The Shadowhand Covenant (8 page)

“She's going to follow us,” I told him. “Don't worry. I keep telling you. As long as the eggs are safe—”

And that's when I tripped. And that's when the egg I was carrying shattered. All over Maloch's head, covering him in thick, gray fluid. The crowd of Sarosans gasped. Holm and Reena, frozen at the entrance of the tunnel, looked back in terror at the queen.

The monstrous vessapede reared up higher than ever. Her tendrils flailed at the cavern ceiling, and her scream made the earth shake.

Oh, zoc.

“Trust is for those who forsake the solace of suspicion.”

—Lyama Grimjinx, master thief of Jarron Province

^“
M
ove!” I shouted, charging for the tunnel.

The four of us ran with only the dim purple light to guide us. At our backs, I could hear the queen burrowing her way into the mouth of the tunnel. I grabbed Maloch.

“When the queen's done killing you,” he said tersely, “I'm going to kill whatever's left.”

“Fair enough,” I said, taking the egg from his hands and laying it carefully against the tunnel wall. “This will slow
her down. She'll stop to make it safe. But then she'll come after us.”

The shrieks of the vessapede grew louder, and we continued forward.

“You said you had a plan!” Reena said, tucking her egg under her arm.

“Running away from vessapedes
is
a plan,” I said. “A pretty good one, too.”

The tunnel forked off in three directions. Behind us, I could hear a growling-cooing sound as the queen found the first egg. It would take her only a moment to clear a niche in the tunnel wall, deposit the egg, and continue on her murderous rampage. No doubt the other two vessapedes would follow her.

“You must know these tunnels,” I said to Reena and Holm, trying to catch my breath. “Which way to the surface?”

They looked at each other uncertainly. They knew as well as Maloch and I did that showing us the way out meant we'd save our own skins and leave them for the vessapedes.

“No. Let's just leave the rest of the eggs in another cave for the vessapedes to find,” Reena said.

I shook my head. “Once they get the other eggs, they'll
head to the camp to finish everyone off. You're still in their home, remember? We have to lure them aboveground and then keep them from coming back.” I had no idea how to keep the vessapedes out, but it was the best idea I had.

Maloch was still pulling fistfuls of raw egg from his face, slapping them to the ground in great heaps. “Show us the way out or we'll leave you here, dolly girl.”

“You'll leave us either way!” Reena said.

A screech from behind announced that the queen was burrowing our way again. More shrieks followed, so loud that the tunnel shook, showering bits of earth down on us.

“We don't have time for this,” I said, snatching the eggs from Reena and Holm. “You two take Maloch to the surface. If the vessapedes follow you, find a way to block the exit so they can't come back to the tunnels. But I don't think they'll follow you.”

Reluctantly, Reena and Holm led Maloch down the left tunnel.

“Why?” Maloch called back to me.

I laid one egg down at the entrance of the right-hand tunnel. “Because they'll be following me.” I tucked the remaining egg under my arm and scurried along the right-hand tunnel
until the others were nothing more than faint silhouettes behind me. I called over my shoulder, “Get to the surface!”

The tunnel curved and widened. I wiped sweat from my eyes as I kept running. The purple crystals embedded in the walls gave off fainter light until finally I was in near darkness. Farther back, I could hear the distant growl-cooing of the queen as she found the egg at the tunnel's entrance. By now, the other two vessapedes would have caught up with her.

I leaned against the wall, trying to figure out what to do next. I couldn't outrun them. I couldn't threaten the egg or I'd be faceless in under a minute. All I could really do was outsmart them, but even that didn't seem like it would be enough. I closed my eyes to concentrate, hearing nothing but the queen's growl-cooing far away.

And that's when the smell hit me. Wafting from just ahead on a gentle, subterranean breeze: a sharp odor, musty and familiar. I thought back six months ago to when Callie, Edilman, and I were trying to escape from Redvalor Castle. I had taken my flashballs and made them into a makeshift explosive to blow a hole in the perimeter wall. I'd never forget that burning, musk-like odor.

I suddenly knew how I was going to get out of this.

If I was lucky.

A howl from behind me warned that the queen was on the warpath again. I moved back to where the tunnel was lined with purple crystals and gently rolled the egg around in the earth. Crystals clung to the shell, and soon the egg gave off its own glow. With a new source of light, I turned and ran toward that powerful odor. The question was: did the queen want her egg badly enough to follow?

Of course, I already knew the answer.

I pressed on, the stink in the darkness ahead guiding my way. To the rear, I heard the queen pause. Her shrieks quieted, and I knew she smelled what lay ahead too. Then I heard chattering. A metallic, clicking sound that I remembered from my time with the Dowager in the warrens. It was how the vessapedes communicated. First the queen clicked, then two distinct sets of clicks answered. It was clear they didn't want to proceed.

Come on,
I thought. Crazy as it sounded, I
needed
them to follow me, if this was going to work. If they turned back now, they'd only finish off the Sarosans.

Taking a deep breath, I ran back toward the warrens until
I could just scarcely make out two of the queen's mouths at the head of her body. I held the glowing egg over my head.

“You're probably wondering if you picked the right tunnel,” I shouted. “It's your lucky day!”

I turned and bolted into the darkness, managing to trip on my own feet only twice. The queen, ignoring the stink in the tunnel, shot forward. I'd forgotten exactly how fast they can move underground. I leaped over stone nubs, covering my mouth with one hand to fight off the pungent smell that threatened to gag me.

I stopped just short of stepping on a tinderjack plant.

I held up the glowing egg and found that I'd arrived in a large domed chamber, not unlike the one that housed the Sarosan camp. But instead of tents everywhere, I saw hundreds of tinderjack plants sprouting up from the ground. Part flower, part fungus, the tinderjack only grew underground. This crop was getting ready to bloom. A few had already blossomed, exposing three wide red-and-yellow petals on each plant. In the center of every set of petals, standing upright, was a leathery black pod. I swallowed, eyeing the exposed pods nervously. Gingerly, I moved between the plants and walked to the center of the room.

A chorus of roars trumpeted behind me. I turned to find all three vessapedes slithering into the chamber. But they stopped immediately upon seeing the field of tinderjack. Their screeching faded, replaced with a cautious growl-hiss.

I plugged my nose. “Oh good. I was hoping you knew what tinderjack is. Nasty stuff. Dangerous.”

Near the edge of the chamber, one of the plants shook. As the colorful petals fell open, it belched a short plume of flame up into the air. I gritted my teeth and the vessapedes squealed. The newly blossomed tinderjack's petals curved back, exposing the pod within.

“Oh, yeah,” I said, grinning. “Vessapedes aren't really fond of fire. You're smart. You knew enough to keep your distance from the tinderjack. We both know how volatile those pods are, right?”

I leaned forward to a plant that had blossomed, threatening to touch the pod within. The vessapedes fell silent and cowered.

“That's right. One wrong move and ka-boom.” I pulled my hand back, and the vessapedes resumed their growl-hiss.

A burst of flame in the corner announced the blossoming of another plant. I eyed it nervously. “See, guys, the thing
is: tinderjack isn't very stable. You never see this much of it so close together. Because when they bloom, the fire could ignite the entire field.”

So exactly
why
was there so much tinderjack? Tinderjack was fairly rare, and nature made sure two plants didn't blossom near each other or they could both be destroyed during the bloom. This couldn't have occurred naturally.

Concentrate, Jaxter. You're facing down three vessapedes and standing in the biggest field of explosives in the Five Provinces. Now is not the time for scientific curiosity.

I looked around. A few more plants, some right in the thick of the field, were shaking, getting ready to bloom. It was only a matter of time before a fire burst ignited one of those pods, which would detonate everything around it and then . . .

“How does this sound?” I said, laying the egg gently down in an exposed spot near my feet. “Why don't I just put your egg right here? And you could maybe move away from the exit? Then we can all just walk—or slither, whatever you like—away and nobody has to get blown up. Deal?”

With exaggerated, careful steps, I moved sideways away from the egg. I trod carefully between plants, putting as
much space between me and the egg as possible. Soon, I was up against the wall with nowhere to go.

The vessapedes looked to one another, clicking with their metallic teeth. Slowly, they moved to a small clearing opposite the wall where I stood. They each reared up and stretched their spiky tendrils out over the tinderjack field toward the egg.

My back to the wall, I walked along the edge toward the cave entrance. I gasped as a tinderjack bloomed at my feet, sending a jet of flame up past my face. Realizing there was little to stop the vessapedes from coming after me once they had their egg, I came up with a plan. Bending over, I gripped the newly exposed pod at the center of the flower firmly in both hands and gave it a quick, sharp tug.

It came loose from the stamen easily, and a trail of light-gray powder started to trickle from the hole at the pod's base. I continued my slow march to the entrance, letting the pod leave a trail of powder in my wake.

The vessapedes didn't know where to keep their multiple eyes: on me or their efforts to retrieve the egg. As I reached the mouth of the tunnel, I gave them a small salute. The queen had just managed to wrap a tendril around her egg
when her two companions suddenly shot their own tendrils in my direction. With a yell, I slammed the nearly empty pod down at my feet. It erupted in a small ball of fire that raced along the trail of powder and back into the field of tinderjack.

I dashed down the tunnel as a deafening explosion rent the air and sent me flying. Flames shot from the tinderjack cavern. The vessapedes screamed. One by one, the plants detonated, shaking the tunnel until the entrance to the tinderjack chamber collapsed.

The ceiling quaked, sending more rocks and dirt on top of me. Soon, it would cave in. I picked myself up and plunged into the dark tunnel, running hard and not bothering to look back.

I emerged into the tunnel where the paths split off in three directions. There I found Reena and Holm standing guard over Maloch, who was once again tied with his arms behind his back. Reena waved her dagger and I fell in next to Maloch, hands raised. With a shove, the Sarosans led us back to their camp.

The effort to rebuild had already begun. Tents were being resurrected, debris was being recycled, and the wounded were being treated. But everything froze when Reena and Holm proudly offered up their hostages.

Throngs of Sarosans gathered around us. Warras, the feathers on his head matted down with blood, pushed through to the head of the crowd. I held up my hand.

“We just saved you,” I said. “You owe us an explanation. We want to talk to your leader.”

“That would be me.”

A wizened, gaunt man stepped out from behind Warras. The long white hair that spilled down his back also framed his wrinkled and careworn face. Unlike the other Sarosans, he wore flowing robes that covered his arms and legs. Every move he made was slow and deliberate. He stood directly before me, and we stared at each other for several moments. Then he gently took Reena's dagger and slashed Maloch's bonds.

“That's not any way to treat our heroes, Reena,” the leader said.

Reena scowled and Holm looked ashamed. I was a little stunned he was being so rational.

“That's right,” I said. “Heroes. And heroes get rewards, right? So does that mean we're free to go?”

The leader clasped his hands together and smiled.

“Oh, I wouldn't say that.”

Zoc. So much for being rational.