CHAPTER 27

The creature leapt as Scet, its strength lifting it farther from the ground than should have been possible, so that it came down almost on top of him. Lip-less jaws snapped excitedly.

His breath halted. He raised the damning spear the Alpha had presented him, and, using the creature's momentum, shoved so that the beast flew to the side. It twisted mid-air, righting itself, and landed in a crouch several feet away.

They were all going to die.

The forest crawled with the possessed, an infestation that surrounded the village and closed in on them.

And Adda was gone.

His chest constricted. He risked a glance in the direction she had disappeared, leading the woman. No, not a woman, surely that had been a creature of the underworld; the sickening remnants of her power still choked the forest. And that evil creature had Adda.

A spear ripped across his vision, impaling a possessed male inches from his side, knocking it off course and sparing his life.

There was no time to think about Adda farther, not if he wished to live past this battle. With a vast amount of internal strength, he focused on the present.

A warrior joined him, and he recognized the shorter stature and deep brown skin of one of those asking questions of him the night before. The man nodded, as if glad that Scet was back to his senses. Presumably, it was his spear that had flown, since he was lacking one. There was a hint of worry that crossed the silence between them.

As much as the warrior had admired Alikeye-Baroth, he had to be concerned that his new Alpha would be unable to protect the pack. Six, Scet was uncertain he could protect them.

A fleshy thud drew his attention to where one of the warriors, this one with ropes of hair like the Alpha's, except these were the color of charcoal and not aged and gray, had one of the possessed pinned to a tree using his spear. The creature railed and spit, trying to remove itself, the wooden shaft waving morbidly in the beast's stomach. It was trapped, but still very much alive...if one could use that word.

His own attacker was oozing back toward him. He waited until it neared and then batted its head with the side of his weapon. The skull gave a resounding crack, something that *should* have been fatal. The beast fell to the ground, but did not die, it flopped and squirmed, disoriented.

The battle was hopeless. A nearly indestructible enemy and only the useless spears with which to fight them. It was the kind of disadvantage that every Alpha feared for his pack, and if he came through this trial somehow, he would have a word or two for the old man that would leave his pack to death for the glory of some painting rotting in a cave. What good would it do these people to keep the lore if it killed them in the process? Foolish, stupid old man.

Speaking of which...Scet scanned the battle, quickly since another of the creatures was heading his direction. As he suspected, there was no sign of the ancient Shifter.

Anger and battle fury raged within him, the beginnings of the shift into bear teasing his skin, stretching it uncomfortably.

Across the camp, someone screamed, one of his men, a nameless warrior he had yet to meet, to get to know. Immediately, three of the creatures were upon him. A few of the men stabbed at them uselessly, but they would not be deterred from their prey.

They could not win this fight, not with more of the possessed pouring into the village from the forest edge. He needed to do something else, to bring them back to an advantage.

The trouble was, he didn't know whatever communication system the pack used with the old Alpha. And despite the Quatori's newly acquired sense of smell, it was still sound they relied on to hunt. Speaking his directions would be a grave mistake.

...Or would it?

He rammed the butt of his spear into a creature encroaching on his right and quickly flipped the weapon and stabbed the beast in the eye.

It snarled, swatting at the nuisance. But it reminded him of something.

He gauged the battle. Things looked dire. In all quarters, the beasts grew nearer to victory. Unharmable and untiring, they were wearing the pack down. If he was going to turn the tides, he had to act. The cave and its weapons were lost, but there was one trick yet he could use. Maybe.

Bracing himself, he did what was required of him, what any true Alpha could do.

“Fall back to Breakfoot path!” he yelled. The sound of his voice broke into the silence.

As he expected, the focus of the Quatori changed, eyeless faces whipped his direction.

It would take the power of the Six for him to outpace them now.

He just hoped the great snake was still angry.

***

Adda backed away, or rather, her body, under Nex's control backed away from what was quickly becoming a battle scene. Warriors surrounded Vou, armed with their bows and deadly arrows.

The shadows followed Adda, but they weren't a writhing visible mass, such as the aura Vou had conjured. Nex's shadows were far more subtle, and in the confusion, they were well hidden. Vou's screech of rage inspired several answering calls from the direction of the camp, and one furious roar from the west, where Morakamouth must have settled.

He wasn't settled any longer.

The urge to warn Illaise's pack, even though they hunted her, as well, filled the little confined space within her own mind. Had she been in control of her body, she would have likely burst back onto the scene.

Vou had yet to fall, despite what should have been fatal wounds and a hole in her chest the size of a fist. Four shafts stuck out from it, which she ignored as she slammed what shadows she could gather into a nearby warrior. He lifted from the ground with the blow, whipping backward and striking a large trunk, hard. Adda flinched inwardly, it was unlikely that man would rise again.

Illaise snarled and pulled twin blades from sheaths at her hips.

And that was all Adda saw. Nex had backed away far enough that he must have deemed it safe to turn and run. Forest flew by, leaves and twigs passed by her face in a blur. He ran with such grace that they seemed to flow between them, as a current of air might slip between obstacles. It had always seemed to Adda that the possessed sort of oozed through their movements. It had given her a crawling feeling at the time, evil creeping forward in its slimy way, but watching Nex run from behind her own eyes, she became aware of the intricate beauty in the way he moved. Not a single leaf even shook at their passing, yet he had sacrificed no speed. Her feet, too, fell without sound, quieter than she could ever urge them to be.

First, they traveled northward, and she thought that Nex might be running to the pass, making an attempt to return to where she had been possessed. Yet, after a distance in that direction, he turned, somehow still not disturbing the surroundings, or losing speed, and circled back. But they weren't heading back to the battle. At their current direction, they would miss it by quite a bit. Just what...?

The cave.

The moment she thought of it, she knew she was correct. He had not given up on the second symbol at all.

They reached it shortly, and Adda was surprised to find that it looked exactly as she had imagined, given the clues from the shadows. Nex wiggled his way around the stone and into the natural crevice where the door lay. She watched her hand reach out to pull at the wood. She noticed, then, that it possessed chiseled marks around the door pull and all around the edges of the door itself, almost like a language, letters forming words, except that she couldn't read them. Nor had she ever seen any language like it.

*It is Coilaric. The old language, shared by the mortal races long ago. It had risen to the common dialect and then fallen once again before the start of the great war. This cavern is very old, indeed. The ancestors of this pack did well to hide it*.

Adda frowned. Or she would have, if she could control her lips. A thousand, or more than a thousand years had gone into hiding this cave and she had exposed it in one short evening. Not only that, but with Nex in control, she was now slipping inward, past the door and into the darkness for reasons she could only expect were nefarious.

What could be so important that people had thought to not only hide it away, but guard it for generation after generation? Not the symbol, for that had barely arrived.

Nex didn't answer any further internal questions after his brief history lesson. He strode purposefully into the darkness, twisting and turning through passages that would have left her dizzy and disoriented even with a torch. He knew where he was going, however, his footsteps never faltering.

A long time passed before he stopped. Adda could see nothing, the darkness surrounding her was absolute. She found herself paying careful attention to any other cue she could. Her breathing sounded strong and regular, calmed now that Nex had walked for several minutes. Somewhere, water dripped into a pool, the intermittent splashes creating a riot of noise in the cave's silence. But it was the shadows that gave her the final clue as to their location. They reached out, somehow, caressing her skin, their form of greeting. She could not really feel the sensation, she doubted there was anything to feel, but she could still sense them, and their recognition. This was the hall where she had lost contact with them, where the light had shattered the darkness that held her and she had fallen into slumber. The wall that Nex faced would be that with the myriad of paintings...prophecies if she understood correctly.

Nex reached out a hand. Adda's ears, straining to catch any sound, picked up the gentle scraping of skin against stone. He could obviously 'see' the paintings in a way that she couldn't. Then they stepped forward, deeper into the cavern, the direction Scet and the Alpha had gone, but her shadows hadn't dared to follow.

Still tracing one of her hands along the wall, Nex moved and stopped, deep in thought. Unfortunately, while he monitored her thoughts while resting in her mind, the process did not reverse. She could do nothing but sit and observe.

Impatience itched at her. What were they doing here, standing in the dark studying ancient cave paintings? They weren't even really prophetic, as far as she was concerned, just a representation of someone’s thousand year old delusions. Nex, obviously, did not feel that way. He spent long minutes tracing the wall toward the back, before turning and repeating the process.

*I should be out there helping the Shifters*.

Nex ignored her, still focused on his task. He had stopped and they stood now before one particular section. Since all she could see was darkness she couldn't determine its significance.

*Failing that*, Adda continued, *someone will eventually come looking for us. And by someone I mean your sister, I would prefer not to be a standing target when she does*.

Nex twitched, as if she had finally broken through his focus and reality had intruded with its desperation. He did not answer, but a slight breeze stirred around them as he stepped back. Then, something odd happened, the air changed, subtly at first, but gaining strength. The shadows that had been content to offer soft tentative greetings grew agitated. They writhed and thrashed, gathering and condensing until a physical entity formed. Nex was pulling them toward her, but she had no idea what his intentions were. The gathering seemed to last an eternity, the pressure palpable in the air. Then, at last, Nex released his hold, shoving the shadows forward.

Thunder cracked through the cavern, a cacophony so loud even Adda's separated section of consciousness rattled. The floor heaved and dust filled the air.

Nex sputtered, and then coughed outright. The rumbling lowered and then rose once more with a sharp crack.

*What have you done?

What needed to be done.

You needed to bury us alive*?

*We will not be buried...what is wrong with this body? Why is it doing that?*

Adda hesitated. Surely he understood coughing.

*Have you an illness you did not disclose to me*? Nex demanded sharply. I *am not commanding it to twitch in such a way.

That's coughing Nex. There's too much dust in the air and my body enjoys breathing*.

It seemed ludicrous to be discussing the natural functions of one's body while the cavern was coming down around them. *Should we not be getting out of here? I thought you needed me to be alive*?

He did move with that insistence, stumbling toward the cavern entrance, wracked with coughing that slowed their movement to a shamble. The first hint of light from beyond the cavern door relieved her greatly, until Nex turned the opposite direction from it, toward the chamber where the symbol was stored.

*Uhm, where are we going*? Tremors still shook the cavern, the result of the cave in Nex had caused. Rocks rumbled sporadically as they shifted to new positions.

*To prove Vou right. With all luck, it will be enough*.

Adda was missing something. Prove Vou right about what? They slipped into the chamber that held the symbol. She knew because her lip lifted oddly and her head tilted backward. Nex was scenting the metal of the trader's blades; if she focused, she could gather the smell, too. It took more concentration than she was used to, but she could read her body's signals. Nex strode forward determinedly toward the far wall. There, he reached out her arms and began running fingers along the stone wall again.

*You aren't going to blow this wall down, too, are you*?

She wasn't certain they would physically survive another cave in. The last collapse would have weakened the structure, a second might bring it down completely. Nex ignored her. His patting became slightly erratic, his touch against the stone firmer and reaching out farther from the spot where they stood.

*The exit was back the other direction*...

*I am not looking for the exit*.

*What are we doing then? I enjoy rubbing cave walls as much as the next girl, but I am not sure there's time for this*.

*It is right here. I can feel it*. Nex tapped a bulge of stone. *I just cannot access it*.

*The glyph, just what exactly are they anyway*?

Nex hesitated. *Imprisonment crystals. The method by which the ancient people trapped the most powerful of my kind. I was released from one when I found you, as my sister was released into her human body*.

Adda had figured something of that sort.

*Thaliak's crystal is behind this wall, I have scoured the passages with the shadows and this is the only access to it, yet it is walled off from me*.

Shit. She should have known he was only pretending not to want it.

*I can't let you use it, Nex*.

She could feel the dirt licking coward grin.

*Admirable, but ineffective. You cannot stop me, I am in control for the moment.

Because you tricked me.

Because I saved you*. He tried pressing the bulge of stone once more. *And I am about to do so again. Vou will not give up looking for the crystal, not now that she has sensed it. So I will give it to her*.

*You're going to what? Why would you do that? I can understand wanting it for yourself, but I think that you and I can both agree that Vou is hazardous to our intent to live.

Because there are more dangerous things that Vou might discover in this cavern. But if she believes this is all that the pack has hidden, then she will follow its trail without hesitation, away from here.

But she will have another...demon*.

*We are not demons, I have explained this. And as for my sister gaining an ally, it cannot be helped, I am simply working toward the outcome with the least cost*.

*Yeah, but least cost to who*? It would do her little good, for example, to rid herself of this possession if she destroyed the world in the meantime.

The sound of a rock, clacking along the stone floor, pulled her thoughts away from world destruction. Nex too, twitched, her head shot up and for a moment they stood, still as the cavern itself. The rumbling from the cave-in had long settled, and she feared what this new noise meant.

Nex lifted her face, curling her upper lip and inhaling deeply.

*We are not alone*.