Page 65 of Nexus
“Wouldn’t it be ironic if the overlord’s compound is sitting directly over the spell he’s looking for and he doesn’t even know it?” I said in amusement.
“That would be hilarious,” Ruen said with heavy sarcasm. He was getting cranky, which meant he needed to feed. “May I suggest we head to the cave before the sun comes up? You’re too big to hide in the grass. You’ll be spotted if any sentries go out on patrol during the day.”
My gut stuck out above the grass even when I was lying on my back. I could either dig out a hollow and sleep the day away in it, or I could take his advice. “Get on my back,” I ordered in resignation. I wanted him to be at my side when I went in search of the spell and I had no idea what we would find in the cave.
Ruen scrambled into position and I loped away from the compound, giving it a wide berth. Once I was distant from it, I broke into a run. My assistant directed me to the entrance of the gigantic cave he’d discovered. We made it just in time for him to drop to the ground, then keel over as the sun came up. I caught him and swung him into my arms. I didn’t need to stuff him into my sack this time, since the cave would offer him shelter from the sun.
“Do you think you can stay awake long enough for me to do some hunting?” I asked Aurora. She looked away guiltily, which meant she was exhausted. “I can’t sense anything dangerous in the immediate area, so you should be safe enough.” I said, peering around the dark cavern. “I can see a high shelf over there. I’ll stash Ruen on it and you can sleep up there with him.”
She nodded, then daintily covered her beak with her wing as she yawned. I crossed to the natural rock shelf and placed the bloodsucker on it, then tucked her in beside him. I put our belongings on another shelf, then went out to hunt.
Chapter Forty-Eight
I SPENT A COUPLE OF hours hunting for food, then cooked it just inside the mouth of the cave. Ruen hadn’t explored deeply enough to discover if anything lurked inside. It was best to sit tight and wait for him to wake up. Besides, I needed to eat and get some sleep after expending so much energy during the past few days.
Dousing the fire with dirt once I was done, I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Aurora blinked down at me sleepily from her perch on Ruen’s unmoving chest. I lay down on the ground beneath them and slipped into slumber.
Ruen waited until he’d fed before waking me. Aurora was perched on my gut, standing guard when he nudged me awake with his foot. “We need to get moving,” he said in a hushed tone.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, moving the bird to my shoulder before standing up.
“I’m not sure,” he replied, then shivered. “Something feels off about this cave.”
“It must be because of the scroll,” I figured. “Are you sure it’s in here?” I asked Aurora. She nodded and pointed deeper into the tunnel.
We gathered our gear, then Ruen scrambled onto my back. I didn’t intend to run through the cave, but he had a better view of what was ahead from up there. I tried to walk quietly, but my feet were too damn big. The dirt was almost sandy and crunched with each step I took.
Before long, I felt danger flickering at the edges of my senses. “There’s something powerful up ahead,” I whispered.
“How strong is it?” Ruen asked.
“I can’t tell, yet. I’ll let you know once we get closer to it.”
The cave was cool, damp and water dripped from unseen chambers. We passed tunnels branching off from the main one. I didn’t need to worry about becoming stuck. Three male ogres could have passed through it walking side by side and the ceiling towered high above us.
Ruen’s prediction that the cave would lead us to the compound turned out to be accurate. Although it wasn’t perfectly straight, the tunnel took us towards the area where Aurora had sensed magic. My monster radar told me the creature that was guarding the scroll wasn’t going to be easy to defeat.
“How strong is it now?” Ruen whispered when we were only a few hundred yards from the compound. The tunnel had been steadily sloping downward, so we were fairly deep beneath the ground. I couldn’t sense the overlord or his minions. Maybe the thick rock above us blocked it.
“It’s a carbuncle, just like the overlord, but it feels different from him,” I said quietly. “It must be behind that pile of rocks over there.” I gestured at the mound of rubble near the back of the cave, then a glimmer of light caught my eye. “Do you see that?” I asked, pointing upwards.
“What are you pointing at?” Ruen asked, squinting in the direction I’d indicated.
“There’s a gleam of light up high on the wall on the right at the back of the cave.”
His head tilted back further. “I see it,” he confirmed. “Do you think it’s the scroll?”
Aurora nodded in confirmation, eyelashes fluttering in excitement. She pointed at it, then winced when she accidentally jostled her broken wing.
“How the hell are we going to get it down from there?” I wondered.
“How did it get up there in the first place?” the bloodsucker pointed out.
“I have no idea,” I said with a shrug. “Let’s move closer and see if we can find the creature that’s guarding it.”
“What makes you think it’s guarding it?”
“Why else would a carbuncle be living here?” I said wryly, gesturing at the piles of animal bones that were scattered all over the place.