The Emerald Tablet (Fated Destruction Book 3) by D. S. Murphy

Author:D. S. Murphy [Murphy, D. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Urban Epics
Published: 2019-01-31T06:00:00+00:00

***

There wasn’t even time to scream, just a silent snap like a branch breaking, followed by complete silence. Aziz’s head disappeared into the sarcophagus and I heard muffled chewing and slurping sounds.

Sitri shoved me behind him and pulled out the twin daggers he’d bought at the market. Puriel stepped in front of us, brandishing his short sword. Aziz’s torch had fallen to the ground and sputtered, plunging the room in darkness. Jessie grabbed it before it went out completely, just as Aziz’s half-devoured head popped out of the black box and bounced against the far wall. It floated in the water for a moment, and I could see the man’s cheek had been torn out and one eyeball was missing.

Slowly a dark shape crawled out of the hole, or slithered, more like – it had legs, but it was mostly skeleton and only a few bits of ragged flesh. The whole thing was black, the bones, the flesh, everything, like it had been boiled alive and then covered in tar. A dark essence drifted around it like an invisible cloak, gathering solidity until it was roughly humanoid.

A single eye in the creature’s ghastly eye-socket rotated to stare at us.

“I don’t think that’s Isis,” Jessie said.

“It’s a leech,” Puriel said, almost in awe. “It must be a thousand years old.”

The creature’s jaws were still moving, chewing the remains of our former tour guide. He swallowed and the bloody flesh fell through his ribs and disappeared into the sarcophagus.

“Not magic,” it hissed, spitting out the rest of Aziz and wiping its mouth.

“Feed me magic!” It reached towards me with its bony fingers, faster than I expected. Sitri jumped in front of me, but it tossed him against the far wall like a sack of potatoes. Puriel launched himself at the creature, gripping it by the shoulders.

“Mmmm, still some on you,” the leech said, licking Puriel’s cheek with a long, forked tongue. I searched for the leech’s thread, and my pulse spiked when I realized I couldn’t see it. The tomb was so dark it was hard to see anything, and the brightness of the torch left spots in my vision. I squinted my eyes until they were almost shut. There was Sitri’s, a bright yellow. And Puriel’s, gray but easily distinguishable against the midnight black. Even Jessie’s thread stood out clearly, much fainter but easy enough to see this deep underground, with no other humans. I could even see the remains of Aziz’s thread – I stared at it for a second, startled. The frayed ends looked like they had been torn roughly in half. The jagged edges floated in opposite directions, out of my field of vision.

Sitri was back up, and he slammed his fist against the creature’s jaw, knocking it off. It flew across the room and shattered against the far wall, spraying loose teeth that bounced around the room before plopping into the water. The creature’s one eye blazed with fury, as it flew out of its stone prison

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