Nightsworn | The Whispering Wall #2

Forty Six: Distraction Duty

Jordan put his back to a tree and held his breath. Behind him, the Listener let out a low growl that reverberated through his whole body, reawakening images of the two occasions one of these things had almost killed him.

Panic pressed at the edges of his mind, but he forced himself to focus on listening. If it walked away, he was in the clear. All he would have to do was wait until it was out of earshot. If it didn't...

Snapping branches sounded, dragging him back from his hopeful imaginings. It was getting closer, so that he could almost smell the rankness of its hide. He prepared himself to signal, and spotted a flicker of movement two trees away as Astra flattened herself against a nearby trunk. Once she was sure of his attention, she signalled in the opposite direction. Koen was behind the demon. Jordan let out his breath. The only one capable of taking a Listener knew it was there, which meant he only had to....

A growl thundered up the decibels into a roar; the Listener had sensed Koen. Of course. Astra and Jordan were downwind of it, but if Koen was behind it then the demon would smell him despite it not being its strongest sense. He cursed himself for not paying closer attention to Astra's signals.

She made another sign and pointed one direction, then the other. His heart sank. His new worst-anticipated element of his training stared him boldly in the eye.

Distraction duty.

He tensed as the Listener's footsteps began to thump in the other direction. At another signal passed between them, he and Astra both took off in different directions through the trees – and of course, he thought, because Listeners had a thing for him, the demon turned around and came after his trail. He focused only on not tripping over as he ran, ducking and weaving to take advantage of the demon's lack of sight, and prayed silently that Koen was keeping up. He knew that Yddris waited on the side-lines to step in if things got dire, but if it got as far as Yddris then he could count on an extra few hours of training the next day.

He darted in a hairpin turn around a tree, and felt the Listener's presence veering much closer than he'd expected.

"Thorne, duck!" the shout came from behind him. Jordan dived into a bush and crouched. The demon behind him roared, and several shots of green rocketed past and dissipated to mist. When sounds of pursuit didn't continue, Jordan peeked over the top of the bush and found the Listener face down in the leaf litter with Koen standing over it.

"Sorry," the other apprentice said sheepishly. "My aim was a bit off. But enough of them hit to kill it, at least." He leaned over his knees. "I hate casting runes when I'm running."

Rustling nearby announced Astra's arrival. She walked in as casually as could be expected, being the only one who hadn't been chased by or gone pelting after a full-grown Listener. She looked down at the body, and then at each of them in turn. Jordan sheepishly straightened from his hiding spot inside a tangle of branches, brushing dead leaves from his cloak and readjusting his hood. He'd rather have been caught by Astra squatting in a bush than Yddris, however, as at that moment a black-cloaked figure also strode towards them through the trees. Jordan flicked flakes of mud from the sleeves of his cloak and then hid his cuffs behind his back.

"Good," Yddris said. He nudged the Listener with his boot. "There's a rumour that there's a Scrub Wight lurking around on the other side of town..."

"There's no rumour," Jordan said, scowling. "You've baited it here."

"Such accusations," his tutor replied. He pulled his pipe from an inner pocket. "Remember Scrub Wights are venomous. And they spit."

"Oh, fantastic," Jordan grumbled. Koen groaned. Astra only waited, her aura giving nothing away. They had been out all morning, and even though the Listener had left her alone, she'd done as much running around as him and Koen. Why she didn't look like she was about to buckle from exhaustion confounded him. He certainly felt like he was.