Page 66 of Vasmora

The guard.

Torn to pieces.

A feast for monsters.

I swallowed a gulp, eyeing a boulder ahead of me, sticking up from the sloping cavern wall, and tiptoed toward it. Out of view, I ducked low and peered around the massive rock in search of an exit.

At the opposite side of the grotto, beyond the pool, two blazing eyes stared back in my direction, as if they could see right through the rock. A much larger serpent lay coiled there, and based on General Loyce’s explanation earlier, I guessed she was the queen, as there were no other as large as her and the other two. Quiet and calm, she didn’t move from her nest to join the others fighting for bits of the soldier’s remains.

Quiet whimpers emerged beneath the melee, and I turned to the left to see a servant I recognized. A girl about my age with kind eyes, her skin pale as snow, like mine, and blood caked to her neck and shoulders, matted in her long, black hair. Clustered thickets of fungi glowed a pale blue around her, casting a halo of light that mirrored the water. As if she’d been laid there intentionally and with care. The luminescent beams traced the woman’s bulbous belly, drawing my attention to movement beneath her skin.

She seemed to catch sight of me, opening her mouth as if to speak, but all that came forth were short gasps.

“You can’t help her.” A voice cut into my thoughts.

My heart stalled and I twisted around on my heel.

A woman I didn’t know, with long blonde hair and dark skin, stood pressed against the wall, her stomach torn open, viscera dangling out of the wound, her neck and jaw chewed away. Yet another vision of the dead, no doubt.

I studied her belly, the long threads of skin and flesh that looked to have been clawed or chewed at, and I turned back toward the girl lying on the bed of fungi.

“What is happening?” I asked, but the answer was obvious.

“She houses the beast.”

A short, hollow clicking, like bones rattling together, pulled my attention toward one of the serpents that glided slowly toward the girl. The sound, so distinct and unsettling, rose above the hissing and screeching off in the distance.

“Look away,” the ghost behind me urged. “Do not watch.”

Before I could follow her command, the serpent’s tongue shot out and coiled around the other woman’s neck, and I watched in horror as two appendages emerged from its elongated body. As realization struck me, I turned away, just as the woman let out a blood-curdling scream.

Eyes screwed shut, I forced myself to ignore the slimy wet sounds and muffled gurgling. The face of my sister, Aleysia, flashed through my head. “No!” Heart pounding in my throat, I lunged from my hiding place, goaded by a rush of cold adrenaline, and a scream tore out of me as I stabbed my long, metallic nails into the belly of the beast.

The sound of its roar vibrated through my bones.

I curled my fingers and tore away a chunk of its flesh as easily as sifting through sand.

The charnelyth thrashed and hissed, jerking my arm. Pain exploded across my shoulder as a fang sank into my muscle, scraping my bone.

It quickly recoiled, stuttering a hiss, its head jerking. Disoriented? Those narrow slits in its eyes widened and shrank, its body seemingly in chaos. The serpentine beast rose up and crashed down, its tongue wildly lashing out. As the serpent retreated, I turned back toward the woman who lay gasping, lips blue and trembling.

I took her hand in mine, her skin cold as stone.

She opened her mouth as if to speak, but like before, nothing came forth.

“You can’t help her,” the voice said again. “The beast grows. It will consume her from the inside.”

A thought struck me, and I dug into the pocket of my dress, retrieving the small ampoule there. I shifted my attention back to the poor, unmoving woman. She only stared back at me, tears spilling down her temples.

“She says yes,” the voice from behind said.

Through a mist of tears, I nodded and broke the ampoule open.

A thunderous roar rose from behind, and I turned to see what must’ve been the other male sliding toward me, but it stopped short. The one that’d bitten me, glided up alongside it, hissing and lashing its tongue, the entire length of its neck covered in patches of raised black scales, like a rash.

Neither beast advanced toward me, though. As if wary.

Forcing my hand steady, I spilled the liquid into the young woman’s mouth and watched as her eyes shuttered over more tears. She seized and shook while the poison must’ve hooked itself in her system.