The Viper's Fangs (Book 2) (35 page)

2

The slab of stone slid into place behind Giorge’s corpse as
it stepped through the entrance and moved slowly forward. It was an unseeing
corpse, an unfeeling corpse, a dead body animated only by the magic of the
curse. But it was enough.

He walked up to the open sarcophagus. It was a small one,
little larger than that of a child’s, and it fit him perfectly as he stepped
into it. He turned around as the lid slowly closed in upon him and snapped
softly into place. There were indentations in the lid that perfectly matched
the position and size of the Viper’s Breath, the Viper’s Eyes, and the Viper’s Fangs.

A green aura surrounded the corpse for several seconds, and
then retreated into the Viper’s Breath. A moment later, that gem squeezed out
of his chest with a soft popping sound and slid into the opening waiting for it.
The Eyes followed quickly thereafter. Then the Fangs.

When all three were in place, they abruptly disappeared,
taking the green aura with it.

A few seconds passed.

The corpse took a quick, short breath.

After a brief pause, it took a second, longer, deeper breath.

On the third breath, the eyes opened….

3

Not far away, just below a newly formed conical cave, a
short, sharp, downward trail was etched deep into the snow. At the end of that
trail, buried in a cocoon of snow, was a small pocket of air. It wasn’t a cave;
it was a hollowed out shell melted into the surrounding snow and ice. It went
straight down to a granite shelf, and at the bottom was a curled-up ball
wrapped in a black robe, a hand still jutting out, desperately clinging to a
wand.

One of the fingers twitched….

###

Thank you very much for reading
The
Viper’s Fangs
! I hope you liked it, and if you did, a review would be much
appreciated. It will also encourage me to work on the next book in the series
(the working title is
The Golden Key
), which I hope to finish early in 2015.
In the meantime, you might want to consider purchasing one or more of my other
works.
The Drunken Wizard’s Playmates
, for instance, is a short,
humorous fantasy novel that might appeal to you.

Thanks again!

Robert