Whale Song - Page 20
Truth be told, I found myself idly looking forward to that . . . but first things first.
The intensity of the storm began to increase around us, in part as a response to the creature's approach, but mostly because I was deliberately making the storm worse. Not so much that the creature was likely to notice even if it was generating the storm purposefully as opposed to it just being a byproduct of its awakening . . . but enough that despite the blinding torrent of rain, even if I hadn't been maintaining the light around Diana, I would have still been able to see her perfectly via the illumination of the near-constant lightning.
She stood like a goddess of old in the circle of light, literally putting her soul into the song now, giving it such power that her singing was the the only thing that could possibly be heard over the now omnipresent accompaniment of the thunder. As the forces of the outraged natural elements seethed, she stood unwavering, oaken wand held high and dressed, not in sky, but in runes covering her from head to toe, runes drawn in mud and menstrual blood mixed in a precise manner that they were immune to the sleeting rain, a trick only a few people in all of human history have ever needed to know. The water streamed over her while the air roared with such fury that it whipped her sodden hair about like tiny hissing serpents.
And then the earth behind her began to buckle from the unnatural presence lurking beneath it.
It wouldn't be long now.
A bow wave of mud moved like water as the thing approached her, and I found myself holding my breath. Even the monster that shared my soul watched in silent anticipation, but perhaps that was only because I had clamped down on it so hard that it didn't have any choice in the matter.
This time there would be no warnings.
Still a good five meters outside the circle of light, the mud stopped moving, and something far too knotted and slimy to deserve such a dignified descriptor as “tentacle” wrapped itself around Diana's ankle and began to reel her in like a prize catch.
Wait for it, I had to remind myself. Wait for it!
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