a
burst of flame, and Adolph threw himself flat to avoid them. The creature
dropped on top of him, and probably didn’t need to do anything more to kill him.
If it stayed where it was, and he couldn’t struggle out from underneath the
weight of its coils, its mere proximity would roast him alive.
    Except that at that moment, Dieter’s luminous missile struck
it at the base of its wedge-shaped head. It hissed and turned to glare in his
direction.
    When he met its gaze, he shuddered, for its blank eyes
somehow conveyed infinite malice and the promise of savage retribution. He
yearned to run, but quashed the impulse, instead conjuring a second dart. When
that one pierced the spirit, it sprang back into the air. Adolph rolled and
slapped at himself to extinguish the flames now nibbling at his clothing.
    The serpent hurtled straight at Dieter. He rattled off the
first words of another spell. Dangerous to work so many in succession, dangerous
to cast them so quickly, but, as was always the case of late, he had no choice.
    He felt the heat of the onrushing creature’s body. He recited
even faster. Disembodied voices howled and gibbered, a warning of botched
casting and magic twisting awry.
    It didn’t, though. Despite his haste and the fear gnawing at
his concentration, he’d evidently got the spell right, or near enough, because a
great wind roared, smashed into the serpent and tumbled it backwards. It
shrieked, caught itself and, its aura of flame blowing out behind it like a
comet’s tail, attempted to struggle forwards once more. So far, though, it
wasn’t having any luck.
    Dieter pierced it with another glowing dart. On his feet once
more, black, charred patches on his clothing but essentially unharmed, Adolph
snarled a spell of his own. Dieter couldn’t make out the actual words above the
scream of his conjured wind, but they had a vile, rasping quality that made his
skin crawl.
    Swirls of inky shadow writhed into existence around the
serpent’s body. Adolph grinned, then scowled when the black bonds vanished as
abruptly as they’d appeared, and without seeming to trouble the spirit in the
slightest. It was as if the aura of flame had burned them from existence.
    Meanwhile, Jarla threw stones. Unfortunately, unlike arcane
attacks, the rocks fell short or flew wild, deflected by the same wind that kept
the snake away from Dieter.
    Although it wouldn’t hold it back much longer. The creature
had started slowly but was steadily gaining ground, and the artificial gale
would subside in a few more heartbeats anyway, when the enchantment ran its