I swept an arm out. “After you.”
He held out his hand. “How about we go together.”
I arched a brow. “Oh, is the big bad rakshasa scared?”
“No,” he said with half a smile. “I just like holding your hand.”
My throat pinched, nostalgia swelling in my chest. “I missed this. Us. Our banter and friendship.”
His expression sobered. “I missed you too, Leela. Now let’s go get that gem.”
The stenchof death that Ravi had picked up on outside of the tunnel didn’t hit me until we were a few minutes along the route, and after that, it only grew stronger. If that wasn’t enough of a clue that this route was cursed, the appearance of piles of bones soon after gave the game away.
“Not human bones,” Ravi said. “Animal…but it still indicates that this is not the safe route.”
Something had killed and eaten these creatures, stripping the meat off their bones so cleanly there was no sinew or tendon left clinging to them.
What creature could do that? Not the ashwing or heatstalkers, surely. This was something else.
We continued in silence, the crystal illuminating our path, Ravi’s hand wrapped tightly around mine.
“Intersection up ahead,” he whispered.
It was the first of many. A slender tunnel leading off to the right. Ravi sniffed the air, his eyes narrowing as we approached. He held a finger to his lips, and I nodded in acknowledgment. We walked past quickly. Silently. And it wasn’t until we were several yards away from it that Ravi spoke.
“I smelled sulfurous residue.”
“Ashwing?”
“I believe so. That slender tunnel was probably an opening into a larger cavern that houses them.”
“Thank goodness we have a map.”
“Indeed.”
We continued past several more tunnels leading off from our route. Some were wide and inviting, others narrow, jagged, and forbidding. My stomach knotted, pulse humming as I remained alert to any sound or smell that might signal attack.
But we were almost halfway to our destination, and there’d been nothing. Had Ravi and the Authority been wrong about this being the dangerous route?
Ravi slowed his pace, his grip on my hand flexing and his nostrils flaring as he read the air around us.
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure. But I want to get past it, and fast.”
We picked up the pace, and after a few seconds, the light ahead turned a strange green hue.
Ravi brought us to a sharp halt. “The air is tainted.” He looked down at the map. “These lines aren’t intersections.” He indicated a bunch of slender lines that merged with the tunnel we were on. “I think these are holes in the rock. I think that’s where the gas is coming from. We can get past it in a couple of minutes.”
Yes, that made sense. “Can you hold your breath?”
He nodded. “Forseveralminutes.”
“Are you a diver?”
He shook his head.
“Then how do you know how long you can hold your breath?”
