Page 32 of Joy Guardian
“I…I think so.” She glanced around. “Where are we?”
“I’m not sure.”
She pressed closer to me. “I can’t see anything but this stupid sand and that hole.”
It was easier for my eyes to adjust to darkness than to daylight. But her human eyes worked differently than mine.
“It’s a cave.” I peered along the dark underground corridor. “The hole is a long tunnel up to the surface. Nothing sinister is in here, as far as I can see. Now, we’ll just have to find our way backup.”
That wouldn’t be easy, by the look of it. The ceiling of the cave was too high to reach the opening, and the tunnel above looked too long to climb without a ladder or a rope tossed from above.
An odd sound came from behind us, as if the rocks were rubbing against each other. Or something was being dragged over the floor.
“Okay, then—” Ciana started, but I squeezed her hand gently and brought my finger to my lips.
“Shh.” I retrieved my tendrils from herleilathasand placed a hand on the handle of one of my daggers.
Someone or something was here with us.
Ciana stiffened, sensing my worry. The sound came closer. It seemed to come from all around us, from every direction, surrounding us.
A long black body emerged from the shadows, curving around us like a giant, bloated hose. Then a dreadful scratching sound came—the noise of a thousand sharp-as-needles legs scraping against the stone floor.
“Oh my god, what is this?” Ciana gripped my arm.
Her eyes must’ve adjusted to the dark well enough to see the glistening scales of the sand centipede that was tightening its noose around us.
“Listen to me carefully,” I whispered urgently. “When I say—but only when I say, not before, not after—we’ll jump over it and run that way as fast as you can. Do you understand?”
I covered her hand on my arm gently.
“Yes,” she exhaled quietly.
“Ready?” My body tensed like a tightly wound spring. “Now!”
I jerked my arm up, making her jump with me a second before the centipede’s body constricted in an attempt to trap our legs. We leaped over it and ran.
Sprinting down the corridor, I listened to the scraping sound of the sand centipede chasing after us. It wasn’t going to let us gothat easily. Knowing these caves better than we did, the creature had a good chance at catching us.
“Ah!” Ciana tripped, catching herself by grabbing onto my shoulder. “I can’t see where I’m going.”
I steadied her with my arm around her waist, dragging her with me.
“Don’t stop!”
The corridor ended, opening into a wide, round cave.
“Now what?” Ciana panted, out of breath.
There was no exit from here. The walls, covered in a glowing slime, circled us, illuminating the space in pale bluish glow. The air in here felt muggy and stale, and it seemed to vibrate with intense hissing.
“What’s that noise?” Ciana twisted around in search of the sound, then screamed, climbing up onto a flat rock in the middle.
“Snakes!” she screeched, gasping in horror.
Slim, black shapes covered the entire floor like a living, undulating carpet. In seconds, they swarmed my feet, their many legs scratching at the leather of my boots in a strife to get to my flesh.
“These are babies.” I kicked my foot, throwing them off, but more crawled up on it the moment I set my foot down again.
