Page 86 of Shadow Throne King
“Let us go get him.” I spoke to Tallu, as though I could save the child he had been by rescuing Hallu.
No one can save him, a dark voice said inside me.He has been cursed by the blood monks.
Vostop straightened. “We will have to go carefully. When we cross shadow stones, we must be silent.”
He looked at each of us, his expression grim. Then he took a breath and reached down, holding out his hand for Koque. She let him take hers, her pale moonstone skin gleaming like one of the precious stones he mined with his scarred hands.
As she stood, he drew her knuckles to his lips, pressing a kiss to the delicate skin.
“It is nearly done,” he said, eyes closed.
She reached out with her other hand, caressing the curls of his hair, the expression on her face lost. “I have killed the emperor and am returning to court with my Krustavian lover. It has only just begun.”
Vostop led us back into the tunnel. His men were arrayed around him, still staring out into the dark, their hands on heavy swords and weighted cudgels, ready for an attack. The creaturesthat had surprised us the night before had been so horrible and fast that I hadn’t really had a chance to look at them. Long fangs and longer talons, legs that could push a creature upright, even as they ran on four feet to gain momentum.
We moved silently through the tunnel, no one breathing a word. The guards in front turned and turned again, until the air grew thin. We were too far from the entrance. I glanced at Tallu, but he maintained his stoic expression.
If he was experiencing any pain, if the curse was hurting him, he wasn’t about to show it to Vostop or his men.
Around the next bend, we were hit by what felt like a gust of cold air. I looked up and saw piping, a small fan rotating at the opening. It squeaked, the loudest sound around us.
We continued to climb, and I wasn’t sure how far up we went, but the rocks changed, beginning to glow. One by one, the dwarves put out their lanterns, and by the time we approached the entrance to a large cavern, the sound of water echoing in the tunnel, we were walking by the light of the luminescent rocks alone.
Koque raised her hand, and the rest of us stilled. She gestured, the motion unintelligible to me, but Tallu seemed to understand immediately. He pressed me against the wall, an inversion of our earlier position; this time, it was his arm trapping me against the stone.
The dwarves seemed to fade into the rocks, crouching down and becoming nothing more than large stones on the ground. Ahead, shadows shifted as someone moved across the entryway to the cavern.
Koque approached, her spine straightening, her chin drawing back. Standing at the entrance, she said, “I have come to see my son.”
“It is very late, my lady. He is resting.” The voice was imperial, speaking with the clarity of someone who had spent too long at court.
“It was not a request,” Koque said, her tone steely.
“And yet, I am refusing it, Empress.” The guard stepped forward, and my chest seized. Pito Bemishu looked dully at Koque.
Her twin sister, Topi, had darkened over the two weeks we spent on the road and however long she had been let loose in the Imperium before that. In contrast, Pito had paled, her luminescent skin losing its gleam, becoming soft and pale as a flavorless mushroom.
Her eyes were half-lidded when she said, “You may come back another time.”
“I will see my son now.” Koque’s clipped words were those of an empress, her tone nearly identical to Tallu’s when he was being denied. It saidI am above you, and you dare to try to thwart me?Your head will decorate my wall.
I heard the movement before I saw it, and Naî squeaked in my pocket when I shoved away from Tallu’s hand, drawing my blade.
Twenty
One of Vostop’s men stood behind him, his cudgel raised, ready to bring it down on the back of Vostop’s head, ending his life in one blow. At the last moment, Vostop turned, raising one of his hands, but what was he going to do against a weapon designed to crack open a skull?
I sliced my blade down, forcing the dwarf off-balance. He dropped the cudgel against himself, bones cracking loudly as it hit his ankle. With a scream, he fell. The rest of Vostop’s men readied their weapons, two coming at me and Tallu while the others moved toward Vostop.
Tallu surged from the wall, lightning coiled in one palm as he attacked, the electricity catching one of the dwarves full in the chest. Then, to my shock, it danced from the dwarf to the wall behind him, illuminating the granite in veins of sparkling light.
The dwarf stumbled to his feet, managing a step before he collapsed, smoke coming from his mouth. I turned back to my initial opponent. He had lifted the cudgel from his foot and swung it at me, but I stepped back, and he overshot, the heavy weapon passing me. Lunging forward in the gap his carelessness created, my blade pierced his throat.
The victory was too short. Something impacted me hard on the shoulder, and I stumbled down, my left arm going limp as one of the other dwarves raised his hammer again. But he underestimated me; it seemed a common failing of my opponents.
I had been trained to fight with one arm, one leg, onefingerleft. I rolled, ignoring the scream of agony in my shoulder, and slammed my blade up, piercing through the artery at his groin.
He gasped, dropping his hammer and reaching down helplessly, but it was too late. I yanked out my blade, blood splattering through the air, and shoved my sword upward, going through the soft part of his chin, using the motion to drive his head back, sending his entire body in a dramatic arc. As he fell, I pulled the blade free, turning to the last of the dwarves. His face was shadowed, impossibly dark, but I didn’t hear the whispers from him that I had heard from Asahi.