As they made their way down the sloping, rock-strewn path toward the floor of the chamber, Dayn began to notice things, familiar things. There were massive paintings splashed across the walls, much like those that decorated the Pavilion back home. Cracked and faded by time, sections of them were difficult to decipher; fragments had broken free of their rocky foundations and crumbled to the earth below. But there were faces there—he could see them—golden-haired, pale-eyed faces. Faces like his. Then he saw, on the opposite walls, faces with dark hair and eyes. Two peoples, light on one side, dark on the other, had been here together. But when, and why?
The chamber was like a great amphitheater, much like the one they had seen outside the mouth of the cave. Stone benches sat in a semi-circular pattern around the stage-like area where Dayn and Alicine stood. The cascading falls and glowing pool seemed to serve as a spectacular backdrop.
Alicine propped the torch against a boulder and wrapped her arms around herself. “It’s cold in here,” she said. “What is this place; those faces, that altar?”
“Altar?” Dayn said. “What altar?
“That, over there.” Alicine pointed to a great marble table situated at the front of the stage. “Isn’t that what that is?”
Dayn hadn’t paid the table much mind before, his attentions having been primarily focused on the pictures that adorned the walls as well as the breathtaking natural wonder of the place. But now he found himself drawn to the rectangular slab, though he found the idea of it being an altar somewhat disquieting. He walked beside it slowly and ran his finger along its top, tracing a line in the thick layer of dust that coated its surface. There were sacrifices, or perhaps gifts, placed upon it, all carefully arranged. Some looked old, like a tiny faded blanket and bits of clothing obviously meant for a babe. Other things, such as a toy spinner wrapped with gray chord, and a carved wooden horse with black eyes, looked to be for an older child. But a knife, its blade long and narrow and its handle carved with intricate designs, was surely meant for a young man. As Dayn scanned the items, he noticed that some seemed to have been placed there more recently than others. A yellow tunic lay neatly folded and was barely dusty at all. He held it up and caressed the silky material. It had to be for a girl; the color was too bright for any boy to wear.
Then there was a bottle. The tiny tear-shaped container was covered with dust, but Dayn found his eyes strangely drawn to it. Something about it made him uneasy, yet he could not help but reach for it. As he fingered it, his prints revealed it to be made of cobalt glass, the blue of it inlaid with decorative animals fashioned from shells. He inspected the figures that encircled it and felt the shock of realization. The shell beasts were much like that of the brooch his father had given him, the very one his mother had pinned to his breast but days before. He opened his coat and gazed at the golden beast clasped to his tunic, then back to those that decorated the bottle. They were indeed the same. An indescribable longing stirred within him, and he lifted the cork from the bottle’s top and brought it to his nose. He sniffed, drawing in the sweet scent, and was reminded of something familiar, though he couldn’t recall what. He replaced the cork, then moved to set the bottle down, but found himself unable to do it. He didn’t know why, but he could not let it go. He tucked the bottle into his coat pocket.
“Dayn, is this the place?” Alicine asked.
“It has to be,” Dayn replied. “But, I’m not really sure what we’ve found. Clearly Kiradyns made their way here a long time ago, just like we have. So Father would have been able to find his way here, too, I suppose.”
“Those faces, the pale ones. They don’t look like demons, do they,” Alicine commented, gazing at the great murals to the right.
“Who knows what one really looks like?” Dayn replied.
“The Word says they are a ghostly white with yellow hair and grinding teeth. These look more like you,” she said.
“Yes. Like me,” he responded.
“The woman was probably just a woman, Dayn, not a demon.”
Dayn felt anger ignite within him. “Then where is she! Why did she turn me over to a stranger? Was I a curse to her?”
Alicine stared at her feet and remained silent.
“And what about my father?” he continued. “I had to have a father—a real one, I mean. Did he hate me, too?”
“They didn’t hate you. How could anyone hate their own child? But it doesn’t matter now, does it? They’re long gone, and you won’t likely find them. You still have us, though, the family that does love you. Please, Dayn, let’s go home. Please.”
Dayn looked around and realized she was right. His real parents, whoever or whatever they were, were long gone. What could he do about it anyway? Search his whole life for faceless strangers who might not even be alive? Maybe Alicine was right. The family that raised him was the family that loved him. Perhaps things could get better back there. If he told the others about the cave, about the beautiful golden faces, maybe he could convince them he wasn’t a demon.
“All right,” he said. “We’ll go back.” He glanced toward the spot from which they had descended and realized they would have to return to the sulfurous chamber, the one with the flying creatures. Surely there was another way out. The Kiradyns could not have ventured to this place through such a narrow passageway, could they?
“There has to be another way,” he said. He walked over to a great tumble of stone that lay beneath the mural of Kiradyns and picked his way along it. The barrier was half hidden in darkness, making it difficult to tell if there was any sort of corridor beyond. He clambered over the rocky debris, slipping in places as he made his way further back. As his eyes adjusted, he became aware of the crunch beneath his feet.
He cried out and staggered back, staring in horror at the ground. The debris on which he was treading was not rock as he had assumed, but something that sent his stomach to his throat. Bones, ages old and barely identifiable, lay crushed and broken at his feet. It was clear that more than one creature had met its fate in this place. Then he noticed bits of clothing, shoes, and jewelry. The realization that the bones were human, not animal, raised new terror in his heart.
“What is it, Dayn?” Alicine called to him.
“Nothing! Stay back!”
He backed his way toward her, unable to take his eyes from the evidence of carnage scattered amongst the rocks. What had happened here? Were these people sacrifices, victims of the demons and their evil god? His answer came sooner than he expected.
The earth suddenly rumbled and undulated beneath their feet. Dayn staggered toward Alicine and pulled her into his arms. They clung to each other, not knowing what to do or which way to run. Rocks creaked on the walls above, then tumbled down in thunderous roars. Great clouds of dust billowed up around them, threatening to smother them where they stood.
Dayn’s eyes darted around. The horrible demon that had devoured the others was now coming for them. “We have to get out!” he cried. He directed his attention to the passageway from which they’d come. A barrage of rocks crashed down upon it as an avalanche of debris rumbled in their direction.
Dayn pulled Alicine behind him, dodging the rain of death that tested their every step. The light of the cavern began to grow dim. Dayn grabbed the torch where Alicine had propped it by the pool, its once crystal waters now murky with mud.
“There!” Alicine shouted. “There!” She pointed toward a pitted area in the wall, the wall beneath the fair-haired faces.
The great mural above them crackled as lightning-shaped fingers crept across the golden features. Dayn pushed Alicine toward the passage, then shoved her and dove in behind her. The faces crumbled to dust, then crashed down behind them.
They curled up against the wall, Dayn covering his sister’s body with his own. A thick cloud of dust followed them in and filled the air. Alicine sobbed while Dayn held her tight. This was the end, he was sure of it; they were going to die here and no one would ever know.
Suddenly the rumbling
stopped and all went quiet.
“Alicine—are you—all right?” Dayn asked between coughs. He could feel her move beneath him, but she did not reply. He lifted himself off and rolled her over gently.
Silent sobs wracked Alicine’s body. Dayn pulled her into his arms. “It’s all right; it’s over now,” he whispered.
She opened one eye, then the other, and looked around. They were in a passageway, but not the one from which they had come. The torch that lay on the ground beside them barely flickered. Dayn rose and grabbed it up, then pulled Alicine alongside him.
“We have to get out of here,” he said. “It may come back.”
“But where will we go?” Alicine asked.
“I don’t know, but look—markings—there on the wall.” Dayn raised the torch to the marks etched into the rock, then frowned. “But I don’t know what they say. They’re some other kind of rune.”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter,” Alicine said. “We have to go this way.”
“You’re right. There’s no going back the way we came.”
Dayn took her by the hand and forced a smile. He wanted to comfort her, but how could he when there was no comforting even himself. He had brought her to this dreadful place looking for answers, but the only answers he had found were winged creatures, bones, and a murderous demon wandering somewhere in the mountain.
Dayn squeezed his sister’s hand in his. “Come on. We’re going home.”
He pulled her into the darkness, praying the strange runes would lead them back to Kirador. But if that was not to be, then anyplace but here.
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Chapter 11: Captured
In the cave, time was all but lost. The strange runes vanished from the walls by the end of the first day, if it had indeed been a day, and the journey became a series of missed passageways and rocky barriers. Dayn tried to be optimistic, directing frequent words of encouragement to his sister. But her response was usually a clear but silent communication of hopelessness. Over time he too fell silent, until the only sound left was the rumbling of their hollow bellies and the crunching of rocks beneath their feet. Boredom and repetition diminished their fear of the demon, but a new fear was kindled by the realization that they would soon be feeling their way in total darkness. Although the torch was still lit, the bottle that had contained the herbal oil was empty.
The torch sputtered until its flame weakened into a tiny orb of embers. Dayn stared hard into it, willing it to re-ignite. He blew some gentle breaths onto it, and the glow brightened momentarily. Then it grew fainter, until there was nothing left to it at all.
Their rapid breathing echoed in the nothingness. Dayn fumbled for Alicine’s hand. “Put your other hand out to the wall,” he said. “We’ll have to feel our way.”
Alicine replied with a sob, but did as instructed. Dayn pulled her along for a few steps, then let go and ordered her to latch onto his coat. He needed a free hand to find his way; there had been too many unexpected walls to risk his face to one. They made their way along, their pace nearly slowing to a standstill. Not only did they have to feel along with their hands, but now with their feet as well.
The wall took a sudden turn to the right, and Dayn hesitated before rounding it. “God, please let this lead us out,” he whispered. He took a few steps in that direction, then stopped dead in his tracks. A brilliant light could be seen flooding into a wide space in the corridor ahead, as if the very hand of Daghadar had put it there. At first Dayn thought it must be a celestial vision. Perhaps he had died and was taking that eternal walk into the After Place. Memories of past transgressions left him with the sinking feeling that he might soon be answering for them. He looked back at Alicine, wondering if she was seeing what he was seeing. From the expression on her face, if he was taking that walk, then she was taking it with him.
Dayn quickened his pace, drawing what was left of his energy into his legs. To his profound relief, the light was not that of the After Place but of wonderful, beautiful daylight. It spilled down through an ample opening in the rocks above and angled into the corridor. Crude steps could be seen carved into the wall, curving upward to the sky.
Dayn ushered his sister ahead of him, then stumbled out behind her. Their eyes squinted at the sudden stab of sunlight, and they raised their hands to shield them from the brightness. The sky was a brilliant blue, not a cloud in it, and the sun was hovering above them in its slow journey to cross the mountains.
Dayn pulled the fresh air deep into his lungs and relished the warmth of the sun against his skin. He scanned the distant landscape. From where he stood he could see patterned hillsides and a river that poured from the mountainside below. It wound like a bright blue ribbon through miles of white cedars and disappeared into a pastel horizon. Dayn drank in the sight of it. It was as if he were realizing the beauty of the world for the first time.
“There, you see? I told you we’d get out,” he said. He smiled and put on his most confident face, but in reality he was completely surprised they had made it out alive.
“But where did we get out to?” Alicine asked. By her expression it was clear she believed they had only gone from being lost in one place, to being lost in another.
They were standing atop an outcrop of stone that jutted like a tongue from the mountainside. Dayn stepped to its edge and searched the distance for a familiar landmark, but there was nothing recognizable to him. At first he assumed they had wound their way back to a different location on the northern side of the mountains, the side where they had started. The voice of Kiradyn reason reminded him there was nothing on the other side of the vast range; it had vanished generations ago, or so they had been told. Yet, he knew in his heart they were not in Kirador, and though he felt somewhat disquieted by it, the biggest part of him felt jubilant. There was life on the other side of the mountains, not death as they had been taught.
The surrounding hills sloped steeply and were covered in part by forests not as old and dense as the ones in Kirador. A vast meadow also wound along the slopes and swept downward, painting the landscape in wild, vibrant colors. Dayn’s heart leapt. He felt the overwhelming desire to run through tall meadow grasses again. His time in the cave had left him craving it. Too many times in the darkness he had feared he might never see the colors of a meadow again.
“Come on, let’s go,” he said, grabbing Alicine’s hand and pulling her along behind him. She didn’t say a word, but he could feel the tension in her grip and the hesitation in her step. “We can just follow the river. If we follow the river it’ll take us home.”
“I don’t think it will take us home,” Alicine said.
“Sure it will.”
“We’re on the other side of the mountains, Dayn.”
“You can’t be sure of that. Maybe it just feels like it because we’re turned around. You know, confused because we’ve been in the cave so long.”
For some strange reason Dayn felt it necessary to keep alive his sister’s hopes of getting home, but he knew she was too clever to be fooled by his arguments. He stopped and turned to face her. “I’m sorry I didn’t get you back to Kirador like I promised. But I will. Honest. For now, though, let’s just see what’s down there. Maybe we’ll find some apples. I’m starving, aren’t you?”
Alicine’s eyes brightened, and she nodded. She didn’t wait for him to lead the way, but marched around him and headed down the shrub-strewn mountainside. Dayn smiled, noting a sudden perkiness in her step, but then he looked at his own feet and frowned; they were feeling anything but perky. Blisters still tormented him, though he had at least been able to put his socks back on when they finally dried. He dreaded removing them, however. No doubt they were stuck to crusty sores and would not come off easily.
When they reached the meadow, the first thing Dayn did was plop down, reach up a foot, and untie the straps of his boots. He didn’t care how much it was going to hurt to peel the things off; it couldn’t hurt as bad as the good they were going to feel
afterward. As predicted, skin came off with the socks. He squeezed his toes between the blades of grass and into the damp, cool earth, then closed his eyes and groaned. Alicine laughed at the expression on his face, then kicked off her slippers. They had also proved to be a poor selection. With a renewed sense of energy, she and Dayn bounded through the grass.
As they made their way further into the meadow, it became apparent the flowers were no longer growing wild, but were arranged in such a manner as to suggest someone had planted them. The flowers were in neat terraced rows now, not strewn about as was nature’s way, and looped along the hillsides in well-organized patterns. Dirt paths criss-crossed between the rows, and there were obvious signs of cultivation. They had obviously stumbled onto a well-tended crop. The concept seemed somewhat strange, as flowers, valued by Kiradyns, were always left to grow and reproduce at will. The meadows had never failed to provide them with all that they needed, so man’s interference had not been required. The realization that someone, or something, tended this place put an end to their frolicking.
Dayn stopped and Alicine moved to his side. They surveyed the area silently. No one else was there, only the two of them, standing in a peaceful and incredibly beautiful countryside. Surely there was nothing, or no one, to fear in a place such as this.
Dayn reached down to pick a bright yellow blossom. He rotated its stem between his fingers as he examined the tiny petals. It looked like a buttercup or perhaps a poppy, but it was trimmed with a strange, lacy design.
“What is this one called?” he asked, glancing at Alicine. She did not seem to hear him, and continued to stare at the horizon.
“I’ve honestly never seen a flower like this,” Dayn said. He thrust it under her nose. “Have you?”
Souls of Aredyrah 1 - The Fire and the Light Page 13
