“Excellent,” Jhiton said.
“You need a moon-mark to access it,” Syla warned.
“That won’t be a problem. Did you say you’ve moved the shielder artifact on Castle Island or that it’s still in the same spot?”
“I…” Syla’s suspicion returned, and was that knowing dread creeping into her eyes?
It was hard to tell from behind her, but Vorik believed she’d realized she’d made a mistake.
“Where is the shielder on Vineyard Island?” Jhiton asked.
“I don’t think?—”
A shout came from the depths of the cave system. “Trouble coming! Cave crawlers rushing up this way in a hurry.”
Jhiton stepped back and drew his swords. Vorik released Syla, intending to go with his brother—if the cave crawlers were on the move, something deep in the tunnels had disturbed them.
“Stay here,” Jhiton said. “Keep your prisoner safe. And in place.”
As Jhiton jogged out, several armed men and women from the front of the camp appeared outside their nook. Together, they ran deeper into the cave complex.
Scant seconds passed before the person who’d shouted the first warning yelled, “A kraken moved into the underground lake!”
Vorik cursed. He’d been joking when he and Jhiton had spoken about the possibility, but such threats were real in their world and always had to be expected.
We’ve engaged with the Freeborn dragons,Agrevlari told Vorik.They’ve claimed to be hunting and seeking shelter from a storm that’s starting to batter the coastline, but we believe they’re looking for your queen.
“When the mad god sends a storm, he sends a hurricane,” Vorik muttered the old saying.
Yavaron shook her head, returned the needle to Syla’s medical kit, and picked up her own healing supplies. “I’m going to be needed out there.”
More warriors ran through the tunnel as cries of engagement came from the underground lake. Pig-like squeals accompanied the shouts of men. The cave crawlers. They would be fleeing the kraken, but they had claws and sharp teeth, making them threats on their own, and if they saw the stormers as obstacles to escape, they would be vicious. The cave kraken, of course, made no sounds. Such creatures never did.
“Vorik?” Syla looked blearily at him as Yavaron stepped out of the nook, leaving them alone. “What’s happening?”
“Nothing good.” Vorik longed to go fight with his people, but Jhiton had ordered him to stay, and he would. A part of him, however, wondered if Syla was lucid enough to escape while his people were distracted. He shouldn’t want her to do that, especially when the drug had been working, and they could gain even more intelligence from her, but the ignominy of it all disturbed him. Even if she hadn’t been hurt, she’d been betrayed. When they’d been in the opposite situation, she hadn’t drugged him—or let anyone else drug him. She’d respected him and his honor. “You’re a better person than I am,” he murmured to her.
The uncharacteristic confusion that furrowed her brow stung him, and he found himself hoping the drug wore off soon. And that he could figure out a way to keep Jhiton from applying it again.
“I’d have better luck reasoning with the cave kraken,” he muttered.
21
A screamof pain echoed up from the depths of the cave. Syla struggled to clear her muzzy thoughts and figure out what was happening. She’d been taken prisoner, hadn’t she? By the stormers. Yes. That awful General Jhiton had been questioning her, and she… She’d spoken to him. Why?
She almost found the answer, but then it escaped, her mind fogged, reality elusive. She grew aware of Vorik standing at the entrance of their section of the cave. His back was to her, his sword in his hand, as he looked into a tunnel illuminated by lanterns.
Another scream sounded along with dozens of unfamiliar animal noises. Something skittered into view beyond Vorik. It looked like a waist-high rat with grimy, curly fur and a long tail. If it had eyes, she couldn’t see them, but it shrieked, somehow seeing or sensing Vorik as he sprang into the tunnel at it.
His sword slashed too rapidly for the creature to evade, but others followed the first.Dozensof others. Several bit at Vorik, but he danced out of reach, a blur of movement. He slashed to kill at the same time as he leaped and twisted to evade. A few more creatures tried to bite him, but others only sought to getpast. He tried to stem the flow, but there were too many, even for him. Several skittered around the fight as he slew others, their bodies large enough that they got in the way after they fell.
“Cave crawlers coming!” Vorik called toward the entrance of the cave as he drove his blade into the skull of another creature.
Two more ran past before he could stop them. Snarling, he looked like he wanted to race after the ones that were getting by, but he glanced in Syla’s direction and stayed where he was.
She vaguely remembered that there was a camp up there. A large camp of his people with elders and children.
One of the giant rats—cave crawlers, he’d called them—diverted into her nook. She scooted back, looking around for a weapon. There was her medical kit. Could she pull out a scalpel in time?
