“It’s the monster!” the boy whispered.
“Stay right there!” Vyto whispered back. The last thing he needed was the little boy venturing deeper into the tunnels.
The light moved again, and didn’t seem to be very bright. He edged a little closer to the lip of the tunnel he was in, thankful his eyes had adjusted so he could now make out more than a tiny bit of the round chamber. To his right he could see the outline of the tunnel he was pretty sure he came out of. To his left, the wobbling light grew closer and he could now see that it was coming from one of the adjacent tunnels. When the creature came into sight, he nearly recoiled before stopping himself.
It was apparent now that the glow emanated from the creature itself, which seemed to be something akin to a giant worm. Its body was huge—nearly two feet wide. It was hard to tell how long it was as it began moving out of one tunnel hole and towards another. The head was nothing short of hideous: it had large round eyes, which were opaque in color and tiny ears that were flattened against the skull. The mouth was wide and appeared to have mandibles which closed over the front of it. As its giant body slowly moved forward, Vyto saw that it had minuscule appendages that looked like legs lining the side of its body. He imagined that those helped move the monster while it was in the tunnels, and perhaps that was why the walls were so smooth.
It seemed like an eternity before it passed completely into the other tunnel. Vyto guessed the beast was nearly twelve feet long. He’d never seen any animal that big, other than the queen when she was in her dragon form.
The queen…hadn’t he warned her about something like this weeks ago? He wracked his brain trying to remember. It was something he had dreamed…then he remembered. These were the foul-smelling holes in his dream which had given him a feeling of uneasiness…and now he knew why. And he’d dreamed of something moving within dark holes last night—which had been what he’d wanted to tell Her Majesty before he’d come down here. Unfortunately, no one on the surface knew anything at all about what was right below them.
He had to alert them, and quickly. There was no way it would be safe to stay here with a creature like that on the loose.
Vyto waited until the glow had completely faded away and said, “All right, we need to get moving again. Kaul, are you still with me? Can you still help me?”
“Yes,” came the dismal reply. He knew how terrified the child must be.
“Okay, let’s go.”
He began to heave Gordy backwards, thankful that there weren’t any big rocks in the way that he’d have to drag him over. He twisted to the right and pulled some more. He could hear Kaul’s ragged breathing, and thought he felt little pushes against Gordy’s body. The poor kid was doing his best to help.
They began to go up the last tunnel and were halfway up when they heard a low animalistic noise from below. Kaul shrieked with horror and began pushing Gordy’s feet so hard that Vyto collapsed with Gordy on top of him. He wiggled upwards, knowing the ceiling of the cave was not high and not wanting to smash Gordy’s face into it. A burst of energy went through him as he heard the sound again. It seemed closer this time.
Kaul cried out, “It’s coming!”
Sure enough, as Vyto looked back down the tunnel he could see a faint light. Panicked, he pulled ever faster, going around the large rock that broke through the bend in the cave. Farther up, he could make out the outline of the entrance to the hole.
“We’re almost there—move, Kaul! Push!”
The beast below made another low, raspy sound as it neared. Vyto dug deep and yanked Gordy up as fast as he could. Moments later, he fell out into the night sky with Gordy’s limp figure; the boy scrambled out a mere seconds later and ran to hide behind him. The glow in the tunnel got a little brighter and Vyto scurried out from under Gordy and reached down to get his sword.
“Stay back, Kaul,” he growled.
The monster’s head soon appeared at the entrance of the hole. Vyto watched it carefully as the legs on its sides propelled it further out into the open. He noticed that the beast did not seem to see him in the dark night. He raised his sword, but the glow of the worm-beast glinted off the sword and caught its eye. It swung its ugly head towards him; the mandibles opened, revealing a maw lined with sharp, curved teeth.
Vyto edged away so that his friend and the child were not in the creature’s direct sight. He lifted the sword and poised himself for a fight. The beast then did something he did not expect: it reared up, supported by its thick lower mass. Its mandibles opened and shut as it shrieked at him, spraying a nasty-smelling saliva all over the ground between them. There was a thick line on the underside of its belly; this opened outwards, revealing the insides of the monster. The inner linings of it were also covered in teeth, like a grotesque parody of a sideways mouth.
It moved towards Vyto more quickly than he expected, and he had to dart out of the way as it came crashing down. With a sickening feeling, he realized that the beast had meant to fall upon him so that he would be enveloped inside its stomach.
He regained his defensive stance with his sword, watching the ugly beast as it quickly maneuvered to put him in its sights. This thing was much faster than it appeared. Another animalistic roar came from its throat and it reared up once more. Vyto waited a little bit longer this time as the beast got closer. As it brought its bulk down towards him again he feinted to the right, further drawing the beast from Gordy and Kaul. The worm-like creature landed with a thud and whipped its ugly head towards him.
“Oh, you’re getting pissed,” he muttered.
The beast growled as though in agreement, but then squealed in pain and turned to look at its back end. Vyto stared in disbelief, dread filling his heart.
Kaul had gotten a knife from somewhere and had driven it deep into the tail end of the beast. He now stared in horror as the monster began to wiggle around to face him. His tiny hand let go of the knife and he took several steps back, trembling.
But before the creature could turn all the way around, Gordy’s sword whirled through the air and carved its way into the beast’s neck. Its roar was cut off as the sword punctured its windpipe and came out the other side of its body. It wavered in the air for only a moment before collapsing into a heap; blood pooled into a thick puddle around it, slowly soaking into the ground.
Vyto stood in shock as the monster quickly bled out. His eyes flicked over to Gordy, who stood off to the side, watching. The freckled man glanced over at Vyto and nodded.
“For once, I saved someone else’s life.”
Vyto ran over to him, inspecting the wound on Gordy’s head in the moonlight; he’d bled a good bit. “How do you feel?”
“More alive than ever before.”
His friend laughed heartily and clapped him on the back. “That’s good to hear.”
They turned to look at Kaul, who was still staring at the beast with wide eyes. Gordy trotted over to him, closely followed by Vyto. “Hey buddy, are you all right?”
The boy continued to stare at the dead creature.
Vyto bent down to look him in the eye. “That was a very brave thing you did there, lad. Your parents would’ve been proud of you.”
This caused Kaul to look up, and Vyto saw the tears in his eyes before the boy clutched him tightly in a hug. He stroked the child’s hair, feeling the poor thing shaking.
“Vyto.”
The burly man looked over at Gordy, who was looking off into the distance.
“We have a problem.”
Vyto’s gaze trailed the same path as Gordy’s and he felt his stomach clench. Another one of the worm creatures had somehow snuck up on one of the Lystian soldiers, and was rearing up on its lower half like a cobra. Swiftly for a beast of its size, it opened its tooth-lined stomach and toppled forward with deadly accuracy on top of the soldier. It was hard to see, or even to hear clearly from a distance, but Vyto was almost positive he could just make out the muffled screaming of the man inside the monster. To the right, several more of the
creatures began to appear, one heading right for the wall of water where the queen was holding her palaver.
“By the shadow of the Dark Moon,” he muttered. He pushed the boy away and met his eyes. “Kaul, there are more of these, and they’re going to attack our queen. We must go to protect them. I’m going to need you to jump on my back and hold on for dear life. Can you do this?”
The boy glanced back towards the camp, where cries for help could now be heard. Without a word he walked behind Vyto and deftly climbed onto his back. Vyto adjusted him so that the child wasn’t choking him, and observed Gordy as he retrieved his knife from the creature’s tail and then his sword from its neck. The red-headed young man wiped his sword clean on the grass, and then swept his arm across his forehead to rub away some of the blood from his cut.
“One of those things is headed for the queen. How fast can you run, Gordy?”
“Faster than you, I’ll wager. Let’s go.”
Stefan couldn’t see a damn thing. There were beasts in the night attacking the camp, but not enough starlight or moonlight to see them clearly. The beasts had a faint glow, but they moved quickly, and it was hard to see what, exactly, they were. He took a piece of flint from his pocket and began striking it against a nearby rock. Sparks flew out, catching the cloth on fire that was next to it. He lifted the cloth, which had been dipped in the last oil he had left and wrapped tightly around a large stick, and swung it around. They needed more fires to see. He ran about yelling at the men and women to wake, and in a desperate attempt to provide more light he ran into a tent and evacuated its occupants. Moments later the tent was in flames, and so was the cart hitched behind it. The flames rose up to lick at the sky, exposing the giant creatures that had invaded their space. As soon as the soldiers could see what to fight, they turned on their foes, lashing out with sword and knife. One of the worms passed within ten feet of Stefan, and he counted no less than twelve arrows jutting from its body in various places.
“Don’t waste your arrows! Use your swords!” he cried out, and raced forward with his torch in one hand and his sword at the ready in the other.
The animal turned towards the sound of his voice and charged him. It had dozens of legs on each side of its mass, all wiggling about in the air. He assumed these helped them move around in tighter spaces, for they were useless in the open air.
Tighter spaces...
It hit him that these creatures must surely live in the foul-smelling holes littered about the surrounding countryside. He must warn Queen Silvia.
He slew the great beast, and then his feet ran as fast as they could towards the wall of water rising into the sky. He was shouting and waving the makeshift torch, but the words coming out of his mouth seemed foreign to him. He only wanted to make enough noise to warn Her Majesty of what lay outside the protective layer of water. And the gods too…he’d forgotten about them, though he was sure they could take care of themselves just fine. As he approached the water wall at full speed, he saw one of the creatures coming up from the other side. It reared up on its bottom half, preparing to fall right through the water wall to the people within. Its stomach opened, and he saw with horror that it was lined up and down each side with sharp teeth.
He screamed even louder and charged.
The Queen stood up, peering through the wall of liquid at the firelight that seemed to be running towards them.
“Take down the barrier!” she told the Goddess of the Waters.
Aldoa heeded the Lystian woman, and the water fell with a great splash all around them. As the rest of them rose, so too did a figure next to where the wall had been. Silvia looked up at the monstrosity looming above her, but couldn’t find the words to scream.
The firelight got closer, and suddenly Stefan was there, driving his sword into the beast and burning it with his torch. The monster roared in anger and twisted around, falling forward onto the soldier. Silvia backed away in horror as she watched its stomach envelope Stefan, and she could see his arms and legs pushing against the inside of the beast as his muffled screams attacked her ears. She felt for her sword and remembered with dismay that she had left it in the wagon with Keelan’s sleeping form.
Keelan. By the gods, she had to get to him!
A man ran past her and drove his sword into the creature; she saw that it was Dalton, and he was quickly joined by Sir Grant and Lord Cambry. It was surreal, as though she were watching through someone else’s eyes. The animal was bleeding out in seconds, lying in ruins on the ground as they cut Stefan out. He was badly sliced up from the teeth and covered in goo that smelled as bad as it looked, but he was okay.
Silvia felt herself running away, her mind in a daze. She was vaguely conscious of using her magic to move faster, as her mind spun around what was happening. Was the wagon still protected? Was her husband safe? Through it all, despite his infidelity and his recent bizarre actions, she still loved him and wanted him safe. She heard her name shouted out behind her, but didn’t turn around. She headed straight for the wagon in the center of the encampment…towards her husband, and her weapon. The wagon came into view, but she saw that no one was around it…and she saw why.
Several of the creatures were around the wagon, two of which had bulging sides from the soldiers they’d eaten. Those men had been left by her personally to guard her king. She pushed the guilt deep down, telling herself that they had volunteered to come into this war, and essentially had volunteered to risk their lives to do what must be done.
Silvia didn’t stop running; she didn’t want to give the creatures time to respond to her presence. She raced to the back of the wagon and darted inside, shutting the door behind her. She waited with her back against it, catching her breath and letting her eyes adjust to the gloom.
There was a loud thump, and the wagon shook. Silvia gasped and scrambled towards the furry, limp form of the king. She laid her hands on his stomach, feeling the slow rise and fall of it.
She breathed a sigh of relief and then felt around on the bed across from him for her weapons. She sheathed the dagger, and gripped her sword hard. Now that she was here with Keelan, what was she to do?
The wagon shuttered violently, and rocked back and forth. She reached out and grabbed a hold of the bench Keelan slept on with her spare hand to steady herself.
A deep, dark chuckle sounded from behind her. She whipped around to see two glowing reddish-yellow eyes looking at her from the dim interior of the wagon.
“Well, well…looks like dragons don’t see in the dark very well.”
“Show yourself,” she hissed, placing herself between Keelan and the voice.
A flickering light appeared behind the massive figure, which barely fit within the confines of the wagon; it looked as though the wagon was on fire, but she knew better. Before her stood Eerich, the God of the Underworld.
“Better now, little pup?” he asked, spreading his hands. His torso was bare, and the long leather breeches he wore were decorated with strange symbols. What looked to be blood was smeared on them as though it were a decoration throughout the symbols.
She tried not to shudder as she brought her sword into a more defensive position. “Why are you here?”
Eerich gazed at her. “Observing.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I’ve never watched a woman-dragon before. You interest me. Besides, it’s not often someone with powers the like of yours comes around.”
“So you wanted to see what you’re up against,” she said.
“Oh, are we against each other?” he said. He feigned astonishment.
“Don’t act so surprised,” she responded. “You are on the side of Rohedon and his wives. Your presence this afternoon revealed your allegiances. Do not try and fool me.”
“I do not intend to fool anyone.”
She stood a little straighter, and did well keeping her balance as another creature rammed the side of the wagon. She did not believe the god before her for a minute. “I warn you, Eerich. God or not, if
you are on the witches’ side…you will lose.”
He stepped forward, his figure towering over her. “I…never…lose.”
Silvia drove the tip of the sword blade into the wooden planks and stepped back. She relaxed her whole body, drawing in her strength. “Then maybe it’s time you did.”
A change came over his face. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but it was as though his facial expression had darkened to the point where he truly looked evil. Even his eyes took on a darker red.
“Watch your words, mortal.”
Silvia’s eyes flashed a bright green, and it startled Eerich. “I will watch nothing.”
Anger clouded the god’s face and his eyes flickered over to the sleeping fox. He sneered. “And is this your pet? Or your husband? Maybe you’re confused with which one he is.”
War Against the Realm Page 29
