Page 208 of Eldritch
“Maevyth! Wait!” Zevander shouted from inside the church, but I ignored him, tearing across the open snow, gaze locked onthe creature carrying Father toward that gaping mouth in the distance.
An upward glance showed Raivox was nowhere overhead, but I didn’t pause to call for him as I forced speed from my exhausted legs. Father cried out, his hands outstretched for me while seeming to get further away, and a sob beat against my chest. Behind me, two of the creatures scampered after me on all fours, their growls goading me faster.
The beast carrying Father ground to a halt and spun around. A cold branching horror exploded behind my eyes as it bit down on Father’s leg, tearing away the flesh from halfway up his calf.
Father’s head lolled to the side, his body stilled, and I prayed he’d only fainted.
“Father!” I skidded to a halt and threw out my hand for a blast of violent wind that knocked the creature backward. Fear gripped my lungs as I reached Father, and standing over him, I stretched out my arm toward the beasts crawling closer, their bodies poised to pounce.
A roar overhead told me Raivox was still nearby. Not a minute later, a flap of black wings blotted out the moonlight, and the ground shook beneath us as the Corvugon landed beside me. Only a few yards away stood the gaping hole in the ground.
That eerie silence settled over us once again.
More creatures burst from the hole and bounded toward us.
Silver blasted out of Raivox, showering a number of them, just as before.
I drew my whip and snapped at the ones that shot toward us outside the arc of silver flames, sending limbs and flesh flying into the air.
Raivox hopped away from me, the pounding of his massive claws against the ground leading some of them away. The beasts scampered up his body, clawing at his scales as they attempted to swarm him.
Please, Morsana! Help me!
“Strike the ground with your whip.”
The voice drew my attention to the little girl, who stood behind me. Everything around me moved slow, too slow. As if time had been spun backward, somehow, the beasts crawled at a snail’s pace. It was then I noticed her eyes—silver eyes, like my own.
“Morsana?”
The little girl smiled, her body vanishing into a cloud of black smoke, and from it, a raven shot upward into the sky.
I exhaled a breath, and my surroundings sped back into motion. Raivox roared and hopped, as the beasts crawled over him, their bodies turning from gray to black, like his scales. Claws tore at his scales, and Raivox thrashed his spiny tail, hissing and lashing out at the relentless beasts.
Vyrmish surrounded Father and me.
My whole body trembled as I gripped the bone whip in my hand.
The beasts growled, closing in, their teeth snapping in a threat of pain and death.
Jaw clenched, I turned away from Father, and with a held breath, I slammed my whip hard against the ground.
A rippling vibration shook every nerve in my body, rattling my teeth. Below me, Father’s body bounced along the hill’s slope, his limbs flopping like a puppet without strings.
A splitting crack was the only warning, before the vyrmish around me exploded, sending guts and skin flying into the air, and I dropped low, covering the back of my neck with my hands. The ground below Father and I rumbled, my heart hammering as a deep fissure crawled from where the end of my whip lay on the ground, across the snow, toward the church.
I stood slowly, watching the crack widen as it slinked along like branching ice across the landscape.
No.
I dashed after it, chasing the vibrating fissure, watching the vyrmish explode around me. “Zevander! Aleysia!”
Corwin screamed, hobbling toward me. Behind him, two vyrmish burst into bits of gore and black ichor. He ducked as meat and shattered bones rained over him. A third reared back to pounce, and exploded midair, its torso landing hard in Corwin’s path. Another scream tore from his throat and he slammed to a halt, arms flailing when he nearly tumbled over it.
As I approached, he doubled over, wheezing to catch his breath, and pointed toward a figure hunched in the distance. “Aleysia! She’s…she’s…not…herself!”
“Go, stay with my father!” I ordered and kept on toward her and the church. “Aleysia!”
I closed the distance, slowing my pace when she craned her neck toward me, her eyes two black orbs.
