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

the charge from the south or the one from the east. In the end, it did not matter. They died to a one, their blood staining the muddy ground beneath them as it pooled.

The battlefield fell to silence—that sudden, shocking stillness that comes after the worst violence, the most brutal carnage. It was broken only by a ragged cheer from our forces before everything fell to quiet again. I fell on my back in the mud, panting heavily. I felt like I had run many leagues in our flight from the Shades, and every step had felt even worse with the sucking mud clutching at our feet.

“Oh no, you great idiot,” came Yue’s voice. “Come here.”

I heard her heavy footsteps approaching. I groaned, but I smiled and raised a hand. Yue seized it and hauled me to my feet. Her arms wrapped around me and mine around her. We shared a kiss, which was both poisoned by and sweeter for the death all around us.

“Why, Sergeant Baolan,” I said in mock surprise. “Were you worried about me?”

“Dark take you for a fool,” she said. “You are not running off and risking your life like that again, and the captain’s orders be damned.”

“Careful,” I said. “That is dangerously close to mutiny.”

“Then I am a mutineer,” she said, and kissed me again.

But as the thrill of the fight left me, and our little army began to collect itself and take our toll of the dead, my thoughts grew dour. I remembered what I had noticed when we had first run into this killing field.

And it seemed I was not the only one.

“Where did they go?”

The battle-trance was gone. Mag’s voice was quiet. Almost fearful.

Yue looked over at her. “What was that?” she said.

“The Shades,” said Mag. “We had them surrounded, yet there cannot be more than two scores of them here. I see neither the brute nor Kaita. Where did all of them go?”

I studied the ground. Tracks led into the field from the south, where Kun had attacked. There were tracks from the north, where the Shades had come in the first place. And tracks came in from the east, where Zhen had led his company in the final charge. But there were no tracks leading out of the little dell at all.

A darkness came over my heart, but I tried to shake it off. This was a victory. I was determined to treat it as such.

“We do not know,” I said. “But we have time. Time to figure it out, and to finish the rest of them. I have not forgotten Kaita.”

Mag did not look convinced. She shuddered as though a sudden fear had seized her. But at last, she nodded and turned to attend to her squadron.

My grip on Yue tightened.

Kaita collapsed against the rock wall of the cavern, her whole body heaving in deep, shaking breaths. All around her, Shades seized their chance to rest after their desperate flight.

When Tagata learned of the tunnel, she had asked for volunteers to serve as a rear guard while the rest escaped. So many had volunteered that Tagata had been forced to choose thirty of them. The heartbreak it caused her was still plain on her face.

Kaita had guided them all to the tunnel entrance, and they had pushed their way in as quickly as they could. They had vanished beneath the ground mere moments before Zhen’s flanking company would have seen them. Filled with battle fury, Zhen missed spotting the Shades’ tracks leading to the tunnel. Then his troops had trampled over the signs, obscuring any hint of how the Shades had seemed to vanish into thin air.

The tunnel had turned west and continued beneath the hills for a long way, plunging deep into the earth before leading to a massive cavern. The Shades had torches, but the ceiling was so high their light did not reach it. Stalagmites thrust up from the ground everywhere, like a vampire’s twisted, pitted fangs. But the space was drier than the soaking outside, and hidden, and surprisingly warm compared to early spring’s chill.

Just over a hundred Shades remained—less than half of those who had started the march. And there were nearly four hundreds of their foes outside, searching for them and ready to cut them down.

Kaita looked over to where Tagata stood. The shadeborn seemed indefatigable. She had not fallen to the floor gasping, like her siblings. She stood solid in their midst, head bowed in mourning. Kaita knew her well. Tagata would blame herself for every soldier who had fallen on this long trek. The Lord had foretold the outcome, and he held her blameless for it, but that did not matter to her.

Slowly Kaita forced herself to her feet and went to the shadeborn’s side, placing a hand on her arm, which burned like an oven.

“Tagata,” said Kaita quietly. “You saved everyone you could.”

“Not enough of them,” said Tagata. She lifted her head at last, still avoiding Kaita’s gaze, and took a deep breath. “But now we must look forwards. Help me see to everyone’s arrangements. I want fires if we can find the fuel. None of us should have to sit in the dark, alone with our thoughts.”

“I think I should scout the caves,” said Kaita. “We do not have endless supplies. We have to find a way out of here, and I doubt we will be able to leave the same way we came in. The redcloaks will likely make camp in the same dell where they—” She bit off her words.

Tagata’s expression darkened. “Where they slaughtered our kindred,” she rumbled.

“Yes,” said Kaita. “But we will avenge them. I swear it. Let me take my mountain lion form and search for a way out of this place, and then we can plan our retaliation. The Lord told you this place was an escape. There must be a way.”

Tagata gave her a small smile. “Who ever thought you would be