The First Emergence

For Spooktober 2024, word "petrifying"

contains major spoilers for The Prince's Song

The earth in the courtyard swelled and shifted, shaking bushes and the small trees. The decorative stones shook and fell over as the ground heaved beneath them.

Kayvin spun to his mother and grabbed her arm. “Come on,” he snapped. “We have to get you out of here!”

“Leave me!” she answered, trying to pull free. “You can be faster without me.”

“No!”

And then the earth erupted, and a lizard’s head broke free, shaking dirt as a dog shakes water.

“Turn away!” Rasetsunyo ordered, shielding her eyes,. “Look away from it now!”

Galen could not. The dog-sized creature pulled itself from the hole, wriggling forward like a snake but with short, unimpressive limbs which seemed useless to anything that size. A frill of loose skin hung behind its head, and its golden eyes—

Someone seized Galen and jerked him away, spinning him so that his back was to the monster. “Do not look!” Kayvin ordered. “Do not meet their eyes! It is death!”

Fair night.

The monster looked across the courtyard, opening its mouth and calling in—birdsong. Galen was startled by the sound and realized he had expected a squawk or a roar, like a dragon of story. But instead the creature sang in a beautiful lilting voice.

Caught in its song, Galen stared, watching the monster’s profile. The teeth were large and yellow, when the lips shifted to bare them, and its eyes were unnaturally large and brightly colored.

Its eyes—they were the amulets’ eyes, the amulets, they were eyes taken from these creatures, whatever they were, and their magic—

Kayvin pulled Galen away and struck him across the face. “Do not look at them!” he shouted. “Do not look into their eyes!”

Galen could not spare the time or worry for offense at the blow. “What happens?” he asked. They were at the back of the balcony, and he could hear screams from all around the palace, inside and out. He did not remember how they came here.

“Paralysis,” said Kayvin shortly, tearing his robe. “You stare into their eyes and you forget yourself, forget time, forget to run. I don’t know what you think about, but it isn’t about self-preservation.”

“And then?”

“And then they eat you.”

Galen gulped. “I was thinking about their eyes. About the magic.”

“That magic would lead you straight to certain death.”

Kayvin’s mother Rasetsunyo handed Galen a strip of ragged cloth, trailing threads. “Tie this around your face.”

“To filter the air?”

“To filter your vision.” She demonstrated, tying the strip like a blindfold about her eyes. “If you can see just a little, but not clearly, you may be able to withstand the effect.”

Oh, that’s no good, said everyone. Harry Potter also used that schtick and people will think you copied. We’ll have to change it to something else.

Galen shielded his eyes with one hand — keep a hand at the level of your eyes, touching your eyebrow — and turned to look for Lisveth. “I have to get to her. She won’t know not to look at them.”

“We have some time,” Kayvin said. “Even if she looks and is transfixed, she’s further inside the palace and higher up. They won’t reach her as quickly; we have time to go and retrieve her.”

The basilisk lifted its head and sang, a questioning trill. Then it crouched on its stumpy, silly legs and made a little jump into the palace wall. Its claws slipped and then gripped the stone.

Galen’s heart spasmed. “It will find Lisveth,” he said. “We have to get there first.”

Kayvin looked at him and it was obvious his lips wanted to form the word no. But instead he said, “We’ll have to hurry.”