Belly of the Beast by Warren Thomas (story books for 5 year olds txt) 📕

his back and someone had a knee pressed between his shoulder blades.

            A noise to his right brought Tane’s head around. Armin, unconscious and bleeding from numerous wounds, was dropped beside him. Like himself, the Vikon warrior was bound hand and foot. Then Quinn was thrown down on the other side of Armin, still struggling with his captors despite everything.

            “Are you all right?” Tane asked.

            The half-elf looked as thoroughly beaten as Tane felt. There was an ugly knot over his right eye, and blood seeped from a broken nose and one ear. Quinn’s struggles with his bonds looked weak and half-hearted now that the zombies had stepped back out of reach of his feet.

            “I’ve been in worse shape,” Quinn said through clenched teeth.

            “Did you see Raven and Joelle?” Tane asked. Fearing the answer, he asked quietly, “Did they kill each other?”

            “No,” Quinn said, suddenly ceasing his struggles and looking pensive. “They haven’t moved, but neither have their daggers.”

            “That’s right,” Nizar said, stepping before Tane. “Your friends haven’t died. Not yet.”

            Tane tried to look up at the priest’s face, but he was standing too close. The zombies opened a path for Raven and Joelle. Each still held a dagger.

            A chill coursed through Tane’s body at the sight. Raven and Joelle zombies. And the rest of them just as helpless as their magically enslaved friends. What next? Would they all be joining Raven and Joelle in unholy slavery? Would the next sunset find them all shuffling northward, zombie soldiers of Dakar? Or would the priest have Raven and Joelle kill him and his friends?

            Kamain, what am I going to do? What should I do?

            “I hope you have reconsidered your opposition to cooperating with my...with our Divine Master,” Nizar said when Raven arrived with Joelle.

            Tane was silently grateful that Raven and Joelle didn’t threaten each other with daggers again. Where there was life, there was hope. They were all still alive, and together, despite their predicament.

            “It’s kind of difficult to think properly while tied up like a hog for the slaughter,” Tane said, trying to act casual. “And threatening my friends doesn’t make me any more interested in helping you, either.”

            Nizar growled low in his throat.

            “Maybe this will help,” he said, turning to Raven. “Harlot, kill the witch.”

            “NO!” Tane cried.

            “Kill her!” Nizar commanded.

            Raven stepped to Joelle’s right rear and seized the witch’s hair in one hand and raised the dagger to Joelle’s throat. She pulled Joelle’s head back and prepared to pull the razor-keen blade across the witch’s exposed throat.

            “No,” a deep, commanding voice said. “Not yet, slave.”

            Everyone turned to see a black spot in the air beside the priest begin to expand and elongate. Zombies started falling to their knees, then fell to their bellies before their God and master. Raven and Joelle quickly joined them, bringing a sigh of relief from Tane. Nizar, too, dropped to his knees, his head bowed in reverence.

            “The Black God, Dakar,” Quinn hissed.

            Tane watched in a mixture of horror and fascination as the blackness continued to expand and coalesce into a huge, grotesque shape. Never had he seen any creature so tall, or so terribly evil looking. There was no doubt in his mind that the ancient God of his forefathers had arrived.

            “That’s one bug ugly bastard,” Quinn whispered.

            “Rise and attend me,” Dakar said.

            As Nizar and the zombies rose up around him, Dakar looked over the captives with a satisfied smile. A tremble started in Tane’s belly at the sight of those terrible burning eyes upon himself and his friends, a tremble that quickly spread throughout his body. He tried to tell himself that is was just the cold, but there was no comfort in the lie.

            “Divine Master,” Nizar said, stepping before his God and lifting up Tane’s sword. “The swordsmith’s own sword. I detect no magic.”

            “There is none,” Dakar said, taking the blade and examining it closely. “A well-made blade, no doubt, but not a threat to Me, or a weapon I can use against the Arisen.”

            He tossed it away. Tane noted that Raven casually picked it up. Then the priest caught his attention again, handing over another sword. Raven’s enchanted sword.

            “Ashtar’s harlot carried this sword, Divine Master,” Nizar said. “It is enchanted. And a powerful enchantment, too. Perhaps we can find some use for it.”

            “Yes. A powerful spell, as human magic goes. It is almost as powerful as a Sword of Power, but is no real threat to a God,” Dakar said, more intent in His examination of Tasheba than of Bearclaw. Tane found himself a bit miffed by the unintentional slight.

            “You have done well, Nizar,” Dakar said, handing Tasheba back to Nizar as a trophy. “Now my victory over the Arisen is guaranteed. With the swordsmith, I now have the means to totally destroy Them.”

            Tane was horrified. Dakar would use him to “totally destroy” the Arisen Gods? How would He do that?

            “I’ll not help you, monster!” Tane said.

            Dakar’s eyes, if possible, turned even more sinister and vicious. He bared a mouth full of wicked looking teeth, fangs really, that killed any remaining bravado in Tane’s heart.

            “You’ll do what you’re told to do, mortal,” He said, pointing a long, thick, black-furred finger at Tane.

            White-hot pain lanced through Tane’s body. Every fiber of his existence, both corporal and spiritual, was afire in a pain that he had never guessed possible. It was a pain and horror beyond what he believed awaited the damned in the Seven Firepits of Tyrus.

Chapter 55

            “I...will...not...submit!” Tane croaked out.

            “You will have no choice, mortal,” Dakar said, smiling grimly as Tane writhed in anguish before him.

            Ending the magical torture, He waited for Tane to regain control of his body and emotions, and turn baleful eyes back to Him.

            Dakar smiled, saying, “You are strong, stronger than you know. But now that strength,