They fled through the caves, with Kreya in the lead. She couldn’t move fast. She felt as if her muscles had been sapped of their strength.
Glancing back, she saw light splash across the rock. Harsh whispers ricocheted through the tunnel. She signaled Zera to douse the lantern.
Zera obeyed, and the tunnel fell into darkness. Kreya felt Jentt’s hand on her shoulder. On her opposite side, Zera pressed a talisman into her palm.“Cartini,” Zera whispered.
“Cartini,” Kreya and Jentt whispered.
Blackness lightened to overlapping shadows as the talisman adjusted her eyesight. She hurried forward, stepping as quietly as she could. Behind them, the voices were growing louder.
She didn’t think they’d left any clues to which direction they’d gone.
Their dumb luck,Kreya thought.Our bad luck.
She moved faster, pushing her body to obey, never mind how bone-deep weary she was from the spell. Beneath her feet, loose pebbles rattled.
Behind them: “Up ahead! I hear her! She’s here!”
Jentt whispered, “Give me a knife.”
“You can’t—” Kreya began.
Zera withdrew a spare knife from one of her pockets and handed it to him. He tested the weight and adjusted his grip on the hilt. “Go,” he said. “I’ll hold them off.”
“No,” Kreya said. “We all escape.” She thought fast. From the sound of the footfalls and voices, she estimated a dozen villagers, undoubtedly armed with either blades or farm equipment. She thought of her cellar—they could have helped themselves to weapons there, albeit rusty ones. Enough to do damage. “Scare them. We’re not killers.”
“They are,” Zera muttered.
“Only because they’re scared. Because I committed an atrocity, remember?”
“Oh, I remember this is all your fault.”
“Maybe this isn’t the time...,” Jentt said.
“Zera,” Kreya said, “you must have at least one speed talisman that isn’t drained. Check your coat.”
Zera dug into each of her pockets and withdrew a talisman. She passed it to Jentt. “It’s already been used, but itmighthave a few seconds of juice left. No more. One burst. Use it wisely.”
“Get their lights,” Kreya told him.
He nodded once and then darted backward through the tunnel.
Abruptly, the lantern light that had been dancing on the walls vanished, and she heard men and women cry out in alarm.
Jentt was suddenly back with them.
To her rag dolls, she whispered, “Fast and silent. Go for their ankles, then return to me.” To Jentt and Zera, she whispered, “Keep moving.”
She felt the rag dolls swarm out of her pockets and saw with her enhanced vision as they scurried back through the tunnel. She wanted to tell them go for the throats. For all her speechifying about not wanting to kill, the villagers had burned her home, and they would have burned Jentt if they’d found him.They definitely want to burn me.
But escape was more important than revenge.
Kreya, Jentt, and Zera kept moving, as silently as possible. She heard cries behind them and the thud of flesh on rock. Soon, the rag dolls tumbled back down the tunnel. Bending, she scooped them into her arms. They crawled over her and back into her pockets.
She counted them—all here.
Her heart was thudding fast, worse than it should have been—these were villagers, not undead soldiers. They’d faced far worse. So why was fear clawing at her throat?
Because now I know what I could lose.
