Kared's Children - Chapter 10

"Hsst."

"You don’t hear anything." He hoped it wasn’t a question.

"In front of us." She frowned and gestured slightly to the right.

A tremor ran through him. He gripped the sword tightly. "Can you tell what it is?"

"Not with you talking."

"Sorry." He waited. "Can you tell how big it is?"

She hissed.

"Sorry." He contemplated the light above her shoulder and the target it made of them.

"I want you to stay right here," she whispered. "Don’t move. No matter what you hear." She said something else he couldn’t hear, and the light winked out.

"Aleda!" he hissed.

She didn’t answer.

He swept an arm through the space where she’d been. "What if I hear you shout?" he hissed.

There was only silence. Silence and blackness.

The water dripped.

He backed against the opening through which they’d entered. The wall was rigid and uncomforting. He waited. He hoped that if whatever it was ate her, it would do so noisily, so he would know it.

The water dripped again. He stared into the blackness. He tried hard to see anything.

The water dripped.

Something squealed, horribly, loudly, as though a legion of ghosts were sweeping at him. Gravel rattled. Pebbles fell.

"Aleda!" he shouted.

The squeal came again.

"Be silent!" Her voice, commanding, ragged.

Then he heard something being dragged; it was mewling. Stones skittered across the floor. The blue light winked back on, and Aleda was there, holding a small dark creature around the throat with an arm. When she twisted it toward him, he saw it was an Graywillow, smaller than the others.

It looked at Damon with wild, panicked eyes. "Nee nee nee."

"Silence!" Aleda hissed.

It wouldn’t be silent. When it saw the sword Damon carried, it became more frantic. "Nuh nuh nuh," it mewled.

Aleda tossed it disgustedly at Damon’s feet and wiped her arm against the side of her tunic. "The thing slobbered all over me."

One of the Graywillow’s slender hands crept toward Damon’s feet, its fingers waving incessantly. "Nuh nuh nuh."

Damon kicked at its hand. "You," he said. "What are you doing here?"

One arm covered its head.

"Answer me!"

It was almost as tall as Aleda, but skinny, angular. The Graywillow kept cowering. "Nuh nuh nuh."

Damon glanced at Aleda and gave her the sword, then crouched beside the creature and touched its arm.

It jerked fearfully. It wore a badly-fitting leather outfit that, to Damon, didn’t look protective enough to be called armor.

"If you tell us what we want to know," Damon said, "We won’t hurt you."

Both arms covered its head.

"If you talk to us," Damon repeated, "We won’t hurt you."

It cowered and wiggled and continued its mewling, occasionally peering out at the two of them and the ball of light above Aleda’s shoulder, and croaking.

Finally, Aleda crouched beside the creature. "Dragarth chuk dokka." Her voice was raw and guttural.

"Reek," the thing said.

"Dragarth chuk nicka," she said.

It muttered too quickly for Damon to follow, but not, apparently, for Aleda. She responded with similar grunts and croaks to which the Graywillow would respond.

"Nurk rucka," she said at last, standing. She unslung her waterskin, but when the Graywillow reached a shaking hand toward it, she barked sharply. "Tome!"

Its hand stopped.