EXCERPT:

"Death Riders?” Tenya started up from the bench, a terrible sense of foreboding sweeping through her.

Beside her, Sindril’s face registered shock. The other occupants of the tavern ceased their conversations and leapt up from their tables.

Hurn reached the tavern door ahead of the first man and threw it wide. Immediately he staggered back, his bearded face blanching.“Heaven save us, it’s the Death Rider back again!”

The men in the tavern quailed and gasped, staring at each other in shock. The clash of thunder from outside charged through the open door, bringing with it a wind that smelled strongly of burning metal and ash. Dust from the tavern floor swirled into tiny, stinging whirlwinds and tankards sitting on the counter rattled along its length.

Tenya flung up her hand to protect her eyes from the blowing dust. Her heart felt as though it had suddenly stopped beating. A Death Rider! Back again to terrorize the little village? Or, did its visit have another purpose?

Her sense of foreboding grew until it threatened to suffocate her. Somehow, she knew the Death Rider’s appearance had to do with her. She started for the open door.

Sindril grasped her arm, trying to hold her back. “Tenya, what are you doing? Don’t go out there.”

She felt oddly calm and detached. “It’s all right, Sindril. I know what I’m doing,” she heard herself say, as though someone else spoke through her.

She strode to the open door, pushing against the violent wind that swept through it. Outside, she could see terrified villagers crouching in the dusty street, shielding their faces from the thunder and wind, and two demonic figures in front of the tavern.

The Death Rider looked like a gigantic black boulder covered in bristling spines and deformed lumps. Yellow eyes with vertical black slits glared from a face straight out of a nightmare. Spiked teeth gnashed in an oversized jaw that jutted out from underneath a flattened, bulbous nose.

The rider’s loathsome mount seemed half-lizard, half-horse. The targ had the body of a horse, but terrible, slavering jaws filled with rows of teeth dominated its huge, scaled head; a forked tongue flicked rapidly in and out of its gaping mouth. Clawed hooves and fiery red eyes completed the grotesque creature.

Tenya took all of this in at a glance. She still felt strangely detached, as if set apart from the unfolding events.

“GIVE ME THE GIRL!” A deep, sepulchral voice boomed from the black demon, overriding the deafening furore.

“We don’t know who you mean!” a woman screamed shrilly. “Please, go away and leave us alone.”

The Death Rider ignored the woman. “GIVE ME THE GIRL!”

Tenya heard Sindril come up behind her. He pulled at her arm. “Tenya, come away,” he urged. “If the Death Rider sees you...”

“He has come for me,” she said remotely.

“Then, all the more reason you should hide,” he hissed. “You will do your mother no good if you are seen by one of Zardonne’s Death Riders.”

Tenya smiled faintly. “On the contrary, Sindril, I think I will do my mother much good.”

Indeed, she knew with sudden certainty she must go out in the street and confront the Death Rider. Her veins sang with that wondrous, enticing power once more, emboldening her. This encounter needed to take place, for only by facing–and defeating–one of the Demon Master’s most powerful servants could she know the extent and strength of her own powers.

She slipped from Sindril’s restraining hand and stepped out into the chaos of the street. She stopped, facing the black figure and his slavering, snorting mount.

“I’m the one you want,” she said clearly, and waited.

The Death Rider’s huge head swung toward her, his black-slitted eyes blazing. For a moment, her pulse beat erratically and a flicker of uncertainty sparked through her brain. She quelled it quickly, allowing calmness to wash over her once more.

The world around her receded until only she and the Death Rider existed. Even the thunder and voracious wind could not penetrate the vacuum of highly-charged tension surrounding them.

The demon’s hideous mouth twisted. “SO, YOU ARE THE ONE? YOU DO NOT SEEM VERY DANGEROUS.”

Tenya permitted herself a small smile. “Appearances can be deceiving.”

“YOU ARE BUT A PALTRY GIRL,” the Death Rider mocked.

“Perhaps, but obviously a girl of whom Zardonne is afraid.”

The gigantic monster stiffened perceptibly. “THE DEMON MASTER FEARS NO ONE!”

“Then, why he is so anxious to be rid of me?”

“YOU ARE MERELY A NUISANCE THAT HE WOULD EXTERMINATE. HE DOES NOT FEAR YOUR PUNY POWERS.”

“I see,” Tenya said dryly. “It seems he’s going to a lot of trouble simply to rid himself of a puny nuisance. How did you find me, by the way?”

“THE OLD WOMAN, MORDIS. SHE CAME SLINKING BACK TO OUR OUTPOST WITH THE NEWS OF YOUR RESCUE BY A LARGE PARTY OF ARMED ASSAILANTS. HAH! BUT TRACKING YOU WAS SIMPLE. ZARDONNE HAS EYES AND EARS EVERYWHERE.”

Tenya nearly laughed out loud. Trust Mordis to try and save her skin from Zardonne’s wrath by embellishing the truth of Sindril’s rescue. The old woman certainly would not want to admit that one little man in an outlandish floppy hat and feathered cape had bested her.

“What do you intend to do now?” Tenya asked.

“I WILL TAKE YOU TO ZARDONNE. THE DEMON MASTER WILL DECIDE WHAT MUST BE DONE WITH YOU.”

“Perhaps I will not let you take me to Zardonne.”

The yellowish glow in the demon’s slitted eyes blazed brighter. “YOU DO NOT HAVE A CHOICE!”

“Oh, but I do,” she countered softly. If fear existed within her, it was buried too deep to affect her now. A vital, surging power sung through her body, tingling in her fingertips. She would not give in meekly to the demon.

The Death Rider stirred on his hideous mount, as though sensing the leashed power within her. “YOU ARE A FOOL IF YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN DEFEAT ME,” he warned.

Tenya did not answer. She made herself appear calm and relaxed, unafraid of the daunting creature before her. In reality, her slim body vibrated tightly with anticipation, eager to unleash the white fire burning in her veins.

The Death Rider suddenly lifted a hand covered in black spines and pointed at her. A huge ball of green lightning streaked through the air, accompanied by a loud crack of thunder.

Tenya’s white shield sprang into being around her body as she leaped backward. The ball of fire missed her and several shocked faces at the open door of the tavern jerked quickly out of the way of the deadly green streak of light. It struck a post by the front door of the tavern, splintering it, and reducing it to a pile of smouldering ashes.

Tenya crouched slightly, watching the Death Rider through narrowed eyes. The white shield tingled around her and she wondered briefly if it would have been strong enough to deflect the Death Rider’s murderous ball of fire if she had not leapt out of the way.

The Death Rider hissed in anger, pulling roughly on the reins of his targ as the beast snorted and pranced jerkily. Again, the demon’s finger pointed at Tenya and fire flashed from it. Once more she leaped aside, countering with a streak of white fire from her fingertips. It struck the Death Rider fully in the chest and knocking him backward, though not quite unseating him. His glowing yellow eyes blazed to a blinding intensity.

Tenya felt a thrill of satisfaction.

“YOU DARE STRIKE ME?! YOU WILL PAY DEARLY FOR THAT, GIRL.”

Her veins sang. White fire danced from her fingertips, striking the Death Rider and his mount in several places. The targ screamed. Patches of its skin erupted in flame. It jerked convulsively, nearly throwing the Death Rider from its back.

Tendrils of smoke drifted from her strikes on the Death Rider’s deformed body. He howled in terrible rage, and flung multiple streaks of green fire toward Tenya. The air thrummed violently with the acrid odors of burning metal and sulphur, and the crack of raging thunder.

Tenya could not dodge all of the Death Rider’s fire, but those streaks that made contact bounced harmlessly off her sparkling white shield. Before he could summon more malicious power, she called on the full strength of the white fire in her veins and sent it spinning brilliantly toward the black figure. His horrible shriek rent the air as both he and his mount burst into flames.

For a moment, tongues of bright fire clearly delineated the two hideous figures; the demon’s phosphorescent eyes glaring out at her in disbelieving fury. Then, a crackling inferno consumed both the Death Rider and his targ, and within seconds, they completely disappeared, smoking ashes scattering on the vicious wind left behind in their wake