She felt as if her blood had frozen in her veins. As commander, she always tried to think of every possible outcome, to believe in her team while still considering every worst-case scenario. But in all her imagining and all her planning, she’d never imagined anything of this scope. She wanted to run out of the tunnel screaming. Flee and never look back. But she didn’t. They had a job to do.
“Count them,” Kreya whispered back.
As Jentt counted and Zera invented new curse words, Kreya committed to memory the weaponry of Eklor’s new army. If they had to muster a force against this, she wanted exact information on what they’d face.
In the Bone War, so many had died when confronted with an army like this... And that time, they’d been ready for it. They’d come with the finest soldiers that Vos could muster.Focus on the task at hand,she ordered herself.Assess the threat, and get out.
As soon as she felt they’d seen enough, she signaled for them to retreat. Creeping back through the tunnel, she signaled again for them to investigate a second tunnel. Ahead of her, Zera had halfway climbed back up the hole, using handholds carved into the rock. With a barely audible sigh, she descended again.
Kreya waited for her to rejoin them, and they crept along the second tunnel. It too opened onto a cavern filled with inert soldiers and machines. The third tunnel was the same.
He had created an army that would have overwhelmed his original force.
The horror of it made her feel as if her heart had stopped. Her blood felt sluggish with ice in her veins. This was beyondany nightmare she could have ever had. He’d made himself stronger than he’d ever been.
She shoved every bit of fear into a tiny knot that she stored at the base of her stomach. This was not the place for fear. It was the place for caution. Learn as much as they could. Retreat. And regroup. She could not allow herself to think about the scale of the horror that lurked underground.
He must have been assembling this since his defeat,she thought.
So many years, and he’d been using them all to rebuild.
She abandoned any thought of confronting Eklor now. They didn’t have the firepower to face such a foe. No one did.The guild must be warned,she thought. The cities would need to prepare.
If they could.
If it wasn’t already too late.
All five tunnels were stocked with a battalion each. Every soldier and machine was inactive, but Kreya had zero doubt that they were fueled by powered bones. She wished there were a simple way to take one as proof, but touching one could activate all. It was too great a risk, even if she set aside the problem of safely transporting such a construct. She was acutely aware of how tremendously outnumbered they were. At peak strength, they never could have fought so many.
Better to leave them here and formulate a plan from a reasonable distance. With time, with space, maybe she could see a way forward. Besides, there was one question they hadn’t answered yet:Where is Eklor?
Only when they’d searched all the tunnels did they return to climb back up into the tower. Kreya went first, not because it was sensible but because she had the sudden fear that she’d made a grave mistake and that both Stran and Marso were in danger and that none of them should have come here.
She felt a hand grab her arm. Only old training kept her from screaming. Stran helped her climb out. She turned to help Zera and then Jentt.
“What did you find?” Stran whispered.
Marso moaned softly. “Death.”
The rag doll construct caressed his cheek.
Jentt pushed himself out of the hole—
And they heard a whirring noise, followed by clicking—the familiar sound of machines starting up. Screaming began from far belowground, high pitched, from throats that didn’t exist and shouldn’t have been able to cry.
“Oh, shit,” Jentt said.
“Close it,” Kreya ordered, unnecessarily—Stran was already throwing the stone over the hole. It wouldn’t be enough. She thought:Nothing we can do will be enough.You could drop a mountain on an army this size, and it wouldn’t stop them. “Bring the tower down.”
Zera passed him a fresh strength talisman. He caught it and activated it as they all ran toward the door. Outside, he pivoted and slammed his fist into the stones at the base of the tower. It shook.
Above, the archer raised a horn to his skeletal jaw, and a rag doll knocked it from his hands. The other rag doll wrapped around his wrists.
“Return to me!” Kreya called to them.
Stealth was over.
Now was the time for action. And luck.Please, let us survive this,Kreya prayed silently.Great silence, do not take my friends.She’d only just found them again. She couldn’t lose them.
