Blood Gate Boxed Set by K L Reinhart

Author:K L Reinhart [Reinhart, K L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fairfield Publishing
Published: 2020-06-08T22:00:00+00:00

11

The Carnivorous Cavern

“Keep moving!” Falan shouted as the sounds of the scraping stone behind their diminished party echoed and chased their hurrying feet. He didn’t really need to add any urgency to their desperate scramble, Terak thought, as the party had lost almost half of their number already.

The tunnel that they charged down was rougher than the previous one and larger. Much larger. Room enough for the entire party of seven–one elf, one orc, and the five remaining humans who had survived the fury of the statue room–to run comfortable side by side, should they wish.

But the panic was evident in their headlong charge, and the first two soldiers of Brecha who hadn’t stopped as soon as Terak had broken open the door were growing smaller in the distance.

Not good, Terak thought, adding speed to his steps as he lightly leapt from humped rock to humped rock, easily outpacing Vorg and Falan. He passed the next two hurrying soldiers, too, as he closed on those ahead.

The humans were fearful, with even the young Lord Falan–a man who had proven himself in battle at least four times that Terak knew of–breathing erratically and hard. Terak could hear the steady, pounding feet of Vorg as he ran. He wondered if orcs could feel such weaker emotions as fear.

As for himself, however, Terak knew that there was a part of him that was scared, but he had many long and grueling years of training on the Path of Pain. He knew how to breathe through his emotions and to allow that clear, focused, diamond mind take over–the sort of mind that could kill or cure with ease.

Terak drew nearer to the lighted tunnel, and the clarity of his thought allowed him to ask just why there was light down here. It was still a dim gray and murky sort of a light–but it was a natural light, nonetheless. It was coming from up ahead, almost where the darker, silhouetted shapes of the dashing humans had got to.

And that is what’s spurring them on, Terak thought. They must think they are about to run out onto the mountainside. But if this tunnel shot through the mountain and out the other side, didn’t that mean that they had missed the Lair of Grom? Terak allowed frustration to grind his teeth together. That rockfall had been a trap! They should have found a way to go for the other tunnel—

“Ech?”

Just as Terak felt a breath of fresh air reach his face–air that was laden with the sharp tang of rocky minerals and the heavier earth tones of moss, he heard a surprised note of alarm coming from the two humans up ahead.

CRACK! A sudden, sharp sound erupted from the tunnel ahead, like the fracturing of the stone statue’s limbs.

“Aii!”

Terak skidded on his feet, trying to peer ahead into the light to work out what had happened–but the two human soldiers had, well–gone.

“What?” Terak finally slowed, and the sound of the pounding, charging feet of the rest of the company grew louder and louder behind him.

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