Threading the Needle (26 page)

“So you're going to attack them directly, before they find your true location.”

“We can't kill the scouts without revealing our own access points. So we're going to try to divert them.”

“Let us help.” All of the Dogs with them shifted, as if anticipating the fight. “You've seen us fight. We're better than a good portion of your own men and women. We're more experienced.”

Cason hesitated.

“The Wielders can help as well,” Kara said. “If you get us close to the battle, trap the Rats in one of the ley line tunnels, we can channel the ley into that tunnel and burn them out. No one's at risk then.”

Cason raised an eyebrow. “You could do that?”

“It's similar to what I did at the armory. Except that was desperation. I wasn't certain any of us would survive. Here, we could draw the Rats into an ambush. But we'd have to choose a place close to where the ley was active, so I could manipulate whatever is blocking it and redirect it down a different path.”

Artras edged forward. “Any of the Wielders could do that, not just Kara. If they're attacking on multiple fronts, we could hit them in at least three locations.”

Cason's lips pressed together in a thin line, her gaze flicking from Kara to Artras to Dylan farther back. Kara found herself unconsciously holding her breath.

But when the Dog's eyes returned to hers, she saw the answer before she spoke. “No. No to any of you helping.”

“Why not?” Glenn asked in frustration. “What the Wielders are saying sounds like good strategy. And we're fellow Dogs. I recognize the training in you.”

“Because I can't trust you. How do I know your Wielders won't release the ley on us?”

“That's stupid. We've done nothing but follow your lead since you found us. We haven't even tried to escape this prison!” Glenn slammed his fist into the wall of the tunnel for emphasis. “You have strong fighters here. Use them.”

“No! I can see you're Dogs, and yes, I know you're strong fighters.
But what your Wielder suggests would require too much planning. We'd have to find appropriate sections of the ley lines, lure the Rats there, and then hope that she managed to release the ley in time to catch them inside. And what if she makes a mistake? What if the ley escapes her control and she floods this junction? Then we all die! She admitted that what she did at the armory was a desperate move. No, I won't risk it. We can handle the Rats without you. And when we're done with this battle, we'll escort all of you out of our tunnels. I want you all gone. And I don't want to see any of your faces again.”

She spun away, marching across the chamber toward the main tunnel, where a small pack of Tunnelers had apparently been waiting for her to join them. They mounted the steps to the tunnel's mouth and vanished, the rest of the Tunnelers in view returning to their own work as soon as she was gone. Those posted as guards around the junction stared at Kara and Allan, then focused again on their tasks. The pack leader spoke to a few of his men, who surreptitiously shifted position so they were closer to the Hollowers. Not enough of them to keep Kara and the rest contained, but enough to make their point: they didn't want Allan and the others going anywhere.

“Do they think we're just going to sit here and wait for the Rats to catch us?”

“That's exactly what we're going to do.” Allan faced Glenn. “You heard her. They don't want our help. And they're willing to let us go as soon as they finish with the Rats. So we're going to sit here and wait for them to return, and then we're getting the hells out of here.”

They waited, Kara settling in near Dylan while the rest found small tasks to keep them occupied. Glenn paced in the back of the tunnel like an animal, his constant movement grating on Kara's nerves. Adder and Allan remained at the mouth of the tunnel, watching the activity beyond. From her position near Dylan, Kara could see the Tunneler guardsmen as they shifted positions, their body language also tense. From that alone, she knew that whatever Cason and the rest of the Tunnelers were doing wasn't the norm for this group. The guards watching the entrances to the junction were more alert, and while they kept watch on Allan and the others, their attention was focused more outward than in. Even the men, women, and children working in the
junction were anxious. One of them dropped a wooden paddle used to slide bread into the back of the makeshift oven, the clap as it landed sharp and startling. At least half of those in the cavern cried out, the guards leaping up, weapons drawn. It took long moments before everyone calmed down, and even then Kara saw one woman sobbing silently into another's shoulder.

Then, from outside, in the junction, the guards barked a warning, and everyone working on the floor scrambled for cover, the men and women left behind to keep watch racing into positions around the chamber. Those who'd been stationed near the Hollowers joined them, and Allan and Adder stepped out into the room, both drawing their swords. Glenn stalked forward, motioning Tim to his side with a curt gesture. Cutter and Jack followed. Kara stood, listening intently, then moved toward Artras and Gaven, all of them standing just inside the mouth of their prison. Aaron and Carter stayed with Dylan.

“Someone's coming.”

A moment later, Kara heard it as well. A faint scramble of footsteps that escalated as the group approached, echoes bouncing around the chamber. The guards snapped out a few more orders, everyone shifting their attention to one of the main tunnels, but then someone shouted from inside that tunnel's mouth and the guards in position relaxed. Three of the younger Tunnelers emerged from the opening, drawing to a halt before the guards' leader. He listened intently, then signaled to the rest to stand down.

The main force streamed into the chamber, jumping down from ledges to the floor below while others descended the ladders already in place. Family members rushed out to greet them, everyone milling around. Allan and the other Dogs and trackers relaxed, but they didn't move back into their tunnel.

Behind the first wave came another, this one moving slower, with walking wounded and others bearing makeshift litters or carrying their bloodied fellow Tunnelers in their arms. Those who'd been left behind immediately broke away from their reunions and set up a section of the floor as a hospital, the healers ordering everyone around and seeing to the wounded. The number of people clutching bloodied arms or sides, or collapsing to waiting pallets, was staggering. A few had faces covered in blood from scalp wounds. Others were vomiting off to one side as
their wounds overcame them. One or two crawled onto bedrolls and then grew still before the healers could get to them.

A third wave came through the tunnel, obviously the rearguard, protecting their retreat. Cason led this group, and the entire chamber erupted into cheers as she arrived. She raised her sword above her head, her helm tucked under her other arm, but said nothing. Behind her, Ren doubled the guard on the junction's entrances, then descended with Cason to the floor.

Kara had begun to relax when she noticed that Cason was headed straight toward their prison, followed by Ren, Sorelle, and the rest of Sorelle's pack. Allan and the Dogs and trackers tensed again.

Cason halted a few paces away, her gaze sweeping them all. “Pack up everything you want to take with you. We're getting you out of here. Right now.”

“C
AN WE TRUST THEM?”

Kara and the others were frantically packing up what few possessions they had in the Tunnelers' junction, which amounted to almost nothing. At Cason's brusque command, Sorelle and her pack had run off to find them satchels and some food. Jaimes and Laura had returned with a litter so they could carry Dylan. It had obviously been used to carry someone from the Tunnelers' recent fight with the Rats, with one side stained nearly black with blood. No one protested. Glenn and Adder hefted Dylan onto it, then positioned themselves at its front and back. They'd volunteered to carry him, although Kara wasn't certain who else could have done it; certainly not Gaven and Aaron, or Artras or herself—at least, not for long. Perhaps Cutter and Jack, but Allan had ordered them to take point and rear. The Tunnelers had reluctantly provided them with bows and a few arrows, and the two were testing the pull as the others finished organizing the last of their meager supplies. Cason had given them far more than they'd had when captured. It had taken no more than ten minutes to pack, and most of that had been arguing over who would carry Dylan.

Kara hefted her satchel onto one shoulder and stared at Allan expectantly.

“As I said before, we have no choice. But they could have killed us at any time over the last few days.”

“Why give us food and supplies if they intended to kill us?” Artras asked. “And why give us a litter to carry Dylan?”

“It still doesn't feel right.”

“Then stay alert. Cutter and Jack are front and behind. Tim and I will
flank if possible, and Glenn and Adder have orders to drop Dylan and fight at the first sign of trouble. He'll be your responsibility after that.”

“We'll watch over him.”

Allan's attention was already focused on the activity in the junction. Most of the fighters that had returned from the confrontation with the Rats were settling back into what passed for daily routine or were working with the healers. But Cason and Ren had pulled those who'd guarded the entrances while they were gone down into a small group that included Sorelle's pack. A moment later, the group broke apart, Sorelle heading back toward them, Cason and the rest gathering up their own supplies. A few of the fighters shot Kara and the rest odd looks.

“We're ready.”

“Good.” Sorelle's gaze raked everyone. She noted Glenn and Adder standing at either end of Dylan's litter. “They're going to carry the Wielder?”

“He can barely walk on his own, and they're the strongest of our group. It's a long way back to the Hollow.”

Sorelle's attention flicked back to Allan. “Cason is going to lead the group. We'll take you to the southern edge of our territory, through Tinker and Clay, but that's as far as we'll go.”

“What happened with the Rats?”

“We beat them back, trapped a few in the tunnels while the others ran away. They won't be entering our territory for a while.”

Kara thought about Fletch and Richten, the conviction in their eyes, and doubted they were as beaten as Sorelle pretended.

Someone whistled. Sorelle glanced back, then motioned them forward. “Time to go.”

Glenn and Adder grabbed the handles of the litter and hefted it upward. Dylan snatched at the sides, Glenn muttering a curt apology.

They climbed out of the tunnel, Cutter and Allan first, followed by the rest of the Hollowers, with Dylan and his two handlers in the middle. Sorelle's pack surrounded them as they headed across the junction, skirting the healers and their charges. They joined Cason and the rest of the guards she'd selected for their escort. Kara counted twenty altogether, not including Cason and Sorelle's pack, and she noted Ren had stayed behind. Enough fighters to keep them under control if they tried anything, but not an overwhelming force.

Maybe Cason did intend to let them go.

They left through one of the smaller tunnels, angled southwest, narrow enough that only two people could walk side by side, Cason in the lead. Most of them split into singles, trotting along as fast as Glenn and Adder could move carrying the litter. Those in front spread out ahead, their shouts echoing back to Kara's position just behind Glenn. Someone had given Gaven and Aaron lanterns, Aaron ahead and Gaven just behind Kara. The lanterns threw odd shadows against the walls as they moved, but since the tunnel had a lower ceiling, Kara was grateful for the light. She followed Glenn with her shoulders unconsciously hunched, even though the curved ceiling was at least a foot above the top of her head.

They emerged in another much smaller junction, chose a second tunnel a level above that angled farther west. Fewer tunnels branched off this chamber. They were slowed as Adder and Glenn set the litter down, heaved Dylan up high enough that Allan and Cutter could grip him beneath the shoulders and pull him to the next tunnel, then passed up the litter. They resumed with the same formation on the far side, this tunnel wider, but now only a half a foot over Kara's head. She reached up at one point and let her hands trail across the granite that had been molded by the Wielders and Mentors into its current shape. One of the newer tunnels then, since the oldest in the city had been constructed using river stones.

The tunnel branched, the Tunnelers taking the southern or western forks every time. At one such intersection, Kara felt the presence of the ley return as she stepped across the new tunnel's opening. It shivered through her skin, tingling with its energy. She immediately called out, “Artras!” her voice loud in the confines of the tunnel.

“I feel it.”

“Feel what?” Gaven kept his voice low, so that only Kara likely heard.

“The ley. It's flowing through this tunnel. No need to worry, it isn't strong enough to harm us. But it's there, which means we've left Tinker behind. We must be beneath Clay.”

The farther south and west they moved, the stronger the ley's current. The faint tingling became a prickle, until the hairs on Kara's arms began to stand on end, but before the ley reached a level where Kara knew she'd have to warn everyone, they spilled out into another junction. Except this one wasn't empty.

As she emerged, Kara's eyes were drawn first to the upper left. Part
of the distortion sliced through the dome overhead, cutting out a thin but wide chunk of the ceiling before merging back into the stone wall. It glowed a vibrant blue, like the arm that had swept over Kara when the distortion formed. She could see the rest of the ceiling through the shard's face, but it looked pitted and crumbled, as if it were a thousand years older than the section of the dome outside the shard. If they healed the shard now, that entire section of the ceiling would cave in, likely bringing the rest of the dome down with it.

But the section of the distortion wasn't the only part of the junction that made it different. There were active ley lines here, strong enough that the ley flowing through them could be seen. The white paths cut through the air above, emerging from two separate tunnels a level above them, one from the northwest and the other more northerly. They merged into one line over the center of the chamber and shot off to the west, the line thicker, pulsing slightly at the merging point.

Kara realized that she and the other Wielders were staring. None of them had seen an active junction before.

She met Artras' gaze and saw the astonishment she felt mirrored in the older Wielder's eyes, along with the sudden understanding that the ley system within Erenthrall had been immensely more complicated than she'd originally thought. Not even the maps that Hernande and Cory had created had covered this. Only three of the tunnels in this junction were visibly active, but there were at least a dozen of varying sizes inactive. All of them had once carried ley lines, and they'd all merged and interacted here.

There were dozens of junctions throughout Erenthrall, if not hundreds. All active at one point, all channeling ley, all of it being directed by the Primes and the Nexus.

Kara's mouth went dry at the enormity of it. “No wonder it was so destructive when it failed.”

The leading Tunnelers were already halfway across the chamber. They had lived here for months, had obviously already grown used to seeing the active ley lines.

Behind her and Gaven, Jaimes motioned toward the rest of the group. “Keep moving. But be careful. There's another ley line up ahead, near the edge of the chamber.”

They began moving again, Gaven and Aaron requiring a bit of prodding.

The ley line Jaimes had mentioned wasn't hovering in midair. Instead, it flowed through a physical channel in the floor, like the ley barge lines throughout the city. The Tunnelers had used a large piece of stone debris to bridge the narrow channel. They crossed single file, then entered another larger tunnel running almost directly beneath the active ley above them. This tunnel showed signs of the quakes, the walls crazed with cracks, chunks of the ceiling the size of Kara's head littering the curved floor. They slowed because of the awkward footing, but not by much. At one point, they passed a section where the left wall had collapsed, nearly blocking their route. A short time later, the ceiling had partially fallen in, forcing them to climb up over the rockfall. Occasionally, dust and small pebbles shifted down from above, disturbed by their passage.

Then Kara noticed a subtle change in the Tunnelers guiding them. They tensed, bunched up closer to their charges, their eyes cutting left and right, even though they were still in the tunnel. Jaimes came up to walk beside Kara and Gaven.

Ahead, someone shouted. Kara could see the end of the tunnel. As they drew closer, she realized it ended in the pit of a node, like the one in Tinker.

“Almost there.”

“And where is that?”

Jaimes didn't answer.

They emerged in the pit, Kara shuddering at the familiarity of it, even though she'd never been here. The well of river stone rose around them, the stairs curving up one side toward the closed doors. Cason, Sorelle, and a few of the others were at the top of the steps, removing a thick wooden slat from the braces used to keep the heavy doors from being opened from the outside. The crude mechanism had obviously been added after the Shattering; none of the nodes Kara knew of had needed to be locked from the inside. With effort, the Tunnelers pulled the door open, the hinges grinding. Four of the Tunnelers slipped through and into the dark outer room.

Cason motioned them up from the pit. “This is where we part ways.”

The clump of Hollowers headed for the stairs, Allan first, followed by the rest, Dylan hanging onto the edges of the litter as Adder and Glenn hoisted him up, both trying to keep it as level as possible. They passed Cason. Sorelle stood by her side, head bowed, eyes locked on
the floor. Her body twitched, as if she wanted to say something or do something, but she held herself in check. When Kara looked behind to make certain Gaven and the others were following, Jaimes caught her gaze and muttered, “I'm sorry.”

She jerked around, not certain what she expected to see. The four Tunnelers who'd entered the room before them killing Allan and the others? The Tunnelers they'd left behind waiting for them with knives drawn? But the node's main chamber was exactly as Kara had imagined it. Desks were scattered throughout the room, bookshelves against the walls, chairs set up here and there for conversations. Everything was covered with a film of dust, abandoned. One desk was tipped over, some papers and books scattered around where it had fallen, a chair on its side. Other than that, it could have been the node at Eld or Stone, absent of all of its Wielders.

Kara flexed her hands, wishing she had a knife, even though she barely knew how to use one. She reached for the ley instead, knowing some flowed through the node below, but was surprised to find much more of it all around them. Unlike in Tinker, the ley here was abundant, at least three major lines coursing beneath them, all flowing to the west.

She drew it toward her as the group crossed the room and exited through the front doors, already open. The node looked down on a small square, the buildings that surrounded the square three or four stories high, the upper floors extending out over the walks and streets below, with the yellow plaster siding and crossed wooden slats of the eastern Temerite style of architecture. The roofs were slanted and covered in slate, with gables and narrow windows protruding from them. The square was cobbled in stone in some kind of pattern, although its details were lost in the harsh glow of the distortion off to their right. The sun was a blazing halo of orange and red to the west above the rooftops, sunset an hour or two away.

Allan, Cutter, Artras, and those carrying the litter had already descended the steps to the square. The Tunnelers had emerged from the doorway and were fanning out. Gaven and Aaron passed Kara as she turned to thank Cason, Jack and Tim behind them, but the words caught in her throat.

Cason was scanning the far edge of the square. “Where are they? They should have been here by now.”

Beside her, looking troubled, Sorelle silently mouthed, “Run.”

Kara jerked around. “Allan! Wait!”

The ex-Dog turned, hand falling to the handle of his sword. Adder and Glenn reacted as well, both glancing back over their shoulders, but Cutter and Jack acted the swiftest. Both trackers slid into crouches, bows up, an arrow appearing in their hands, nocked, and ready to aim in the space of a breath.

At the same time, archers appeared across the rooftops around the entire square and in the windows of the higher stories of the buildings, all of them ready to fire. Glenn swore, he and Adder dropping Dylan unceremoniously to the ground, hands going to swords. Every Dog in the group drew blades at nearly the same moment, crouching down, although there was no cover in the square at all—no debris, no abandoned carts or wagons, nothing. That should have been their first clue. Kara hadn't seen anyplace in Erenthrall without some kind of debris since they'd entered the city. They were pinned down, their only option the streets leading out of the square.