Page 250 of Eldritch
“The hell was that?” Ravezio asked.
“Not sure,” Kazhimyr answered. “But it sounds big enough to have overpowered Zevander with a sword.”
Trudging over bracken and decaying vegetation, they followed the echo of that roar. A crackling sound beneath Kazhimyr’s boot brought him to a stop and he looked down to see bones and skulls scattered over the ground. “Must be some sort of hunting grounds.”
“How wise of us to eagerly follow what sounds like a vicious predator then,” Dravien said humorlessly.
The mist thickened around them, and Kazhimyr raised Zevander’s sword when it became far too difficult to see ahead of them. The roar of whatever creature they’d heard at a distance sounded closer now and Kazhimyr scanned the trees for it.
A colossal shadow cut through the mist and the three of them stepped cautiously toward it. Black wings gave the impression that it might’ve been a bird, a massive bird, but the scales on its four legs and the teeth lining its beak indicated a dragon of some sort. The monstrous beast raked its talons over the ground, just outside of an enormous tree that appeared to be rotted, the way bare branches reached upward, curled and gnarled.
“What in seven hells is that thing?” Ravezio asked from behind.
The beast swung around, and let out a roar that ruffled Kazhimyr’s hair, sending a cold blast across his skin.
Godsblood, he hadn’t perceived cold in years.
The dragon bird lurched for them, and those bladed teeth snapped a threat seconds before it lunged toward Kazhimyr. He raised the sword and the beast paused. It sniffed the weapon frantically, as if it recognized it.
“Do you know Zevander?” Kazhimyr asked and to his surprise, the creature growled at the tree, clawing the ground.
A deep cavity in the trunk of the tree seized Kazhimyr’s attention and he stepped closer. “Is he inside the tree?”
The bird ruffled his feathers and chuffed, restless.
Frowning, Kazhimyr stared back at the hole where light seemed to flicker from within. “Let’s go inside.”
Dravien snorted. “You speak bird dragon now?”
“I just feel like he wants us to go inside.”
“Of course he does. There’s probably a nest full of them inside, all starving.” Hand resting on the pommel of his sword,Dravien jerked his head toward Kazhimyr. “The two of you can go. I’d rather take my chances with the one out here.”
“What happens if one of us dies?” Ravezio smiled, his voice taunting.
Dravien groaned and rolled his shoulders back. “Fine. The sooner this is over the quicker I can get rid of the two of you.”
Ravezio patted his shoulder as he passed him. “What meaning is your life going to have without us?”
The three of them entered the tree to a descending staircase.
“Fucking hell, is that skin?” Ravezio followed Kazhimyr down the staircase where small, white bowls of flame lit their path.
When they reached the bottom where the stairwell opened to a cavernous space, Kazhimyr glanced up toward the mass of webs. “Branimir would feel cozy here.”
Ravezio chuckled, trailing after him.
Ahead of them hung a swath of webs around a human body. Kazhimyr studied the man’s face where the surrounding webs looked like they’d been torn away.
The trapped man’s eyes opened to black orbs. He snapped his teeth and Kazhimyr sank Zevander’s blade into his throat watching as a black substance oozed out of him. The man twitched and wriggled, dangling from the web, and movement inside his mouth captured Kazhimyr’s attention. He frowned when a small black spider emerged past the dead man’s lips.
Ravezio backed up a step. “Ah hell, that’s revolting.”
Another spider scampered out of the man’s body. And another.
Kazhimyr backed away and when two of the spiders darted for his boots, he stomped on them.
The man’s face contorted in an unnatural way right before a mass of spiders poured out of him.
