Stormlight - Ed Greenwood [50]
As bones shattered and the breath was smashed out of her, the last thing she knew was the sword shattering in front of her face.
Then the other blocks came down.
Eight
THE KISS OF EVIL
The pain drove her back to wakefulness-raw, shattering pain. Tears glimmered in Storm's lashes as she tried to see past the rock that had crushed her chest. Every breath was a searing, tearing agony of bubbling froth and grating ends of bone. Her back was broken, and her right leg seemed to be either missing or shattered to rubbery nothing just above her knee.
Into every life, a little pain must fall… By the gods, fall was right. She’d had a bad one.
Patiently, Storm called on the fire within her-rising, cook, cleansing, divine fire of Mystra. She sent it flowing into places where pain throbbed, or stabbed… or where she felt nothing at all.
The fire went where she bid, rushing into crushed and mangled places. The sudden, sharp jabs of agony made her hiss bloody huffs of breath, shouts such as an angry, wounded badger might make.
She smiled at the thought, her eyes dark with pain. From just beyond the crushing rock, Maxer-or something that wore Maxers face-grinned back at her. Seeing that face hurt most of all. Tears blinded her.
"Not quite dead yet?" It-no, he; the manner as well as the voice were male-laughed, and said, "An oversight easily corrected. Give me a kiss for old times' sake, Beloved."
With those mocking words, the face of her dead lover leaned down over hers… giving her the revulsion and anger she needed.
Storm blinked back tears and glared up at it. "You're not my Maxer. Your charade disgusts me, whoever you are. Such tricks won't make me lower my guard."
That brought on a real laugh. "Lower your guard? Why bother when you're smashed like a burled egg? Oh, that's rare!"
The false face of the man she'd loved so much, and missed so terribly, mastered its mirth and leaned close again to whisper, "Your back is broken, isn't it? Who'd have thought kicking a wedge away from a few blocks of stone would destroy one of the legends of Faerun? You're going to die, my pretty one and I'll feed on all you have been, and all you would have been. just as soon as you're weak enough…"
Storm closed her eyes, shuddering as fresh agonies blazed out within her. Boast and taunt just a little longer, shapeshifter. Give me the time I need to grow whole again… and then strong once more…
"Ah, but you still hope for a rescue, I see," the murderer said. "You Chosen have always been so arrogant, so secure in your power-and so unused to hiding that triumph in your eyes. I saw that look!"
Brutal hands rocked the stone atop her chest, forcing half-knit bones to grind and turn in their sockets. Storm shrieked in torment, tears bursting from her eyes and blood from her nose and mouth.
Cold laughter rolled around her again as the stone rocked back and forth, back and forth. The false face leaned close over her again.
"Dying yet? Not quite? No? Time for a little more fun, then!"
As the stone jostled more violently, Storm gasped, opened her eyes, and flexed the fingers she'd need. They moved slowly, still numb, but-well, they'd have to do.
She waited, gathering her will. As that face bent over her again-and actually opened its jaws to bite her!-she whispered the phrase that unleashed her Galkyn's bolt spell. Silver fire leapt within her as the magic surged forth.
At this range, she could not miss. The shapeshifter was lifted off his feet, squalling. Magic thundered into him, tore open his front, and rushed down his body and out his nether end.
Storm watched him crash against the far wall of the rock-filled pit. With more satisfaction than she'd felt in the fall of a foe for quite some time, she called again on the silver fire.
It roiled and cascaded within her. She set her teeth and pushed with all the strength she had. Tears came, out the stone block atop her stayed where it was.
She sank back with a groan, lips trembling. Perhaps the stubborn immobility of the stone was a good thing. Sudden shouts came from overhead, and a rock whistled