Good thing they’d doused the torches.
“We’re close now,” Azolirum said as they drew to the place where the tunnel broke off. It was a wider area, and the walls seemed more brittle, evidenced by a gravelly layer of debris covering the ground that was almost like coarse sand.
The Nozverak stopped as one and turned toward Nadine and her company. Crann spoke. “When we get to the other side, we’ll follow the main path a while longer. Then we’ll be outside the gates of the stronghold.”
Azolirum broke in. “It was a fortress seat where I commanded troops. The Soul Thieves have made it their den.” He said the last with a wicked sneer that promised vengeance.
Magnus walked closer, glancing between the two tunnels. “The other side of which one?”
Crann flicked his horns in what Nadine decided was a shrug. “Either. But that way”—he batted his horns in the direction of the empty tunnel—“leads to a painful end.”
Nadine and the others turned incredulous stares, first in the direction of the vented tunnel, and then straight back at Crann. She spoke before her men could. “And this way doesn’t?”
Azolirum grimaced as he and his men began tearing clothing out of their packs to tie around themselves. “The gas here isn’t strong enough to kill, not like the other vents we’ve been to. But it will keep the Rasteel out.”
Nadine blinked at him. “Rasteel?”
Hezek muttered something in their guttural language, and Crann cringed. Azolirum answered, “The Rasteel destroys everything in its path. I doubt even the Soul Thieves have bothered to claim it. If it finds us, it will spit out our bones and leave the marrow for whatever comes scavenging.”
Nadine took in what he was saying as the three Nozverak continued dressing themselves. Azolirum glanced pointedly at her. “I suggest you put on whatever clothing you have with you, female. That soft skin of yours will burn quick.”
Magnus interjected. “Wait, you’re taking us through the vents?”
Azolirum scoffed. “Don’t you start complaining. I’ve seen you walk through worse for the thrill of it.”
He couldn’t be serious. Nadine had watched the acid gasses singe away the flesh of veligiri in a matter of minutes. That Magnus had ever ventured so close was a testament to his own insanity, not the relative safety. She squinted at the glowing stuff. It was obviously different than whatever they’d passed before.
“We should go the other way.”
Nadine spun toward the speaker. Samar stood with his arms crossed over his chest, staring not at her, but at Azolirum.
The horde king laughed. “You should suck my cock, tiny man.”
Samar’s jaw set. “We won’t go through the vents.”
Nadine glared at him. “Excuse me?”
Samar turned a patient look on her, which made her want to kill him. How dare he speak as though the decision were up to him?
“Can’t you see what’s happening?” Samar asked, his voice lowered to address only her.
Nadine took a step forward. “Why don’t you explain it to me?”
Samar girded himself before continuing with a look of gravity. His voice was louder now, clearly not caring who heard him. “They’re trying to kill us. It’s what they wanted at the arachnai nest, probably before that, but they underestimated us.” He flicked a glance over her shoulder at Azolirum. “And now they’re resorting to more blatant measures.”
Was he serious? Nadine glanced around at the men standing at Samar’s back. Was he speaking all their minds for them? The Nozverak were eerily silent behind her.
Magnus spoke next. “And I suppose you think they want to take the Eye for themselves? Complete this mission their own way?”
Samar made no attempt to conceal his hatred for Magnus as he turned on him. Contempt and challenge danced in his eyes.
Magnus scoffed. “That’s stupid. Azolirum could have asked for more of his own men if that had been his aim. Why come down here with only two?”
Samar sneered. “Because we have to be stealthy. And whether he’ll admit it or not, he knows there’s good reason his race fell so quickly to the Soul Thieves. They lumber around like rhinos. Any more of them and we’d have been captured days ago.”
Samar turned his accusing gaze on Azolirum, who stood between his men. Arms crossed and chin down, the horde king was tall and imposing. More so with the insincere smile curling blue lips away from his fangs. A chill broke over Nadine’s flesh at the almost passive tone he used directed at Samar. “You’re going to die down here, nozturel.”
Was that a threat? Before she could make up her mind, Magnus stepped toward Samar.
“You swore an oath to this alliance, Ebronian. An alliance that includes all of us.”
Samar laughed. A round of chuckles from his countrymen followed. “You’re animals, Dokiri. And those things at your back are no better than the veligiri you hunt. I don’t honor pacts with animals or their prey.”
Anger tore through Nadine like a forest fire. She stepped up until she was chest to chest with Samar, at a height with him. “We do.”
Samar blinked, and his voice lowered. “Captain, this is folly. We don’t need them to complete this mission anymore. Let’s continue on our way and let them go theirs. Let’s do what we came here for and go home.”
Nadine stared at him and tried to understand what had happened to her friend. Where had the man gone who was always at her side? Who’d held honor above everything—even his own survival? The boy who had suffered abuse, starvation, and nights of shivering cold all on the conviction that Nadine was his friend and that their friendship meant something?
“Nadine.” He nudged the back of her hand with his own.
Nadine snatched it away.
The instant hatred in his eyes gave her the answer. That boy had never existed. He had not done the things he’d done because he loved her, because he was her ally, her confidant, or her partner. Samar Lanta had stood by her for one reason and one reason only: because he’d believed she belonged to him.
Samar Lanta had never been her friend.
He drew from her like a cobra rearing back to strike. On instinct, Nadine took a step back, too, bumping into Magnus’s side. Samar started pacing about the little crowd of men, keeping his head turned to look at her each time he changed directions. The words that came pouring out of his mouth set her soul ablaze.
“You’re a child. A little girl besotted by an animal you let lance you.”
Nadine ripped away from Magnus and followed Samar’s prowling figure with the focus of a lion being taunted by a dancing mouse. There were no muttered agreements from her men at Samar’s accusations, but they stood with him, and that was as good as mutiny. There was only one thing for Nadine to do.
“Come, Lanta, you pile of street shit. Let me remind you where you come from.”
She unhooked her lancet, and it slid open with a metallic ring that sang through the tunnel. She didn’t know where Magnus was, or the Nozverak. She was only vaguely aware of the Ebronians circling them now. None of it mattered. Only one thing would make a difference now.
Samar threw off his pack and tossed it to one of the men before unhooking his own lancet. He gave it a spin and a twirl, working his shoulder loose. “Your mind’s been polluted. You’re not fit to lead, but I won’t kill you, woman. I could never harm you.”