Being the Suun

by J. A. Culican

  “Is it hidden by magic too? I haven’t seen an airship hanging around Barepost.”

  “She’s not in Barepost.”

  “Where is it, then?”

  He pointed up.

  I raised my eyes to the ceiling, which was mere inches above my head. “I left her on top of this very mountain under the guard of a few friends. Though the mission has taken longer than expected, I am confident they’re still waiting for me.”

  “What makes you think they’ll still be waiting for you?” I didn’t have much experience with friends, but I didn’t know any who would wait for anyone this long on this forsaken island.

  “When I left them with my ship, they vowed to wait for my return if I could free their comrade from this very mine. And dragons are typically creatures of their word.”

  Dragons? Luthair had imprisoned a dragon in the mine? I could see the benefits. A large, strong creature like that could move a lot of rocks. But the fire? That seemed like a great risk for someone like Luthair. With the galestone and gasses and coal-dust, the mines were a dangerous enough place without a fire-breathing beast roaming their innards. I couldn’t even imagine a whole group of them perched on top of this mountain, hidden from Barepost by the ever-present veil of clouds.

  “All we have to do,” Arun said, “is make it to the top.”

  “Have you ever climbed to the top?” I had, and it was a harrowing climb up the cliff face.

  “No, but how hard can it be?” Arun shrugged.

  I snorted. “It’s hard.”

  The monsters of Bruhier didn’t just exist on ground level. So not only did we have to climb a sheer mountainside, we had to do it while fighting off monsters. But Arun Phina didn’t seem like the type that could be told anything. He would just have to see the truth for himself—if I could figure out a way to get him out of here, which was a big if, then he'd have to get himself up to the plateau. Bruish elves were said to be fierce fighters. I hoped it was true.

  The cart was half-full and we fell into an easy silence as we worked, both of us lost in our own thoughts. The piece of the seam where I was working was becoming narrower, the rocks breaking off in larger, easier chunks.

  It had to be nearing the middle of the night when I drove my ax into the rock one more time with enough force that it buried itself to the handle. Bracing my foot against the wall, I gave the ax-handle a tug, but it was stuck. Arun looked over, tossed his own ax to the ground, and held his hand out for mine. While I didn't like the idea of being rescued by a man, he'd been doing this type of work longer than I had, so I relinquished the ax. The handle stuck out of the rock like a lever, almost like if I pulled it the right way, it would open a door to a room beyond.

  Arun gave the ax a tug. “This is very strange. Like it's caught on something on the other side.”

  More rock, I thought dubiously. Bruhier had never come through for me before. I didn't expect it to now. That was why, when he gave another mighty pull on the handle and it broke free, ripping away a huge chunk of rock, I didn't believe what was right before my eyes.

  A tunnel.

  Or at least, a hole.

  Arun thought the same thing. He reached a hand inside and it disappeared up to his shoulder. Then he looked back at me, eyes wide with wonder as if I'd had something to do with this discovery. As if I were magic.

  He began clawing at the rock and it crumbled away, sheets of black coal coating the ground at his feet. I joined him until the hole was large enough for someone to duck through, a tiny doorway to another world. Arun peered inside.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Our way out,” he said, and with that, he stepped through and disappeared.

  Chapter 12

  I watched the black doorway and, for a brief moment, wondered if he would ever come back.

  Then his smiling face reappeared. “You won't believe this.”

  “Believe what?” a voice came from behind.

  My heart in my throat, I whipped around, ready to use my blunt ax to bludgeon someone to death. But then Xalph limped into view, peering behind me with his good eye. Thankfully, he was alone.

  “Onen save me,” I gasped, a hand to my chest.

  “Not Onen,” Arun said, with a grin. “Me.”

  I tucked my pickax into one of my belt loops. “I’m the one who found it.”

  He smiled smugly anyway.

  “Found what?” Xalph stepped carefully over the discarded rock. “I didn’t see you guys at dinner. I thought something—” He stopped talking when the hole came into view. “What is that?”

  “A tunnel,” Arun said.

  “A tunnel to where?” Xalph squinted into the dark.

  I pulled the folded map from my back pocket and smoothed it out against a nearby wall.

  Xalph and I both peered at it.

  “Here.” Xalph put his finger to the spot where we were supposedly standing. “There shouldn’t be anything there.”

  “Well, I’m standing in it, so I’d say it doesn’t care if you think it should be here or not.” Arun cheerfully leaned his arms against the stone around the doorway.

  Xalph, fearless Xalph, bit his lip. “Bruhier can be tricky.” He couldn’t have been older than ten, but he sounded much older.

  “He’s right.” I turned to Arun and let Xalph take the map.

  He studied it intently, as if this secret passage would just appear out of sheer willpower. “Who knows why that tunnel is there . . . Or what’s living inside of it.”

  “Why don’t we find out?” Arun sounded exactly like someone who had never come face to face with a Bruhier monster. He held out a hand. “Xalph, you have a light?”

  Absently, his eyes still on his hand-drawn map, Xalph unbuckled the small oil lamp he carried on his belt and handed it to Arun.

  “What if the guards come back for us?” I wasn’t worried about myself, but more worried about what would happen to him if he were discovered here and we weren’t.

  He glanced up, realizing we were watching him. “You guys go. I’ll keep watch and distract anyone who comes this way if I have to. Just don’t be gone too long.”

  I wanted to ask what would happen to him if we didn’t come back at all but bit my tongue. It wasn’t my problem. I was here to get Arun out, that was all. Arun stepped aside, and I ducked into our ragged doorway. It smelled strange, of damp soil and decay instead of cold rock and sweaty bodies. The lamp flared to life, and Arun held it up, illuminating a large, round tunnel that tapered into darkness. Something on the rock wall caught my attention—three long, deep grooves carved into the dirt and stone.

  I walked over and ran my fingers along them, knowing in an instant what had made this tunnel. “A gloomling.”

  But Arun was right behind me. The lamp cast my shadow down the length of the tunnel. “A what?”

  “A gloomling dug this tunnel,” I repeated, remembering the massive, three-fingered claw Erik had dragged from the mine. “A cave monster.”

  Arun held the lamp up higher and searched the darkness. “Is it still here, do you think?”

  “No. I don’t think.” The truth was, I could only hope that the gloomling who had dug this tunnel was the same one Erik had hunted and killed and that he hadn’t left any family members behind. But then again, like Xalph said, Bruhier could be tricky. I didn’t know how common gloomlings were or even if they were the worst thing we could encounter.

  We followed the tunnel, Arun holding the light high for us to see by. I kept expecting the tunnel to end, for us to run up against an impenetrable wall that would effectively put an end to our escape plan, but it never did. It went on and on in a straight line, like a road to the center of the world. One good thing was that I did not see any evidence of a live gloomling—no fresh tracks or food scraps or scat.

  We’d walked for at least ten minutes when Arun paused and raised the lamp even higher, his hand hitting the rock ceiling. He squinted into the darkness, then dropped his hand and twisted the knob on the lam
p to extinguish it.

  “What—” I started, but paused. Instead of being plunged into darkness, there was a faint glow lighting the path ahead of us. “What is it?”

  “Have you heard of yooperlite?” He moved forward again.

  I shook my head, wary of yet another surprise from this blasted island. “No.”

  “It’s a glowing rock, a natural source of light. I’ve only ever seen it around Lamruil, but—”

  He didn’t get to finish. One minute he was in front of me, and the next he was gone. I took a step before I could stop myself and suddenly, I was falling, sliding along the rock, my feet and hands scrambling for something to grab. The tunnel, which had been flat and straight, had become a ramp, declining at a sharp angle. Arun was just in front of me. I felt my feet brush his shoulders. I tried to brace my arms or my legs against the tunnel walls, but they were too slick, too round, too far apart. The worst part was not the falling, but the not knowing what was waiting for us at the end, or if we would survive it.

  “Frida!” Arun’s hand went around my ankle, and I felt myself falling faster. I didn’t like the panic in his voice and wondered what he could see that I couldn’t. I thought of the gloomling and fumbled in my belt for the pickax. If that monster had made it up here, so could I—I just needed a claw.

  I freed the ax from its holster and dragged it along the ground. It slowed us a little but didn’t find purchase. My arms were raw and my legs ached.

  “Frida!” Arun yelled again, his voice desperate.

  I wanted to tell him to stop. To stop saying my name like I could do something. To stop relying on me. To save himself. But I couldn’t find the breath to make a sound, not even a scream.

  We were slowing down, and the tunnel was growing brighter. I could see Arun’s hand around my ankle, see the blood on my palm, and see the brown dirt and grey rock of the walls around us. And I could see the end of our tunnel and beyond it, an enormous cavern lit yellow by what I could only assume was Arun’s yooperlite.

  I dug in my ax, twisting around and using both hands. Dirt kicked up into my face, and I felt the warmth of blood sliding down my chin. There was a hard jerk and Arun was airborne, his hand still around my ankle, taking me with him. I held my breath and beseeched the gods to spare me. I had so much more to do, so much more to see, that it couldn’t end like this, broken on a cavern floor. I was meant to die beneath the stars, not here, in the dark underground.

  The ax caught.

  Still holding onto the ax handle, I jerked to a stop, my body slamming against the cavern wall. Arun still had my ankle, and he was dangling beneath me, and below him, there was nothing but a bottomless pit of light. I thought this might be the entrance to Ash’gar if there was one in this mortal world.

  “Don’t let go.”

  Arun didn’t respond. Instead, I felt another hand wrap around my other ankle. I ground my teeth, straining not to lose my grip. I would not—could not—let go. He hoisted himself up the length of my body until he finally reached the lip of the ledge and hauled himself up. Then he turned back to me, grabbed my wrists, and pulled me over. I collapsed onto the ground beside him and closed my eyes.

  “Thank Onen,” he said, his voice shaky and quiet.

  I looked over at him. “Not Onen,” I echoed his earlier statement. “Me.”

  He smiled weakly. “Thank you.”

  We were both exhausted but didn’t have the time to waste feeling sorry for ourselves. We had to figure out a way to get back to the mine before Xalph got caught. I pushed myself up beside him and brushed my hands on my dirty tunic. Arun took one of my hands in his and examined the scraped, bleeding palm. Then he ripped a small swath of cloth from the bottom of his linen shirt and wrapped it around the worse of the cuts, tying it off in a tight knot.

  “That should hold until we can get you washed up.” He wasn’t looking much better himself. His hair was a tangled mess and his face was streaked with dirt and dust. His pants were ripped, too, with a long, jagged tear down the side.

  I thanked him and stood, taking in our surroundings. We stood on a ledge only a couple of feet wide and several hundred feet above the ground. The cavern was unfathomably large, as large as the mountain itself, it felt like, and was crisscrossed by natural stone bridges. Some were impassable, crumbling and narrow, but others looked sturdy enough to hold us and help us maneuver through the cavern.

  “Shall we?” Arun took a few tentative steps along the ledge. One of the bridges was a few feet below us to our right. I followed him as we dropped onto it. “There’s a tunnel up there that might take us back.” He pointed to an opening overhead. “But I want to take a look around first.”

  We walked, crossing bridges and exploring dark tunnels full of minerals and more yooperlite. In some places, the walls glistened with gold. I wondered if I could use my knowledge of this place to bargain with Luthair, or if he already knew and just hadn’t decided to expand the mine yet. I just couldn’t imagine him willingly leaving so many resources untapped, though. As we walked, Arun showed me how yooperlite worked, how the warmer it was, the brighter it glowed. He told me about how they strung it in the trees and danced all night at their revels by its eerie, yellow glow. He told me more about his airship and how it felt to fly, and I told him about the Western March, putting voice to memories I hadn’t spoken about in years. I told him about my father and our house at the tip of the world, about learning to fight with Erik and Estrid, about boarding a ship for the first time and sailing away from the only place I’d ever known.

  We were in a dark, damp tunnel, moving forward by the light of a yooperlite stone Arun held in his hand, when he stopped suddenly, putting a finger to his lips.

  “In here,” he whispered, pulling me into an alcove in the wall.

  “What is it?”

  He leaned forward to peer out of our hiding place, then looked back at me, pointing to his eyes and then out into the tunnel, telling me to see for myself. That was when I heard it, the scrape of feet on rock, the swish of a tail sweeping along the floor, the shallow breaths of a creature hunting something.

  My hand on the ax, I leaned out.

  The creature was no bigger than a dog but looked more like a dock rat than a four-legged pet. Its snake-like body was low to the ground and its feet ended in long, sharp claws that could have been good for digging or tearing apart its prey. Two large flat teeth protruded from the front of its snout, but its eyes were tiny black orbs, barely visible. It was obviously a creature who lived in the dark.

  I pushed myself back against the wall beside Arun and moved to draw the ax, but Arun stilled me with a hand on mine and a shake of his head. I wanted to argue. I’d killed every monster I’d ever come across in Bruhier. It was just what I did, what was expected of me. But Arun was adamant, shoving my hand away.

  There was no time to argue, though. The monster was only a few feet away, its snout in the air. I wondered if it could smell the blood on my hand, maybe the sweat on my brow. I imagined its claws ripping into me, its teeth on my neck. It turned to me, fixing me with its beady black eyes, and I held my breath as it stretched its neck out, its teeth coming within inches of my face.

  Every part of me screamed to strike, but I remembered Arun’s hand on mine. I slid my eyes over to Arun and he was watching the creature with a strange mix of awe and respect on his face. His right hand slipped into my left and squeezed in what I hoped was reassurance. The creature sniffed at us, then made a huffing sound as if he didn’t like what he smelled, and trotted away, back toward the cavern in the direction we’d come.

  I exhaled heavily and relaxed back against the wall. “What was it?”

  “A cave dragon, I think. I’ve never seen one before, but I’ve heard about them.”

  “How did you know it wouldn’t kill us?” I kept my voice low, resisting the urge to yell at him for his foolishness.

  Arun cocked his head at me. “I didn’t. But you can’t go around killing everything that has claws, now, can y
ou?”

  Before I could beg to differ, he’d pushed himself out of our alcove and turned away from the cavern. I followed, glancing over my shoulder for any signs of the monster, seeing none. “Shouldn’t we go back?”

  “Just a little farther.”

  We followed the tunnel, only a few yards before coming to its end. The rock wall looked immovable and solid.

  “It had to have come from somewhere,” Arun muttered as if to himself.

  I looked at the walls on either side of us, at the floor, solid beneath our feet, and then lifted my eyes to the ceiling. There it was, the small opening, and beyond it, the black sky, nearly blending with the rock interior of the mountain. I tapped Arun on the shoulder and pointed.

  He went still the moment his eyes found the opening and the sky beyond.

  Chapter 13

  Arun dragged me back down the tunnel and into the yooperlite cavern without saying a word, ignoring my protests.

  “Why are we going back?” I asked when he let go of me to cross a narrow stone bridge.

  “I can’t let Xalph take the fall for us.” But he was acting strangely. If it was just that he wanted to keep Xalph safe, I didn’t think he’d have this excited, buzzing energy around him.

  “You can’t tell anybody, Arun.”

  “I won’t.” But he didn’t look back at me, and that was how I knew he was lying.

  We found our way through the maze of tunnels back to the one that would deliver us to the mineshaft without incident, though I kept my eyes open for any gloomling or cave dragon that might dare to cross our path. The mineshaft was quiet, and Arun stepped aside to let me through first. I was nearly there, only one leg still in the tunnel, when I raised my head and saw who greeted us.