Half-Demon's Fortune by Lina J. Potter

Author:Lina J. Potter [Potter, Lina J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LitHunters Ltd.
Published: 2019-02-04T22:00:00+00:00

***

The body of an unlucky servitor had been lying in the street for a while. The bandits didn’t want anything to do with it, law-abiding citizens never looked inside the trash heap, and the guards... It was embarrassing to admit but the patrolling guards simply played cards, and the loser would deal with the body.

After all, it wasn’t just a random sucker. It was a proper servitor! They would have to get him into a temple, answer inconvenient questions, and none of them were without sin. Who would tell the truth about everything in his life, starting with the color of his mistress’ underwear and right up to the names of his snitches? Would you want to do something like that? Neither did they. A Church interrogation was a creepy affair; you lost all your will and under the servitor’s kind and gentle gaze, told him everything, and Bright save you if you lied even a little. They had dungeons, deep ones. Few lived long enough to leave them.

And thus, the losing patrol picked up the body and dragged it into the temple, calling the poor shmuck all the names under the sun and drawing respectful stares from the beggars they met along the way.

Two carried the stretcher, while two more went along, watching the surroundings, as the city rabble sometimes didn’t stop even after seeing a guard uniform. And really, after getting hit with a brick and waking up—if you’re lucky—naked in a trash pile, one would do well to prove he was a guardsman...and reaching the others would be a challenge, anyway.

Beggars...yeah, about beggars... It took some time for the guards to notice the simple fact that there were no beggars in the streets, at all. That was odd for that time of day and the area of the city, but...

They didn’t get the chance to finish the thought and exchange their findings with each other. A rat jumped onto the servitor’s body, a huge grey thing that bared its teeth and hissed at the guards.

“Shoo!”

One of the guards took a swing at the creature and froze like a statue.

The first rat was joined by a second and a third. They leaped up from below and jumped down from above, hissing, while the bravest of them started to feed.

The stretcher fell on the ground with a thud. The guards backed down in unison, pressing themselves against the wall, and froze.

They couldn’t believe their eyes as the rats, as if obeying someone’s malevolent order, destroyed the remains of the servitor. They tore away bits of meat and blood and ate his stomach from the inside out. The guards watched the vermin consume the contents of his chest cavity and jump through his rib cage...

Scary? That doesn’t even begin to describe it.

They didn’t even vomit; all they could do was stare. The rats fled, leaving a skeleton gnawed down to the bone as if some outside force had commanded them to.

No matter how much they feared the Church, the guards didn’t dare touch the stretcher.

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