Page 62 of Unleashed

He waved the others over, standing aside to allow them full view of the opening.

“It’s dark,” Vortok grumbled.

“How deep?” Aduun asked.

Balir’s sound-sight reproduced Nina’s limp form in Aduun’s arms. He clenched his jaw and inhaled, drawing in the scent of damp rock from within the cave. “Too deep for me to tell. There’s another opening somewhere inside, but I do not know how large or how far in.”

Aduun shifted his weight onto one leg, tail flicking side to side slowly. “We will be in complete darkness.”

“That is no change for me,” Balir replied.

“But how can we care for her if we cannot see?” Vortok asked.

“We have fuel,” Aduun said. “It won’t last long, but we can make a small fire for light and a bit of warmth.”

The air — thin and chilled a moment before — thickened with the tension of unasked questions.

Would Nina survive?

How long would she need to recover?

Was this cave the way she’d meant for them to come?

Did something worse than they’d already faced lurk in the darkness ahead?

Balir wrenched his thoughts away from those questions and stretched his tail back, wrapping its end around Aduun’s arm beneath Nina’s torso. Touching her, even if it was through the furs, provided a shred of comfort. “Come.”

He directed his attention forward and led his companions into the cave. Aduun’s steps were soft, barely audible even to Balir’s sensitive hearing, but Vortok’s footfalls were heavy, punctuated from time to time by his grunts as his large frame undoubtedly bumped the walls around him.

No one spoke. The relative silence only made Balir more aware of the stone surrounding him — natural stone that had undoubtedly been shaped by Kelsharn’s unnatural means to suit his cruel, vindictive purposes. It was a powerful reminder that they’d never made it to the surface after being released from their cages, no matter how convincing so much of this underworld seemed.

Balir brought them to a stop when the cave expanded enough to afford them some space. He swung the bags off his shoulders and found Nina’s blanket after a bit of rummaging. Once it was spread on the cave floor, he guided Aduun to lay Nina down atop it.

Setting the fire by feel was nothing new to him, but lighting it took their combined effort and threatened to thrust all three valos into a rage; the fuel had become damp during the journey and resisted taking flame for a long while, even with the aid of Nina’s powerful little fire starter.

It was only Nina that kept Balir and the others from succumbing to their frustrations. She needed the fire for its warmth, and Aduun and Vortok needed it so they could fully inspect her condition. Aduun had reported only one wound on the back of her shoulder, but they hadn’t been able to check much beyond that; they’d dared not remove her fur coverings while they were out in the frigid air.

Part of Balir welcomed his anger. If he gave in, didn’t it have a chance of waking her? Their emotions had been strong enough to rouse her from sleep on several occasions; what if that was all she needed now?

The small fire warmed the cool cave air, which itself had been a large improvement from the icy chill outside.

“Her furs are damp,” Vortok said.

Balir assisted him in removing her garments. When they peeled the hide and fur away from her shoulder, the smell of her blood struck Balir anew, and his beast stirred. He shared in its confusion, though it could not feel his shame — the beast knew her as its mate, but her blood sparked its hunger all the same. It wanted to feed; it wanted to mate.

Aduun crouched beside them as Vortok gently lifted Nina to turn her wound toward the light.

“It is no longer bleeding,” Vortok said. “That issomething.”

“But it will start again if she moves too much,” said Aduun. “Is there moonweed left?”

Balir opened Nina’s bag and slipped a hand inside. There were a variety of scents from within, including the moonweed’s, but its smell was potent enough that it tended to linger after the plant was gone. At the bottom of the bag, he found something long bundled in a piece of cloth. He withdrew the cloth and unwrapped it.

The moonweed’s odor struck him immediately, pungent and powerful, familiar from his old life. He plucked out a stalk. It was dry; a few more days, and it would be too brittle to use. Extending an arm, he held it to Aduun.

They lapsed into silence again as Aduun chewed the moonweed and used it to seal Nina’s wound. The beating of her heart remained slow but steady, marking the passage of time with a sense of weight and urgency that made Balir’s skin crawl.

Finally, Aduun and Vortok settled her back down onto the blanket.

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