Feel the Burn (25 page)

It feels like we’re in limbo here,
Cat thought.

Kassie nodded and a strand of Cat’s hair slipped over her eyes. She chuckled and pushed it aside.

It is weird. Just six days and we’re out.

Fighting for our lives,
added Cat.

Don’t over think it.

I’m just being pragmatic. Did you know Rashid is seventy five?

Kassie pulled out from the hug to stare incredulously at Cat.

Way to change the subject – WHAT?

Honest. If we survive this we could live for centuries.

Kassie flopped back against her feeling a tad bamboozled.

What are we meant to do over centuries?

Same as over decades I guess.

Rumal called and Kassie downed the rest of the nellor then hugged her friend and walked to where he and Kerak waited. Rumal took the mug, rinsed it in the lake and packed it away.

‘Walking or riding?’ he asked.

‘Walking.’

Everyone fell into line, the griffons interspaced throughout the large group with Sito at the back. The lake continued for some way then vanished beneath the rocks, the glowing blue stuff on the rocks disappearing not long after the water. While they walked Kassie asked Rumal about Cat’s comment.

‘Yes, the normal lifespan for a non-gifted being is around one hundred and fifty years. For humans, anyway.’

‘But then what about Daron and Sabyn? Will the girls outlive them?’

‘First let’s survive the battle,’ Rumal said with a wry look.

Giant stalactites littered the track making progress slow, the winding path proving challenging. After watching Kerak struggling between another two rock formations Rumal halted the line and tossed Kassie up to unfasten the griffon’s armor. Three goblins scurried up, working on Kerak’s wings and hindquarters, making short work of the task. Kassie slipped down to Rumal’s arms, catching him around the neck for a quick kiss before they continued on.

‘You alright, Kerak?’

‘I’ll do.’

They didn’t talk much today, the navigating of the rough tunnels between caverns requiring close attention. The goblins and Nyjens making the way with them all assisted in carrying the armor and helping Kerak maneuver through tight spots.

‘How do Daron and Sian do it with Sito?’ Kassie asked Rumal after a particularly difficult area.

‘Dragons are a bit different, suppler in the spine than a griffon,’ Rumal explained and he lifted her up a sharp step then neatly jumped up. ‘Their scales help too, moving them through the tight sections.’

Just when it seemed to get too tight, the tunnel opened up and they stumbled into an enormous cavern. All those in front of them waited in a large circle with the centaurs and General Guard on the outer, weapons loose and ready. Rumal shifted Kassie so she walked between him and Kerak, and drew his sword.

‘What’s wrong?’

Ignoring her question, Rumal called to Sabyn and Gredel, who waited ahead of them. The three men spoke in a language Kassie couldn’t understand but recalled them speaking it the first night they’d found them, so long ago now. I wonder why we can understand some languages and not others, she thought feeling perplexed. After a fair bit of conversing, with Belsesus and Rashid joining the conversation too when they entered the cavern, everyone sheathed their weapons and the protective circle moved out a few feet.

Rumal turned and at her quizzical expression explained with a reassuring smile, ‘Nothing’s wrong. This chamber is the largest yet and we don’t want to lose anyone.’

‘Or disturb anything,’
Kerak thought when he turned to look knowingly at Kassie.

Rumal’s eyes narrowed while he gave the griffon an unimpressed look. They waited as the rest of the group caught up and took the time to strap Kerak’s armor back on. Cat waved from Phroma’s back when she spotted Kassie on Kerak and came to join them. It took a while for everyone to arrive, Sian and Daron bringing up the rear with Tomiar and Sito. Funny how it feels like such a small number in the caves, Kassie thought while watching the group of around twelve hundred warriors gather. The group didn’t make a dent in the vastness of the cavern.

‘Kass, put out those lights of yours,’ Cat suggested.

When the group started off, Kassie created a bunch of the glowing spheres and released them. With her energy extended she moved them around the group sensing Loi communing with the plants and earth. The dancing lights revealed the cavern to be truly enormous, wider than higher and the ceiling looked at least twice Sito’s height at this end; though it sloped lower further ahead. Muffled lights glowed at the outer edges of the cave and she could hear the faint sound of water. Rumal took her hand while they walked beside Kerak, Cat walking on the other side of the griffon. The lights from the torches and the girls’ extended energy surrounded the large group, making the darkness seem to press against them. The sounds of feet and hooves echoed faintly off the distant walls and ceiling, adding to the eerie sense of vastness in the dark cave.

*~*~*

Chapter Eighteen

It almost made me wish to be in a tunnel again, as much as I wanted open space I didn’t want it underground. The sheer vastness of this cave with the dense blackness everywhere gave me the creeps. I didn’t notice so many rock formations either, emphasizing the sense of being in an excessively large room. I listened to Rumal and Kassie chatting and watched the pretty gold lights Kassie danced around us. A brief flash of white made me pause, staring hard at a light that danced a fair distance out on our left. Nothing else caught the light and I shrugged to myself, assuming it was a light colored rock. With the surface so much closer some of the smaller tunnels led to it and the occasional brief glimpse of a breeze drifted past, creating the illusion of the cave breathing. I shivered at the thought, unable to help it.

‘What’s wrong?’

I glanced over, surprised to find Kassie watching me.

‘Just the big open pitch black space creeping me out. That’s all.’ I winked at her.

Kassie nodded.

‘Be good to reach the other side.’

The other side. My heart beat faster at the thought of being so much closer to that witch and I slowed my pace, dropping back to join Loushka behind Kerak.

‘How are Gredel and Phroma?’
she thought and I smiled up at her. While she walked I jumped and used my energy to lift me high enough to grab her shoulder plate and swing onto her armor. The lack of saddle today meant I needed to hook my heels behind the back plate so not to slide off.

‘They’re good. It was nice spending time with them.’

We didn’t talk much but kept our minds open to one another while we thought through images of Alek and happier times. I felt so much safer here on Loushka and sat straighter, peering against the darkness. Funny how easily you can adjust to it, I thought, and didn’t bother keeping my hands lit, instead allowing myself to merge with the shadows as I watched the others. It felt nearly hypnotic. The light from the torches the Cavalry soldiers carried flickered green from the chemicals, looking beautiful against the darkness. While I absently stared at the flames, I watched a young Alek in my mind from one of Loushka’s memories.

‘I knew I’d link with him from the moment he arrived on the planet, but I couldn’t hear him until he reached puberty. I used to watch him so often.’

The ebony haired boy in her mind shrieked with laughter when a larger blond boy chased him through the castle’s snow laden courtyard, a large snowball in the blond boy’s hand and an angry red mark on his forehead.

‘Sabyn?’
I thought.

‘Normally yes, but that is another cousin. He died of an illness a few years later.’

Though I didn’t know the boy and now never would, tears sprung to my eyes and my throat thickened when a sense of regret and grief rose at knowing I couldn’t meet him.

My rational voice shrugged the thought off, what does it matter? You’ll never meet any of them anyway.

While in theory I agreed, another voice spoke softly but poignantly from the back of my mind.

Alek would want you to meet them; he would want you to live.

I swallowed at that and the conflicting emotions it dragged up. I knew if Alek had been in this position and I had died, I would want him to live. But if I sensibly considered the odds against us, well then it didn’t matter, did it? Al would have wanted me to live, but at the cost of our friends and family? If I could get to that witch first and deal to her then they would be safe. I couldn’t hold back anything, because that would risk failure.

A panic attack threatened at the overwhelming thoughts. The feeling of loss I’d managed to keep at bay for days swelled, making my body tense. I gripped the edge of the armored plate and closed my eyes, counting my breaths in and out, trying to control the agony, trying to jam it back into that room in my mind.

‘Cat?’
Loushka thought anxiously.

‘Having a bad moment,’
I though, gritting my teeth while tears ran down my face.

Three days, I growled to myself, come on, Cat, you held them off for three days! Lock that damn door, rein it in!

Loushka must have heard me and her gentle thought broke the control I fought with.

‘Let the tears come, Cat. No one can see you up there.’

I didn’t want to, but couldn’t stop the rigid hold shattering, releasing the gray sensations of despair. I sobbed, flattening out along the griffon’s back, and buried my face in my arms howling silently, mouth working at the sudden intense wave of grief. All the images of him flashed through my mind, from meeting him that awful night in the forest, to that last moment when he laughed at my teasing and literally walked out of my life. The tears slowed and I started to gain control while the sense of resignation and something like relief—knowing I had managed this far, knowing I could still manage—flowed through me. I considered that while taking careful breaths, my mind running an inventory within.

Easier to breathe? Check.

From gray to lighter? Check.

Focused on the task ahead?

Jenviet’s face floated through my mind and my lips drew in a smile of utter hatred.

Hell yes, that witch is going down.

The calm started to reassert itself and I pushed the pain away to that room in my mind, locking the door. I sat breathing in relief when a strange repetitive sound registered in my brain. I blinked in confusion, lashes still full of tears, and paused to listen.

Fear trickled down my spine like an icy cold drop and I stiffened.

‘Loushka, there’s someone above me!’

Gredel walked with a hand on Phroma’s neck, mind far away while he imagined the estate and what Citaan and Rirae might be doing. His daughter’s tiny face and the delighted smile she made when he bent over the carved wooden cradle beside their bed, brought a smile to his face. The crazy curled mop of turquoise hair, the same shade as Citaan’s and those beautiful big gold eyes creasing with laughter when he teased her, pretending to bite a tiny slipper covered foot.

A loud shout pulled him out, and he spun to look back, sword in hand.

‘It’s Cat!’
Phroma thought in alarm.

The blaze of light was so bright he couldn’t make Cat out at the center, then his stomach dropped when he spotted the focus of her fury. Gredel bolted, shoving through the gathering soldiers.

‘Catherine! CAT, STOP!’

It took only moments to reach Loushka. The griffon bent her knee just as he jumped, seizing the edge of the griffon’s shoulder armor, and swung up to crouch in front of Cat.

‘Cat, stop it!’

Cat jerked her head down from the shrieking creature on the ceiling to stare at him, eyes already shifting from dark red to green.

‘Gredel! Do you know what it is?’

He nodded while motioning for her to stay low. With a frown she extinguished her flames and shifted back along Loushka, giving him room.

‘A torch,’ he called and the centaur closest passed one up. With a sharp rap against Loushka’s armor, he knocked the burning part to the ground, leaving just the glowing chemicals. Not much light but enough for him to see and not so much to blind her. Gredel’s tongue felt thick and awkward when he spoke a language he hadn’t used in decades. All those watching stayed silent and the shivering creature above him responded in a thin high voice.

The language to an outside sounded like a strange array of murmurs punctuated with the occasional click of the tongue.

‘Gredel, what are you saying?’ whispered Cat, her eyes locked on the creature.

He ignored Cat while talking to the Cyq, soothing and reassuring the young creature as it shivered, casting fearful glances at Cat.

My first glance up scared the heck out of me. The thin, angular creature with incandescent skin and visible dark lines of veins had, to my tense eyes, looked like a reanimated corpse, as ridiculous a concept as that was. Its unearthly look augmented with jutting cheekbones, a narrow flattened nose and excessively large eyes with pinpricks of pupils. The strong bones of the face created shadows making its age, to me at least, indeterminable.

Straining my eyes I jolted in shock when it looked at me, able to twist its neck right around even though it clung to the ceiling front first.

‘It’s okay, Cat,’ Gredel assured me. ‘She was worried for you.’

‘Worried for me?’ I said in surprise.

Gredel looked steadily at me.

‘She saw you crying.’

The sympathy and sorrow in his eyes made the agony bubble close to the surface again and I dropped my chin to avoid his gaze.

Above, the creature made the humming noise again and I looked up. With her front still facing the ceiling and her head twisted to watch me she crawled a couple of feet over, until she hung right above. It pushed the grief away as I gaped at the display while staring into her enormous eyes, unnerved by the tiny pupils. I gave a tentative smile. She cocked her head, still humming and seemed to mimic the smile though her forehead twitched.

‘Smiling isn’t normal for them, Cat,’ Gredel said in a quiet voice while he watched.

‘What is she?’

I copied her actions, cocking my head, and smiled when she made the same motion, then turned my head to the other side. The humming stopped and she made a strange noise that sounded like the rattle of a chesty cough, then she turned her head the other way too. I glanced at Gredel, who watched her with kind but sad eyes, then looked to me.

‘You made her laugh, Cat. She is a Cyq. A cave dweller.’

‘Are there others?’

‘In here? Yes, a whole community. They’re watching us from the edges, Cyqs are shy creatures.’

‘Can you tell her I’m sorry for scaring her? I didn’t mean too.’

‘Already did.’

The sound of hooves distracted us and we looked down to see Belsesus there.

‘All good? We need to get moving.’

Gredel nodded and looked back to the Cyq, speaking that strange language, and she chatted back in an animated fashion.

Gredel turned back to those watching.

‘There are creatures in the next cavern we need to watch out for. Light will keep them at bay so let everyone know to light their torches before passing through the doorway.’

Belsesus gave a nod and turned, calling out the instructions in a loud voice. The men rustled in their bags for the chemical mix that allowed the torches to burn bright for so long. I watched then glanced back up to find the Cyq gone.