“It’s actually the exact opposite of awesome.”
He turned away in a huff, then raised a hand. I couldn’t see anything, but suddenly the doors shuddered.
He lowered his hand and let out a whoosh of breath. “Heavier than I thought,” he grunted. “Hold on.”
He tried again. This time, one of the doors shuddered harder and began to swing open. It moved slow, slower than a glacier. But in less than a minute there was a gap plenty wide for us to ride through.
Calvin dropped his hand again with another heavy sigh. “Whoo! Man. That’s a big door.”
The door stayed open. Apparently it wasn’t weighted to swing shut on its own. Nora led the way, eyes bright as she stepped in through the gap and into blackness.
The first thing I noticed when we came inside was the light. There was plenty of it, as much as there was outside from the light mirrors. I looked up to see a single shaft jutting in through a window in the front wall. It hit a mirror on the opposite side, which then reflected it around the rest of the room.
Then I saw the walls. They had carvings all over them, similar to the ones outside. They were incredibly crude. We’d just been in the tower with Meridia, and those carvings had been ornate in their detail, maybe too much so. These were like something cavemen would have done thousands of years ago. The sun and moon still figured heavily into them, but there were also humanoid shapes. They were in various positions, some kneeling, some raising their hands toward the sky.
“Okay, yeah, this looks like a church,” said Miles.
“They had a religion,” said Nora in awe. “They really were a civilization.”
“Strange that no tales speak of this,” said Barius. “What could have happened to wipe them so completely from the memory of the world?”
“The same thing that killed them all, I guess,” I said. “And it must have happened a long, long time ago. This is pretty impressive, sure, but it also looks really, really old. These carvings were done way before people started realizing you could put words on parchment with berry juice.”
“Look who’s suddenly a history buff,” said Miles.
“Just because I don’t pay attention in school, doesn’t mean I’m an idiot,” I grumbled.
“Perhaps the giants weren’t evil after all,” said Nora, smiling. “They believed in a higher power.”
“So do Satanists,” said Calvin darkly, glancing around at us with narrowed eyes. I shot him a look.
I noticed Tess wandering toward the edge of the room. She was staring up at the carvings on the wall, entranced. I sent my ball of fire to hover in the center of the room, giving us all light, and followed her.
“Hey,” I said as I sidled up next to her. “What’s up?”
“This place,” she said dreamily. “I can’t…I can’t help but feel like I’ve been here before.”
“One of your dreams?” I said.
Tess nodded slowly. “Maybe. I’m…not quite sure. But I look at these walls, and I feel like I’m not seeing them for the first time. Maybe that old man showed them to me in my dreams. But if so, I don’t remember them exactly.”
“Déjà vu,” I said. “I always wonder why that happens.”
“What’s that?” said Tess.
I caught it after she pointed. A small shape, tucked away behind a pedestal that held a statue of a humanoid figure with a spear. Tess leaned down and picked it up, drawing it close to her face to get a better look.
I leaned in to peer over her shoulder. It was some sort of medallion on a short chain. The medallion was circular, with a design of a sword etched into it. Where the blade met the hilt, there was a large eye that stared out at us. It looked like a symbol of vigilance, of readiness.
“Cool,” I muttered. “Some giant relic, maybe?”
Tess shook her head slowly. “It can’t be. It’s human-sized. If these giants were really fifteen feet tall, this chain would never fit around one of their necks.”
It was true. “How’d it get here, then?’
Tess shrugged. “Maybe someone else came and explored. Before us. And they lost this.”
I frowned. “Looks kind of important. Not the sort of thing you just drop.”
Tess shrugged. “What do you think, then?”
I smiled. “I think it’s a great souvenir. Here.” I removed it from her hand gently, and unclasped the chain. Then I stepped behind her, wrapping the chain around her throat. I brushed her hair to the side, then clasped the chain on the back of her neck.
I stepped back around to find Tess blushing furiously and trying to hide it.
“Thank you,” she stammered. “How does it look?”
“Beautiful,” I said. “It really brings out the puke green of your eyes.”
Tess giggled and turned away, her blush deepening.
Spare me, said Meridia.
“What was that?”
Miles’ question jerked my head around. He was standing at the front door, looking out into the cavern beyond. His brow was furrowed as he stared hard into the dim light.
“What?” I asked. I walked up to him to look over his shoulder. “What did you see?”
The others quickly made their way to us. After a second or two, I saw the lights in the cavern dim, all at once, then brighten again.
“What the…?” I muttered.
It happened again.
“There!” hissed Calvin, pointing.
I looked. After another second or two, I saw one of the mirrors go dark. With the mirror’s light blocked, the light throughout the whole cavern was reduced. But then the mirror went bright again, and the whole cavern lit back up.
“What is that?” said Sarah.
“Something is walking in front of the mirror,” Cara said. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “There is something on the ledge.”
“But what?” said Darren.
“We should not linger to find out. We have spent too long here already. Come. Quietly.”
Cara took her own advice and walked out quietly, grabbing her horse’s reins and leading it down the cavern. All of us followed suit. We walked as quietly as we could, keeping hands on our horse’s reins and shushing them every time they nickered. And not for one second did any of us take our eyes from the mirror on the other side of the cavern.
“Could it be that hooded lady?” whispered Calvin.
“That would be my guess,” said Darren. “But if so, we should be quiet, my Lord.”
“Sorry.”
Then the cavern dimmed again. This time it was because of a different mirror, much further along the wall.
“There!” said Calvin.
“We saw it, Calvin,” Sarah hissed through gritted teeth. “Shut up.”
“Sorry!” he whispered.
I heard a crunch of stone on a walkway above us. I whirled toward the sound, reaching for my magic on instinct. The others heard it to, and all of us searched wildly for any sign of movement above us.
“Do you see it?” said Sarah.
“No,” I said.
“I got nothing,” said Miles.
Meridia, what is that? I thought. Can you see anything?
It doesn’t work that way, she said, agitated. I can see threads. Paths that might be. I am not all-knowing.
“Tess, can you read anything up there?” I said, careful to keep my voice down.
Tess blinked, her eyes going white. “Yes, there’s something there. I’m not sure what it is. It might be an animal.”
“It’s probably just a bear or something,” said Calvin, his voice thick with relief. “We can deal with a bear.”
“Hold on,” said Tess, frowning. “There’s more than one. In fact…there’s kind of a lot of them.”
I glanced at Calvin, whose face was thunderstruck. “Um…maybe it’s a bear colony?”
“If I hear the word ‘colony’ one more time…” I growled.
“Bears don’t have colonies,” said Miles, our resident animal nut. “They’re solitary. At most
, there would be a pair, if it was mating season, or maybe a mother and a few cubs.”
“There’s definitely not just a few of them,” said Tess.
“Can you get in their heads?” said Sarah. “See what they’re seeing? You can get a look at them.”
Tess’ pure-white eyes closed. Her brow furrowed. Then her head jerked left and right, like she was trying to fight her way out of a dream.
“They’re…big,” she said. “Big, with mottled skin. Long, long arms. They’re kind of like that thing we saw in the woods.”
“Trolls?” said Barius. “And rock trolls, if they’re in here. Chaos take us.”
“That’s okay,” Calvin said. He sounded like he was clinging desperately to hope. “Blade can deal with trolls. Fire’s the one thing they can’t stand.”
I hated to be the naysayer, but…. “Tess, how many are there?”
She gave me a look, her eyes sad. “Lots. Dozens.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It took a lot just to burn one down to the ground. I don’t like my odds against dozens.”
“At least now we know what took out the giants, I guess,” said Miles heavily.
“Trolls against giants?” said Nora, scoffing. “Not very likely.”
“Focus, guys,” said Sarah. “How close are they, Tess?”
“They looked pretty far up,” she said. “They haven’t heard us. They’re calm.”
“Okay, so we move as fast as we can, and we don’t make a sound,” said Sarah. “We move out of their cavern as fast as we possibly can. And we come out on the other side that much closer to Wyrmspire. Blade, I don’t care how dark it gets in here, you don’t put up a light until Tess confirms that there’s nothing close by. Got it?”
I snorted. “Whatever you say, boss.”
“Don’t…” she sighed. “Okay, fine. Let’s go.”
We went. I tried to keep my eyes forward, but I couldn’t stop myself from looking up every few seconds to see if I could make out large shapes above us. Most of the others didn’t even try. Calvin didn’t bother watching where he was going, and his horse kept bumping into Darren’s as he craned his neck up, watching in every direction for signs of movement.
Thankfully the cavern was huge, and the ledges stretched up for hundreds of feet above us. Other than the first noise I’d heard, there was no whisper of sound. So we walked on, slowly moving into the gathering darkness ahead of us. It swallowed us up. Soon it was almost too dark to see the ground beneath our feet.
“Are they still around, Tess?”
I barely saw the shape of Tess stopping and turning around, looking back behind us. “Looks like they’re farther away, but not far enough. I’d give it a few more minutes.” I saw movement as she ducked her head. “I mean, if you want my advice.”
“I do,” said Sarah. “Thank you.”
We kept going. I increased my pace to come up next to Tess, walking beside her. She kept glancing over her shoulder, and every few seconds I’d catch a glint of pure white in her eyes as they caught the reflected sunlight behind us.
“Guys, I see something!” said Calvin.
I swiveled my gaze to the front to see a tiny pinpoint of light far, far ahead of us.
“What is that?” I said. “Another mirror?”
“Hold on,” said Sarah. There was a long pause. “I can feel it. It’s a passage, and I think it leads out!”
“Oh, thank God,” I said with a sigh of relief. “I can’t wait to get out of this place.”
“Tess, keep an eye behind us,” said Sarah. “Just make sure they don’t follow us. It’s going to get lighter as we go along, and if they spot us, we’re going to have to run for it.”
“Got it,” said Tess.
“If you wish, you may ride upon your horse, my Lady,” said Samuel. “We could guide it for you, and you can keep your full attention behind us.”
“Um, thanks,” came Tess’ nervous voice in the darkness. “But I think I’ll be steadier on my feet.”
“I’ll guide it,” I said. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t wander. Okay?”
I could hear a smile in her voice when she answered. “Okay. Fine, then. I’ll ride.”
It was awkward in the blackness, but Nora and I helped her climb into her saddle. She snatched the reins up, and I wrapped a hand in her horse’s bridle to guide it along as we continued.
“It’s getting closer!” said Calvin. “I think I can see blue sky!”
“You might be imagining that,” said Sarah. But there was an undercurrent of excitement in her voice. “Anyway, keep your voice down.”
“They’re way, way far away from us now,” said Tess. “I think we could light a fire.”
“Blade, Raven, if you’d do the honors?” said Sarah ahead of us.
I reached out a hand and reached into my mind. I felt the spark of Fire sitting there, tapped into it, and let it flow into my body. But just then, in that split second of time between grasping my power and activating it, I saw a flicker. It was the tunnel before us. The blue light disappeared for a moment, then reappeared.
Just as the mirror in the caverns. Just like when something had walked in front of the light.
“Wait!” I cried. But there was a sharp fzzzt in the air, and Raven summoned a large ball of lightning to hover above our group.
Blue light filled the cavern. I could see the exit now. It was close—a few dozen yards away at most.
But sitting in the cavern, in a massive group between us and that entrance, were trolls. Lots and lots and lots of trolls.
THE PEAK
BLADE
THERE WAS A STUNNED MOMENT of silence. In that moment, several dozen large, scaly heads swiveled slowly to regard us—twelve humans and twelve horses, walking forward under a glowing ball of blue lightning.
“Blade, light ’em up!” said Sarah.
I completed my connection to the magic, letting a huge swath of flame rip forth from my hands. It surged through the air, passing among the trolls like a tidal wave. They screamed and twisted where it touched them. But I couldn’t keep it big enough or intense enough to hurt them all, or to hurt any of them for very long. The tidal wave passed, and the trolls rounded on us. This time, their eyes weren’t slow and stupid. They were flashing with anger and hunger.
“Run for it!” said Miles. “Try to make the door!”
“Wait!” said Sarah. “Hold still!” She held out her hands.
The trolls got to their feet and charged. Their legs were small compared to the rest of their bodies, but that didn’t mean they were slow. A dozen feet of solid, rock-like muscle pounded toward us.
“Sarah, what the hell?” I shouted. “We’ve got to go!”
Rather than an answer, a cry of pain ripped from Sarah’s throat. At the same time, I felt the ground shift beneath my feet. The horses whinnied with fright, and everyone shouted in surprise. A massive path of stone, more like a small road, sprang up beneath us. It leapt from the stone floor, providing a perfect pathway twenty feet in the air. The pathway ran straight ahead before sloping down to dovetail perfectly into the doorway that would lead us outside.
Sarah collapsed to her knees. Cara snatched her elbow and dragged her to her feet, then flung her bodily across her horse’s saddle. “Everyone, move!” she roared, a battlefield command that spurred our limbs into action against our will.
I jumped into the saddle, seizing Tess’ reins and kicking her horse’s ribs before digging my heels into my own mount. Samuel and Nora were right behind us. I was getting distracted by the blue of Raven’s lightning, so I threw up some red fire to hover above us. Everyone in the party leapt on their horses and rode like crazy for the exit.
Below us, I heard roars of frustration as the cave trolls ran into the sheer walls of our stone pathway. But then I heard a sound that made my gut clench—the sound of splintering stone. I risked a peek over the edge to see the trolls digging their hands into the stone and using it to haul themselves up toward us.
“Go, g
o!” I called out. “They’re climbing!”
“Of course they are,” Barius snarled. “They’re stone trolls!”
“We’re almost there!” said Melaine.
The road began to slope down. My horse’s hooves slipped, and for half of a terrified second I thought she was going to fall. But she recovered, and all of us thundered down the rocky path toward the door. Two trolls had summoned the presence of mind to stand at the end of the path in front of the door, but I unleashed a searing burst of flame that sent them both to the floor, curled around themselves and screaming in pain.
Sarah and Cara cleared the door. The rest of us darted through as fast as our horse’s hooves would carry us. Then we nearly all crashed into each other as Sarah reined her mount in.
“Sarah!” I said. “Keep going, they’re going to follow us!”
She wheeled and pushed through the rest of us. Her face was deathly white, and I could see her arms shaking like she was having a seizure.
“No, they’re not.” The words ground out of her mouth like gravel. But despite that, she raised her arm once again.
A solid plate of rock leapt up to cover the entrance to the tunnel, calling an abrupt halt to the roars of the trolls on the other side. Miles, too, reached out with his magic. Water materialized in midair, forming a solid barrier several feet thick on our side of the rock wall. With a twist of his wrist, Miles froze the water into ice.
“Won’t be as good as your rock,” he muttered. “But hopefully it helps.”
“It’s great,” said Sarah. “Come on.”
The urgency had died away, and now I could feel the adrenaline coursing through me from our near miss. As we turned and guided our horses toward the light of open day, my hands began to shake almost as hard as Sarah’s had.
“Open air again,” said Samuel, breathing deep. “Can you smell it?”
“Sure can,” I said, taking a deep breath and letting it out with a sigh. “Smells better than hot dogs at a ballpark.”
Samuel cocked an eyebrow. “Hot dogs?”
“You don’t have those? You’re deprived,” I sighed. “They’re like sausages, but a thousand times better.”
We emerged into the brilliant sunlight, and the world went white. I held up my hand, shielding my eyes against its harsh glare. A cool breeze ruffled my hair, and I sucked it into my lungs, drinking it deep. Finally my eyes began to adjust, and I lowered my hand.
Wyrmspire (Realm Keepers Book 2) Page 48
