NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY: The Adventures of the Creeping Bam (BOOK 4: The Hunt)

CHAPTER SIX: SHAYLINE

"Okay, which way now?" I cast about for a moment, having to lean into the wall somewhat as I fight to regain my breath, working on adjusting my grip on my sword while my fingers are more numb than I'd like. Fuck, this is hard work. The armour's not heavy, but the wear of ... gods, I don't even know how many days on the go are starting to hit me now, and we've been going pretty hard in here. And I was knocked out less than a day ago too, I'm impressed enough I'm still standing.

Kesla takes a moment to give the body draped across her shoulder a little nudge to improve its lie, but I doubt she's any happier with it now. She gives me a glare as she ponders for a moment, having to crane a little as she's slightly doubled-over under the weight of the corpse of Lady Vezrim's late son. Never mind the blood that's been steadily leaking through the white sheet she took the time to wrap it in before we left the room in the brief lull we managed to carve for ourselves. It's running down her armour now, painting it in a much more gory colour, and I suspect she's pretty unhappy about that too.

"How the fuck ..." She grimaces, looking away now as she sucks in a deep breath, and I think she might be counting in her head now. Then when she looks up what I can see of her expression's more considered, and I wonder if maybe she's backtracking her reaction a little. "Sorry. I just ... I don't know this place, not really. Just some o' the downstairs, and even then that was just once ..." She looks away again, and I'm sure I detect some bitterness now.

"Hey, I get it. You care about this family. I understand what that woman means to you."

She watches me for another long moment, sifting her stance somewhat to accommodate the substantial load she's having to bear, and finally nods. "You're right. I'm sorry again."

Setting my jaw, I turn away for a moment to look around again, judging where we are now. I'll admit, I didn't expect this place to be so complicated when I saw it from the outside – it's a big house, but I wasn't expecting all these corridors and rooms inside it, I thought it'd all be much more big and open. I'm worried that we're entirely lost now. "Well I don't ... Naru mentioned something about a library, right? You didn't go there did you?"

"No. We saw Thura's office, mainly. But it's over in the farthest wing, where the fire is. I don't think we're anywhere near it right now." She narrows her eyes, I can just see it under the helmet. "Are we? You don't smell smoke do you? That we might be close?"

Again I take a little sniff of the air, but honestly I don't think there's any need. Never mind that I don't pick up on anything like that, not really, I still don't think we've covered enough ground to have blundered that far off course. "No. Mostly I just smell ... well, death. And ... you know ..." I shrug.

"Those things." Kesla nods, baring her teeth now. "Great."

We carved our way through all the things that were coming for us, those strange unsettling meat puppets that must have been animated by the shadows, enough that my blade ended up generously smeared with second-hand blood and ... I don't really want to think what else. I caught a fair amount of spray myself too, my wrists once again a gory mess, and I can see Kesla's gotten generously splattered too for her own part. My sword's grown conspicuously clean since, though, which I'm trying hard not to think about too much right now.

Damn it ... I knew we should've just gone back the way we came in, instead of trying to follow the others. The fact we're in such an entirely unfamiliar place seems to have proven a major stumbling block. "Well we can't just stay here ..." I growl under my breath, looking around again. Finally I push myself away from the wall and take a few leaden steps further the way we've been heading, starting to creep a little now as I approach the corner ahead. Letting my eyes adjust to the relative gloom ahead while Kesla's inexplicable new hovering light remains behind.