“Keep your antique grabbers to yourself!”
Calvin.
My feet crashed into the ground, blades in hand, set to rescue my friend.
I rounded a corner, coming nearly face-to-face with Calvin thrusting against the binds wrapping his body as twoXemaari soldiers dragged him from behind through the cave. His eyes met mine in the shadows and widened, then softened slightly, as if surprised anyone would come to his defense. As if he believed he didn’t deserve it.
The daggers in my hands flipped, and I sent them soaring through the air simultaneously. They slammed hilt first into the spines of the creatures, knocking their heads from their shoulders.Bless Noctis’s training.Their bodies crawled through the sand, inching closer, each grotesque movement rubbing brittle bone.
I sprinted to Calvin and quickly unsheathed the short sword along his thigh, sawing at the ropes feverishly until they broke loose. When freed, his body fell limp. His shoulders shook as the sobs wracked through him, as he released emotion he bottled up for far too long just like Zahara who fractured at his taking. Even the happiest of faces bear the deepest wounds.
Tears soaked my shoulder as they dripped down his nose, and I pulled him into a hug, my heart completely shattering more.
“Where’s everyone else?” he hiccuped, his voice quivering to the same beat his body shook in my arms.
“Fighting off the Xemaari until we can get the trident piece and you out of here,” I said softly, working to calm him, but we needed to hurry. I stood, pulled him up, and shoved the blade into his hands.
“I know where it is. They dragged me right past it,” Calvin stammered, tears streaking through the dirt that covered his cheeks.
He struggled to stand, rubbing the scarlet bands around his wrists from the Xemaari’s grasp and took off. I followed closely behind, snatching up my daggers from the ground as we passed.
A thin pedestal stood in the center of the cave’s alcove, fashioned with swirls and runes along its cemented surface. Acurved metal laid atop, untarnished from time or use—a silver spike with a sharp ending the size of half my arm. It glistened in the lantern light like a calling for me to take.
The Shadeborne Bound trident piece.
The metal sang before I could reach it, and I answered, sliding it into my grip. My fingers wrapped gingerly around the sharp edges and drew the polished blade to my chest. The runes flashed, slithering across the metal like a surging river.
The first splintering crack rippled through the cave like a warning too late to heed. The ceiling groaned, piercing stalactites crashing around us, thick and choking. Sand beneath our feet shuddered at impact, the sound a deafening roar as the cave worked to collapse in on itself.
“Run!” I bellowed, but it had to have been too late.
We flew through the cavern tunnels, reminding me of the maze we narrowly escaped together in the Myrrwood forest. Together. At least I had him. The crunching of my ankle reverberated in my mind again as the phantom pain shot up my leg.
The exit neared, blazing light erupting across the runed walls. Shadows danced around us, falling stones and our scurrying bodies blocking the luminance.
Cracks raced along the walls, splintering through the rock, until everything gave way at once, collapsing inward and blending into the sand as if it were never a structure that stood.
We made it out. Alive.
Steel sang in answer at our backs over the hill, loud enough to swallow all other noise.
“That’s not good,” Calvin muttered through heavy breaths.
We scaled the nearly vertical slope, our worn bodies slipping through the fine sand as steps became more labored and sloppy.
Below, dozens of Xemaari broke easily at contact, melded back together, and formed their obedient lines over and over as the crew worked to hold them off. The fleshless soldiers pushed them backward toward the Shadeborne Bound doorway.
“Let’s go commit crimes against anatomy,” Calvin quipped, and he took off down the slope toward the clinking blades. My feet sunk deep into the sand as I worked against it to run behind him.
But I was ready, energized even, after retrieving who and what I intended.
Noctis caught my attention, his eyes widening when he realized what I held: the trident fragment. The corners of his lips lifted, but my line of sight was quickly blocked behind an attacking Xemaari.
When Zahara’s eyes met Calvin approaching ahead, I noticed the wobble in her stance as she fought, the air that escaped her lungs in relief.
I attacked single-handedly, shielding the trident piece in my other. The dagger slipped in sweat at each hit to solid bone, the vibrations reverberating through me. The Xemaari pushed forward, and we allowed it.
Very slowly, each step back inched us closer to the tunnel connecting the Bounds, but exhaustion wracked us as the Xemaari trudged on endlessly.
