Page 233 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
He closed his eyes.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
As one, we all rushed from the crevices and inside the tunnel, weapons raised and glimmering in the faintest light from the remaining torches.
Nobody faced us.
Only ashy air awaited at the tip of my arrow.
But the steps still reverberated in the rock.
Coming our way.
“Above!” Ryker shouted.
“Solkar’s beard,” one of the warriors whispered, clearly frightened out of his mortal wits.
I was almost too afraid to look.
But I did.
My heart fell as dozens of cloaked, masked figures crept onto the ceiling.
The same ones which had accompanied Orion on the night he tried to kill me.
My throat tightened, even as the blood in my veins roared.
The first arrow flew from my bow like revenge.
It hit the first figure square in the chest, dissolving it into a cloud of dust. Its cloak and mask fell onto the floor in an unceremonious thud.
Then chaos erupted.
The figures screeched and fell from the ceiling upon us. Ryker became a blur as he slashed through the first wave, while his warriors carved a storm of ash through the few who escaped his wrath.
I shot arrow after arrow at the ones still slinking on the ceiling. Too many of them. A neverending sea of dread crawling toward us.
The passage was silent no more.
The air was alive now, with grunts and the clash of steel against steel.
As each arrow pierced another one, a cascade of grit fell on top of the warriors. Coughs joined the grunts, even as my own throat seized up in the chaos. The ash clung to my lashes, stinging my eyes.
Then one of the torches went out, sealing us further into the darkness.
Chapter
Fifty-Three
ALLIE
The masked figures crawled out of the openings in the wall, scurrying on the ceiling, a neverending dread that shouldn’t have existed.
They looked like humans, but didn’t move like us.
