Sentinelspire - Mark Sehestedt [92]
Thunder boomed outside, and Lurom could feel the stone beneath his feet shaking. They were too far inside the entrance-way to catch the flicker of the lightning, but by the force of the thunder, Lurom guessed it had been a close strike.
"We should look on Janas," said Lurom.
Ferluk scowled. "Look on him if you want. But leave the lamp."
"You expect me to walk in the dark?" Lurom looked down the passageway. It was narrow-scarcely larger than one of the servants' halls in the tower where he had his rooms. The light from their lamp reflected off the stone a good twenty feet in either direction. A few feet beyond that was only dim shadow. Beyond that lay utter darkness and the heavy drone of the storm.
"I don't expect you to take an open flame into the rain," said Ferluk. "Besides, you know the way. And if you're going out, you'll want your eyes adjusted to the dark. Janas won't have a light."
Lurom looked into the darkness. "Maybe if the storm lets up. Then we-what's that?"
He pointed and Ferluk looked.
"Just a lizard," said Ferluk. "Probably came in to get out of the rain."
"Animals don't come in here," said Lurom. "Even bats won't. You know that."
But it was a lizard. Not a very big one, all mottled brown and still glistening from being out in the rain. It cocked its head at them and blinked.
"So chase it off," said Ferluk.
Lurom took a few steps toward it. The little lizard stood on its haunches and hissed at him. Lurom stopped, not taking his eyes off the little creature, and said, "You think it might be poisonous?"
Ferluk rolled his eyes and pushed himself away from the wall. He drew his short sword as he passed Lurom. "Won't matter if I have this," he said.
He raised the sword and approached at a careful crouch so that a strike from his blade would reach ground level. "Go on!" he said, and swiped the sword at the lizard.
It hissed back at him and flexed its front claws. They were small but looked sharp.
"Brave little thing," said Lurom, and forced a laugh.
"Not for long," said Ferluk, and he lunged, swinging at the lizard.
It shot away, but rather than retreating down the passage, it ran around Ferluk, skirting the wall. Lurom leaped back, not wanting to be anywhere near the thing's teeth and claws if it were poisonous. But the lizard ran past him, not even slowing. For a moment Lurom thought it would keep going, but it skittered up the wall, its claws finding enough grip that it scampered up like a spider.
"The lamp!" Ferluk shouted, but it was too late.
The lizard blundered into the niche, knocking the lamp out, then leaped away. The brass lamp hit the floor with a clang, oil spilling onto the stone. The flame guttered, and for one moment Lurom feared it would die and he'd be left in the blackness of the passageway that still seemed to hum to the rhythm of the storm. But then the flame caught in the spilled oil and flared. It burned low and blue in a pool along the floor, giving off only a fraction of the light the lamp had.
"Pick it up before all the oil spills!" Ferluk shouted.
The darkness moved behind Ferluk, coming for him.
Too shocked to form a coherent warning, Lurom screamed.
Too late.
An arm of shadow whipped out, the meager light glinting off something pale, like bone. Ferluk had begun to turn when the pale shard passed through his throat. Blood sprayed the wall, and over the sound of the shadow's approaching footsteps, Lurom heard a hundred tiny droplets patter to the stone like rain. Ferule’s blade clattered to the ground only an instant before his body.
Lurom reached for his own blade and drew in a breath to scream, but it died in his throat.
+++++
Berun shambled through the passageway. Hunched over inside his cloak, the tiny light of the starstone shedding a deep green light before him, and dragging a dead man