Some of the horizontal sections of slick stone in the walls to the sides overhung the stacked slabs of rock below, so there was no hope of climbing out. They were going to have to follow the twisting course of the chasms if they were going to find a pass through the mountains. Richard knew from having seen the crooked canyons from above that it was going to be a confusing, difficult maze to traverse.
If there was ever a natural barrier guarding the back door of a city, this was it. He just hoped it wasn’t also poisonous.
As they descended deeper into the main chasm leading them into the only possibility of passage through the mountains, they found it to be surprisingly broad. From up high on the distant prominence behind them it had been hard to tell precisely how big it really was down in the canyons. Now, Richard could see that in places the walls were hundreds, and in places thousands, of feet high. In some spots the floor of the twisting gorges broadened out, with the walls closed in closer overhead, almost touching, to create a murky, sometimes subterranean landscape of thick growth down below. In spots the rock bridged the walls high overhead.
Richard spotted flocks of small birds darting under the stone bridges. The walls probably provided relatively safe nesting spots for a variety of birds. The canyons were alive with small wildlife, everything from gnats and birds in the air, to centipedes and voles on the ground. He knew that where there was such wildlife, there would be predators.
The growth at the bottom of the chasms, while similar to the forests above, was denser. The daylight down in the bottom was limited by the towering walls, so the trees grew more slowly. Ancient, monarch spruce created brief areas where the forest floor at the bottom of the chasm was open among the massive trunks, so that they could see the walls off to either side. The thick beds of brown needles made for a spongy mat to walk on.
In other places, the space between the walls narrowed and smaller hardwoods and brush held sway. The maples made for a denser forest, with tangles of young saplings crowding the ground where older trees had fallen, providing some precious light. Soldiers pushed small, slender trunks over with their boots to make it easier for those following behind. The ground was deep in places with drifted leaves and debris that had accumulated between boulders and rocks, and because of how wet it was, it smelled of rot. In a few flat areas, the water standing in long, stagnant stretches was alive with bugs atop and under the water, and snails around the edges.
The walls above them seemed to continually weep water. Long green streaks of slime grew down the walls where it looked like water almost continually seeped down the rock face, staining it black. In other spots, where the rock walls higher up tilted inward, water dripped in thin rivulets from hundreds of feet overhead, splashing on the ground, creating either bare spots on the rock floor or in other places thick wonderlands of mosses growing in shapes like fuzzy, miniature cities. In a few spots the water fell from such towering height that it mostly turned to mist before reaching the bottom.
All of that water running and falling down the walls meant that travel along the bottom of the chasms was a wet, miserable trek either through a jungle of wet undergrowth or over stretches of sloping granite ledge with sheets of water running over a surface of slime that made it extremely slippery. At times the fall of water echoed, and at other times it roared.
Richard didn’t like having to travel through the chasms. He knew that it was dangerous to be in such a confined space. They could usually deviate a little if need be, but in this case, down in the canyons, they had no choice but to get through or turn back and spend days going around.
Richard knew that he and Kahlan would not live long enough to go the long way around. He knew they were running out of time.
The thing he didn’t like about having to go through such a place, though, was that if they needed to escape any kind of predator that hunted the canyons, they had nowhere to run and rarely anywhere to hide or seek cover. If they were killed by a predator they would be just as dead as dying from the poison. At least the thick growth in most places would prevent the flying predators they had encountered before from easily getting in at them.
Richard shielded his eyes from the falling drizzle of water to look ahead into the various fractured slivers of passageways, divided by thin walls of rock. Some of those slim walls had collapsed, leaving jumbles of boulders and debris filling the narrow canyons. As they made their way farther in, they saw that in places the thin rock walls had disintegrated, leaving holes going back and forth between adjoining canyons.
The farther in they went, the more immense those holes became. In some areas they formed shallow caves. In other places they led a short distance through darkness to mossy rocks at the bottoms of towering cliffs in adjacent chasms on the other side.
To be able to continue on, they had to make their way up and over stacks of granite slabs littering some of the canyon floors. Some of the huge pieces of stone had been worn down and rounded over by the continual fall of water. As the granite eroded over time, it crumbled away to create gravel beds. Mosses, ferns, and small shrubs grew thick and green in the maze of passageways and tunnels. Vines clung to rocks and climbed the walls, making some look more leaf than rock.
Richard snatched Kahlan’s arm just before she stepped on a green snake stretched out along folds in the moss. She let out a sigh of relief as she went around the snake. The men passed word back to be careful of it. Richard didn’t know if it was poisonous or not, but he and Kahlan already had enough poison in them and Richard wasn’t about to test his luck.
The way ahead offered a choice of winding, forested chasms and enormous caverns. Many of those caverns were passageways interconnecting the chasms. Looking through as they passed, they were offered views through the short stretch of darkness at light and lush growth at the other side.
As they climbed the stacked slabs to enter a cavern leading to a chasm on the other side going in the direction they needed to go, he saw something swoop low in the darkness. It wasn’t a bat—it was far too big—but the way it flew reminded him of a bat.
Richard’s blood ran cold when he peered farther into the dark passageway, over the heads of the men, and saw something dark moving on the surface of the rock above their heads. The whole ceiling of the cavern seemed to come alive, the way a cave full of bats was alive. As the things moved, it stirred the air just enough that the gagging stench of guano wafted out of the cavern.
Richard crossed a finger over his lips, signaling the men behind to be as quiet as possible, then urgently gestured for them to go back the way they had come. The men out front, though, turned back and started running out of the cavern, suddenly yelling for everyone to run. Richard didn’t know what they had seen, but by the way these fearless soldiers were running, he was not about to stop them to ask questions. He turned Kahlan around and started back with her.
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As the men ran back out of the huge, dark maw of the cavern, something with wings, but at least twice the size of a man, dropped from a high ledge up inside the shadows and swooped down toward a running soldier. The man saw it coming and was able to dive to the ground in time to keep from being ripped open by talons. Richard didn’t know what the thing was, but even in the gloom he was able to see the size of the claws and knew they didn’t want to tangle with it.
As they all ran for a different opening, hoping to find protection and cover, masses of the dark creatures came screaming out of the cavern Richard and the others had only just started to enter. The men all had swords or axes out and took a swing to try to ward the things off whenever they came close enough. A few of the men fired arrows into the billowing dark cloud of creatures streaming out of the cavern. The arrows all found their marks, but it didn’t stop any of the animals.
As dark as it was in the confusing maze of chasms with the walls overhead almost closing all the way together, it was difficult to see individual creatures as they raced by overhead, or tell what they were, other than that they were
big and aggressive. As fast as they were moving, they mostly melted together into a long black blur of flapping wings. Richard was sure, though, that once the wary creatures got over their initial caution, they would go into a feeding frenzy.
Yet more of them suddenly appeared, pouring out of dark cracks and openings in the walls the way big black bugs emerged from under rocks and logs.
Richard saw one of the winged creatures over his shoulder drop out of the flowing black cloud to swoop down toward him and Kahlan. He spun at the last moment as it plunged in, aiming for Kahlan with its talons extended, streaking right over the top of Richard’s head. Richard made contact with a powerful swing of his sword as it swept past. The blade slit the length of its belly open, so that it left a trail of guts and blood on the way down. The matte-black creature crashed to the ground just beyond Kahlan. Teeth snapping, legs flailing, its long neck twisting, it writhed in the throes of death.
Yet more of the winged creatures continued to pour out of the cave, like bats appearing at dusk. As the dark, undulating ribbon of flying beasts curved downward, Nicci, between Richard and Kahlan, lifted her hands, as if pushing back at the creatures. Eight or ten of them folded in midair and plummeted, hitting with ground-shaking thuds.
Richard could see dark flesh between the bones of the wings, much like the skin that formed the wings of bats. But the bodies were covered in sooty black scales, rather than fur. Although they shared characteristics with other creatures, they were unlike any animal he had seen before.
“What did you do?” Richard asked as he urged Nicci and Kahlan back, trying to keep them under cover of trees and out of the way.
“I stopped their hearts,” Nicci said. “But I can only do it to a few. There are too many for me to handle. I’m hoping that it will keep the rest of them afraid to come any closer.”
As they ran between the trunks of ash and birch trees, toward the safety of another opening in the wall, some kind of creature yowled. It reminded Richard of the sound made by a big cat, like a mountain lion or cougar. The animal screamed again as they continued to run toward the cover of a cavern.
Kahlan snatched Richard’s sleeve. “Look!” she said as she pointed into another chasm splitting off to their right. Whatever it was, it was back in a narrow canyon, with sections of bridging stone closing it off overhead. Vines and exposed roots hung down the walls. Green bands of small plants and shrubs had taken root in the horizontal joints of layered stone.
“What is it?” Richard asked, turning as he ran, focused on watching for any of the creatures that might break from the flock and come at them out of the sky and down through the forest canopy. He was not eager to be exposed out in the open just to have a look.
“It’s Hunter!” Kahlan pointed urgently. “Look. It’s Hunter. Up there.”
Richard wasn’t all that surprised. He had seen the animal shadowing them from time to time. He wondered if it had been hoping Kahlan would give it another snack.
He was more concerned about their safety than the green-eyed animal, though. “Come on, we need to get in shelter before these things snatch us up out here in the open.”
When they turned and started out of the trees and up into the mouth of the cavern, Hunter cried out again, louder, this time adding an angry snarl that echoed up and down the narrow canyon. It was a menacing sound that got their attention.
This time, nearly everyone turned to look. Once the creature saw that it had their attention, he turned and ran off. A moment later, Hunter was back at the edge of a high rock, watching them. It did the same thing again, running off, then it came back to sit on its haunches.
“Hunter doesn’t want us to go this way. He wants us to follow him instead,” Kahlan said in astonishment.
Richard hesitated, wondering why. He peered off into the cavern they were about to enter, searching for any threat. Deep inside, he saw them, then. It was like a thousand bats taking to wing all at once, headed their way.
Except these things were twice the size of a man. The air erupted with the roar of all their wings.
Hunter yowled again, more urgently this time.
“Come on!” Richard yelled at everyone. “Follow it!”
They all abandoned the cavern entrance and instead ran for the canyon opening where they had seen Hunter vanish. Behind them, Richard could hear the drone of thousands of wings beating. Looking over his shoulder, it looked like a sinister, churning cloud coming for them. One of the men vanished as the black mass swarmed down on him. Even as he saw it about to happen, Richard knew that it was already too late to do anything to save the man. A mist of blood rained down as he was torn apart high up in the air.
As the twisting black ribbon of creatures came lower over their heads, Richard saw Irena and Samantha hunching over as they ran. Irena had an arm over Samantha’s head to protect her. From what Richard had seen, these beasts would only too eagerly rip off any arm they got hold of.
Richard, with his sword out, pushed the two women past him, urging them on faster.
“I’ve heard rumors of these things,” Irena said as she paused to cast a spell of her own, then another, then another, each time causing a few of the beasts to lose their way and slam headlong into the stone walls. “Rumors of places in the Dark Lands infested with what people think might be cave dragons.”
“Whatever they are, there are too many to stop,” Richard told her. “If you stand here doing that, you’ll die. We have to get to safety. Come on—hurry.”
As Irena and Samantha took off running for their lives, Nicci kept a hand on Richard’s back, pushing him along, making sure he didn’t stop. She turned and, as she ran, cast out a boiling cloud of turbulent flame that caught up and incinerated dozens of the black forms, diverting the course of the main mass for a moment.
Wings aflame, trailing oily smoke, some of them bellowed in anger and pain as they spiraled out of the air, hitting the ground with bone-breaking violence. Flaming scales tumbled across the ground. One of them, engulfed in a hot, roaring fire that swiftly consumed the flesh between the bones of its wings, crashed into a pine tree, bending it partway over. The needles went up in a whoosh of flame. Fortunately, the forest was wet enough that the fire didn’t spread to other trees.
Nicci turned to push her hands out again, this time stopping the hearts of a dozen in the lead as they headed in toward them. With their hearts stopped, they folded in midair. Others behind, still flying at full speed, crashed into them, tangling their wings together, snapping bones and ripping the membranes of flesh between them. The midair collision caused the rest of them to divert their course, giving the people on the ground precious seconds to make their escape.
As Richard pushed the last man past him and toward the narrow canyon, he grabbed Nicci’s arm and pulled her along with him. Kahlan, standing close by, urgently snatched up Nicci’s other hand.
The three of them raced after the rest of the men, all chasing after the small, spotted animal as he bounded off over rocks into the distance ahead.
Richard hoped that following Hunter was a good idea. As he looked over his shoulder he knew that the animal had called out just in time before they had gotten too far into that cavern full of the cave dragons. It had probably saved their lives.
Following Hunter, wherever he was leading them, made the most sense.
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The rock roof of the cavern into which they ran formed a peak along the top. Mosses and plants hung from the stone roof, giving it a lush, living green softness. Pools of perfectly still water suddenly frothed as all the men ran right through them. The sound of all their boots and the splashing water echoed around the chamber in a deafening clamor. While some of the soldiers took the lead to make sure that the way ahead was clear, most of the men slowed and fell in behind to protect Richard and Kahlan from what was chasing them. Nicci, too, stayed close behind to protect them. Irena and Samantha ran close to him on the opposite side of Kahlan.
Richard looked
back over his shoulder and saw in the dim light out through the opening behind them that the winged predators turned aside rather than enter the cavern opening with them. For some reason, they circled just outside like a dark tornado. They roared in anger, none of them daring to enter the cavern. Most rotated in the massive vortex of creatures, while some flapped their enormous wings to hold themselves in place in midair just outside the opening to the cavern. They lowered their long heads, peering in at where their prey had gone.
As eager as they had been before, Richard couldn’t imagine why they wouldn’t come in after all of them, but he was more than glad not to have to try to fight them off. At the same time, he worried about why they wouldn’t enter. They had to be afraid of something. The cavern they were racing into was certainly large enough. It was larger, in fact, than the caves and cracks the creatures had been nesting in.
Up ahead, the short, peaked cavern opened out into a brighter area at the bottom of dark, sheer stone walls. Rock piled in the bottom of the chasm over the millennia had eroded away until it had become rounded. Now it was all covered under thick layers of vibrant green mosses. Vines climbed the walls to the sides. Trees had taken root in the mosses on the mounds of decaying rock, engulfing them in tangled masses of roots.
Water, lit from above, wafted down in streamers and mist. Ahead, thin chutes of waterfalls cascaded down to pools, creating clouds of mist. From there, the water looked like it drained into narrow cracks that carried it underground.
“Do you see where that little furry friend of yours went?” Richard asked Kahlan.
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