by Serena Chase
Casting spears from halo’s rim. I gazed up at the stalactites and repeated the stanza again. It’s not a crown, the realization dawned slowly, it’s a halo! This chamber was Halo’s Rim.
Fire returns from foreign lair to call down defense unimpaired. There was fire on the Cobelds’ torches, but perhaps the poetry referred to a more proper noun.
Me.
But how could I do what it asked? Never in my life had I been so impaired!
The answer was, I couldn’t. Not yet.
My uselessness grated against the desire to help my friends. Above me was a rim of spears that, with a little help, might serve as a most effective weapon if only I could fully regain my faculties.
Embral e’ Veria . . . my heart whispered the request.
A tingling sensation traveled from the base of my skull to the tips of my fingers and down my spine, tickling slightly as it passed through my knees and into my toes. Little by little, my strength returned. I sat up.
“Stay down!” Julien shouted.
I fell back into my previous position, but when I turned my head, I met the blank stare of Sir Risson, who lay beside me with a Cobeld arrow through his heart. His expression, in death, was so reminiscent of Sir Kile’s that I gasped and recoiled.
“Get down!”
I obeyed and my gaze touched the stalactites again. Offering another quick request toward Rynloeft, I shouted, “Julien! Let them surround us!”
He did not turn. “If we do that we block our only route of escape!”
“Look up, Julien! This is Halo’s Rim! Trust me. I know what to do!”
I tried to look beyond my protectors, but they had blocked me well enough that I couldn’t even see the Cobelds.
Julien’s head tilted slightly upward. I felt his hesitation, but finally he shouted out the command, “Surround the Ryn!”
The Cobelds shrieked, as if hearing the proof of my existence caused them physical agony.
Pushing to my feet, I stood within the center of my protectors, whose swords and bodies insulated me from the threat. On Julien’s command they tightened the circle so that we were just inside the rim of spears hanging high above our heads.
“Edru! Dyfnel!” I shouted. Help me call down the spears on our enemies!
Loosen your hold, I synchronized my thoughts with Dyfnel and Edru, who, at the same time, were using their minds to repel the Cobelds’ arrows. We repeated the command to each individual spear, and as we did, the glittering stalactites quivered. A shower of dust sprinkled down.
On my signal, I said to the Andoven men. I took a deep breath and quickly checked to make sure all my friends were out of the path of Shireya’s spears.
Now! I signaled the Andoven men and then turned my attention to the spears. RELEASE!
A great renting of stone made me cover my ears as the naturally formed spears fell from the ceiling.
I flinched. I guess I must have closed my eyes, too, because I found myself having to open them.
I was covered in glittering dust, as were my companions. The circle of them loosened and I finally saw the enemy.
There weren’t as many as I had feared. Only about a dozen. The stalactites had impaled several of the Cobelds, killing them on impact. The rest were imprisoned either beneath or behind the glimmering bars, but none still had a weapon in hand, other than their cursed beards, of course. And at this distance, they were not a threat.
Someone coughed, and then all was quiet but for the soft falling of a few dislodged stones.
We pulled up the necks of our shirts to cover our mouths and noses from the cloud of dust that filled the air. The few Cobelds who still lived were safely out of reach, but when I looked to the left, one passageway was miraculously clear of both Cobelds and fallen stalactites. I closed my eyes and sent a word of thanks to The First. When I opened them, Dyfnel crouched by Risson’s body, his fingers to the knight’s neck.
Tears filled my eyes as he glanced at Julien and shook his head.
“This way is clear.” Erielle’s voice shook as she moved toward the opening. She coughed and a tear traced a path through the dust on her face.
I took a step toward her and stumbled. I looked around. Each one of my fellows had also lost their balance for a moment. A shower of pebbles fell from the ceiling. The floor rumbled.
Julien sheathed his sword and grabbed my hand. “The ceiling’s going to collapse! Let’s go!”
Edru looked behind us. “What about Sir Risson’s . . . body?”
Julien glanced at me and squeezed my hand. “It would appear Rynloeft has arranged for his burial. We must go. Now. Risson would not have been happy to think he slowed our passage to safety.”
Edru nodded. We picked up our torches and, with Erielle in the lead, sprinted down the passage, followed by the high-pitched shrieks of the dying Cobelds.
Moments later, another vibration shook the floor beneath our feet, followed by a crashing roar that left no question in any of our minds concerning how narrowly we had escaped.
Julien kept a firm grip on my left hand as we raced after Erielle, but I was forced to wipe my right arm across my eyes several times to be able to see the path ahead. Our group of adventurers had become a family of sorts these past weeks, and although he wasn’t the highest ranked among us, Risson had been the unofficial patriarch of that family. Even though I knew it wasn’t Risson, but only the shell of him that would be buried with the Cobelds, sorrow chased me as we ran from Risson’s tomb.
I hated that we had left Risson’s body to be buried alongside the traitors he had so valiantly fought, but I was comforted to know that while his body might be entombed among them, the knight himself had already been borne away.
As evidenced by the departure of his colors, the bright and joyful passing of his very essence into the next realm, I was comforted knowing that Sir Risson now served a greater King than Jarryn of E’veria. Now and forevermore, Sir Risson de Sair would serve as a Knight of the First.
In my mind, I counted marks we had passed. Two of those six marks had been identified as such by Risson. What would we do without him when there were so many left to find? We’d yet to find the strangely warm water, the lone voice chorus, the brine, the pool, or . . . the place where I would be forced to go on alone.
Risson was not only a careful, intelligent, and observant knight, he was my friend. And I would not get the chance to thank him for his service this side of Rynloeft.
Before that moment I wouldn’t have thought it possible to run and weep at the same time, but it was. It was some consolation to know that Sir Gladiel and Uncle Drinius were safely out of the enemy’s grasp, but that relief was tempered by wondering who else we might be forced to leave behind before our journey was through.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
We came around a corner of the passage and the height of the ceiling dropped dramatically. Julien let go of my hand. It was hard to keep our balance, having to bend over as we were.
Like an icy needle had been driven into it, sudden pain stabbed my inner ear. I gasped, switched my torch to the other hand, and pressed my right hand against the pain.
“Rynnaia, what is it?” Julien paused and turned to me.
“My ear.” I closed my eyes and grit my teeth as the invisible needle jabbed me again.
“Breathe, Rynnaia.”
There was a slight edge to Julien’s words, almost as if he thought I couldn’t obey his command.
I inhaled through my nose and the cold, dusty air of the passage went straight up, pinching my temples with razor sharp claws. I exhaled with a wince.
“What’s wrong?” Kinley said behind us. His voice held the same dangerous and fearful tone as Julien’s.
“Pain in her ear,” Julien said tersely.
As suddenly as it had come, the pain left me. I pulled my hand away and held the torch up to my fingers. “Is that . . . blood?”
“Yes.”
A vibration tickled the bottom of my feet.
“Go
!” Gerrias shouted from the rear of our line. “The passage is collapsing!”
Julien nearly ripped my arm out of its socket as he pulled me forward. Even bent over as we were, urgency drove us faster, though our velocity was rather awkwardly won. Soon we had nearly caught up to Erielle. Dust clouded over us so much that we didn’t even notice the ceiling had risen again until the passage doubled in width, allowing the explosion of dust to effuse throughout the larger space.
The passage twisted and turned, widened and narrowed, but we continued to run until a splash sounded directly ahead of us, stealing Erielle from sight.
“Erielle!” Julien stopped short at the edge of the water.
Erielle’s head bobbed up. She flailed for something to grab on to and found Julien’s hand. He pulled her up with such force that, had the ceiling been any lower, she might have been slammed against it.
She gagged and coughed. When she pulled her hand away, she looked at it. “Blast! I dropped my torch.” She coughed again.
Julien peered into the water and I joined him at the edge. Erielle’s tirandite torch was little more than a tiny line of light at the bottom of this small but deep pool.
When everyone else caught up, they circled the water.
Whereas the stream and river we had swum through before was mossy and murky, this was, quite possibly, the clearest, cleanest water I had ever seen. It was as if a perfect cylinder had been drilled out of a vertical vein of white marble and filled with warm, melted snow. Were it not for the ripples Erielle had caused by falling in, the pool would have been entirely still.
I stuck my hand into the water and then I pulled it out and rubbed my fingers together. This liquid water had a slickness to it that was unlike the other waters we had found inside the mountain.
“It’s warm,” I said. “And slick. Like the sea.”
A dive through waters strangely warm, I thought. Yet another verse of Lady Anya’s poetry, another mark along our quest.
“Another landmark,” Edru agreed, nodding.
Julien cupped a handful of water and brought it to his lips, but immediately spit it out. “Saltwater.”
Gerrias made a face. “Warm saltwater in the middle of a mountain?” He shook his head. “Shireya certainly does not shirk from the odd, does it?”
“This could be the ‘long-sought brine,’” Dyfnel said, peering over the side. “Bless Anya’s quill, it’s deep, though.”
“Well, we couldn’t very well dive if it were shallow,” Kinley shrugged. Before he’d finished speaking, his boots were off and on their way inside his pack. “I’ll go look around.”
Taking a deep breath, Kinley dove. He swam a circle and then paused to kick himself deeper, where he repeated the circle. When he came back up he took Julien’s hand to get out of the pool.
“I’ve found an opening,” he said after he had caught his breath. “It’s on the right, about as far down as the distance from the balcony to the floor in the Grand Hall at Holiday Palace. But it’s very narrow. We can only hope that it isn’t too lengthy.”
A narrow, underwater tunnel. I fought the chill that crept across my shoulders. At least, I thought, gazing at the tiny line of light at the pool’s floor, we won’t have to swim as far down as where Erielle’s torch rests to reach it.
“I’ll go first and see where it leads,” he said. “After I catch my breath, I’ll come back and report.”
I swallowed. “Kinley, what if . . . ?”
If the passage was long, Kinley might run out of breath before he found open air again.
“If it looks like I won’t be able to make it to the end, I’ll come back and we can look for another opening.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “I promise. But I’m going to try to make it.”
I nodded.
“Two should go,” Gerrias said and then sat down to remove his boots and stow them in his pack. “One of us will stay and guard the passage exit, the other will come back to lead you to it.”
He didn’t wait for approval, but dove in and headed straight for the opening and disappeared inside. A moment later, Kinley dove back in and followed.
Warmth radiated up from the pool, but I found myself shivering. So much had happened in such a short time. In truth, I had no idea how much time had passed while I was engaged in opening Drinius and Gladiel’s cell, but in that time we had not only come across a band of Cobelds, but lost a member of our group. In that time we had also found two more distinct markers toward finding the Remedy.
I mentally checked the list of landmarks we’d already encountered against the scrolls and then sighed.
“Do you think helping with my father’s rescue was one of your tasks?” Erielle asked.
I had been so caught up in counting the marks—nine marks, of which, if my count was correct, we’d found seven—that I had nearly forgotten about the promised three tasks that would, according to the scrolls, “prey” upon me.
I was slow to nod. “Perhaps,” I said finally. “The process of disengaging the Cobeld’s hair from the lock had a very . . . predatory feeling about it. And speaking of your father, I’m going to contact Harbyn to make sure he and Drinius are safe.”
Not only were the knights and other prisoners safe—even now they were in the care of medics—our forces had taken the fortress. Everyone cheered when I relayed the information, but it was Erielle’s whoop that made me wince. My hand rose again to my bloody ear. Not because it hurt, but because that ear, which was closest to Erielle, had not registered the sound as clearly as the other. It throbbed and ached, to be sure. But I couldn’t tell if it had heard.
Had I lost my hearing in that ear entirely? I covered my other ear. No, there was still at least a little registry of sound. I could hear Dyfnel and Edru’s quiet conversation, but it wasn’t until I uncovered my “good” ear that I could make out the words.
So I hadn’t come away from that battle as unscathed as I’d thought. Was my injury permanent? Were any other parts of me damaged? I wrapped my arms about my middle as my insides quivered, remembering the cold that had almost taken my life.
When my teeth chattered, Julien pulled me away from the edge of the pool and wrapped me in his arms. He ran a hand over my hair. “Shh,” he whispered, though I knew he wasn’t telling me to be quiet. “Shh.”
I turned and buried my face in his chest. His arms tightened around me and a mild tremor passed through his frame. I looked up.
“I should never have let you try to unlock those cells,” he whispered.
“It was worth it. Your father and Uncle Drinius are free.”
He ran two fingers down the side of my face, pausing near my ear. “I thought I’d lost you,” he said. “Your breathing grew shallow. Your body seized, thrashing so violently that Gerrias could no longer carry you. It took all of us to restrain you.”
He took in a ragged breath. “When the seizures finally stopped, blood ran from your ear, your nose, and your mouth. Even Dyfnel didn’t know what to do. Finally, at Edru’s suggestion, we petitioned The First. We joined our hands and placed them on you and called for help, but—” Julien’s voice broke. “You stopped breathing.”
“And then the Cobelds were upon us,” Erielle said. “We had to fight.” When I looked over at her she tilted her head. “Rynnaia, what happened to you?”
A brief sensation, a memory of the torture the Cobeld hair had inflicted upon me, made my knees go weak. Julien’s embrace was the only thing that kept me from falling.
“I received a Cobeld curse,” I said finally. “But it doesn’t matter now. I was rescued, your father is free, and The First has been proven faithful once again.”
“Just don’t do it again, all right?” Erielle’s eyes filled. “You scared me to death.”
Julien lifted my chin. “Are you still cold?”
“A little.” I wasn’t sure it was cold that made me shiver, but Julien’s arms were welcome. When he touched his lips to my forehead, the light kiss drove the chill away, replacing it with co
mfort.
As we waited for Kinley or Gerrias to return, I followed the example of my friends and petitioned The First on their behalf. Give them strength, I begged. It seemed like an eternity had passed, but as I waited, my own strength returned. Give them breath enough to make it through.
I took a deep breath and loosened my hold on Julien’s waist. Restlessness drew me to the edge of the pool.
I gazed at my reflection in the now-still water. Streaks of dried blood traced a rusty path from my nose and ear, even from the corner of my mouth. They jagged across my face and neck in a macabre pattern of death denied.
The swim to come would surely wash them away, but I couldn’t wait to rid myself of the reminder of the agony I had suffered. How had my mother lived through nineteen years of a Cobeld curse? No wonder she was so weak. It was a miracle she was alive at all.
Dipping my hand into the water, I rubbed it across my face and neck, washing away the blood. I grit my teeth against the salty sting where unknown abrasions announced their presence.
“How long has it been?” Edru voiced the concern on all our minds.
“Too long,” Julien frowned and began unlacing his boots.
“No,” Erielle put her hand on his arm. “Give them more time before you go chasing after them. What if you met them head-on in the tunnel? What would you do then, swim backward?”
Julien clenched his teeth, but nodded. “We should try to be ready, though. We don’t want to leave anyone alone for long.” He glanced sideways at me. I knew he wouldn’t mention the Cobeld attack or Risson’s death, but like me, he wondered if more of the same awaited us farther in.
We each removed our boots and put them in our packs, and then the five of us sat on the edge of the pool with our feet dangling in the warm water. It was a soothing, almost stolen luxury after all we had faced in the last hours. But still, it was difficult to relax not knowing if Kinley and Gerrias were safely through.
“Look!” Erielle cried. “I think there’s something down there!” And then, “It’s Kinley!”
A moment later, Kinley burst from the surface. Julien and Erielle each grabbed one of his hands and hefted him out of the water. For several long moments he simply lay face down on the stone floor and gasped. Finally, he rolled over onto his back.
