“That was a skill, not a spell. [Earthquake]. Different source of power.” Livia jogged rapidly beside Weston, faster than her usual quick gait. [Keep Pace] kept Aderyn level with Owen, and Suveer turned out to be as fast a runner as Isold.

  The tremors were subsiding when Livia finally said, “I think that’s far enough.”

  “I hope so,” Weston said. “I have no desire to fight another deep delver.”

  “Take a breath,” Owen said. “Five minutes.”

  The words were barely out of his mouth before the earth shuddered beneath their feet, a stronger tremor than before. Aderyn grabbed Owen’s shoulder to stay upright. “What was⁠—”

  The ground ahead of them exploded, sending chunks of earth and fist-sized rocks flying everywhere. A twenty-foot-wide wall of mottled- tan ribbed flesh shot up in front of them, rising higher and higher until it was as tall as the five-story mansions in Finion’s Gate. The creature’s body swayed and arched, its enormous round mouth ringed with circular rows of stained ivory teeth like a grotesque flower on a stem bending in the wind. It roared, and the wind of its stinking breath buffeted Aderyn so she again nearly fell. With another roar, it lashed its body once and then dove.

  Everyone scattered as the monstrous worm thing hit the ground with a titanic thump, its gnashing jaw throwing up more chunks of earth and stone. Aderyn scrambled out of the monster’s way and Assessed it.

  Name: Terrorquake

  Type: Abomination

  Power level: 24

  Terrain: subterranean; prefers flatlands and deserts

  Attack(s): bite, special

  Immune to: magic and skill effects with visual components

  Resistant to: weapons damage, elemental earth damage

  Vulnerable to: none

  Special attacks: pulverize, grind, swallow whole

  Remember the chaos worms? The deep delver? This is the granddaddy of them all. Terrorquake swims through earth and sand, usually at depths you can’t imagine, coming to the surface to feed. It hunts by vibration as the deep delver did, but unlike that monster, it needs flesh to sustain itself—not a lot, despite its mass, but if you’re the flesh it happens upon, that’s small comfort.

  Terrorquake is blind, so illusions and spells like daylight will have no effect on it. Its bite is powerful, but its other attacks are worse. Pulverize happens when it slams a creature into the ground or stone with its head; grind is when it bites a victim and keeps biting. I don’t need to explain swallow whole, do I?

  I rarely give you advice on how to fight a monster, but as with Darkshroud, I’ll just say—get away from it as fast as you can, Aderyn. It’s too much for you and your friends to kill.

  “We need to get away!” she shouted with [Amplify Voice]. “It’s a power level twenty-four monster, bigger and more dangerous than a deep delver but with most of the same attacks, and it’s resistant to weapons and elemental earth damage. The system says not to try to fight it!”

  “It’s faster than we are, and it can track us wherever we go!” Livia shouted back. “How are we supposed to get away?” She and Weston were crouched together about ten feet from Aderyn. Weston held his rapier ready to attack. It looked fragile as a toothpick next to Terrorquake’s bulk.

  Terrorquake reared back and loomed over them, but didn’t strike. If it had been a dog, Aderyn would have thought it was scenting the air for prey. “We stay still⁠—”

  Swifter than thought, Terrorquake dove again. Aderyn shrieked and dodged as Weston and Livia ran. “It tracks by vibration,” Livia called out, “and I think that means sound vibrations in the air, too.”

  “Shit,” Aderyn said, then clapped a hand over her mouth. They couldn’t run without disturbing the ground, they couldn’t talk without disturbing the air. She couldn’t think of a single way to get out of this.

  Terrorquake suddenly retracted into the hole it had made. “Nobody move,” Aderyn said. “It’s a creature of earth, so I’m guessing it only senses air vibrations when it’s actually in the open.”

  Everyone remained still. They all looked like statues, lifelike ones painted to look human. Aderyn wished she could find the image funny. She turned [Improved Assess 4] on the landscape, but the green lines didn’t inspire any plans.

  “What do we do?” Owen asked.

  She almost snapped at him that she shouldn’t have to have all the ideas, but she was the one who came up with the ideas in tactical situations. “It will eventually come back. We need to not be here when it does. We could start running and hope it gives up, but that’s a desperate, defensive strategy that’s likely to get someone killed. If we were still in the mountains, we could lure it off a cliff. Damn it, everything I can think of depends on not being in its⁠—”

  With a roar, Terrorquake burst out of the ground scant feet from where Aderyn stood. She nearly fell into the pit its body made and scrambled backward just in time. Owen had drawn his and watched Aderyn closely, waiting for her signal. Well, the monster knew they were there, and they couldn’t survive if they didn’t communicate. She ran for it as Terrorquake slammed its head into the ground right where she’d been standing. Even with [See It Coming], it came close enough for the force of its blow to knock her off her feet.

  Suveer called out, “What if we climbed on the boulders? Wouldn’t that block our motions from being transmitted through the ground?”

  “Yes! That was in a mov—a famous story from my childhood,” Owen shouted. He threw himself to the side to avoid a blow.

  “It might work, but as big as this thing is, I bet it feels the vibrations even through the rock,” Livia said. “And it still leaves us stranded.”

  Terrorquake retreated again, leaving another enormous hole. Aderyn imagined she could still feel the movement of its body through the earth. “Let’s try it anyway.”

  They all found boulders to climb on. None of the rocks were big enough to hold more than one of them, and the one Owen stood on was barely large enough for him to fit. They sat and waited. No Terrorquake appeared. The sun beat down on Aderyn’s head until sweat dripped into her eyes. She wiped it away carefully. It might be paranoia, but she imagined a drop of sweat falling on the ground and drawing the giant worm’s attention.

  She didn’t know how much time had passed before Owen said, “I think it’s gone.”

  “Or it could be a trick,” Livia said.

  “It could, but we can’t stay here forever. At the very least, we can make some progress before it tracks us down again.” Owen slid down from his boulder. “Come on. Let’s move quickly.”

  They ran, even Livia, walked for a while, ran again. The heat and arid climate combined to make Aderyn, for the first time ever, wish she’d thought becoming an adventurer through. This wasn’t anything she’d imagined back in Far Haven.

  Then she felt the tremors.

  “It’s coming back!” she and Livia shouted at the same time.

  They all scrambled atop boulders just as Terrorquake erupted from the ground. One of the stones its body flung hit Weston in the head. He grunted and sagged in unconsciousness. Livia shouted something, and the earth where he lay rose and tilted to deposit him atop a large stone, but Terrorquake was already rearing up to pulverize Weston’s inert form.

  “That’s it,” Owen said. “We have to fight it. Come on, Aderyn!”

  Isold’s song filled the air, giving Aderyn a boost of confidence and strength. She and Owen attacked the worm together. It was round and eyeless and didn’t appear to have a front or backside, but they came at it from the side opposite where it loomed over Weston. Livia shouted again, and magical energy wreathed her fists, but she looked tiny next to the gaping mouth.

  Owen plunged the into Terrorquake’s side, and Aderyn attacked with her sword only a second later. It felt like trying to cut through old leather that had baked in the sun for years. The tip of her mystery sword penetrated only a few inches, and pulling it out took all her strength. Owen didn’t seem to have more luck than she had, though ichor flowed from the wound he inflicted. Aderyn was sure if monsters had health bars, this one’s would barely have dropped.

  Weston stirred, holding a hand to his head. He moved so slowly it terrified Aderyn into racing to drag him to safety. Livia’s punches seemed to do no more damage than the swords. When Terrorquake pounced again, Livia barely escaped the blow, though it didn’t knock her over. She stood her ground and punched again, but it ignored her.

  Aderyn Assessed the creature again, using [Discern Weakness] and finding, as expected, no blue points of weakness and a red haze covering its entire body except the open mouth. For a moment, she considered it—but no, this monster had a lot more teeth than the deep delver, and it moved too fast. She doubted limited paralysis would even slow it down.

  Owen was still hacking away at Terrorquake’s body opposite Livia, who continued to punch. Her lips moved constantly, but Aderyn thought she was swearing rather than spellslinging.

  Someone else dropped to the ground beside the still-groggy Weston. “What if we trick it?” Suveer said.

  Startled, Aderyn could only say, “What?”

  “Trick it. Get it to go somewhere it can’t get out of, or where it can’t follow us.” Suveer’s cheek was bloody, like a stone had struck him, too, but his eye was clear and focused.

  “How?”

  Suveer shrugged. “You have the terrain Assessment thing. I hoped you would see something. Watch out!”

  The two of them hauled Weston to his feet and ran, just steps ahead of the monster’s attack. Weston was struggling when they came to a stop.

  “I’m fine now,” he said. “Let’s kill this thing.” He ran to join Livia, who was backing away from the hole Terrorquake left as it retreated again.

  “We can’t,” Aderyn began.

  “There’s no other option,” Suveer said as if she’d addressed him and not Weston.

  “But, I mean—look at that! We’re barely chipping away at it, and it’s got all the time in the world to pick us off.” Aderyn immediately felt stupid. Wasn’t she the one who always said there was no point bitching about things you couldn’t help? No, that was her father. He would have said the same, too—that they didn’t have a choice now. Of course, he would also say “Better to die trying than die huddling in a corner,” and she didn’t want to die in any way.

  But Suveer was right. She had skills she could turn against Terrorquake. She just needed to figure out which ones mattered.

  She surveyed the scene. Owen’s arm was bloody, though she didn’t remember him getting hit. Weston didn’t look fully aware yet, and Livia was supporting him. Isold watched in all directions, tensely waiting for the monster to reappear. And Suveer watched her expectantly. Time to use tactics to her advantage.

  She put on the and scanned the horizon rapidly, looking all around and down the road toward the south. Still no trees anywhere nearby. The road looked as rutted and destroyed as ever—more so, now that Terrorquake’s eruptions had taken out a chunk of it. Beyond that⁠—

  She sucked in a breath. She hadn’t paid attention to where they were in all the running, and she’d nearly forgotten the encounter days ago, probably because they’d avoided combat. “Those are black oozes,” she said, pointing. “They engulf their prey.”

  “Engulf,” Suveer said. “Are they big enough to swallow Terrorquake?”

  “I don’t know. But there are a lot of them, and maybe that’s enough. Everyone, I have a plan.”

  Owen headed toward her. “What is⁠—”

  Terrorquake erupted from the ground beneath him, carrying him into the air.

  Aderyn screamed. Owen grabbed hold of the edge of Terrorquake’s mouth, dropping the and hanging on with both hands as the worm rose higher and higher. Terrorquake jerked its head, tossing Owen into the air. Owen sailed upward, flailing as he reached the peak of his arc and then falling back toward the toothy, gaping maw.

  An invisible force grabbed Owen and sent him shooting like an arrow in a different direction, in a smooth arc that ended with him landing easily on both feet. Another force swept up the hilt and sent it sailing more slowly to where he could pluck it from the air. Livia gasped, “Launch. More control and faster than telekinesis. That took it out of me, though. What’s your idea?”

  “Hold off Terrorquake until it retreats again,” Aderyn said. “Then prepare to run.”

  They were all getting tired from having to dodge the pulverizing attack, Aderyn saw. Terrorquake, by contrast, seemed to have unlimited energy, and the wounds they dealt it looked like scratches against its mottled tan hide. If this didn’t work, they really were out of luck.

  With a final roar of fury, Terrorquake slid back into its hole. “Follow me!” Aderyn shouted, and took off running. She’d already discovered that for once she had an Assessment skill that worked while she was moving. The [Terrain Analysis] feature of [Improved Assess 4] wasn’t affected by her running, and the green lines stayed steady no matter how fast she moved. Now she looked for possibilities, and considered what she knew of Terrorquake. It was intelligent enough not to be fooled by basic ruses. It moved rapidly underground, but despite its fast strike, it wasn’t as maneuverable on the surface. And it was able to guess where a creature would be next based on its movements.

  “You have to stay close to me. Step where I step,” Aderyn called over her shoulder. “Don’t get ahead of me. We don’t need to fight two battles at once.”

  “Where are we going?” Owen asked.

  “We’re going to see how clever Terrorquake is,” Aderyn replied. “And hope it’s just clever enough to trap itself.”

  The black ooze field spread before them, to Aderyn’s eyes shimmering in the sunlight. She imagined she could feel the tremors of Terrorquake’s passing, beneath and then in front of her. She hoped it wasn’t her imagination. She would likely only get one shot at this.

  “Everybody stop!” she shouted as she stumbled to a halt on the edge of the field.

  Terrorquake burst from the ground in front of them, directly in the middle of the oozes. It roared in fury and reared back to strike.

  The strike never came. Terrorquake jerked its head as if shaking off a fly. Then its entire body shook in uncontrolled convulsions. It sank back into the ground, not rapidly as before, but with a slow, ponderous motion like something dragged at its bulk. A black, tarry substance clung to its body and crept rapidly toward its mouth, then poured over the hundreds of sharp teeth. Terrorquake let out a roar that was more like the squawk of a terrified chicken.

  Aderyn and the others stood motionless, watching the slow-acting drama play out. “This is disturbing,” Isold murmured. “And strangely satisfying.”

  Terrorquake lurched. It emerged from the hole, covered in black tar, and just kept coming, yard after yard of giant worm body. They all backed away. “Maybe we should run now,” Owen suggested.

  The rumble of earth beneath their feet was all the warning they had. The ground broke open, and Aderyn screamed once before tumbling into the deep fissure Terrorquake’s body had made. The sky disappeared. The ground heaved once more, dropping a load of stones and earth on her. She flung up her one free arm to protect her face, and something struck the top of her head, sending her unconscious.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  She came to slowly, weighed down by the pressure of the heavy featherbed covering her whole body, all the way to her chin. Blinking, she stretched, or tried to. The featherbed pressed one of her arms to her side and pinned her legs to the strangely lumpy bed. Her other arm was caught on something that held it firmly in place, arched over her head. She tried to writhe free, and dust showered her face, making her sneeze. Her chest didn’t inflate properly.

  She opened her eyes on total blackness. She couldn’t move, could barely turn her head. When she exhaled, her breath came back to her immediately as if there was a wall near her face. Dust filled the air, powdery and light. Everything smelled of dirt. Wherever this was, it was underground.

  Underground.

  She remembered finally, with a jolt, falling into Terrorquake’s crevasse, of earth and stones falling on her. A cry of terror filled her chest.

  She was buried alive.

  A last scrap of sanity suppressed the scream that tried to burst from her, the awareness that she might not have much air and she shouldn’t waste it. Then she was screaming mentally in wordless terror.

  In her madness, she heard the voice in her head without understanding the words until whoever it was screamed her name so loudly it broke through her fear. Aderyn! Aderyn, sweetheart, calm down. I’m here. You’ll be fine. We’ll get you and Suveer out, but you have to calm down, okay? Listen to me, no LISTEN, you can’t panic or I’ll lose you.

  Aderyn closed her eyes. There wasn’t anything to see, anyway, and maybe she could fool herself into believing she wasn’t buried. Don’t leave me.

  I can’t leave you, remember? I think we’d both go crazy without [Bonded Mind]. Livia’s figuring out how to reach you right now. It won’t take long. I promise.

  She hadn’t spent so much time developing her ranks in [Bonded Mind] without learning every nuance of her husband’s mental speech. Something’s wrong.

  Nothing’s wrong. Livia’s reserves are low, that’s all, and she—no, DON’T PANIC, love, it’s not like that. Her remaining spells aren’t the sort that make this an easy retrieval. So she has to be careful. I wouldn’t lie to you.

  Aderyn wasn’t sure that was true. She knew if Owen was in her position, and there was no way to reach him, she’d lie like thunder to keep him from panicking until all hope was lost. But she clung to his assurances anyway. There must be a bigger pocket of space in here. I’m still breathing easily. The air is just full of dust, is all.

  That’s right. Livia says you and Suveer are caught in a space between larger masses of earth. Do you see him?

  I can’t see anything. Nothing could persuade Aderyn to open her eyes again. But she said, “Suveer?”

  Immediately, she coughed on the dust in the air. Her tongue felt furry with dirt, her mouth was dry, and she wished she hadn’t said anything. But she heard, faintly, her own name spoken from somewhere beneath her. Whether it came from far away or the speaker was just quiet, she didn’t know. Then, more loudly, Suveer said, “Aderyn. Are we trapped?”

 

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