Read Online Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines - Free Book Online Page B

was forced to look away. The afterimage of the lantern obscured the center of his vision. They had light, and he still couldn’t see.
    “What are they?” he yelled.
    “By Earthmaker’s Black Anvil,” Darnak swore. Behind him, Jig heard Ryslind muttering a spell.
    Jig set the lantern on the ground and rubbed his eyes. When he looked again, he saw what had frightened the others. “I didn’t know they grew that big,” he said.
    Two carrion-worms circled the party. They could be nothing else, but Jig had never seen worms of such length. Their bodies were at least twenty feet long, and each segment was the size of a goblin’s head. The mouths were big enough to take a chunk of flesh large as Jig’s two fists together, and black, curved teeth surrounded each mouth. If these were normal worms, they would have a second, sharper row tucked inside and out of sight.
    Strangely, Jig seemed the least afraid. This was something familiar, albeit much larger than he was used to. “They’re only carrion-worms,” he said. “They don’t attack living things.”
    Almost before he had finished speaking, one of the worms lunged toward Darnak, who scrambled backward. “And mighty glad I am to be knowing that,” he shouted angrily. He backed himself against a wall and stood with his war club ready. Barius joined him there, guarding his left side.
    The worm that had attacked began to circle, long antennae flicking at the dwarf. The other hesitated, then turned toward Riana, who backed away as quickly as she could.
    The second worm reared, displaying six mouths in its bellies. The undulating teeth pointed outward, ready to rip the elf apart. Jig couldn’t understand it. These were carrion-worms. They wouldn’t eat anything live unless they were starving, and even then they limited themselves to rats and bugs.
    Normal worms limited themselves, Jig corrected. A twenty-foot worm with about a thousand teeth didn’t qualify as normal. Jig and the others might be nothing but rats to these beasts. It was not a comforting thought.
    As Jig watched, the worm facing Riana went still. The teeth around one mouth folded inward.
    “Look out!” Jig lunged across the floor and knocked Riana down. A thin black tongue shot over their heads. With a loud snap, it returned to the worm’s mouth, and the worm lowered itself to the ground.
    Ryslind finished his spell. Glowing yellow fire floated from the tips of his fingers to the first segment of the worm menacing Jig and Riana. The fire clung to the worm’s pale flesh, and it reared up again, waving back and forth in pain. Slowly the fire spread to the second segment.
    The worm lashed more frantically, smashing into the walls of the pit and bloodying the burning segments. The smell was horrid, like charred meat. The worm began to scream, a high-pitched whistle of agony. Jig hadn’t known they were capable of sound.
    “Get off of me,” Riana snapped.
    Without taking his eyes away from the dying carrion-worm, Jig rolled off the elf and slowly stood. Ryslind had already turned his attention to the other worm. Darnak and Barius had managed to keep it at bay with their weapons, but neither had done any real damage. The wizard raised his hands again and began another spell.
    He didn’t finish. There was no warning as the second worm convulsed with such force that it left the ground. The burned, dead half of its body flopped back to the earth, but the less damaged part crashed against Ryslind’s back and knocked him into the wall. The wizard fell like a stone.
    “Ryslind!” Darnak knocked his worm aside with a powerful two-handed blow, then rushed to the fallen human’s side.
    The worm turned to track his movement, giving Barius the opening he needed. Even as Jig shouted, “No,” Barius raised his sword and sliced down, cutting the worm in two. Both ends fell still.
    “No?” Barius asked, one eyebrow raised as he wiped gore from his sword. “You’ll forgive me, I hope, if I fail to heed the