Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
“Well, if there’s a gang of thieves, I’m guessing we’ve found how they’re removing their loot from the city.” Stork holds his lantern up and eyes the yawning tunnel ahead of us. “Easy enough to bribe a repeater in charge of the portals. Easy enough to sneak through a tunnel that’s out of use.”
“Unless there’s ratlings. Which there are.” Buzzard flicks the ring in his nose, his long ears twitching. “I can smell them everywhere.”
“Which means we know why they sent us down here,” Stork continues. “We’re either in the way of their plans, or they want their tunnel cleared out. Or both.”
“Something tells me we’re not expected to arrive back at the guild hall and tell everyone what’s going on,” Jay says in that somber voice of his. “If we try to make it back out through the lift…what then?”
Buzzard gestures at the open drop zone. “Too dangerous. If it was me, I’d drop something on anyone who tried to climb that rope.”
He’s right. “Then we fight our way through the tunnel?”
“Unless you know of a better option? We’ve got two ways out of here, and I’m willing to bet that they’ve engineered things to ensure we go the way they want us to go.”
“But they’ll be found out. Someone will come after us.”
“When? Who knows we’re down here?” Stork asks. “I filed with the guild that we were sending five in response to the request, but that can be easily removed from the records if there are repeaters working against us. Which there seemingly are. Will your Five know how long a rescue mission takes, Jay?”
“It might be several days before they worry. They know rescues happen, just not how long they take.”
I rub a hand down my muzzle. Well, the good thing is that if we die, Gwenna will know. And if I die down here, at least I’ll be able to say my goodbyes, even if they’re done as a ghost. Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel better.
“Let’s head in. We’ve got a skilled, capable group,” I say to them. “I don’t want to think of another Five coming down here hunting for us and getting slaughtered by ratlings. If anyone’s going to survive, it’s this Five. Might as well put it to the test.”
Buzzard slams a big fist into his hand, his expression one of grim approval. “Now we’re getting somewhere. I’ll take the lead.”
“Sword?” Jay asks.
“Don’t need one. I’ve got hands.”
“Taurians in front, then?” Shikra says to me. “We’re the best down here in the darkness.”
He’s not wrong. Stork has to hold a mucking oil lamp to see anything, and Jay probably hasn’t slept in a mucking week. “Aye, we’ll take the lead.”
“Let’s see what they’ve brought us to play with,” Buzzard says, unhooking from the rope tying us together and striding forward. It’s an unspoken rule amongst Taurians—in battle, you detach from the Five so you’re not dragged down. Good for us, less good for the humans.
Shikra knows it, and hesitates before unhooking himself, too. “I fight better unencumbered.”
I do, too, but I see Gwenna’s face in front of mine when I think about untying myself, and how devastated she’d be if I got Jay killed. I imagine Jay’s widow-woman farmer, too, and Stork’s woman—surely he has one somewhere—and how they’d react. Despite the urge to protect my own hide, I shake my head. “I’ll remain with the humans. Let’s stay together. Make sure nothing gets past the front lines.”
Stork readies his blade, and Jay pulls out a heavy mace. It makes me think of Gwenna, and I smile to myself. I’d forgotten that Jay was an expert with a mace. I should ask him to give her lessons when we get back—
Then the smell of ratlings grows heavy in the tunnel, and my hackles rise. “Stay behind me,” I say to Jay and Stork, clenching my fists in preparation for a battle. “And if things get bad, run for the drop. Take your chances with the rope.”
Forty-Seven
Gwenna
For the first time in my life, I am going to be an absolute bother.
To everyone.
“I’m telling you again,” I say to the repeater at the drop. I’m trying to keep my voice calm, but I’m failing. “Someone has set up a trap, and we have a team that needs a rescue.”
He looks at me dismissively. “Shouldn’t you be making someone dinner somewhere?”
I resist the urge to curl my fingers around his throat. “Shouldn’t you be doing your mucking job? Where is Raptor’s rescue group?”
“Just like I told you before, there’s no rescue group down in the Everbelow today,” the repeater tells me in the same bored way he’s told me twice already. “Check the documentation.”
I have. There’s a clipboard in the main Drop Distribution Office that shows who is scheduled to go where each day, and there’s absolutely nothing that shows a rescue effort, and nothing that might indicate where Raptor is. There’s a mistake somewhere.