El gave the still town one more look, then zipped over the broken buildings to land a hundred feet out from what she believed to be the entrance to the mushroom farms. Blue-flame swords in each hand, she glared into the darkness beyond the building’s door, and waited for something within to come charging out.

  One second passed. Two. Three. Was the darkness empty? Did it not notice her? Was it waiting to ambush her?

  Yeah, because I look like I need to be ambushed.

  Considering what had happened to the town, stealth wasn’t exactly what had won the fight. Then again, I shouldn’t underestimate what I know nothing about.

  Cautiously moving ahead, El kept an eye on the building while also scanning her surroundings. All the other buildings she could see nearby had been torn open on the sides closest to her. And the ground around her… there were long scars in the cobblestones, like something with heavy claws had torn across them. The closer she got to the building, the more scratched stones she saw.

  I don’t like where this is going…

  One sword in front of her and the other cocked back to strike, El stepped into the building. “Nope, really don’t like this,” she whispered, eyes settling on body parts strewn across the floor, and the ramp leading down into the earth. Two of the bodies, like outside the town, looked like they’d been cut cleanly in two while running away from the ramp. Another had such large gashes in his back, the claws had to have been as wide as El’s hand, and it was a miracle the person was still in one piece.

  Seawyrm.

  The other three bodies, though, those were different. They also had long slices along their bodies, but these were much narrower. Almost like a sword, or a long knife. Except they almost always came in groupings of three.

  Seawyrms weren’t alone. And… this is where they came from.

  El stared down at the tunnel leading underground—at the source of what’d led to the destruction of the town. At where they had to go. Is it worth the risk?

  Another look at the bodies. The blood was dry, and the corpses already bloated. Without her frost armor, she’d likely be gagging on the stench of them. Sure, fires still burned within the town, but this didn’t happen really recently. Within the last few days.

  The tunnels could be empty… which didn’t bode well for the fort town on the other end.

  A problem for later.

  The more immediate concern was whether or not they risked going into the tunnels or dealing with the army and their Ashes. One was a known danger—four-hundred soldiers that likely wouldn’t kill them. No, just capture and basically torture us for the rest of our lives. Then again, El and her friends could escape. Flying was an advantage the Pilish army just didn’t have.

  But, she shook her head even as the thought occurred to her. She wouldn’t abandon the civilians to that fate unless she absolutely had to. Which really only left one choice.

  El stared down the ramp to the tunnel beyond—nothing moved—then she turned and flew back the way she’d come. The first of the civilians, with Tas in the lead, were just coming through the front gate as she got back there. Wide eyes at the destruction greeted her, but quickly turned steely with determination.

  “It’s bad,” Tas said.

  “It is,” El agreed. “Doesn’t get any better as we move further in.”

  “You found the tunnel?” he asked. “Any survivors?”

  El stopped at the question, her mind quickly replaying what she’d seen since she entered the town. “No,” she said quietly, pulling Tas away from the others so she could speak to him more privately. He gave Macer a quick look to keep people moving, then joined her. “And, really, not nearly enough bodies. Do the seawyrms… eat people?”

  The surprise on Tas’s face only lasted the blink of an eye before he shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not in any report I’ve seen.”

  “Then, they either took the bodies… or took the people without killing them,” El said. “Now I’m wondering if seawyrms actually did this.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Tas asked, though the way he was forcing his face to stay neutral practically shouted his thoughts.

  “Same thing you are. You said your army was emptying out towns to get more… you know. What if they did this to make it look like a seawyrm attack?” El suggested. “Could those Ashes cause this much damage?”

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  Tas looked around, then nodded once, stiffly. “Easily.”

  “Okay, a mystery for later. The important part is I think they came out of the mushroom tunnel,” El said.

  “The tunnel we need to go down?” Tas asked.

  “That’s the one.”

  Tas looked at the line of civilians his people were guiding in exactly that direction, then back the way they’d come. “I guess we don’t have much of a choice.”

  “We do, but I think it’s better than the alternative. We—the Firestorm—won’t have as much maneuverability in the tunnels, but it’ll be a lot harder for us to get overwhelmed by numbers. I think we have a better chance down there than dealing with the army up here on open ground. Too many of them and not enough of us,” El explained at the same time she spotted Laze flying through the gate to join them.

  “Update?” El asked her friend.

  “I think we’re going to make it, barely,” Laze said. “Nidina just caught up to us; her army is crossing the bridge now. Dayne joined up a minute before that. We got our people turned up the road just before his side came into sight. As long as we don’t slow down, we should be able to get everybody into the tunnels before the two sides arrive.”

  “About the tunnel…” El said, then spotted Dayne and Nidina. Waving them over, she gave them the same quick rundown she’d given Tas.

  “Patrol I was watching definitely saw the monkeys we killed,” Nidina said after El was finished. “Seemed to make them nervous. They sent out a lot more scouts and moved much slower, which is probably the only reason we made it here within them spotting us. Oh, and they went through the canyon, so good call on not trying to hide out in there.”

  “They were probably confused by how the lava-slates died,” Tas said. “We put down more than a few with our guns, but all the ones you four killed? They’d have no idea what to make of that. And there were a lot of them. Probably had them shitting their red pants wondering if a new kind of seawyrm had showed up.”

  “Dayne, how about the ones you were watching?” El asked after nodding at Tas’s… colorful assessment.

  “Slow and steady the whole way. They didn’t seem to be in a rush to get here. Not sure if it was because they were on the lookout for whatever attacked the town, or if it was something else,” Dayne said.

  “Something else like being ordered not to get here too quickly,” Tas hissed.

  “Even though I’m the one who suggested the possibility, we don’t know it’s true,” El said. “All that matters now is their dawdling bought us the time we needed. Nidina, I want you to go ahead to the tunnel entrance. If there’s still something waiting down there for us, I don’t want one of these kids to be the one to find it first.”

  “Roger,” Nidina said, igniting her wings and lifting off the ground just enough to see over the tops of the single-story buildings. Another second later, and she was gone, flaming feathers fizzling out in the air in the direction of the tunnel.

  “Dayne, I didn’t see anything dangerous-looking when I came through earlier, but that doesn’t mean it’s not here,” El continued. “Head down to where they’re all turning that corner there and keep an eye out.”

  “You got it,” Dayne said, lifting only a few inches off the ground and gliding down the street.

  “You two, work up and down the line, watch for anybody who needs help and make sure they get to the tunnel,” El said. “And, good job getting everybody here so quickly.”

  Laze nodded at the compliment, then she and Tas moved to join the crowd. That just left El. Part of her wanted to take a look around the town to see if she could find evidence of what happened there. A small part. Instead, her eyes fell on a young mother and the babe in her arms. How they’d been running for almost two weeks, El could scarcely imagine. As it was, the woman was nearly dead on her feet, her eyes glassy as she stubbornly put one foot in front of the other.

  No, if El needed information on what happened up here—and she was right about where it started—there’d be answers waiting for them down in the tunnels. Now, she needed to make sure everybody made it. Still with just her four smaller wings out, she jogged over to the young woman. Practically skin and bones, the woman was even shorter than El was, and the baby was quiet and pale. Its small chest still rose and fell, but it didn’t even have the energy to cry.

  New plan.

  “Hey,” El said gently to the woman, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Let me help you.”

  The woman turned a nearly blank stare on El, then looked back down at the baby. “It’s okay, I’ve got her.”

  “I see that,” El said. “Hold on to her.”

  “Hold…?” the woman started to ask, then squeaked as El slid one arm under the woman’s knees and the other behind her shoulders.

  And… up.

  With the strength provided by her frost armor, she easily swept the woman off her feet, then double-checked to make sure the baby was secure. “And, off we go,” El said, lifting smoothly a foot in the air. A small shift to keep her passengers secure—they were both too tired to even argue—El flew down the street.

  Spotting a small group of Tas’s soldiers helping guide the civilians, El slowed down. “I think most of them can make it from here, and I’ll help the ones who can’t. We have a few minutes before the other patrols catch up. Think you can use that time to find some food and water? Anything quick and easy you can grab.”

  The three men and two women looked at each other, and El silently prayed they weren’t going to spout nonsense about having to check with their COs. One of the men started to open his mouth to say something, but a woman spoke up before him. “I know exactly where to start. It’s on the way. Come on,” she said to the others, and just like that, she was off running again. Three of the four were after her without hesitating, and the final went only a second later.

  “There, they’ll find something for you and the little one,” El said. Without wasting any more time, she leaned forward and cruised down the road as fast as she could go without disturbing the mother or her child. “Laze, carry anybody lagging,” she said as she passed her friend, but she needn’t have bothered. Laze already had the same idea, lifting an elderly man in her arms.

  There was a joke about her being his knight in flaming armor, but then El was past, and she settled down at the entrance to the tunnel building a moment later. One of Tas’s troops immediately came over to take the woman from her arms, and she weakly thanked El.

  “No problem,” El said, glancing back at the spread-out line of civilians. With Nidina already in the tunnel to make sure the people there were safe, the best thing she could do was play the role of ferry-godmother.

  With a small chuckle at her own joke—I’m as bad as Teth—she leapt into the air to pick up her next passenger.