Page 20 of Whispers of Ruin
Even if she cast a protective spell around herself, those things would swarm her the second they saw her and bring her down. She was far better off being invisible to them, something she’d realized, but she still acted like it was a burden for her.
Fuck her.
That would be fun.
He shook his head to rid it ofthatidea; it would not happen. She was making that abundantly clear.
He drew the shadows around them, cloaking them in their embrace and making them invisible to the monsters still pummeling each other on the stairs. Moving silently forward, Brokk tried not to grimace at the horrible sounds the creatures made, but they sounded like a cross between squealing pigs and irate cats as they beat each other senseless.
He had no idea what they were trying to prove with their strange game, but more than a few of them lay broken and unmoving along the staircase and at the bottom of it.
Their big green ears flopped with their movements while their humanoid-like features twisted with wrath. They had big, red, bulbous noses that reminded him of the humans’ clowns, and their razor-sharp teeth clacked as they screeched and bit into each other.
More than a few had the arm or leg of a fellow gremlin dangling from their mouths. They’d ripped the appendages from their fellow monsters, and some used them as weapons to pulverize the others as they gradually made their way up the staircase.
Their bodies were more human than monster. No taller than three feet, they had legs and arms, but the tips of their fingers ended in three-inch-long nails that looked more like knives as they rose high before flashing down to slice into flesh.
Beside him, Kaylia shuddered a little before going still again. The gremlins climbed higher while ripping each other down and throwing their brethren to the bottom. It was like they were playing some demented game.
Brokk had no idea what that game was, but he was certain they were all losing. And there was no way they would get past all their compact bodies to the top of those stairs. There was no room for them to go unnoticed while climbing.
Shit.They were so close to getting free, yet these repugnant little beings blocked their way.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Most of thecreatures were clustered near the bottom of the stairs. They were the ones who had been tossed aside, battered, and ripped apart, yet they still screeched and squawked while beating each other.
Leaning closer to Kaylia, Brokk whispered in her ear. “If we leave, will we find another way out?”
It was pointless to stand here when they had no chance of escaping. Kaylia looked longingly at the door before nodding. He understood her reluctance to leave behind the only exit they’d found so far, but staying here and trying to get through these things wasn’t an option.
They started to edge their way away from the creatures and the carcasses littering the ground around the stairs when one of them finally made it to the top. Once there, it released an ear-piercing shriek, tipped its head back, and pounded its chest with fisted hands.
Its ears flopped back until they nearly touched the ground before the gremlin lifted its head, raised its arms, and jumped up and down while turning in a small circle. It had become the winner in their sick game.
The others all stopped to watch as the winner started down the steps. Its feet kicked out extra far, and it practically skipped as it bared its jagged teeth in an ear-splitting grin.
The other gremlins moved out of its way, gathering at the far edges of the stairs and risking falling over the edge as no banister or wall protected them from doing so. Those gremlins bowed so low their foreheads touched the ground, as did the tips of their ears.
What is going on now?
When the champion stepped off the last step and lifted his hands into the air while screaming again, the others all rose. Some clapped the winner on the back, but many retreated to settle on the pristine blue sky… except the sky was far from pristine in this area.
A lake of red was at the base of the stairs and spreading across the blue. Some of the blood was darker and crusted like it had been there for a while; other sections were a vibrant, scarlet shade that seeped across the sky.
Some of the creatures lifted bits of discarded meat and started eating. Most of those parts looked like they were from some of the animals who roamed Doomed Valley. They must have fallen into this mirror realm too, and some of the pieces looked like they belonged to immortals who had met the same fate.
The winner sauntered over to a larger, newer beast, ripped its leg off, and stuck it in his mouth. As it walked, the others scampered to get out of the gremlin’s way; they revealed more remains as they did so… most of those remains were more gremlins.
Brokk’s stomach churned with revulsion for these monstrous things. They might be the most repulsive creatures he’d ever encountered, which was saying a lot.
As the winner walked through the crowd, Brokk realized their strange stair-climbing game had made this one their king, leader, or whatever these creatures called whoever ruled over them.
The new head gremlin settled himself onto a rack of picked-dry ribs. He draped one arm over a glistening bone while happily chewing on the hairy leg he’d claimed as his.
Judging by the freshness of that leg, the gremlins must have had some other unfortunate victim come through here recently. When it did, the gremlins attacked and killed it, but not before it destroyed a few of them, too.
One of those they killed must have been their former leader. The stair game had been their insane way of crowning a new ruler.
