Page 136 of Sohut's Protection

Swallowing hard, she took another step backward and felt as the constriction around her neck tightened a little, reminding her it was there.

It did that, she realized, whenever she had thoughts of resisting…whenever she wanted to flee…and she tried to calm her hammering heart—only, that was difficult to do with something that belonged to a swamp advancing toward her.

“Pretty…little…thing…”

The Tasqal talked.

That only made it so, so much worse.

“I finally have acquired one of your species,” it said.

“What do you want?” Her voice sounded alien to her, made of steel even though her insides were turning into water that wanted to run away into the creases of the floor below her and disappear.

The beast’s throat moved and the sound of bubbles popping filled the little room.

It was laughing.

To her horror, the beast lifted a leg onto the platform and stepped into the room, filling the space even without touching her.

This was worse than claustrophobia. There was nowhere to run.

Nowhere to hide.

Squeezing the weapons still gripped and hidden underneath her arms, Cleo took another step backward, and her back bumped into the wall behind her.

Out. Of. Space.

Her next move would have to be the one that allowed her to escape this room, this situation, unharmed.

“What do I want?” The toad-man cocked his head, his one good eye studying her. “You, of course.”

It didn’t hesitate. In one movement, its white robe fell and it took another step toward her.

Her vision blurred with the sudden burst of adrenaline that flooded through her.

She couldn’t see the creature’s disgusting, diseased-looking body. She couldn’t see its hand caressing it’s member as it advanced on her.

All she could do was feel.

She could feel the rage flood through her, replacing the blood in her veins.

Arms unfolding, she aimed for the eyes, sinking the wooden shiv into the good eye and her lucky shrapnel in the other.

The beast howled and reached for her arms but then something she didn’t understand happened.

Before he could even touch her, his body was against the other side of the wall.

Cleo’s eyes widened.

It was the other toad man. The one who’d been sitting in the corner.

“Qrakking jekin!” the injured Tasqal howled. His eyes were bleeding a dark fluid and she doubted he could see. “My eye!”

“Shut the phek up,” the other toad man said, and Cleo took a step back, her eyes darting from one to the other.

“What is this?” the injured toad-man said, his hands grasping the arms that held him against the wall. “What are you doing? KILL THE JEKIN who dared to harm me!”

Cleo’s eyes darted to the space where she knew the door was.

---