Rise of Fire (Reign of Shadows #2)(68)

I had to get back to him. No one was coming for me, so I had to get myself out of here.

Whimpering, I jerked against the grip on my arm. My boots slipped and skidded as the dweller dragged me, its talons digging through the fabric of my sleeve and scoring my arm. Everything was dripping earth and slimy ground and crumbling walls. The metallic stench of blood and death filled my nose. The dweller dragged me down earthen tunnels, its moist breath rasping beside me. The receptors at the center of its face writhed on the air like hissing serpents. Inhaling, I smelled the tinny sweetness of toxin.

I stopped fighting, fearful of getting poison on my skin.

The air suddenly opened up and I knew we were in a wide space. Dozens of dwellers roamed the area and I shrank inside myself. The dweller started leading me over a honeycomb network of holes. I could hear other humans in pain, trapped here as I was. Their cries vibrated through me, rooting deep into my bones.

A screech shattered the air. I jumped, my heart clenching painfully in my chest before galloping ahead.

I’d heard that cry before. I heard it when I was belowground with Fowler. It belonged to something huge, sitting just beyond the stretch of honeycomb. The scream faded, and then there was its sloughing breath, similar to the other dwellers except louder, deeper. It rumbled on the air like building thunder.

The dwellers froze in response. The people down here weren’t as easy to silence. They started crying out in earnest, sobbing and shouting as though they had a hope for rescue.

All at once it released a long, shrill, earsplitting call. The dweller holding me started moving again, dragging me forward.

In the distance, in other tunnels, I heard more dwellers moving toward the nest where I was, answering the call.

My hand drifted to my thigh where my dagger was strapped. My mouth dried as I contemplated when to use it. Dwellers crowded around me, continuing to pour into the nest like water from an endless spigot.

My dweller pushed me, leading me toward the big creature on the other side of the nest, guiding me past holes like the one that had trapped Fowler. I wasn’t the only one being delivered up to this monster. Another person, a man, wept and struggled as another dweller pulled him forward too. He reached the monster before I did.

“No, no! Help me, no, please!” he cried. His voice cut off suddenly on a wet, gurgling shout.

Bones cracked and blood flowed like hot copper on the air. I flinched, bile rising in my throat. I fumbled to free my blade. Its hilt filled my palm, solid and comforting. I held tightly to it as I was launched through the air.

I fell at the feet of the beast, pain jarring my knees. The ground was sticky with warm blood and bits of fleshy material I dared not contemplate.

The monster’s great jaws worked, crunching and grinding the last of the man sacrificed before me.

I shoved myself to my feet, squaring up in front of the massive dweller as it finished eating its victim. The beast’s size alone told me it was no ordinary dweller, but there was also the way the other dwellers followed its command. It ruled them. It was so big I doubted it possessed much mobility. They served it . . . this thing was their queen.

I felt its arms stir on the air as it reached for me. I dove to the right. Stretching out my hand, I skimmed a palm against its dense, pasty body, circling it. I had to risk touching it, getting close. It was the only way.

Moving as quickly as I could, I jumped on its back and crawled up its great girth, stabbing with my dagger into the dense meat of its body as I went, using my blade for leverage.

Once I neared its head and its squat neck, I reached around with my arm and started sawing through the doughy skin. Panting, I kept going, digging deep with my blade, ignoring its writhing movements and the hot, slippery flow of blood over my fingers. Its agonized scream stabbed my ears. I choked in relief as that scream reduced to a wet gurgle. It finally stopped moving.

Gasping, I slid down the length of its body and landed shakily on my feet. The air continued to wheeze out of me. Saliva flooded my mouth.

I wiped bloody hands against my trousers and listened to the faint breathing of the other dwellers. They all stood immobilized, frozen, their attention fixed on me. Waiting for my next move.





THIRTY-FIVE


Fowler


SHE WAS REALLY gone.

Nothing mattered anymore. Pain mingled with numbness. Pain at losing Luna, but numbness over my fate. The future didn’t matter. Whether there was a tomorrow didn’t signify.

I didn’t even care when more horse hooves thundered over the air. Tebald and his men arrived, and I sat there, staring into the swirling dark as the two armies of soldiers drew swords on each other. They could fight their stupid battle, play out their senseless war with each other. The reason they were fighting didn’t matter anymore.

It would better serve the world if they killed each other off. I accepted that fact grimly. I would do nothing. I would stand amid it all, staring without seeing, without caring, because Luna was dying somewhere without me. Dimly, I registered my father and King Tebald hurling challenges and insults back and forth at each other. I stared ahead, my eyes burning as I focused on the spot where I had last glimpsed Luna.

Gradually another sound penetrated through the bantering threats and insults. I frowned, peering into the darkness where I had last seen Luna.

A cacophony of cries rent the air with the suddenness of wings flapping in the sky. Dwellers’ cries. An entire herd of them, more than I had even witnessed outside the village of Ortley, where Luna and I had gone for the kelp. I snorted, enjoying the irony that my father would die at the hands of dwellers when he himself had sent so many people to face their insatiable hunger.