Page 131 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
“What in the blazes?” Zelda asked as Stowe crawled over from where he’d fallen just outside the tent, only half of which remained. The loose pieces fluttered around them. The soldiers, too, crawled along the ground.
Niels was able to get his body to move enough to push himself up onto his good elbow. He shivered harder. It wassocold.
Behind the Walkers, the cavern had broken into mass chaos. People screamed. Mothers shouted for their children. Half of the cavern had fallen into the gaping hole. Other soldiers clamored for order. Anyone who ran toward the Stradat Lord Kapitan’s tent was thrust backward. One of the soldiers brandished his sword in one hand, a flashpistol in the other.
The rumbling ceased.
Out of breath, Saldr still managed to say, “That is why we must make peace with the Cerls, Stradat Lord Kapitan.”
He pointed back toward the earthen maw marring the part of the tunnel that had collapsed down into the depths of the planet. In its place, a deep dark, congealed-looking gas oozed and seeped out of the center, floating in the air. It was almost like a grotesque mockery of smoke. That’s when the scent hit him. It was almost as if his senses hadn’t caught up with the chaos around him until that moment. The acrid burning smell stung his nostrils.
If you dug down deep enough, you could find it—yalvar fuel. As miners, they’d been warned to never touch it but to let the overseer know. Then a few of the more experienced miners were brought in to extract it for expedition to Achilles and Kyvena.
But why was Yalvar fuel floating up like that?
Why did Lord Saldr seem to think the Yalvar fuel was the reason they needed to ally with Correa? What had it to do with anything other than how Jayde fueled most of their engines?
Lord Saldr’s voice was clear even with the surrounding turmoil. “Jagamot’s corruption of the Zuprium crystals is complete.”
Whatever emotion Niels was feeling barely registered in his brain. He shivered even harder. Something was wrong. He just couldn’t say what. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the words. His lips were frozen shut. Blood loss. It had to be. Whatever help Lady Fely had given him earlier had worn off. Or maybe Hallie’s other healing had failed again. He couldn’t tell if it’d reopened.
He didn’t hear anything, could barely see the shapes in front of him. He attempted to launch himself to his feet.
But he was frozen, the ice finally reaching his heart.
He needed to help Hallie.
He needed to win her…
He needed…
He…
And then he collapsed.
Chapter 25
A LITTLE HAMLET
Jove
JOVE HAD NO IDEA HOW long they’d been trapped in that blasted room with the blasted crystal. His head ached, and his lips were chapped. With Kainadr’s help, they’d found the origin of the stream, which gave them water and some odd-looking fish that made Jove’s stomach turn at their sightless eyes.
It didn’t help that his mother’s cave plants were also slimy and not filling. He should be grateful they’d found anything to eat at all, but it was hard when you were just so blasted hungry.
Maybe Heddie had been right. He did need to find a new curse.
But his stomach grumbled too loudly for him to care.
Anderson still hadn’t awoken. Every few hours, his mother would force water down his throat. Each day, he looked more and more as if he wouldn’t wake up. It was only with Kainadr’s magic dust they were able to do anything at all with him. It wasonly thanks to him falling in with them at all that they’d survived this long.
Terrible luck for the Yalv, really.
Or terrible luck for Jove, who’d learned far more about the chatty Yalven man than he cared to know, though it was interesting that the man could summon a sword out of his dust stuff. He kept talking about that.
Honestly, Jove privately worried the man was mad, though he refrained from telling him so. He wanted the man to keep purifying the cave water and making the creepy cave fish somewhat edible with his magic fire ball thing.
Thankfully, Kainadr was asleep now, and his mother was halfway between sleep and waking. Jove was on watch as he usually was. He didn’t sleep much. Couldn’t. Not with his thoughts to berate him when he closed his eyes. Those thoughts were usually of Clara and Samuel stuck in a hole like him, unable to climb their way out.
