Sentinel's Lock (Aelaran Warriors Book 2) by Elin Wyn

Author:Elin Wyn [Wyn, Elin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-10T16:00:00+00:00

KAEL

Fur swarmed over Amina, the multi-eyed clinger lifting her off the floor. Why had she moved before I gave the signal?

Did she still not trust me?

That hurt, but I’d deal with it later.

Right now I had to find a way to free her from the creature above.

From what I could see, ash-colored fur covered a slab of flexing muscle that clung to the stalactites.

It made peculiar sounds as it tried to crush Amina. Part of what held it up was suction, I could hear.

The way it hung above was its weakness. It clung so hard, it could only move at a snail’s pace—because it was so much like a snail.

I didn’t know how long Amina had. Would the clinger suffocate her? Try to eat her? I couldn’t think about that.

Couldn’t let panic freeze me into inaction.

Pulling out the needler, I fired it at the lower part of the cave, the slab door. Charged needles sparked, cutting a molten line.

The pale eyes of the clinger took in the sight. I was certain of it. Then I pointed the needler at the giant, fleshy leaf.

“Let her go,” I said.

Did the thing understand? I guessed it had the same level of intelligence as the rest of the hybrid monsters. Would it respond to a threat?

I fired again, closer to the leaf this time.

“Aah!”

Amina was let go. She bounced down the tunnel where we entered, stopping on the uneven floor. Her skin was crosshatched with small red scratches.

“What happened to working as a team?” I said, gathering her into my arms, hoping that she couldn’t hear the frantic pounding of my heart.

She spat some fur. “I was going to work as a team once I got on the other side. We could have blasted it from both ends.”

“Look at it,” I pointed. “It’s huge. A little hole wouldn’t slow it down much if it wanted to kill us.”

With weird slurping, sucking sounds, the clinger gathered its mass directly over the huge, veined leaf. There was at least a ton of furry muscle up there, waiting to pounce.

“It’s drooping,” Amina said, wiping at her face with both hands.

Above me, a squirming pad of muscle sagged, fur bristling. I aimed at the leaf. At once, the clinger sucked back up to the cave roof.

“We’re going to have to go the back way,” I said. “There’s no way to get through that narrow cave. Not without being crushed.”

“Back way? We don’t know what’s down there. It might be worse. At least we know where we are if we go back up,” Amina said.

“We need some other way to make the clinger back off,” I said. “Until then, we either stuck here, or we go the way the fake grad students went.”

Amina stared at the pulsing carpet of muscle above. She sighed. “Okay, what do we do?”

“I’ll try to keep the clinger’s focus. You go down the back slant of the chamber. Get that slab open. But more importantly, see if we can get it shut in a hurry,” I said.

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