Page 68 of Returned to the Vissigroth
“Alright,” I said, rising with them. “We follow the tunnels. But not like prey. We look for doors, panels, and cracks. Anything useful the Zutens have left behind.”
“And if we find nothing?” Thalia asked.
“Then we find higher ground,” Oksana answered. “Someplace defensible. If we can’t escape, then we make sure they don’t get past us.”
I met her gaze, then Thalia’s. “Together?”
“Always,” they said in unison.
So we stood, shaking off the ache and exhaustion. We weren’t armed like warriors. But we had our wits. We had our bond. And we had each other.
"Let's see if they let us go back," Oksana dusted her pants as she rose.
I was still scared, but it felt damn good having a plan instead of running like headless prey around through the tunnels waiting to be slaughtered for whatever plan the Eulachs had in mind for us. If we were right, they were most likely lying in wait somewhere already for our males, who I knew were coming for us. We just needed a little bit of luck to fall onto their backs and to hope and pray we weren't too late and could cause a big enough diversion to give our males the edge they needed against these creatures.
We moved more slowly than before, but with purpose. The tunnels still felt too quiet. Like whatever had chased us was now simply watching and waiting. That thought sent a shiver down my spine, but it also renewed my resolve to do something.
“Anyone else feel like we’re not alone?” Thalia murmured, her dagger already back in her grip.
Oksana didn’t answer. She just raised her hand and stilled us all. Her head cocked slightly as if listening. I tried to hear what she did, but there was nothing. No footsteps. No whispers. Just the quiet scrape of our own breaths and the drip-drip-drip of some distant water source echoing through the dark.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling. Every few paces, I looked behind us. Nothing. No shadows moving. No glowing eyes. And yet… the hair on my arms stood up, as if the stone walls themselves were leaning in, eavesdropping.
We doubled back but took new paths, moving both through tunnels we had traversed before and new ones. I had no idea how Oksana knew where to go, but she did. It was in one of the tunnels we hadn't chosen before that we found signs of the Zuten again. Broken cords and cables, and posts, some half-buried in the walls, others sticking out. The passage narrowed, and we had to go sideways. Thalia threw me a worried glance, and I nodded at her in encouragement. She still didn't look like she was convinced this was the right way to go, but she shrugged her misgivings off. Even when we had to suck in our tummies and squeeze our breasts to go through.
The torches illuminated the constricting space. The only thing making me forge forward was the fact that the further we went, the more things poked through the wall that pointed at an advanced civilization that once lived here. Pieces of fabric made from an unknown material that had somehow survived thousands of rotations of being half-buried. Parts of a sphere poked out, still glowing in an ominous, metallic yellow that reminded me of the eyes of a predator. The further we went, the more broken pieces littered the ground, mingled with rockand brick and the gods knew what else. It looked like a kid had mashed up a collection of toys with clay and rolled it around and around until almost nothing recognizable was left.
"That way,” Oksana encouraged us, still wiggling through the narrow walls ahead. “We take the next right, descend, then left again. I’ve got a map in my head already.”
We wove deeper again, each turn sharper than the last. Finally, the passage opened up into a new chamber. It was wrecked.
The ceiling had partially collapsed, leaving a thin curtain of dust drifting through the air like mist. Half the floor had caved in. But it was unmistakable, this had once been another Zuten residence. Maybe part of a larger complex. Scorched couches lay broken beneath the rubble. A cracked panel still clung to the far wall, flickering with a pale blue glow. Thalia moved toward it, cautiously, while Oksana scanned the broken space.
Oksana ducked beneath a slab of rock at the rear of the room, vanishing for a breathless moment. Then we heard her gasp.
“By the gods,” she whispered.
Thalia and I scrambled after her, crawling under the jagged beam. My fingers scraped against rock. Dust fell in a sheet over us. But when we emerged on the other side, my breath caught.
Weapons.
Dozens of them.
Sleek, angular. Nothing like the forged iron or alloy blades we were used to. These were strange; some looked like they hadn’t dulled in thousands of rotations. Some glowed faintly, blue or gold or red at the seams. Others had handles carved from what looked like glass, but they felt warm to the touch.
One in particular caught my eye. A slender rod, no longer than my forearm, but bristling with dormant energy. It was humming softly. Singing, almost.
“Are these… are they functional?” Thalia breathed, running her fingers over a thick black blade with purple veins in the metal.
“I don't think these were left here by accident,” Oksana said, her eyes darting from one thing to another. “This doesn't look like a military installation or lab. I think whoever left this here left it as a cache. A fallback point. Like the Zuten knew something would come. And they left weapons for it.”
My heart thundered. I reached for the rod, wrapping my hand around it. "I don't know about this." I had a bad feeling.
“Looks like we have a way to fight back,” Thalia said, moving something that looked like a black ball around.
I swallowed, "We don't know how any of these weapons work. We could pick the wrong one and blow up the entire mountain."
The other seffies stilled and stared at me. Realization kicked in.
