Birthright: The Hag’s Contract by John Betancourt

Author:John Betancourt [Betancourt, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7869-0496-9
Publisher: Fanversion Publishing
Published: 2021-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

It took them half an hour to make it safely down to the opening of the cave. Bowspear insisted on slow, careful progress. If the troll they’d killed had a mate, he didn’t want to lose any more men to her.

By the time they reached the cave’s mouth, the sun had begun to disappear behind the peaks. Bowspear paused, listening over the moan of the wind, but heard nothing from within. Cautiously, he stepped inside.

The smell hit him first, a deep musky stench of excrement and rotting meat. Truly, the troll’s cave was the most ghastly place he had ever been before. The floor was covered with half-gnawed bones, and a few of them still had flesh attached. They had to be from goblins, he thought, noting how thick they were.

The troll had evidently made this his lair for many years. Rocks had been piled in the front opening, closing it up to what must have been a narrow passage for the troll, though two men could have passed through it shoulder to shoulder.

”There’s Yuri,” Nakkar said softly, pointing to one corner.

Bowspear squinted and could just make out a headless form there, tossed aside like a child’s doll, a broken, lifeless heap. Swallowing, covering his nose against the stench, he moved forward, grabbed Yuri’s arm, and began to drag him to the ledge. He didn’t deserve to be left in here, forgotten amid the countless bones of goblins, Bowspear thought. They’d build a stone cairn for him on the ledge outside.

After a second’s hesitation, the others moved to help. It was the least they could do for their friend.

As he stepped out of the troll’s cave, though, a guttural voice called, ”Hold there!” and he felt the sharp tip of a spear thrust up against his spine.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.