Page 49 of City of Stone and Silence

“Deepwalker?” Zarun says, backing up.

Rot rot rot. He’s looking at me. They’re all looking at me. As usual.

I charge the thing.

It’s not even the biggest monster I’ve ever fought. Maybe the tallest, but the dredwurm was certainly bulkier. Of course, the dredwurm would have killed us all if I hadn’t managed to immobilize it with Eddica, and Prime already proved to me on the beach that won’t work here. So we’re going to have to do this the hard way.

It lumbers forward, head coming down for a bite. I dodge, feeling the wind of the thing’s passage, the rotten meat stench of it. Then I’m past, shield shifted back into a blade, both weapons raised to carve a chunk out of the monster’s chest.

I don’t see the kick coming until it’s too late. It’s fast. If not for my Melos armor, the enormous talons would have carved me into four pieces. As it is, I feel myself screaming as bands of fire ignite around my body, excess power burning itself into my skin. I’m only vaguely aware that I’m airborne until I hit the ground, hard, too stunned to even turn the fall into a roll. As the crackling of green sparks fades around me, it’s all I can do to breathe.

“Deepwalker!” Someone is shouting. Several someones. I raise my head, try to speak, but all that comes out is a dry croak.

With the mammoth creature’s attack, the smaller ones have closed in again, working in perfect synchronicity. I see Zarun struggling between two of them at once, until Ylla blasts one aside with Myrkai fire; another jumps on her from behind, bearing her to the ground. Thora, Jack, and Safiya are running in my direction, but so is the enormous lizard-thing.

“Hey, ugly!” Jack shouts. “Over here!”

I don’t know if it hears her, but it turns, coming after her with jaws wide open. Jack fades into a darting shadow, flickering behind the thing. Her sword slashes at its ankle, tearing dead flesh.

“I question your parentage and general morals!” Jack taunts. “And your past sexual companions have confided to me that their experience was subpar!”

Thora skids to a halt beside me, with Safiya standing in front of us, fire blazing in her hands.

“Isoka,” Thora says. “Can you get up?”

“Ngh,” is about all I can manage. Rot. I try to sit up, lines of agony still hot across my skin. She helps me onto my hands and knees, panting. After a moment, I gasp out, “… get out of here. Everyone.”

She nods, understanding. Thank the Blessed for Thora.

“Past instances in which I expressed affection for you were fraudulent!” Jack shouts.

The monster-lizard, apparently wearying of its efforts to squash the elusive Jack, turns around and heads for us. I try to muster the energy to summon my blades, but even the thought hurts too much. Thora springs to her feet, hands spread, and blue-white bands of Tartak force grab the beast like a choke chain. Somehow she holds it in place, in spite of the enormous bulk straining against her. I can see lines of smoke rising from her, as the power sears into her skin.

“Get Isoka back!” Thora shouts. “Now—”

One of the smaller lizards hits her from behind, a full-body tackle that sends both of them skidding across the stone floor in a heap. Jack screams, high and piercing. The monster-lizard, suddenly free of its bonds, surges forward. Safiya, standing between me and the creature, lets off a blast of fire that strikes it square in one eye, searing that whole side of its face, but it doesn’t stop coming. Its foot comes down right on top of her, pinning her beneath those long talons with an ugly crunch. She’s screaming, too, until its jaws descend a moment later. With a twist of its neck, the monster rips her in half. Blood paints the stone floor in a crimson slick.

The thing takes another step forward. A careful step, putting its foot down beside me, one long, curving talon setting its tip on my breastbone. The slight shift of weight, and it will spear through me like a knife through a rotten apple.

Hello again, Prime says, Eddica surging out of the creature to make a connection between us. The voice that echoes in my head is raspy and wet, as though emerging from the throat of a corpse. Good of you to come all the way here. I hope you’ll stay.

Long enough to kill you, I spit back at him.

Such bravado. It will be interesting peeling that away from you. Will there be anything left afterward, I wonder?

If you’re going to kill me, go ahead. I swallow hard, trying not to think of Tori, of Meroe, of anything. Terror gnaws at the pit of my stomach, held back only by the need not to give this rotsucker any satisfaction.

I’d rather not. It’s rare that Soliton brings one of us to the Harbor. An Eddicant. I’ve accomplished so much on my own. Can you imagine what I might do with a partner?

A partner? My mind recoils. You have to be joking.

A junior partner, of course. I get a flash of a desiccated smirk. You have a great deal to learn.

Is that what you told Silvoa, before you killed her?

It’s a shot in the dark, but at this point what do I rotting have to lose? And it seems to hit the mark, because I can feel confusion through the link, a sudden rage. Prime’s voice is still under tight control, but there’s genuine emotion underneath.

Silvoa was … difficult, Prime says. She made it clear to me that she would be more useful dead than alive. You haven’t demonstrated that, yet. For your sake, I recommend you reconsider your position. The smirk again, blackened teeth showing behind lips like tanned leather. Because you do have uses, even dead. Oh, yes—