The third excerpt from Errand Girl for the Dead [Click here to just purchase the whole book]
Everything seemed stable when I finished, but then the third leg popped off, sending a vibration to the ground. I swung back to it again, this time using persuasion and the hammer to beat it into place before tacking it down again. I gave the other legs the once over as a clap of thunder rolled so loud it might as well been inches above my head. A few seconds later, a flash of lightning hit the ground next to the tower then more thunder, scaring the shite out of me. Several stories above the ground on a metal tower was not the place you wanted to be in a lightning storm.
I had leaned on one of the beams to catch my breath and figure out how to get down when white pincers waved just outside my vision. I turned and hit the larva in the face, or at least the part that had the pincers. The rest of its hundreds of legs held fast, and it swung at me again. I hit its pincer face thing with my hammer, and warm larva juice sprayed my face. I hit it again, and it fell off the tower as I vomited.
I leaned into the rain to wash larva juice and puke off me. Another set of pincers got me in the neck, because of course they travel in packs. I wrapped my legs around the rope and pushed off the tower, then swung back and cracked hammer into the larva and got another faceful of the warm acidic goop. I knocked it off the tower without puking this time, which gave me a little swell of pride. As the huge bug flailed in the air, it wrapped its pincers around the rope and cut it in half to send it whipping wildly through the air. I threw up a magiera shield to block the snapping line and it hit the shield so hard that a small bolt of magiera arced, hitting me in the face and knocking me off the tower.
The bolt then arced over the metal tower structure to zap one of the larva climbing up. I reached with my bad arm to catch myself, and white heat once again blazed through my side. The magiera was so potent I could pull it through the metal. I moved to one of the beams, still pulling healing power. After a bit my shoulder held my weight again, but it was still pissed at me.
There were at least six grandipede larvae heading for me, drawn by the vibration and the smell of their dead. I was exhausted and didn’t have the power to fight them all, not with my shoulder trying to heal.
I hope you liked it! You can get the rest of the book here by clicking here