He looked up in my direction and for a brief moment I thought that he might be able to see me. I sank back further into the shadows and watched him narrow his eyes, the energy within him send out aggressive, powerful waves that drew me in even more. Part of me wanted to reach out to them, to tell them about the cavern and unveil its secrets, but the other part was so frightened and unsure of them that I couldn't move from my spot.
The man I had been watching stepped forward onto one of the branches and my heart tightened. I knew that he had chosen one of the weaker branches and the further he stepped, the more likely he was to fall. Keeping my eyes focused on him, I crept out from behind the low hill where I had been hiding. I lifted my hand to my chest as I made my way quickly, but as quietly as I could, toward the very edge of the bank where the land on this side of the cavern would flow into the sky. They couldn't see me where I was standing. They thought that the sky filled the entire space. Knowing that made me feel more secure, but even if they had suspected that there was something beyond the gradually darkening sky, I wouldn't have stopped.
The man took another step and I heard the low creak of the wood. The growing darkness of the sky was making it more difficult for him to differentiate between the branch and the sky, and he took another step onto one of the smaller outshoots of the branch. He stumbled and I heard a gasp rise out of the human women. One of the warriors started toward him, but I acted first. I tore my necklace from my neck, opening the compact in my hand and thrusting it forward. As the reflection of the stone wall across from me came into view on the bottom portion of the mirrored compact I stepped forward into the sky.
Chapter Six
Bannack heard the sickening sound before he felt the branch beneath his feet crack. Pyra yelled behind him and he heard the women scream. For just a moment the world slowed down and a wave of peace washed over him as if everything around him had gone quiet and calm, and his body could release. Maybe this is what Jem had felt in those seconds before he jumped.
An instant later he felt his body fall forward and he knew that he was going to drop into the sky and discover whatever existed beyond. The branch disappeared from beneath his feet and he felt his body straighten, but it didn't drift downward. Instead, there was a brief moment of falling before he hit something hard and solid. It was as though he had tripped and landed on the hard packed earth and stone of the cliffs, only harder. The impact took the breath out of him, but he didn't feel any pain. He lay still, waiting for something, anything to happen.
Chaos broke around him as the other warriors ran toward him and scooped him up, dragging him back toward the trees before he could even get his feet beneath him. The women were talking so quickly that he couldn’t understand any of the words that they were saying. His mind was reeling. He was aware that he hadn't fallen into the sky like he had expected to even though the branch had broken beneath him, but he had no idea what had actually happened. Suddenly he noticed a faint, pearlescent glow across the cavern. His eyes locked on it and he felt the muscles of his stomach clench. His pants tightened painfully and a wave of confusion rolled over him.
Bannack released the vine he was gripping and took a step toward the edge of the trees again, wanting to get closer to the glow. When it didn't fade or disappear, he took another step toward it. He felt Pyra's hand grab the back of his tunic and try to pull him back, but he lifted his hand to wave him away. He didn't need to be rescued. He wanted to be near the glow and whatever was making it. Though he knew he was only inches away from the edge of the sky, he believe he would be fine when he stepped forward. There was no fear as he lifted his foot away from the trunk and stepped out into the darkness.
His foot again hit solid ground rather than the sky and the confidence built inside him. The validation of that first step propelled him forward and he took another. He could hear Pyra and the other warriors protesting behind him, but the human women argued with their mates, telling them not to follow him. Bannack didn't care whether they followed or not. He continued to walk toward the glow, knowing each time he took a step that the solid ground would be there to meet his feet. As he walked the glow grew brighter and more intense, and soon he realized that there was a figure within the light.
"Hello?" he called out softly as he approached.
There was no response, but he continued forward still. The figure became more defined as he got closer and he realized that it was not actually within the glow but behind it. It seemed to move away from him, but he wasn't worried. He took another step, allowing the slowly retreating glow to lead him forward toward the other side of the cavern. After a few more steps he felt the texture of the ground beneath him change from hard and solid to slightly softer and more resilient. As soon as his feet touched that surface, the bright glow disappeared and out of the corner of his eye he could see the floor behind him go from solid and dark back to a sky awash with stars and a vibrant full moon.
Bannack turned his attention back to where the glow had been and found a woman standing in front of him. The figure that had been standing behind the glow, she was emanating her own very soft light that didn't seem to be coming from within her, but off of her. She wore a long white dress that gently skimmed the lines of her body and stopped with a band across her chest so the soft upper swells of her breasts and her smooth, elegant shoulders were bare. Ties down the front of the dress held it just in place, making the dress and what lie beneath even more intriguing. Pale silver hair flowed to her knees and the eyes that stared back at him from a face so breathtakingly beautiful it didn't seem real, her eyes were a clear, hypnotic lavender. She closely resembled the human women, but it was obvious that she wasn't.
Without a word, she held out one slim, graceful hand and Bannack took it, resting his hand on top so that she could curl her fingers around his coarser skin and draw him closer to her. The nearer he got to her, the more intense the feelings that he had as soon as he stepped into the cavern became, only he was no longer feeling anger or aggression when he was near her. Instead, he felt a sense of power and calm, while the tension through his body seemed to only increase.
"Hello," he said, wanting to make more of a connection with the beautiful creature standing so quietly and calmly in front of him.
"Hello," she replied and her voice was like the delicate, dancing sound of raindrops hitting glass. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," Bannack replied, somewhat startled by the question.
She didn't seem to be asking about whether he had been injured, and the question cut deeply into him.
"My name is Loralia," she said.
"Bannack," he replied.
He realized that she was still holding his hand and despite the cool feeling of her skin, the touch sent warmth throughout his body. She smiled at him softly, but he couldn't decipher what was behind the smile.
"Would your friends like to come to this side of the cavern?" she asked.
"I don't even know how I got over here," Bannack replied, part of him not wanting them to come over and break the small circle of privacy that surrounded them because of their distance from the others.
"I can help them." Loralia released his hand and Bannack felt disappointment ripple through him. "It's alright," she said with a gentle laugh, glancing at him before stepping forward toward the edge of the sky, "I'm right here."
It was as if she knew what he was feeling even though he hadn't said anything, but her confirmation was soothing in a way that made him feel absolutely comfortable and secure. She turned her palm over and in the faint light coming off of her skin and the refraction from the moon he saw what looked like a silver compact in her palm. Loralia held her palm out in front of her and lifted the top of the compact. Immediately the bright glow filled the space again and Bannack realized that the inside of both sides of the compact was mirrored. She tilted the compact until the stone wall across the cavern came into view in the top mirror.
The alignment of the bottom mirror made it so that it reflected the image in th
e top mirror, showing the wall flat against her palm.
"It's safe now," she called out, her voice so gentle and quiet that Bannack wasn't sure if the others would hear her.
Just as he suspected, none of the warriors or the human women stepped forward.
"She says it's safe," he called out to them.
They looked back at him with uncertainty on their faces, so Bannack took a few steps forward, leaving the softer ground of the bank and stepping again onto the hard, solid ground of the sky. He knew it was going to be there without even looking down.
Bannack taking those few steps seemed enough to convince Zuri, who took let go of Ero and took one large step forward, forgoing easing out over the space and instead going right for an open expanse between two branches. Samira followed, taking a slightly more cautious step, but stopping just beside Zuri. Bannack knew that the warriors not stepping forward was not out of fear, but out of distrust. Finally the men started forward and soon everyone was walking calmly across the expanse toward Bannack.
Suddenly he heard a scream and a deep grunt. He looked toward the back of the group and saw Ciyrs holding Elianna up by her arm as she struggled, her legs kicking down through a small section of the floor that now showed the sparkle of the stars rather than the solid darkness from before.
Chapter Seven
My stomach sank as I watched the tiny human woman drop, but she had had enough of a grip on the Denynso beside her that he was able to catch her before she was lost. Terror rolled over me. If her falling made any of the other ones question the solidity of the ground beneath their feet, they, too, would begin falling. Instead, they all rushed forward, getting off of the expanse of reflected stone as quickly as they could and then turning angry, suspicious eyes toward me.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" the man that had rescued the small woman who fell demanded, taking an aggressive step toward me.
He didn't feel like a warrior. He seemed gentler, calmer, more nurturing despite his attempt to intimidate me.
"Ciyrs," the woman said, grabbing him and pulling him back, "You don’t know that she did anything."
I felt relief wash over me. At least this one seemed to be willing to trust me rather than immediately blaming me.
"What do you think happened, Elianna?" another of the warriors snapped toward the small woman, "She's the one that told us it was all of a sudden safe to walk on the sky, and then as soon as you do, you fall."
"Don't talk to my mate like that," Ciyrs snarled toward the warrior, turning his aggression to him instead of me.
"I'm just pointing out that it's ridiculous for her to defend this person, whoever she is, when she is obviously the one who just tried to kill her."
Suddenly everyone started talking and shouting over top of one another and I felt like I was filling with so many feelings, emotions, and energies that I was going to shatter. I held my hands up and shouted as loudly as I could possibly force my voice.
"Stop it! All of you."
The cavern fell silent and the group turned and looked at me. Bannack seemed startled, but somewhat pleased, at my outburst and he stepped a little closer to me.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I didn't try to kill her," I said, wanting to talk to the entire group but at the same time feeling the compulsion to talk only to him, "It wasn't my fault."
"Then whose fault is it?" Ciyrs demanded.
"Hers," I said matter-of-factly.
"What?" he said roughly and I noticed all of the warriors looking at him with surprised looks on their faces as if he never showed this type of personality toward anyone.
Indeed, I could see the healer within him and knew that this was not in his normal nature. When it came to his mate, however, he was far more intense and aggressive than he would ever be when he was away from her. This made me less angry at the way he had treated me, but I was still not happy.
"In order for a reflection to mean anything, you have to believe in that reflection. If you didn't know what an item was and you saw a reflection of it, you still would not know what it was. You wouldn't embrace its presence and believe in its functions because you wouldn't know about them. If you looked in a mirror and saw something that you thought was something else, you would still believe that that reflection was what you thought it was and that if it was real, it would function the way you expected it to. Reflections only have the meaning that you give them. If you don't believe in the reflection, it can't work for you. She didn’t believe in the stone beneath her feet, so the stone was no longer there."
I expected for them to react strongly again, but they surprised me by seeming to accept what I had told them without further argument. Even if they had argued, there would be nothing else that I could have said to them. It was a very simple concept, though one that may be difficult to grasp for those who hadn't grown up with such rules governing their existence.
"Do you live here?" the largest of the warriors asked me.
"Yes."
"May we look around?"
It was an unusual moment, a moment of balance and control. This was a moment that I had been waiting on for years, a moment when I would no longer be alone and could possibly look forward into a life that was not isolated beneath the ground for the majority of the time, and yet a moment that I also feared. I was so accustomed to being alone and to protecting the space that had once been the home to everyone who I have ever loved that it was frightening to me in a way to think of others entering the deeper areas of the space. I was very aware that nearly every inch of the land ground was a place where someone I cared for had taken their last step or even their last breath, and I had the irrational fear that if these people stepped on those places, they would cover them and diminish the memory of those last moments.
I glanced over at Bannack and found him looking at me, evaluating me. Looking at him offered me a sense of anchoring among the others in a way that I didn't understand. It was as though the rest of the group and I were completely separate entities, but that Bannack could act as a link between us that would close the space.
"Yes," I finally said, offering my permission for them to go further into the cavern.
"This is Loralia," Bannack introduced.
"Hello, Loralia. My name is Pyra."
One by one the warriors and the women introduced themselves to me and I found myself attaching characteristics to each of their names so that I would remember them more clearly later. Zuri was incredibly strong, but adored the way that her mate made her feel feminine and beautiful. Samira held wounds that were still healing, but for the first time in her life, she felt like she belonged. Elianna was vibrant and spirited, but still had a vulnerability in her that seemed to come from an event in the recent past that shaped her now and for the future.
I nodded at each of them as they introduced themselves and tried to offer smiles that would comfort them and ease their worries about me. Once everybody was introduced, Pyra started forward, keeping his eyes trained on me as he moved further into the cavern. There was still a heavy sense of distrust around him as he moved slowly past me and then ventured deeper. The others followed him, gazing around as they moved beyond the hill where I had been hiding when they first entered and stepped down into the expansive chamber that dipped lower and contained the first collection of small buildings that were once home to my friends and family. Two tunnels led off of this chamber, each leading to another chamber containing more buildings.
Off of these chambers were two more tunnels that fed together into one narrow corridor that led deep into the cavern to the chamber that our kind used as its greatest source of protection. When there were threats, we would gather there, utilizing our mirrors to reflect a solid wall over the mouth of the cavern so that no one could enter. I spent much of my time there, forgoing the home I once shared with my parents and siblings to live in the protecting surroundings of this nearly empty chamber.
"There is a tunnel that leads off of that first room and goes up
into the cliffs at the edge of our compound," Pyra said.
It seemed more a statement than a question, but I replied anyway.
"Yes. I haven't used it in many years."
"Are there any other tunnels that lead into the cavern from above ground?"
"No. The only way to enter is that tunnel and the hatches in the forest."
"How often do you go above ground?"
The change in voice made me turn to Bannack, who was still standing close beside me. There was a faintly desperate look in his eyes and I could feel the sense that he was trying to understand of the emotions rolling through him, as if knowing how often I walked on the same ground as he did.
"Never," I told him, keeping my voice as even and calm as I could in an effort to assure him.
"How do you survive down here without ever going up?"
"The cavern provides everything that I need. There are plants throughout the cavern and a stream in the middle chamber. I was born down here and have always been here."
"Will you come up with us now?"
My eyes widened and I saw Pyra look sharply at Bannack, but he didn't say anything. My warrior, for that is how I was beginning to think of him, was staring at me intently and I saw him lift his hand toward me.
I hesitated only a moment before placing my fingers against the warmth of his palm and seeing the hint of a smile touch his lips.
Chapter Eight
Bannack wrapped his hand around Loralia's fingers as soon as he felt their cool touch on his palm and turned to Pyra.
Loralia & Bannack's Story (Uoria Mates IV Book 4) Page 41
