We spent the next three days going room by room and making sure they were clear.

  The problem was that not every house had a room under it, and some of the rooms were so large they ran under two houses. The good news was that we didn’t run into any more cultists, or maybe that was the bad news since there was no one else to question.

  Psider wasn’t able to get anything out of the two poachers that we’d captured before the Camadt patrol came to check on him. I was glad that Starna and I had still been underground and didn’t have to watch the grisly executions.

  Captain Lurk insisted that the Camadt be the ones to clear the poacher’s cache, which was fine by us. Psider made a path to get to the storage room from the surface, and it kept the Camadt out of our hair while we explored.

  Starna was able to work on internalizing her mana, which helped to make things not as uncomfortable for her while we were around the Camadt. I tried to work on my mana control while Psider talked to Starna, but my talent was so minor that all I could do was just work on circulating mana through my body. It helped give me some extra vitality that felt similar to when I drained someone, but it didn’t last long.

  Otherwise, the days were long and boring. We’d reach the end of a hallway, and Starna would sense if there was someone in the next room. Once she confirmed there wasn’t, Psider would go in and wall off the tunnel we had just left, then close all but one of the other tunnels, which is where we’d go next. We went to the outside of Gedu, then rotated around through the tunnel network in a spiral manner.

  It took us three whole days to clear and blockade all of the rooms, but at the end of it, we were sure that without an Earth Elementalist, the cultists wouldn’t be able to get back through the tunnels. The uneventful adventure cemented the need for me to make sure that we had Earth Elementalists in Hepool that were monitoring the ground so that we didn’t have any unwanted guests living under the city.

  The Kharm had worked on fixing up one of the destroyed houses, and now that we were on the eve of leaving, it was mostly done. Even though there wasn’t much to speak of in terms of furniture, there was a roof and walls, which beat sleeping outside.

  “We’ll head for the Hilde in the morning.” Psider stretched in his seat across the table. “Captain Lurk is getting reinforcements tomorrow too, so it all works out.”

  “If I never have to pick up another rock, it’ll be too soon.” Vin grumbled as he downed his glass of water from his seat to my right at the round table we were all sitting at. “I’m a sailor and a lover, not some dog that likes to dig in the dirt.”

  “Trust me, you wouldn’t have liked it down there.” I chuckled. “I didn’t even like it down there.”

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  “You got to walk around behind a pretty…” Vin squinted as he looked across the table at Starna. “... okay-looking Elf.”

  “Hey!” The beautiful Elf protested as she looked up from feeding Shadow a piece of jerky.

  “That’s actually high praise coming from him.” I laughed as Starna pretended to be hurt. “He thinks all Elves are ugly.”

  “And what do you have against Elves, Mr. Vincent?” Starna did her best to keep a straight face as she glared at my brother.

  “They’re too delicate.” He flexed. “One touch and most of them start whining about dying.” The Camadt shrugged. “What’s the point of something pretty if all you can do is look at it?”

  “So you don’t like Mages.” Starna summarized. “You know only about twenty percent of Elves have access to magic.”

  “Even the powerless ones complain.” Vin shrugged. “Demi-humans are a lot nicer anyway, and most of them don’t mind that I’ll only be around for a few nights, and then they might not see me again. But Elves…” He shook his head. “Soulbounding won’t take on me, which means there’s never any chance that it could be anything more than a fling, which they’re not into.” The black-furred feline held up his hands. “Not that I want to settle down!”

  “Your secret’s safe with us.” I patted my brother on the shoulder. “I’m sure the right woman will come around.” I winked. “Pera seemed very willing to introduce you to that Bastet dancer.”

  “She was alright.” Vin tried to brush off the attention. “I’d rather have her around than that abomination any day.” He pointed at Shadow.

  “Don’t you dare think about hurting my cutie!” Starna hugged the kitten as she glared daggers at my brother.

  “I wouldn’t—” He snapped off his reply as Captain Lurk walked in.

  The Camadt took in our silence for a moment, then threw a small pouch of coins on the table.

  “Twenty Dragon gold.” He locked eyes with Psider. “For finding the scum.”

  Silence hung over us as he left, none of us wanting to touch the money.

  Psider broke the stalemate and picked it up. “I’ll make sure this gets put to good use.” He nodded at each of us. “You should get some rest; we’ve got a long ride ahead of us tomorrow.” He got up from the table and walked into one of the back rooms.

  “Shadow’s already asleep.” Starna stroked the kitten as she stood, then headed for her own room. “See you in the morning.”

  “Night.” I stretched but didn’t get up.

  “You’re not staying up again, are you?” Vin clicked his tongue.

  “Someone needs to keep watch.” I waved at the door. “I know Psider and Captain Lurk both think the cultists are gone, but I’ve got a bad feeling.”

  Vin let out an exaggerated yawn. “Don’t stay up too late, Sectum.” He pointed at the door to the room he’d been sleeping in. “Yell loud if the sandman bites.”

  I watched him trudge to his room, then I settled into my seat. We’d helped make sure Gedu was free of being attacked from underground again, but how long would it take them to undo what we had done? I couldn’t help but feel like we’d wasted valuable time that should have been spent tracking down Master Krav and the Seekers. As sleep wrapped around me, I hoped that I was wrong.

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