Chapter 69: Beneath the Galleries

Chapter 69: Beneath the Galleries

Maelin waited at the cordon in field boots, a staff-issue pack on her shoulders. Her hands were scrubbed pink. A thin line of soap had dried near the base of one horn.

"You came back," she said.

"I said I would."

"People say things." She adjusted a strap. "I’m scared, Silas."

He had expected a joke or an impatient question about his equipment. Her plain admission made him stop beside her.

"Me too."

"You don’t look it."

"I’ve had practice." He checked that her pack wasn’t catching her hair. "Stay on my left when you can. If you need me, say my name."

"You do the same," Maelin said.

She didn’t promise everything would be fine. He was grateful for that.

Leander had gathered the others around a crate. Dagna carried a folded rescue litter alongside her gear; staff were distributing light rods, bandages, and chalk.

"Dagna at the front," Leander said. "Alden left, Gareth right. I’ll stay behind her. Elyra and Rooke in the middle, Sorne beside them. Isolde takes the left flank, Tavi the right. Caelan at the rear until we know what we’re entering."

"Put me anywhere he isn’t," Gareth said, glancing at Silas.

"You’re front right. He’s center," Leander replied. "We’ll work from there."

Silas checked the positions. They gave Gareth a job and kept him out of immediate reach. That would do for arrival.

The examiner checked their Cores and equipment in turn. Her instrument paused before Silas long enough to make him conscious of Nim’s presence through the bond. Then she moved on. Foldspace stayed closed; Nim’s manifestation remained reduced.

Staff approved all ten. Their communicators chimed on the shared party channel.

"Stay together as you cross," the examiner said.

Dagna and Leander went first. The others followed in close pairs, Silas crossing with Maelin on his left. Cold passed over his skin. His next breath tasted of damp leaves.

They stood in a confined courtyard, its broken paving thick with moss. A dry fountain basin occupied the middle. Ruined galleries rose on either side, vines hanging through gaps in the balustrades. At the far end, stairs led to half-open bronze doors.

Dagna moved toward the basin, leaving room for the others to gather behind her. Silas followed with Maelin. On a screen, this place had looked spacious. Standing among ten people with weapons and packs, he could see how quickly the fountain and fallen masonry would obstruct a retreat.

Behind them, the entrance arch contained solid stone.

Silas resisted touching it. The examiner had told them what would happen. That didn’t make the wall easier to look at.

Leander called for a check-in. All nine answered him through their communicators. He tested the academy channel once, received a flat tone, and put the device away.

Silas looked up at the east gallery. A pale scrape marked the balustrade, fresh moss crushed along its edge.

A pebble dropped onto the paving.

"Contact. Front," Leander said.

Four creatures emerged from the undergrowth below the far stairs. They resembled long-legged lizards the size of large dogs, armored in overlapping slate-colored plates. Two angled left, two right, then stopped within a few strides of the party, hissing.

Silas remembered the game camera above this courtyard. The front pack feinted. When the player advanced, more hunters dropped from the galleries onto the exposed rear.

"Don’t chase them!" he shouted. "The galleries. They’re drawing us forward!"

Leander looked up and immediately lifted a hand.

"Hold beside the basin. Dagna, cover the east. Isolde, west. Caelan, shoot from here."

Dagna planted her feet. A broad pane of pale light snapped into place above the party’s eastern side, tilted like a roof.

"Past the fountain’s right edge is open!" she called.

"I’ve got it," Tavi replied, moving into the gap.

Three hunters dropped from the east gallery. Their weight struck Dagna’s shield with a crack that made Silas duck. One slid off the sloping edge and hit the ground. Two remained above, claws scraping, forcing Dagna back half a step.

Two more fell from the west.

Isolde opened her palm with her thumbnail. Blood rose from the cut and stretched into a whip, catching one hunter across the eyes before wrapping its snout. The creature thrashed against the line. Her hand held steady, the small wound already closing.

Alden met the second western hunter with his sword. His first cut rang against armor. He changed the angle and struck behind its foreleg, bringing it down on one side. Its jaws snapped at his calf before he drove the blade into the exposed joint again. This time it stayed down.

Gareth killed the hunter that had slipped from Dagna’s shield. His downward blow cracked the plate behind its skull. He barely glanced at the body before turning toward the front.

The four hunters below the stairs abandoned their feint and charged.

Caelan stepped onto the fountain rim. His first arrow glanced off a shoulder plate; his second entered an open mouth. One attacker collapsed, leaving three racing around the basin.

Silas caught the hind leg of the one reaching for Elyra. Its claws tore through moss as it struggled against Remote Grasp. The pull jarred through him. It was heavier than a practice target and considerably less cooperative.

"Going. Basin," Maelin said beside him.

She disappeared into the shadow beneath the fountain’s lip. Silas knew where she had gone because she had told him, and still hated the instant in which she wasn’t visible.

She emerged on the far side behind Caelan. Another front hunter was gathering itself below him. Maelin caught his belt and hauled him off the rim as the creature lunged.

Both landed hard. Caelan swore and rolled with his bow still in hand. The hunter skidded over the rim where his legs had been, then scrambled down toward them.

Tavi struck it from the side. Her speed carried it against the basin wall, and Gareth stepped in before it recovered, crushing the exposed neck.

Silas’s own captive wrenched its leg free.

"No spirits in them," Elyra said, backing from its jaws. "They’re animals."

Silas reached again and caught the hunter’s shoulder just enough to spoil its turn. Tavi doubled back and knocked it onto its side. Alden’s sword found the underside, ending the struggle close enough for blood to spatter Silas’s boot.

Above them, Dagna’s shield creaked. Leander raised two fingers and sent narrow threads of lightning toward the hunters clinging to it. One jerked and slipped free. The second opened its jaws in a shriek; his next thread entered its mouth.

"Let them slide, Dagna," Leander said.

She lowered the outer edge. The bodies rolled down beyond the party, and Gareth checked them with his weapon. Neither moved.

On the west, Isolde drew the loop of blood from the hunter’s snout to the softer scales beneath its jaw. She pulled it taut, turning the creature’s head away from the others. The line narrowed against its throat until the struggling stopped. She drew it back, eyes still on the fallen hunter.

He had time to think they were holding.

Then movement above the entrance caught his eye.

A tenth hunter clung head-down to the carved arch behind them. The gallery’s broken overhang had hidden it from below, somewhere the game’s overhead camera had never shown him.

Its body flattened. Its tail curled.

Caelan was rising beside Maelin, facing the last attacker at the front. His back lay directly beneath the hidden hunter’s leap.

Silas reached for the catch on his chest.