Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 48: Chapter 48: The Root-Eyed Mother

Soren shot forward before Veyr’s ruined mouth could reach the cub.

His white tail slammed into the mud and his hands caught his brother by both shoulders, forcing the infected snake male down with so much force that the black water around them splashed against the rotten roots.

Veyr thrashed under him.

His body was still half Soren’s brother and half something the Rot Nest had chewed too long. One silver eye looked alive for a breath, then the other white clouded eye rolled toward Swanly and the cub in her arms again.

”Life,” Veyr rasped.

Kael dragged Swanly back so hard her feet slipped in the mud.

The second cub clung to Swanly’s neck and shook without sound.

Raku lifted his stone weapon and turned toward the black water behind them because something else had risen there.

At first Swanly thought it was another infected beast.

Then the water peeled open.

A pale body rose from the flood, slow and smooth, as if the black swamp itself was giving birth. Long white hair clung to her shoulders and poured down her naked body in soaked strands, covering some of her skin but not enough to make anyone think she was human.

She was naked.

No one cared.

Not when horns grew from the places where her eyes should have been.

They pushed out from both sides of her face like dead branches, dark and twisted, with small purple flowers clinging to the bark as if something beautiful had bloomed from a wound. Her only eye sat in the middle of her forehead, glowing deep purple and watching all of them with a calm that felt worse than rage.

She had a strangely long neck.

Her arms were long and blackened from the elbows down.

Her fingers ended in dark claws.

Her skin was pale gray with faint purple shadows running under it like old bruises.

She looked hideous.

She looked beautiful.

She looked like something that had once created life and had spent too long trapped among rot.

Swanly raised the bow before her fear could swallow her hand.

”What the fuck is that?”

The black water dripped from the female’s hair and slid down her body, but she did not attack.

She only blinked that single purple eye on her forehead and looked at Swanly as if Swanly had startled her too.

”Oh,” she said softly.

Her voice was sweet.

Too sweet.

It floated over the mud like a lullaby sung beside a grave.

”I am sorry. I did not mean to frighten you.”

Swanly’s fingers tightened around the bowstring.

”It talks.”

She had seen all kinds of infected in her old life. Fast ones, slow ones, rotten ones, ones that still looked almost alive until their mouths opened. She had seen bodies crawl without legs and heads bite without bodies, but she had never seen anything rise from black water and apologize in a voice soft enough to make her skin crawl.

Kael stood in front of her with one arm stretched back to keep her behind him.

Raku’s weapon stayed raised.

Soren was still holding Veyr down, but even his head had turned toward the strange female.

Veyr snapped his teeth at Soren’s wrist.

Soren shoved his brother’s face back into the mud and hissed through clenched teeth.

The strange female tilted her head.

”I followed the scent,” she said.

Swanly’s bow did not lower.

”What scent?”

”Yours.”

Swanly’s stomach tightened.

The female smiled faintly, but it was not a human smile. It was too careful, like she had learned the shape of comfort from watching others and had not used it in a long time.

”No female has survived this deep in the Rot Nest for so long,” she said. ”They usually die before the water grows quiet.”

The second cub trembled harder.

Swanly shifted him higher against her chest and wished she had one more arm so she could cover his ears, hold the bow, and slap every ancient thing in this swamp at the same time.

The female’s purple eye moved to the cub.

Her expression softened.

”I will not touch the young one.”

Kael’s growl rolled low from his chest.

”You will not breathe close to him either.”

The female looked at Kael.

Then at his claws.

Then at Swanly again.

”I mean no harm. I have been trapped here for a very long time, and I was looking for my sisters before the roots forgot the way out.”

Swanly did not understand any of that.

She did not want to understand it yet.

She only knew that another impossible thing had appeared, and none of them had the time or emotional space for one more nightmare with pretty hair.

The female placed one black-clawed hand lightly against her chest.

”My name is Thalara of the Aelari. Some of the roots call me the Root-Eyed Mother, but roots are dramatic things when left alone too long.”

Swanly stared at her.

The softness of her voice made the words more unsettling, not less.

”You are telling me you are not infected?”

Thalara lowered her head slightly.

”I am wounded. I am changed. I am not theirs.”

The word theirs made the water behind her ripple.

Swanly noticed.

So did Soren.

Thalara’s gaze moved toward the deeper forest.

”I can guide you to the old place. It is not safe here after nightfall.”

Swanly laughed once, sharp and breathless.

”This place was safe before nightfall?”

”No.”

The answer came so gently that Swanly nearly lost her mind.

Veyr suddenly bucked under Soren with a broken snarl.

His neck twisted toward Swanly again, and his mouth opened too wide.

”Life,” he rasped, voice wet with hunger and pain.

Swanly flinched back.

Kael’s claws flashed.

Soren slammed Veyr down again.

Mud splattered his face.

Swanly snapped.

”What are you doing there? Kill him.”

The moment the words left her mouth, Soren looked at her.

The hatred in his eyes was so fierce that even Kael’s arm tightened around Swanly.

For the first time, the White Snake looked like he wanted to destroy her.

Swanly’s fear burned into anger.

”Oh no, do not give me that look,” she said. ”You brought us here. I do not want to die because you cannot deal with the infected male trying to bite us.”

Soren’s jaw clenched so hard the muscles moved.

”This is my brother.”