Prince of Lies - James Lowder [135]
The scale exploded and stretched into a fully formed nightmare. Ghostly and luminescent, the night-terror writhed in the air for a moment then descended upon Gwydion. It slithered across his mind, drawing him into a horrifying scenario:
A half-human beast stalked Gwydion down a darkened alley. The shade could hear the thing padding behind him, its claws clicking on the cobbles with each loping step. The narrow street was endless, and its high walls were slick with something – blood, Gwydion realized with a shudder. There were no doors in the wall, no windows to crawl through. The only way to escape was to run…
Run? Gwydion smiled at that and as soon as the realization dawned on him that he could flee from the beast, the alley vanished from his mind. The nightmare had released its hold on him.
The victory was short-lived, though. A bone-rattling tremor rumbled through the wastes, and the hillside itself seemed to shift, to rear up. Then a monstrous shadow swept over the knight
Dendar had opened her cavernous maw.
The Night Serpent knocked Gwydion into her mouth with a flick of her tongue. He rebounded off one gigantic, crimson-stained fang; its tip cut open his breastplate as if it were threadbare cloth. The fang didn't catch his flesh, but the impact sent him tumbling uncontrollably through the air.
Gwydion landed in the foul mire beneath Dendar's tongue. Using Titanslayer as a crutch, he levered himself to his feet – only to be knocked onto his back again a moment later when the Serpent tried to force the tiny morsel farther down her throat. The whole world rose and fell as Dendar tossed her head back. All the while, her black tongue swept through the darkness overhead, making the soup of greasy spittle and half-digested bones slosh up Gwydion's legs.
Fear clutched at the knight, born on the cold chill that crept up from the Serpent's stomach. That chill settled over Gwydion's heart, and with it came the sense that some unknown but utterly familiar horror lay in wait for him in the belly of the beast.
Dendar threw her head back again. The marshy surface pulsed beneath Gwydion, and he rolled backward a few paces. He tried to catch himself, grab hold of some bump in the Serpent's mouth, but the sharp ridges on his riven breastplate made it difficult to move. Each time he lifted his arms, the jagged edges scraped awkwardly against his greaves.
With as much strength as he could muster, Gwydion drove his enchanted blade into the soft ground underfoot.Sparkspushed away the darkness in spurts as the blade sank deeper, though Gwydion almost wished he'd been spared the terrible vista. Gruesome bits of denizen flesh and spatters of gore hung all around him. Eyeless skulls bobbed along in the mire underfoot, grinning at the futility of his struggle.
He hadn't intended the blow as an attack, merely a way to anchor himself until he could decide upon a plan. Yet no sooner had Titanslayer pierced Dendar's flesh than a terrific howl rolled up from her throat.
For the first time in her eons-long existence, the Night Serpent screamed.
Nightmares filled Dendar's mouth like bile. They sailed around her huge fangs, raced along the edges of her forked tongue. Silver as moonlight, spectral and utterly silent, the phantasms descended upon Gwydion. With filthy claws and debauched mouths they tore at his armor. Piece by piece, plate by plate, the god-forged mail was stripped away.
The knight couldn't fight back, couldn't raise a fist to defend himself as the horrible visions pressed in close. The nightmares tried to pry his fingers apart. When that failed, they insinuated themselves into his mind, stoking the fear that burned like wildfire through his thoughts:
Gwydion plummeted through an endlessmidnightsky. Around him lightning streaked silently through the void. Nothing could stop his fall. Ever. He opened his mouth to scream, but like the lightning, he, too, was mute…
The weight of the damp earth pressed down on Gwydion. He tried to move his arms, but couldn't.