29 Chasing Shadows (2/2)

I slammed my fist into the drow's shoulder. ”Why didn't you say that before?!”

It was then that I saw the glint of defiance in the drow's eyes, the quiver of lips that was trying hard not to smile.

”You were stalling us,” I snarled.

”We survivors of the Hazy Moon do not fear death,” he said, with the fear in his voice gone as if it was never there. The quivering of his body vanished and he stood tall despite the weight of Edo's hand bearing down on him. ”We welcome her as an old friend who has walked alongside us all these years.”

I sighed in relief. Even with the trouble Luca was in, at least we knew where he was now. We just needed to find out where Aura was and the pressure I'd been feeling since Darah's lecture would ease a little—or so I hoped.

”What about the she-elf who was with us?” I drove my shadowblade against his neck and drew an even deeper line of blood in his skin. ”Why did you take her if all you wanted was revenge for your fallen comrade?”

The drow's eyes narrowed. ”I don't know about any she-elf...”

It was Edo's turn to get angry. It was a quick change in attitude that made me instinctively back away.

Edo drove the tip of his spear slowly into the drow's shoulder.

”Argh!” the drow screamed.

”Where is Aura!” Edo growled into the drow's ear right before he twisted the blade to the left. ”Where did you take her!”

I understood his anxiety. Not knowing Aura's location made my chest tighten. It became hard to breathe. And for the first time that night, I was unsure of the plan I'd made. Maybe this was what Kallista meant when she said not everything was as it seemed. Maybe we were fighting on more than one battlefield.

I shoved that thought aside for later. Luca needed my help now.

”Edo,” I grabbed his arm despite the risk it entailed. ”He won't tell us anything else... It's up to us to find them.”

”Your friend will be dead long before you get there... Our leader is strong,” the drow explained in an almost haughty voice despite the situation he was in.

Edo's eyes darted between me and our drow prisoner, and his brows furrowed with each passing glance. Without warning, he punched the drow in the jaw and knocked him out.

I didn't even wait for him to crumple to the floor. I ordered Varda to gather our recruits and follow us in. It was time to go to war.

We traversed a series of connected caverns, some with low hanging ceilings and tight corridors while others with wide spaces and high ceilings. All of them showed signs of being lived in. Whether it be the ordered rows of leather tents and wooden furniture or the firepits and common household tools, the different caverns were full of proof that a group of people lived here.

Eventually, we reached a low hanging corridor that was wide enough for eight men to walk side by side in. The other end of this corridor opened out into a wide central chamber that was larger than any we'd seen. It had a hole in the roof that allowed the golden moon to shine down at the scene before us.

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There were holes of different sizes placed at different heights along the cave walls. They were most likely entrances from other areas of the cave system that led back to this central chamber similar to the entrance we were in. A crowd of onlookers gathered around these entrances to watch over the spectacle below them.

There were three drow watching from our hole, but as they were so focused on what they were watching, they were easy prey for Edo and Shaqs—our new troll recruit—to knock them unconscious.

With my path clear, I walked over to the ledge and gazed down into the central chamber. I finally found my brother.

Luca was engaged in single combat against a drow wearing a familiar-looking cloak. It took me a second to place him as he wasn't carrying the bow that had killed so many of the city guards during our battle at the gate. And instead of the bow, he parried Luca's new broadsword with a shadowblade sword that had a curved edge—and it looked suspiciously like a Katana to my eyes.

”Everyone ready?” I glanced behind me. ”You better be… it's do or die time.”

”We're ready as ready can be, Commander,” Varda answered.

She must have read my mind as she was already carrying the aluminum cylinder with both hands. Beside her stood a very skeptical looking Ashley Johnson who was carrying the other cylinder gingerly in her hands like it was dynamite. However, regardless of whether or not this would blow up in our faces, it was time to see if my experiment to mix science with magic would bear fruit.

I glanced down at my brother and his opponent, and I gritted my teeth as Luca barely dodged the katana aimed for his neck.

”Let's make some noise,” I whispered.