understand at all. You have to hide her someplace where she will be surrounded by magic and deep within the ground. Goblins know these things. We see what you do not. As fate designed, the life of the Eternal Forest and its inhabitants are bonded to her. The very part of her nature that would feed vitality into the Eternal Forest and fertility in beasts and plant-life that dwell within it, the death of the forest is tearing her apart. Cacus is killing her. We need to get her someplace safe where the bond will be muted.”
Raskyuil snarled loudly and leveled the goblin with a hard glare. “Are you certain of this?” At the male’s nod, he cursed and changed direction, moving quickly down another hall. “I know the place, then, that she’ll be guaranteed safe. May the lucomo forgive me for violating his secrets.”
Chapter 34
Diana panted through the pain swamping her, the halls blurring together as they turned down one and then another. Vines rose from the walls, guarding over their passage as they passed beneath them. The guards looked uneasily at the twisting plants, but Diana patted Raskyuil’s shoulder soothingly.
“Don’t worry, Arx guards us,” she whispered hoarsely, her fingers digging into his shoulder weakly as she clung to his side. She gave a meaningful glance up to the plants.
She felt his hesitation, but he nodded over the top of her head. “Arx protects. Move,” he snarled to the guards as they rushed down the hall.
The stones of the hall behind them pushed out like jagged teeth as the vines coiled everywhere, waiting for their prey. The palace shook again as if something were climbing through it rapidly, breaking down walls rather than treading down winding halls.
Cacus. She knew it was him. The taint of his presence was swamping through everywhere he stepped, every passage he carved out for himself, the sickness pervaded. She could feel it stealing into her bones even as it swamped through Arx.
“The hidden courtyard is just this way,” he grunted, his eyes sliding down to her. “Not much further, ati.”
Diana nodded, sweat pouring from her brow as a tremor swept through her. Just ahead, she could see the bend of the hall where it led to another corridor.
Just a little further. She had to hold on just a little longer. She had to believe that her sanctuary was close. She could feel something, a secret below in the greatest depths.
The orc bellowed as he jerked away, his weapons falling heavily on the stone flooring. Raskyuil half turned, shouting out to the male as Diana peered over his shoulder. The orc was pulled through the air by a blood-red, flexible appendage. From her vantage point, Diana studied it, and her stomach turned as she realized that a long tongue had wrapped around him and was drawing him back into the darkness. The orc fought, stabbing deep into the organ with a dagger in a frenzy as rivulets of inky ichor dripped from it. The creature never relaxed its hold, but drew him back until he disappeared into the shadows as Raskyuil put on another burst of speed. The orc’s furious roar turned into pained howls, and Diana ducked her head against the troll’s shoulder, sobs of horror shaking her as she desperately attempted to muffle the cries.
Her tears fell, wetting paths of wide rivers streaking down her cheeks as they made the bend and raced down a sloping passage. She could feel every vine that snapped loose from the walls, every tree shuddering to whip deadly limbs. Rocks burst from the walls, stabbing jagged ends into the flesh of the beast and falling to crush him with their weight. It did little more than slow him down, but Diana could hear the angry, pained sounds of Cacus in the near distance as Arx rose up against the monster.
“Iktan,” Raskyuil bellowed to the other troll as they approached a sharper bend, ornate walls crumbling in on themselves, “secure the next corridor.”
The unburdened male nodded and pulled out ahead of them at a quicker speed, making it to the passage. He drew to a halt and glanced down it before turning sharply to them again and waving his hand forward.
“Thank the gods,” Raskyuil growled. “We’re almost there, ati. Just a little farther. Hold on. Just around the corner is the hidden courtyard.”
The goblin bounded beside them, glancing worriedly behind him with such frequency that Diana also watched the darkness behind, trembling with fear. This wasn’t how it