They Come To Feed

Chapter 11

Immediately after they had seen Gulkuna enter the canyon in pursuit of the warrior-woman, Wazu and M'Boto rappelled back down the cliff face near the entrance to the citadel and hastily approached its marble portal.
    Stopping briefly, they tied wet rags around their faces and rummaged through the supplies the men left nearby. From the pile of gear they withdrew two large sacks, which were filled with a mixture of powdered clay and damp sand from the lagoon, and several larger empty sacks.
    They ducked low, avoiding the dense smoke as they crossed the threshold into the citadel. When Wazu and the boy approached the smouldering flames in the passageway they spread the mixture of sand and clay onto it, dousing the low flame. They moved forward into the chamber that had served as Gulkuna's lair, the chamber that had also housed the Kytelle. The puddle of Arcadian Fire in the chamber was also burning very low now, and was easily doused with the mixture.
    M'boto and Wazu exited the structure for a few moments to catch their breath and allow some of the acrid smoke to clear. After just a few moments, they plunged back into the fortress. Wazu immediately headed to the dais and the pedestal, bounding up the steps. He drew the strange weapon, the Kytelle, from the obsidian block, and felt it thrumming in his hand like a living thing.
    The Kytelle resembled a shortsword or a large dagger in shape and size, but it was forged of Atlantean orichalcum, a mysterious substance, the secret of its manufacture lost to the world. It was like copper in colour but far harder and stronger. Throughout its length were veins and patterns of other colours, and it was inlaid with unfamiliar gems. The Kytelle itself seemed to throb at the behest of some hidden power within.
    M'boto was collecting long strips and pieces of the giant serpents' sheddings, cast off lengths of plated hide and scales. He was shoving them into the empty sacks. Soon Wazu was aiding him in this endeavour, and in time they made several trips to carry the sacks outside.  

    As soon as Grimm saw Freyja enter the tiny crevice he shouted the command. With poles of strong stout wood the men of the Gambusi and the Osprey levered huge boulders down into the canyon. There was a sickening wet thud as the boulders fell upon the lindworm below and broke Gulkuna's spine. Grimm looked down through the settling dust, to see Gulkuna sorely wounded but still alive. The enraged lindworm could still deal death. Its head struck out at Freyja's refuge, cracking the very stone with the force of its impact. The serpent reared to strike again.
     Grimm shouted to Marula to throw him his spear as soon as he reached the bottom, then, with reckless abandon, Grimm bounded down the side of the sheer canyon wall like a mountain goat, using precarious handholds, heedless of his own safety.
    As Grimm landed upon Gulkuna's back he caught his spear from the air. The lindworm turned her enormous ophidian head toward the new threat, the human female forgotten for the present. Grimm and Gulkuna locked eyes. They were both frozen, like statues carved in stone. No muscle twitched, no eye flickered. Serpent's eyes, ancient and evil, locked with the eyes of the primal hunter, both seemed as though they were hypnotized. Then Gulkuna's giant wedge-shaped head lunged forward like a bolt of lightning, her jaw grotesquely distended, venomous fangs as long as spearheads flashing forward.
    In that same instant Grimm struck out and upward with his spear driving the wicked point up through the soft pink interior of Gulkuna's mouth, shattering through bone, and piercing her brain. The huge head still moving, slid down the shaft, fangs as long as Osirian shortswords missing the Thulean by a hair's breadth. Grimm yanked the spear free. Gulkuna was dead.
    Freyja clambered out of the crevice, and looked up at Grimm. He looked down into her beautiful green eyes.
    "If you're done relaxing now, Freyja, I was wondering if I might interest you in a bit of excitement," remarked Grimm. She looked at him blankly for a moment, then her face cracked into a grin and a paroxysm of laughter swept over them both, while the men above looked on in wonder.