But she still found her feet turning towards the darkness.Taking one step, and then another, as the aura beckoned her forth. She scooped Lazaris up, along with a small, still-smoldering stick that she pulled from the fire, the light just enough to cast a tiny glow ahead of her. She was only a few steps into the dark when footsteps sounded just behind her.
“Where are you going?”
Sonara turned to find Azariah awake and rubbing sleep from her eyes.
“Nowhere,” Sonara said.
It wasn’t a lie, exactly.
“Then I’m going nowhere with you,” Azariah said. She crossed her arms as if daring Sonara to defy her.
“Don’t fall behind,” Sonara said. She turned on her heel, not checking to see if the princess followed.
Onwards, she walked, past the spiraling rocks, further into the outskirts of the cavern. Water trickled past her boots, that tiny little stream, and she realized it was flowing downwards. Following a pattern it had driven into the red mountain rock, likely from years and years of running the same route. In the barest light of her fire, the water across the red rocks looked like fresh-flowing blood.
“My father would be shocked to find me here, crawling through a cave with the night beasties,” Azariah said softly. “He didn’t let me wander often.”
Sonara held the torch a bit closer to her, Azariah’s collar scar just visible in the dim light as she glanced back. “Did he keep you locked up?” Perhaps it was pushing, but they’d spent enough time together by now that the awkward walls were beginning to crumble.
Azariah tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, revealing the scar even more.
“I used to wander the castle grounds as a child,” she said softly. “Always under watch, of course. But after Markam… my father worried I’d gotten too brave. He said it was foolish for a demon like me to ever hope forlove.”She spat the word like it was laced with poison. “He chained me up after that. Said I’d never leave his side, forhewas the one who’d given me life, and if I wished to keep it, I’d never dream of escaping again.” She reached up and ran her fingertips across the collar scar. “Three years, he kept it around my throat. And every night, I went to bed dreaming of the day I’d wake up and finally find a way to break free. I didn’t have the means to until I met Thali.”
“Duck,” Sonara said suddenly.
A flock of wyvern pups soared past their heads just after, little black bullets in the darkness that she’d sensed just before they arrived.
“She could teach you how to hone your magic,” Azariah said with wonder, as she stood straight again. “It’s how I broke free, after I discovered my father’s plan with the Wanderers.”
“How did you do it?” Sonara asked. “How did you escape him, after all those years?”
Her curse picked up on a gust ofhunger,spiraling around another rock formation, from the winged creatures that perched upon it. Azariah followed her when she ducked, or sidestepped left or right, her curse showing her a map of sorts, pulling at whatever living or breathing beast it could find to help guide the way.
Right now, it felt normal to use the curse.
Almost gentle, like she was fully in control.
“We started little by little, learning how to light a candle with a single spark, learning how to simply warm my hands without burning anything at all. Eventually I was able to control it enough to melt the chains that bound me. Thali and I had a plan to meet a group of riders in the city that night. We’d nearly made it out of the castle grounds when my father realized I was missing. He sent fifty of his guards after me and… I lost control.”
She paused, and Sonara turned to face her, sensing the princess’ sudden aura of sadness. It was a muted scent, one that reminded her of the time just before the setting suns, or before a long-awaited goodbye. Azariah’s bottom lip quivered as she spoke.
Sonara had always hated emotions,hatedthe way they overcame her. She hadn’t cried, hadn’t allowed herself to feel them, since the day Soahm was stolen. Since the night her mother forced her and Duran to make the Leaping.
But tonight, she wanted to listen.
She wanted to stand beside the princess in the darkness and hear a story that was just as sad as her own.
Somehow, it made her feel less alone.
“I killed them all,” Azariah whispered suddenly, as if she were revealing a secret she’d kept buried for too long. She started walking again, as if she needed the motion to keep herself talking. “We made it to the courtyard. I could see the road into the city, just down the hill. I could seefreedom,and then they swarmed us, all around. I’ve never been so afraid, so desperate. I knew he was going to chain me up again, perhaps lock me beneath the castle walls, where I’d never feel the sun on my face. My magic exploded from me. I couldn’t hold it back. The courtyard… it became a pile of ashes.”
Sonara could see it all in her mind, the same place where she’d been taken captive by Jira’s guards not long ago.
Azariah looked down at her hands, gloved once more. “I’ve been afraid of myself ever since.” She blinked, as if she’d surprised herself by speaking her truth.
The torch was slowly beginning to dim, but they’d reached the end of the cave.
The space they stood in was still large, though not quite as wide as the entrance where their companions slept. Here it looked untouched, not rounded walls like in most of the Bloodhorn tunnels, but just the natural, rocky ceiling of a wide cave.
