Page 35 of Heart of the Desert

“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.