Stran scowled. “What door—”
She kicked the burlap aside, revealing a stone that lacked any of the burn marks that streaked the rest of the tower. “Shall we?”
Kreya grinned at her, though it was a tight grin. A small part of her had hoped she’d been wrong about an underground room, about Eklor, about everything.
“Any more specific plans than ‘go in, see what’s there’?” Jentt asked.
“Did you bring any cat-eye talismans?” Kreya asked Zera.
“Owl this time,” Zera said. “They won’t work in total darkness, but if we stick close to whatever light filters through the opening... Activation word isnesca.” She handed one to Kreya and one to Jentt.
Kreya looked at each of them, her old friends whom she’d led back here, and gave them one last order: “Don’t die.”
Stran yanked up the stone.
All of them froze as the stone scraped against the nearest stone. He laid the cover as softly as possible next to the hole. No one moved. No one breathed. They waited, listening. But no alarm sounded, and nothing came out of the hole.
Silently, Kreya signaled: Jentt first, then Zera, then herself.
Jentt first, because he could flee fastest. Zera next, in case he needed a talisman they didn’t anticipate. Her last, to relay any warning that they’d been discovered.
She hated sending Jentt first. Hated watching him lower his body, his newly alive body, into the darkness. He flashed her a smile that was meant to reassure her, but it was nearly enough to make her call him back and say this wasn’t worth it, that theycould still flee and pretend they’d never discovered what they’d discovered, that it wasn’t their problem anymore, that they’d given enough . . .
She heard the softthumpof his feet hitting the floor.
They waited. No screams. No cries. Just one softcoolike a pigeon—Jentt’s “all clear” call. Kreya nodded to Zera.
Zera glared at her once more, making it clear how unhappy she was about this plan, but then she lowered herself into the hole after Jentt. A second softcoo.
Climbing into the hole, Kreya dropped down and landed in a crouch in the darkness. She brought the owl talisman to her lips and whispered, “Nesca.”
The shadows sharpened. She saw Jentt and Zera beside her, crisp shapes of gray. Each movement was vivid as they examined where they were: a chamber that branched into five paths. She felt her stomach tighten—she’d expected to find a basement, not a network of tunnels.
Zera held two fingers together and then apart.Split up?she was asking.
Kreya shook her head.No.
You don’t split up. Not when you don’t know what you’re up against.And sometimes not even when you do,Kreya thought. After Jentt died—
She cut off that train of thought. She wasn’t going to think about that time. She had to stay rooted in the present, deal with whatever threat lurked in the darkness here.
The tunnels stank like rotten eggs, machine oil, and a long-dead rat carcass—all of which was worrying. What if all the soldiers weren’t up on the plains? “Going to the dead,” Zera whisper-sang, mimicking Marso. Kreya shot her a look, but Zera pretended she couldn’t see it.
Wordlessly, they chose the tunnel with the strongest stench and crept along it. The stealth talisman masked their footsteps. Kreya kept reaching out to touch Jentt and Zera, as her brain shrieked that she’d lost them or was going to lose them. Soon, theydidlose the light from the opening, and the darkness swamped them.
Another turn, and a sickly green light illuminated the tunnel. Creeping forward, they found the source: bioluminescent moss wrapped around a carved bone. “Clever,” Zera murmured.
Indeed,Kreya thought. She’d never heard of such a thing.
Her heart thudded hard in her rib cage. She was torn between being grateful for the dim light and being afraid of what it meant. They crept slower, even more cautiously, alert for guards and traps. Her eyes swept the shadows in front of them, and her fingers trailed along the wall, feeling the chipped stone—these were man-made, not construct-made, tunnels. There shouldn’t have been so much underground area to explore, and yet there was. She wondered how far they went, and what they’d find at the end.
And then she didn’t have to wonder anymore, as the tunnel widened into a vast cavern. It glowed with the eerie greenish light, which bathed everything in an even glow that came from every direction, washing out but not erasing shadows. Filling the cavern were horrors.
Skeletal soldiers lined the walls, their skulls drooped on their necks as if they slept. Constructs cobbled from the bones of mountain lions, stone fish, river lizards, and bears dominated the center of the room. And then there were the machines. Killing machines, with knives for hands, metal jaws with tearing teeth, and saws locked into their torsos.
She’d expected a few. She’d never expectedthis.
“Shit,” Jentt whispered.
