The voice was more sobs than words, but on its heels came the squish of something large and soft shifting its bulk. I hefted my spear, but it was impossible to tell precisely the direction it had come from.
Light from the twins blossomed brilliant bright a dozen paces behind me, but they were around a bend, and if they came closer the sluag’s magic would put the light out entirely. It was enough, however, for me to tell that we stood at the edge of a large cavern that some strange twist of physics and luck had left open when the mountain had fallen.
“Fire,” Ana?s whispered, and moments later, the smell of smoke filled the air as Victoria came forward with a torch flickering with natural flame. Bypassing Tristan and me, she held the fire out, illuminating the cavern.
It dipped down, the base filled with water, and at its center sat one of the largest sluag I’d ever seen. It hissed at the fire, twisting its bulk so that the water sloshed violently, splattering me with its stagnant smell. But it didn’t retreat.
“Please help.”
My eyes tracked upward, finding a filthy and blood-streaked half-blood clinging to the ceiling of the cavern. How she’d climbed up there was a mystery to me, but her perch wasn’t sustainable. Her arms and legs shuddered with strain, and without magic to help her, it was only a matter of time until she fell. Which was exactly what the sluag was waiting for.
Barooom. The sluag’s call filled the chamber, and I grimaced as at least two more answered. Distant, but the bloody things could move much faster than their bulk suggested.
The half-blood’s grip slipped. She shrieked, barely managing to catch herself, now dangling from one hand.
Tristan tried to push past me, but I held tight to his arm, assessing our situation. It was a bad place to hunt, the cavern accessible from at least six other passages, and knowing the sluag as I did, they’d find more. We were going to be surrounded, and if that happened, all of us were dead.
Which the half-blood would be, no matter what we did.
“It’s not good,” I said. “We need to retreat.”
“No.” He jerked out of my grip, moving into the cavern. “Ana?s, with me. Marc, you and Vincent go left. Victoria, keep the light and watch our backs.”
We spread out, spears up. Unless one of us got lucky, it would take more than one to kill it.
The sluag rotated, watching, and repeated its call. Barooom.
More echoed from beyond.
“Tristan…”
“We’ll be quick.” He stepped in, and the rest of us mirrored the motion. The sluag’s stinger struck, but we were still out of range of the weapon, which delivered a toxin capable of paralyzing human and troll alike, leaving its victim helpless while the creature consumed its meal alive.
Ana?s attacked first. With a grunt, she threw her spear, the shaft glittering red and gold in the firelight. The tip sank deep into the sluag’s flesh, but it was already moving, lunging toward her with a shriek. Startled, she stepped back, and her boot slipped on the wet rocks, her head disappearing beneath the water.
Tristan threw himself between her and the sluag, batting aside the stinger and ramming his spear into the creature’s pasty flesh. It sank deep, but the sluag’s momentum didn’t falter. It slammed into Tristan, knocking him over.
I leapt on the creature’s back, dodging the flailing stinger, and driving my spear through its spine. The sluag went limp, but its stinger kept thrashing, stabbing into the murky water over and over.
Dropping to my knees, I grabbed the stalk and tried to pull it back, but it was impossible to get a grip on the slick flesh. “Vincent,” I shouted, but the only response was a flash of white and a labored grunt.
Another sluag.
Vincent’s spear was embedded in its side, his sword now in hand. His sister moved to help him, our lone source of light flickering in her grip. And behind her, there was movement. “Victoria!” I screamed, then the sluag moved beneath me and I slid sideways.
Scrambling, I caught hold of its stinger stalk, the fleshy appendage jerking me from side to side, in and out of the water. Choking and gasping, I managed one breath before its teeth closed on my shoulder. The pressure was incredible, crumpling my armor and snapping the bone beneath. I bit down on the pain, using the sluag for leverage as I jerked out a knife and sliced through the stinger stalk.
It shrieked and released me, and I had the chance to see the sluag attacking Victoria just before it knocked the torch from her hand and we were once again plunged into darkness.
Ignoring the pain in my shoulder, I surged through the water and slammed my knife into its side, then pulled another blade, using it to climb the sluag’s flank. It screamed and twisted, and I slid from side to side over its back, feeling its stinger slam into my armor. All it would take was one blow to a chink in the steel, one sting, and I’d be done.
Biting down on one of my blades, I ignored the burning of the steel against my skin and grabbed wildly until my hands found the stinger stalk. Digging my fingers into the flesh, I pulled, my heels braced against its back. The sluag reared, rising higher and higher. My boots started to slide, but before I fell, I cut the stinger off at the base.
The sluag twisted and screamed, and I fell, water closing over my head.
A heartbeat later, the sluag’s bulk slammed down, crushing me against the rock.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t get my good arm positioned to heave the blasted thing off me. And until it died, my magic was useless.
Seconds ticked down, my fingers grasping futilely at the slick rocks, my pulse racing faster and faster with the desperate need for air.
All I could think of was Pénélope. If I died, her value to her father would cease to exist, and it would only be a matter of time before he found a way to kill her. I didn’t trust Tristan or even Ana?s to keep her safe. I was the only one willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of her life.
Desperation gave me strength, and I twisted, shoving the sluag’s dying body up enough that my head broke the water, and I gasped in a mouthful of air before its weight drove me back down.
And then it went still.
My magic flooded back under my control, but before I could do anything, the corpse was lifted off and hands were dragging me to the surface. Tristan’s blood-smeared face was suddenly inches from mine, his eyes full of panic even as the chamber shook from the impact of the sluag’s corpse hitting the wall, rocks splashing into the water. “Are you all right?” he demanded.
I spat out a mouthful of foul water and nodded, unwilling to waste precious air on words. My friends stood wide-eyed around me, battered, but alive, sluag corpses bleeding into the pool that glittered in the sunlight.
Blinking, I stared up at the small opening that had appeared above, which revealed the blue sky of the outside.
Tristan hauled me to my feet, the metal armor that was crushing my shoulder popping back into shape under the force of his magic. “We need to go,” I croaked out. “They’ll have been attracted by the noise.”