The Lair of Bones by David Farland

Iome's Days said to Gaborn, “Your Highness, I will do what I can to honor your request.”
    â€œThank you,” Gaborn said. He reached out and squeezed her hand.
    The girl looked at Gaborn's Days'sfleeingback and shook her head sadly. “Old ones like him, they forget what it is like to love, to have family and friends. Their only love is watching, and their only friends are their twins.”
    â€œIn this council of yours,” Gaborn asked, “will you stand much chance against others like him?”
    The girl shook her head. “I don't know. We serve the Time Lords. We keep the chronicles. But what will we chronicle if all men die? The advance of the reavers, the slow cooling of the sun, the end of all things? I think we have reached a time when we must take action, but if we do, we must all take it together.”
    So Gaborn walked in the fog, and sought with his Earth Sight to pierce the gloom.
    â€œThe fog won't last long,” Averan assured everyone. “There's a larger passage ahead, a shaft going up, where hot air from the Underworld meets the cold air of the mountains.”
    â€œGaborn,” Iome asked, “is there danger ahead? Do you sense reavers?”
    â€œYes,” Gaborn said trying not to sound too ominous, “I sense danger, but not for many miles.”
    He wondered at that. If the reavers were planning to set an ambush, what better place could they have to spring an attack than here in this dank fog?
    Gaborn asked Averan, “You warned me yesterday about the dangers here. What are we likely to find ahead?”
    Averan shook her head, as if clearing her thoughts. “Mainly there are reavers,” Averan said. “Lots of them. But there are other dangers—deep canyons that reavers could climb, but maybe men could not. And there are other animals down here….”
    â€œWith our endowments,” Gaborn said, “I don't think we need to worry about animals.”
    Averan seemed to think for a moment, and then let out an exasperated sigh. “This… isn't what I remember. A week ago, the roof of this tunnel was choked with vines, and the floors were thick with vermin. That's what the Waymaker remembered. But now the reavers have cleared the trail and smoothed the way. So I don't know exactly what we'll find on the road. And I'm not sure what roads we might have to follow. There are lots of tunnels near the Unbounded Warren, and there are paths that even the reavers fear to tread. If we're to get past the reavers, we'll need to take some of the less-used tunnels, the dangerous ones. I think we'll have to sneak in.”
    â€œYou say we'll meet reavers,” Gaborn asked. “Will there be guards?”
    Averan thought for a moment. “I told you: the reavers you fought, they weren't warriors. They were farmers and tunnelers, butchers and… just common reavers. Few of them knew how to fight. Sure, they carried knight gigs and blades, but they didn't know how to use them. If there are guards ahead,” Averan continued, “I can tell you what to watch for. Reavers like to burrow underground when they hunt. They'll be on the road, with dirt covering them, hidden so well that you won't even notice a bump. Nothing may show except for one or two philia, lying above the surface.”
    â€œI've always wondered,” Binnesman said, “can they see us when they're underground?”
    â€œNo,” Averan said. “Like I told you, they don't see like we do. They onlysense shapes from their life-glow, from the lightning in their bodies.”
    â€œThe force electric,” Binnesman said.
    â€œWhatever you call it,” Averan said. “So they can't see through dirt any better than you could. But so long as a philium or two is lying above the ground, they can smell you coming, and they can feel vibrations from your movement. When you're on top of them, that's when they like to rise up, throwing you to the ground