"The Zuten created the Sirens on Oceanus," I thought out loud. Urgency wanted to drive me down that passageway, but another voice told me that we were up against a smart foe, and we better get all the facts together before we ran blindly into the trap that had so obviously been laid. For the same reason, I believed the seffies were still alive.Theystill needed them. As bait. That thought made my stomach curl in an anger so hot it surged through me, demanding immediate action. But deep down, I sensed that this was whattheywanted.
"Zyn," Myccael looked at me questioningly.
"Those pods we saw. They were sealed, until our drilling inadvertently set something in motion that opened them," Icontinued to speculate out loud, hoping Myccael and Darryck would follow my train of thought. "We already tossed the theory around that the Zuten created the Eulachs, here on Leander." I held up a hand to stop the others from interrupting me. "Hear me out. What if they created whatever was in those pods first? And when they turned out to be too vicious, too bloodthirsty, too… everything, they sealed them up and created atamerversion of Eulachs."
"And now… that the others are free, they are using the Eulachs to get to us." Myccael nodded, warming up to my theory.
Darryck shook his head, "I don't know. Those super Eulachs, or whatever you want to call them, were only awakened a few cycles ago. Is that long enough to figure out that they needed to take us Leanders out to become masters of this world?"
I shrugged, "Does it matter? Does it matter if they had a meeting with the Eulachs and learned who the masters of this world are? Or if they found writings, or if they simply observed us? Snyg, for all we know, they could have taken workers prisoner and found out that way."
Myccael's hands gripped the hilt of his sword until I feared he would bend it. Darryck tilted his head like he did when he was deep in thought. Myccael finally shook his head, "Ney, I don't think that matters. The fact is that they somehow got the Eulachs to do their dirty work. They don't even seem to care that they're giving dangerous weapons to the Renegades.
"They must figure that they can deal with the Eulachs and the Renegades later, once they get rid of us," Myccael added gloomily.
I didn't like that idea. Not at all. But I was certain that this was where we stood.
"We can't blindly charge after the seffies, that's what they want." Darryck kicked a rock so hard, it landed against a column, where it took off some shards.
"We can'tnotcharge after them," Myccael stated, and I nodded, looking at the dark passage where our seffies had vanished. The thought that charging after them would only seal their fate knotted my stomach as much as the idea of not charging after them did.
"Snyg, what are we supposed to do then?" Darryck roared.
The tunnels felt endless. They twisted and forked, sometimes rising in sharp inclines that made my thighs burn, sometimes plunging downward into airless depths that left my ears ringing with pressure. Shadows clung to every corner. There were moments I thought I heard something just beyond the range of sound, soft footfalls, or breathing that didn’t belong to us. But every time I turned, there was nothing.
Oksana had taken over the lead; her eyes scanned each new turn with the sharp alertness of a soldier. Of the three of us, she was the only one who seemed to know where we were going. Thalia followed closely, her mouth drawn in a tight line.
“Left here,” Oksana called, not breaking stride.
I followed without questioning, but everything in me screamed that we were hopelessly lost. I’d lost all sense of direction, the turns were too sharp, the dips too steep. Every corridor looked the same. Smooth walls broken by veins of mineral and the occasional claw-marked stone. Death felt close. Like a secondskin. Like something waiting to exhale in the dark just behind us.
“I don’t know how you can tell,” I gasped as we rounded another sharp bend. “Every tunnel looks the same to me.”
Oksana didn’t glance back. “The air. The tilt of the floor. I don't know, it's just a feeling.”
I exchanged a look with Thalia. Were we really betting our lives on justa feeling? Thalia looked back at me,her eyebrows raised in silent query.Any better ideas? I didn't have an answer to that, so we kept following Oksana. It didn't take long until my lungs were on fire. Every step felt heavier. My boots dragged through dust and scattered rubble. Something ahead screeched, and I nearly turned back, but Oksana didn’t slow. Neither did Thalia.
They were braver than I. Or maybe we were just too far in to turn around. We pressed on.
Up another jagged slope, across what felt like the collapsed floor of a chamber. We leapt a narrow fissure, and I nearly fell. Oksana caught me by the elbow, tugging me forward with surprising strength. “Not here. Not now.”
Another corridor. Another set of steps. My legs gave out on the third one. I stumbled forward into a pile of fallen stones, hands scraping against the rough surface as I collapsed to my knees.
“I can’t—” I choked on the words. “I can’t breathe.”
Thalia spun around immediately, her chest heaving. “Let's stop here. Just for a minute.”
Oksana nodded, her face pale. “It’s as good a place as any.”
I slumped against the wall, dragging in breath after ragged breath. Sweat slicked my skin. My heart thundered, not just from exhaustion, but from the lingering terror curling in my belly. I could still feel the echo of what we ran from, the monstrous shapes, the screams, the final cry Zohran made when he told us to run.
And we did.
I’d never felt more like prey. For a long minute, none of us spoke. We just breathed. Tried to calm our hearts, our nerves.
“We need a plan,” Thalia said eventually in a hoarse voice.
I nodded, but my head was spinning too much to form words. Oksana leaned against the opposite wall, eyes still on the darkness behind us. Whatever was out there, it was still hunting us. Or was it? How often could those monsters have killed us?
