Excerpt: DragonBorn, Slaves of Homnor

As Hachiro and I closed in on the hill, the groaning grew louder and more pained. The air began to smell fetid, tinged with the copper taste of blood. Ahead of me, clinging to the litter, I could hear him gagging on the smell. He always did have a weak stomach. I tried to stifle a small laugh.

We stopped at the base of the hill and set the load of meat at the base of a small tree, our packs propped up at either end. I pulled the sling of my rifle, an antique AR-15 model, over my shoulder and gripped it in the ready position. I noticed Chiro had done the same.

With a deep breath and a nod, we quietly stalked up the hill. We moved quickly between the trees. Our senses strained to hear or see anything that might alert us to danger.

As we came to the hilltop, we froze. My eyes were wide with surprise. I could not believe what I was seeing. It was the most horrid sight. Blood covered so much of the hilltop it looked like a thick red blanket had been laid out.

Hachiro turned around and wretched on an unsuspecting rockberry bush. His vomit splashed down its tangle of vines and dripped slowly off its thorns.

Nearly centered on the hilltop, was a tall spear embedded in the ground. Gaping open mouthed toward the lone tree on the hilltop, impaled on the spear, was the head of Sarah Potter. Her normally smooth and beautiful skin was bruised and swollen. Her left eye rolled back in her head and her right eye turned down toward the ground. Her swollen tongue lolled sickly out of the side of her mouth.

The hair stood up on my arms and neck as the groan sounded again. It seemed to emanate from the tree. I shivered and looked at Chiro.

"I don't know if I want to see who that is, man." Chiro said uneasily.

"We have to," I said firmly, "and then we have to get back to camp and alert the council."

The council would know what to do. Surely, they would dispatch some of the guard to recover the bodies and check the security of the area. But then, Sarah was a guard too and look what happened to her, I thought. "Let's hurry up, this place is freaking me out."

Chiro didn't say anything. He just nodded and stared at the ground.

The blood soaked ground made squishing sounds under our boots. Carefully but quickly we made our way over to the tree. I tried my best not to think too hard about what we were walking through. The smell of death made my stomach rumble in protest. I could only imagine how Chiro felt.

After what felt like ages, though really was only a few hundred feet, we reached the tree. I stepped around to see what was on the other side.

"What the..." I yelled in surprise. I tried to back away from the horror but slipped like an idiot and slammed into Chiro, knocking him over. I fell on the blood soaked ground, its stench now permeating my clothing. The stickiness of the drying blood clung greedily to my clothing, seeking refuge from the cold ground.

"Nice move klutz," Chiro said. I slipped again and fell to one knee as I tried to stand up again. But scowled at him as I carefully made it to my feet.

Chiro turned toward the tree. I saw his eyes bulge in surprise. Apparently, he had not seen what made me fall.

"Is that Mike Arlen?" Chiro asked with a shaky voice.

"I think so, man. This is so wrong. We have to get a response team out here."

Looking back over at Mike, I realized that he was not just propped against the tree. He was actually nailed to it with spikes.