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23
Bricks poundeddown all around me as I ran through the quaking tunnel, with the girl whose name I didn’t know draped over my shoulder, my necklace back around my neck, and the dragon’s artifact under my arm. Had Zav survived falling into the middle of those dark elves with half the ceiling tumbling onto him? I had noidea.
I passed all the intersections I’d run through on the way in without encountering anything but dead dark elves. No, make that unconscious dark elves. One groaned when I stepped on his arm as I ranpast.
Zav hadn’t come to kill anyone, it seemed. Except those two dark elves who’d been about to killme. I owed him one now, and I hated that. If he made it out of that rockfall in the chamber, I hoped he wouldn’t mention it, but I was sure he would. While calling me vermin and amongrel.
The first of the two hatchways came into view. As I jumped through, the girl squirmed on my shoulder. I felt her weight keenly. The boost of energy I’d gotten from the manticore concoction was wearingoff.
“Almost there,” I panted, exhausted but too terrified to slowdown.
Rubble littered the tunnel floor, and I’d heard more than one massive crash behind us. Any minute, we might runinto—
I skidded to a halt. The way ahead was caved in.Completelycavedin.
I swore and lowered the girl, needing a break and to figure out how to get away. I’d already used all mygrenades.
The girl couldn’t stand with that weird webbing wrapped all around her, so I propped her against thewall.
“We’re going to have to find another way out.” I needed to cut that webbing off her, but it looked like a chore, so I touched my cat figurine, wanting Sindari to watch myback.
The charm was oddly cool to the touch, as if Sindari were far more distant than usual. That dark elf better not have done something tohim.
“Sindari,” I whispered, “come back toEarth.”
The mist was slow to form, as if it was trying to coalesce but something held it back. While I waited, I tried to cut off the webbing with my knife. It looked like fabric, but it was more like armor. I switched to Chopper, hoping the magical blade would have moreluck.
The girl’s eyes had been glazed, as if she was in shock, but when I brushed her with the hilt of the weapon, she tried to hop away. It wasn’t until that moment that I remembered she wouldn’t be able to see anything down here. She didn’t have a night-vision charm. She might not even know I was human. Half-human,anyway.
“I’m going to cut these bindings off you. Then you can run, and we’ll get out of here.” I glanced toward the pile of rocks blocking our way. “Some way. What’s your name? I’mVal.”
She shook her head slowly and didn’t answer. Yes, she was definitely in shock. I shuddered to think about how long she’d been a prisoner and what that vile priestess might have already done toher.
“Where do you live, Silent One? As soon as we get out of here, I have a friend who can pick us up and take youhome.”
“Shoreline,” she whispered, naming a suburb to thenorth.
I shuddered again. My daughter only lived a few miles away from there. Had this girl been taken from there or during a trip intoSeattle?
Sindari finally formed in the mist. I paused to hughim.
Valmeyjar, he spoke into my mind far more formally than usual.I did not think it would be you. I thought you would bedead.
I started to reply, but I sensed a powerful magical aura approaching from behind us. Sindari faced it. I recognized the owner of the aura before he came into sight, but I still debated on drawing Fezzik. It wasn’t as if Zav had officially said we were working together, and he might be pissed that I’d killed the priestess. And that I had hisartifact.
It was hideous, and I definitely didn’t want it. Maybe if I threw it at him, he would be appeased, like some volcano god accepting a virgin hurled into hiscaldera.
Zav was limping when he came into view, blood streaming from cuts on his bruised face, but as soon as he spotted me, he hid the limp. Or gritted his teeth through it. His black robe and dark hair were coated in dust. I never would have guessed he could appear sodisheveled.
He still carried that sword, and he raised it and pointed it at me. I swore and lunged to the side, trying to protect the girl even as I drewFezzik.
This time, an entire roiling wave of fiery orange power sprang from its tip, not a single beam, and it nearly blinded me. I turned my back as the power passed me, somehow not stirring a hair on my head, and pounded into the caved-in rocks. They blew backward with the thunderous boom of dynamite exploding, the power pulverizing them to ashes before they hit the groundagain.
Just as the power hadn’t struck me, the shrapnel from the exploding rocks didn’t touch me. I sensed a magical shield protecting me and thegirl.
Zav grabbed the artifact from my hand as he passed and keptgoing.
“You’re welcome,” Icalled.
