“What is it?” My voice squeaked.
“Plant, I think,” he said. “Look like vines, but they are reaching for us.”
It was freaking me out, imagining long tendrils trying to grab me in the darkness.
“S’okay, Angel.” How could he sound so damned calm? “I can get us through.”
He advanced again, and it was all I could do to go with him. I was so blind. But as we moved, I caught snatches of the life energy around us. Intent and interested, but—
“I think we are too big for them,” I stated.
“Very good,” purred a voice from behind me.
The words sent a pulse of warmth through me. “I guess having students eaten is frowned upon?” I questioned.
“For the beginner course, anyway,” the Bellati confirmed.
“I think they are just along this one section,” Matt commented, but there was a growl in his voice now.
Something grabbed me around the forearm, and I yelped. It felt like a few hundred tiny suction cups clinging to my skin. There, and then gone, so fast I wondered if I had imagined it.
“Soorry,” Matt apologized. “Just hoold oon, I got loost foor a second, there.”
“That would have been nice to know before the slimy thing grabbed me,” I pointed out.
“They have sticky bits,” Mari said from behind us. “But as soon as one grabbed me, it let me go.”
“Doesn’t think ogres are tasty,” I said, trying to calm my racing heart. “It didn’t like me either.” I hated not being able to see, but I had sensed the life on each side of us. I might not have noticed—if I could see.
“Okay, noow we have a cliff to drop doown,” Matt stated, hesitating. “There’s a path, but it’s narroow.”
“Was hellfire to carve,” the Bellati commented.
Matt’s only response was a grunt as he led me down. I kept my good hand braced against the rock and picked my feet up with care as we minced our way. I gave a sigh of relief when the ground leveled again, and Matt paused, sniffing, before turning right and continuing.
“So what happens if we get lost?” I asked.
The belt tugged slightly as Sebastian shrugged. “We get lost.”
“You,” I said, “are no help at all.”
Surprisingly, he had more to add. “At least we relocated the Ragalymphs.”
“The what?”
“The creatures that created these tunnels. Cara convinced them to move to a new outcropping south of here.”
“Are Ragalymphs dangerous?” Mari asked.
“Only when you invade their tunnels,” Sebastian said.
Perhaps we were better off when he wasn’t speaking. I rolled my eyes in the darkness and hoped the Ragalymphs were happy in their new home.
“Croouch doown, Angel,” Matt coached. “Gets squishy through here.”
“Squishy doesn’t sound promising,” commented the ogress. Followed by a thump, and what sounded like a curse in a foreign language.
“I said to duck,” Matt commented.
