Page 115 of By the Horns
Oh no. A cold ball of fear forms in my gut as he gestures farther down the tunnel. Sure enough, there’s Gwenna’s small form, her back to us as she stares off into the depths of the tunnel.
“Gwenna?” I ask. I’m surprised she didn’t let me know she was here.
She turns slowly, and even in the low light, I can see just how big her pupils are, how pale her skin. She blinks at me, not seeing anything, and then turns back down the tunnel, pointing. “They say to go this way.”
“Who?” Jay asks, frowning over at me.
“The dead,” Rooster replies. “It’s a long story, and better told when we’re safe. For now, let’s just follow her. She won’t lead us astray.”
The head guild master knows about Gwenna’s powers? That…can’t be good.
Fifty
Raptor
Our party followsGwenna as she moves through the tunnels. The lantern is behind her, yet she can seemingly see well in the dark. She paces ahead of our group, her eyes focused on nothing at all, and sometimes pauses, touching the wall.
“We’ll come back to this,” she mutters as she moves on. “Not today. Not right now.”
A bit farther down, she brushes her fingers over another part of the rock wall and then turns to our straggling group of tired, injured, trapped people. “We have to get through this wall here.”
“And that leads us back?” Rooster asks.
“No, but it’s where we need to go.” Her gaze darts over me, and I straighten, wanting her to say something. But her head jerks and she turns, as if pulled away, and then nods, closing her eyes and rubbing her arms. “This is the only way.”
Stork and Shikra and one of the enforcers take up pickaxes and get to work.
Jay remains nearby, bandaging some of the worst of Buzzard’s wounds. “How do we know she’s not leading us on a chase?” Jay whispers to our group. “This seems like nonsense, fairy tales.”
“She won’t lie to us,” I insist, offended that he’d even suggest such a thing.
“I thought the same about the guild once, and yet here we are,” Jay says, shaking his head.
It doesn’t take long for them to hammer through the new wall, which is astonishingly thin. Gwenna isn’t surprised by this. She simply nods as if she knew it all along and steps through to the other side ahead of us.
“Wait,” says Rooster, reaching for her. “There could be ratlings—”
“No ratlings,” she says in that distant voice of hers, and continues forward. “Come. We’ve still got a ways to go.”
She drifts onward through a new tunnel that climbs steeply and twists in unexpected ways. I share an uneasy glance with Stork, because this isn’t a tunnel that’s been used before. To call it a tunnel would be giving it too much credit. It’s more like a fissure in the rocks—my hooves struggle to find purchase, and each step feels dangerous. The passage is tight, and at some points we have to turn sideways to go through and climb over a tumble of rocks. Stork breathes heavily when we’re forced to squeeze through a very cramped crevasse. I probably lose a layer of skin as we do, and angle my head oddly to get my horns through the narrow rocks, but it opens again soon enough. Getting Karref’s limp body through takes some finagling, but no one is willing to leave him behind.
A short time later, I smell moisture in the air. And then I hear running water.
“Almost there,” Gwenna says in that drifting voice, as if she’s not quite with us mentally, even if her physical body is. I’m worried about her, but I trust her to lead our party forward. If anyone can find a way out, it’s Gwenna with her strange powers.
I just don’t want anyone using this against her.
We get down on our knees to crawl through the last portion of the cave—we Taurians on our stomachs and unconscious Karref dragged on a cloak—but once we’re through to the other side, I see moonlight ahead.
“Incredible,” Rooster says, pulling himself through the narrow hole. “She truly did find a way out. Where are we?”
“By the river that cuts through the woods,” Master Jay says, movingto stand beside him. “I can hear the water rushing nearby. How she knew that cave was there…”
“No one says a word of this,” I growl at them. “No one. Understand?”
Exhausted men nod at me.
Satisfied, I stalk forward to talk to my female.
