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The prince swallowed, his throat bobbing, and said the only logical thing one could say in such a situation:
“Fuck.”
PartFive
Man and Monster
ChapterFifty-One
The Lady
Auberon cautiously lifted his sword. “Riona,” he whispered, never turning his attention from the Rennox. “I may have made an error in judgment when I decided to trust these creatures.”
“Trust them? What do you mean?”
“Let’s just say that the Rennox attack wasn’t a coincidence. We ran into a friend of yours on our way here.”
A friend? Dig?
“Auberon?” a distant voice called.Amaris!“Where are you?”
“In here! I found her—she’s alive.”
He edged to the side of the cavern, keeping Riona close beside him. His thumb brushed across the back of her hand as the Rennox swiveled its head, tracking their movements. The point of its spear was still trained on Auberon’s chest. Droplets of bloodplop, plop, ploppedon the ornate rug. It hadn’t moved beyond the archway but, for some reason, it hadn’t attacked them, either.
Riona studied it warily. The creature was bipedal, with long, narrow limbs that sparkled with flecks of eudorite. Its face—if it could truly be called aface—was nothing more than an elongated oval with twin chips of onyx roughly in the place of human eyes.
Movement flashed behind it, and surprise shot through Riona when Dig pushed aside the curtain and shuffled past the Rennox’s leg. He grinned at her, then turned and held up a hand to the creature. Its face parted—there was no other way to describe it, as it had no lips that Riona could see—and it muttered a few guttural words in a voice like the scrape of a whetstone against a blade. Dig shook his head and responded in the same strange tongue.
“He’s…speaking to it,” Riona said, caught between awe and confusion.
“Unsettling, isn’t it?” Auberon murmured.
After they exchanged a few more words, the Rennox lowered its spear and stepped aside. Dig’s grin widened as he loped toward the archway and moved the curtain aside. Auberon dropped Riona’s hand and took a sharp step away as Amaris rushed into the cavern.
“Oh, thank the Creator!” she cried as she threw her arms around Riona’s neck. “When we get back to Innislee, I am going tokillyou for this.”
“If we make it back to Innislee, I won’t try to stop you,” Riona murmured, ignoring the agony that raced through her ribcage as she squeezed Amaris tightly.
Auberon moved to the archway and peered into the tunnel, his grip tightening on his sword. “Come on, ladies. We have to go now, before the fighting gets closer.”
“Trust me, we can’t leave fast enough,” Amaris said, stepping back and slipping her hand into Riona’s. “Let’s go.”
The Rennox ducked out of the cavern, Auberon and Dig close on its heels. Riona and Amaris started after them, and when they reached the overseer’s body, Riona knelt and pulled the emerald-hilted dagger from his belt. She didn’t have time to search for the sheath to strap it to her thigh, so she slipped it into the leg of her boot and prayed that they would make it out of the mine without having to use it. Then she pulled the ring of keys from the overseer’s pocket and removed the shackles from her ankles, tossing them aside with disgust.
Auberon had waited for them just beyond the archway, and he fell into step behind Riona and Amaris when they emerged, consistently checking over his shoulder to make certain that they were not being pursued. Behind them, the tunnel was a mess of blood and broken bodies. Mine workers lay scattered, some missing entire limbs. The sight sent a tremor down Riona’s spine. It was all too similar to the aftermath of the battle of Sandori.
She heard a shout and turned back to find two tall, hulking men making their way toward them, picking a careful path through the scattered bodies. From their pale skin and muscular builds, it was obvious that they were miners. Each held a eudorite blade, and one had a makeshift bandage wrapped around his thigh. The wounded one leaned against the other man, wincing with every step.
When Auberon made no move to stop their pursuit, Riona raised a brow. “More friends of yours?”
“Something like that. I may have stabbed one of them.”
“Sounds like something you’d do.”
“Let’s get out of here,” one of the miners grunted when they caught up. “I don’t want to spend any more time in this damned place than I have to.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Amaris muttered.
