by Kyle West
Lucian returned to the cliff and waved up the others.
The packs were easily moved to the top with antigrav auras streamed by Serah. She tossed them up one by one. Then, the rest climbed hand over hand, finding the ascent as easy as Lucian.
They could only hope that this ledge didn’t attract attention. It didn’t look out of place from the trail, but would an enemy pursuer take note of the fissure and want to investigate it? Then again, they had to sleep somewhere, and this was the best spot they’d found.
Serah was the last one up, after she had erased whatever tracks led here. Lucian only lowered the brightness of his sphere once she was on top of the ledge. Together, they walked to the fissure, where Fergus and Cleon were already setting up camp.
“No one will ever know we’re here,” she said. “Especially once that sphere goes off.”
Dinner that night was dried meat, pickles, and crimson fruit. There was no fire. They had brought no fuel with them, so they were limited to what they could find or whatever Cleon could stream.
“My concealment ward is as strong as any I’ve ever made,” Fergus said. “If another Radiant is trying to sniff us out, he’ll be sorely disappointed, I assure you of that.”
“I got rid of the tracks heading here, too,” Serah added. “Not that there’s much on this rock, anyway. There’s a fording up ahead, so they’ll just assume we crossed that.”
“Let’s hope so,” Cleon said.
Fergus nodded at Lucian, his signal to dissolve the light sphere. When it winked out, the darkness was absolute, seeming solid enough to press up against him. His heart raced a bit. It only reminded him of being at the bottom of the Ocean of Storms.
He reached for his Focus, using it to insulate him from the panic. When his heartrate slowed, he closed his eyes. He longed for someone to be close to him, just so he could be reminded he wasn’t alone. He thought back to his first night on Psyche, where he and Serah had slept under the rubble. Now, though, there was no rubble to be the excuse that pushed them together.
In time, Lucian fell asleep after streaming his Psionic ward for the night.
27
When Lucian opened his eyes, he could see a light floating in the distance. Then another. And another. A long line of light spheres drifted across his vision. At first, it seemed like a dream. But as he opened his eyes more fully, he could make out shapes moving among those lights. Human shapes.
They had been found.
No one else seemed to be awake, though he could hear someone snoring nearby, who he thought to be Cleon. When Lucian touched a hairy leg, the wiry man seized up as if electrocuted.
“Quiet,” Lucian whispered.
Since Cleon actually did remain quiet, he must have seen the lights, too.
“Wake Fergus,” Lucian whispered. “I’ll get Serah.”
Lucian crouched and snuck over to Serah, who was breathing softly on the other side of the fissure. Thankfully, she already seemed to be awake.
“I see it,” she whispered.
The lights were getting farther, meaning they had been fooled by Serah’s misdirection. How long before they realized something was wrong? Before too long, they would head back here.
Once the lights had completely disappeared down some passage or another, someone heaved a sigh of relief.
“We’re not out of this yet,” Serah said. “They’ll double back once they realize the trail’s gone cold.”
“What do we do, then?” Cleon asked.
“Two options, as I see it. Stay up here and hope they don’t find us. Or run like hell.”
Lucian didn’t like either of those options. “Well, if they realize the trail ends around here, they’ll find us easily. And judging from those lights, we’re severely outnumbered.”
“I agree,” Serah said. “Only problem is, they went the direction we were supposed to go. And they are really pushing themselves.”
“So, we just go back the way we came and take one of the other passages,” Lucian said. “Or we might even surface and make our way back to Blue Rift.”
“There’s the Zephyr,” Serah said. “It’s likely this is the same group of soldiers that was chasing me, or maybe the forces chasing you and I combined. That means the Zephyr dropped them off near the entrance of the Darkrift. That ship will be parked out there, waiting for them to return with Lucian in tow.”
“Perhaps we could take it on,” Lucian said. “If most of the soldiers and mages are down here, then it might be a good opportunity to strike.”
“Are you fraying?” Fergus said.
“Rot that,” Cleon said. “No way in hell I’m fighting the Zephyr if there’s even a chance the Sorceress-Queen herself is on board. Which she probably is since someone was attacking your ward last night.”
“We need to act fast,” Serah said. “They’ll be coming back any time.”
“There were several other paths back the way we came,” Lucian said. “I say we run, skip a few of them, and pick one at random.”
“Sounds like a great way to fall down a hole,” Cleon said.
“Well, we’re running out of options, so unless you have an idea . . .”
Fergus held up a hand, quieting everyone.
“We must put distance between us and them. That’s the number one priority.” He looked at Serah. “What do we need to do?”
“More or less what Lucian said,” Serah said. “Find a path and hope they don’t follow it. Lucian, stream a dim sphere. Something that might be mistaken for a ghost eel. We’re going to travel upstream from where we came, at least for a bit. We can’t make fresh tracks.”
“That’ll be cold,” Cleon said.
“Better than being dead,” Serah said. “We should get moving. I’ll try to find another tunnel we can use, but no promises.”
Lucian streamed the sphere, so dimly that he could see nothing beyond a meter in every direction. In less than two minutes, everyone was packed and ready. Not half a kilometer away, his enemies were hunting for him, and the only thing that kept them from being detected was Fergus. Fergus, who was fast tiring from maintaining the concealment ward nonstop.
They lowered themselves from the cliff and into the cold stream. Lucian was grateful the water didn’t go above his knees, but the going was still slippery and miserable. It didn’t take long for his boots to soak through and his feet to go numb. There was nothing to be done about that. Lucian brightened his sphere because they were just slipping too much. If they were being followed, they’d have no way of knowing. The pitch blackness, combined with the light of the sphere, made it impossible to see into the darkness behind. They wouldn’t know they were being pursued until the lights were on them.
Serah led them up a tributary of the stream, where another tunnel branched off from the main one. With luck, they wouldn’t be followed this way.
A few more minutes of walking, and Serah found another trail running alongside the new stream. This one would be rougher going. They had to crouch multiple times just to fit under the ceiling, and also to climb over various cave-ins. Lucian’s greatest fear was reaching a dead end and having to go back, and then running into the Queen’s men.
He was relieved when the trail opened again, at what appeared to be a large underground lake, far bigger than the one they had camped beside. Lucian couldn’t say how he knew they were in a massive space. It was something he felt.
“Put the sphere out,” Serah whispered.
He did so instantly. At first, he couldn’t see anything. But once his eyes had adjusted, the lights were back, only far in the distance. How far was that? A kilometer? Half that? However far, it was too close.
“You think they saw us?” Cleon asked.
“I don’t know,” Serah said. “It’s clear they’re on the other side of this lake.”
“Head back?” Fergus asked.
“Let’s sit still for a while,” she said. “How’s your ward, Fergus?”
“Weakening,” Fergus said. “We need to go
in the opposite direction, even if we backtrack. I can probably keep the ward this strong for another few hours. It’s either that or weaken it, which makes detection more likely.”
“I remember this lake,” Serah said. “They’re following the exact path we need to be on.”
“Well, how are we supposed to get past them?” Lucian asked.
“We don’t,” Fergus said. “Our best move is to gain some distance and camp out a few days. Let them continue their mad chase.”
Lucian had to say it made sense. Sometimes, the hardest thing to do was nothing at all.
“That means finding a safe place to hole up,” Serah said. “We can’t go back to where we were before. After missing us the first time, they might investigate the fissure more closely.”
The lights were getting closer. Shouldn’t they have been going the opposite way?
“I think they might have seen us,” Cleon whispered.
“Time to move,” Fergus said.
They backed into the tunnel from which they’d emerged, but not before an explosion of rock fountained from the ground beneath. Someone stumbled in front of Lucian, causing him to trip up.
“Run!” Serah said.
Fergus streamed a light sphere, illumining the entrance of the tunnel. One fireball, and then two, shot across the still surface of the lake. Cleon raised a Thermal shield, which absorbed the missiles. More fireballs flew their way.
Lucian ran after the others right into the tunnel. He reached for the Binding Aspect, not accessing the Orb so as not to draw too much ether. Even with Fergus’s ward, it might draw too much attention. Lucian tethered the floor and ceiling by the entrance and unleashed a heavy stream of magic. When the tension was too much, a resounding crack echoed through the tunnel. The ceiling started to collapse. Hopefully, that would block the entrance of the tunnel rather than collapsing the entire thing. Whatever the case, Lucian was running.
The others were already far away, with Fergus’s light sphere quite distant. Lucian streamed his own sphere and ran, his head swimming with fatigue. Rocks and dust fell behind him, and pebbles pelted his back.
By the time he reached the stream again, the others were waiting.
“They’ll have to double back the way they came,” Serah said. “Which will put them here in about an hour or two if they go at an all-out run.”
“I’m no longer maintaining my ward,” Fergus said. “There’s no point until we get some distance. Our only choice is to keep ahead of them.”
“Rot it,” Serah said. “Let’s go.”
She led them at a run, weaving through the tunnels of the Darkrift in seemingly random directions. Lucian noticed the general slope, however, led downward. He gasped for breath. The others were far fitter than he was.
“I . . . can’t breathe . . .”
“You’ll really not be breathing if you’re dead,” Serah shot back.
Lucian stumbled on. The trail ended in a cliff, seemingly a dead end. There was nothing below them but dark water with no way out.
“What now?” Cleon asked. “If we backtrack, we’ll run into them for sure.”
“Only one answer to that,” Serah said. She walked toward the cliff. Surely, she wasn’t going to jump down there.
“Are you out of your mind?” Cleon asked.
But it was too late. In the next moment, she was jumping over the edge without so much as a scream. It took a long time before there was a splash, at least ten seconds.
“It seems our options have been taken from us,” Fergus said, stripping himself from his bronze armor. “It’s a sad day to leave this behind.”
“There could be no way out of there!” Cleon said. “We could drown! What about our packs?”
“I know,” Fergus said, pushing the armor over the edge so that it wouldn’t be found. “But we just have to hope there is a way. And hope they aren’t desperate enough to follow us. As for your pack, I hope you’re a strong swimmer.”
Cleon sighed. “Fine. I already knew I was dead, anyway. But does it really have to be drowning? That’s such a bad way to go.”
“Oh, stop the theatrics,” Fergus said.
“Hurry!” Serah’s voice echoed up. “I see a way out.”
“That’s all I need to know.” With that, Fergus hopped off the cliff with a decidedly bigger splash than Serah.
That left Lucian and Cleon. Cleon stared at him with wide eyes.
“This cliff must be thirty meters high,” he said. “It’ll hurt like hell when we land.”
“Can’t swim?”
“Of course I can swim.”
“All I needed to know.”
Without warning, Lucian streamed a kinetic wave at Cleon, instantly knocking him back. He flew into the air a little farther than Lucian had intended, unleashing a stream of curses. The only words Lucian could discern were “rotting son-of-a-whore.”
Before Lucian could second-guess himself, he jumped, not daring to look down.
28
When he hit the cold water, the shock was unreal. He reached for his Focus to calm his nerves as he plunged deeper into the darkness. This was not the night on Volsung he had almost died. Here, the water was still. There were no waves. The surface was above, just a few meters away.
He clawed upward and took a deep intake of breath.
The others were already swimming, so Lucian joined them. They swam for a good fifteen minutes, enough time for the cold to settle into Lucian’s bones. He saw Fergus’s sphere shining ahead, the only light in this darkness. At any moment, he expected the Sorceress-Queen’s soldiers to be right behind them. But every time he looked over his shoulder, there was only darkness.
Lucian was the last to pull himself onto the shoreline. The sand gleamed white, soft beneath his boots with shiny crystals mixed within.
“I’ll stream us a fire,” Cleon said.
“Not yet,” Fergus said. “Let’s find a better spot.”
Serah was jumping up and down to generate body heat. “There must be some tunnel to follow here.”
“I thought you said you saw a way out,” Cleon said.
“This is it.”
They followed her up the shoreline, and Fergus increased the intensity of his sphere, revealing stalactites, stalagmites, and an endless labyrinth of rock formations.
“Rotting hell. We’ll get lost in there for days,” Cleon said.
“We’re deep in it now,” Fergus said. “The only way out is through.”
“It’s the perfect place for them to get lost in, too,” Lucian said. “We have food for weeks. There may even be good fishing in this lake, for all we know.”
“Forgot my rod,” Cleon said.
“Don’t need a rod,” Lucian said. “We’re mages, remember? A good shock and we’ll eat like kings for weeks.”
“Pipe down,” Fergus said. “Sound carries far here, and it’s not just people we have to be wary of.”
There was silence for a moment, but only for a moment.
“I’ll eat my boots if we ever find this mythical Slaves’ Run,” Cleon said.
“It’s not mythical,” Serah said. “I’ve seen it before.” She looked back toward the shore. “This lake must be the same one we saw earlier. Just a different spot.”
“Is this the Moon Sea?” Lucian asked.
She shook her head. “We haven’t gone far enough underground to reach that. If we were there, you’d know it.” She peered into the darkness. “Let’s get farther into these rocks, then we can see about a fire to warm up.”
Shivering, they followed Serah deeper beneath the surface of Psyche.
They crunched over rock formations that had not been disturbed in eons. They passed bony skeletons of what appeared to be ancient, alien fish. Or more like alien monsters. Some were up to ten meters long. They even walked through one of them, tail to mouth. The lake they had swum in was already deep, but clearly it had been deeper long ago. The thought that Lucian had been swimming in that dark water was enough to give him
chills. These things, or at least their evolutionary descendants, likely lurked the dark, fathomless deeps.
“This is no place for people to tread,” Cleon whispered.
For once, everyone seemed to agree with him.
After half an hour of walking, they came to a stop and let Cleon stream a fire, which he locked with a Gravitonic shell. It was eerie to see fire floating like that, as it would in outer space in the absence of gravity. Yet it was fire, just like any other. They could use it to cook and warm themselves, and lend some semblance of life to this dark, cold underworld.
Fergus got out the cookpot and started warming up a soup.
“I don’t know about you guys,” Cleon said, after they had finished their meal. “But I’m tired of this running shit.”
Heads nodded all around. Everyone stared into the floating orb of flame.
“We should think about continuing on,” Fergus said. “I know everyone’s tired, but they could be right behind us.”
“Rot that,” Cleon said. “I’m going to sleep.”
“It’s best we keep our strength up,” Serah agreed. “Even you, Fergus. You can’t push yourself too hard.”
For a moment, he looked as if he were about to argue. Then, he let out a mournful sigh. “I know.”
Lucian was already nodding off.
“It’s best we put out this fire,” Cleon said. “Get what warmth you can, wrap yourselves up. Might get a bit chilly.”
Lucian did that, even if all he wanted to do was fall asleep. His clothes were still damp and would remain so for the foreseeable feature. To completely dry them, Cleon would have to create a bigger fire, which would not only use up his ether but attract unwanted attention. Then again, perhaps the things that lurked down here would stay away from fire, like the wyverns.
