Read Online The Dragon-Child by B. V. Larson - Free Book Online Page B

leaping upon wounded gazelles, he rode down each man in turn. He slashed their legs from them and drank their souls. With each life he took, he grew faster, stronger and more feral of aspect. Gruum, witnessing this nightmare, had to wonder if Bolo spoke truthfully.
     Bolo and Gruum stepped back from their swordplay and circled one another.
     “A man has to keep discipline or a ship of pirates can’t function, Gruum, you should understand that,” said Bolo. “We have our own form of honor, harsh though it may be. Join us, and leave the foul stink of sorcery behind. At least our evil is that of flesh and blood.”
    “Your words appeal to me, Bolo. But our quest is greater. We seek to relight the sun. We seek to bring warmth back to the north.”
    “Then you are as deluded as your master!” Bolo cried.
    Before they could speak further, everything about their tiny portion of the world changed. The monster set the treetops to the west thrashing about. A great, gray head rose up atop a long neck of thick flesh. A thousand teeth were revealed, each was curved, serrated and the length of a man’s dagger. A rumbling cry rolled out over the beach. The last trees between them and the beast cracked and flew twirling away. White wood showed beneath the dark bark. So great was its size that the monster’s flippers were in the waves on one side, and in the forest on the other. It was as wide as the entire beach itself.
    Therian, bloated with the simmering power of seven fresh souls, stepped forward to meet the monster. The huge head turned to regard him with one black eye the size of a guardsman’s pot helm. Could the creature be surprised at Therian’s approach? Gruum wondered if any tiny mortal had ever dared to step up to it in such a confident manner in all its uncountable years of life.
    Therian lifted his boot and stepped over the fallen body of a crewman. He stopped and raised his twin blades, pointing with them around the beach.
    “Seven foul souls did I take here today,” he said to the sea monster. “I will demand now that you give me your name. I would know who you are, great Lady of the deep.”
    The monster shambled forward. Ten feet closer. Twenty. She halted, as Therian did not retreat. A massive noise rolled from its open maw then, a sound that formed into bass words of inhuman volume. At first, Gruum had to shake his head. Then he thought he heard and understood the words, strange and foul though they might be.
    Gruum and the Captain disengaged and stepped back away from one another, sides heaving. Somehow, their struggles seemed petty and pointless in the face of such a monstrosity. In truth, neither could tear his eyes from the sight of the sea monster, her head brushing the palm fronds—nor Therian, who stood nonchalantly before it.
     “You intrigue me,” said the cavernous voice, “although you are only a mortal insect that crawls upon these dry peaks of dirt. Too long have I stayed in the deeps. I see now I was mistaken in my disdain for the surface. It is unpleasant, but interesting. I thank you, morsel, for having awakened me to the tiny joys of your world.”
    “Then as a reward, tell me of your lineage, O Lady of the Deeps.”
    The creature paused. She turned her great head so that she might regard the black-garbed figure of Therian with her second eye. “You amuse me. I will thusly reward you. I am Humusi. My sire was a megalodon from an age gone by. My mother was a creature known as Anduin the Black.”
    Therian smiled. “I thank you, lost Humusi! I had suspected as much, because you were able to meet me in our dreams.”
    “Our dreams?” rumbled the monster. “Did we slumber together? I had thought you were a ghost of past sea captains. In centuries past, I consumed a thousand ships. Some few creatures aboard them spoke with me, as you do now.”
    “No, it was no ghost. It was I who shared your dreams.”
    A black tongue swept around, flicking itself over hundreds of dagger-point