Chapter 14
Jasmine
I watched Ekkire slither through the narrow opening, and the tunnel became that much darker when he left.
Not only because he took the warm glow of his golden sigils with him, but because now I was alone.
Cradled against his wide chest, I had not felt cold, but sitting on the cold stone, it seeped into my skin.
The stone rapidly cooled my body, though the warm fur coat blocked some of it.
We had to be at a higher elevation, because this felt more like winter than spring.
“Where did you go, Dove?” I asked, casting my gaze around to search for the white shape of the small sleara.
She was so small, not yet an adult, that she could easily slip into all kinds of nooks and crannies.
Apparently, she ate bugs just as happily as the meat that Ekkire had hunted for her.
She’d been scavenging for them the entire time we’d been traveling through this dark, underground maze.
These tunnels were nothing like the ones at Ahoshaga, where the rescued humans and their naga mates made their home.
That place was warmly lit by glowing crystals in the ceiling.
The hallways were pristine and polished to a sheen by the cleaning bots Corin had repaired.
A control room operated an advanced climate control system, water supplies, and much more, too.
I’d looked inside once and almost felt like I’d stepped onto the bridge of a spaceship.
The med bay was also fully functioning, and so was the indoor plumbing—something even I thought was a blessing.
It was nothing like roughing it on a camping trip, or living with the barbaric clans that populated this planet.
Very civilized, very advanced. The kind of place many of the girls were relieved to discover, as it kept them at the same level of comfort they were accustomed to. Or as close as was possible, at least.
This tunnel system seemed bigger; we’d traveled through it for hours before finding the way out.
Yet not a single light crystal appeared to work, and much of it had collapsed or been damaged.
Not all of it was from the recent earthquake, either; this system had been collapsing and decaying for a long time.
I was not an archaeologist; I had no clue how old this tunnel system might be, but if I had to guess, I’d say at least several centuries, probably longer.
Water channels had eroded sections of the floor too, cutting it into irregular shapes.
Markings on the walls made me suspect the water had, in the past, risen to chest height on me.
So this section was prone to flooding. It made the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end when I noticed that.
My recent experience with a flooded water channel, thanks to the earthquake, did not make me feel inclined to take another swim anytime soon.
Ekkire had vanished after widening the narrow gap, disappearing into the violet Serant daylight.
It was hard to estimate the time based on just the sliver of light I could see, but I hoped there was still plenty of daylight left for us to resume our journey.
Then I felt a pang of guilt. Those at the crashed ship must be worried sick, wondering if I’d survived or not.
Now we were even further cut off from them, and from getting word to them.
Zathar and Vera were going to be so mad I’d done this.
Then I pictured Jolene’s face: her freckled smile, the blue of her warm eyes, and her frizzy blond hair.
Of everyone on this world, I’d say she came closest to being a true friend.
She and I had worked as a team to keep the other women safe at the crashed ship.
While I’d been rescued at the start of winter, she had been stuck on that ship.
We’d only been reunited a few days ago, and she’d been so happy to see me.
I was good at putting on a cheerful front to make people feel welcome, but Jolene, she was the real thing. She was going to be worried sick.
I heard the soft chirp kee kee of Dove somewhere nearby, muffled by dirt or rock she’d scurried under.
A reminder that I wasn’t alone, even if I felt a heavy mix of guilt and abandonment right now.
I should have told Jolene my plan, said goodbye.
I wished Ekkire had taken me with him as he scouted, just so I wouldn’t have to be alone with my thoughts.
That was not a good place to be. I was a stupid mess inside.
“Hey, Dove, where’d you go off to, sweetie?
” I called. She was nearby not that long ago, I could hear her soft chirps.
She hadn’t gotten stuck again, had she? Worried now, I shifted in my spot, but my leg made it nearly impossible to go search for her.
Not when the slope of rubble and dirt was this uneven, and worse, extremely unsteady.
The chirp kee kee came again, from somewhere to my left.
I shifted across the floor, dragging myself along with my hands very carefully.
“Dove?” I asked again. There was a rock in the pile here that left a gap between it and the dirt.
I peered inside but saw absolutely nothing.
The lightsource was back in Ekkire’s backpack, several feet away.
“Fuck,” I swore, because crawling back to get it felt like an insurmountable task.
“Chirp kee kee?” it came, but much louder this time, and from behind me.
I turned, and to my surprise, Dove came soaring out of the tunnel on silent wings.
She landed in my lap, tail wagging, and her round ears twitched back.
She looked pleased, and incredibly cute.
She also couldn’t have been the one who’d made the sound I’d heard earlier.
My belly twisted, worry filling me. If that hadn’t been Dove, did that mean another sleara was trapped in the rubble somewhere?
I was beyond relieved when Ekkire showed up a moment later.
He stuck his head in through the hole and blocked out most of the light.
I still saw the bright, emerald glow of his eyes.
“All is clear,” he announced. “I will come down to carry you and our supplies out. Then we will make you a new bow and arrows,” he announced.
Normally, the promise of crafting me a new bow would have made me ecstatic.
It barely registered this time. “Sssht, I think there’s a sleara stuck in this rubble somewhere.
It must have gotten trapped in the earthquake, too.
” Ekkire’s expression said he didn’t quite believe me, but he slid into the tunnel with his head cocked, eyes searching the rubble and then peering into the darkened crack I’d located.
“Hmm,” he said. That was it. No “oh, you might be right” or “are you certain?” Just a shrug as he lowered himself and began searching the nearby nooks and crannies, tilting his head left and right to get the best angle.
If he could twitch his ears to help him locate sound the way Dove could, he would have.
His tail brushed past my foot very casually, then the tip curled around my good ankle and clung.
The sigils on his body immediately lit and provided light.
“In there, I should think. Careful, he’s probably starving by now. ”
The backpack was shoved almost into my lap with a coil.
He was already reaching into the dark cranny he’d narrowed down as the likely spot.
There were no more chirps now, but a soft hissing like that of an angry snake or a furious kitten.
My hands fumbled with the pack, trying to pull out a ration bar, which was probably what he wanted.
A moment later, he yelped, then swore roughly, but when he pulled his hand from the cranny, he was holding a sleara.
His finger was also bleeding. It was a slate-blue little guy, scrawny, clawing, and hissing in fury.
Ekkire had a good grip on him, but it was definitely coming at a price.
Even so, he did not release him. “Found him,” he said.
He started to offer me the sleara, then seemed to think better of it.
I was a little relieved he didn’t hand me the furious creature.
If it had already clawed open or bitten Ekkire until he bled, the sleara was going to shred my skin to ribbons.
It didn’t calm down when I tried to offer it food, either.
It glared with amethyst fury in its eyes, slate-blue fur standing on end and its wings flapping wildly.
“You should let it go; we’ll have to hope he makes it on his own,” I said.
Just as the words left me, the small male sleara calmed, his eyes latching onto Dove.
My skin broke out in goosebumps, and I flung my arms around my tiny, pale friend protectively.
Was he looking at her like he wanted to eat her?
Was that a thing? If a sleara was hungry enough?
Did they eat their own? Some animals did that; the animal kingdom could be cruel.
Dove purred and rubbed her head against my hand, sitting all pretty with her wings folded against her back and her tail wrapped around her paws. She seemed entirely oblivious to the other sleara, not even batting an eye when he called out loudly with a chirp kee kee.
“Oh,” Ekkire said, “give me the ration bar. I’ll release him outside.
” I flicked the ration bar into his outstretched hand, then suddenly found myself dealing with Dove’s latest find.
She slipped from my lap to retrieve it, and dropped the soggy stick on my knee a moment later, eagerly chirping and wriggling her body, silver eyes swirling.
She still wasn’t looking at the sleara Ekkire held, though I was certain she had to know he was there.