The town was a mess.

  The basilisk had broken through the outer wall and was making its way towards the residential area. Starna and I ran past broken statues that had once been living guards.

  Starna stopped and touched the waist of one of the statues that didn’t have an upper half.

  “It didn’t kill them for food or to protect itself.” The Elf surveyed the carnage. “It killed them for fun.”

  “It’s probably revenge.” I picked up a head and touched the pointed ears. “It looks like there are only Elves here.”

  A scream, then a roar came from the direction of the stables. I dropped the head on the ground. “Let’s go.” I tried to ignore the burning in my limbs as they protested being pushed any further.

  Starna had her staff in her hand and extended it as she fell in behind me. “Do you think Vin is okay?” She looked at the buildings and the people screaming while trying to get out of town.

  This wasn’t a large city by any means, maybe two thousand people. At the foot of the road to the Dwarf capital, there was bound to be a steady amount of traffic, but not too many monsters, as the Dwarves would take care of anything that got too close to their mountain. This was probably the first time in a while that Bollilundr had been reminded of just how untamed of a planet we lived on.

  “We need to find the Basilisk and get it out of town!” A wave of people surged past me, pushing and shoving to try to get me out of the way.

  “I think we’re getting close!” Starna moved closer to one of the buildings to avoid the group that seemed to only care about going the direction that we had come from.

  There was a crash, then Vin bowled over a few of the Elves as the building he had been thrown through collapsed.

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  “Are you okay?” I grabbed my brother and helped him up.

  “GET OUT OF HERE!” Vin picked up a young kid he’d knocked over and set him on his feet. The Elf child was too shocked to do anything. Stories of how Camadt ate disobedient children were a staple bedtime story and the sight of a mostly naked Camadt probably had this kid living a nightmare in his head.

  “Where is it?” I pushed the kid, leeching off some of his fear so that he’d start moving. That did the trick and he took off as his fear washed over me, urging me to get away from my brother.

  Starna was busy dropping the temperature of the area around us as she moved away from the demolished building. A single yellow light tried tracking her from the wreckage, prompting my brother to move in front of her.

  “What are you doing!” Vin ran and punched the basilisk in the nose.

  The giant serpent’s body twisted, lashing out its tail to try to knock us all down.

  Starna managed to get back fast enough, but Vin and I weren’t so lucky. My brother took the brunt of the hit, while the part that hit me felt like a very big whip. I earned myself a gash down my right arm, though it didn’t knock me over.

  Vin went rolling until he crashed into another building.

  “It’s cold-blooded!” Starna shouted as if that was all the answer she needed to give my brother.

  I didn’t have time to think about what she meant because the tip of the tail flicked back at me. I swung my sword at it, only to have the blade ripped out of my hand as it made contact with the much tougher scales. My hands ached as I watched the two pieces of my now broken weapon fall a few yards away from me.

  The basilisk hissed as it turned around to face me, the lone good eye searching over the space between us as it rose up into the air. Vin was still inside the building and whatever Starna was trying to do wasn’t having a noticeable effect. I needed to move, but I’d been knocked towards the middle of one of the buildings and there was a door for me to run into. I doubted that I’d be able to make it around the corner before the petrifying beam hit me. If I didn’t know that basilisks weren’t sentient, I would have thought it was enjoying itself as its face split into what eerily looked like it was trying to smile.

  “Use this!”

  I didn’t know where the feminine voice was coming from, but it wasn’t Starna. An orange light built in front of me as someone used magic to send me something. Trusting that it was someone trying to help, I grabbed it before it was finished being summoned and moved it to block the beam.

  I just hoped it would be enough.

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