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

as the hellskin form was, it was still too new for her to feel fully in command of it. And with the magestones in her blood, even the lion was stronger, faster, more deadly than it had been before.

My scent told her I was some way off. And as she had guessed, I had a torch. She could even see the faintest reflections of its light far down the tunnel. And yet there was something … strange about the torch. An acrid scent drifted towards her, borne by the faint breeze that seemed always to fill this space. Her nose twitched, and then she loosed a tremendous sneeze.

She recognized the smell at last. It was burning pycnandra from the Greenfrost. It stung the nose and eyes, and with the lion’s sense of smell, Kaita was particularly sensitive to it. She sneezed again.

But in her mind, she laughed. Is this the best he can do? she thought. What a fool. I shall rip him limb from limb, and I shall take my time with it.

She pressed on a little faster now. Every so often, she had to sneeze again. The burning masked my scent, but that did not matter. The pycnandra torch was like a glowing beacon in the darkness, and it drew her straight towards me.

Finally, she reached the entrance to the vast cavern where the Shades had made their camp. She stopped. In the center of the cavern was a flame—but it was a little campfire, not a torch. And I was nowhere to be seen.

Kaita crouched low to the ground, baring her teeth in a silent snarl. Clever, she thought. But not nearly clever enough.

With a source of light in view, she could now see the entire cavern as if it were day. I was nowhere to be found, which meant I was hiding somewhere in the rocks. Yet Kaita would be able to see me at a much greater distance than I would be able to see her.

She hugged the cavern wall, circling to the right. But she did not get even halfway there before she spotted me. I was leaning forwards between two rocks, squinting heavily in the dim light. All my attention was focused on the southern tunnel through which she had emerged. I had a cloth tied over my nose and mouth to protect me from the pycnandra smoke.

He missed me in the dark. She chuckled in her mind. But I will not miss him. She could not see Oku, but who cared about that? I would be dead before the dog even knew what had happened.

Silently she stalked forwards on her padded feet. Soon she was within fifty paces of me. Then thirty. She edged slightly around so that she was directly behind me.

Only ten paces now. It was an easy leap for the lion form. She tensed, her body coiling. The tip of her tail swished back and forth.

I whirled to face her.

“Hello,” I said. And I fired the arrow I had nocked.

Kaita was too surprised to dodge. The arrow sank into her shoulder. She snarled and darted aside before I could loose another shot. Twisting her neck, she seized the arrow in her teeth and ripped it out with a yowl. Her eyes glowed black, and the wound began to seal itself shut.

Steer, she spat in her mind. One arrow? Your whole quiver would not be enough to stop me. She readied herself to rush me.

And then, scentable beneath the pycnandra, something filled her nostrils.

Familiar. Dangerous.

Kaita panicked. She tried to turn and flee. But from nowhere, a spear butt crashed into her temple. Even as Kaita reeled back, the spear came around again to crash into the other side of her head.

She fell on her side. Her magic slipped from her, and the mountain lion form melted away.

Mag stepped into view, Oku at her side.

While I had drawn Kaita to the western tunnel, Mag had brought the pycnandra sticks through the eastern tunnel. With them she had lit the campfire as soon as she had arrived. The acrid smoke had kept Kaita from scenting Mag, and focusing on me had kept her from noticing any other signs of Mag’s approach.

Until it was too late.

Now, together, we loomed over Kaita. Mag had her spear, and my bow was in my hand with another arrow nocked. To my right, Oku growled and bristled at her, his teeth bared.

Kaita glared up at us with hatred, her eyes flitting back and forth. There was some strange frenetic energy in her, more than fear or rage. I guessed it was the effects of the magestones. But they would have no chance to do to her what I had seen them do to Xain.

Her eyes went black, and the blackness spilled out of her in a strange glow that further darkened the already dim cave. But before she could shift, Mag slammed her in the temples again. Kaita cried out in pain.

“This is impossible,” she hissed, glaring up at Mag. “You died. I killed you.”

“You did not do a good enough job, it seems,” said Mag lightly. Her voice was muffled, for—like me—she was wearing a bandana against the pycnandra smoke.

“No!” snarled Kaita. “I saw the life leave your eyes. This is a gift of the Lord, and you are not his.”

“You are right about that.”

“We do not plan to toy with you long, Kaita,” I said. “Not like you did with Mag. But we did have a few things to say before your tale ends.”

Kaita snarled and looked ready to lunge. But then the tip of Mag’s spear was at her throat. She went very still.

“I am certain you think this is all my fault,” I went on, “because of what happened in Tokana in our youth. Or mayhap you think it is Mag’s fault, for joining me in the Upangan Blades. Dark below, you might even blame your Shade friends. But I want you to