I have little to say. I guess I should thank you guys for hanging around when I was too busy (or lazy) to write, and for posting such nice reviews. Don't worry, this isn't the last chapter, not yet, but we're getting close. You all have been great and it's been fun imaging your reactions to certain parts of my story. I'm thinking about a second story, once this one's finished, since there's going to be loose ends. Lots of loose ends. I've totally planned out the next story. Anyway, I'll shut up and let you read.

This was it.

The moment she'd been waiting for ever since she'd watched Nick's body disappear into the night sky, dangling from Freida's claws like a sack of grain, unsure whether he was alive or not. Peri had been listening to the echo of running footsteps for what felt like days, but her eyes, instead of feeling leaden, couldn't open wide enough. For the first time in who knows how long, she didn't feel tired, despite the fact that she was keeping pace with both an elf and a Rider who, for some insane reason, ran five miles every day for the hell of it. For a moment she'd dared to think that maybe her runs had paid off, but about an hour in she'd noticed Datia breathing some of her stamina across their bond. She'd chosen to let it slide. Because at this point, if it got her closer to Nick, she would swallow poison willingly.

Unless this wasn't it.

What if the same thing that had happened at Hljödhr Andlát, happened now, despite the certainty she'd seen in Hadin's eyes when he'd informed them of these tunnels? He'd been certain they could break into Hljödhr Andlát too (well, technically they'd been successful in that endeavor). What if they rounded the corner and found a ragtag bunch of guards transporting food to the other end of the tunnel? What if it was a trap?

Then you rip their pathetic heads off.

Yes, thank you, Datia. That's what all humans do when they're upset.

Just trying to help.

Peri didn't respond and put her head down, pumping her arms harder in order to catch up with Hadin and Esteba. Her breath started to hitch a little and she felt a trickle of energy come from Datia. Immediately her lungs relaxed and stopped complaining, but even with her bondmate's help her muscles were beginning to burn. How long had they been running? Two, three hours?

Forty minutes.

Not helpful!

Datia gave a mental snicker and pulled away, her attention drawn to something beneath her claws. Peri prayed it was a deer and kept going. She wanted to ask how long it would be until they reached Nick, how much farther they had to run, but she was well aware that Hadin was guessing at this point. Nick could be five feet ahead, or he could be five miles, and while Hadin was conditioned to running long distances, Peri was not. Datia couldn't keep her going forever. She was well and truly terrified that she would have to be left behind, that Hadin and Esteba would have to rescue her own friend for her. That thought spurred her on and she fell into step beside Esteba. In any normal tunnel, they would have been running in complete darkness, bouncing off of walls and tumbling down unexpected slopes, but this was no ordinary tunnel. A very, very faint light seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once, and Peri could not stop searching around for the source. She knew she would never be able to find it, because there was no source, but her eyes flicked around anyway and she'd grown too tired to fight them. The three of them collectively slowed as the tunnel floor suddenly dropped away beneath their feet, taking great care not to slip on the smooth surface. The composition of the walls, floor, and ceiling changed from time to time from crumbling dirt held up by wooden support, to slick, hard stone, to something in between, so they had to be constantly on edge for the abrupt changes. Peri had nearly cracked her head on a wall when she hadn't noticed the smooth stone ahead and slipped on it. That was all she needed: a concussion on top of everything else.

At least half an hour later, Hadin called a brief rest, and Peri was torn between her aching body and her determination to get to Nick as fast as she could. But when she considered protesting the decision, she found she couldn't run another stride. For five minutes there was nothing but the sound of sloshing as they struggled not to guzzle too much water and develop cramps. Peri allowed herself a brief moment of bliss and let a small amount of water splash onto the back of her neck while she held her braid aside with the other hand. She could hardly call it a braid anymore, as most of it had come loose and stuck to her skin over the course of their run. After a moment's consideration, she drew her knife and sheared the whole thing off, stuffing the dismembered braid into a pocket and shaking her head to get the feel of air on her shoulders. Much better. She'd even her hair up a little once she wasn't running her ass off in an underground tunnel. Instead of dwelling on this change (she hadn't cut her hair since her time at the orphanage), she dug out a small slice of bread and shoved it into her mouth. This she washed down with another swallow of water, and then it was time to move again. She felt a little refreshed, after water, rest, and a bite to eat, but she still had to stifle a groan when Hadin called time. Esteba stood up from where she'd sprawled on the ground, eyed Peri's head for a moment, gave an approving nod, and bounced effortlessly into a run. Peri went stumbling along behind, marveling at how fast muscles could seize up. Very fast, she learned.

When she nearly threw up what little sustenance she had left in her stomach, she decided it was time for a little distraction and fled into Datia's head. The blue dragon was, surprisingly, sleeping, despite it being close to the middle of the day, and Peri made to beat a hasty retreat. She didn't want to disturb Datia if she was finally getting a little hard-earned rest. But a sleepy touch in her mind convinced her to stay.

Let me show you my dreams.

And just like that, Peri was flying. Not in the way it felt when she was inside her bondmate's head. She was actually flying, on her own, with her own wings treading the air beneath her body. Beside her was a serpentine dragon, colored a dull bluish black, and she was looking back at her with mirth written across her face.

You look like a bird just flew up to you and pecked you in the nose.

Peri blinked her dream eyes and wiggled her head around, trying to see her body, but there wasn't an easy way to do so without falling clean out of the sky. Or were they even in the sky? She couldn't see the ground, nor the stars or sun above. They were just flying, and Peri felt that if she angled her body downward she would just keep going. Gravity wouldn't begin to tug her back to earth.

Follow me.

The blackish dragon, whom Peri now realized was her own bondmate, immediately winged her way off to the left, and after a moment Peri followed. Suddenly stars blossomed out of nowhere, so incredibly close that she felt that if she reached out, she could grab one and hold it close. Then, just like that, two of the stars became eyes and the rest became the silver flecks on Datia's scales and she was tucked up close to her bondmate's belly, laughing about something she couldn't remember. She was human again, but that detail didn't seem at all important as they laughed and laughed. She laughed until tears ran out of her eyes and Datia gave thunderous chuffs that blew smoke from her mouth. The smoke wreathed around Peri's head until she got dizzy from the smell and then she was falling, plummeting through the air in a helpless tumble of limbs and noise. She caught a glimpse of the ground, far below, and of a dark blue shape slicing through the air towards her, but for every foot Datia gained the earth gained forty. She was going to fall, die, shatter-

Peri, once again, nearly plowed headfirst into a wall, but she managed to catch herself with her hands and propel herself after Hadin and Esteba, breathing harder than ever and listening to her heartbeat pound in her ears. Esteba glanced back with a concerned look, but she didn't seem to find anything wrong and returned her gaze to the tunnel ahead. Peri struggled to get her heart rate out of the danger zone, while at the same time keeping her friends oblivious to her state of terror.

I am sorry.

What the hell was that? Peri took increasingly deeper breaths until she didn't sound like a pair of bellows working overtime, but her heart was still throbbing painfully in her chest, convinced it was about to splatter against the ground.

You were not meant to see that. Well, obviously.

What. Was. That?

Just a nightmare. Ah. Peri was familiar with Just a Nightmare's. The amount of times she'd woken up screaming after the slaughter of the Fair Maria's crew… she'd had enough Just a Nightmare's to last her twelve lifetimes. Peri tried to reach out to her bondmate, let her know that it was all alright, but she found a steely wall where Datia's mind always was. Peri recognized that too. When Nick would shake her awake and ask what was wrong, she would brush him off, act like she couldn't remember, because she felt like she'd already given too much away by dreaming in the first place. She decided to let Datia be for now, although this conversation was far from finished. Besides, she had other things to concentrate on right now. Hadin's sudden, mental instructions to halt, for example. Peri stopped as quietly as she could and bent over, hands bracing against her knees. She was sorely tempted to vomit up her lunch onto the tunnel floor, but she didn't know what this was about. She didn't want to give any sort of element of surprise that they had away. Hadin was catching his breath as well, although he looked infinitely better than Peri felt. Esteba was, of course, watching them both coolly, silently reveling in her status as an elf. Peri was too tired to call her on it.

After a few minutes, the desire to vomit up her lunch had passed and she straightened, already reaching for her water. A quick head shake from Hadin froze her in her place.

We may have guests.

Peri actually gagged a little in excitement and dread. She winced and swallowed the sour taste in her mouth, then realized how loud her breathing was and worked to quiet it. This was it.

Is it Nick? she asked, once she could form coherent thoughts.

Possibly. Esteba can sense a small group up ahead, but she can't tell who they are. They're masked.

A shield Esteba couldn't get through? Unheard of.

She can't see past it? Peri thought, pleased that she was feeling stronger already. She shifted around to keep her muscles from seizing again, but there was only so much she could do without making an unnecessary amount of noise.

Not without letting someone know that we're here. Hopefully their own footsteps covered ours.

Peri took a few more short, desperate breaths to get her lungs back in working order, then straightened her spine and started collecting herself. She needed to be calm, in control, and right now she was at the extreme end of strung out. Her muscles were weak and fluid from the run and her mind was churning out of control, not only because of the enormity of the undertaking they were considering, but also due to Datia's nightmare. If she went up against trained Riders like this, she'd get herself killed within seconds.

Okay. How far ahead are they? She figured they weren't right around the corner, because that was just too close for them to assume they wouldn't be heard panting and stomping along in the dark.

Good distance, Esteba's voice piped up, steady and eager at the same time. Maybe two hundred feet. You've snuck farther faster.

Peri gave a small smirk and flexed her fingers, testing the strength in her limbs. Then she drew two knives, her pearl-handled dagger and a curved knife laced with a sleeping draught, and bared her teeth in something that was nothing near a smile. It was the expression of a mother dragon about to terrorize a village for harming her brood. Esteba gave a similar sneer and drew two short swords from their sheaths, twirling them experimentally before catching them and looking to Hadin. The fair-haired boy had drawn his single Rider's sword, the same diamond white of Raj's scales, and despite the weight Peri knew it possessed he held it easily in one hand. With the other he ran his finger from the tip of the weapon down to the hilt, murmuring under his breath, and as his finger passed the brilliant color faded until it was a muted gray. The shine of the sword would not be the cause of their deaths, not today.

Alright. We'll come up slowly from behind, to get a good look at what we're up against. Then we'll go from there. Peri?

Peri met Hadin's eyes in the near-darkness and he stared her down until she almost looked away. Almost.

Don't do anything until we're all ready. Don't get emotional and charge right in.

Please, Peri scoffed, although she couldn't deny she'd been thinking of doing just that. I'm a smuggler. It's my job not to get emotional.

I thought you were a thief, Esteba asked, although she didn't look at all surprised.

I branched out.

Alright, enough chat, Hadin broke in, hefting his sword. For the first time Peri felt like he might actually be able to do some damage with that thing, especially with the shadows of the tunnel hanging off his face, making it look gaunt. Let's go.

Peri took a deep breath, summoned her coldness to her, and followed the faint glow of the sword.

This was it.

A tad shorter than last time, but guess what finally happens next chapter?!