Page 101 of Unleashed

“There must be a switch,” Vortok said, but all he could see were the doors and the smooth, carved stone around them.

Aduun and Balir strode forward, the latter pressing his palms to the shaped stone and moving them over its surface. Aduun paused several strides from the doors and tilted his head back. “You willnotstop us now.”

“I will break them down if I must,” Vortok growled, taking a step closer. He could feel the uneasiness of his tribesmen behind him, but nothing compared to his own. It was not right for Nina to be so still, so quiet. For his heart — the heart ofhisheart — to beat so slowly.

Aduun’s quills rose as he stalked toward the doors. “We have won,” he roared, hefting Kelsharn’s helmet overhead. “We have claimed our freedom!”

The ground beneath them rumbled. Startled gasps and growls sounded behind Vortok. Ahead, the rumbling swept into the doors and wall, shaking dust and pebbles from the cliffside. Cracks in the stone — the natural and carved stone alike — deepened and spread, allowing larger chunks of debris to fall away.

Was this one last trick from Kelsharn? One last trap? Would he be so spiteful as to bring the entire mesa down atop them rather than allow their escape?

Balir backpedaled while Vortok tensed and turned to the side, prepared to shield Nina from the collapse with his body. The low, earth-shaking rumble continued, but it was now accompanied by the heavy scrape of stone against stone. Nina stirred against his chest, releasing a pained whimper that Vortok felt but couldn’t hear.

The huge doors slowly opened, scraping wide arcs through the dust and dirt that had accumulated on the ground in their path. When the doors stilled, the scraping sound echoed through the air for a few more heartbeats before giving way to all-encompassing silence.

More lights flared to life beyond the opening, illuminating a long, high-ceilinged passage lined with statues.

“The mask,” Balir whispered.

Vortok glanced at the horned helm in Aduun’s hand. There was no time to ponder whether it had opened the doors or how it might have done so; they needed to move.

Aduun lowered the mask without so much as glancing at it. He looked over his shoulder, sweeping his gaze over Vortok, Nina, Balir, and the ragged valos behind them, and waved toward the open doorway. “Come!” He plunged across the threshold without hesitation.

Vortok hurried to follow, and Balir fell into place beside him. Aduun gradually increased his pace. The statues and the light stones illuminating them were blurs at the edges of Vortok’s vision, flashes of brightness and shadow that could have no meaning to him at that moment. Only the whisper of feet and claws over the floor told him his people were following; he dared not risk the slightest break in his momentum by twisting to look back at them.

Another pair of doors loomed up ahead. Aduun lifted the mask again without slowing. The doors opened quickly and smoothly, their only sound a soft bang that echoed along the hall when they stopped.

Aduun led them into a large area that was open on top, revealing the false starry sky. Without pause, Aduun turned to the right and passed through an archway. The sounds of their footfalls and ragged breathing were amplified by the walls of another passage, this one just as tall but not as wide as the first. The light stones here seemed to cast their glow only on the floor, leaving the walls shadowed and unsettling.

Vortok held Nina a little closer.

A third pair of doors opened at the end of the passageway. Vortok went through immediately behind Aduun and quickly scanned the huge, circular chamber in which he found himself.

There were strange, intricate patterns on the floor, as beautiful as they were abstract, repeating themselves in concentric rings. The walls were smoothly curved, adorned with bands of equally intricate patterns that were separated by wide blank spaces. Vortok tilted his head back. The walls continued up to an impossible height, their top lost in distant darkness.

“Hurry inside,” Aduun called as the withered valos entered the chamber. “Everyone needs to be within.”

Balir moved to a place near the doorway, offering gentle words and touches of encouragement as he directed the other valos deeper into the room.

Vortok stood beside Aduun near the center, clenching and unclenching his jaw in impatience. “There is no other exit,” he grumbled. “How will squeezing into this chamber help Nina?”

The press of bodies strengthened as the space was filled. Vortok bristled; the invasion of his space was enough to provoke him on its own, but they were so close to Nina, whose bloodied scent was that of a vulnerable animal. Though they’d changed to their man-shapes, these were the same valos who’d meant to eat Vortok and his companions a short while before.

He knew what that bestial hunger felt like, and he doubted theirs had been sated by Kelsharn’s death. Was the restoration of their heartstones enough to enable them to resist their urges?

On top of all that, Aduun was ignoring him.

Rage sparked in Vortok’s gut. He exhaled heavily as heat and excess strength flowed into his limbs, his body preparing for violence. “Answer me, Aduun.”

“Easy,” Nina murmured against his chest. She brushed a hand, sticky with blood, over his fur.

A cool, soothing sense of calm flowed through Vortok, dampening the fires of his fury.

“This will take us up,” Aduun finally replied. He met Vortok’s gaze, and the remainder of Vortok’s rage faded. Worry dominated Aduun’s face; his brows were low with a deep crease between them, and his lips were pressed tightly together. The strength in his eyes was undermined by a glimmer of vulnerability.

“Everyone is through,” Balir called.

Aduun turned away and stepped onto the central circle of the floor’s pattern.

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