Page 38 of Returned to the Vissigroth (The Vissigroths of Leander #6)

F or a moment, time seemed suspended. One moment, Surnak was issuing orders. The next, his eyes bulged, while a wet, gurgling sound caught in his throat as a long, jagged spear burst from between the plates of his armor.

“Ney!” I screamed, lunging forward, but Thalia yanked me back.

“Form up!” Zohran shouted, shoving us toward the wall, his sword already half-drawn.

The torchlight flickered violently as a hulking shadow filled the end of the hallway. Its movements were fast—too fast for something that size—and the smell hit us a moment later. Wet dirt. Rot. Burned bone.

Eulachs.

But that thing , that was coming toward us, was too big to be a Eulach. It barely fit into the passageway. At least nine paces tall, it had to hunch over to move forward.

Oksana's eyes seemed to bulge from her head, "Gods, what is that ?"

It scraped its long claws across the wall, making a sound that had me shuddering in my bones and standing every single nerve ending at attention.

Its heavy breaths echoed in the tight space, and I swore I could feel the breath of hell coming at me.

One of the dragoons shouted and fell, his weapon clattering against the stone.

Another cursed, charged forward, and just when his sword was about to hit the hulking monstrosity, a Eulach threw himself in between, sacrificing himself.

Just as the dragoon’s sword cut through the Eulach, the monster's arm reached out and grabbed the hapless male by his throat, hurling him headfirst against the wall with enough force to kill him instantly.

With our way forward blocked, we spun on our heels, intending to change directions, but it was too late.

A second figure loomed behind us. Bigger.

Bending to fit into the tunnel, its shoulders scraped the edges of the stone.

It gave a throaty hiss that raked across my bones.

Its thick, ridged arms and a chest like carved stone completely blocked the path.

It moved with eerie grace, as if it had been waiting here, silent and patient.

Its hand shot out, and another dragoon crumpled. “They’re herding us!” Thalia snarled, but there was no other choice but to run into the one tunnel still open.

Zohran cursed and threw himself at the beast, yelling over his shoulder, “Run! Take them and run!”

We didn’t wait. We couldn’t. Thalia grabbed my wrist, and Oksana was close at my back as we sprinted through a side tunnel, the only exit not yet blocked.

“Come on!” Thalia shouted.

We plunged into what looked like a narrow maintenance tunnel, half-lit by flickering overhead strips. I could hear Zohran and the others fighting, sounds of metal striking flesh, cries of pain and fury. But they faded quickly behind us, muffled by stone and distance.

We ran without speaking, our breaths harsh in the silence. The walls curved and twisted, like they didn’t belong to any one architecture, and the floor sloped steadily down.

“We’re heading deeper,” I gasped. “This isn’t the way back?—”

“I know,” Oksana said. “But it’s the only way not full of monsters.”

About twenty dragoons were still with us, while the others had stayed to fight. We were too far now to hear the noise of battle any longer, and I wondered: Was it over? Who won?

With nobody pursuing us for the time being, I was cautiously optimistic, but I also couldn’t help but feel that we were going straight where the Eulachs wanted us to.

"They're not smart enough for that," Thalia grumbled. Her thoughts must have gone the same way as mine.

"Maybe they’ve changed," Oksana shuddered behind me.

The tunnel widened suddenly, and the air turned cooler and damper. Some kind of underground basin or chamber loomed ahead. Thalia slowed, sword up, her eyes scanning the shadows.

“I think we lost them,” she murmured. “For now.”

My lungs burned, and my entire body screamed at me, but I was alive.

We all were.

I turned slowly, looking at Thalia, at Oksana; they were both dust-streaked and had blood on their clothes. I imagined I didn't look any better. But at least we were still breathing.

“We need to find another way out,” I said. “And we need to do it fast.”

And silently, in the hollow of my heart, I prayed Mallack would find us before the Eulachs did.

The chamber we stepped into was massive, its ceiling lost in shadow, with columns that rose like skeletal trees into the dark.

Pale moss clung to their bases, and scattered across the stone floor were long-forgotten benches.

Some had toppled, split down the center by time or tremors, but a few remained intact, worn smooth with use.

I could almost picture figures sitting there, silent and still, waiting.

The glow from Thalia’s torch bounced off the walls, illuminating the faint glimmer of inscriptions carved into the stone.

They looked old. Etched with reverent hands, worn down by time.

Beneath my feet, the floor changed again, became more mosaic than stone, a delicate spiral pattern that radiated outward from the center of the chamber.

Oksana’s voice was hushed. “This has to be some kind of temple.”

“I think we were herded here,” I said softly, echoing Thalia’s earlier words. “This wasn’t by accident.”

Thalia lowered her sword but didn’t sheath it. “If they wanted us dead, they could’ve finished it. They had us cornered.”

“They want something,” Oksana muttered, circling one of the half-buried pillars. “Or they want us here to find something.”

I didn’t like either of those thoughts. Because either option required too much thinking, planning, strategizing, all skills the Eulachs didn't possess, or at least, hadn't possessed until now.

I stepped toward the far end of the chamber where a raised platform stood. A dais. It had a single stone bench in front of it and a shallow basin carved into the floor, now filled with nothing but dust. Something about the whole space made my skin prickle.

“There,” Thalia pointed toward the wall. A small tunnel, almost hidden behind a fallen pillar, was carved low and narrow. Barely wide enough for one of us at a time. “Another way out.”

“Or in,” I added grimly.

We stood in silence for a moment, catching our breath, letting our hearts slow.

The dragoons began positioning themselves around us.

They tried to make it look casual, but it was apparent they sensed the looming danger, too.

Maybe more so than us, as they were all battle-proven warriors; otherwise, they wouldn't be in the legions protecting the susserayn and vissigroths.

I could still taste fear on my tongue, but beneath it…

wonder. Like we were standing inside something bigger than history. Bigger than us.

“This place,” Oksana said finally, “isn’t just ruins. It’s part of something ancient that has been buried for thousands of rotations.”

Thalia looked at me, her eyes sharp, bright. “Do you feel it too?”

I nodded. “Like we’ve stepped into a memory that’s not ours. And it’s not finished with us yet.”

“Then we’d better find the ending,” Oksana said, adjusting her grip on her blade.

Around us, the quiet pressed in, too still, too heavy. But I could feel it. The same weight I’d felt in the Zuten apartment. Something had happened here. Something important. And we were standing in its shadow.

"What are we supposed to do now?" I thought out loud. "We can't just stay here and… wait."

Thalia shook her head, "Ney. But without knowing where those tunnels lead… we could wander around them for rotations and never find a way out."

Oksana looked at the passage we had seen earlier. Slowly, she turned in a circle before nodding at it. "This leads in the general direction of the other side of the Pyme mountains, where the males went…" she drifted off.

"How do you know that?" I couldn't help but ask.

Oksana's smile was strained. "I grew up in the mountains. Not here, but I have a very good sense of direction. Trust me?"

I nodded. "Zyn."

Even though I didn't know her, I did. There was something like a bond between us. Not only because she mated my son… Gods, that still sounded so strange. She didn't look a day older than me. Neither did Thalia, my daughter. It was all too strange to wrap my head around.

"Let's go," I said, but before I could take one step, a low growl rooted me to the spot. The dragoons immediately tightened the ring behind us.

"Over there," Zhoran pointed at the strange altar, "get up there."

Agile, like she had proven herself to be earlier, Oksana was the first one up the altar. She helped Thalia, and then the two of them held their hands out to me. Despite the situation, I laughed, "I'm not that much older than you."

That created a smirk on Thalia's face, "You look more like my sister than my mother."

The banter stopped right there, as Eulachs streamed in from passages we hadn't even noticed yet on all sides.

Zhoran did a full rotation, then turned to us.

"When I say run , you run right for that tunnel," he pointed at the same tunnel Oksana had.

He must have listened to our conversation earlier.

"We'll keep a path free for you and distract them. Do not turn, do not stop."

Thalia held out her hand. "It has been an honor."

Zhoran took it. "There is no greater honor than protecting you."

Two more of the oversized Eulachs arrived, holding themselves in the shadows, for now, but their presence was felt. As one, the other Eulachs stormed forward, and one held up a little black device. Zhoran cursed and screamed, "Run!"

We jumped off the altar and began running like he told us, without a backward glance, while the dragoons surged around us, mowing down Eulachs who threatened to get in our way.

Without breaking stride, Oksana ripped part of her shirt sleeve off and wedged it into a seam in the wall by the entrance.

A blast pushed enough air down the tunnel to push us forward and make our steps falter for a moment, but with a surge of adrenaline, I regained my footing and ran like I couldn’t remember ever having run before.