by A. Lawrence
"From now on, we stick together. We all have things we can bring to the table, we all can watch each other's backs, and, just because I feel it needs to be said, I'm not sitting in a creepy courtyard for god knows how long hoping you didn't get picked off by… I don't know… an evil giant… thing. Or something worse. Besides. Heln is my brother; we die together. You can be our honorary sister, if you want."
Rhyss was surprised. Maybe it was purely out of self-interest, but being nice was at least a new tactic. Bel was right, they all did have things to bring to the table, and Rhyss wanted to get out of the tunnels alive. Mutual feelings of hatred weren't going to get them anywhere. She was starting to think that hatred wasn't the mutual feeling, anyway.
She didn't think sisters was ever going to be on the table. Though if it was, it did bring up a pressing question. "Do I have to die?"
"Only if we do." Heln shrugged. His eyes were still a little glassy. "Clearly."
Rhyss tried to equate this Bel, with her ripped jacket, dirty face and determined expression with the girl that flirted with anyone at school except for Rhyss, all smooth smiles and composed lines. They didn't mesh together in her mind at all.
Though maybe Heln was a little right about the flirting. Not that Bel was ever serious about it or anything else in her life.
She seemed serious about staying together, at least.
"I already have four sisters so I'm good there, but I'll take Heln." She turned from the tree, smiling at Bel's squawk of protest at being left out. Sisters, she wasn't so sure about. Friends sounded almost doable.
It was hard to leave the room, but Bel had a point. She didn't know why, but she felt that the room wasn't meant for them. It was certainly not meant for sleeping. "Let's drop our things off at the entrance and explore."
Chapter Ten
Rhyss mentally listed her priorities.
Water. Food. Rest. Those should have been the very first things they did, but she wanted to know the lay of the land before anything else. She didn't need another magic eater literally getting the drop on them. Again.
She would never, ever say it out loud, but she was glad Bel and Heln hadn't let her go off on her own. It was incredibly against protocol. If she wasn't already expelled then she would have been when she put in her report. Though it wasn't as if the seemingly safe courtyard was any better than trying to find a way to the top of one of the towers, so at least she could argue her case.
If she even wanted to.
Joining the Guard had been her life's dream. Her entire childhood had been spent listening to her mother's tales of daring and adventure. Under her mother, her sister Reta had risen in the ranks. Her step-sister, Brina, was one of the best healers the Guard had at their base.
So, no one was surprised when Rhyss turned fifteen and immediately signed up for the Guard. Not a single person questioned that she was the top of her classes both in the Guard and at the Eleti Academy. Of course, it was absolutely expected that she would be brave, strong, and hold true to the motto of the Guard: to defend City, citizen and magic itself.
Fear crawled in her guts like snakes at just the thought of going up to the tower alone. The sounds the magic eater had made echoed in her ears, the sound of her boots against the ancient tile too much like the clacking of its beak.
"Stay behind me." It was easier to be brave in front of other people. Especially Bel and Heln, who were just unobservant enough to believe it despite how her hands trembled and her voice was just on the edge of shaking. "Even if this room somehow keeps the constructs out and it seems safe, we have no idea what could have moved into these ruins."
"I'm voting dragons," Bel said.
The expression she threw at her over her shoulder had once made KwaTelin burst into tears, and he was nearly twice Rhyss's size.
Bel beamed back at her, ruining the effect of Rhyss's glare completely. She turned forward quickly. Bel's smile did not make her heart stutter annoyingly. It was a stress response to constant irritation, probably.
"Two things: dragons have been extinct for almost a thousand years, and they might not have been real. Oh, and a third thing, if they were real they were supposed to be absolutely huge. I don't even think they'd fit in this cave," Heln pointed out.
"It would still be completely amazing, maybe they'd be friendly. Friendly small dragons that want to be friends." Bel sighed at the glares she received. "Fine. I'm voting nothing but more spiders. I hope you're both happy with your lives and your decisions."
Rhyss really wanted to ask her why, but there was an equal part of her that just didn't want to know, so she ignored her.
The second courtyard was more overgrown than the first. It must have been lined with ornamental trees, but in lieu of careful pruning they had become a nearly impassable tangle. It took a while to find an entrance that led to a set of stairs.
They spiraled up into the heights of what she guessed would be the southernmost tower, but without sun or stars her sense of direction might have gotten completely turned around.
"Okay. Bel, I know it's really hard for you, but I want absolute silence." Rhyss gave her the second-best death glare in her arsenal. Either that or her words were slightly more effective this time, because at least Bel didn't smile at her. "You too, Heln."
Heln nodded, and Bel saluted. Rhyss could handle Bel's silent sarcasm as long as it stayed silent.
The staircase was dark and the stairs were cracked. The vines and leaves of a plant she didn't recognize spilled down through an opening like a green waterfall, choking up the hollow center of the tower. She saw a few small spiders scuttle away from her light and shuddered despite herself. Cobwebs draped the walls like sheets.
The stairs ended a few floors up and they stepped out into a wide room. The remnants of a mural were still clinging to one expanse of wall. Pillars held up the ceiling, carved with leaves where they weren't covered by living vines. The pillars in the center of the room had broken a long time ago, the stone of the ceiling scattered across the floor. Light from the crystal, blue and cold, filled the space left behind. Rhyss could see the tip of the crystal, not as high above their heads as she thought, like a spear from a god.
The room seemed empty, but something was making her uneasy. "Heln, do you sense anything?"
He shook his head. "Even if I had my shields down all I would sense is that tree or the crystal, it's pretty intense this close."
Well, of course when she really needed him, he was useless.
That wasn't fair, and she knew it. He looked pale and overwhelmed, and she probably didn't look much better.
"If it helps, I don't think anything magical in nature could live here, so if we fight anything it'll just be a regular old, well, I don't know, giant bat." Heln shrugged.
"Giant spiders," Bel whispered.
"Pretty sure I asked you to be silent." Rhyss didn't bother to look at her, trying to see in the strange light, but the far corners of the room were lost in a hazy twilight. She thought she saw something move and slowly put her hand on the hilt of her dagger.
"Well, then I suppose I won't tell you that there's a staircase right over there." Bel pointed to a corner that was thankfully opposite of the one she had been staring at. "I'll just stay quiet and follow orders like a good little soldier."
The staircase was still barely visible in the dim light, even when she was looking directly at it. She wasn't even sure how Bel had seen it. Once again, that annoying feeling of admiration towards Bel rose up in her.
"You will now, I hope." Rhyss tried to not let panic hasten her steps and it was nearly a losing battle. She wanted to skulk around the edges of the room, but she walked straight through the center. If anything was in the room with them, it didn't stir.
The stairs were almost completely intact. There was one spot where they had to jump, but it wasn't far and with their help even Heln made it without too much trouble.
"I've decided I'm going to live in this tower."
"It'll be easier jumpin
g down." Rhyss promised him.
The top of the tower was flat, at least, but completely open to the elements. She thought the top would have been even with the bottom of the crystal, but somehow it was still far above their heads.
Rhyss walked to the edge. Beneath them, the dark expanse of trees rolled out like an ocean, broken up by white buildings that ringed the castle. Some of them had been built almost right next to the wall on the other side.
"I'm moving up here with you, that was exhausting." Bel got close to the edge, but Heln stayed by the stairs. "Watch that first step, Rhyss, it's the biggest doozy of all."
"This isn't the only building, it's just the biggest one." Rhyss ignored her and peered into the darkness. From here she couldn't see the lights of the forest, but the buildings gleamed in the light from the crystal. "There are a bunch in the trees, I'm surprised we didn't run into one."
"That's fantastic, let's climb on top of one of them instead." Heln's voice wavered slightly.
"I think it's a town," Rhyss said. "Well, it must have been a town, or something, once."
"An underground city, huh?" Bel leaned even farther than Rhyss would have dared. Just watching her made it feel like her stomach was free falling without her. "Wow, there are a whole lot of them. Heln you should see this!"
"I'll see it from the ground, thanks." Heln was definitely paler in a way that had nothing to do with the odd light. He closed his eyes, tightly, shoving his glasses up into his hair like it would remove him from the situation. "Which I think we should go to. Right now. Before this tower collapses and we die."
"It's been standing for who knows how long," Bel reasoned. "The odds of it falling while we're on it are like. So low. Infinitesimally low."
"We ended up down in these caves, didn't we?" Heln's voice cracked. "I'd say our luck isn't particularly good."
Rhyss had no argument against that. Honestly, she didn't think she could take much more of Bel acting like they were three feet off the ground. She was on the verge of dragging her back by her coat, even with the risk of Bel accusing her of caring. She didn't care, she told herself. She was just being sensible.
The trip back down was less eventful. She was right, jumping the gap in the stairs was easier going the other direction, though judging by the noise that Heln made he didn't agree with any sort of jumping on any particular set of stairs. Bel leapt over last and the stairs above them crumbled more, chunks of stone clattering against the walls of the tower far below them.
"Okay, fine, you were right," Bel told Heln. Even that didn't seem to really cheer him up, though he seemed to be breathing a little more regularly once they were in the large room. "Sorry. I didn't know that you hated heights that much."
"Funny, neither did I." Heln leaned against the wall, apparently his need to rest overriding any fear of spiders. "Sorry, Rhyss, I just need a minute."
"I didn't say anything." She tried to keep her voice light, but it was getting increasingly difficult. Too much of the room was in shadow for her liking, and despite how damp it was, there was very little moss on the walls and floor. Maybe it was close proximity to the crystal, or some spell that Heln hadn't been able to sense, but she knew would feel better when they were outside.
"You get this expression on your face when you want us to hurry it up," Bel explained. "It's very angry, but I'm starting to see the subtle differences, and I guess Heln is, too."
"Not really angry, exactly." Heln corrected her. "Impatient."
"They all look a little angry to me," Bel admitted. "Then again, I might be slightly biased seeing as how the first time we met you shoved me into a bookshelf and nearly caused the whole library to descend into a domino effect of chaos."
Rhyss glared at her. Bel clearly didn't remember the incident as well as she thought she did because she didn't mention the conversation that had instigated the violence, where Bel had insulted Rhyss first. Instead, her whole face brightened like it always did whenever she was about to say something stupid.
Before Bel could define what Rhyss's face was doing, or something equally inane, her expression faltered and she turned her head a bit.
Rhyss heard a shift of something in the air less than a breath later.
"Heln, I'm sorry, we have to go." Rhyss grabbed his wrist and tugged him after her whether he was ready or not.
A hissing sound like a giant balloon swiftly deflating filled the cavern. Bel went pale and shoved them both to the side. Something passed so close to them she felt a breeze. It looked sort of like a cat with a long snake tail, but she only got a glimpse of it before she ran to the first staircase, hauling Heln along behind her.
At least a dozen of the things glided from the remnants of the ceiling. She couldn't tell if it was wings or skin. Part of her was screaming out magic that she could use, the rest was focused on getting them out of there. They hit the other stairs running and she thought she felt something crack beneath her boots.
Heln yelled and his hand ripped from hers. She whipped around. One of the creatures had dropped onto his shoulders. He nearly fell off the stairs, but she grabbed his arm, whirled him around, and slammed him up against the wall, smashing the creature between him and the stone.
It made a gurgling noise and slid to the ground. It wasn't as big as she'd thought, a little larger than a house cat, though it looked like a cross between a bat and a snake, its pale skin blending in nearly perfectly with the stone.
"Ow." Heln told her, weakly.
"I have an idea."
"I don't like it when you say that."
He would like the actual idea even less.
She wrapped an arm around his waist and jumped into the middle of the stairway. Heln screamed in her ear and she did her best to ignore him, grabbing at the vines. Heln helped with that, at least. They snapped under their weight and they went tumbling down into the bottom of the tower, their fall broken enough that she probably only had a few bruises.
Bel met them down there the more traditional way and hauled them both to their feet before dragging them out of the doorway and into the overgrown courtyard.
"You are actually crazy," Bel told her. "I can't believe you… Eleti alive and above you scared me half to death. Heln, are you okay?"
"Yeah." Heln sounded less than okay, but he was nodding and seemed to be fully conscious and standing without too much pain. "Let's get out of here."
They heard more hissing, but nothing stopped them from leaving through the first courtyard. Rhyss had tried to use her training to memorize the lay of the land, but she was pretty sure that it was more luck than skill when they stumbled into one of the buildings she had seen from the roof.
It was in a sad state, made of a different type of stone that was more yellow than white, and all that was really left was walls. Rhyss thought it might have been someone's home once, possibly where one of the caretakers for the other building had slept. There were runes on the stone that she could see, deep and angular, but she saw no sign of the Forest God carvings they had seen in the tunnels.
"Heln, let me take a look." She turned to him once she was fairly certain nothing had taken up residence there. Nothing more dangerous than insects, anyway.
Heln nodded, unzipping his jacket and shrugging it off. "I don't think it got me, just my jacket."
The hood was shredded and there were long rips in the outer material of shoulders, the fleecy interior bleeding out like little clouds. It looked like the claws had pierced a few places. She hauled up the back of Heln's shirt, earning her what sounded suspiciously like a squawk. There were red welts, but it didn't look like the creature caused any serious damage to his actual person.
"Take off your shirt."
"Wow, Rhyss, at least buy him dinner first." Bel had the audacity to cackle.
Heln gave her the most horrified look Rhyss had ever seen, and she rolled her eyes.
"I'm going to clean those up, make sure that they don't get infected. Eleti alive." She went to do it herself and he scrambled back
, turning away from her and pulling the shirt over his head. "Really, Heln? It's not like I haven't seen guys shirtless before. I'm a Guard Trainee, remember?"
"I'm not those other guys." Heln muttered.
"Don't be a baby." Bel was still laughing. Rhyss would have to have a talk with her about time and place. By talk she actually meant she was going to kick her.
"Unless you have a third ear sticking out of your chest I promise you have nothing new I haven't seen." Rhyss pulled her med kit out of her bag. It didn't have much, but there was a salve that would probably keep the shallow grazes from getting infected. "It's going to sting."
"Of course it is," Heln grumbled. "It always stings. Why can't they—eugh it's cold."
She dipped her finger in the tin and spread green goop over the first cut. "Admittedly, most of the guys I know don't have freckles on their shoulders."
"Oh, shut up."
"As incredibly entertaining as this is, I'm going to make myself useful and go see if there's water nearby. Don't worry, oh great guardian, I'll stay in shouting distance." Bel saluted her again and left before she could really protest.
Rhyss finished cleaning Heln up and stepped back, screwing the tin of ointment closed. "There you go, best I can do. They were a little puffy but I think you'll be fine."
Heln yanked his less than clean shirt back over his head, probably ruining most of her work, but he looked happier about it. "Thanks. You said something about a fire script?"
Chapter Eleven
"Do you think the roof caved in or that it never had a roof?"
"What?" Heln looked over.
Bel gestured to the empty space above the walls of the house. "Well, just that, it's in a cave, right? So, clearly, no need for a roof. Besides, if you didn't have to worry about weather, why not go to sleep with a view like this every night? Or day? Time is all relative when you're underground, I guess."
The cavern ceiling looked like a galaxy. If Bel didn't concentrate too hard, she could almost pretend they were outside.