The tunnel was like the previous ones Lapis had traversed around Ambercaast; dark, cold, musty. She thought it odd, that the tracks the trains once used were so deeply dug. At least three-fourths of a car would have sat below the walkway. How did people get in and out? Did they have doors on top? She mulled over the random pictures she perused in books and did not think train cars contained entrances on the roof.
Mint and Tia took the front, Vali the rear, the rest of them in between. Not only did the terrons have light, Linz and Cassa held bright tech devices as well. If they wanted to tip off the enemy that they were coming, they certainly did a good job.
Of course, she also would rather see, than discover, too late, that darkness hid opponents and death.
The way split, with a set of tracks curving around behind a corner to the left, and one that continued straight. They kept to the latter, though Lapis’s neck hair prickled at the thought of the enemy sneaking up behind them, having traversed the other way.
A dim glow down the tunnel grew brighter. Lapis squinted, but only greyish-yellow met her questing gaze. Everyone holding lights turned them off, leaving the group in a dull haze. The lead terrons paused, hastily conversed with Vali, then proceeded with tense caution.
“They say they don’t smell dogs, but aquatheerdaal and sponoil,” Cassa whispered. “They think khentauree guard that gate.”
Mint and Tia’s bravery did not lift Lapis into a similar courage. She kept replaying her confrontation with the metal creature, her cut, her breaking the sphere. Without a terron to crush their head, she had no guarantee others would stay down after she damaged them, and if the sponoil took out her other blade, she had fewer options in battling any remaining opponents.
Imagining herself pushing the four-legged machine over, then jumping up and down on the head, trying to crush it like a Dentherion can, did not help. She doubted she could get near enough to even try.
Deep-throated calls came from the direction the two terrons had gone. Vali urged them on, and while Lapis trotted to keep up, she fought the prickles of growing terror; she did not have time for fear, though fear decided it quite liked her, enough so she expected shadows to grow into the enemy and attack. She almost wished for something to happen, because the agonizing anticipation of assault was mentally enervating.
The ground sloped upward, and the tracks disappeared under it. Someone had filled in the middle space and smoothed the earth so it was even with the walkway. The gate stood just beyond, the two terrons in front of it. Cassa squinted, then shook her head and hurried to Mint and Tia. Linz firmed their lips and followed; Lapis, reminding herself she should appreciate their boldness, forced her feet to move faster.
Two tall, hooded tech lights acted as sentries to the ceiling-high gate. The chain links were thick, sturdy, which did not matter since the entrance sat wide open, a latch dangling from one side, but no signs of a lock. By each post, behind the wire, khentauree lay like dead horses. The cyan sponoil stuff oozed away from them and sat on top of the dust, a subtle blush of darker blue hovering over it. Foul rot wafted from them.
Lapis drew her blade and trailed Cassa and Linz as they crept to the opening and studied it before walking through. The scientist and rebel inspected the two bodies; she stepped just beyond them and looked down the tunnel. Two more tech lights glowed, but far enough away, darkness lay between them and the gate.
“Someone broke the spheres,” Cassa said as the rest of the group cautiously approached. “I see no other damage—at least not on the outside.”
“I don’t think they used a tech weapon, either,” Linz said. “Tearlach said his beam shattered the casing rather than cracked it. They used something sharp enough to puncture the bottom, probably so they could drain faster.”
“There doesn’t look to be signs of a struggle,” Tearlach said as he nosed about the area. “But there’s a faint trail.” He paused before a nondescript, dented metal door with no obvious knob. He pushed on it, to no response.
A stray footprint in the dust at the edges of the tunnel near Lapis indicated someone had walked it, though how old it was, she could not guess. “Do you think that man took these two out? Sent them to silence?” she asked. If so, how many more did he plan to deactivate?
“Maybe,” Tearlach said. “But we know Hoyt and the mercs are down here. Either one may have stumbled on the gate, took out the defenses, and decided to pay a visit to the people who put them there.”
“The mercs would have blown them up,” Lapis said. Those who worked under Gredy did not seem the subtle types.
“Vali says we don’t know enough to make guesses,” Cassa said, her voice heavy. “That’s true. We should try to hit that intersection as fast as possible, so we don’t end up confronting whoever it is.”
Mint grasped the left pole to the gate, and with a screech of metal, tore it from its hole, creating an opening large enough for the terrons to shuffle through and speed ahead. Lapis trotted to keep step, causing sweat to pour from her forehead and soak into her clothes. Items for cold weather above ground did not translate to comfortable gear below it, despite the chill that permeated the air.
Adding to the discomfort, her shoulders ached from the unfamiliar weight of her pack. She swore she carried more than she placed into it, though, considering the bulging ones strapped to the terrons, she supposed she should not complain—at least not verbally. She could think sour thoughts all she wanted.
Doors lined the walkways, most in good shape, and also without knobs. Tech lights illuminated those areas, while the passage between swam in darkness. Lapis studied the portals; blue-tinted metal, no obvious hinges, and wires running along the ceiling entered a square hole above the jambs. She supposed terminals like the one Caitria used might keep the doors locked, but she did not have enough experience with that type of lock to guess how to open them.
Worry crept up her spine. The packed dirt sank under their weight, leaving behind an obvious trail for anyone interested to follow, including stray khentauree. Would the tunnel to the western ruins possess a similar construction? If so, they needed to figure out a way to hide their passing.
Everyone remained alert, ready for a confrontation, but other than the two disabled machines, no other guard patrolled. Whoever blocked the way did not expect anyone to make it past the gate, or they would have a larger presence. Lapis’s chest tightened with every step as she strained to hear, to see, but other than the movement of their group, she discerned nothing.
Even if the terrons detected a potential enemy coming their way, hiding from them was impossible. The tunnel had nothing to crouch behind, just dirt, railings, and dusty, broken tiles. She appreciated the bravery of Mint and Tia, the first line in their defense, but if they encountered the mercs, who possessed nasty weapons, would the two be able to withstand the assault?
The dirt gave way to harsh, pebbly black pavement that filled the air with a sharp, oily scent. It heralded a tech door that spanned the entire tunnel. The shiny grey metal held no keyhole, no hinges, though one side appeared to fit snugly in the edge of the other. Whoever had installed it likely thought themselves well-protected behind it—which made its wide-open stance even odder. An eerie green glow to the right side illuminated the interior.
“I think you may be right about the man opening the way for us,” Linz said. “No one forced that door.”
Everyone else stayed back as Mint peeked around the corner. It did not take long before he gave the ‘all clear’ sign. Tearlach jerked his chin at Linz and they hustled inside to look.
“Whoever left the door open made certain it isn’t going to close,” they called.
Lapis bustled after them. The rebel held a screen that dangled from wires, and while the surface still had a green cast to it, nothing else displayed, probably because whoever ripped it from the wall snipped two of the connections.
Why did the man help them? She rubbed her arms, studying the space, hoping to find an explanation for the behavior. The walls were metal with consistently spaced grooves, reminding her of the pipe at Wrethe’s place. Someone purposefully constructed the entry to keep the unwanted out.
She disliked the sense that whoever left the gate and door open was leading them somewhere, and that might not be where they wanted to go. After all, the man had no motivation to care about two kidnapped teens and their merc captors, if he even knew about them. Her brain tickled the name Anquerette, but while she believed she had heard it before, she still could not place it.
A horrid thought popped up. “What if the western tunnel is blocked, like this?”
The terrons raised their claws and flexed. Vali casually swiped at the doorframe, leaving long gouges and ear-piercing squeals behind.
“What if that alerts someone?”
“We’ll run fast,” Brander replied breezily.
That sounded like something Rin would say. Chinder’s influence coated both of them, did it not.
Before she burst into a snarly, hurtful reply, her chaser-prudence kicked in. The others must feel suspicious, too, because even if the open doors appeared to be in their favor, that did not mean they were. Nonchalance covered concern, a staple rat expression she knew well.
They needed to pause, think, maybe plan, in whatever capacity they could. Unfortunately, they were walking blind, and they might just fall over the bridge and into the Pit without realizing it.
The tunnel expanded into a huge, metal-encased cavern. Walkways still lined the sides, sizeable gaps in the railing sat at consistent intervals, and the black pavement filled the middle. Light came from birds hovering near the walls, their lights sweeping about. Odd. If they behaved like their knife-destroyed brother, or those that the ‘shroud employed out Blossom way, they would move rather than remain in the same place.
Why didn’t the person who left the door open take care of them as well? Did they have another purpose other than light? Luckily, no one in their group feared tech, because walking through such a corridor could cause anxiety problems.
Spitzy noise. The birds shuddered, their wings dipped, they fell in twos, their lights going out as they crashed to the walkway. Everyone froze.
“What in the Stars,” Tearlach breathed.
The echoes continued as flickers of cyan and green died, and darkness descended. Random sparks, accompanied by electric fuzz, remained the only illumination.
A shout echoed down the tunnel. Another, then silence.
“We need to go.” Tearlach’s urgency shivered through her. Onward, towards the shouts—and whoever made them.
A whirring sound increased the further they went, and Lapis glanced about as those who possessed light turned on their devices. Cassa looked up, then at her.
“I think that’s a fan,” she said. “They’re circulating air in this cavern.”
“Then this must be an important place.”
“They wouldn’t have guarded it with birds otherwise,” Brander said.
“I want to look at one of them,” Linz said, a subtle unease lacing their words. Tia accompanied them, and both squatted and rummaged through the thing before the rebel stood, a small contraption in their hands. “Cameras,” they said.
Cameras?
“This one’s short-circuited, which might be why the birds fell.”
“Why would they need so many of them in this place?” Lapis asked, aghast. “Wouldn’t one suffice?”
“They probably deployed them for their light, not the cameras. Whoever is leaving the doors open is making certain nothing is viable to track us.” They dropped the object, which shattered into several bits on the walkway’s hard surface.
“He wants something,” Lapis said. “But what?”
“To get away from the people he’s been working with?” Brander hazarded. “He didn’t seem happy about being under the markweza’s thumb.”
“I wonder why he’s working with them in the first place. If he’s from Abastian like he sounded, what would a Meergeven royal descendant want with him?”
More shouts echoed to them, along with clangs and a shift of the ground.
Was it a good idea to head that way? Maybe they needed to backtrack. Where did the curving tracks go? Anywhere near the western mines?
Lapis’s nervousness grew with every step. The terrons’ confidence did not reassure her, and neither did the blank expressions of her other companions. Something bad was happening, and if they got caught up in it, how would they rescue Rin and Tovi?
She must look how she felt; Brander patted her back in comfort. Since none of the others required encouragement, she bowed her head, hoping to hide her embarrassment and unease.
They reached a crossroads. The stark difference between unlit and bright cavern startled her. The crossing remained shrouded in darkness, viable birds just beyond. Black flags on the edges of the railings marked with a blue number two fluttered in the slight breeze. Reflective squares lined the corners of the crossway, shimmering cyan.
Linz took out a book-sized square tech from their pack and turned it on, its light illuminating their face in a ghastly green color. They scrolled through maps until they reached one with blue arrows pointing at various tunnels. Cassa leaned over and sighed.
“Do you remember seeing this in Nathala’s maps?”
“They had a lot of crossways listed,” they replied. “But I thought they were narrow hallways leading to interior rooms. This one is huge.”
The terrons froze, in unison, before Vali signed at Cassa.
“They smell khentauree and smoke,” she murmured. “From whatever is happening down the lit way. I don’t think we have much choice but to proceed into the dark.”
Lapis sniffed in an enormous inhale but smelled nothing; she did not feel so bad when all the rebels and Dagby did the same. The scientist chuckled and patted her arm before following Mint and Tia into the left tunnel. Terrons had several remarkable abilities, though, if she had a choice, she would want their strength. Dragging guttershanks to justice would not prove as daunting and time-intensive with such muscle.
