Radiance (Wraith Kings Book 1)(32)
He and Anhuset discussed their plans for moving supplies and additional troops to Saggara as they passed through the palace’s maze of hallways. They’d reached the floor where his and Ildiko’s chamber were located when a scream split the air and bounced off the stone walls. Another followed after it. Brishen felt the bottom drop out from his stomach as he recognized Ildiko’s voice.
“What in the gods’ names...” Anhuset said before they both sprinted down the hall, swords drawn.
Brishen shoved aside a guard who’d joined in the chase, frantic to reach his wife. He rounded the corner and halted abruptly. Anhuset narrowly missed careening into him, her curses salting the air. He ignored her.
Ildiko stood in the hall, motioning frantically to her maid. “Hurry, Sinhue. It’s getting away!”
The maid yanked a small axe from the weapons fan that decorated a patch of wall near Ildiko’s door. She raced to her mistress and handed her the weapon. Neither woman noticed their would-be rescuers.
“Do you see it?”
“It’s gone up the wall. If it gets too high, I won’t be able to reach it.”
Anhuset thumped Brishen on the shoulder. “What is ‘it’?”
He wasn’t waiting to find out and chased after the two women as they disappeared around another curve in the hallway. His heart wedged into his throat at the sight that greeted him.
Ildiko and Sinhue jumped about as if they walked barefoot on hot coals, their gazes frozen on the wall in front of them. Ildiko held the axe in front of her, swatting at a large shadow clinging to the stones.
The “it” was a scarpatine—a big female with venom sacs swollen to the size of plums beneath her arching tail. The stinger glistened in the half-light, droplets of yellow venom splashing across her armored back onto the floor where they sizzled and birthed tendrils of black smoke.
Before Brishen could yell at Ildiko to back away, the scarpatine scuttled toward her, its many legs flexing as it prepared to leap on its victim and sink the venomous barb into flesh. Sinhue shrieked, as did Ildiko before she swung the axe. The flat of the blade caught the insect broadside, and Brishen heard bells as metal slammed against stone. The ringing sound was muted by the wet crack of crushed insect shell and innards.
Brishen caught the axe just as it fell from Ildiko’s fingers. He handed the weapon to Anhuset and spun Ildiko one way and then the other. Her hair, half out of its braid, flew into her face, and she scraped it away to stare at him wide-eyed.
“Did you get any of the venom on you, Ildiko?” He ran his hands over her face, her neck, across hers shoulders and breasts, hunting for any tell-tale patches of burnt cloth or the reactive sting on his own skin if he brushed against venom splatters. The wall displayed a mural of dead, smeared scarpatine smoking black in the dim light, and the hall reeked with the smell of rotten fish.
Ildiko pushed his hands away. “I’m fine, Brishen.” She scowled. “I can’t believe the Kai eat those disgusting creatures. I can’t believe I ate one.”
Anhuset spoke up, and Brishen didn’t imagine the amusement in her voice. “We eat the males. The females are too venomous.” She glanced at Brishen and spoke in a pidgin dialect of bast-Kai Ildiko wouldn’t understand. “She’s handy with a blade. Should you no longer want her as a wife, give her to me. With enough training, she’d make a decent shield mate.”
Brishen saw nothing humorous in the situation. He glanced at the remains of the scarpatine as bits and pieces oozed down the wall. He signaled to one of the guards standing nearby. “Send someone to clean this up.” He turned to Sinhue who hovered close to Ildiko. “I need you to tend to your mistress.”
The maid nodded and bowed. Brishen ushered Ildiko to her chamber, peppering her and Sinhue with questions the entire way.
Ildiko made straight for her wash basin, unlaced the sleeves of her tunic and set to scrubbing her hands and arms. “I don’t know how it got in here, Brishen. Sinhue was helping me dress for dinner. Thank the gods she had the foresight to fold down the bedding early.” She smiled at her servant who handed her a towel to dry her arms. The smile faded. “The thing was hiding under the covers. It jumped at Sinhue before squeezing under the door to escape.”
Brishen and Anhuset inspected the chamber, shaking curtains, crawling under the bed and flipping the mattress off the ropes to check for another hidden menace.
Satisfied that the room was safe and no other scarpatine hid in the wardrobes or chests, Brishen scraped a hand over his face. “You should have let it go, wife. The females are aggressive and their venom strong enough to kill a horse.”
Ildiko gave him a look that spoke of her doubt regarding his intelligence. “And let it lurk in the shadows waiting to ambush some poor unsuspecting soul? You perhaps? Or Anhuset? And what if no one managed to catch it?” She shuddered. “I’d never sleep knowing that thing was creeping about somewhere in the palace.”
He growled low in his throat. “You aren’t a warrior, Ildiko.”
She scowled at him. “No, but I can certainly kill an insect.”
“You sure can,” Anhuset said from her place by the door.
Brishen snapped his teeth at his cousin. “Not another word.” His mind raced. Scarpatines liked warm, dark places, but they disliked the smell of Kai and tended to avoid areas where they gathered such as houses. They were more a danger to hunters and trackers who might stumble across them in the wild or stable hands who learned to be handy with pitchforks when they discovered scarpatines hiding in straw piles.