B4 Chapter 508: Unwanted Gold, pt. 5

It was a quiet sound, more of a faint wrapping sensation than anything else. Niles stilled, the leather wrapping of his sword hilt squeaking under his grip. Holding his breath, his heart pounded like a thunderclap. It made it hard to tell if it happened again. Had he imagined it?

Another grinding thud, a feathering resonance he just barely felt with his back pressed against the wall.

There it was again!

His eyes flicked to the nearby delvers. They stood sentinel, but relaxed. Though they weren’t so undisciplined as to calmly chat, he could see it in the way they stood. Further out, through the half open gateway that led into the central chamber, the other delver teams were just as at ease.

He forced himself to let out a slow breath — the tension was getting to him. Even if they were mostly Bronze, there were plenty of scouts, rangers, and rogues amongst their number. They had the stats; the skills. If it was something important, they’d notice first, right?

A flicker of motion caught his eye. The old man’s cat, Yan, he’d called it?

The beast’s ears were pricked up, and for a moment he thought it was staring right at him. It was an intense thing — yellow eyes, filled with primal awareness. An instinct to hunt and watch. It made him feel small. He shuffled to the side. Yan didn’t so much as twitch, the cat’s eyes still staring straight ahead.

Niles’s mouth went dry. The wall.

Another faint resonance shuddered through his back. Yan’s eyes flicked up higher, stopping halfway through the gentle curve where the wall joined the ceiling. The cat’s hackles rose as a barely audible growl rumbled through its chest.

Niles froze, his blood leaden ice. He wasn’t imagining things.

The man in front of him paused. Reaching forwards, he placed a hand on the back of his companion’s neck.

“Yan? What is it?” he whispered.

Looking back at the spot Yan was focused on, the man frowned. His eyes slid down, meeting Niles’ own. The frown deepened.

“What’s wrong, kid? Gotta be something if both you and Yan are spooked,” the man said, softly enough to not disturb the others nearby.

Another grinding thump, this time stronger — just a little. It jolted Niles from his shock.

“I feel something, barely. Some sort of thump, four times with the last just now. Thought I was imagining it, but…”

“But Yan noticed it too,” the man replied, nodding. “Keep quiet, I’ll let one of the delver’s know. Even if it is something, we need to avoid a panic. Hensch, by the way.”

Niles gave the man a shaky nod.

Hensch smiled back, before he turned to the nearest delver, a blonde woman with a thick breastplate who was leaning on her halberd for support. A wave got her attention — she frowned as Hensch waved her over.

Her approach was swift, but from the force of her steps Niles could tell she was frustrated. Most of the delvers were, after dealing with a constant barrage of questions from their charges.

“What is it?” she asked brusquely. “Our latrine rotation isn’t for another hour, and lunch isn’t for another three.”

Hensch shook his head, pushing himself to his feet.

“Not that,” he said, leaning in and lowering his voice. “Both my bonded beast and the boy behind me have noticed some sort of sound or impact through the walls. It might be nothing, or just the battle above, but we thought best to let you know.”

The delver paused, eyes lingering on the floor for a moment before they settled on Niles. She searched his face, as if assessing his trustworthiness. It galled him — a meaningless suspicion based on nothing more than his age and bearing. He clenched his jaw, refusing to look away. He wasn’t a liar.

Another thump, slightly stronger.

“They’re getting louder,” he whispered, jolting away from the wall.

The delver blinked, nodding. “I’ll get my captain — she’s got good senses. Might need to move back into the main room, just in case.”

She strode away, heading for a willowy woman with the faintest of points to her ears. Every step she took ratcheted Niles’ tension higher. Something was happening, he knew it — every part of it demanded action, yet he knew there was little he could do. Not without causing a panic.

In front of him, Yan’s faint growl deepened as the cat bared the faintest hint of his fangs at the ceiling above. Hensch’s jaw clenched, and Niles caught him reaching for the hilt of a knife at his belt. It wasn’t a weapon, shaped more like a cook’s knife than anything else, but it was large enough to almost be called a shortsword.

Hensch gave him a look, and slowly got to his feet. “Maybe it’s best we stretch our legs, eh lad? It’s not healthy to sit on hard stone for too long.”

Niles gave him a slow nod, and pushed himself up.

Halfway through the motion, he saw a flash of dust in the light. The jolt of it shocked him with energy. He snapped to the source. It wasn’t above him, not where Yan had been watching — it was across the hall, a good thirty strides away.

Something yellow streaked down, a writhing lump that was a stride and a half long. Niles watched in horror as the lump dropped to the crowd below. It landed on a man wearing a simple off-white tunic who was staring out into space.

Black mandibles closed around the man’s shoulder. It tore through his flesh, bone splintering in a vice grip as his tunic was stained a shocking red. The wound smoked.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

A scream cut through the low hubbub of the crowd, bright and violent. It was piercing, freezing Niles right to his heart. He knew it!

More dust erupted as holes opened in a wide cluster around the first intruder, including right above his head. Niles looked up just in time to see a steady stream of undulating bodies fall.

Pandemonium erupted as the entire crowd was on their feet in seconds. It was chaos, a press of bodies that made it almost impossible to see what was happening.

A weight slammed into his back. It sent a jolt of terror down his spine — had one of the grubs gotten him?

Staggering into a woman in front of him, the weight rolled off — landing by his feet. Another scream to his right stabbed into his ears, before he was shoved to the side as a body desperately pushed through the crowd. The tightness within him coiled tighter as he was hit from every angle by noise and motion. It was too much. Something broke inside of him, leaving only a cold clarity. It was familiar, the same sensation he’d felt when he’d run from his burning home and the baying calls of twisted hounds; when he’d sat through the drunk’s lickings; when he pushed himself on the training field.