Demon Flames

by M. J. Haag

  “You’re cooling. Hold your breath one more time.”

  “N-n-no.”

  “Three. Two.”

  I inhaled quickly and held it.

  “One.”

  He dunked us under again. I wouldn’t have thought my head held any warmth after the first submersion. However, I was proven wrong the second time the icy water enveloped us and stole what remained of my heat and strength.

  We broke the surface, and Drav surged out of the water onto the bank. Cradling me in his arms, he sat and gently rocked me. Some of the pain in my head had eased. That or the water had numbed it. For a moment, I let myself float in the almost nothingness that waited at the edge of my consciousness.

  Drav’s hands wiped over my face, and his lips brushed mine repeatedly between softly spoken pleas for me to open my eyes.

  I felt so tired. Yet, hearing his gruff demanding voice, I forced myself to try. As soon as I opened my eyes, he kissed me hard.

  “Do not do that again,” he said when he pulled away.

  “T-that’s my l-line.”

  He hugged me close, melting my anger with his body heat. We stayed like that until the worst of my tremors stopped. In the darkness by the river, the pain in my head didn’t return full-force. It didn’t fade either. A steady thumping persisted, reminding me that we needed to leave these caverns, no matter what.

  In the distance, the faint sounds of baying echoed. Between the crystal poisoning and the gathered hounds, the journey to the surface wouldn’t be an easy one.

  “Drav, I need you to promise me something.”

  “Anything.”

  “If something happens to me, you need to find my family and tell them everything. From the moment we met until the end. Except for the boob grabbing and kissing. That would upset my parents.”

  “Nothing will happen to you,” he said, before pressing another kiss to my temple.

  “Drav, I’m sick, and we still have caverns filled with hellhounds to fight our way through. If something happens, I want your word you will try to find my family. I have a picture of them in my bag. I know it’s asking a lot, but I can’t leave them just wondering. And, they need your help to live.”

  “Nothing will happen, Mya. You will see your family again. I give you my word.”

  I sighed and closed my eyes, knowing that was as good as I’d get from him. The stubborn man wouldn’t give up on the idea of both of us making it to the surface alive and well. What would happen then?

  “It’s not going to be easy once we reach the top,” I said. “The infected will still be roaming. The hounds will likely follow us. And, everyone will probably want to kill you.” I rubbed my head against his wet shirt. “I wish there was a safe place for us to just…be.”

  “We will find a place. Your world is very large.”

  “It is. And a lot emptier now. Maybe we can find a farm in the middle of nowhere. We can grow things like you do down here. Maybe even raise chickens or something…if we can find any.”

  “We can do anything you want, as long as we’re together.”

  I lifted my head and met his worried gaze.

  “Together,” I agreed, ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach.

  He kissed me softly then tucked my back against his chest. We stayed like that until Molev found us a while later.

  “We are ready. Is Mya all right?”

  Drav stood with me in his arms.

  “For now. I will meet you at the gate. We can’t risk lit caverns. Mya grows too sick in the light.”

  “But the hounds.”

  “I know. Make sure to let everyone know what we face and that any lanterns must stay away from Mya.”

  Molev glanced at me. Was he wondering if I was worth all the trouble? I hoped not because I couldn’t think of a reason to support my worth at the moment.

  “We will meet you at the gate,” he said finally. “We will keep you safe, Mya.”

  “Thank you. Can someone bring my bag? It has things in it that I still need.” Mostly, the picture of my family. Just in case.

  “I will bring it,” Molev said.

  Drav set off at a run. The breeze made me shiver, but I didn’t complain about the wet clothing. The cold helped numb the body aches. Closing my eyes, I tried to rest. It worked until we reached the outer wall. The sound of Drav’s running attracted the hounds on the other side. Snarls and growls increased in volume and number as he ran.

  “Maybe we should run through the fields,” I said.

  “No. The light will hurt you.”

  “So will all the hellhounds that are following us to the gate.”

  Drav grunted and glanced at the fields. The lantern light didn’t hurt my eyes, but it would hurt my head once we drew closer.

  “It’ll be a good test to see how close I can be to the lanterns when we’re out there. Better to know now when we’re safe, right?”

  My reasoning seemed to decide him. He veered inward and wove his way between the lanterns. The baying fell behind, remaining near the point of the wall where they’d last heard us.

  “How do you feel?” Drav asked after passing by several lanterns. He kept at least ten feet away.

  “It’s not getting any worse when we move between the ones with smaller pieces of crystals. I can feel the ones with bigger chunks, though.”

  He pressed his lips to my forehead.

  “You’re starting to warm again.”

  The hot grittiness I’d felt in my eyes hadn’t returned since our plunge in the water, so I couldn’t be too bad, yet. A sudden thought occurred to me, and I jerked my head up to stare at Drav. The move made my head pound a little more noticeably.

  “If I get too warm again, promise you won’t jump in any fish infested waters to cool me off once we’re outside the wall.”

  “I promise I will care for you and keep you safe.”

  I set my head back on his chest.

  “Not the promise I was looking for.”

  He kissed the top of my head.

  “Rest. Sleep while you can.”

  Unfortunately, I hurt enough that resting proved impossible. But I closed my eyes and pretended for his peace of mind.

  While he ran, I listened to the sounds of the hounds fade and swell in waves. Although I knew he stayed in the fields, based on the pain I experienced from the nearby lanterns, the creatures still gathered at places outside the walls. Probably near the tiny village stations the men used to guard their city. I could only imagine how many hounds we would have attracted if we’d stayed running near the wall. Hopefully, my suffering now would keep us safer when we left. And I certainly did suffer. The pulsing energy from each crystal seemed to burrow into my bones and twist me from the inside.

  By the time we reached the gate, my stomach churned nauseatingly; and the sounds of the hounds outside grew.

  “Do you have her water bottle?” Drav asked, slowing.

  I opened my eyes to see a large gathering of men before us. Those nearest the gate held lanterns, glowing with large chunks of crystals. I could feel the energy from where we stood and winced. Drav caught the look and stepped further away. The men not carrying the lanterns held bows and spears. Some had knives strapped to their legs.

  Molev moved forward. He carried a spear along with my bag.

  “I thought you only used your weapons for hunting,” I said, the words coming out slightly slurred.

  He handed me the bottle.

  “I’m not thirsty,” I said.

  “You need to drink, Mya. Please,” Drav said.

  I sighed and took a tiny sip before passing the bottle back.

  “Leaving with lanterns is usually enough to keep the hounds away. However, we generally hunt in the crystal caverns. This time, we will travel through the dark ones. We will need both the lanterns and the weapons to keep you safe.”

  “You say that as if you don’t like the idea of killing them.” The effort of the words had me closing my eyes briefly.

  “Because
, even with weapons, we can’t kill them. We can only slow them and make it take longer for them to heal.”

  Leaving the city walls should have terrified me. Instead, I only felt relief. We were finally making our way to the surface. To my family. To the survivors who needed our help.

  Drav looked up at the men. “The larger crystals poison her quicker. She can endure the smaller from a distance.”

  Molev nodded.

  “You will carry her at our center. Those with the lanterns will form a circle around us in the open caves. In the tunnels and cross ways, the lanterns will move to the front and the back. Those of us with spears will guard the lantern bearers. Those with arrows will remain closest to Drav and Mya.”

  I shivered slightly in Drav’s arms.

  “We must leave,” he said. “She’s warming again. No stopping. No rests.”

  “No rests? Won’t you get tired?” I asked.

  He met my worried gaze.

  “Resting in dark caves is too dangerous, and I fear what resting in crystal caves would do to you.”

  All good points, which made me feel guilty as hell.

  “If you get tired, don’t be stubborn. Ask someone else to carry me for a bit.”

  He grunted, and I knew he’d never willingly let someone else carry me.

  “Are you ready?” Molev asked.

  Drav nodded. The two men by the gate removed the brace. The barking outside the wall grew more intense. Two other men scurried up the ladders and uncovered lanterns on top of the wall. Yipping and snarls drew further away, and the men by the gate started pulling the rock slab open. Those with lanterns crowded near the gap.

  In the darkness beyond, I could see the multitude of glowing red eyes, and my heart started to thump heavily in my chest.

  “I will keep you safe,” Drav vowed, pressing a kiss to my head.

  I said nothing, just watched the first of the lantern carriers slip outside the wall followed by the men with spears. When more than half the group had left, the rest stood aside. Drav walked forward. I closed my eyes against the feel of the crystals on the wall as we passed through the opening. Part of me considered keeping them closed, but I had to know what we faced. What I saw terrified me.

  A sea of blinking red dots circled our group, kept at bay by the weak light of the lanterns and the sharp ends of spears. As Drav moved forward, so too did the lantern bearers at the front.

  “Is everyone out?” Molev asked. He held a position near the front, spear in hand.

  “Yes,” someone said from behind us. I looked back and saw we stood in the center of a lantern circle. The gate rumbled closed behind us, and the lanterns disappeared from the top of the wall.

  “We run and we don’t stop,” Molev said.

  Eighteen

  Drav started running and the sixty men around us moved with him, a protective barrier against the growing mass of writhing black bodies hungry for flesh.

  A hound, keeping pace just outside the circle of light, darted in toward a lantern carrier. The creature screamed in pain as the crystal’s glow bathed its coarse fur, but didn’t stop its charge. The carrier saw it coming. His gait remained steady until the last possible second when he jumped mid-stride. A spear pierced the hound’s side. The spear bearer, who I hadn’t noticed, hoisted the hound and threw it off the end of the spear into the dark.

  Seeing one of their own wounded and tossed aside sent the rest into a frenzy. The baying and snarls grew deafening. More darted in, attempting to bring down the lantern bearers and extinguish the light. The men with bows and spears kept the hounds at bay.

  Molev yelled something into the din, but I couldn’t make it out.

  A moment later, two of the lantern bearers at the front moved closer to each other while the next two stopped altogether. It took a second to understand why. We were running through two enormous columns. The two who’d stayed behind stood on the outside of the columns, keeping the darkness and hounds back as the rest passed through.

  After the columns, nothing separated us from the first dark cavern. Almost as if the hounds sensed they were losing their prey, half their number darted forward toward the abyss.

  “Do not let them reach the cavern first,” Molev yelled.

  Drav tensed and leaned into his run, picking up speed. The lantern bearers in the front did their best to reach the cavern entrance first, but missed it by at least a dozen hounds. Red eyes glowed in the darkness ahead as the men continued forward. The men waved the lanterns, forcing the hounds back. The hoarse yowls echoed around us as the light hit them.

  The hounds behind kept a healthy distance from the crystals, not that I blamed them. The lanterns, even though a distance from me, still made my head ache and my stomach twist.

  Despite the agony it caused them, a few hell hounds charged forward, sharp, yellowed teeth flashing in the green light before a spear or arrow whistled through the air. A meaty thud followed. The men kept their pace, veering to the right, out of the dark lush sub cavern and into the barren cool darkness of a cavern void of crystals.

  Although I felt an immediate degree of relief, I couldn’t enjoy it. I knew where we were. This stark cavern belonged to the hounds.

  A pained yell came from behind us. I itched to glance over Drav’s shoulder, but his words stopped me.

  “Do not look back, Mya. He will rise at the pool and join the others.”

  I heeded Drav’s warning and lay my head back on his shoulder. The fever still lingered, and I felt exhausted. Drav held me securely against him, but it didn’t stop the throbbing pain that shot through my head with each stride. Although, the darkness eased the worst of my pain, the crystal lanterns that surrounded us guaranteed my fever would slowly return.

  Drav misstepped and lurched forward. Bile rose to the back of my throat at the movement, and I fought not to throw up.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, not stopping.

  “Yes. If you need the lanterns closer—”

  “No. I can see well enough. There’s another entrance ahead.”

  The men picked up speed together and raced for it, creating distance between us and the pack of hellhounds.

  As soon as we emerged from the other end of the passageway, all sounds of pursuit abruptly ceased. I shivered and wondered what that meant while I struggled to see where we were.

  This cavern, too, had no crystals. The absence of that stronger light continued to prevent the pain in my head from increasing, despite the smaller green shards around us. However, those shards proved too small for the complete nothingness in this cave.

  The darkness swam in, like an unsuspecting fog. It rolled around us until we were submerged. From the echoing glow of the furthest crystal, I could only see shadows outlining Drav’s chest and my hand, if I brought it close enough to my face.

  The silence settled around us. Even with the sound of the men’s feet hitting the compact floor, the quiet heightened my anxiety.

  A hollow howl suddenly came from behind us a moment before the burst of noise echoed off the stone walls. The never-ending sound boomed in my ears. I stiffened in Drav’s arms, but he didn’t even flinch. The hounds had entered the cavern and passed through whatever barrier had kept their pursuit quiet from us.

  A few of the lanterns swayed haphazardly before I spotted the first set of red eyes.

  The hounds surged forward, a mass of angry predators closing in on their prey. The first scream made me jump. More yells from the men who fought filled the cavern.

  I watched another lantern bearer fall away into the dark. The man behind him, ran faster to fill in the space and close the circle around us.

  “Keep moving forward,” Molev called out from nearby.

  The men didn’t stop running. But the darkness remained unchanged as if we didn’t make any progress at all. Slinking shapes kept pace in the lanterns glow. Exaggerated shadows of the hounds stretched and twisted. One moment, there; the next, gone.

  The men switched directions, avoiding the
shadows when they appeared. An arrow whistled in the air, and I tucked myself closer to Drav.

  Two men suddenly went down, seemingly yanked into the darkness by nothing. A howl followed their disappearance. There were shouts from the back of the group, and we began to slow down. The scrape of nails against the stone ground and heavy panting surrounded us.

  I peeked over Drav’s shoulder and saw a flash of red eyes. The hounds were herding our group, trying to separate us from the two who had fallen.

  “Keep moving,” Molev called out again, his voice heavy with regret.

  One of the men let out a cry cut off by a wet gurgle. I shuddered, knowing the sound would haunt me in my nightmares.

  “The men will return to the pool, inside the city. They will be safe,” Drav said.

  “Will they remember their deaths?”

  Drav didn’t answer, and I knew they would. Being ripped apart by a hound would be a terrible thing to remember for eternity.

  The hounds’ efforts grew more intense in the next cavern.

  Molev ran up next to Drav and spoke to him quietly in their language. I hated that they were keeping things from me, but I was still too tired to protest.

  “No,” Drav said firmly.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Molev wishes to take a detour through one of the lit caverns.”

  I thought of the number of hounds following us and the men we’d lost. They were picking us off slowly. It would only be a matter of time before the hounds tried something braver. Although I understood the fallen men weren’t really dead, the thought of Kerr, Shax, or Ghua getting hurt before we reached the surface worried me.

  And then, of course, there was Drav. The thought of something bad happening to him broke me. I couldn’t bear it. If his safety meant I would have to be in a bit more discomfort for a while, I could stand it.

  Besides, the men were the ones that would get me to the surface. Without them, I would be lost.

  “It’s the smartest idea.”

  “No, you are still hot.”

  “I’ll be okay. All these dark caves have helped. Passing through a light cave will win us some safety and breathing room. I promise to tell you the moment I start to feel worse.”