Neverwylde (The Rim of the World Book 3) (9 page)

            Kelen nodded to herself. “You’re dehydrated. Keep sipping the water, my love.”

            They sat in the darkness in silence. Kelen felt him take her hand again to kiss her fingers.

            “How did you find me?” he croaked.

            “Fullgrath and I were searching the garden and we found this crack in the wall. We noticed the crack had three sides, which we thought was telling. Fullgrath went in a little ways, and we realized it was a tunnel. So we started following it.” She waved a hand. “It’s ventilated. That told us it definitely goes somewhere, but we don’t know where. It weaves all over the place, but it doesn’t go upward or downward. That’s how we found you in here. Kyber, do you have any idea how you ended up in this place?”

            “No. I think the monsters left me here.”

            She bit her lips. There was no telling if his monsters were real or imaginary, but she didn’t dismiss his claim. “Do you remember when the eye worms attacked us in the temple?”

            He lay still as he tried to recall the incident. “I remember trying to lead them away from you. The rest is…hazy.”

            She bent to kiss his brow. “My love, maybe you imagined the monsters. Maybe you hit your head, or maybe you’ve had some kind of hallucinogenic episodes after eating the pancakes. And that’s when you wandered into the garden and found this tunnel.” She nuzzled his temple. “Thank God you’re safe. The others wanted to believe the eye worms had gotten you, but I couldn’t believe it.”

            “That is why you came looking for me.”

            “The rest didn’t want to believe you were dead,” she clarified. “We decided to take shifts to look for you.”

            He squeezed her hand. “You took first shift.” It was not a question.

            She kissed the top of his nose. Having found him, and knowing he was all right, she allowed herself to feel relief. Tears stung her eyes and she let them roll down her cheeks. She sniffed and wiped the wetness with the back of her hand.

            “Fullgrath will be here soon.”

            “How long ago did he leave?”

            “I don’t know. I wish there was a way to tell time.” She gave a little laugh. “I’ll put it on Dox’s to-do list.”

            “After he makes communication devices for us,” Kyber asserted.

            A tiny sound alerted them both. She felt Kyber tense up as she turned to look in the direction where it came from.

           
Click!

           
His reaction was immediate. “We have to go, Kelen.” He struggled to rise, but could make it no further than to his knees. “We have to leave.”

           
Click!

           
He jerked at the noise, raising her level of alarm.

            “What is it, Kyber?”

           
Click, click!

           
He snatched up her light and aimed it down the tunnel. She squinted, trying to spot what he was watching.

            The ground was moving. The ground and the walls. And the ceiling.

            A thousand little legs had erupted from everywhere. A hundred somethings were crawling toward them, moving so slowly the tunnel appeared to be undulating.

            “Kelen!” Kyber grabbed her and pulled heavily on her arm and leg, using her to get to his feet.

            Wrapping an arm around his waist, she struggled to support him, nearly bending under his weight. As the clicking sound grew louder, they started limping back toward the garden

Chapter 13

Flight

            She couldn’t continue keeping him upright, but she had no choice. Her tube weapon wasn’t enough to fight off whatever was advancing on them. Their only chance of survival was to flee. Whether or not the creatures were harmful was a moot point. They couldn’t afford to find out. Not when every other encounter with the monsters on this planet had proven dangerous.

            The clicking sound grew in volume—faster and more intense. Kelen stopped glancing over her shoulder, afraid to discover how quickly those things were closing in.

            “What are they?”

            “Dangerous.” Kyber struggled to keep going, but she knew he wouldn’t make it. He had no strength left. Every step sapped the last of his strength. He was at the end of his endurance.

            They rounded another curve and Kelen noticed a pale brightening in the distance.

            “We’re near the opening! Come on! You can do it! We can make it! Just a little bit further!”

            He stumbled, nearly taking her down with him, but he managed to catch himself in time. He took four more steps and he reached his end. With a loud groan, Kyber collapsed, falling heavily on his knees before toppling over onto his face and stomach. At the last second, he released his hold on Kelen, preventing himself from dragging her down with him.

            Kelen grabbed him and tried to pull him toward the light. “Come
on!
We’re almost there! Look, Kyber! We’re so close, I can see the outline of the opening!” She tugged unsuccessfully on his arm. “Please, Kyber! Try!
Try!
Just a few more steps!”

            He grabbed her hand and pried it from him. “Go, Kelen. Give me your weapon. I will try to hold them off while you get away.”

            “Bullshit if you think I’m going to leave you!”

            Parking herself next to him, she turned to face the oncoming horde. She played the light over the floor, the sides, and the ceiling of the tunnel as she held out her weapon. She knew she was defenseless against whatever was converging on them—flat little creatures on spider-like legs, their metallic bodies glittering in the beam. With every step, they made a sharp, unnerving
click!
With hundreds of them advancing toward them, the cacophony was enough to drive her insane.

            She felt Kyber grab her hips and try to pull himself up to where he could face the creatures alongside her. From the corner of her eye she saw him extend his claws, prepared to fight.

            One of the little clickers reached the toe of her boot. She kicked it, sending it flying back into the undulating mass. Another took its place. A second, a third. Shoving her hand against the carapace, she fired.

            An unearthly scream rose from the blanket of creatures. The pulse from her weapon ran through them like a wave, as if all of them had been affected. Kelen saw clots of them fall from the ceiling and sides of the tunnel. There was a moment of silence as the creatures recovered, then redoubled their efforts and began crawling over each other in their attempt to get to Kelen and Kyber.

            She heard Kyber growl as he swiped at several of the things that reached them. Their flat little bodies made clanging sounds as they smashed against the rocky side of the tunnel and shattered upon impact. Blackish goo oozed down the walls where they struck.

The rest of the horde continued moving forward. Kelen reached out and hit another one of those things with another pulse. The creatures’ shrieks of pain reverberated down the tunnel.

There was a hard tug on the waistband of her pants. She scooted backwards until she was pressed against Kyber.

“You have less than a quarter power.”

She glanced down at her weapon. He was right. The indicator on the side of the small tube showed she might have enough energy left for one more pulse.

Might.

“Kelen. You will leave.”

His angry tone surprised her. She glanced back at him.

“What? No!”

A dark expression hardened his face. “You will leave. Now.”

She managed an equally pissed off mask. “Hell no. I’m not leaving you alone.”

“Kelen.”

Impulsively, she closed the distance between them and kissed him. It was brief but sweet. When she reared back, she noticed his expression had changed to one of surprise.

“For better or for worse, in sickness and in health, until death do we part. Remember, Kyber?”

A clicker pulled on the hem of her pants. She tried to kick it away, but it had a firm grasp on the material. A second clicker joined it. Leaning over, she fired her weapon one final time. It was enough to dislodge the creatures clinging to her pants, but more surged forward.

A shadow blocked the opening behind them, leaving them in total darkness except for the thin stream of light coming from her tube. Kyber threw an arm under her breasts and pulled her backwards as a dozen clickers latched onto her leg. Kelen cried out as she flailed her legs to extricate herself from their grip.

“
Get down!
” a voice thundered from overhead.

She was aware of Kyber throwing her to the side and rolling over to cover her body with his. There was the hard whine of a pulse rifle going off, followed by the nerve-shredding cries of hundreds of clickers as they were mowed down. She caught sight of the rifle’s rays blanketing the things. They glittered like a million green stars as they absorbed the energy, then exploded and fell from the tunnel walls and ceiling.

Hands grabbed her under the arms and pulled her to the tunnel entrance. Someone was beating at the clickers still attached to her legs.

It was Jules who continued to half-carry her away from the crack in the wall, finally letting her go a few meters away. Kelen watched as Massapa brought Kyber out into the open.

“Damn little fuckers don’t know when to quit, do they?” Fullgrath remarked and took another swing at one last clicker still attached to her leg, beating on it with a rock. Once it was smashed to a gooey mess, Fullgrath pried the thing from her pants. “Can you stand?”

She nodded and Jules helped her to her feet as Cooter emerged from the tunnel. At the same time, Massapa helped Kyber to stand, but his legs would not support him. Fullgrath immediately took Kyber’s other arm, slinging it over his shoulder to help him stay erect.

“Come on. We gotta go now,” Cooter demanded tersely, and took off toward the platform.

Dusk was falling. Shadows already filled the garden. It would be dark within minutes. And with the dark, the bigger monsters would come out to prowl.

She and Jules reached the platform first. He started to help her up on the rock, but she stopped him.

“No. You first. I’ll follow.”

He nodded silently and jumped onto the platform. Less than a heartbeat later, he was gone. A quick check behind her saw Massapa and Fullgrath carrying Kyber between them. Knowing they would be next, she rolled onto the rock.

Jules and Sandow were waiting for her when she arrived. Jules half-dragged her off the dais to allow the next person through, which was Massapa. When Kyber finally appeared, she helped to pull him to one side where Sandow immediately began checking him over.

With the danger over, her adrenaline level dropped, leaving her panting with exhaustion. On hands and knees, she crawled over to Kyber and sat beside him. She closed her eyes, half-listening to the doctor as he examined the Seneecian. She was vaguely aware of the man shaking her shoulder.

“Kelen, are you all right?”

“Hmm? What? Yeah. I’m fine.”

There was a tug on her right leg. She heard fabric tearing. Opening her eyes, she was aware of someone gasping in surprise. Sandow gave her a worried look.

“Are you sure you feel okay?” he reiterated.

“Yeah. Why?”

She glanced down at her leg and the blood covering it. Her blood.

“You’ve been bitten, Kelen,” he informed her. “And some of their pincers are still embedded in your skin.”

Chapter 14

Venom

            Kelen heard more ripping sounds. Jules had removed his shirt and was tearing it into strips for Sandow to use as bandages.

            The physician poured water over her leg to wash away the blood. It was then she could see the stiff little black things still embedded in her skin like grisly thumbtacks.

            Using a knife, he tried to pry one of the pincers from her flesh. Sharp pain shot up her leg, and she jerked it from his grasp.

            Sandow bobbed his head. “That’s what I was afraid of. They’re barbed.”

            “Barbed?” Jules peered closer.

            Kelen glanced over at Kyber, but he was out of it. In a way, she was glad he wasn’t aware of this new development. He didn’t need to be worrying about her. He needed to be concentrating on getting well himself.

            “Kel?”

            She looked back at the doctor.

            “I’m going to have to either cut them out, or try to pull them out. Either way, it’s going to hurt like nothing you’ve ever felt before. But they can’t remain in. Also, they could have some sort of toxin in them.” He gave her a weak smile. “On the plus side, they don’t appear to be deep.”

            “They don’t
appear
to be?” she quipped.

            Tojun shuffled up. “I have a fire going as requested.”

            “Good.” Sandow handed him his knife. “Sterilize the blade in the flames. Let it get good and hot before you bring it back to me.”

            The Seneecian took the knife and left.

            Kelen let out a weak laugh. “I don’t suppose you brought any anesthesia with you when we initially left the ship, did you?”

            “I’m sorry, Kel.”

            “Well, short of knocking me out, I guess I’ll just have to bite down and bear it.” She gave a breathy laugh and tried to make light of it. “How many of those things are you going to have to extract?”

            Sandow silently counted. “Nine.”

            She snorted. “Threes. Why am I not surprised?”

            “You might want to lie down during this,” the doctor suggested.

            “What? And miss all the fun?”

            “How are you feeling?”

            She did a quick assessment. “Drained.”

            Sandow checked her eyes, then her pulse. “Do something for me. Close your eyes.”

            “Why?”