Engines & Demons - The Undestined

Chapter 12ii

It was Sir Kralaford's unborn child that saved his life on the evening of Glok's Ascension Day. The light from the open door of the washroom's antechamber woke him. Tahlessa's pregnancy, with the child's position and constant kicking, was evidently taking its toll on her bladder again. He rolled over to turn his back on the light from the door. It could have been the second time his wife had left the bed that night, or maybe the third. He could not tell what hour it was, but he could see that the night beyond their bedchamber window, left open to relieve the room of its humid heat, was still black.

He would have returned to sleep, but as his eyes were about to close, they caught sight of an unfamiliar shadow beneath the window, where a shadow should not have been. He lay there unmoving, his eyes fixed on the patch of darkness, expecting it to resolve itself into something familiar, but it did not. Instead, it began to move. Without a sound it stretched itself along the floor, seeking the darker corners of the room.

Sir Kralaford moved his arm slowly, loosening the bedclothes wrapped about his shoulder, and the shadow stopped its movement, becoming innocuous once more. The knight froze in turn, though he tightened his fist, taking in it a handful of bedclothes as he continued to watch the darkness where the shadow had stopped. Maybe a minute passed before he saw the slow movement again, and once he had targeted its source, he took a breath, readying himself. With a swift movement, he leapt from the bed, pulling the covers with him and casting them like a net at the patch of slowly moving darkness.

As he landed on his feet, he saw the pale form of the thrown bedclothes undulate and then, before any chance was given for him to secure the thing beneath them, there came a sharp ripping, and a dark shape rose and lunged towards him. Something cold latched onto his arm with a sucking grip, and he thrust forward with his other arm to grab a bony limb, wrapped with sinewy muscle. A second tight claw gripped his neck and something seized his leg, so that he seemed suddenly ensnared by limbs. Without stopping, he tightened his grip on the arm he had caught and pulled backwards, dragging the thing from the darkness, across the room, still half wrapped in the billowing bedclothes.

They fell together into the light from the washroom's open door, and he saw the thing before him, its face centimetres from his own, twin rows of red eyes blinking rapidly in the sudden brightness. Its ridged and bony mouth folded open, splitting the creature's face in two from top to bottom and revealing four curved mandibles, which seemed to tremble and twitch and strain towards his throat.

There came another ripping sound and the remaining bedclothes split open. Something long and sinuous encircled his legs, while a second prehensile feeler wrapped itself about his waist so that he was completely ensnared, with no limb free and no weapon with which to defend himself.

Except for one.

The creature hissed in anticipation and drew its head back to strike. Sir Kralaford's blow was quick. Aimed with brutish efficiency. There was a crunching crack as his head connected with the creature's mouth, and it spat its anger as it pulled its head back, dark blood, streaked with clear venom, dripping from its broken fangs. It hissed again and lifted its remaining free arm, its bony fist clenched and held before Sir Kralaford's face. With a wet sucking click, a long spike of bone emerged from between its two thick fingers. There came another sickening click and Sir Kralaford saw that the creature's limb, that he still held firm, had also sprouted a sharp bone shard.

The creature's broken mouth folded back once more, seemingly in amused anticipation. It had him entrapped with its limbs and its twin sinuous tails, but it was still smaller than him by far and did not possess nearly half his strength. Though his left arm was held, he pushed forward with it, and the creature's strength was indeed no match for his. It did not loosen its vacuum grip, but could do nothing to prevent him from seizing its remaining free arm at the elbow and pushing it away from him. He could feel the creature's muscles strain, trying to bring its weapons to bear, but he held it fast.