11. Chapter 11 #2
“The others will figure it out soon enough. It won’t be possible to hide forever,” she admitted. “I just wish I had told Neven, now that I know for sure.”
“Would it make you feel better to be the first to know one of my secrets?” I asked.
She looked at me curiously. “You seem to have so many secrets. Would telling me one even begin to scratch the surface?”
“This is a good one. I promise.” I held out my hand, palm up. The scar across my palm could barely be seen in the dim light, and it was partially obscured by smeared blood, but I traced my finger across the line. “Keera and I are married.”
Aderyn drew in a sharp breath between her teeth. “When did this happen?”
“Right after we left Kelvadan. Everything was—still is—so unsure. But we are sure of our love for each other. Just as I’m sure you and Neven will love this baby with all of your hearts.”
Aderyn was silent for a moment, before saying slowly.
“I have not been touched by the magic of the desert. Much of it seems strange to me, even as I love my home fiercely. But when I see you and Keera together—the way both of you are wild and fierce, but you still serve as each other’s balance—I think I understand this land’s power, just a little bit. ”
“Thank you.”
I clutched to that balance tighter every day, even as it seemed to spin out of control, just like the whole desert became harsher and more ruthless the farther we traveled.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how much we all love each other if we can’t find our way out of here,” Aderyn said heavily. “Especially if the tricriths are intent on grabbing me and bringing me back to their nest the moment they smell me. Why would they do that?”
I wracked my brains, thinking back to the bestiary that lay in the tower at the top of Kelvadan’s palace. “It’s said that all tricrith’s share a common mother. Maybe they protect her, as they were trying to protect you.”
“Which means…” Aderyn trailed off, her face looking pale in the darkness at the realization.
“Maybe they were trying to bring you to her. To the center of their nest.”
“And that means the mother is nearby,” Aderyn pointed out.
A shudder ran down my spine, but it wasn’t the cold shiver of fear.
No—it was the hot fire in anticipation of battle.
I faced so many challenges that couldn’t be solved with battle: My encroaching insanity and the heavy weight of the broken heart in my pocket.
The politics of fractured clans and the uncertainty of the way my magic affected Keera.
The promise of an enemy of flesh and blood who could be vanquished with fire and steel was seductive. In the recesses of my mind, I knew this feeling was the call of the void. This was just like the fits of violence Kelvar had been prone to before he wandered out into the desert to steal the Heart.
But right now, a little madness might be in order.
“We can kill the leader, and the rest will scatter. It will clear the way for us to find Keera,” I observed.
Finally, Aderyn stood, looking galvanized. “What are we waiting for?”
I stood and tossed my saber handle between my palms. “I was waiting for you.”
She snorted before looking around and pointing. “The tricrith was taking me that way.”
“The tunnels get larger in that direction. It must lead toward the central brood.”
We set off, me in front and Aderyn trailing behind, keeping an eye over her shoulder to cover our backs.
I set my feet carefully as we walked in silence, ears strained for the approach of any more predators.
After long minutes, we were rewarded with a distant rumbling and squeaking.
It set the hairs on the back of my neck on end, and I slowed.
I breathed in deeply to steady myself, and the metallic, earthy scent of magic filled my nose—although it wasn’t the comforting smell that I always associated with Keera. Something about it was off, the sickly hint of decay creeping in around the edges.
We were close.
I signaled back to Aderyn, and the air shifted as she readied herself behind me. Deliberately, we crept forward, both the noise and the smell growing stronger until they nearly overpowered me. I had thought my eyes sufficiently adjusted to the dark, but I strangely found my vision growing clearer.
I blinked, before I realized that a glow was emanating from the tunnel before us. Finally, I spied the end of our passage, and I pushed myself into the wall, craning my neck around to investigate the cavern beyond.
It was enormous. A nauseating amount of tricriths climbed over one another as they came and went from dozens of tunnels leading into the open space.
The passage entrance we stood in was high on the curved wall, making it so we would have to jump down into the hive of activity.
The creatures ranged from pale-white young the size of hunting dogs to the massive black armored monsters we had faced before.
While some carried food on their backs, some scurried out on unknown missions.
All the activity, though, was centered around the largest creature, resting in the center of the space: The queen scorpion.
She was as large as the lava wyrm Keera and I had faced and glowed a soft iridescent blue, as if lit from within.
It almost would have been beautiful, if not for the lethal pincers that could cut a horse in half and the three tails that hung lazily over her back and glittered with a venom that would melt your blood.
The youngest tricriths, almost translucent in their pallor, crawled up her legs and across her back, staying in her protection while the older ones scuttled about doing the work of the hive.
I swallowed. This would not be easy.
I looked back at Aderyn and gestured toward the queen. Aderyn’s eyes were wide, but she nodded determinedly, taking my meaning. We would have to fight through many smaller monsters, but the great mother was our focus. If we felled her, the rest would scatter—hopefully.
Even so, I wasn’t sure we could make it. The queen’s armor looked thick and glossy, and I wasn’t sure if my saber could do enough damage stabbed between its joints to kill her.
Magic tickled my mind, feeling like the crackling of lightning and the darkness of the abyss at the edge of my consciousness.
I shook my head, trying to clear it, but it was no use.
Instead, it only grew. The tingling in my throat turned to burning and the taste of metal in my mouth grew unbearable.
It was the strange, unbalanced call that always lingered at the edge of my mind when facing these creatures of legend, but even more inexorable than usual.
It felt like it had when I reached into the gravehawks mind, trying to control its wild flight while I rode it.
I stiffened. My connection with Alza’s mind let me direct her without a thought as we rode. Even though it had filled my mouth with the taste of blood and my mind with swirling darkness, it had worked as I sat astride a beast of legend too.
My mind drifted to the fights I had seen between the tricriths’ tiny kin—the ever-present deathstalker scorpions who patrolled the sands. While they were immune to their own venom. They could still incapacitate others of their own kind with their sting.
I just needed to find a tricrith big enough to challenge the queen.
My gaze snagged on a likely candidate: The largest of the glossy black tricriths, hovering near the queen, seeming to posture threateningly at all who came too close.
Her mate.
I leaned over toward Aderyn and whispered, as low as I possibly could to be heard over the activity in the cavern we currently overlooked. “If we fight our way to the large male at her side, I have a plan.”
“I’m not going to like this plan, am I?” Aderyn whispered back.
“You’ll like it better than no plan at all.”
She set her jaw and nodded. I offered my hand to her, and she clasped my forearm. Then, we jumped.
I tugged on a string of magic, yanking us forward and letting the force of our leap carry us toward the center of the cavern. We both rolled as we landed, absorbing the force of the impact. I swung my sword even before the momentum carried me to my feet.
It met the oncoming tricrith with a crunch, cutting through the unhardened exoskeleton of the youth with a wet crunch. Aderyn snarled next to me as she cut off the leg of a slightly bigger creature, leaving it hopping and scuttling in retreat.
We had landed close to my target of the queen’s mate, but a handful of monsters still lay between us. I hacked and slashed as I tried to cut our way toward it, while Aderyn covered my back from the other tricriths who began to swarm at our sudden intrusion.
They tightened in like a noose, giving me and Aderyn little room to maneuver. I struck again, but the larger monster who stood before me now kicked my weapon aside with a clang, speaking of armor I would not be able to stab through.
The blow reverberated up my arm and to my shoulder. Aderyn’s back pressed against mine as she dodged back against another blow, and bile rose in my throat. There were too many.
Lightning danced at my fingertips, a storm beginning to howl in my mind.
If I unleashed my power here, I could annihilate the brood, but I would likely bury Aderyn and I with it—and Keera and Dhara if they had not escaped the tunnels yet. My heart stuttered, but I didn’t have time to pay it any mind.
One of the tricrith’s three deadly tails shot forward, aiming straight at me. I grabbed Aderyn, dragging her down and out of the way with me as I dodged. My shoulder hit the ground with a heavy thump as the stinger whooshed over our prone forms.
But another of the tails was already prepared to strike, and tangled on the ground as we were, we wouldn’t be able to roll out of the way in time. I curled myself over Aderyn, praying that at least one of us would survive this.