The Primordial Record novel Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Royal Guardsmen

It would take forty-five seconds to get to the Alchemical Laboratory. Maeve intended to make it in five.

She did not just run up the stairs, she leaped from railings to walls, skipping across the space like a buzzing bee. A murderous bee.

With her movements, the railings bent, thankfully they were made of metal, so they could handle the pressure exerted by her actions, but she left deep gouges in the walls as she used them to boost her speed to the next floor.

The entrance to the Alchemical Laboratory was in front of her, and she slowed, the space around her hand flickered, and she held a wicked sharp knife that was curved and serrated at the back, it could slice flesh as well as cut through bones like butter.

She pushed the heavy door open, her eyes taking the yield of every detail inside. The windows were broken, with the shards scattered around the floor, and a shape clad in dirty robes stood before the egg.

Maeve quietly walked inside, avoiding the shards of glass on the floor, she saw it was a woman with stringy brown hair tied in a knot, her head swaying side by side. She heard a wet sucking sound, and she saw the woman was running a long black tongue on the egg, sticky saliva running down the egg, her eyes closed as if in bliss.

Okay, she had seen enough. She channeled her rage into focus, knowing she would have to be quick and clean to avoid any excessive amount of disruption to Rowan's transformation.

Maeve charged, crossing the lab in a blink of an eye. The Abomination must have heard, for she turned and Maeve saw the true spectacle.

Wrapped around the chest of the woman was a baby with a wide smile. The mouth of the baby was filled with blackened teeth, and it had been gnawing at the egg. What tied the baby to the woman was her yellow intestines that still dripped with fluid.

This only made her pause for a small moment, but it was enough for the woman to charge at her. Maeve did not stop, she proceeded faster, and she drove low, tackling the female legs from under her. The Abomination fell on her face, which hit the ground with a wet sound.

Maeve stood up quickly, the knife no longer in her hand but buried under the ribs of the woman straight into her heart, the blade was slanted to the side Maeve had twisted the knife when she stabbed the Abomination, shredding the heart inside the chest.

She waved her hand and two short Axes appeared. Maeve was aware, that if this was an Abomination, a blade through the heart would not kill, only decapitation would kill these creatures.

But the series of movements had placed the egg behind her, and that was all that mattered. She stepped forward to finish the job when like a series of still pictures, the Abomination picked itself up.

Two hands jerked and pushed its torso up, its leg rotated and its feet turned backward, a low snarling sound emanated from its throat, and it stood, the joints of the Abomination making snapping sounds like rusted gear.

The Abomination turned to face Maeve, and her appearance was more ghastly, her face was split open from the fall, the tear led from her forehead to the side of her lips exposing the dull gray bones and her squirming muscles underneath, and what bled from her wound was yellow pus, and it was foul-smelling. One eye pocked out of her socket! _{freёwebnovel.com}

The baby on her chest had its eyes rolled up and was showing only the white. It made a low whining sound. The Abomination suddenly crouched like a spider and, moving with deceptive speed like a man-sized insect, attacked.

Maeve let the two Axes fall, and she materialized a Bow and multiple Arrows.

With her right hand holding the arrows, she held the bow with her left and she drew and accurately nocked an arrow using her fingers to thumb an arrow from the pile she held in her hand, she closed an eye, and let loose.

The first arrow went through the right shoulder of the crawling Abomination, the second through the bicep, and the last pinned her hand to the floor, as the Abomination opened her mouth to scream, another arrow went through her throat.