Page 39 of The Book that Broke the World

The other humans were still whispering about Salamonda.

“Make them be quiet,” Evar said.

To his credit Arpix didn’t ask why. Silence fell.

“I don’t hear anything,” Kerrol hissed.

“Me neither.” Evar wondered why the cratalacs had stopped their screaming. Trying to lure them out to somewhere accessible, he guessed. “How long will they wait?”

“I don’t know,” Arpix said. “They’re solitary hunters normally. Large territories. One of those things needs a lot of food to keep it going, and there’s not much to eat out here.”

“I noticed.”

“So, by rights they’ll start fighting each other, then separate. Maybe one will stay. Claim the tunnels, hunt the surroundings. But how long it will take... I don’t know.”

“I’m going to check for Salamonda.”

“What?” Even Arpix sounded shocked.

“You are not.” Clovis found a grip on his arm and some measure of her old strength.

“Brother—”

“Say one more word, Kerrol, and I swear I will punch you in the mouth. I’m not having you mind-game me out of this.”

“Someone should,” Arpix said, his voice unsteady. “And I love Salamonda.”

“So does Livira.” Evar could feel her at his shoulder. Whether she was standing there as a ghost or not, she was with him. He had spent half his life in the book she wrote. Her kiss still tingled against his mouth. She wouldn’t stop him. She’d go with him. “I’ll be careful.”

“Those things hunt at night so they’re going to find you before you find them. And then they’ll shred you,” Arpix answered.

Evar had spent too long as a helpless witness, unable to intervene. “I can stick to the narrow ways they can’t fit in. Salamonda might be lost in the tight tunnels. Or lying somewhere, hurt.”

“You need me with you.” Arpix didn’t sound enthusiastic, but he did sound determined. “You don’t know the tunnels.”

“You can come,” Evar said. Though what Livira would think about him putting one friend in harm’s way in the hope of finding another, he couldn’t say. “Stay close.”

Arpix, also forced to crawl, elbowed past him. “You stay close. Grab my belt.”

Evar patted around and fastened a hand on the rope around Arpix’s narrow waist. “Done.” And they both started forward, in the direction they’d all come from.

“Bring that one back.” A curiously angry snarl from Clovis.

“She likes him,” Kerrol clarified from further back in the dark.

Clovis spat in outrage. “I meant my sword!”

—

The hunt for Salamonda started slow and ended fast. At first Arpix and Evar patted their way silently, blind in the tunnels, listening hard. Evar kept sniffing the air, hunting the cratalacs’ curious scent, a kind of dry rot that made him stretch his jaw in disgust.

They didn’t have to go far to hear the noise.

“What is it?” Evar couldn’t understand it. An arrhythmic banging and scuffing.

“Digging.”

“They’re digging us out?” Evar didn’t like the idea of that at all, but it would take a lot of effort, even with many cratalacs, since only one of them would be able to do useful work at any given time.

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