My father"s voice fell hard with command, fast as an arrow. "The girl," he snapped. "Take her. Give her to the dweller."
I watched as they dragged Luna toward the approaching dweller. She struggled, digging in her heels, landing a few blows, but it was useless. They overpowered her.
I screamed, spitting up dirt and saliva. I screamed until I was hoa.r.s.e, my throat shredded.
I screamed even when I was struck repeatedly in the head and shoulders and cursed to stop. The dweller"s movements became anxious, rapid and jerky as it smelled the humans approaching.
My father"s voice sounded in my ear, breaking through my screams. "What do you think is going to happen? It"s always interesting to guess, isn"t it? Will it stop and eat her right here, right now? Or will it take her below and save her for later?"
I bowed my head, salty tears scalding my throat and rolling down my face. A sob choked me, shaking my shoulders as I gazed up at the man who"d given me life. "Father," I choked out, addressing him as I had done when I was a child. "Please . . . don"t."
"Oh." Cullan squatted before me. "You really care for her?"
I had survived this before, but this time I wouldn"t. I couldn"t. He might as well feed me to that dweller, too.
"Such weakness. How are you my blood?" My father fisted his hand in my hair, yanking hard on the strands, forcing my head back up. "Watch this. You don"t want to miss it."
The soldiers stopped a yard in front of the creature and tossed Luna to the ground at its feet. In seconds it was on her, its taloned hands wrapping around her.
Her scream shattered the air, shattering me.
Broken, I sobbed, calling her name as the creature turned and headed in the opposite direction, dragging her with it. I watched as together they faded into the darkness. I watched until I could see nothing anymore.
THIRTY-FOUR.
Luna
I WAS BELOWGROUND again, trembling in the wet cold. Except this time I wasn"t here to rescue anyone. I was the victim and no one would be rescuing me.
Fear coated my mouth in a wash of copper, and bleakness rolled over me. My muddy hair dangled in my eyes and I swiped at the bothersome strands with my free hand. My other arm was held in a death grip.
It was only Fowler up there, and he couldn"t do anything for me. The sound of his screams and cries echoed inside my skull and the bleakness faded to a hollowness inside my chest. I had never heard him like that. The sound of him hurting . . . hurting for me . . .
I had to get back to him. No one was coming for me, so I had to get myself out of here.
Whimpering, I jerked against the grip on my arm. My boots slipped and skidded as the dweller dragged me, its talons digging through the fabric of my sleeve and scoring my arm. Everything was dripping earth and slimy ground and crumbling walls. The metallic stench of blood and death filled my nose. The dweller dragged me down earthen tunnels, its moist breath rasping beside me. The receptors at the center of its face writhed on the air like hissing serpents. Inhaling, I smelled the tinny sweetness of toxin.
I stopped fighting, fearful of getting poison on my skin.
The air suddenly opened up and I knew we were in a wide s.p.a.ce. Dozens of dwellers roamed the area and I shrank inside myself. The dweller started leading me over a honeycomb network of holes. I could hear other humans in pain, trapped here as I was. Their cries vibrated through me, rooting deep into my bones.
A screech shattered the air. I jumped, my heart clenching painfully in my chest before galloping ahead.
I"d heard that cry before. I heard it when I was belowground with Fowler. It belonged to something huge, sitting just beyond the stretch of honeycomb. The scream faded, and then there was its sloughing breath, similar to the other dwellers except louder, deeper. It rumbled on the air like building thunder.
The dwellers froze in response. The people down here weren"t as easy to silence. They started crying out in earnest, sobbing and shouting as though they had a hope for rescue.
All at once it released a long, shrill, earsplitting call. The dweller holding me started moving again, dragging me forward.
In the distance, in other tunnels, I heard more dwellers moving toward the nest where I was, answering the call.
My hand drifted to my thigh where my dagger was strapped. My mouth dried as I contemplated when to use it. Dwellers crowded around me, continuing to pour into the nest like water from an endless spigot.
My dweller pushed me, leading me toward the big creature on the other side of the nest, guiding me past holes like the one that had trapped Fowler. I wasn"t the only one being delivered up to this monster. Another person, a man, wept and struggled as another dweller pulled him forward too. He reached the monster before I did.
"No, no! Help me, no, please!" he cried. His voice cut off suddenly on a wet, gurgling shout.
Bones cracked and blood flowed like hot copper on the air. I flinched, bile rising in my throat. I fumbled to free my blade. Its hilt filled my palm, solid and comforting. I held tightly to it as I was launched through the air.
I fell at the feet of the beast, pain jarring my knees. The ground was sticky with warm blood and bits of fleshy material I dared not contemplate.
The monster"s great jaws worked, crunching and grinding the last of the man sacrificed before me.
I shoved myself to my feet, squaring up in front of the ma.s.sive dweller as it finished eating its victim. The beast"s size alone told me it was no ordinary dweller, but there was also the way the other dwellers followed its command. It ruled them. It was so big I doubted it possessed much mobility. They served it . . . this thing was their queen.
I felt its arms stir on the air as it reached for me. I dove to the right. Stretching out my hand, I skimmed a palm against its dense, pasty body, circling it. I had to risk touching it, getting close. It was the only way.
Moving as quickly as I could, I jumped on its back and crawled up its great girth, stabbing with my dagger into the dense meat of its body as I went, using my blade for leverage.
Once I neared its head and its squat neck, I reached around with my arm and started sawing through the doughy skin. Panting, I kept going, digging deep with my blade, ignoring its writhing movements and the hot, slippery flow of blood over my fingers. Its agonized scream stabbed my ears. I choked in relief as that scream reduced to a wet gurgle. It finally stopped moving.
Gasping, I slid down the length of its body and landed shakily on my feet. The air continued to wheeze out of me. Saliva flooded my mouth.
I wiped b.l.o.o.d.y hands against my trousers and listened to the faint breathing of the other dwellers. They all stood immobilized, frozen, their attention fixed on me. Waiting for my next move.
THIRTY-FIVE.
Fowler
SHE WAS REALLY gone.
Nothing mattered anymore. Pain mingled with numbness. Pain at losing Luna, but numbness over my fate. The future didn"t matter. Whether there was a tomorrow didn"t signify.
I didn"t even care when more horse hooves thundered over the air. Tebald and his men arrived, and I sat there, staring into the swirling dark as the two armies of soldiers drew swords on each other. They could fight their stupid battle, play out their senseless war with each other. The reason they were fighting didn"t matter anymore.
It would better serve the world if they killed each other off. I accepted that fact grimly. I would do nothing. I would stand amid it all, staring without seeing, without caring, because Luna was dying somewhere without me. Dimly, I registered my father and King Tebald hurling challenges and insults back and forth at each other. I stared ahead, my eyes burning as I focused on the spot where I had last glimpsed Luna.
Gradually another sound penetrated through the bantering threats and insults. I frowned, peering into the darkness where I had last seen Luna.
A cacophony of cries rent the air with the suddenness of wings flapping in the sky. Dwellers" cries. An entire herd of them, more than I had even witnessed outside the village of Ortley, where Luna and I had gone for the kelp. I snorted, enjoying the irony that my father would die at the hands of dwellers when he himself had sent so many people to face their insatiable hunger.
The soldiers panicked, crying out and breaking formation as dwellers materialized out of the dark. The creatures" sawing breaths formed a humming fog on the air. For some reason they stood in a perfect, uniform line, gazing at the army of scattering men, waiting, it seemed, for something.
The dogs whimpered and broke, running away, wise enough to know their odds of survival were poor. Tebald"s and my father"s commanding officers shouted, trying to whip the men into some order. The soldiers attempted to form their own lines, lifting up their shields and swords in readiness. Several started shooting arrows into the tide of dwellers as if that would make a difference with an army of creatures this size.
I watched, laughter bubbling up from my chest, indifferent to any threat to myself. I looked back and forth between the two kings who had wrought so much damage. My father must have sensed my stare or heard my laughter. His wild-eyed gaze found mine.
"The day won"t be a total tragedy," I called to him. "Not if both of you die." I could almost imagine Luna smiling over this. My satisfaction ebbed as pain constricted my chest. Luna.
My father and Tebald shared terrified expressions as the reality of this moment sank in. Then they looked at me with hatred in their eyes, as though I were somehow responsible for this. I wished I had been.
I faced the line of dwellers again, finished running, ready to accept my fate.
The line of them broke, parting at the center, revealing a yawning hole in the darkness. Something stirred, moving out of the dark chasm like a ripple in water. A figure came forward, step by slow step.
Luna advanced, stepping forward. She was covered in blood but looked unharmed. She stood abreast with the line of dwellers. None moved toward her. It was almost as though she were one of them, accepted, embraced.
Suddenly she flung her arms high above her head.
I blinked, trying to understand what I was seeing. With that single motion, the dwellers on either side of her unleashed themselves, charging forward with more speed than I had ever seen from them. The earth shook beneath the storm of their stampeding weight.
Stunned, I watched in awe. They more than accepted her. They obeyed her. She was in control of them. She was queen.
Luna moved with them, walking almost elegantly through their haphazard charge. She made her way to me, finding me as chaos broke out all around us.
I pulled her into my arms, holding tightly amid screams and whistling arrows and clanging of swords. "You"re doing this?" I whispered against her cheek.
She nodded, burrowing her face into my neck, her lips forming a wordless whisper. Yes.
I smoothed a hand over the back of her head and made a comforting hushing sound over the volley of noise around us. "You saved us. You"ve saved us all." She may, in fact, have just saved the world.
As men dropped all around us, I spotted my father through the sea of dwellers. I glimpsed his stricken expression, the flash of his teeth in an agonized scream the instant before he went under a mob of feeding dwellers.
My arms wrapped harder around Luna. We clung to each other through it all, until the last body fell and the last cry sounded.
Then everything was still.
She lifted her for head from my neck and turned her face out, a.s.sessing the carnage in the sudden ring of silence. Dwellers stood as one and looked to her, waiting patiently, toxic feelers at their face whispering on the stagnant air.
"Go," she whispered to them, and then louder, gaining courage. "Leave us."
They obeyed, slipping back into the night like fading ghosts.
Silence draped over us. I stroked her face, staring down at her in the darkness, feeling shaken and overcome and in awe of this girl . . . this queen who I held in my arms. The queen I loved.
"It"s over," she said.
"No, Luna." Trembling, I pressed my lips to hers in a long, lingering kiss. This wasn"t the end. "It"s just the beginning. Finally. We can really begin."
EPILOGUE.
Luna.
I STOOD AT the balcony of my bedchamber, listening to the sounds of the unrelenting night. The dwellers were quiet this evening. They were quiet most of the time now, even when darkness blanketed the world. They were quiet because I willed it.
Ever since I"d destroyed the dweller queen, I"d felt a connection to the creatures. A connection, I learned, that was reciprocal. They waited for my bidding, following my commands. I was their queen. Their alpha. They wouldn"t harm me or anyone else I didn"t wish them to harm. As long as they were in proximity, I could influence them.
After the dwellers destroyed Cullan and Tebald, Fowler and I returned to Lagonia for a short time to apprise Chasan of everything that had transpired. By the time we left him, he was fully dedicated to his role as the new king of Lagonia. As we traveled, I"d felt the presence of dwellers more keenly than ever. Out of sight, but always there. At my back, in front of us, beneath, in the ground, like blood flowing under my skin.
"Come. It"s time. Everyone is waiting."
Turning, I faced Perla with a smile. I approached her, but before stepping into the ermine-lined cloak she held out for me, I embraced her, inhaling her familiar scent. I had missed her so much-a fact I did not fully realize until she and Sivo were returned to me.
"Ah, sweet girl." She patted the back of my head, where she had coiled my hair into an elaborate arrangement of tiny plaits. "This day has long been coming."
Fowler and I returned for Perla and Sivo after leaving Lagonia. Together the four of us made the trek to Relhok. In the last few months, I had learned what it was like to rule a kingdom. I was still learning. With Fowler at my side, Relhok had embraced our return. Cullan was gone, and he"d taken his reign of fear with him.
I put an end to the human sacrifices and worked toward fortifying and spreading the perimeter of our walls. Even if I controlled the dwellers, we needed to be cautious and defended against all threats. It was still a perilous world. We sent out hunting parties, building up our reserve of game and resources. With Sivo"s supervision, we worked toward cultivating farmland. The population grew as we brought in more people from the Outside. Survivors like us.
Perla pulled back with a wet sniff, draping my father"s heavy cloak more fully around my shoulders. "There now. You look like a queen."
"Almost." I smiled.
"Well, let"s see to making it official, shall we?" She took my elbow. "A crown awaits you."
We exited the chamber. Fowler pushed off the wall where he was waiting.