I wasted no time snatching the immortal flame out of his clenched hand. The gesture allowed me a detailed view of the snake before us. It locked its eyes with mine. Fear of being punished for interrupting its test rushed through me. But thank the gods, the snake slithered gradually until it, too, disappeared into the deep.
I hadn’t realised that I was holding my breath until my feet reached the landing on the opposite side of the lake. Our gazes met and lingered. We both knew that what we had just respectively faced was either what kept us awake at night or what often haunted our dreams whenever we slept.
We moved deeper into the alcove, away from those monstrous mind-manipulating snakes.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
I knew that Marshen shoved whatever it was that he was feeling into a side compartment when he said, “I’d be better if you’d at least cut my lefty…and what if we have to row a boat now? Do you learn nothing?”
I rolled my eyes at him before fishing for the salve in my soaked backpack. “Your lefty was busy clenching the flame. Thank the gods you held on to it.”
“I was under the impression that I was holding twin swords,” he replied.
“Hmm.” I ripped the collar off my ruffled shirt using force and my dagger.
“Thanks,” Marshen mumbled when I finished wrapping the cloth around his palm. “What’s next, I only wonder?”
“Whatever it is…we’ll face it together.” My reply almost startled him, but then he nodded, a silent thanks for the hidden words.
As we exited the alcove, another long corridor awaited. We turned at the gush of wind that sprang up behind us, only to see that the entryway to the cavern was no more.
CHAPTER 55
“For Boreas’s sake,” Marshen mumbled.
We walked in silent anticipation, nothing around us other than waves of red rock wherever the flame illuminated. Beyond was plain onyx, no end in sight.
“Here, hold this,” I told Marshen, handing him the flame. I took out the compass. Shit. The water from the Depths or the lake—or both—must have ruined it. The north-pointing needle was pointing everywhere but north. It swivelled left to right without ever settling. We had no recollection of the time of day, we had no idea where we were. All we knew was that we had to keep moving forward.
My stomach grumbled, my feet itched, and exhaustion was getting the better of me. Not to mention the skin irritation from walking for hours in wet clothes and shoes.
“Do you think it’s nighttime?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. But I’m starving and tired, so yeah, it’s probably the middle of the night.”
“Can we rest for a bit?” I asked. “I wish I could change into something dry.”
The air felt cool against my exposed shoulders, but at least my camisole was almost dry. I was barefoot in my undergarments, sitting on my shirt with my back against the wall. Marshen was in a similar situation. We hung our trousers and socks on two rocks that jutted out of the rugged cave wall, with the hopes of them drying.
I took out my waterskin and hoped that the bone-infested water hadn’t seeped its way through it. I asked Marshen to smell it before we gulped down half of it. Four blemished apples rested on top of a soaked blanket. That was all the food that we had left. I handed one to Marshen and took one for myself, saving the other two for later, despite our lingering appetite. Half a waterskin and two apples.
Will we be rewarded with Dunehaven, or will we starve to death?
I thought about what we had faced, wondered about what was next. I drifted off into a terror-filled sleep that had me jolting up in sweat. My breaths came deep and urgent. I tried to compose myself, unsure if I was out for minutes or hours. I gasped the moment I looked to my right.
Was it daytime?
Based on the fact that our clothes had almost dried, I would say we’d slept for at least a few hours.
“Marshen, get up,” I urged, nudging his leg.
We hurried towards the minuscule speck of light that shone at the end of the tunnel. It started small, but moving towards it, the little bead gradually morphed into a deviated beam of light, the shape of a floating curtain. We advanced steadily, carefully, until we could finally make out what it was that we were desperately approaching.
An entrance to another cavern.
I bit my lower lip, my brows knitted as I realised how the light came about.The sunlight was not supposed to be there.
Crumbled rocks lay strewn on the cave floor as if someone managed to bombard their way through the exit. Not just someone…
