Chaos Descending (16 page)

“No, it doesn’t,” he said. “I’m sorry. Where will you go?”

“I’m going south,” she said. “I want to find out what happened to Bartoom.”

“Will you come back?”

“Yes, someday.”

“All right,” Zollin said, and only the sense of unreality kept him from falling to his knees and begging her to stay. He couldn’t believe she was actually going to leave him. “What about the baby?”

“I don’t know,” Brianna said.

“Come on… we’ve got to think this through.”

“No, Zollin. I can’t think things through. I can’t do the responsible thing right now. I’m going to be a mother. I’m going to have to make responsible choices for our child’s sake for the rest of my life. Right now I just need to feel my way through this.”

“And what if you get into trouble again?” Zollin said.

“That’s a chance I have to take.”

Chapter 15

Zollin didn't wait to watch Brianna go. The truth was, he didn't want her to see him break down, and he knew he would. He gathered a small bag of food and a canteen of water, then returned to the entrance to the caverns of the dwarves. He was exhausted, but staying busy kept him from having to deal with the fact that Brianna was leaving him.

Crawling back down the tunnel seemed less difficult the second time, even though he had to shove the pack of food in front of him as he went. When he finally reached the large open cavern where the snake creature's body lay twisted upon itself, he stood up and slung the pack of food onto his back, but not before taking out a fist-sized loaf of hard bread. He ripped off small chunks of bread and ate them as he searched for the dwarves.

Using magic drained his physical strength, so he rummaged through some of the debris left in the caverns until he found a suitable piece of wood to use as a torch. Finding wood among the dwarves’ belongings wasn't easy, since they preferred stone for everything from furniture to tools, but eventually he found what was either a walking stick or a club—Zollin wasn't sure which. He also found a burlap sack, which he tore into strips and tied around the end of his torch.

It only took a second to kindle the new torch. Zollin imagined it burning, visualized the torch catching flame, and pushed the thought out toward the stick. He felt the rush of heat like hot wind stream through his body. At times, even simple spells like conjuring magic were taxing. But he still had the bread, and eating always gave him strength.

Once he had the torch burning, he felt confident moving into the tunnels. He knew there was a possibility that other horrid creatures awaited him in the caverns. He had fought huge spiders that were attacking the dwarves before the Witch's War. And he had seen the huge fire worms that swam in the molten rock deep beneath the mountains. Anything could be hiding in the darkness, but the thought of horrible monsters didn't frighten him as much as the possibility that he could get lost in the caverns. If he failed to find the dwarves, he might not find his way out of the labyrinth of passageways, tunnels, and caverns. The network of underground dwellings stretched all the way back to the upper range of the northern highlands. In fact, he'd passed through many such dwellings when he and Brianna had hunted Bartoom. She had left him and gone with the dragon then, so perhaps she would return again, just as she had before.

Zollin tried not to think about how badly his heart ached. He had never understood why Brianna loved him in the first place, although he'd fought for that love. Still, in many ways she had not been faithful to him. He cursed himself for putting the needs of the kingdoms above her. At the same time, he knew that if Gwendolyn the witch had succeeded in her plans, she would not only have destroyed the Five Kingdoms, she would have hunted him down mercilessly. Stopping the witch and her demonic spirit of destruction had given them a space to be together.

He couldn't understand why things had changed so much between himself and Brianna. She had seemed just as happy to be away from the danger and constant problems that plagued that entire first year of their relationship as he had been. She had seemed more distant lately, but he'd attributed that to the pregnancy. Perhaps not taking the crown of Yelsia was a mistake, but Zollin knew he would have been miserable in that role. He couldn't imagine having to deal with an entire kingdom’s worth of problems, but maybe Brianna had wanted to be a queen more than she had let on. She had broken her pledge to Zollin when she agreed to marry Prince Willam in order to save her family. That news had been like a dagger of fire in his heart, and the way he felt now as he slowly explored the low-roofed dwarf tunnels was almost as bad. She'd admitted that she had feelings for the prince; perhaps it was the allure of being queen that had caused her heart to wander.

Zollin pushed aside all of his feelings and fears for his marriage, instead choosing to focus on the problem of the dwarves. There was no sign of the people under the mountain. The tunnels were dark and empty as Zollin walked through them. He stopped several times, listening. He kept hearing something that sounded like the shuffling of padded feet, but when he tried to listen for the sound, it always stopped and all he could hear was the crackle from his torch.

He was wondering just how far he dared to go into the dark tunnels when he finally came upon another large cavern. There were carvings on the walls of the dome-like space. It was a natural cavern, with stalactites hanging from the tall, arching roof, and stalagmites sprouting up from the otherwise smooth stone floor. It was a holy place to the dwarves, one of the caverns he had heard about but never visited. Zollin was trying to decide if he should stop and rest for a while before pushing on. His body ached, his shoulders and back burned, his legs were still shaky and his feet hurt. But more than anything, he was worried about getting lost. He rubbed the torch against the wall of the tunnel he'd come out of when he entered the sacred cavern. The torch sputtered; it was close to burning out already and left a dark smudge on the otherwise reddish brown stone.

Confident now that he could find his way back out of the tunnels, he slumped against one wall, propped the torch on top of his pack, and snuffed out the trembling flames with a simple spell. In the darkness he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. They were so tired that they stung and even though the wall and floor were stone, his whole body felt a sense of relief. And then, unwanted tears welled up and spilled down his face. He felt horribly lonely, as if he would forever be alone. Brianna’s separation was like a void inside him that nothing would ever fill.

He woke up some time later, but in the total darkness of the cavern, it was impossible to know how long he'd been asleep. He was on his side, having slumped over while he slept. His head ached, and for a moment he was disoriented. His stomach growled, and it felt as if there were heavy creatures on his legs. He imagined a candle flame, and light flooded the cavern. The scurrying of small, furry creatures the size of house cats away from the light was shocking. Zollin was wearing tall riding boots that had been made of fine, thick leather. He had no idea how long he’d been asleep, but the furry creatures had been gnawing on his boots. There were teeth marks, and in some places the leather was almost eaten through.

Zollin scrambled quickly to his feet and sent the little magical flame moving through the cavern. The creatures had dull brown fur that was hard to see against the stone floor, which was almost the exact same color. Their eyes were tiny and milky white. Zollin guessed they couldn’t really see, but the light did affect them and sent them scurrying away. They had teeth like beavers and long, flat claws on the ends of their paws, which Zollin guessed were used for digging. They reminded Zollin of moles, but they were much larger. He knew rats would sometimes gnaw at people’s feet and hands if they were left prone too long, but he’d never heard of moles doing that. He got a sense that the creatures weren't what they seemed, but rather a product of tainted magic. But Zollin had no idea what was tainting the magic of the natural world.

He wrapped another strip of burlap around his torch and set it ablaze, extinguishing the small flame. The light seemed to dance around the sacred cavern, and Zollin pulled some more food from his pack. After he’d eaten his meager breakfast he searched for the tunnel he’d marked, feeling relieved that the dark smudge was still on the wall. Then he selected one of several other tunnels leading away from the cavern and set off once again.

He ate salted meat as he explored the tunnel, tearing small bites off a long strip and then sucking on them in his mouth until the tough jerky was soft enough to chew. As he ate he felt better, his body still tired but not aching once he had worked out the stiffness from sleeping on the hard stone floor. In the dwarf caverns there was no way to mark the passing of time. Zollin could only guess that he had slept for several hours, but he had no way of knowing for sure.

The tunnel he was in seemed to turn back and forth more often than the others. The walls were uneven, and the roof sometimes angled down sharply. Zollin started to turn back, but he was curious as to why the tunnel was so different. And then he heard a noise. It was confusing because it was constant, sort of a strange hum. At first Zollin thought it was a group of dwarves all talking at once, but the closer he got, the stranger the noise became. It was almost an excited gibberish, with strange clicking and buzzing mixed in.

Zollin decided that whatever was at the end of the tunnel probably wasn't friendly. The sounds were so foreign he couldn't help but feel that the beings making the noise were too different to be allies. He propped the torch against the wall and went on without it, leaving its light for the shadows of the tunnel ahead.

It didn't take long to be in near total darkness again. The tunnel was so irregular that the light simply didn't penetrate far. He had to grope ahead in the gloom, one hand on the tunnel wall, the other held out and up so that he didn't accidentally smack his head into a section of rock that jutted out of the ceiling. His pace slowed considerably, but the sounds only grew louder. He didn't worry about making noise, since he didn't think any sound he made could be heard over the cacophony he was moving toward.

After a while he saw light ahead of him. It was a soft, orange glow, one that he recognized. There were caverns in the tunnels where molten rock rose to the surface, casting a muted, orange glow into the otherwise dark places under the mountains. The dwarves, with the help of wizards, made bridges over the pools of molten rock so the caverns could be safely traversed. The fiery lava worms made the molten rock their home, but sometimes they came to the surface and attacked anyone foolish enough to get near them. So it wasn't just the heat from the magma that made the caverns dangerous. Zollin inched his way closer, his heart pounding and his palms beginning to sweat. Something was just ahead—some type of creature he'd never encountered before and wasn't sure he wanted to encounter now. Curiosity drove him forward.

The tunnel opened into a huge cavern, and as Zollin peered out he could tell the tunnel was high on the side of the cavern's circular walls. The light rose up from below, and on the far wall Zollin could see strange beings clinging to the walls. They were short with fat bodies and long, skinny limbs. Their heads were round but hairless, and each creature had multiple sets of eyes, almost like a spider. Their feet were long and articulated, with claw-like toes that held them securely to the wall. In their hands were digging instruments that were flat, with blades like shovels. They were hacking and clawing the walls and as Zollin watched he saw more of the strange beings emerge from the walls.

Whatever the creatures were, Zollin realized they were waking up. The cavern was really just a giant hive, with the molten bottom supplying heat so that the creatures could hibernate, just as the Dryads in Peddingar forest had done. The only question was whether they had been awakened by his magic, or by the alarming sense of evil that was quickly spreading across Yelsia.

Zollin didn't wait to see more. He could only imagine the queen of the horrid creatures down in the bottom spawning more of the dreadful beings. He had heard a story once by a traveling bard who had passed through their village about a warrior fighting strange creatures who came out of holes in the ground. He had called them Oremites, and Zollin had a feeling the story was based on the strange insectoids in the cavern.

He hurried back toward his torch, banging into the walls in his haste and giving himself some nasty bumps and bruises. Still, he didn't want to slow down. He instinctively knew the creatures were dangerous and he didn't want to be found by them. When he reached his torch he snatched it up gratefully and whirled around, worried that he was being followed by the terrible hordes with their articulated claw feet and horrifying spider eyes.

He didn't slow down until he was back in the sacred cavern and it dawned on him that the Oremites had carved the tunnel. Some of them were already out in the cavern, probably searching for food or perhaps even a way out. By killing the huge snake, he may have unleashed something horrible on the world, and he silently cursed his ill luck which seemed to be going from bad to worse.

* * *

Brianna watched Zollin return to the crevasse that served as an entrance to the dwarf caverns, and when he finally disappeared inside, she breathed a sigh of relief. She felt guilty but also as if a huge burden had been lifted from her. She felt free and couldn't wait to get back into the sky. She didn't want to be in the dreadful forest a moment longer than she had to be.

A mental call for the dragons soon brought them around. Even in the darkness she could see their huge bodies and magnificent wingspans. They landed gracefully in the clearing. Ferno even carried a thick hind led from a deer it had killed in its powerful foreclaw. The hulking green dragon laid the fresh meat gently at Brianna's feet.

“What a wonderful treat,” Brianna said. “Thank you Ferno.”

Normally the venison meat would take hours to cook, but Brianna could not only harness fire, but produce and control heat in any number of ways. She remembered that once, long ago when she was fleeing Tranaugh Shire with Zollin, Quinn, and Mansel, that Zollin had cooked a trout right in his hands. She pulled out her dagger and cut off a section of the meat, held it in her hands and cooked it almost instantly. She controlled the temperature perfectly, so the outside had a thick char while inside it was still pink and juicy.