“Arosa!” Tamblin exclaimed in shock, sheathing his sword.
“A beast is coming. It isn’t safe for you out in the open,” she said.
She swept her arms around him again and lifted him off the mushroom, depositing him onto the ground. He gripped her hand, and they ran through the maze of mushrooms—until the ground suddenly gave way under his feet.
Arosa twisted when Tamblin’s hand unexpectedly ripped away from hers. She realized that a sandworm tunnel had opened under his feet. Terror gripped her when he disappeared. She faded again, reappearing next to him as he fell.
She wrapped her arms around him, and with a thought, a thick pile of soft spores appeared under them. They landed on the cushioned floor of the tunnel. The impact forced them apart.
“Arosa, are you alright?” Tamblin urgently asked.
She sat up and sneezed. She lifted her eyes to his and choked back a giggle. A dusting of fine, rainbow-colored particles covered Tamblin from head to foot.
“I’m fine. Are you hurt?” she asked, grasping his hand when he held it out.
He grimaced when he saw his clothing. “Only my pride,” he chuckled, brushing the colorful powder off of his clothing.
They both looked up when the ground shook and pieces of dirt rained down. Tamblin lifted her out of the pile of spores, pulled her away from the opening, and held her in his arms. She pressed against him and looked over her shoulder.
“Did the beast find something this time, Macron?” a man shouted.
“Maybe. There’s a hole,” Macron answered.
Arosa looked at Tamblin. He shook his head. She pressed her face against him when the sound of savage snarling reverberated around them. The snarls were followed by a cascade of dirt as the ground was ripped opened. Long, sharp claws dug at the soil. The beast was enlarging the hole they had fallen through.
“This way,” Tamblin murmured near her ear.
6
Once he determined it was safe, Tamblin twisted the crystal at top of his staff. Its red glow lit the sandworm tunnel. The last thing he wanted to do was to run face first into one of those beasts. He was conscious of Arosa’s tight grip on the back of his coat.
“Where are we going?” she inquired.
He glanced over his shoulder before focusing on where he was going. It was a good thing he did because he would have run face first into a long root hanging from the tunnel ceiling. He reached out and pushed it out of the way, holding it back until Arosa passed through.
“We are searching for another way out,” he explained.
He stopped and looked up when the ground above them shook. The loud sound of a creature sniffing sent a shiver through him. He reached back and gripped Arosa’s hand, pulling her quickly behind him when the creature growled.
When the tunnel collapsed, they were only a few feet away. From the opening above, light poured in, and a narrow beige-colored snout appeared. Long, sharp teeth protruded from the beast’s mouth, and the creature’s massive claws tore at the ground.
“Macron, call your beast off! At the rate it’s going, we’re going to have a trench, and it will have eaten anything worth selling,” a poacher snapped in irritation.
“Shut up, Harron. If we want to make this trip worthwhile, we’re going to need more than the Tasiers. We’ll be lucky if we get enough credits to pay for the fuel for this disaster, and if the Dragon Lords find out what we’re doing, we’ll be lucky to make it out of here alive. You saw the sensors. If the blockers we put on them fail and it sends out a report, we’re dead,” Macron retorted.
“What are they trying to do?” Arosa asked.
Tamblin paused when the tunnel forked. He lifted the staff and looked at each tunnel before he turned to the right. He kept a tight grip on Arosa’s hand as they moved farther away from the poachers and their beast.
“Tia had a vision that the poachers would return to our moon. My security teams sighted the first of them a few weeks ago. They set out traps to capture the Tasiers,” he explained, stopping to look up at one narrow hole.
“But—the Valdier have declared this moon under their protection,” she protested.
Tamblin nodded. “Yes, but they aren’t here. Our hope was the sensors the Valdier scientists installed would trigger an alert and bring help, but as you just heard, the poachers have blocked them,” he replied, continuing along the passage.
“Why are they trying to capture you? You are not a Tasier,” she demanded.
He stopped and faced her. In the staff's glow, he could see the worry and confusion on her face. He brushed a smudge of dirt from her cheek.
“We have been trying to disable their ships and release Tasiers from their traps for the past month,” he said.
“Oh, Tamblin, I’m so sorry,” she replied, cupping his hand against her cheek.
He shook his head. “For the first few days, we were successful, but the poachers soon discovered that something was amiss. They repaired their ships almost as fast as we could sabotage them. Then they set traps for us. Several warriors were injured, and we almost lost a team when they became trapped on board a transport. Jett and Santil freed them at the last second. We continued releasing the Tasiers, but even that became too hazardous to do during the daylight hours. For the next couple of weeks, squadrons worked at night, but the poachers upgraded the locking mechanisms. We could no longer open the traps as quickly as before. Then, a creature like the one we encountered back there caught one of our soldiers—and nearly killed him. We rescued him but not before a poacher saw us. Now, those two hunt us as much as they do the Tasiers. Roan, King of Sandora, and I have both sent scouts out to warn other kingdoms,” he said.
“And you came looking for me,” she replied.
“Yes. Everyone on the moon is in danger, including the Wood Fairies. I wanted to find you earlier, to find out why you disappeared the next morning without saying goodbye—It doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t have brought that up now,” He looked away from her.
“Tamblin—”
“We’d best keep moving,” he said, walking away.
He tried to ignore the hurt in her eyes. He was just trying to protect his own heart from being hurt again. Her disappearance the morning after their night together had been like a dagger to his heart. She had vanished, leaving nothing behind but a note attached to Batty.
“Tamblin,” she called from behind him.
He slowed his pace, realizing he had been so focused on his thoughts that he wasn’t paying attention. He took a deep breath and faced her. He frowned when she didn’t walk toward him.
“What?” he asked in a tone sharper than he meant. “I’m sorry, Arosa. What is it?”
She pointed to a tunnel. His frown deepened, and he walked over to her. The passage made a gradual incline and opened at the base of an outcropping of rocks.
“I thought this might be a good exit,” she softly replied.
He cleared his throat and nodded. “Yes, it’s perfect. I’ll go first to make sure it’s safe,” he said.
Arosa stared at Tamblin’s back with longing. She had created the tunnel, knowing it would give them safe passage to the surface. Lifting the hem of her dress, she followed him at a slower pace.