XV

  Juvenile Summoner

  The tunnel passing underneath the plateau was cramped and lit even worse than the surface. Stomping, lumbering feet passed overhead. Shards of frost dropped from the ceiling, clattering all over us. None uttered their grievances.

  Only a minute after we heard the last of the footfalls did anyone dare speak up.

  “They really have gone rabid,” Judith whispered.

  David nodded. “They’re attacking anyone in sight.”

  Our party shared a disconcerted glance.

  “They’re warding us from the range,” Jake said. He was slumped against the wall. All of our running hadn’t done his body any good.

  “Or trying to thin our numbers for the Castle,” David said.

  Either option screwed us over.

  “With how many are they?” I asked.

  “Near a thousand wouldn’t surprise me,” Judith said. “But they should’ve spawned all over the realm.”

  “There’ll be more on the plateau than we can take in a fight,” Ray said to the disagreement of absolutely nobody.

  “Did you manage to catch wind of Aurille?” Judith said.

  David shook his head. “My team had decided to find Lady Everfrost when we were ambushed.”

  Where his team was now wasn’t hard to imagine. Judith placed her hand on his shoulder and the two whispered amongst each other.

  ‘Aurille Everfrost…’ Since Judith asked after her, she must be the heiress of the Snow Moon Sect. One of the Pillars.

  David’s black, short-cropped hair whipped up as he glanced in the direction of the range. “The drakes shouldn’t be able to chase us once we reach the pass.”

  Ray chuckled. “Only because there are more threatening entities there.”

  “Such as?” I asked.

  “Heralds,” he said. “Cultists. Barbarians. There’s a reason Castle Shield offers the most valuable resources of the many second trials.”

  “Beyond reaching it,” Judith said, “It’s also the most dangerous trial to participate in.”

  David spied further into the tunnel. “We should stick to the underground. With some luck, we’ll reach the mouth of the valley.”

  We rested another while before getting a move on.

  The tunnels were the roadways of Ice Burrowers. Worm-like creatures that ambushed unsuspecting prey on the surface. They didn’t sound inviting to face but beat challenging an army of drakes.

  Our cramped tunnel gradually widened and joined another set of paths. My chicks scanned for dead-ends. They couldn’t fully scour every path though, so we had to gamble a few times.

  We set a gruelling pace. Sleeping here was certain death as no amount of vigilance would save us from a tunnelling burrower, so we had to be out by nightfall.

  “There’s a drop up ahead,” I whispered.

  A dredge of shard energy floated over my finger and its light fell over the edge. The drop was low enough for our knees to handle. But our footing left much to be desired.

  Slimy creatures squirmed in a big pile. They passed over and through each other, making it difficult to tell where one ended and the other began.

  [Juvenile Burrower - lvl. 5]

  [Juvenile Burrower - lvl. 6]

  [Juvenile Burrower - lvl. 4]

  …

  Judith breathed out sharply. There were at least a hundred of the monsters.

  “We can retrace our steps,” Ray said.

  And enter a tunnel we passed up before.

  “I understand what you’re saying,” Jake said, “but we’re better off going through here.”

  We turned to him.

  “These are juveniles,” the archer said. “Their armour isn’t fully formed yet. Neither are their teeth. This is as close to ‘free passage’ as we can get.”

  “Until the mothers return,” David added. Their return was growing more likely with each passing second.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Which exit do we take?” Judith asked.

  Dozens of entrances littered the walls—too many for me to scout in a timely fashion.

  “The one directly opposite us,” David said.

  “How do you know?”

  “I don’t.”

  And Judith shrugged. As good a guess as any.

  “Who wants to go first?” Jake said.

  Ray stepped up without hesitating. He used the wall to break his fall and his boots thumped into the back of one of the burrowers. We held our breath. But the squirming dance of the burrowers continued.

  The spearman hopped from burrower to burrower as if he was jumping on trampolines. A final leap, and he climbed into the entrance on the other side.

  We looked at each other, asking the silent question: ‘Who next?’

  Jake went second. Though he was tired and not wholly recovered, his acrobatics were ingrained into his body and didn’t let him down.

  After him was David.

  “Good luck,” Judith whispered and patted his back.

  The ice disciple jumped down.

  ‘Huh. She didn’t wish anyone else well.’

  I had a sly thought for why that could be, but my belief changed midway through David’s crossing. Perhaps she was clairvoyant.

  As the boy jumped his way over another burrower, the ceiling trembled and loose rocks tumbled into the nest of juveniles.

  ‘Oh, heavens.’

  David charged for the other end of the nest. A desperate leap brought him a little short of the ledge, but Ray and Jake lunged and snatched part of his robe just as the ceiling burst apart.

  [Ice Burrower — lvl. 11]

  The giant upper body of the worm dangled like a stalk of grass in a breeze.

  My heartbeat was in my throat. I struck the air to shape a portal—

  Judith’s palm slammed down on my arm.

  Before I could ask what in the fuck she thought she was doing, the body of the burrower bulged. The bulge travelled down its length like a wave until it reached its gaping mouth. In a blast of spit and gore, corpses dropped. The meat grinders that were the multiple rows of teeth of the burrower had left them mangled and their genus unrecognisable. The nest didn’t care. Juveniles tore into the bodies served up on a platter. They even tore into each other, the infant burrowers fighting amongst themselves for the biggest scraps of meat.

  The ceiling trembled again. Another burrower pushed forth and deposited its load in the same manner.

  Stray spittle curved in front of our tunnel. I caught a whiff of one of the falling carcasses as it tumbled past.

  …and nearly puked on the spot.

  Heaven’s have mercy! They must keep those things inside their stomach for days.

  But the smell didn’t discourage a certain sensation inside me.

  The shard stopped me in my tracks and drew my eye to a corpse near me, where three burrowers bigger than the other juveniles smashed into each other. A shadow of whiskers were visible through white fur mixed with blood.

  The Ashenblood seed required a great deal more essence than that of the cinderwings. That was a good sign; more sustenance meant the summon would be stronger. But it meant every meal counted. I glanced at the ceiling. The parents had already left. I also doubted the juveniles had enough sense to sound an alarm at a stolen meal.

  “What are you thinking?” Judith said. She had her back on the mess downstairs and eyed me from the corner of her sight.

  “There’s a body I want to absorb.”

  I left the unspoken question in the air. Doing this wouldn’t just endanger myself.

  She followed my finger and frowned. Her gaze went to the ceiling and back.“Should be fine…I think.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  I inched towards the ledge. Across from us, the three boys stared, wondering what I was up to.

  The branch of the cindertree slithered out. My sight remained locked onto the ceiling. I was ready to shut the portal at a moment’s notice…but what would that do to the branch? Would it be cut off from the base?

  ‘Whatever the case, it’s better than losing my life.’

  Like a snake, the branch passed underneath the hides of the still battling juveniles, who’d reduced the number of challengers to two. They were too busy fighting each other to notice the wood coiling around the carcass. The cindertree pulled back as slow as it’d reached out, drops of saliva and chunks of meat dripping all the while. I held my breath as it pulled the beast back into the gate.

  A moment went by with nothing changing.

  ‘Candy from an infant.’

  Judith released her breath, which she sucked right back up when heavy tremors passed through the tunnel.

  ‘Fuck!’ My chest caved in.

  Two burrowers snapped out of the ceiling, both level 13.

  ‘We’re done for.’

  The difference in level together with the disadvantage in terrain was insurmountable. That’s why my digits were slow on the draw, and Judith—though she had drawn her staff—was late in conjuring a blade.

  It’s what saved us.

  The two burrowers dropped their load, then scurried off into another tunnel. All was quiet except for the incessant wriggling of the nest.

  Judith sagged to her knees. “I want to get out of here.”

  “Me too.”

  My gaze fell on a fresh corpse in the neighbourhood before my sentence ended. The shard pulsed again.

  Judith glanced at me and shook her head.

  An hour passed as we waited for the juveniles to settle down, during which I stole another three corpses.

  ‘It’s better to think of it as preventing waste.’

  Those juveniles didn’t need all those bodies anyways.

  My attention turned to the garden. The bodies were recent, so the energy hiding within hadn’t had time to enter the ashenblood tree yet. Also, because of how the burrowers fed their young, most of the essence had already filtered out of the corpses. I’d need to wait and see how far this new influx would bring the summon to hatching. Its egg was looking sizeable and healthy, though.

  “Exit up ahead,” I said.

  After hours underground, the rays of light pouring from the hole were a welcome sight despite how they burned our retinas. We waited until my summons scoured the immediate area.

  A friend who I’d come to know intimately as of late greeted me as I climbed up. ‘Screw this cold, seriously.’

  Sun city was no desert, but it was a hell of a lot more appeasing. Still, my mood upon returning outside wasn’t entirely dampened. In the distance, the mountains loomed higher than ever.

  “We’re at most a day away from the range,” Ray said.

  “Guess we need to thank the burrowers,” Jake said.

  Me more than anyone.

  All that walking underground had tired us and night was on the eve of approaching, so we decided to find a place to camp. We bumped into our shelter. Literally. The curved gate sticking out of the earth had frozen over so completely it was hard to distinguish from the fog.

  David rubbed his palm over the structure. “A gate to a temple.”

  A path of cobblestones flowed through more gates like the first, all free-standing and half buried.

  “This place looks like it was frozen in the middle of an earthquake,” Judith said.

  Every structure stood slanted or was half swallowed by earth. All were encased in layers of frost.

  We approached a squat building adorned by a tulip’s bud.

  “Keep your eyes out,” Ray said. “We’re not the only ones looking for refuge.”

  Which was why I sent a chick in first. The beat of its wings echoed as it disappeared inside through a broken window. The images they fed me, though still blurry, were clearer than before. Whatever people had worshipped in this place, their legacy was all but gone. The inside was bare except for those things that couldn’t be removed like the columns.

  A red flash shot forwards in the summon’s sight, then the feedback ended.

  My eyes shot open. Warmth slithered into my stomach and joined the shard.

  “We’re not alone,” I said.

  Weapons exited their sheathes.

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