“The tracks stop here,” she announced as Evin and Jorick came to her side. “This must be where the gnolls were headed.”

Evin looked over the ruins skeptically. “Where?” he asked. “All I see are broken buildings and vines. There’s nothing here.”

Betilivatis sighed. “The trail doesn’t lie,” she said. “We’re here.”

“Well, then, Bet,” Jorick said. “Maybe you should check your spell and make sure you did it right.” Waving his hand toward the ruins, he stomped his foot. “Do you see any gnolls? Any villagers?”

Betilivatis crossed her arms. “I did it right.”

She and Jorick continued to bicker, but Evin ignored them.

Something deep within the ruins had caught his eye.

He wound past fallen stone homes until his two companions were out of sight, their voices faded.

Mud squelched beneath his boots as he reached the edge of the riverbank. He crouched behind an ornate column that had fallen across the rapids, turning the column into a makeshift bridge.

The setting sun cast deep shadows through the ruins. Evin tuned out the sounds of the river and focused his eyes forward.

Something was moving by a headless statue. Something large and not human.

The creature stopped for a moment as if to study the statue. Then it resumed moving—slithering almost—through the ruins. Evin watched as the thing rounded a pile of stone blocks and came out of the shadow cast by a nearby wall.

Evin took in a sharp breath. The creature was tall, maybe five times as tall as Evin, and immensely fat. Its body looked like a blue-gray maggot, only blown up to about a million times the size.

The monster held itself like a snake ready to strike. Its head was wide and fat, with a big gash of a mouth filled with sharp yellow teeth. Two crimson eyes darted back and forth between the destroyed buildings, as though searching for something. Two pairs of hands attached to two pairs of stubby, muscular arms reached out, grasping at the air.

This creature was bigger than anything Evin had ever seen, and his insides seized with fear. He took a step back as quietly as he could from the river and the fallen column.

Evin’s foot hit a loose stone. The stone clattered away.

The monster’s eyes stopped searching. Instead, they looked in the direction where Evin stood. And then, the monster began to head straight at him.

Chapter Nine

Evin crept backward, still in a crouch, keeping his eyes on the bulbous creature. It was definitely heading in his direction, but it was taking its time, stopping every now and again to lean over, pick up a piece of stone, and peer beneath it. The creature’s body would swell momentarily before shrinking back to its normal size after examining each stone—as though it took in an annoyed breath—and then it would continue moving.