Checkmate by K.D. Tabith

Author:K.D. Tabith [Tabith, K.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-04-20T00:00:00+00:00

Later, Luka will think it is a good thing that he fell asleep there, leaning against the writing desk, chin tucked against his chest, because even unconscious he still grips his charcoal sharpener in his left hand. For sometime into the night, something enters the tent.

Luka’s lids flutter, not fully comprehending. Weak light filters through the tent’s walls, turning the folded bedroll into a mountain and the intruder into a monster –

Intruder?

Monster?

Animal tension seizes him, his heartbeat jackrabbiting to a roar. Rapid breaths rake out of his mouth as Luka tracks the thing in his tent – a thing, not a human.

Huge, it hunches to fit in Luka’s enclosure. Its breath stinks of meat.

An impyassus.

Before his capture, Luka has only seen one in its beast form once before as a young child. In the heart of Cesscounthe, a dozen Aiutani impyassi turned against their people and unleashed their beastly urges against those of pure thought. Three died before properly aligned Aiutani restrained their wretched brethren. Luka remembers little of the incident itself, though he had been in the heart of it all – as had his mother.

After, Linne declared in a low hissing breath she would save Cesscounthe from these monsters. She would see them safe from their curse – finally. Her nails had dug into her skin, eyes tawny in the light as she had stared out the scene, taking in the white sheets laid over the bodies of the fallen.

And the beast – the last one left alive, still trapped in its uncontrollable animal form – had towered above its human handlers. Blood seeped from its amber hide, glassy eyes rolling about in its skull while reddened teeth bulged in a snarl. Luka hadn’t even been able to cry at the sight. He had frozen, staring at the monster.

At the thing he knew was locked inside of him. The thing that could never be allowed to escape.

But this impyassus towering before him now is larger than any monster Luka has ever seen before, made all the more huge by the darkness as it looms over him. It bristles with dark fur. Hand-length fangs glisten as its lips curl into a snarl.

Its head swings toward Luka, eyes catching in the dim light. An enormous jaw unhinges. A whine escapes Luka’s throat.

A low growl creeps through the tent. The monster tenses, muscles bunching.

Thoughts flash through Luka’s mind, clouded and twisted with fear. He struggles for an idea, a plan – something, anything – he can’t die here! He has to escape. He has to share his findings with his people. He has to stop these Kiterans from taking his country.

A thin sheet of icy calm rolls across his panic as Luka stares death in the mouth.

It’s going to jump.

It’s going to eat me.

Luka’s grip tightens on the charcoal sharpener in his hand. Not a weapon. A tool.

The only way for him to survive.

The impyassus lunges and Luka throws himself aside. The beast crashes into the writing desk, a thunderclap against the night’s tense silence.

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