We plummeted several feet before his free hand grabbed hold of the wall and we jolted to a stop. I did my best to keep my wings close to my body as Archer swung and jumped from the wall to catch a hold lower down. With every release from the wall, my stomach shot up into my throat. I clung to his shoulders and tried not to scream. I only whimpered twice, I swear.
I thought he'd put me down when we reached the ground but he kept his arm tight around my waist and ran full tilt down the hall. I was beginning to feel like Fay Wray in King Kong.
"Archer put me down."
"No time." He voice came out surprisingly clear for someone running full tilt while carrying me. "We have to get to the other side of the mountain and off the rocks before we can travel." We were at the boulder covered doorway.
"Hang on."
Without missing a step, he twisted me around his body, so I was on his back. I wrapped my legs around his waist and held onto his shoulders, keeping my head close to his back.
The boulder practically exploded out of the doorway. I guess it was easier going out than coming in. Archer made a sharp move to the left and started scaling the rock face.
"Holy shit, you're strong!" I shouted.
Archer grunted and kept climbing. We were moving up and sideways, and he was covering major ground. The mountain was big, but Archer was stronger. He scaled a third of the way around and then dropped down to a path below. The path was narrow but unobstructed, letting him run full out with me on his back.
Up ahead, rocks began to flow down the mountainside. They were quickly filling the path.
"She knows what we're doing. Hold on!" He shouted and picked up speed. I looked left and saw a large boulder bearing down on us. Archer kept running, and the boulder kept coming.
"Archer!" I screamed.
The boulder hit the path in front of us. With a shout and a call of power, Archer stepped up the side of the passage and leapt into the air. He was trying to jump the boulder, but when my wings felt the air beneath them, they spread out behind me. I whispered in Archer's ear.
"It's my turn."
My wings were strong and eager as they pulled us higher into the sky. Archer reached up and wrapped his arms around mine, strengthening our hold. I flew high over the rocky pathways, and soon we were out over the mountain’s slope.
"There she is," he said, his voice even and cold.
I chanced a look back and saw Mhyr standing at the mountain's edge with hate in her eyes. She locked eyes with me and then, guessing our plan, practically threw herself down the slope.
"What is her problem!?" I bellowed into the wind as I dropped into a dive.
The wind cut at our faces as I flew as fast as I could to green valley below.
A little too fast. We were going to crash.
“Shit!” I screamed.
"Tuck and roll," Archer said calmly.
I had just enough time to figure out what he was talking about, draw in my wings and mould myself to his body. He pulled our bodies into a ball, and we somersaulted across the grass, my body stuck to his like glue.
We rolled once, twice, and on the third, we Travelled.
33
Archer must be some kind of Travelling wizard because we were through the time tunnel instantly. It was amazing. No weird lights, screaming wind or long minutes glued to his body... Okay, it had a downside.
We hit the ground hard and kept rolling. I got flashes of sandy ground and a jet black sky as we somersaulted before Archer unfurled his body and vaulted me into the air. My wings opened, and I was able to bring myself softly to the ground with my feet planted squarely. Archer was by my side as I touched down. He gestured at me to be silent and took my hand. I followed him at a jog into a nearby rocky inlet.
"Why are we back on the mountain?" I whispered harshly. He didn't answer me. "Ar.."
"No." His hand covered my mouth, his voice was barely audible. "No names here. We are not back on the mountain. We are near the mouth of the City of Caves." He dropped his hand. "Take in your surroundings before judging them." He moved forward between the rocks. "And tuck in those wings or we will be spotted."
I chewed back the many unsaid words trying to escape my mouth and did as I was told. I also vowed that I would learn as much as I could about the ways of the Void, and how to fight, so I would never have to take orders from him again. It’s good to have goals.
I looked at the stone around me. This was not the cold grey of the mountain side or the light lime of its interior. This rock was a multitude of deep orange stripes and yellowing beige ribbons. We were in a deep, narrow cavern with the sensual curves that can only be formed by years of flowing water. It was freezing, and I was glad for the thick leather covering my torso. The short blades on my forearms were a comforting weight.
Up the path, Archer was crouched behind a boulder; I jogged over and hunkered down beside him. He pointed at an area to the left of the rock and then sat back on his heels so I could crawl in front and take a look. Evidently, Archer wasn't used to a girlfriend with wings because he didn't leave me enough room and was knocked backwards as I moved around the boulder. He grunted heavily as he fell back onto his ass and I was glad it was too dark for him to see the smile on my face.
I kept low and peeked around the rock. We were maybe fifteen feet above a large sandy clearing. A crumbling set of carved stone steps descended before us. The clearing was surrounded on all sides by walls of rock that reached high into the sky. I could see that there were carvings on these walls, but from our hiding place I couldn't make them out. In the distance, maybe a hundred paces away, was the entrance to the City of Caves.
There was no mistaking it. The doorway itself was a rectangular hole that looked like it had been fashioned by heating the rock until it was as soft as taffy and then stretching it apart. The edges smooth and pulled back like the skin of an animal that had been recently butchered. The stone looked as shiny as raw meat in the firelight.
There was a lot of fire here.
Above the opening was a lantern that threw long licks of fire up into the sky. It was joined by two tall torches with equally violent flames, on either side of the entryway. On the ground before the entrance was a large fire pit. The flames here were tinged with blue and were being stoked by a very muscular minion with a very weighty spear.
"Blue flame?" shouted a voice emerging from the entrance. It belonged to an equally muscular minion who was dragging a mace beside him. "Why didn't you sound the alarm?"
"Alarm?" I whispered, and Archer was instantly beside me. We moulded ourselves to each other and the rock and kept listening.
"Bah!" replied the minion with the spear. "It's barely blue, probably an animal or two roaming through the rocks." The other minion had joined him at the fire. "Could be a nice bit of sport for us, eh?"
"Could be..." The minion with the mace didn't sound convinced.
"Relax Marti. In all our time at these gates, we've never caught more than a coyote." He pulled a flask from somewhere and took a long drink before passing it to his friend. "Have a drink." He burped, loudly. "Go on."
"You're right, Cord." He took the flask. "And when you're right, you’re right." He took a deep drink and passed it back. "What we need is a night off to go hunting. To really let our hair down."
They laughed heartily.
"You've watched too many humans!" Cord said between bouts of laughter.
"I sure have," Marti replied, equally jovial, "But they're so pink, how can I resist?"
This elicited more laughter from the pair, and they passed the flask back and forth again. Archer nodded over his shoulder, and we moved back from the rock.
"How are we going to get past them?" His voice held the tone of someone thinking out loud.
"That's strong stuff," I said. We could hear the minions' laughter growing louder. "It should help us out."
"How so?" Archer's attention had snapped back to me with an almost physical intensity.
"Well, it'll slow them dow
n. Make them less responsive." A plan was forming as I spoke. "We just need them to get a little drunker and then we sweep down fast and take them out."
"A blitz attack," he mused.
"It could work."
"I think it is the best chance we have," he agreed. "How quickly can you get down there?"
"I don't know, those stairs don't look very safe, and I'm not great with running."
“You have to stop forgetting your wings," Archer grumbled.
"Oh!" I looked over my shoulder at them. Their colours were pale in the semi-darkness. "Why do I keep doing that?"
"I don't know," he replied dryly.
"It was a rhetorical question, thank you," I snapped back. Archer leant forward and kissed me on the mouth.
"I'm sorry." He smiled.
"Thank you," I whispered. I pulled back from him and as if with one mind, our game faces snapped into place. "I can be at the entrance in three seconds."
“Good,” he replied.
Archer crawled back down the path and into the deeper shadows, I followed him. Once we were in complete darkness we got to our feet and, as he talked, we checked our weapons were secure. I also made sure the straps of my top were tied tightly. I really didn't need a wardrobe malfunction in a dark pit of bloodthirsty minions.
"You will leap off the rock and into the air. It will draw their attention. Go high, it will pull them together and away from the door, and dive down on them fast. I will sprint around behind them and break their necks before you touch the ground." He stopped messing with his weapons and looked at me. "Don't worry." He smiled. "You'll get to kill plenty of things inside."
"That's what I'm afraid of," I mumbled, which is pretty hard to do when you're already whispering.
"On three," he said.
"Yep,” I answered and turned towards the dark open space at the end of the path.
"One."
Oh, man.
"Two."
Am I really doing this?
"Three."
34
I sprinted down the path and with a short flap of my wings jumped onto the boulder and then leapt into the air.
The cold night air coated my body, and without instruction, my wings spread and drew me higher into the sky. I heard the minions below cry out, and the sound of two pairs of tiny stomping feet met my ears. As I soared to the centre of the clearing I looked down and saw that our plan was working. The minions were in front of the fire and moving drunkenly towards me, their weapons raised but unsteady. I hovered in the air above them.
"Get down, you freak!" Marti yelled, brandishing his mace.
"Yeah!" joined Cord. "Come down and fight!"
His spear pointed wildly as he stumbled around. He attempted to jab the air, stumbled, did a pirouette, and smacked Marti on the ass with his spear. Marti bellowed, throwing his arms into the air. This caused his mace to swing around and smack Cord in the face. Cord dropped to the ground like a stone and slumped over his spear which was sticking up towards Marti, who turned and yelled at the sight of his fallen comrade, throwing his arms in the air again, which set the mace a swinging again. It shot up and back in an arch, smacking him in the head. Knocked out cold, he fell forward, impaling himself on the spear.
"Wow," I whispered.
I flew down to the minions and took a closer look. Neither was breathing.
"Wow." I shook my head at the two creatures; dark fluid was oozing from their many wounds.
"What happened?" Archer was at my side.
"I should be asking you that. Where were you?"
"I fell down the stairs." He said the words very quickly, and I had to ask him to repeat himself. He sighed and then hung his head slightly. "I fell down the stairs."
"Reeeeeaaally?" I stretched out the word and let my smugness saturate every syllable.
"Aren't you going to ask if I'm okay?" he asked, his tone decidedly pouty.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes," he said grimly. He turned back to the minions. "Now, what happened to them?"
"Well, the first one accidentally smacked the second one, who accidentally smacked him back, killing him, and then he accidentally smacked himself which made him fall forward onto the spear." I sighed heavily. "It was like a macabre version of Dumb and Dumber."
“I am going to assume that is some human thing and ignore it."
I rolled my eyes. Archer squared his shoulders and looked at the entrance to the caves, in the firelight his eyes were piercing silver. His gaze remained steadily focused on the dark entrance as he spoke.
"It is time. You must keep your wits about you. What you see in there,” Archer's voice faltered slightly. "What you see me do, will change you. I will do my best to save your hands from shedding blood,"
I cut him off.
"I asked you here, ah..." I almost said his name but managed to stop the word. "I take the risk knowingly." I took his hand in mine, his eyes never strayed from the gate, but he squeezed my hand tightly. "I am so glad you are here to help me. Thank you."
Sadness flitted across his face.
"You must stay close to me." He turned to me. "Promise me."
"I promise."
That word held so much power here. Like an invisible thread, power wove its way through my body, across the space between us and into Archer. I felt it entwine itself around his heart, binding him to me. Archer shivered.
"Then let us go."
He dropped my hand and began striding towards the entrance to the caves.
35
Although the night sky was bright with stars and torches burned either side of the entrance brightly, the second we passed through the giant stone arch all light vanished. I turned swiftly on my heel to look back towards the entrance and saw only inky blackness.
“Shit,” I whispered.
Archer was beside me, his voice low as he spoke, his face inches from my ear.
"It is their way."
"But I can't frigging see!" I said, not hiding the panic that was creeping into my voice.
"Open your mind. Use your power to see."
"How?" I was starting to feel desperate.
"First,” he took my hand in the dark. "Breathe."
I hadn't realised I was holding my breath. Most people hyperventilate when they're scared. Not me. I just hold my breath until I pass out. I took a deep breath and let it out as slowly as I could. It wasn't quite yoga class slow, but it was definitely helping. After a few deep breaths, Archer spoke.
"Good." He squeezed my hand. "Now open the part of you that can see the portals."
"But how do I...." Archer cut me off.
"Just make the request of your power, trust yourself."
"Okay."
I let out yet another deep, slow breath and focused my intention on the centre of my body, where my power resided. I couldn't tell in the all-consuming darkness if I'd closed my eyes, but it didn't matter, the power in me responded to my call and began to stretch and fill my body.
"Good."
Archer breathed the word against my neck and the power in me pulsed more strongly. I called out to it with a single word; sight. I asked it of myself and the strange and wonderful energies that moved through me, and as the word tumbled through my mind, the pieces of me became one.
My eyes had been open after all.
The first thing I saw was the silver of Archer's bare chest, it gleamed. Everything moved before me in a grey scale with shimmers of colour that clung to different parts of him. The place where his ribs could be removed, his hands, the sword at his back, they all shimmered with a deep purple aura. Gradually my normal sight took over, the blackness of the tunnel disappeared, and I could see the torches that lined the walls, the cold grey stone that the tunnel had been carved into. I looked into Archer's face and watched a grim smile flit across it.
"A spell?" I asked. He answered with a brief nod.
"We must get moving."
I kept close to him as we proceeded down the rough stone passage. The wal
ls and floor were moist. There must be a major water source down here, I thought. Even with the spell lifted the place was still dark; torches were spaced along the wall at intervals just wide enough to make dark, shadowy moments between them.
We continued in silence. Archer's arms were loose at his sides, belying the tension I could feel radiating from him. His swords hung crossed on his back, their hilts gleamed in the torchlight and in the silence of the passage I could almost hear them singing to be set free. My own hands were like rigid claws at my sides. My sword was hidden behind my hair, and my wings were tucked tightly to my body like a dog with its tail between its legs. I was very scared. The place was quiet, too quiet. I had heard mention of such terrible things here, and yet there was nothing but a seemingly unending passage that snaked deeper into the earth. I called out to Archer in a harsh whisper.
"Hey!"
He kept walking. I raced forwarded and grabbed his shoulder.
"Hey!"
It happened so quickly I thought I'd dreamt it. One second my hand was on Archer's shoulder, the next I was pinned to the wall, his silver hand around my throat.
"What the f..." I choked out. His hand spasmed around my neck and then released me. I slid to the ground and my wings wrapped around me as I rubbed my throat.
"I'm so sorry." Archer was against the opposite wall, breathing very hard. "I told you this place would bring out another side of me."
"Oh yeah, blame the victim," I said with venom. Apparently, this was another mistake on my part.
"This place is evil!" Archer had pulled apart my wings and was inches from my face. His normally tranquil silver eyes had turned a dark black. I stayed perfectly still as he spoke. "Can't you feel it?" He sniffed the air. "It smells like blood." He moved back from me. "I should never have come here."
I spoke as calmly as I could.
"You don't have to stay."
Although the prospect of being alone in these tunnels scared the crap out of me, Archer's reaction scared me even more. I did not need him freaking out on me when the fighting started.
Bounty Of Ash (The Phoenix Series Book 2) Page 13
