Demon-Killing Sword

20. Basilisk

Before Muninn's eyes, Vivi turned to stone, then Kjell, then Niina. Frozen, she stared, unto stone herself. Huginn's shout startled her from inaction. The snake bore down on them, scales swishing over stone. Muninn threw herself against the wall and balled up. The coat fell over her eyes, and the world went dark.

A loud clatter made her jump. Stone thudded against stone. The statues. Kjell and Vivi and Niina. Hissing came from overhead, so close she could reach out and touch. Muninn shuddered and curled tighter. Pass me by. Pass us by.

Cool scales pressed against her. The girth of the snake pressed her up against the wall. It slithered past. The coils shifted the other way, and she had room to breathe, but only for a second before its body turned back the other way again.

"Where are you?" the snake hissed in a startlingly human voice.

Muninn flinched back. It can speak? Demons hadn't been able to speak for centuries. Then her brows furrowed. Something about that voice... She felt like she'd heard it before. But where? It wasn't as if she'd forget an encounter with a giant snake.

The thick, cool body of the snake pushed her up against the wall again, and there was no time to think. The air was pressed from her lungs. Her body pancaked into stone. She lifted the cloak and peeked back along the snake's body, careful not to peer forward. How much longer is it going to take?

A dozen feet down the hallway, a lump in the snake's gut scraped against the ceiling and the walls. The lump was too big to wiggle back and forth. It filled the hallway completely, save for a few inches at the top corners. Muninn's eyes grew wide. I can't survive that. She'd be crushed to death!

She turned toward Huginn. He was further back along the snake's body, hunkered in the doorway, eyes closed, crumpled into a ball. We have to move! she thought, as loudly as she could.

Nothing. He didn't shift.

Huginn! Move!

He swiveled to face her at that, unerringly homing in on her thoughts despite his closed eyes. He shook his head.

Annoyed, Muninn scrunched up her face and summoned the memory of the snake filling up the whole hall.

Huginn's eyebrows lifted. He stood, then staggered as the snake's coils pushed into his legs. Again, he shook his head.

Muninn risked a glance forward. Not far down the hall, a door opened into the grand hall. She glanced back. The lump in its gut dragged nearer with every passing second. "Huginn," she whispered.

He shook his head.

Muninn glared at him, then closed her eyes. If I can't convince him to move... She pictured the hallway between the two of them. The image floated before her eyes, every detail of the memory pristine and perfect. The snake's body wriggled languidly from one side to the other in the memory, exactly as it had seconds ago. The scales pulled away from the doorway where Huginn was hidden, and a gap opened before him.

Come now! she thought at him, and focused on the memory at the same time. If he could see her thoughts, then surely he could see when she was thinking about a memory, right? He'd done it before.

Soft footsteps closed the distance. She felt a hand slide into hers.

The blockage was almost upon them. Two or three wriggles back, it dragged ever closer, dry scales scratching dry stone. Muninn turned forward, careful to keep her eyes cast down, away from the snake's head. The snake pressed them both into the wall, and then wiggled away again. In the gap, Muninn dragged Huginn forward. Behind her, the snake's body rushed close. It threatened to close on her, shove them both against the wall and pin them there until it was too late. With every step, it caught up an inch, closer and closer behind her. Scales clipped her heels, dragged at her shoes and tried to pin her down.

The doorway loomed up. Muninn shoved Huginn into it, then paused. The hallway circled the grand hall. If the snake kept moving forward, their exit would be cut off! If it realized it had them trapped...

Or she could trap it first.

"Hey, snake! Stupidhead! Back here!" she shouted, as loud as she could.

"Muninn!" Huginn gasped, terrified.

Faster than she'd thought possible, the snake whipped back on itself. Muninn shut her eyes, but too late. She caught a glimpse of its head, of its—

—single eye? One eye was open in the center of the snake's forehead. Its other two eyes were shut tight.

There was no time to ponder it. The snake rushed towards her, scything over its own body as it lunged. Muninn held her ground. She fixed her eyes on the tip of its nose, not its eyes, and waited. Closer and closer, until she could smell its rotten breath, see the slits in its nose. I miscalculated. I'm going to die.

The snake stopped dead. It jerked toward her once, twice, then tried to double back again, but it couldn't. Though the flat head and thin neck had fit, its full body twice over was too wide for the hallway. It hissed at her, angry. "Give up the sword!" it howled.

Muninn stuck out her tongue and dove into the grand hall.

Before she could come to her feet, Huginn was there. "You looked at it." He grabbed her arm and held her still while he examined her. "Your... there's no stone. You looked at its face, but you're fine?"

"The eyes were closed," Muninn said.

Huginn furrowed his brows. "The one wasn't."

She tugged out of his grasp and ran for the opposite door. "Does it matter? I'm not stone. Let's get out of here before it breaks free!"

He hesitated a moment longer, then shook his head and raced after her. "You're insane."

A/N: Productive weekend! We're coming up on the climax here, folks, probably about 3/4s of the way through the rising action. not super close, but still, I'm excited to get it all out to you! Nearly as excited as I am scared >.< there's some big reveals coming up in the next ten parts or so, so hang on and look forward to them! :D

As ever, don't forget to vote and comment! Happy to hear your thoughts and opinions :)