73

Unearth

Bryn

My head and back throbbed. I had thrown myself over Tove when he collapsed, shielding him from the rockslide. Fortunately, he had enough strength to catch a large boulder with his abilities, because it certainly would’ve crushed us both if he hadn’t.

The smaller rocks, some dirt, and debris still got through, leaving me bruised and sore when the rockslide ended. Tove tossed the boulder aside and immediately passed out. I pushed the rubble off me and Tove, and I pulled him up so he was sitting slumped against the wall, and his eyelids fluttered.

Above us, the wyrm cried out in anger, and I watched him spew fire and fly erratically until his smoke made the air too thick to see through.

With Tove safe—relatively speaking—I ran over to where Finn and Sumi had been standing. They were buried in debris from the barn—mostly stone, wood, and moldy hay—and rocks from the recent slide, which were heavy enough that I found them difficult to move.

My whole body ached, my head throbbed, and my vision blurred in my bad eye. I worked as hard and fast as I could to unearth Finn and Sumi, but I worried that I didn’t have enough strength to move fast enough.

“Help!” I shouted as I dug through the rubble. “Somebody! Please help!”

Loki—the King of the Trylle—suddenly rounded the barn, running toward me.

“Hurry!” I shouted at him. “Finn and Sumi are trapped under the rocks!”

“Finn’s there?” Loki blanched slightly, and he sped up. He lifted rocks I’d been unable to move like they were pillows.

“Help!” Sumi’s voice barely carried through the rocks.

When her hand came through, I grabbed it and started pulling her up. Loki kept moving junk out of the way while I pulled her out. She coughed hard as soon as she was free. Wood chips, dirt, and hay were tangled with her hair, and some of it shook free as she doubled over.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, as Loki kept searching for Finn.

She nodded and struggled to catch her breath. “All the old crap from the barn softened the blow of the rocks. It would’ve been great if I hadn’t breathed in so much dust and mold.”

“Got him!” Loki announced, and I looked over to see him helping Finn out of the rock pile.

He coughed hard enough that he threw up, and he was bleeding from his temple. But he stood on his own, once Loki helped him off the rocks.

“What the hell happened?” Finn asked, looking around in dismay.

Loki put his hand on Finn’s shoulder. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“The dragon chasing us,” Finn said.

“We can’t kill it.” I clenched my jaw, holding back the frustrated tears that stung my eyes. “Tove used everything he had to hold it, and I broke my sword on its scales.” I lowered my gaze. “That was probably the best chance we had, and I couldn’t . . .” I grimaced. “I don’t think we can hurt it at all. We just pissed it off.”

Nobody said anything for a moment. Loki stared down at the ground, his arms folded over his chest, and Finn looked up at the dark sky. Sumi sat down next to Tove, catching her breath.

“I told Wendy to evacuate with everyone she could,” Loki said, and he exchanged a look with Finn. “You should go too. They’ll need you.”

“You’ll need me if you wanna stop this thing,” Finn countered.

“She says we can’t stop it.” Loki motioned to me.

“I don’t know how to stop it,” I amended. “But there has to be a way. There has to be something we can do.”

“Maybe the thing we can do is step aside and let the humans go after the dragons with their bombs,” Loki said quietly.

Finn scoffed. “They would blow us all up along with the dragon!”

“Then we run and hide!” Loki yelled. “But we don’t know how to stop the wyrm, and it’s already taken out so many of us. We can’t defeat it if we’re dead!”

“Guys?” Sumi said. “Tove isn’t doing so well.”

He was awake—ish. His eyes were open, and he rubbed at them with the palm of his hand.

“Tove?” Finn asked.

“He’s been mumbling nonsense,” Sumi said, sounding concerned.

“No, it’s just head dizzy,” he said. “Once I get two feet, it’s on the fine.” He started pushing himself up, and Loki rushed over to catch him before he fell.

“It’s okay, I got you, buddy,” Loki said, and put his arm around Tove. Then he looked solemnly at the rest of us. “We need to get to the tent. We can decide whether to fight or evacuate from there.”

Sumi got up and started back the way we’d come, around the barn and to the base camp at the southwestern side of Áibmoráigi. Finn followed a step behind her, and Loki half carried Tove to keep with Sumi’s fast pace.

I went after them more slowly, staring into the dank smoke and listening to the animalistic groans and nearby screams. The ruins were crawling with monsters I couldn’t see, and I had broken my sword.

A burnt Älvolk corpse lay across the path, his sword still gripped in his hand. I pried the hilt from his stiff fingers, snapping two of them off in the process.

A kuguar roared, sounding much too close, and I lost sight of Loki and the others in front of me. I held my sword out, and I wanted to charge on ahead, but the ground was littered with bodies. They were bloody and torn up, some completely eviscerated. They had been mauled to death.

As I stepped over a body, I heard whimpering. A girl lying facedown in front of me moved slightly, crawling away from the body of a child. Her dark hair shifted colorings, changing to a pale yellow-green.

“Do you need help?” I asked her softly, so none of the nearby predators could hear me, and I crouched beside her.

She finally looked up at me, and I recognized her as Ulla’s álfar sibling, Eliana.

“Eliana, are you all right?” I asked, and she nodded meekly. “Come on. Let’s get you to the base camp.” I took her hand and hoped I was leading her toward somewhere safer.