Forest Kingdom Trilogy 1 - Blue Moon Rising

but the demons seemed to be falling back into the Darkwood. The army watched suspiciously from behind its barricade, and made no move to pursue them.
    'It's not like the demons to give in that easily,' panted Rupert, leaning heavily on his sword as he fought to get more air into his lungs. 'They're up to something. Have to be.'
    'Seems likely,' said Julia. She sat down suddenly as her legs gave in , and after a moment Rupert joined her. He glanced dubiously at Wolfsbane.
    'That thing any good, as a sword?'
    'I've known worse.'
    Rupert stared glumly at the dead bodies lying heaped around them, purulent with decay. He looked sideways at Julia, and raised a sardonic eyebrow. 'You know, lass, there has to be an easier way to make a living.'
    They grinned at each other, too tired to laugh. Rupert looked closely at Julia's wounds, and frowned.
    'You're hurt,' he said harshly.
    'So are you,' said Julia. 'But you still managed to save my life.'
    'You'd have done the same for me.'
    'How bad is that arm?'
    'Bad enough, lass. How are you feeling?'
    'I've felt better.'
    Rupert put his good arm around her shoulders, and she leaned against his chest. They sat in silence a while, easing their hurts by sharing them. Rupert knew he should be getting Julia back to the rest of the army while the demons were still quiet, but he hadn't the strength.
    'If nothing else,' said Julia, 'I'll have a few more interesting scars to add to my collection.' 'Snap,' said Rupert. Julia stirred restively against his chest. 'Rupert, this battle isn't going very well, is it?'
    'It's been a bloody fiasco, lass. Most of us are dead, or dying. Without the High Warlock's magic to back us up, we were nothing more than sitting targets. It's a wonder any of us have survived.'
    'Rupert . . . can you hear something?'
    'What?'
    'There's something out there, Rupert, something big. And it's coming this way.'
    Rupert looked out into the night, and then scrambled to his feet, sword in hand. Julia slowly got herself up and stood beside him, heavily leaning on Wolfsbane for support. Deep in the night, a soft glow was forming, the same vile shade as the Full Moon overhead. The blue glow came slowly out of the Darkwood, rising and falling and shifting constantly from one vague shape to another. Demons stirred uneasily in the shadows, and shrank back into the darkness. What the hell's out there? thought Rupert.
    What could be so bad that even the demons are afraid of it? He remembered the worm in the Coppertown pit, and moved forward a little to put himself between Julia and whatever was coming out of the darkness. The army watched unmoving from behind its grisly barricade.
    A deep bass roar sounded on the night, a long deafening bellow of unreasoning malevolent rage. The sound echoed on through Rupert's bones, even after the roar had died away to a low menacing growl and then to silence. Rupert shot a quick glance at the army's barricade, but quickly decided against making a run for it. Whatever was coming wasn't going to be stopped by a simple barricade. A slow muffled thudding began, like the beating of a giant heart, and Rupert felt his hackles rise. He'd heard that sound before, when he first brought the High Warlock back to the Castle. The ground shook beneath his feet, and once again Rupert felt a coldness in his soul as he recognised the sound for what it was — the steady, ponderous footsteps of something huge walking in the night, coming closer, closer. The ever-present stench of decay and corruption grew worse as the shapeless blue glow drifted nearer, and the giant footsteps jarred the earth like hammer blows. The hovering blue light finally came to a halt some twenty yards short of the army, and the footsteps stopped with it. The light pulsed once, outlining the rotting trees with its stark brilliance, and then faded away, revealing the horror it had hidden.
    It had obviously been dead for some time, but it moved and was aware. Its dull white flesh was dry and mummified, eaten away in places to reveal the discoloured bones beneath. It stood nearly fifty feet tall, its squat wedge-shaped head half hidden in shadows. Its wide slash of a mouth was filled with huge serrated teeth, and balefire burned where its eyes should have been. It had two arms and two legs and it stood erect, but there was nothing in the least human about it. A long barbed tail swept back and forth behind it, smashing apart the decaying trees as the creature moved among them. It was dead,