Chapter 10 #2
Silus was already fighting his way toward the door, striking at the wolves and pulling Elara along.
He had two bags on one shoulder and the other arm gripping Elara, who was trying to wield the sword, rage and terror in her eyes as she bared her teeth.
Elias stumbled along behind them, a sword clutched in one hand.
The crowns lay beyond the wolves near the wall. Elara hesitated as if debating dodging the wolves to grab them, but Silus glared at her. “We’ll come back for them!”
Elara set her jaw but complied. “May the beasts rip apart anyone who is not of our line who takes those crowns!”
Quen scooped up a bag and three lamps. She blew out two and tucked them under her arms while holding the third tight to her chest.
“Where are Thalen and Myantha?” The words screamed out of me.
Vad’s gaze snapped up and around; then his jaw tightened. He shoved me toward the door of the gathering room. “Not in here. Go!”
I cupped a hand over my mouth. “Thalen! Myantha!” My voice cracked with terror at the thought of what might have happened to them.
Thalen appeared in the doorway then, eyes wide and tunic rumpled. Myantha was behind him. “What in the scaffing void happened?” he shouted.
“Larder path! We’re moving out,” Silus shouted back. “Grab whatever you can.”
A wolf snarled and barreled toward Thalen.
I surged forward, my muscles screaming in protest. I kicked the wolf from the side, knocking it off balance.
Vad was there in an instant to finish it with his claws hooking beneath its jaw, ripping its head clean away.
The body crumpled with a sickening thud.
He adjusted his grip on his sword, growling.
Thalen leaped over the threshold, barefoot, half-dressed, his silver-white wings flaring wide. He dove for the weapon pile and snatched up a fallen sword. “Well, come on then! You can’t expect me to leave you here.”
Myantha darted forward on bare feet and grabbed a run bag and a lamp. Her golden-brown locs whipped behind her as she turned back toward the hall.
Three more wolves bounded out from the portals.
I grabbed one of the last remaining run bags and a sword, my shoulder burning as I flung the bag across my back. My breath sawed in and out as more wolves howled and charged.
Vad shoved me through the doorway and seized the handle. He jerked it shut as claws and teeth battered the other side. The thuds echoed, dust trickling from the lintel. “That’ll buy us seconds.”
The corridor pulsed with noise from our friends already sprinting ahead, Silus half-carrying Elara, Veralt and Rhielle right behind them with blood streaking their arms, Vyraetos clutching the medicine bags and a flickering lamp.
Quen trotted beside him, her expression grim and her face tearstained while looking back at Elias.
Then I smelled it—wet fur, sharp and sour, closing in from the side passage. My stomach twisted. Wolves. There are more of them, I linked and pointed toward the passage.
Vad’s head snapped in the direction as a faint, hollow toktoktoktok—trrrr rolled down the stairs beyond the doorway, like wooden beads scattering over stone.
Everyone froze.
Something is coming through the dungeon path, Vad linked. Silus caught his gaze from the front, and Vad lifted one finger and pointed.
My pulse thundered. The echo of that sound—toktoktoktok—trrrr—lodged itself in my bones. It wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be.
It was a warning.
Vad turned toward the side passage, every muscle in his body pulled taut like a drawn bow. His nostrils flared. My own senses sharpened, honed by instinct and terror.
The scent hit again a second later… wet fur, smoke, and blood. More wolves.
I gripped the sword tighter, my palms slick. The weight of the run bag across my back dragged at my balance. My breath rasped too loudly in my ears.
The door behind us shuddered as the wolves we’d trapped howled and snarled.
Another toktoktoktok—trrrr sounded down the corridor, closer this time.
Ahead, Veralt and Rhielle slowed, weapons raised.
Silus angled toward the tunnel that veered left, guiding Elara beside him.
Her limp was more pronounced now with one wing dragging low, but she didn’t utter a sound.
Vyraetos flanked them, the medicine bags bouncing against his hip and the lamp in his grip trembling slightly with each step.
We crept forward, each footstep painfully loud in the narrow corridor.
My pulse slammed against my ribs, sounding louder than even our steps.
The walls narrowed around us, and the ceilings pressed low, as if the passage itself meant to trap us.
The hall split both to the right and to the left.
Each swing of the lamps cast shadows that jerked and crawled like claws reaching from the darkness.
Behind us, the wolves continued their assault, claws shredding wood and snarls vibrating through the air. The door we’d barricaded was holding, but only barely.
Vad stayed pressed to my shoulder with his sword in his bloody hand. He bristled with tension, each impact behind us twitching through his frame. If the door failed, there’d be nowhere to run. The wolves would have a narrow stone corridor to rip through.
I looked back. There was still nothing visible, but the tok tok tok had fallen silent. The quiet before the storm.
Silus reached the door at the end of the larder path and shoved his sword into Elara’s hands before fumbling for something in his tunic. The door groaned, and the hinges screamed. The sounds cut through every bone in my body like ice water.
Then came the eyes.
Five sets of yellow eyes emerged around the bend, slinking forward like flames in the dark. One blinked… and then another.
Vad.
I see them, he replied and shifted in front of me.
Snarls rumbled down the corridor like thunder, and the wolves broke into a sprint.
Silus jerked the door open, and a rush of cold air spilled in from the tunnel beyond.
“Go!” Vad commanded.
We surged for the opening. Silus shoved Elara through first, then Vyraetos and Quen dove in next, clutching lamps and supplies. Veralt and Rhielle flanked the door with Rhielle’s sword drawn and Veralt's hands bloody but steady.
Thalen and Myantha bolted in next. I turned, but Vad closed in behind me, corralling me through just as the first wolf lunged.
Its claws scraped stones inches behind my heels.
I stumbled into the next tunnel, spinning around in time to see Vad brace himself in the doorway. The nearest wolf launched, but Vad’s blade caught it midair.
Another beast dove low. Vad kicked it back and slammed the door with a brutal clang. The lock snapped into place just before claws battered the other side.
The howls rose again. Angrier. Hungrier. Louder.
Dust rained from the stone above as they threw themselves at the door.
“I don’t suppose anyone knows what in the fecking void has made the shadow beasts lose their minds?” Rhielle tightened the straps on one of her bags.
Veralt scoffed and rubbed the back of his head.
Quen looked at Vyraetos, her eyes bloodshot from crying. “Well, old man?”
Vyraetos frowned. “They’ve snapped.”
“Thanks.” Thalen rolled his eyes. “We hadn’t figured that part out.”
The tunnel air shifted, feeling cold, thick, and sour. Each breath tasted like spoiled water. My lungs burned while the wolves snarled and tore at the wood behind us, fury undiminished.
“They’re going to break through.” I tugged at my wolf, who had regained some energy. I might need her strength and could shift shortly. “Where do we go now?”
Vad turned from the door, blood smeared down his arms like war paint, sword still clutched in one clawed hand.
His chest heaved with each breath, but his voice came like steel: “We run. Straight through. The southern passage is dry right now. If we move fast, we’ll beat the river before it rises and reach the forest before the wolves catch up. ”
A beat of silence fell between us.
The others surged forward into the tunnel, the heavy banging of the wolves against the door continuing like a drumbeat of doom. Shadows stretched long and crooked in the lamplight, flickering over the uneven walls. My feet scraped on grit, each step jarring my bones.
I felt hollow inside. Thalira’s face wouldn’t leave me. Her blood still clung to my hands.
Beside me, Elara stumbled against Silus, her lips white and eyes sharp with pain.
I swallowed hard, throat raw. If we lost her too… I stopped, unable to finish the thought.
Vad’s voice cut through the tension. “Did anyone save her medicine?”
Vyraetos raised the leather satchel. “Got it.”
“Good.” Vad nodded once, then pushed ahead. “Keep close. No noise.”
We moved fast, deeper into the earth. The tunnel dipped lower, the air turning thick and sour. Every creak of leather, every footfall, every strained breath echoed like a scream. No one spoke. Even our grief had gone silent.
Then—howls.
Not behind us. Ahead.
We rounded a bend, and the walls widened into a branching cavern. The lamps cast jagged shadows over the stone, but my stomach turned to ice.
Then something in the wall tore. Another slit appeared, black and seething, shadows pulsing inside it like living rot.
The scent hit first. Wet fur. Iron. Decay.
More wolves.
I opened my mouth to warn the others, but pain exploded through my left calf as teeth clamped down, piercing flesh and bone. I let out a bloodcurdling scream.