“You,” I quietly correct it, gripping Father’s rusted sword tighter to my side. “You are far worse.”

“We’ve got visitors ahead,” Malachite warns me. Sure enough, in a few spans, panting and groaning that isn’t mine or Malachite’s resounds from up the tunnel. I can’t see them, but they sound like celeon. I hear Malachite speaking with them lowly, and situate myself against the tunnel wall until his voice makes an appearance in my ear again.

“Ten of them and two of us are much better odds.”

“Normally I’d agree with you, but we should send them back.” I frown and turn the lamp back on. “They’ve been through enough already—”

“With every beneather bone in my body, I can tell you right now that you and I alone will not be enough to retake this valkerax. It’ll ignore us completely. We need sufficient body heat to draw it in, tempt its predatory instinct.”

I bristle. “These guards aren’t toys, Malachite—”

“And they’re not children to be coddled, either,” he fires back. “Everyone here has made their own choices. Do you want it to run? Or do you want to capture it?” He throws his hand up. “You make the decision—I’m just the muscle. I’m telling you how it is; two people won’t be enough to make it stop running. And at the rate it’s digging…”

He trails off. Father’s sword suddenly feels ice-cold in my hands, my eyes skittering over the furred faces of the apprehensive celeon in the tunnel. They’re royal guards. They serve the royal family unerringly, until they die. Varia ordered them here, to guard the valkerax. I can feel the strings attaching my hopes to my heart growing thin, fragile, unsteadier the farther away Evlorasin digs. Mother’s face is a blur, but it had been so clear. So perfectly clear, better than a painting.

I clench my fist and look back at Malachite. “The moment I tell you to run, you take them and run.”

He rolls his eyes. “And of course leave you behind, right?”

“I’ll make it out somehow.” I change the subject quickly. “What did you talk about with them back there?”

Malachite pauses for a moment, and I just faintly see his long, bladelike ears twitching in the light emanating from his bloodred eyes. “They were saying the valkerax dug in a bunch of different directions trying to find a way out, so all the tunnels look the same. They lost the trail. The scent of Vetris’s wastewater system is strong right here. It cuts everything off. But I’ve got better hearing than a celeon. It’s far to the west. It’s digging, and injured.”