Prince of Lies - James Lowder [130]
Titanslayer lay well out of reach, so Gwydion pummeled the cat's legs and head with his fists. The creature's thick fur seemed as tough as his own plate mail, though, and the blows did little damage. Still, the struggle bought the knight just enough time to pull the candle from his sword belt. With a grunt, Gwydion twisted sideways and tossed the stick of tallow into one of the dozens of small fires burning nearby.
With a hiss like a dragon gasping in pain, the wax spit forth a burst of smoke. The wavering cloud swiftly took a more definite form – a mastiff, as large as a draft horse and covered by a coat of writhing maggots.
"Free!" Kezef howled.
The rush of fetid air from the Chaos Hound's lips extinguished all the fires in the square. The spittle from his lolling, tattered tongue ate holes into the cobbles at his feet. Kezef crouched when he saw the panther then leaped forward. The impact drove both beasts a giant's height away from Gwydion.
The Chaos Hound closed slavering jaws on the cat and tore the death yowl stillborn from the beast's throat. The panther tried to fight back. It battered Kezef with its black wings and ripped at his guts with powerful rear claws. Yet the mass of corruption that was Kezef's skin shifted with each blow, as yielding as water.
When the cat fell, the maggots swarmed away from Kezef's jet-boned skeleton to cover the corpse. They devoured the minion's flesh then slid back onto the Hound. The gorged slugs made Kezef look bloated as they milled, sated, all across his corrupted body.
The Chaos Hound arched his back at the pleasant taste of flesh after so many eons of starvation. "Where am I?" he rumbled. "Where's that treacherous bastard Mask?"
In the brief time it had taken the Chaos Hound to kill and devour the panther, Gwydion had managed to retrieve his sword, but not his helmet. The knight held the blade before him defensively as he faced the mastiff. "In the City ofStrife. Mask gave me the candle and told me to free you here. He said you'd help us against Cyric's minions."
The Chaos Hound sniffed once then wrinkled his nose at the shade. "Stop trembling. I eat the marrow of the Faithful," Kezef muttered. "You're not quite ripe yet, little soul, and I'd only make myself sick." He motioned toward Perdix with his dripping snout. "Where's the rest of him?"
"Th – This is all of me," the denizen stammered. "Just a head. Not enough to sharpen your teeth on."
"In pieces. Scattered around the square," Gwydion said. He backed toward his helmet and lifted it from the ground by one horn. "There are plenty of denizens swarming aroundBoneCastle, if you're still hungry."
"So that's Mask's game, eh?" Kezef barked a wheezing laugh. "Capture me and let me loose in his neighbor's courtyard – all so he can rob the place through the back door, no doubt." He turned away. "I'll take my fill here, little soul, but I won't be the Shadowlord's pawn." The Chaos Hound loped away, his paw prints spreading into pools of burning ichor in his wake.
"'Scattered across the square!'" Perdix snapped. "You might as well have shoved me into his mouth." The denizen snorted in contempt. "At least I've got the satisfaction of knowing you've lost the war, slug. Your secret weapon's scampered off."
Gwydion buckled his helmet back into place. "That creature was Mask's idea," the knight said, his voice echoing hollowly. He rested Titanslayer on his shoulder and started off toward the rubble-strewn fields that lay in the shadow ofBoneCastleitself. "I've got other nightmares to unleash."
* * * * *
In the Keep's sheltered harbor, boats lurched drunkenly away from the docks, piloted by men desperate enough to brave the ice floes and the two dragons that had taken up patrol over the river. Past theTeshBridgeto the east and theForceBridgeto the west, ruined hulks of carracks and cogs wallowed, half-submerged. Some had hulls shattered by the ice, others fractured masts and crippled rigging from the white wyrms' frosty breath.
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