Of Truth and Beasts

“We have enough,” Chane countered. “It will be difficult, but Shade and I can hunt as soon as we are out. You will survive ... which is more than I can assure if we try to dig through this.”

Wynn couldn’t bear turning back, not now.

Ore-Locks strode back behind the cart to the open tracks.

“If you do not care that we starve, then come feel this.” He placed his hand against the stone floor. “Put your hands on the tracks.”

Wynn frowned in confusion, but both she and Chane joined Ore-Locks. She put her hand down into the wide groove. She felt a faint vibration in the aged steel in the track groove’s bottom, but she wasn’t certain if it was just her own lingering shudders from their close call with the cave-in.

“I felt it through the tunnel’s stone last night,” Ore-Locks said.

Wynn looked up at him, unsure of what he meant.

“They must be a good distance behind us,” he added. “But we are being followed ... and cannot turn back.”

At this, Wynn dismissed Chane’s attempt at a rational argument. But Chane stepped straight toward Ore-Locks.

“You knew this last night and said nothing?”

Wynn moved between them. “Stop it, both of you.”

Ore-Locks’s revelation rattled her as much as it did Chane. They were trapped between a cave-in and ... who? Who else knew where they had gone and how?

Ore-Locks walked past them and grabbed his staff off the cart. “Give me one of your crystals. I will see how far the cave-in reaches.”

Handing him a crystal, Wynn looked at the rubble, densely packed all the way up to the ceiling.

“Can you pass through this?” she asked, for that option hadn’t occurred to her.

Without answering, Ore-Locks stepped to the cave-in and vanished through the debris.

Chane looked down at Wynn and then at the cart. For one horrible moment, she feared he might pick her up, toss her in, and leave Ore-Locks behind. Would Shade even try to stop him, or would she side with him, as she had when they forced her to abandon searching the foothills beyond the dwarven ruins?

Wynn found herself uncomfortably alone with Chane and Shade. This unlikely pair seemed to have joined forces in a mutual goal to turn her back somehow. What a bizarre state of affairs that Wynn now had to look to Ore-Locks as her only support in her purpose.

She backed away from Chane, gathering all the determination she could muster into her voice. “Don’t you even think—”

Ore-Locks lunged out through the rubble. His red hair and orange vestment were coated in dust as if he had rolled in the rubble.

“The cave-in does not reach far,” he announced. “It is much less packed on the other side. Digging from there, we could clear a crawl space in a shorter time.”

While this brought Wynn relief, she didn’t relish the delay if they were being followed.

“Can’t you try to do what Cinder-Shard did back in the underworld?” she asked. “Could you try to take us through stone?”

Ore-Locks shook his head. “Not you or Shade. I cannot take anything living with me.”

As his words sank in, Wynn swallowed hard and looked at Chane. 

Chane tried not to grimace as Ore-Locks took hold of his wrist and stepped into—through—the cave-in. He had only an instant to panic before the light from the engine crystal vanished and he found himself in total darkness. He was not afraid, not exactly.

He did not fear enclosed places, but even for an undead, the prospect of passing through stones, through earth, was overwhelming. He felt crushing pressure, the cold, and an odd sense of suffocating all at once. He did not need to breathe, but the lack of air, feeling trapped and immobile, enveloped him. Pressure seemed to build until it felt as if it might crush his bones.

All Ore-Locks needed to do was let go and leave Chane buried in a grave of stone.

Chane tried to shout, but could not open his mouth.

Pressure suddenly released. Chane inhaled stale air out of fear alone and collapsed onto all fours, feeling the edge of one track groove under his left hand.

“It will pass,” Ore-Locks said coldly.

Chane remained on all fours, trembling a few moments longer. Turning his head, he looked back at what he had passed through. This side of the cave-in was looser, sloping further down the tunnel than on the other side. A part of him became determined to dig his way back to Wynn—as he had no intention of passing through stone again with Ore-Locks. Another part was reluctant to do anything that might allow her to continue.

“Get up,” Ore-Locks said.

Chane had never cared for Ore-Locks one way or another, but a flash of true hatred grew as he rose to his feet. What would happen if Ore-Locks simply disappeared? Could Chane convince Wynn that the stonewalker had left them and gone ahead on his own? Without Ore-Locks’s meddling, perhaps Chane could coerce Wynn away from this place ... perhaps.

Ore-Locks met his gaze. Chane saw the reverse possibility, as it had come to him in that moment within stone. He might be the one to simply vanish, leaving Ore-Locks alone with Wynn and Shade.