Tears sprang into my eyes. I tried to move closer to him, but Scalyvar tightened his grip on me. His sharp, firm voice cut through the tension. “We must leave.”
I reluctantly stepped back against Scalyvar’s side. My heart was heavy as I felt his body tense.
And then I was screaming as he leaped into the air, carrying me with him. I clutched onto his coat as we flew those twenty feet, and he slammed his empty hand against the dirt-lined wall. His unusually long fingers dug into the soil, causing some to rain down below us.
I followed its descent and watched as Vhulkar slowly moved to the center of the room. He lifted his chin as the heavy footsteps reached the door. Shadows filled the room, surrounding him as their low, heavy breathing echoed up the shaft we hung in. The nethral moved into sight, surrounding him as he stared defiantly at his former servants.
I had to look away as the creatures lunged at him. His horrible cries echoed in my ears.
“Focus!” Scalyvar whispered to me as he drew his hand away from my waist.
I yelped and wrapped my arms around his neck. “What are you doing?!”
“Climbing,” he told me as he shoved his other hand into the dirt. “You have to hold tight to me until we reach the top.”
I shut my eyes and buried my face in his coat. He pulled us up the short tunnel and soon climbed over the top. The smoke’s exit turned out to be a patch of open grass in the woods. A fallen tree hid the location, as did some rocks and a mound of dirt, no doubt placed there by the unfortunate Vhulkar.
I winced as I remembered the man’s final moments. There were some things you never forgot, and I didn’t doubt that would be one of them.
Scalyvar crawled onto the grass as far as his waist and twisted his head around to catch my eye. “Are you able to climb off?”
I rolled off of him and tumbled against the dirt mound. Scalyvar eased his legs out of the hole and turned over, where he dropped his back against the fallen log. He leaned his head backward and closed his eyes.
I couldn’t help but notice that he set one of his hands over his left side. He shifted his coat slightly, and that’s when I saw it: the faint reddish stain on his shirt.
My eyes widened. “You’re hurt!”
He turned his head to and fro without opening his eyes. “It’s merely a flesh wound.”
“But how did you-” My eyes flickered to the plain dirt tunnel out of which he’d climbed. That’s when it hit me, and I whipped my head back to him. “You came all this way with that wound!”
A faint smile creased his lips. “I could do nothing else.”
I scooted on my hands and knees over to his side. “But you need that taken care of!”
“I assure you, the wound is not an issue.”
“Well, your issue is bleeding right through your shirt,” I scolded him as I began unbuttoning his shirt.
He wrapped a hand around one of my wrists and opened his eyes. “We don’t have time for that. The nethral will follow our scent, especially mine.”
Scalyvar eased himself onto his feet, and I scurried up with him to give him some support with my body. I looped an arm around his waist and tried to draw him close to me, but he rebuffed my attempts.
“I am fine,” he insisted as he tried to draw himself out of my hold.
My eyebrows crashed down, and I shoved him against my side. “Of course you’re fine. That’s why you’re bleeding out and can barely stand straight.”
“That won’t be a problem for long,” he assured me as he put two fingers to his mouth.
His shrill whistle broke the calm night, and a loud neigh followed his call. The king’s horse trotted out of the shadows of the trees and stopped just outside the chimney fortification. His Highness allowed me to help him around the tree and to the horse, where he grasped the rear of the saddle and turned to me.
“Ladies first,” he invited as he grasped my lower back.
I couldn’t help but turn my head around and give the dark hole one last look. Not a single noise came up through the flume. However, a faint sound came from somewhere deep in the woods to our right.
“We must make haste,” the king advised me.
I was only too willing as I scooted into the front of the saddle, and he slipped in behind me. He took up the reins in both hands and merely gave them a light tug. The horse turned and galloped into the woods in the opposite direction from the sounds I had heard.
