KINGDOM OF THE STONE -- a Wattpad featured novel

Chapter Forty Nine

The children grumbled, grunted and growled in their pens. Amantis could tell they were agitated, though no sound of the disturbance above could reach their stoma. Amantis fed them using the last of the raw goats. One of them lunged forward, a flash of scales and serrated teeth snapped at him from the shadows.

Amantis chuckled. "I know what you want. I think you'll get your taste of man-flesh soon." He glanced up at the roof of the stoma, imagining what was taking place above. Had Ctonos been stopped? Was Karux's soreav attacking even now? "Only be patient a little while longer."

He waited, fearing armed men might find his cellar and the secret passage. He had been foolish to not bring a weapon with him. He looked around, hoping to find some tool he could use as a weapon, even a rock or a stick he could use as a club. He spied the stone knife with which he had slain Ctonos. It was too small to be very threatening, but it was wicked sharp and easily concealed.

Amantis waited until he could no longer withstand the curiosity and crept up into the cellar. He heard a distant pounding on the door above and quietly slipped up the stairs, ready to bolt for the stoma below at the first crack of breaking wood.

"Oracle! Oracle! Your wife is giving birth! You must come!"

Amantis raced to the door. He put his hand to the wooden bar and paused. "Ctonos? Where is he?" he called out.

"He took the stone and left," came the muffled reply.

"And the oracle of the north? His spears?"

"They are attacking the city, but are so far unable to break through the barrier. You must hurry, Oracle. Your wife has gone into labor, but she hasn't the strength to deliver the child. The midwife fears they both will be lost!"

Amantis put the lamp on a shelf and lifted the beam from the door. He cracked the door open and peered out.

Three of the Faithful Sons awaited him with anxious faces.

"Take me to her."

As they raced along the corridor and up a flight of stairs, Amantis mourned the loss of his stone and his link to the Lords of the Beyond. Seeing the guards outside Charissa's room he realized he still had a link to the High Lord's through the child. He didn't need the stone after all!

At his approach, a guard opened the door and Amantis stepped through with a renewed confidence. He caught a quick glimpse of Charissa lying in her bed beneath a sweat-soaked sheet, her eyes closed beneath a frown of pain. The midwife stepped up and trembled fearfully before him.

"Her strength is fading fast. She will die before the baby can come."

"Garanth... Where's Garanth?" Charissa moaned.

Amantis looked around for the little brat who always seemed underfoot and saw him peeking around the open door. "Close that," he said to one of the guards.

The guard closed the door and Amantis turned back to the midwife. "Is the baby alive right now?"

The midwife wrung her hands. "Yes."

"Inside her?"

"Yes, but it will die with her if not before."

A knocking sounded on the door. "Oracle?"

"What?" Amantis shouted with growing irritation.

The guard outside cracked the door open. "The barrier has been broken. The attackers are in the city."

Charissa let out a groan. Amantis glanced at her then back at the guard. "Send for Apaidia." He closed the door and turned to the midwife, holding up the obsidian knife. A stray beam of sunlight glinted off the serrated edge. "The herdsmen of the north know that when a doe dies during the kidding, the kid can sometimes be saved."