Sheathing my sword, I clambered over the rock pile. Mela had collapsed to her knees, hands braced on her hips, with her head tipped back as she gasped for breath. She looked only a little better than I did.
Offering her my hand, I hauled her to her feet as she puffed out, “Hells, Gray, I thought we were done for.”
I huffed a rusty laugh. “Me too.” Raking my hands through my sweaty hair, I ruffled it to remove loose grit. Mela did the same. The gore that painted our armor would have to wait until later.
Mela glanced around, her flashlight slinking over the rock-pile remains of the stone eater, and down either end of the long, straight tunnel we’d run down. “Where are we?”
I had no idea.
It should be easy enough to trace our trail back.
A voice slithered into my head.“You’re close, son of the wyrm. The nest you seek is not far away.”
“Yezekael’s nest?”
“Search down the tunnel.”
I trampled over the rubble that resembled the pit of a quarry, heading back where we’d come from. In its death throes, the stone eater had smashed either side of the tunnel’s thick walls and, curiously, as I approached I realized it had smashed right through to a burrow that was positioned parallel to this tunnel.
I ducked inside and found myself in a large chamber, its dank walls rounded with smooth grooves as if a great serpent had gouged its insides by twisting around. Mela followed me inside, both our noses pinching at the musty smell. She poked her sword at the strangely coiled object in the cavern, dirty white and marble-like. “What the hells is that?”
In the middle of the lair was what appeared to be an enormous snakeskin. I strode over and tentatively toed it with a boot. It crumbled to dust.
“Keep looking,”the Uzrek urged.
“What the hells for?”I asked, carefully striding around the bare cavern. But just as I’d mentally spoken, I spotted it.
There was a breach on one side of the burrow.
Stalking over, I crouched down and peered into the dark hole. It was a tunnel, shallow and narrow, with enough room for me to crawl my way through as long as the size held. It lookedunnatural, as if an adolescent stone eater chewing through the rock had made it.
“I’m going to take a look,” I said to Mela. I shrugged off my daypack and unstrapped my adamere sword, leaving it propped up against the wall by the wyrmblade. Mela sheathed her weapon before digging out a flask of water from her pack and offering it to me first. I chugged down mouthfuls of refreshing water before handing it back.
“Hells, so good,” she sighed, drinking fully and wiping her wet mouth with the back of her hand, flicking droplets off her dirty fingers. “You be careful,” she huffed out as I squatted down and clambered inside the hole.
I had to get down so low I was on my belly, crawling through the narrow passageway, using my feet to shove myself forward. An uncomfortable, claustrophobic feeling squeezed all around me as I inched along, wriggling. The roughened stone dug into my gut, protected by the armor, but my fingers stung as I grazed them on the pitted surface, hauling my body forward.
The tiny tunnel stretched onward in a straight line.
On and on I crawled.
Endlessly moving forward.
“Why are you helping me?”I mentally asked.
“Who says I’m helping? Maybe I’m simply curious,”replied the Uzrek.
“Curious about what?”
The ancient beast made a murmuring sound of reflection, and there was a long pause of silence before it answered.“Why Sirro wants this Yezekael and if it has anything to do with your mother.”
Shock rushed into my lungs.
What. The. Actual. Fuck?
A laugh rumbled through my mind before I felt the Uzrek leafing through my memories, the sensation much like thefluttering of pages.“The Horned God’s there in the periphery of your memories. At gatherings, you and your family attended with the other Houses. I’m curious about the way he looked at your mother when he thought no one was observing him.”
“What do you mean?”How did the Horned God look at Mom? And why hadn’t I noticed?
