I looked up, but the lowest branches were several feet up the trunk, and seemed too thin to have supported his weight. I spent some time staring between the branches, just in case, and even into the branches of trees nearby, but there were no crouching forms or suspicious shadows.
Just to be certain, I leaped up, stretching to grab the lowest limb on the thick tree and pull myself up—marveling at the strength I’d found in my months of training. I could never have done this when I arrived.
Yet, not only was no one hiding there, but I could feel the branch creaking under my weight.
A man that size would have cracked it straight off the trunk.
Besides, I didn’t think I’d been far enough behind him that he could have climbed without me hearing his boots on this rough bark.
So, he hadn’t climbed.
Reaching down for the branch, I lowered my feet until I was bent over it at the waist, then dropped to the ground a second later, landing as lightly as I could, frowning when the earth under my feet gave a hollow ring.
Curious, I lightly stomped one foot. Sure enough, the earth thudded like a drum.
I turned on the spot, scanning the nearby forest floor this time—was there a trap door or obscured hollow leading to a cave that I hadn’t noticed?
But, no. Long minutes of careful stomping and peering between undergrowth revealed nothing except that the hollow sounds under the earth stopped just a few feet from the tree.
I returned to that thick trunk, my mind whirling.
He’d definitely disappeared from this spot. The tree had a small, short bush between its roots on the opposite side which I’d used to orient my position before I moved away from it.
He’d been on this side when—
There was a sudden and distinct sensation of vibration under my feet. There, then gone.
I whirled to face the tree. That feeling had definitely come from under the earth andbehind me.Within the tree? Or underneath it?
Squinting through the dark, I placed my hands on the bark to examine it for markings or signs of disturbance, cursing when I didn’t find anything immediately, and expanding my examination across the face of the tree and down to the roots.
Nothing.
I chewed my lip, Ronen’s voice echoing in my head again.
If you reach a wall you can’t climb, it’s time to burrow under. Or Fly. Whatever.
Figure. Shit. Out.
Feeling only a little silly, I reached for the twig of a branch that protruded from one knot on the tree’s face, but it just snapped off in my hand. I kept searching, pressing, leaning. Curling my fingers to see if my nails hooked anything.
Then I reached for what I thought was the stump of a broken branch that had healed over years to become a nubby, gnarled knot in the tree’s surface.
Only, thatknottwisted in my grip and the bark of the tree gave way against my arm. Or so I thought.
A moment later, I gaped at an irregularly shaped, but man-sized doorway in the side of the massive tree. I had turned a locking mechanism molded to look like an old, healing branch stump. It hinged down to release a catch within the tree’s body.
Moonlight revealed dirt-and-twig-strewn stone stairs dropping into pitch black inside the hollow trunk. A narrow, curving stairway barely wide enough for me to walk comfortably. I didn’t know how the man had managed to squeeze down it, but there was now no doubt where he’d gone.
Shadows. Darkness. No light. Insects. And who knew what else?
My skin crawled, but I threw a hurried prayer skyward and I darted into those black depths, levered the door closed until it gave a soft click, and all that remained was a tiny thread of barely-gray light in the shape of the doorway.
Then I turned and started down the stone stairs, feeling my way as I inched, step by curving step, deeper into the dark… and closer to a faint, but unmistakable rumble I could now hear rising from far below.
2. Shadowsworn
SOUNDTRACK:Shadowsby Tommee Profitt and Sam Tinnesz
