Venom and Song (4 page)

Kat coughed and snapped awake. Pain throbbed in three different places. Something had hit her.
A Gwar?
There was sudden movement. Kat looked up. It was Mr. Wallace. He held a dagger in his right hand. The look on his face—Kat had never seen it before.
Furious
. . .
no, murderous
. Kat felt a sharp pain as she backed into the hedge of stone behind her, falling onto her elbows in a vain effort to escape. Mr. Wallace was almost upon her now. Kat screamed.

Just then a huge gray shadow filled her vision. There was a growling, guttural roar, and a massive Gwar soldier fell at Kat's feet. Mr. Wallace clung to its back and stabbed it repeatedly with his dagger. The creature struggled, but was losing strength. It made one last effort to reach around, but Mr. Wallace slid his blade under the creature's neck and gave a swift pull. The Gwar went still as if it were some electric thing that had been unplugged.

Mr. Wallace looked up at Kat his expression still fierce, but then softened. “Are you okay?” he asked. He started to hold out his right hand, but realizing it was covered in blood he held out his left. He helped Kat to her feet. “Kat . . . are you okay?”

“I . . . I thought . . .”

“Thought what?”

Kat blinked and looked at her former social studies and history teacher. “Nevermind. Yeah, I'm okay . . . thanks to you.”

Kiri Lee twisted around so that the Kyrin clinging to her shoulder would be the first thing to hit the ground. Kiri Lee cried out from the impact. The crushed Kyrin let go of its intended victim, but quickly latched onto her forearm, claws sinking deep into her skin, forcing her to drop her sword. It pecked at the leather bracer on her wrist and dug its talons farther into her soft flesh. Not knowing what else to do, Kiri Lee reached with her free hand, grabbed the Kyrin by its neck, and squeezed. The Kyrin flailed its wings and claws, slicing Kiri Lee's arm, but she just squeezed harder. Soon the creature squealed and went limp. Kiri Lee tore it from her arm and tossed it aside, breathing heavily.

Jimmy, with Regis at his heels, raced back to find Edward and Miss Finney, bloody and exhausted, standing over three dead Gwar. “I saw them in me head,” Jimmy said, “comin' for yu! And there was a fourth one, too.”

“Mr. Wallace took care of it,” Kat said as she and her Sentinel joined the others.

“Him,” Mr. Wallace corrected. “Took care of him. The Spider King's Gwar are our enemies, but they are still beings.”

“Quite right,” said Edward. “Alas that they are enemies at all.”

“But they are,” said Miss Finney. “And I do not want any more of them to sneak up on us. We need to get moving.”

Ferral had watched many of his kindred burn alive in the attempt to breach the wall of flames, including Sorbin, his commander. The Gwar soldier wondered if any survived at all. From his vantage point in a fissure of stone some forty feet up the mountainside, he could see nothing moving on the path below . . . except for pockets of Kyrin feeding on the dead.
Go after the Elves?
Ferral banished the thought from his mind. That was certain death. Foolish, too. The Spider King needed to know all that had happened.
Perhaps,
he thought,
I might get a handful of vanadils for my trouble
. The thought of the silvery-blue coins made him smile. Then he had another thought, and the grin that had begun to form vanished.
He might not believe me
.

Ferral clambered out of his hiding place.
Best get some proof.

2
Rip Currents

THREE ELVES stood straining to see into the darkness as they waited in front of a peculiar fin of rock at the base of the mountain. Flet Marshall Brynn, Goldarrow, and Tommy had all but given up hope when they heard a familiar voice.

“Hail, Goldarrow!” Grimwarden shouted. “Look who I found!”

“Oh, thank Ellos,” Goldarrow replied, seeing the large group of Elves returning.

Tommy saw as well. “Kat!” He ran to her but stopped short.
Whoa,
he thought.
I almost hugged her
. “What happened to you?” he asked instead. “You were behind me one second . . . then whoosh!”

“It's a long story,” she replied, glancing at Mr. Wallace.

“We waited as long as we could,” said Goldarrow, hugging Grimwarden, which earned curious looks from Flet Marshall Brynn and the other Sentinels.

“Probably too long,” said Grimwarden, clearing his throat and squirming until she let go.

“Where's Autumn?” Johnny asked, looking around the group.

“Claris took Autumn through,” said Brynn.

“Good,” said Grimwarden.

“Mr. Grimwarden, sir?” Johnny said.

Grimwarden laughed. “Lord Albriand, ha! To think that a lord would call me sir. What is it, lad?”

Albriand?
Johnny ignored the strange name he used, then pressed himself past the others. “My sister”—he said lowering his voice— “how far is she from wherever the help is?”

“Quite far,” Grimwarden replied.

Johnny's tired eyes widened, panic starting to edge into his expression.

“If Claris and the others were taking Autumn by foot, then we would be right to worry, but they are not traveling by foot.”

“They're not?” Johnny frowned.

“They're not?” asked Goldarrow.

“No,” said Grimwarden with a hardly perceptible wink to Goldarrow. “And neither are we. I told you, this is a shortcut.”

“Forgive me for before, Guardmaster,” Goldarrow said, adding rather formally, “. . . for questioning your path.”

“Elle,” he responded, “do not waste another moment thinking of it. Thank Ellos the seven young lords are all alive. Thanks to Johnny . . . and the Kyrin, I don't think there are any Gwar coming behind us, but we dare not linger in this part of the world.”

He led them behind the fold of rock and kindled a torch. Then he made a turn where it seemed there was no passage, yet disappeared into blackness. The others followed until all the Elves disappeared into the mountain.

Like a serpent of fire, a long line of torch-bearing Elves—flet soldiers, Dreadnaughts, Sentinels, and the lords—followed Grimwarden down into the winding depths of the black abyss before them. The path into the underground alternated between great high chambers and cramped tunnels with ceilings that were shoulder height at best. In some of the low places, Tommy noticed the rock above was stained with black soot from the torches. Their party was clearly not the first to have traveled this way.

After an hour or more of twists and turns, their war band entered a cavernous chamber. “What's that shushing sound?” asked Kat.

No one answered. And as they traveled on, the shushing blossomed into a full-fledged roar. “I don't like this,” said Tommy.

“I hear you,” said Jett.

“Where are we?” Kiri Lee asked.

“Wait here,” Grimwarden commanded, moving away from the group with his torch in hand. They watched as he edged along a narrow ledge and eventually stopped beside a rope tied off to an iron ring protruding from the wall. He raised his torch, revealing what Tommy thought resembled a large, horizontal wagon wheel on the other end of the rope. Grimwarden set the chandelier ablaze and then released the rope from the iron ring. The brilliant light swung out into the middle of what was once a majestic hall, the ceiling held aloft by water-worn columns of sandstone that plummeted into a churning tumult of water. They all looked on in awe at the marvelous sight.

“It's an underground river!” Johnny exclaimed.

“An aquifer, to be more precise,” Grimwarden corrected, now back from the ledge.

“Your shortcut?” Goldarrow asked.

Grimwarden nodded. Then he turned and addressed the Elves. “We'll break up into teams of no more than five. Any more and the cavesurfers will capsize.”

“Cavesurfers?” Kat whispered.

“Sweet!” Tommy pumped his fist, but then turned red at the stares he'd earned.

“Each watercraft must be piloted by one of our trained cavesurfer flet soldiers or anyone with equal experience.”

“I can pilot one,” said Regis. “It's been awhile . . . but I used to be pretty good.”

“It looks much like a rapid-runner,” said Anna. “Do they handle about the same?”

“Precisely the same,” said Grimwarden. “Even with five aboard, you'll turn at will.”

“Then it should be no problem at all,” said Anna.

“Seems we have more than enough qualified pilots,” Grimwarden said with a smile. “Make sure each cavesurfer has a flet soldier who knows the way; these underground channels change frequently. You would not want to get lost, especially near the falls.”

“Falls?” said Kiri Lee nervously. “I can't swim.”

“What are yu worried about?” asked Jimmy. “Yu could just hop out of the boat and walk the rest 'a the way down.”

“I guess I keep forgetting,” said Kiri Lee.

“The falls are indeed perilous,” Grimwarden explained. “But not with our pilots. We've not had a crash in fifteen years.” He waited and watched the nods all around. Then he turned to Goldarrow and said, “Elle, recommendations for how we divide up?”

“I've never been much good at steering anything in the water,” said Goldarrow. “I'm going with you.”

Grimwarden coughed. “I meant how we divide up the lords.”

“Oh, of course, right.” She looked away and cleared her throat. “How about Tommy, Kat, and Kiri Lee come with us. Jimmy, Jett, and Johnny go with Brynn.”

“Three Js, baby!” Jett high-fived the other two boys.

“Fine,” said Grimwarden. “Follow me.”

Anna tapped Kat on the shoulder. “Are you sure you don't want to come with me?” she asked with a hint of a smile.

Kat held up her hands. “Oh no, that's okay. Thank you, Anna, but . . . I've seen how you drive.”

Anna feigned offense. “Crash once into a stone wall and no one trusts you. Goodness.”

They followed Grimwarden down a circuitous rampart of smooth stone leading to the edge of the river. Tethered to any number of iron rings along the strand sat dozens and dozens of tiny raftlike boats, each shaped like an arrowhead, pointy in front and flat in the back. They were rather shallow crafts with two small bench seats spread through the middle, one near the bow for two people, a second along the aft for three. The boat itself was formed of a wooden skeletal system with rawhide stretched around the outside. The only other notable feature was a small tiller connected to a rudder, presumably where the captain of each vessel steered the craft.