Part 1 (1/2)
Mortal Consequences
Book 3 of the Netheril Trilogy
By Clayton Emery
Heat belched all around him Brinited, as did the skin on his elbows and knees He screamed at the sudden pain, and forced his eyes open to see this new attack, to get away
The water was gone Instead, the creek bed roiled with black, sticky tar Huge gas pockets burped sulfur Things charred and long dead floated on the surface The tar was near boiling, and Candlemas was elbow-and hock-deep in it It stuck to his face and neck, and burned where it touched He wailed with fright and agony as he plucked hirabbed for the shore
The monster was there to meet him
Chapter 1
”Watch it! It's a-”
The land around the pair extended for miles in all directions, flat as a white tabletop Yet the part they'd trodden on suddenly erupted upward like a snapped rug, then twisted and curled high as a ht Steelshanks, barbarian, grabbed his much-smaller companion Knucklebones, part-elven thief, by one arm, and hurled her a dozen feet to plow into powdery snow By the time the thief had rebounded to her feet and whipped snow froone, she realized, gulped down Entrapped
So, diamond-shaped like a manta ray from the ocean, had whirled upward froht, then slaround
The leathery thing was a dozen feet across, big as a tent, and strong as a yoke of bulls Though hard to see against snow and winter-white sky, Sunbright rapped like a ht that Knucklebones could see knobs s of hisout a dark-bladed elven knife, she pelted toward thefrom her boots, and drove the sliht's head As the creature jerked, she sliced sideways, fearful of scalping Sunbright The hide was tough as a boot sole, and stiff hite hair sharp enough to pierce her hand She heaved and saith her blade, parted flesh, but drew no blood, only a white ichor that froze instantly in the chilly air
Her carving was rewarded by a brief gli horsetail, hair so blonde it was alerously blue froasped, ”My sword! Cut out my-”
The vision hisked away Astonished, Knucklebones saw the wound seal as if by lowed, then the hide was as sh as before As impervious to harht kicked, kneed, flexed, bit, tussled; all to no avail Even his brawny ar walls away a hair He was locked in a white chas and stomach constricted He would have blacked out already had not Knucklebones let in fresh air with her knife The hter until he suffocated After that, the snow lurker would take days to digest hiht had seen reindeer skeletons with the ribs and pelvis crushed, s were trussed tight, as if roped Bucking his back and buttocks did little good, for he couldn't gain leverage against the ground As part of its brutal attack, the snow lurker rolled over and over, huyrations would disorient and panic prey, squeeze air froht felt his stoainst the leather hide twice Blood and snot were salty and bitter on his tongue, foul enough to choke hiood, for the leather hide was slick with blood and sweat Strength alone couldn't save hie Otherwise this hot thrashi+ng darkness was a preview of hell
Yet the elven thief fought twolurker, it rolled as fast as she could run Nohere the beast had left a diareen tundra round issued a flood of white ants as large as her foot Hundreds of them
These arctic ants churned tunnels in the snow to chase the lurker Knucklebones reasoned that the ants took advantage of the lurker's attack to scavenge leftovers The thief got in their way as both struggled to catch the rolling , they tasted her flesh Pincers like pliers ticked hunks from her neck and hands The insects htas rabbits galloped up and down her furs and gear, nipping at exposed flesh, drawing blood
Knucklebones yelped, swore, and swatted With one hand she grabbed the thorax of an ant, cold as an icicle, and squeezed Brittle legs windlop stained her hand, and stung in an ant bite Another bit her ear alongside her leather eye patch She batted it away, losing a piece of her ear to icy jaws
Yet Knucklebones was raddled with scars fronore pain and distress to keep herself alive in a fight So could Sunbright, for he still squirmed within the leather folds of the snow lurker
Pushi+ng aside the irritation and threat of the ants-enough of the erous as a kicking horse
Theout of air
Thinking furiously, Knucklebones tried to ti of the lurker, but found no pattern It could as easily roll over and crush her legs as tumble the other way Finally, she locked her elven knife in her right fist, blade sticking out and away, and leaped
Though the lurker's hairy skin was slick with snows around it, but only for a second The creature reacted to the unnatural touch with new energy, hu to toss Knucklebones off She tapped a foot against the ground, slid her botto the slick skin, and stayed atop it The horizon jumped and danced, her sto hard at the end of her arhty sword Harvester was strapped across his back The wicked slash parted the flesh so it hite ichor, though the ends ian to close But Knucklebones's clever hands had done their work Seizing the two-handed, leather-wrapped pommel, she yanked it free of the scabbard, a sword nearly as long as she was tall As the heavy, back-hooked nose pulled free, the lurker's wound had already sealed around the blade, and Knucklebones cut it anew by drawing the blade
Sliced twice, the tundra beast pitched her off with a sideways lurch The sh to jar her teeth, but she retained her grip on the huge sword
Instantly she rolled to her feet, held the long blade high despite its great weight, and raced after the snow lurker again The twin cuts she'd ht hadn't blacked out
The lurker had enough intelligence to track Knucklebones as a threat, so it curled itself alrim thief pursued Outlined in white leather, like a body under a sheet, she saw Sunbright's shoulders, his elbows vainly pressing against the living prison, and the thrust of his jaw His hands, she guessed, were pinned by his ears Bad, considering what she had to do
Sturace, she slaht's face The razor-sharp blade skih the first layers of white hide, then parted to show tanned flesh
The snow lurker twisted away, but she pressed on, twisting as if carving a steak froasp, and took courage that her lover was still alive With a final wrench, she hollered, ”Give ht's fingers protruded through the slit for just a second In that second, the niht's nuap sealed, or tried to, for the sword blade projected from inside the monster
Exhausted by her mad dashes, Knucklebones dropped, unable to close for fear of being sheared herself She could only pray to Shar, the God of Thieves, the Greater Power of the Gray Waste; with herself trapped in a white waste
The lurker fought, rolled, curled, twisted, but even banging the ground couldn't shake the steel blade froh a mist of her own breath, Knucklebones watched, fascinated, as the barbarian's trapped arreat hooked sword Harvester of Blood sliced through the lurker like an axe through fog
One second the white rolled body hole, the next a rent six feet long slit it like a fish Fro, blue-faced, white-s it with his body heat
Knucklebones wept for joy out of one good eye, ran to her huge lover, and grabbed his shoulder to pull hi back, slithering, pursuing
”Run-at an angle-to its path!” Sunbright wheezed He was pale but smeared with blood, eyes red, throat raw assisted by the thief, he ga boots across the tra, always at an angle fro the snow after the under water Yet slowly the two hulancing over her shoulder, Knucklebones saw nothing
”Wh-where did it go?”
Sunbright slammed to a halt, sobbed for breath so hard he drooled, but he pointed out a shi+ square on the snow Knucklebones saw the white surface ripple and tremble, then lie smooth as if never trodden The effect was all the weirder because their footprints began just at the edge of the silent square The lurker had burrowed under the snoithin seconds
”Will it co-anyway” Plodding, trudging, they left the disturbed spot far behind
Only then did Sunbright collapse to his knees and wash his bloodied face clean with snow
”I must be-” he rasped, ”-the only barbarian to ever-escape a snow lurker! Thanks to your deft hand”
”I was afraid I'd split your skin to the skull!” she admitted Knucklebones's knees eak, so she sank beside him The barbarian didn'tso chilly it was painful Born in a lofty city that drifted south in winter, she had barely seen snow a dozen tiues of it She'd never get used to this frozen wasteland There wasn't even wind to fill it