through the broken shale like the steep angle meant nothing to her.
Einan helped Cab to his feet. Over her shoulder he could see three mechanical drills the size of horses. Each had two stations—one to turn the bit and one to steer. All three machines were coated in black dirt. One had fallen on its side, revealing a spiral of diamond plating down the bit. Someone had hung a pair of grimy goggles on the handlebars.
“Look,” Einan counseled in a whisper. “They left their drilling equipment. They only do that when they’ve found something.”
Do you know what’s—who’s—down there? Cab asked One.
One shut two of her three eyes. The center eye remained open, shimmered faintly in the darkness. Cab felt the start of a headache, vision swimming, doubling, then returning to normal.
Yes, One said.
Without elaborating, she shot forward, toward whatever awaited them.
Cab was bound to her. He had no choice but to do the same.
59
Cab
Cab didn’t know Einan had followed him until they rounded the first corner, One in the lead, and found themselves face-to-face with two Queensguard. Einan crashed into Cab’s back with a curse that would’ve made Rags the thief blush.
The Queensguard charged.
They were following orders. Bad orders. The same fate Cab had run to escape. It wasn’t their fault.
It brought Cab up short, but it meant nothing to One or Einan. One knew what she was fighting to protect, and when she reared on her hind legs, Cab felt fresh, cool strength flowing through his limbs.
The Queensguard—had he known them? served with them? eaten with them or trained beside them?—didn’t have time to make a sound before One was upon them.
Each blow, each snarl, each lash of claws and raking of teeth, echoed in Cab’s bones. He found himself completing One’s every movement, meeting her between slashes, striking out from the other side to finish whatever she had begun. He acted without thinking, without needing to think. He saw what she saw and she watched through his eyes. They were everywhere at once, in complete harmony.
It was nothing like being commanded in a drill.
The two Queensguard toppled like ninepins in a heap.
To her credit, Einan didn’t miss a beat before she was relieving their bodies of weapons. Cab’s guilt hadn’t settled before she shoved a sword into his hand.
“Thought for a moment you might freeze and leave a poor maiden defenseless.” Einan shoved two daggers into her belt, looking at the second sword with distaste before hurling it down the tunnel. “I like something with more finesse,” she added by way of explanation.
“Whatever suits you,” Cab agreed.
He was trying to ward off the sense of numbness that occupied him now that he had a Queensguard sword in hand. These Resistance folk were chatty, and he didn’t want to give Einan any more reason to mistrust him.
“I don’t like this.” A burr of real anger caught in Einan’s throat as she looked at Cab. “We risked everything for you, thought you could lead us through the catacombs, but you can’t even do that reliably. What if you’re bad luck?”
That’s gratitude for you, One sniffed.
“Bad luck is the only luck permitted Her Majesty’s enemies,” Cab replied.
Einan snorted. This time it was she who went first, Cab a step behind. They followed the glow of One’s body, a lantern in the dark. No one had set torches in this part of the tunnel yet. It was too fresh.
A scraping sound ahead made Cab tighten his grip on his sword.
Frightening how easily the instincts came back to him. Maybe they’d never left.
No time to dwell on that, either.
They exploded out of the mouth of the tunnel: two humans and a silver lizard too big and shiny to be natural. Cab saw three diggers and two more Queensguard, threw his shoulder into the first man and knocked him down. Einan whirled and stabbed, caught a digger in the shoulder with one of her knives, then leaped on him like a wild animal. Cab didn’t have to keep track of One. He knew where she was, same as in the first fight. He let his body take over. Thinking would prove detrimental at a time like this.
He could use the skills he’d learned. He didn’t have to fear them.
He kicked the man he’d knocked down, then turned away as One leaped in to parry a thrust from the next Queensguard. A third man caught him in the cheek with an armored glove and Cab staggered, face raw from the pain of a strike.