Page 18 of The Queen's Shadow

Fury surged through her again in a frightening wave. She understood why the chanters might feel jaded, scorned, oppressed by the world—they believed so strongly in something, and they had been cast out again and again because of it. But it still didn’t explain why they’d strike a bargain like this.

“Then tell me,” Cassandra pleaded. “You don’t have to do this.”

Paarsav shuffled uncomfortably behind the chanter, exchanging looks with the other Inetians. They smiled in a way Cassandra didn’t like. “That’s all I needed to know.” He nodded to Paarsav. “Bring them in. We can’t hold it for much longer.”

Paarsav nodded to Karim and the angular man. Karim closed his fingers around her arm again, but he hesitated, as if torn by what they were about to do.

“Get off her!” Arphaxad cried, lunging to his feet. The angular man tapped him lightly on his injured shoulder, and Arphaxad doubled over, letting out an involuntary roar of pain.

“Stop it!” Cassandra snarled, trying and failing to pull herself from Karim’s grasp. Karim just dragged her blankly toward the cave entrance, even as she thrashed and screamed. She didn’t care that she wasn’t dignified. Getting away was all that mattered now.

The pale chanter led the way, followed by Paarsav, then Cassandra and Karim, and Arphaxad and the angular man. The inside of the cave was more oppressive than she remembered—the darkness, the wrongness, pressing in on them as they were dragged along toward the cavern with its door and the rift and its horror.

This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. She had to get back to Rendra, to the queen. She couldn’t leave her sister alone in the world again. This was not how she was going to die!

The ground shuddered for a moment, and they all paused to brace themselves. Karim swore. Fear sliced through her chest. The sound of the chanters rose from the cavern ahead, a cacophony of voices, the cadence jarring, shattering, as if they were slowly breaking apart, losing their battle with whatever had been torn apart in the explosion earlier that day.

“Something’s wrong,” Karim muttered uneasily.

“You think?” Paarsav snapped as the ground shuddered again. The chanter said nothing.

She could hear Arphaxad’s labored breathing behind her, and she wanted to reach out and touch him, to let him know that she was here, that she would get them out.

The cavern opened up just as it had before. Below, Cassandra could see the twelve doors winking at intervals around the space. And there, toward the back, was the ring of chanters, their hands clasped, swaying as they spoke their parts, the words and cadence weaving together in the air, crackling with power, before it was funneled toward the thing that hung at the back of the cavern—that black, roaring nothingness.

“Move!” Paarsav barked, following the pale chanter as he made his way carefully down the wooden staircase set into the stone.

Karim looked like he was going to throw up. For a moment, Cassandra thought she might have a chance to break free, to flee, to slip into the darkness of the cave, dart through one of the doors and disappear. But there was Arphaxad bleeding behind her, and she knew she could never do it, could never leave him here to die.

The pulsating nausea from before returned as they neared the ring of chanters. Cassandra could see the sweat standing out on their foreheads, the exhaustion in their faces—the terror as well.

Karim forced her onto her knees as close to the rift as he dared go. She hardly noticed the stone biting into her knees; the rift was there, close, a yawning, horrible thing. She wanted to run, to scream, to get as far away from here as possible. Arphaxad was forced down beside her.

He looked even worse now, his face pale, his gaze wandering. Rage flared in her again. She would not let him die.

The pale chanter shouted something Cassandra couldn’t understand to the swaying ring. For a moment, the chanting faltered, then came back in a frenzied roar. The ground shook again, this time more violently, and Cassandra couldn’t help the cry that escaped her throat.

“Get out!” Paarsav roared. The angular man didn’t have to be told twice.

Karim lingered, looking down at her, his gaze conflicted. Cassandra tipped her chin at him, her eyes flaring defiantly. In a movement so quick Cassandra almost missed it, Karim slipped a knife from his belt. Then he was beside her, hastily sawing through the bonds around her wrists. Blood rushed painfully through her hands as the ropes fell away, and he knelt next to Arphaxad to do the same.

“What are you doing, soldier? I said, get out of here!” Paarsav roared again.

“Thank you, Karim,” Cassandra said, a lump forming in her throat as the ropes around Arphaxad’s wrists fell away too. Karim gave them a grim nod.

“Here,” he said, shoving the knife he’d used to cut their ropes into her hand. “You need this more than I do. I hope it offers you some sort of protection.” Then he turned and bolted after Paarsav.

Cassandra’s fingers closed around her knife. As she slipped it into her boot, she suddenly felt as if there might be some hope in this darkness after all.

“We have to get out of here!” Arphaxad yelled beside her, scrabbling to his feet. The earth shook again, and a scattering of stones rained down from above. Cassandra gripped his arm to steady herself. Blood was flowing through her stiff hands now, and she had to grit her teeth to keep from crying out from the pain.

A hand came down on her shoulder, shoving her back down. Cassandra raised her head, locking gazes with the pale chanter. He shook his head slowly, as if daring her to get to her feet. “Stay down,” he growled. “You’re not going anywhere.”

Some of the chanters broke the circle and fled for the stairs toward the cave entrance. The circle tightened as the chanters left behind joined hands.

“We have to bring the roof down now!” someone shouted. The chanting rose into a frenzied crescendo as more chanters peeled off and made a dash for the entrance.

Cassandra gave a cry of rage and desperation as the ground shook again, more violently than it had before, and she was tossed to the ground.

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