Page 17

The sand shifted around us. The funnel widened, burying my legs.

“We’re falling!” Ciana screamed in panic.

Letting go of her was unthinkable. I hugged her to me tightly, and we went down together.

Sand enclosed us in an airless tomb. I couldn’t hear or see Ciana anymore. But I felt her with my tendrils. Her fear exploded into panic, but she tried to hold it at bay. She couldn’t breathe, but she wasn’t dying yet.

The sand slipped by us like a dry, abrasive shroud, releasing us into nothing but air and darkness. Then we fell into a pile of sand below.

Muted daylight filtered through the stream of sand falling from the hole above that Ciana and I had fallen through. The sand kept falling over us like a waterfall.

“Kurai? Where are you?”

I found her hand and pulled her with me, climbing out of the sand pile and onto a hard stone floor.

“Are you all right?” I turned to her.

“I…I think so.” She glanced around. “Where are we?”

“I’m not sure.”

She pressed closer to me. “I can’t see anything but this stupid sand and that hole.”

It was easier for my eyes to adjust to darkness than to daylight. But her human eyes worked differently than mine.

“It’s a cave.” I peered along the dark underground corridor. “The hole is a long tunnel up to the surface. Nothing sinister is in here, as far as I can see. Now, we’ll just have to find our way back up.”

That wouldn’t be easy, by the look of it. The ceiling of the cave was too high to reach the opening, and the tunnel above looked too long to climb without a ladder or a rope tossed from above.

An odd sound came from behind us, as if the rocks were rubbing against each other. Or something was being dragged over the floor.

“Okay, then—” Ciana started, but I squeezed her hand gently and brought my finger to my lips.

“Shh.” I retrieved my tendrils from her leilathas and placed a hand on the handle of one of my daggers.

Someone or something was here with us.

Ciana stiffened, sensing my worry. The sound came closer. It seemed to come from all around us, from every direction, surrounding us.

A long black body emerged from the shadows, curving around us like a giant, bloated hose. Then a dreadful scratching sound came—the noise of a thousand sharp-as-needles legs scraping against the stone floor.

“Oh my god, what is this?” Ciana gripped my arm.

Her eyes must’ve adjusted to the dark well enough to see the glistening scales of the sand centipede that was tightening its noose around us.

“Listen to me carefully,” I whispered urgently. “When I say—but only when I say, not before, not after—we’ll jump over it and run that way as fast as you can. Do you understand?”

I covered her hand on my arm gently.

“Yes,” she exhaled quietly.

“Ready?” My body tensed like a tightly wound spring. “Now!”

I jerked my arm up, making her jump with me a second before the centipede’s body constricted in an attempt to trap our legs. We leaped over it and ran.

Sprinting down the corridor, I listened to the scraping sound of the sand centipede chasing after us. It wasn’t going to let us go that easily. Knowing these caves better than we did, the creature had a good chance at catching us.

“Ah!” Ciana tripped, catching herself by grabbing onto my shoulder. “I can’t see where I’m going.”

I steadied her with my arm around her waist, dragging her with me.

“Don’t stop!”

The corridor ended, opening into a wide, round cave.

“Now what?” Ciana panted, out of breath.

There was no exit from here. The walls, covered in a glowing slime, circled us, illuminating the space in pale bluish glow. The air in here felt muggy and stale, and it seemed to vibrate with intense hissing.

“What’s that noise?” Ciana twisted around in search of the sound, then screamed, climbing up onto a flat rock in the middle.

“Snakes!” she screeched, gasping in horror.

Slim, black shapes covered the entire floor like a living, undulating carpet. In seconds, they swarmed my feet, their many legs scratching at the leather of my boots in a strife to get to my flesh.

“These are babies.” I kicked my foot, throwing them off, but more crawled up on it the moment I set my foot down again.

“Is that their mother then?” Ciana pointed behind me.

The sand centipede had caught up with us and poked its flat head into the cave.

Its legs moved even as its body remained stationary.

They scraped against the stone with the unnerving sound that echoed through the cave and the tunnel.

Its black scales reflected the green glow of the walls like metal.

To my knowledge, they were just as hard and enduring as metal too.

“Is it going to eat us?” Ciana kicked off the baby centipedes that tried to get up the rock to her.

I slid my daggers from their sheaths.

“No. I’m not going to let it.”

It was probably good that Ciana didn’t know that sand centipedes’ legs were sharp like blades.

They could dissect a camel in minutes. The centipedes also used their legs to carve caves and tunnels in the rock under the desert floor for the unsuspecting prey to fall down into their traps like we did.

The centipede unfurled its long body like a spring, propelling it into an attack.

Ciana cried out in warning.

I slashed with my right dagger, then cut with the left, hard enough to leave a long gash in the creature’s body. Pale blood dripped from the wound on its side and trickled into the cave.

The centipede hissed, retreating. Its thin, hard legs scraped against the stone like iron nails. But it wasn’t gone for good. Just a moment later, the creature’s body constricted again, readying for another attack.

I gripped my daggers tighter, crouching down in preparation.

The baby centipedes suddenly lost interest in Ciana and me. They scurried after their mother, but not for help or comfort. Catching the scent of blood, they climbed on her side, tearing and ripping the wound on her side wider to feed on her flesh.

With a loud sound—a half-hiss, half screech—the centipede lunged into another attack on me. Its sharp legs sliced through my shroud like blades. It’s hard body slammed into me, knocking me off my feet. I fell to the floor with the creature’s side pressing me down.

“Kurai!” Ciana’s scream rang with panic.

She grabbed the tail of the centipede and pulled, trying to drag the creature off me. Refusing to let go of its prey, the centipede gripped my sides. Its legs tore through my clothes and broke my skin, letting out blood.

“Die!” I stabbed my dagger through its flat head so hard, the tip chipped the rock beneath it.

Its long, taut body lashed like a whip in the agony of death. Ciana leaped away, narrowly avoiding being cut into ribbons by the centipede’s legs.

“Die.” I turned the dagger, ending the creature.

The baby centipedes swarmed the still twitching body of their mother and started tearing it into pieces .

“Kurai, are you okay?” Ciana sidestepped over the writhing centipedes on the floor in her rush to get to me. “You’re bleeding.”

The searing pain from the long gushes on my sides finally registered with me. I clenched my teeth, getting up.

“Lay still.” Ciana fussed over me. “Let me take a look at your wounds first.”

“I have to get up now, while I still can.” I gestured at the centipedes that swerved towards the rivulet of my blood snaking across the floor. They would devour both their mother and me if given a chance. “We need to get out of here.”

Pressing one hand to my side, I grabbed Ciana’s arm with the other as the small but vicious centipedes gathered at our feet.

“Ouch!” Ciana cried out in pain when one of them climbed onto her foot, its spiky legs piercing through the cloth I’d wrapped her feet and legs in.

“Quickly, while there is still something left of their mother to distract them.” I swatted at the bloodthirsty centipede with one of my tendrils, swatting the creature from her foot. But several more crawled to us already, trying to climb on our feet.

“Gross, disgusting, bloodthirsty creatures.” Ciana shook her legs while stomping toward the exit.

The more we shook them off, however, the more of them swarmed us, drawn by the blood seeping from my wounds.

Ciana gasped in horror as one of the centipedes climbed up her leg and under her skirt.

“Run.” I yanked her by her hand, pulling her out of the cave.

The trickle of the centipedes scurrying after us steadily grew into a wide black hissing stream of them.

“Run!”

We dashed down the corridor, past the opening in the ceiling that we’d fallen in through.

Sand was still pouring in through it with the day storm at full force up there now.

The opening was way too high for us to reach, with no hope of getting back to the surface through it.

If we lingered, we’d either be buried under the sand or sliced and eaten by the centipedes.

“This way.” I took Ciana down the only way still open to us—a dark tunnel stretching in the opposite direction from the cave with the centipedes’ nest.

The ceiling here got lower the farther we ran. Eventually, we both had to bend our heads down or risk hitting them on the ceiling.

As the tunnel kept getting narrower, with its walls and ceiling closing in on us, it slowed us down.

“Oh God.” Ciana glanced back at the centipedes catching up to us.

If we were attacked, I hardly had any space to fight in here.

“Faster, Kurai.” With a spurt of energy, she pulled me after her.

The ground sloped downwards, forcing us to run faster and faster. As the slope grew steeper, Ciana tripped and I lost my footing too. We rolled down the slope, over a hard edge, and into an abyss.

“Aaaaaaa,” Ciana screamed.

The echo caught her voice and amplified it tenfold in an open cavern as we plummeted down.

I lashed out with my tendrils, trying to find and catch her in the air, but felt only emptiness.

“Ciana!”

I crashed hard on an uneven surface. The impact knocked the air out of my lungs, leaving me momentarily speechless. My hip throbbed and a sharp pain lanced through my shoulder as I tried to move.

In the complete darkness, something fell on me from above. It hissed, its sharp legs scraping against the fabric that covered my head and shoulders.

A baby centipede.

I grabbed it from me and twisted it, breaking it in half. Another one fell on the rocks nearby with a thud, then another. It took a few long moments for my vision to adjust to the darkness. The centipedes looked like dark shadows on the black rock, hard to spot.

Using both my sight and my hearing to find them, I caught them, then stabbed them or cut their heads off. Only a few seemed to have followed us in our fall down here. The rest either abandoned the chase or had enough brains to stop in time when they saw us falling.

Either way, I heard no more hissing.

In fact, I realized with worry, I heard nothing at all.

“Ciana?” I looked around. “Where are you?”

No answer came. I heard no movement or even breathing.

“Ciana!” I called, trying to get up again.

My leg gave out when I put my weight on it, sending me back to the floor with a sharp shot of agony through my body.

I must’ve broken a bone either in my hip or my leg when I crashed. To heal it, I’d need to rest for a while. Only I had no time to rest. I had to find Ciana.

“Where are you, my sweet precious girl?” I coaxed, as if she wouldn’t have come to me already if she were able.

Regardless of whether I planned it or not, regardless of what the world thought about us, Ciana had become my sweet, precious girl. And now I couldn’t rest, I couldn’t heal unless I found her.

A flash of her beige clothing caught my eye. I crawled over a ridge of rocks to find her lying on the other side—motionless.

“Ciana?” I whispered, brushing away her braids from her face.

Her eyes were closed. Her dry, chapped lips were parted slightly. I lowered my head to her face, trying to catch any sound of life.

A faint breeze touched my skin, but I couldn’t tell whether it was her breath or the draft in the cavern. But there was a way to know for sure. I didn’t hesitate even for a moment this time. Gently curling my tendrils around her body, I found her leilathas and connected to her emotions .

Pain assaulted my system, stabbing me from all directions.

She was hurt. But if she felt pain, it meant she was still alive.

“Come here, my sweet.” Afraid to move her, I curled my body around hers, trying to shield her from any more harm.

Her pain rolled through me in hot waves of agony, but I left my tendrils connected to her. As magic coursed through me, healing my body, I hoped it would reach her, too, lending her the healing strength her human body lacked.

Guilt and regret gripped my heart, more tormenting than any physical pain could ever be.

Without giving any promises or vows, I’d taken it upon myself to protect Ciana, and I failed.

Now, she lay broken on the sharp stones, motionless and racked by pain.

And it hurt more than even my failed mission in the sarai .

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m so, so sorry.” Rising on an elbow, I kissed her cheek the way she used to kiss mine.

The tender memory of those times soothed the pain a little. But my arm shook, forcing me to lay down on the rocks again. My body demanded I rest in order for it to heal.

I buried my face in Ciana’s braids and closed my eyes.

I didn’t know any healing spells. The magic of Joy Guardians was mostly meant to protect one thing and destroy all others, not to heal or nurture someone.

Neither did I pray to the gods the way people outside of our temple usually did, asking for strength and health.

My strength, endurance, and comfort had always come from the Source of Joy. Now that I wasn’t near it, I had to find them all within me somehow.

I tried to bring up the memories of the many times when I meditated in the enclave, warmed by the glow of the Joy near me. But my thoughts refused to leave the woman cradled in my arms. And the memories that rose in my mind were those of us sitting together on the bench in the sarai .

I recalled guessing and learning the meaning of her many smiles.

I’d tried to mimic them all, too, slowly practicing the new facial expressions and trying to match them to the emotions I knew.

I remembered how her hand felt in mine and how gently her warm lips always touched my cheek when she said goodbye to me after dinner.

I remembered how the glow of the night moths reflected with golden flecks in her dark eyes, making them look like stars to me. And I remembered how comforting her compassion felt when she hugged me, letting me cry on her shoulder.

“Please, please, get better, Ciana,” I whispered my heart’s deepest desire in her ear. “You have made this world a better place. And I don’t want to remember what it was like to be here without you.”