The Song and the Serpent

The sound of footsteps echoed through the vast chamber. Adan awoke and sat up. He wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep.

Several of the prisoners stirred and tried to locate the source of the noise, a loud bang that had disturbed their rest, but the cavernous temple was darker than the cloudiest night. They could see nothing.

For a moment, they all breathed heavily in the silence. Then they heard a loud clap, and the torches along the wall blazed to light once more.

Dias the Priest stood in the same place he had been before, his hands held up, displaying his abnormally long fingers. For a second time, he had clapped his hands and the torches had been rekindled.

“How does he bloody do that?” Kian muttered next to Adan.

Dias’s acolytes surrounded him in a semi circle, facing the large pit in the center of the room.

“From flesh to spirit, from spirit to flesh, all will see the domination of the One,” the devotees chanted together.

“Is that all you can say?” Shouted a warrior, three cages over from Adan.

The worshippers ignored him.

“Once again, great one, we come to you with the gifts you desire,” Dias continued to chant among the assembly. “We give these souls to you, and ask in turn for your favor. We call upon your name, that you may continue to reveal to us the mysteries of the universe.”

Eight of the white robed acolytes left the semicircle and began walking toward the base of the steps.

“Prepare yourselves,” said Rocco.

Adan felt his heart rate increase.

The eight priests made their way to the first cage and surrounded the cage door. One acolyte stepped forward and threw his hood back, revealing blond hair, cut close to his head and a thin pale face. He produced an iron key from the folds of his robe and unlocked the cell door. As he did the rest of the devotees unsheathed their long knives and held them at the ready.

The door of the first cage was opened.

“The first offering will now leave their cage,” Dias commanded.

With some reluctance, the five warriors left their cage, eyeing the long knives held by their captors. Adan half expected the acolytes to begin slicing and stabbing his companions on the steps, but instead they were escorted back down to the main floor. In complete silence, the eight priests led the five men over to the edge of the large circular pit that sat in the center of the temple.

At another gesture from Dias, a dozen more torches ignited, revealing the inside of the stone cut cavity in greater detail. The black walls were smooth, leading down to a sandy floor. Adan could see small objects peppering the sand in several places, but he couldn’t identify them. On the far side of the pit, a giant trapdoor lay closed on the sand. Thick beams of some kind of hardwood had been secured together with large iron bands to create the heaviest trapdoor Adan had ever seen. Three long chains ran up into the darkness and then back down to three large iron cranks secured to the stone floor on the main level.

A large iron fence, like a tall railing, encircled the edge of the pit.

Not a pit, Adan realized. An arena.

A horrible suspicion began to grow in Adan’s mind.

The five prisoners were led to an iron gate that interrupted the fence. The torchlight had illuminated a wrought iron staircase spiraling down from the gate to the floor of the arena. Another acolyte removed the hood covering his head, revealing a heavy set face with the same blond hair, cropped to his skull. His face was as pale as the first devotee to produce a key.

This second man unlocked the gate. Iron hinges creaked as it swung open.

The five unarmed men stared through the open gate, leading down into the area, then back at their white robed captors.

The acolytes gestured toward the opening.

When the prisoners didn’t move, they brandished their knives and took a menacing step forward.

A sense of helplessness overwhelmed Adan as he watched the five warriors step through the opening and reluctantly descend the staircase. The sound of their bare feet on the metal of the steps echoed through the temple like warning bells, signaling the coming ruination. This ritual was alien to him, but he could feel the evil in this place, and he knew something horrific was about to happen.

Once they had reached the bottom of the steps, the heavyset acolyte closed the door and turned the key in the lock.

As soon as the click of the lock sounded through the vast emptiness, the remaining worshippers moved to the edges of the arena, forming a large circle around the pit.

“Open the door!” Dias cried, his voice in a fever pitch of excitement.

Somewhere in the darkness, the sound of grinding met their ears. A moment later, the three large chains hanging from the ceiling rattled as they were pulled tight.

Adan’s view of the pit was in part obscured by the white figures surrounding the pit, but he could see a little through the gaps in between them.

With a deep groan, the giant trap door on the arena floor began to rise. As the chains pulled against the immense weight as the heavy structure, the acolytes slowly reached up and removed their hoods from their heads. All of them shared the same close cut hair— all of them except their hairless chief.

“And that you may know the supremacy of the One we serve, you have been given the freedom to choose your weapons,” said the priest.

Adan watched through the gaps as the five warriors picked up some of the dark objects that were scattered in the sand. From the way they held the objects, Adan could tell they were weapons, mostly swords and awes.

“They will do you no good,” Dias proclaimed.

The five trapped warriors gathered together near the bottom of the staircase, opposite the giant opening door, weapons at the ready. Adan watched as the wooden blockade continued to lift. A black pit slowly became visible, leading down into the bowels of the temple.

“Maker help them,” Adan heard Rocco whisper.

Once the trapdoor was fully lifted, the chains stopped moving and a thick silence filled the temple. No one breathed, neither captive nor captor. All stood in expectant silence, staring at the black maw that had just been revealed.

A high pitched hissing, almost like a whistle, filled the air. It was quiet at first, before swelling until it echoed in the high roofless chamber.

“No…” said Rocco. Adan heard sudden understanding in his voice. “No! Look out”

Something long and thin and dark came quickly out of the opening, heaving itself onto the sand before coiling up in front of the trapdoor.

An angular head emerged from the coils and opened its mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth. Two three-fingered claws sat at the base of the head like two hands coming out the side of its neck, each one with sharp talons at the fingertips. The gigantic creature was many times the size of a man.

“A drynth!” someone shouted.

Several of the men in the arena gave a cry of fear.

“You twisted mongrels!” Kian shouted, but the worshippers of the serpent didn’t hear him. They had begun to chant together in a language Adan didn’t recognize, swaying back and forth while spewing words that they appeared to know by heart.

The long, scaly body writhed and roiled on the sand. The five warriors held a ready position together, waiting to see what the creature did.

The high pitched hissing grew even louder until it hurt Adan’s ears.

With blinding speed, the creature’s head flew forward, straight toward the group.

Then men dove aside, evading the monstrous jaws and the drynth struck the sand where they had stood an instant before. They had leapt in all directions in a desperate attempt to escape, and they all jumped to their feet, surrounding the creature's head.

The serpent reared up and struck at a man who stood alone, farthest from the rest of the group. The man stumbled back and lifted his sword, but too late. His blade was knocked back as the enormous jaws closed around him.

The chanting worshippers weren’t loud enough to drown out his scream of terror and agony as the creature’s teeth sank into his flesh.

Adan slammed his hand into the bars. Kian shook with rage, and Rocco lowered his head.

Another warrior on the drynth’s right flank rushed forward with an ax and swung at the serpent’s exposed side. His blade couldn’t pierce the scaly armor, but the monster felt the impact of the weapon. It spat the killed warrior from its mouth and hissed. The beast’s tail whipped through the air and struck the warrior square on his back.

There was a loud crack, and the man fell limp to the sand.

The drynth curled back on itself, toward the remaining three warriors, who had grouped back together. They held a tight formation, watching the creature’s every move.

There was a clamor from the rest of the prisoners, but the acolytes simply chanted all the louder. Their speed increased as the grisly spectacle unfolded in the arena.

The remaining warriors moved together toward the iron staircase, apparently hoping to use the structure as a shield. The clever beast however cut them off and stood between them and the steps for a moment.

Then it struck again.

The men jumped backwards in an attempt to stay together and evade the beast, but they were too slow. The drynths jaws closed on one of the warrior’s legs. He cried out as he was dragged away, lifted up in the air, and hurled at a nearby wall.

With two sickening thuds, his body hit the wall and then fell to the sand. He didn’t rise again.

Adan trembled, clenching his fists as he watched the drynth circle the remaining two warriors. Angry tears were streaming down his face. Why was this atrocity happening?

The two warriors stood together, looking death in the face as the beast continued to eye them and hiss.

“Blast it all!” One of them shouted. “Let’s get this over with!”

He charged forward, ax in hand, with his fellow not far behind.

The creature lunged, whipping its long tail forward from behind. The giant head dodged to the side, avoiding the swing of the first warrior’s ax. The large claws on the side of drynths head flexed, opening wide and striking the warrior as it passed him. The man flew backward before landing in a bloody heap.

The second warrior was struck by the enormous tail. The loud crack rang through the temple as his spine snapped.

Kian sank to his knees, pounding on the bars. He was saying something about Sithril’s followers, but Adan wasn’t listening. Rocco had turned his back, and plugged his ears before the final blow.

The smell of blood wafted up to Adan, and he resisted the urge to vomit.

The white robed acolytes continued to chant, growing steadily louder and faster.

The drynth slithered around the circular sand pit, inspecting the bodies. The serpent stopped at the first man it had killed and opened its maw again, scooping the body up and swallowing.

The rest of the prisoners made exclamations of horror. There would be no burial, no remains for those taken by the monster.

Adan couldn't watch anymore.

Turning away from the arena, he sat with his back against the cage, his head bowed in despair.

Sooner or later, they would all meet the same fate, dying like rats in a trap, food for the slithering god of Undelma.

Kian had stopped shouting. The acolytes continued to chant louder and louder. The prisoners gradually grew silent until the hideous incantation filled the air.

Then, without warning, it stopped.

Adan turned and looked just in time to see the giant tail disappear into the hole where the drynth had emerged. The great door slowly lowered into place, and with a resounding boom, the torches in the arena flickered out all at once.

The arena was black again, hiding the red stains in the sand. But the smell of blood lingered in the stale air.

The acolytes began filing to their trapdoor, leading into the lower rooms. One by one, they disappeared, leaving only Dias the Priest, standing next to the arena and gazing down into the blackness.

The Chief Priest eventually sat down on the stone floor, cross legged and with his head bowed. He said something that Adan couldn’t hear, as if speaking to himself, before lifting his hands over his head and clapping once.

The remaining torches instantly went out, plunging everyone and everything into darkness once more.