The Jewel of Turmish - Mel Odom [63]
For a moment, Tohl thought the spell had failed, then the buzzing and chirping of insects filled his ears.
Borran Kiosk dropped from the ceiling, intent on the two priests remaining in the room, but the mohrg's baleful glare took in Tohl as well, letting him know he hadn't been forgotten. The monstrous tongue cleaved Daraghin's chest, tearing like a blade through cloth.
Thousands of flying insects filled the tomb. They flew toward Borran Kiosk and clustered upon him.
To Tohl, it was like watching moss grow on a rock, only measured in the space of heartbeats. In less time than it took to draw a panicked breath, the insects covered Borran Kiosk like a layer of wriggling skin. Other insects formed a cloud around him, but even more continued to pile onto his body.
Borran Kiosk screamed, but the sound wasn't filled with pain as Tohl had hoped. Rage fueled the inarticulate roars. Still, the mohrg seemed trapped as the clusters of insects filled the room.
An arm thrust through the flying cloud, and it took Tohl a moment to realize that it was human.
"Brother Tohl!'' Bowdiek called. "Eldath's mercy, help me!"
Seizing the lantern again, Tohl ran forward and yanked the other priest from the embrace of the flying insects. Tohl felt something crunch beneath his feet. When he looked down, he saw that the stone floor was covered with beetles and other crawling insects.
Bowdiek coughed and wheezed, and Tohl guessed that the man had swallowed some of the insects. Glow-bugs, locusts, and flying beetles littered his hair and body, but when Bowdiek was out of the room where Borran Kiosk was, they left him and streaked for the mohrg.
"Come on," Tohl said. "The spell won't last for long."
He tugged Bowdiek's arm and got them both moving toward the next door. Bowdiek slammed against the wall near the doorway. Thinking for a moment that the priest had misjudged his step, Tohl turned to Bowdiek and grabbed his shoulder, prepared to pull him onto the correct path.
Bowdiek's face pressed against the tomb wall, blanched white in pain and fright. His mouth worked but no words came out, then a gout of blood covered his lower face.
Lifting the lantern, Tohl saw that Borran Kiosk's obscene tongue had ripped through Bowdiek's lower back so hard that it had penetrated the tomb's stone wall. Bowdiek couldn't move-he was pinned. Pain flared through Bowdiek's eyes, then they turned up until only the whites showed.
Tohl felt Bowdiek's corpse shiver as Borran Kiosk's tongue tensed and shifted. Glancing over his shoulder, Tohl spotted the mohrg tearing free of the insect-infested room, pulled by his tongue, which was still anchored to the wall, and to Bowdiek.
Borran Kiosk gibbered and raked insects from his eye hollows. Other insects crusted his mouth and the remains of his nose.
"Still here, priest?" Borran Kiosk mocked as he drew himself toward Bowdiek's twitching corpse. "Your friend is still hanging around."
The mohrg stood only a few feet away. He yanked his head back and his tongue popped free of both the wall and the corpse then snapped back into his blood-drenched jaws.
Bowdiek dropped to the floor.
Tohl turned and ran. He fled through the hallways, listening to the bony slap of Borran Kiosk's skeletal feet against the stone floor.
The doorway to the graveyard appeared ahead. Tohl pushed off the last passageway wall with his free hand, still carrying the bobbing lantern with his other, struggling to keep his bearings even though the wick's flame flickered. In a dozen more strides, he was through the final door and out into the graveyard.
Eldath's blessing, but he was old. Tohl knew that, but the wheezing breaths that seared like hot irons through his lungs branded that truth into him. His knees felt like