Urkot crooned and brushed his claws through her curls. “Good, female.”
“I’m sorry for what I said, Urkot. I didn’t mean it. I…I know you would have helped if?—”
“Shh. I know, Callie. I know. It is okay.”
She released another shuddering exhalation before raising her head and turning back toward the rockfall. Her glistening eyes shone in the dim blue light. “Are we trapped here?”
Reluctantly, he stood up again and set Callie on her feet. He strode to the edge of the rubble and gazed over it once more. There was no sign of the chamber above, and no way to tell how much stone was caught in the opening, awaiting an opportunity to fall.
He hummed, low and deep. Something felt wrong here. He’d seen cave-ins before, when tunnel walls and ceilings weren’t properly reinforced, but this had been different. This lower tunnel had weakened the floor of the above chamber, but the shape of this corridor wasn’t natural.
Bending, he plucked a glowing crystal shard from the rubble and stepped to the wall.
His eyes narrowed as he brushed his fingers over the stone. The grooves and chips it bore were unmistakable.
This tunnel had either been expanded or carved out by hand.
His attention caught on another set of marks on the wall. These were different. Four thinner, shallower lines, running parallel to each other, with the bottom one shorter than the rest. They hadn’t been left by any tools.
Unease spread through Urkot.
Raising a hand, he set his fingers over the marks. His claws lined up perfectly with the grooves. Slowly, he traced the lines with his fingers.
They were claw marks…left by a vrix.
His fine hairs stood on end as his foreboding grew. It was at that moment that he felt it—the faintest breeze through those hairs, a barely-perceptible flow of air along the tunnel, leading deeper.
He looked down the tunnel. The crystal glow continued for only a few more segments, leaving gaping darkness ahead. But that darkness was connected to the surface somewhere.
“We cannot go back,” he said, finally returning his attention to Callie. “But we are not trapped.”
CHAPTER 9
Callie trailedbehind Urkot with her thumbs hooked under the straps of her backpack and her eyes downcast to watch her footing. Thankfully, her solar lantern, held aloft in one of Urkot’s upper hands, cast a bright white light along the passageway, making it much easier to avoid tripping or rolling an ankle. She could only hope it would last long enough for them to find a way out of this place.
This tunnel was nothing like the one she’d followed Ahgratar into. The floor was uneven and covered in rocks, and the walls fluctuated erratically between wide and narrow, and were slanted at such steep angles in spots that Urkot had to duck low to get through.
Besides the sounds of their steps, it was ominously quiet. That silence was oppressive. Any other sound, such as the occasional clatter of a rock, was like booming thunder, putting her more on edge. She was sure the roof would collapse on them at any moment.
Callie squeezed the straps as she glanced past Urkot, deeper into the dark, winding tunnel. Who could say how far they’d have to walk? They could have miles and miles of travel ahead, and that was a discouraging notion. She was already mentallyand physically exhausted, and her eyes were tired from a combination of dust and crying.
Too often, her thoughts returned to the chamber where they’d fallen, back to that lifeless arm sticking out of the debris. Too often, her thoughts returned to the other delvers.
Were they trapped elsewhere?
Had any of them made it out, or…
Were they all dead?
Callie didn’t want to contemplate that. She had to believe some of the thornskulls had survived, that they’d escaped the crystal chamber, that they’d reached safety. She couldn’t…couldn’t…
She couldn’t come to terms with the horrific reality that they’d likely all been crushed to death.
And she and Urkot could’ve shared that fate. Had he not acted so quickly, had he not grabbed her and safeguarded her with his own body…
They’d been impossibly lucky to have survived with nothing more than sore muscles, bruises, and minor cuts and scrapes.
She looked at the vrix in front of her.
