The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) by Garrett Robinson (elon musk reading list TXT) 📕

“Neither,” said Duana, and despite herself, she felt a tremor of fear. “They were vast in size. The span of their wings was like the length of the ships that sail the deep ocean, and they could swallow a horse in a single bite. From their mouths, they could spew a noxious fume that choked the lungs and dissolved the flesh. But they could also command firemagic and set their breath ablaze, and then the fume became darkfire. They could burn whole towns in blasts of flame.”

She saw suddenly that Mag was trembling where she stood. Her eyes had filled with tears, and she had dropped her washcloth to the ground.

“Here now,” said Duana, rushing to her. She wrapped her arms around Mag’s shoulders and held her close, while Mag clutched the front of her shirt and buried her face in her chest.

“Will they come for me?” said Mag, her voice incredibly small.

“Never,” said Duana. “They all vanished from Underrealm long ago.”

Mag stopped shaking, and she looked up at Duana with a frown. “Where did all of them go?” she said quietly, fearfully.

“We do not know,” said Duana. “But we need not concern ourselves with it now. No one has seen them in hundreds of years—not since the very earliest days of Underrealm.”

Mag nodded, scrubbing tears from her eyes with the back of a dirty hand. “All right,” she said.

Soon Duana had her back to her chores, and Mag’s mood rose as she got to work. But it was a long, long time before Duana ever ventured to tell her another tale of Dragons.

But let us return to the Greenfrost.

In the hours before dawn, the rest of Kun’s army arrived at our camp. Zhen, Kun’s nephew, had marched his troops through the night. I was asleep when they arrived, but I woke when I heard the commotion at the east end of camp. There was a tense, silent moment in my tent while I tried to hear whether it was sounds of battle or not. When I heard no shouting or clashing steel, I guessed that Zhen must have arrived. Beside me, Yue was peaceful in sleep, breathing gently through her mouth. I shook her.

“Yue,” I said. “Wake up. The reinforcements have arrived.”

“Whuz,” she mumbled, sitting up in the darkness and rubbing at her eyes. I could barely see her in the dim firelight leaking through the tent.

“The rest of the troops,” I said. “Kun may need us. We should get up.”

“All right, all right,” grumbled Yue. She began to pull on her clothes. I had slept in mine, so I donned my boots and slipped out of the tent into the open air.

The earliest signs of grey had begun to edge into the sky above me as I studied the road to the east. It was filled with people now, marching troops all looking weary but resolute, with wagons and pack animals behind them. As I studied them, a woman ran up. I recognized her as one of the captain’s messengers.

“I have a message for Lieutenant Shi,” she said, “but he is not in his tent.”

“He is not?” I said, frowning. “I will look for him. May I relay the captain’s message?”

“I suppose,” said the woman. “It is nothing secret. Captain Zhou wishes to send scouts to locate the Shades. They are to be selected from Lieutenant Shi’s company since they have had several hours of sleep now. The captain needs to discuss the plan with the lieutenant.”

“Understood,” I said. “I will send the lieutenant along as soon as I find him.”

She nodded and ran off. Just then, Mag emerged from her tent.

“Mag!” I said. “Good morn, or close enough to it. The captain sent word—”

“I heard,” said Mag. “Where do you think Tou has gone?”

I shrugged. “I hardly think anything sinister can have happened. The sentries gave no alarm, and everything else seems to be in order.”

Mag’s mouth twisted. “Let us check his tent to be sure.”

We jogged there as the murmur of voices grew towards the east end of camp. Some troops were throwing themselves straight onto the ground, as though they meant to sleep before even building tents. I thought they might change their minds once the slushy snow soaked their clothes.

Tou’s tent was empty, as the messenger had said. I turned to Mag with a shrug.

“Mayhap he is at the latrines,” I said. “Foreign water can ruin any soldier’s rest. At the very least, we know our squadrons are likely to be the ones sent to scout for the Shades. I think we should rouse them to get ready for the captain’s order.”

“Let us do it, then,” said Mag, who still looked worried. “But we need to find Tou as quickly as possible.”

“We can search for him while our troops are readying themselves,” I said.

Our squadrons’ tents were lined up next to each other, with the flaps facing an open lane between them. Mag took her squadron’s tents on the left, and I took mine on the right. We went down the line, throwing open the tents and ordering our soldiers to wake and ready for the day. Hallan and Chausiku snapped awake at once, while Jian complained at me until I cut off her words with the tent flap. Mag went down her line, until about halfway down when she reached the tent that belonged to Dibu.

She threw open the flap and froze. I saw it, and I paused. Slowly I approached from behind Mag, my brow furrowing.

“Mag? What is—”

“Lieutenant,” said Mag, trying desperately and failing to keep laughter out of her voice.

“Sergeant,” came Tou’s bleary voice from inside Dibu’s tent.

My eyes adjusted to the dim campfire light, and I could see him staring out at us, alongside Tou, both of them shirtless and wrapped together in a bedroll. They looked to have just woken up.

“Orders from the captain, ser,” I called out,