The Outcast (Summoner #4)(45)
Only Rotter seemed in good spirits, though if it was just an act to calm the others, Arcturus could not tell. Whatever the reason, the jaunty tune he began to hum halfway through their journey was swiftly silenced by a cursed order from Zacharias.
Just under an hour later, the tunnel began to bend upward, and Arcturus was not the only one to thank the heavens out loud. It was a blessed relief to begin their ascent, away from the oppressive darkness and the walls that seemed to shrink toward him with every step.
Even so, it soon became hard going, the angle so acute that it became almost a climb. More than once, Arcturus found himself using a stalagmite as a handhold, heaving himself up another steep incline, his hands slipping against the smooth limestone.
Elaine had to be hauled up by Edmund, and Arcturus could see even her little Mite, Valens, tugging at her collar valiantly as he hovered above her.
“Is that light?” Prince Harold called hoarsely.
It was. Barely more than a dim glow, filtering through a crack in the wall of the passageway. And beyond, a solid wall of rock—the end of the line. They had made it.
CHAPTER
25
THE TEAM COLLAPSED ON the ground, careless of the scattered puddles, groaning with relief.
“I tell you what, I’m not looking forward to going back,” Arcturus panted. “The Celestial Corps can pick us up on the other side of that crack.”
“Agreed,” Edmund said. “I’ll have Athena guide them to us when the time comes.”
He tugged forth his scrying crystal, and peered into it. Within the image, Arcturus could see rolling green hills, as the young lord’s demon flew over Hominum’s landscape.
“Guide us where?” Alice asked. “We don’t know where that comes out.”
She sent her wyrdlight to hover beside the crack, a jagged tear in the rock, where Arcturus could see the first signs of life—plush moss living off the meager light from outside.
“Those dwarves did a shoddy job,” Zacharias said, still breathing heavily. “An orc could fit through that gap.”
“My father said it’s well hidden,” Edmund vouched, though his voice was laced with doubt. “And how would an orc know where it leads? If one wandered in here, it would look like this goes down into the depths of the earth.”
To illustrate his point, he threw a stray pebble down the way they had come. There was a faint rattle as it fell, fading but still sounding as the rock bounced deep into the earth.
“One word from those dwarves to the orcs…,” Zacharias muttered.
Arcturus ignored him and turned to look at the others. Rotter had been forced to leave Elaine to her own devices as he dragged the rebel he had been carrying into the darkness to tie and gag him. There were groans coming from where the soldier was hunched over, and Arcturus realized the second captive must have regained consciousness.
He scooted over to Elaine, who had wrapped her skinny arms around her knees and was rocking back and forth. Even little Valens could do little to distract her, though he buzzed to and fro in front of her, as if he wanted her to play.
“Hey, you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she replied in a small voice. “Just thinking.”
“We’re going to be fine,” Arcturus said. “We’re miles from the rebels by now.”
“It’s my brothers,” Elaine said, shaking her head. “Our estate is even smaller than Edmund’s, and my parents were away too. This might be happening in my home right now.”
“I’m sure they’re fine,” Arcturus thought aloud, putting an arm around her shoulders. “They attacked us here because it’s so far from civilization, and there are half a dozen noble children here, including the prince. I doubt they’d split their forces to catch a few sons of an impoverished noble family.”
Elaine smiled at that.
“Sometimes being poor has its advantages,” she said. Arcturus thought she didn’t know what poverty was, but kept it to himself. After all, she would have some idea if they survived the night, when hunger gnawed at her belly and the next meal was nowhere in sight.
She was cold, and he wished he had a jacket to keep her warm. Instead, he pressed his side against her and they huddled for warmth as their wet clothes sapped the last of the heat from their bodies. The dim glow of sunlight from the crack beyond looked so inviting.…
“Right,” Sergeant Caulder said, breaking the silence. “I think it’s safe to take this off now.”
Arcturus turned to see the sergeant tearing away the gag from his own rebel—the same one who had tried to disembowel Rotter with his makeshift spear, and who had been pretending to be unconscious earlier.
“What’s your name, son?”
The rebel took a deep breath, then spat in the sergeant’s face.
“You little…,” Rotter growled, lunging for the rebel, but Sergeant Caulder held up his hand.
“Full of vim and vinegar, aren’t ye?” Sergeant Caulder growled, wiping his brow. “No need for any unpleasantness. You just tell us what your friends are after, and Prince Harold over there will put in a good word with his father when we’re rescued. Maybe you’ll avoid execution, eh?”
“Ye don’t have the guts to kill me,” the man yelled, struggling against his bonds. “Ye would’ve done it already.… I won’t tell ye a thing.”