Page 40 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“Orla, no!” Ferrin howled. “It’s a rotsbane!”
Ferrin lunged for Orla, trying to extinguish the green fire, but the dark shape seemed to have taken notice.
It shifted across its moonlit path, keeping pace with the steamcart, before leaping into the air, extending hooked claws of shadow that were easily the length of my forearm.
“Move!” Ferrin pushed us back towards the kitchen, and the cart lurched as the monster clawed up and over the pipes to land on our walkway.
It towered over us, shadows rolling over its hunched, colossal form. The metal beneath its animal-like feet bent under its weight, despite that the beast seemed to be built of nothing more than bones, shadow, and claws. Four hands that floated on the ends of shadow-wisp arms dug their talons into the engine pipes. Glowing steam screamed as it escaped before being sucked into the blackhole that sat where the monster’s mouth should have been.
Then the kitchen lights faded with a hiss, leaving us in total darkness with the monster.
11. Wildlife Biology
The only light was that of the escaping steam. It highlighted the contours of the rotsbane’s skull-like face in shades of red and shimmered through the gossamer shadows that hung off its frame. The monster howled as it sucked steam into its gaping maw, and the sound was less animal and more like a screaming gale.
My knees shook, but I couldn’t run. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I was trapped in my own body as I watched the ghoulish beast rip at the pipes and suck down the steam.
A flash of green to my right accompanied Ferrin’s warning shout. The flame in his hands solidified into a massive hammer that he brought swinging through the open kitchen door. It rang out as it crunched against the connection between our cart and the monster. A second swing of the hammer finished the job.
Metal groaned as the pipe connections burst and broke. The engine continued full-steam ahead with the monster still on board, while our cart, as well as the rest of the train behind us, rumbled to a stop. Ferrin let his hammer evaporate, and he pushed his goggles up his forehead to watch the monster get farther away.
“What was that?” I dared to whisper.
“Rotsbane,” Ferrin growled. “Soulless monsters that feed on Skal. They’re getting bolder if they’re attacking steamcarts now, but it shouldn’t come back as long as we don’t ignite anymore Skal.”
The engine was just getting far enough ahead to put me at ease when the rotsbane lifted its head from where it feasted on the pipes. Shadows hung off it like liquid cloaks, from which its four, skeletal arms extended. Even at this distance, I could see its eyes, deepset behind a hollow black skull and bright with the embers of ruby Skal, lock with mine.
“Wren.” Ferrin’s voice was a shaky breath. “Wren,run. It’s done with the engine, but you and the cooks are made of Skal.”
“But they can’t die,” Orla said.
“If the rotsbane catches her, it’ll devour more than her Skal, but her consciousness too.” Ferrin cast a panicked glance between me and the two cooks. “Wren, why aren’t you running?”
The rotsbane cocked its head, still getting farther and farther, but then it pounced, bounding at us from down the tracks.
“Wren!” Ferrin yelled.
My legs still didn’t want to work. I stumbled back on them, feeling like I was trying to walk through mud while on stilts. I hadn’t replaced my boots after they’d turned to dust in Fana’s passenger cabin, and my wool socks slipped on the kitchen floor. I fell, and the rotsbane descended upon our cart. It ripped the wall away, and it took one of the cooks first.
It dug long claws into her sides, and its jaw unhinged. A dull red light emanated from the cook’s chest, and she blinked, as if coming to, but before she could scream, her eyelids fluttered and she dissolved into ash as the rotsbane sucked down the last bit of red Skal from the air between them.
“Wren!” Ferrin’s scream somehow made it through the buzzing in my ears. He reignited his sword of blazing green, and ran it through the remaining cook. The cook disintegrated, but he would at least wake up, unlike his counterpart. To my horror, Ferrin turned the blade towards me next. He was going to kill me, to spare me a more certain death in the mouth of the rotsbane, but just as the blade came arcing down, it evaporated, sucked into the rotsbane. Its empty eyes flashed green, and then the monster fixed its gaze on me.
Its four sets of claws reached forward, but a metallic clang rang out as Orla attacked the monster, armed with nothing but a stove pot and a kitchen knife that she drove into its back.
“Find Galahad!” Ferrin yelled, pulling Orla away just as the rotsbane swiped at her with its claws.
My legs finally found their bearing, and I staggered to my feet and slid into the dining cart. It was empty, but screams echoed from the next cart over.
“It’s a rotsbane!” someone shrieked, and chaos greeted me on the other side of the door. People fought against each other to find the exit, and in the light of the skalflames held aloft by passengers to light the way, I saw a silver-bearded face fighting against the tide of bodies.
“Galahad!” I screamed just as the sound of ripping metal echoed behind me. I pushed against the bodies at the back of the crowd, trying to reach the Magician. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to disappear in a cloud of dust and light like the cook had. I hadn’t gotten into Von Leer yet. I hadn’t doneanythingyet. “Galahad, please!”
Four sets of claws sank into my flank, but they felt cold instead of sharp. The rotsbane lifted me and turned me around so we were eye-to-eye. I fought against its grip, but it was no use. The rotsbane’s jaw unhinged, so that all I could see was the dizzying nothingness of its insides.
This was it. This was how I died.
The cold nothing of rotsbane sucked at my warmth, my energy, my everything, and—
