Page 68 of I Married A Syllen

“If the ground is already dipping this much, we have very little time before a catastrophic collapse occurs. I beg you to at least allow us to stabilize the ground, and then you can take all the time in the world to decide the next steps,” I said pleadingly.

To my shock, he turned to the closest tree and placed his palm against its trunk. His veris extruded, intertwining with the vines of the tree. His gaze went out of focus. Then, one by one, the nearby trees rustled their leaves in a wave that spread all around us.

Athusa disconnected from the tree and looked at me with a troubled expression laced with worry and uncertainty.

“The land consents. You may call your UPO. I will trust you will protect Mazeria,” he said in a somber tone.

“I swear it,” I pledged.

Just as I was finishing sending the message, a loud cracking sound resonated a short distance away. I jerked my head around only to see a massive fissure appear a hundred meters away. The ground collapsed, the trees tipping towards the gaping hole with a deep whine that sounded almost like the pained call of a whale.

I screamed as the fissure raced in a zigzag towards us. Alarmed shouts resonated all around me.

“Mirella!” Taelen yelled as he grabbed my arm with brutal force before yanking me after him.

I nearly faceplanted as I turned to follow him. If not for him holding me up, I certainly would have. We tried to run sideways, perpendicular to the fissure, only to see the ground in front of us wobbling as if something was bubbling under the surface. Fear twisted my innards when another tree fell only a few meters from us. I couldn’t tell whether the force of the impact caused the ground beneath us to surge upward, or if another tree’s roots shot up from it tilting. But one minute I was running, trying to keep up with Taelen, and the next, I was projected forward by a violent push under my feet.

The force of the blow sent me flying a few meters ahead, tearing my grip out of Taelen’s hand. I heard his panicked voice calling my name over my scream of terror. I crashed hard on the packed dirt and rocks covering the forest, the wind knocked out of me. Stunned, I barely understood what was happening when a pair of hands grabbed me only to toss me with insane force towards the bushes. My surroundings stopped spinning when I landed painfully in the branches, scratching the exposed skin of my arms and legs.

My confusion as to why he would have thrown me like that vanished at the same time he did, when the spot where I’d crashed before he picked me up collapsed under him. I screamed, my right hand extending pointlessly towards him as if I could have caught him from that distance. With the terrain threatening to also fall from under me, I had to back away a few steps.

Seconds later, the ground settled. But in the gaping hole before me, Taelen lay unconscious on a pile of dirt, rocks, and vegetation at least ten meters down.

Chapter 13

Taelen

The distant sound of a terrified voice pierced through the fog that had swallowed me. My eyelids weighed a ton as I forced them open. If not for the pain radiating down my back, I would have thought I was waking from one of the old nightmares I used to have in the days following us chasing the Settlers from our world.

And then I remembered.

My eyes snapped open, all drowsiness forgotten. The panic that threatened to engulf me faded as soon as I locked gazes with my mate. Thank the Goddess, I had thrown her far enough from the fissure to spare her from falling, too. For a second, I feared her terrified shouts had been desperate calls for help while she lay half-broken in a ditch. Mirella’s lips quivered, and her eyes misted when I gave her a strained smile to reassure her that all was well. Her genuine fear for me touched me in a way I couldn’t put into words.

As I turned to the side to prop myself on a shoulder before getting up, a sharp pain stabbed at my back. I hissed, realizing that I was crushing my tail, which was folded under me. Wincing, I freed it while assessing my other aches. Thankfully, aside from a few scratches and tender spots where I’d struck rocks and hard roots when I fell, I didn’t seem to have sustained any serious injuries.

“Are you okay?!” Mirella shouted, trying not to lean too close to the edge.

“Yes, my mate. I’m not seriously hurt,” I said in a soothing tone.

Through the debris and collapsed terrain, I spotted a metal pillar below the area where she was standing. It explained why that part remained stable. A quick glance around me revealed how recklessly the off-worlders had rushed the mining. Back in the Tekere valley and forest of my tribe, they had been very thorough in providing excellent support throughout the cave, except for the very last section that was rushed. But here, they had done the bare minimum. Frankly, it surprised me this hadn’t collapsed sooner.

They hadn’t bothered with the metal panels on top of the pillars to support the heavy ground. My chest ached at the sight of so many trees toppled, uprooted, or with limbs torn off. At a glance, I’d fallen at the top of the mound of dirt and tumbled down its slope before coming to a stop where I currently stood. Although I believed the mound to be stable enough for me to climb, I would still find myself too far below the edge to get out of this pit.

I jerked my head up upon hearing an ultrasonic call. Athusa was informing us that he was fine. One by one, everyone else reported in. Everyone was fine except for Norak and Urthan, who were both injured, Norak quite severely. Orian was tending to him, but he needed to be urgently transported to the healing temple as soon as he stabilized. As Mirella couldn’t hear or respond to any of this, I did so on her behalf while communicating my precarious situation.

I could call a Nordjarimm to haul me out of here, but I would need to move further north in the trench to a more open area to accommodate the wide wingspan of the creature. We also needed a bit more stable terrain as the dirt and rocks still trickled down the slope of the mound I was standing on. Trying to climb here could trigger another collapse that we definitely didn’t need.

As I was quickly explaining to Mirella what was happening and my plan, Athusa came running up to her. Like me, he had a few scrapes on his body, with a more significant gash—although not a critical one—on the side of his left thigh.

“Are you hurt, Vakelia?” Athusa asked.

My chest warmed at the genuine concern that resonated loudly in his voice. As abrasive and swift to anger as he could come across at times, Athusa had a great heart and far more restraint than people realized. His booming voice and expressive face often led people who didn’t know him to believe him far angrier than he truly was. But once he claimed you as one of ours, he would give his life for you without hesitation. There was a reason he was the highly respected Thesh of Ungaro.

“Yes, I’m fine. Just a little banged up,” Mirella said distractedly before pointing at me. “But Taelen needs help.”

“I can try to climb over there for a Nordjarimm to pick me up,” I said, pointing at the spot I had in mind.

“It’s a long walk, brother,” Athusa said with a frown. “You cannot see it from where you stand, but some of the rubble has sunken much deeper. I don’t trust that the ground won’t collapse further if you walk there.”