by R. A. Rock
And Tessa was good. He would give her that. Considering how much time she had put into learning the blades, she had an insane level of skill already. But she still wasn’t ready to take the sheaths off, and that was a problem.
He grimaced as he thought about the second time she had tried taking the leather safeguards off. It had been two days ago. Everything had gone well—until it hadn’t. Finn glanced casually down at Tessa’s wrists that were still bandaged. There was some bright red blood on the white cloth, as if the wounds had opened up again and been bleeding.
Not good.
He stared ahead of them as he trudged along, his steps quiet in the grassy soil. The dark green of the Direwood had appeared, though it was only a thin line on the horizon. Within that forest lay their doom. Or possibly their salvation. It was still hard to know which way it would go. He stifled a groan.
Tessa would be ready.
She had to be.
But they needed to train more. It was a doubled-edged blade—he snickered to himself at the word play—that the blades were so tricky to master because once you had mastered them, you were extremely dangerous in a fight. But until you had them totally figured out, you were a serious danger to yourself.
There was no way that the queen would allow Tessa to demonstrate with the sheaths on. Chasm and Shadows, Tessa probably wouldn’t allow herself to demonstrate with the sheaths on. That would mean possible—if not probable—death. Of course, they would have a few more days training by that time, but still.
Finn pushed his depressing thoughts out of his head and concentrated on the slightly less depressing thoughts of the mess he had made of their camping arrangements for tonight.
He looked around them, pushing the hair out of his eyes as the strengthening wind blew it into his face. They would have to camp out in the open. It had been a foolish move to start across the plain so late in the day, and he cursed himself up and down in his mind for having suggested it. If they had stopped at the edge, they would be comfortably eating stew or poking the fire right now.
“I can hear your thoughts grinding in there,” Tessa said, her steps plodding in a way that was quite uncharacteristic of her. And once again, Finn worried that he was training her too hard.
He considered an acceptable answer to her comment.
“You seem tired,” he said, deciding to avoid discussing his thoughts altogether and hoping she wouldn’t be annoyed by his assessment of her health.
“I am,” she said. “But I’ve been worse. You’re worried about the training?”
Finn was silent, again thinking about his response before speaking. She seemed a bit fragile since their impromptu visit to the Seer, and he was getting unreasonably concerned about Tessa’s wellbeing.
“I guess…” He met her eyes for a moment, looked away at the ominous shadow of Tartarus, and swung his gaze to Tessa’s pretty eyes with the dark shadows under them. “I guess I’m worried about you.”
Tessa blinked in surprise, and Finn backpedaled.
“I mean, I’m worried about training you too hard. I don’t—I mean—I didn’t mean—” He pressed his lips together and rolled his eyes.
“Finn,” Tessa said, looking him over. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“No,” he said, trying to ignore the fact that he’d just opened up to her. He shook his head. “No, definitely not.”
What was he thinking? Why had he said that? She was the Captain of the Guard for the Dark Court. And he still wasn’t sure he could trust her. He couldn’t be getting attached to her. He cared about her like a colleague. Nothing more. They were a team in this stupid quest. That was all it was.
He pushed away the thoughts of how she had chosen to save his life in Perdira’s Mire and how he had nearly died getting the Otherworld sheath for her. That had all been part of the mission. There was nothing behind it. He didn’t have feelings for her, especially since she was likely going to slit her wrists in the next few days, killing herself.
This idea did not sit well with him, and he couldn’t help himself. He glanced down at her wrists again.
“Of course not,” she said slowly, studying him. “Stars forbid, you should worry about me.”
“Yes,” he said emphatically. “Stars forbid.”
Tessa laughed and Finn gave her a rueful smile.
“Well, maybe I do care a little,” he said. “We’re a team. I need you healthy so we can save both our lives. You shouldn’t read anything into it.”
He leaned into the wind that was so strong now it could almost hold him up.
“Of course not,” Tessa said again, clearly reading something into his words despite his warning. Stars above, Finn himself was reading something into his words, so there was no doubt that she was.
But he shouldn’t lead her on, that would be—
He didn’t get a chance to finish his thought because his attention was suddenly and abruptly brought back to the present. The wind had been steadily rising, getting stronger and stronger until they were sort of pushing against it to move forward.
Ahead of them, the wind suddenly twisted and became a funnel cloud before their very eyes.
“Shadows take me,” Tessa said, turning wide eyes on Finn. “What are we going to do?”
Finn looked away from her to stare at the whirlwind, his mind a blank.
“I don’t know,” he said, raising his voice. “We’re in the middle of the Great Plain. There’s nowhere to go. Nothing to hide behind or beneath.”
“In the name of Severance, Finn, we’ve got to do something.”
He shrugged, unable to tear his eyes away from the enormous whirlwind that was coming toward them. The wind was tearing at their clothes, and the walking stick that Finn had been using was ripped right out of his hands.
“It’s too big. It’s coming too fast. We can’t outrun it. It’s too close.”
“Shouldn’t we at least try?”
“Don’t know,” Finn said, eyeing the menacing storm. “It probably wouldn’t do any good, since it’s magically generated and someone probably sent it to kill us.”
“Magic?” Tessa asked faintly, turning to face the whirling cloud that was coming slowly toward them.
“Magic,” Finn said. “You sense it?”
“Shadows take me.”
“Yes, exactly,” Finn agreed, losing himself in the mesmerizing quality of the spinning wind and debris.
“What about opening a portal?” Tessa shouted over the noise of the tornado, reaching for her sheath. Finn had taught her about how one blade opened a portal and the other closed it, and she had a good grasp of how it worked. She could probably do it, but there was no way that she should try.
“Can’t,” Finn yelled above the wind, grasping her hands in his before she could draw the blades. “With this wind, they’ll be blown right out of our hands. I already lost my walking stick.”
“Finn—”
He shook his head and examined the tornado that was moving inexorably in their direction. “We can’t risk losing the blades. They’re just too valuable. And we already talked about the cost. A portal is not an option.”
The storm picked up speed, heading directly toward them, and all he could do was hold Tessa’s hand firmly, take a deep breath, and close his eyes.
The tornado hit them, knocking them to the ground and then nearly lifting them into the air. But fortunately, it moved past quickly enough that they were soon in the eye of the storm. The noise there was indescribable. So loud. So dissonant. And the sudden changes in pressure made his ears pop every few seconds. He felt as though his ears were bleeding. And maybe they were.
Finn had never felt fear like this. He had fought many people and monsters, but he had never fought anything like this. The storm was so impersonal. It didn’t care in the least whether Finn and Tessa lived or died. And that very indifference made it seem so much worse. The storm would kill them, and it simply wouldn’t care. Their lives were insignificant compared to t
he power—both magical and meteorological—whirling around them.
Finn clung to Tessa’s hand, unable to do anything else.
Then a rock hit him on the head, and he went unconscious.
When Tessa awoke, the first thing she noticed was the silence. She sat up quickly, regretting it when her head spun. Something must have hit her and knocked her out. She put a hand to her head and breathed deeply to calm the nausea.
A quick glance around the shadowy clearing revealed that it was night and Finn was nowhere to be seen. She got to her feet as quickly as she could, holding on to a tree as she did. The bark was rough and scraped her hands. She turned them palms up and saw tiny drops of blood welling up. But that was the least of her troubles. She needed to find Finn and get them back to where they were supposed to be.
She tried to figure things out. The tornado must have picked them up and then dropped them here. But where were they, that there were trees? And who had sent a magical tornado to kill them? She decided that the whirlwind must have carried them far across the plain to the Direwood.
A groan from nearby sounded like Finn, and she stumbled in what she hoped was his direction. Every inch of her ached, and her skin felt scoured raw from the sand that had been swirling in the tornado.
About twenty paces away, Finn lay on the ground. There was a gash on his head that already had a scab on it. Thank goodness, he wasn’t bleeding anymore. But he was still out cold.
“Finn?” Tessa asked, kneeling painfully beside him, her leg muscles protesting the movement. He didn’t move. She put the back of her hand on his cheek and rubbed lightly. “Finn, are you awake?”
He didn’t move, but she could see that he was breathing. There was no way that she could drag him anywhere, so she would just have to wait till he woke up. Tessa sat back on the ground, and for the first time, she really looked at her surroundings.
They were in the woods, but it wasn’t the Direwood as she had first thought. Now that she paid attention, it was obvious. She knew that forest like her own backyard. She had spent so much time in it training and searching it for escaped prisoners.
No, she knew without a doubt that this was not the Direwood. Around her, gnarled oaks grew close together, seeming to crowd in on Tessa. The trunks were dark and ominous.
She frowned.
Where in the name of Severance were they?
Tessa sat very still, listening, and she caught the sound of owls, maybe an occasional wolf howl, and some slithery, rustling sounds that all were a normal part of the forest at night. She had slept out enough times that these sounds brought no fear.
But underneath the normal sound of the woods was something else. Something eerie and ominous was reverberating beneath her. There was a caustic and suffocating cloud of fog drifting in and a slight rumble every other minute.
Tessa felt dread twisting her guts.
Where were they? And what were the sounds, the smells, and the tremors? She swallowed hard, terror trying to creep in, but she shoved it ruthlessly into the box where she kept her fears. If she wanted to survive what was about to happen, she needed her wits about her.
The tremors grew stronger, and Tessa breathed slowly, keeping aware of her environment and watching for even the most minute changes. There was nothing that she could put her finger on that was happening, but she knew that the danger was growing. She clenched her fists until they hurt, but nothing happened.
Finn groaned again. Tessa was beside him in an instant, hushing him.
“Shh, shh,” she said, gently running the back of her hand along his cheek. “Hush, Finn. Are you awake? Please be awake. I can’t carry you.”
Something in her quiet, desperate tone must have gotten through to Finn, and he cracked his eyes open, giving her a confused look. She touched her finger to her lips, indicating he should be quiet. He gave one nod, then closed his eyes in pain. Tessa helped him sit up. When it seemed as though he was ready, she got him to his feet, looping one of his arms over her shoulder. Finn leaned heavily on her, and they began to move through the forest.
It was dark.
Roots seemed to reach out and trip them, though it was likely they were only stumbling because they were tired and sore. At least, Tessa hoped the roots weren’t actually tripping them. Because there was only one place in Esper where even the trees were malevolent.
But no.
They couldn’t be there.
Shadows take me, please let us not be there.
No doubt Shadows would take them, if that was where they were. She wondered for a brief moment if that was where the curse word had come from.
They continued on, shambling toward what Tessa hoped was the Great Plain. Then with a cry of surprise that she quickly cut off, they fell. Finn moaned in pain.
“What?” she whispered frantically. “What is it?”
“Ankle,” he bit out, speaking for the first time since he had woken up. “Twisted.”
“Shadows destroy me,” she muttered, upping her cursing. Tessa helped him stand again.
“I can still walk,” he said, so low she could barely hear him. Sure, he could walk as long as she took most of his weight.
Her back began to ache from him leaning so hard on her, and she pushed away the worry, dread, fear, and terror that were threatening to escape in a scream she couldn’t control. Tessa knew that they just had to put one foot in front of the other. Eventually, they would get out of here.
Unless the woods shifted and they never found their way out. That was a possibility, too.
Tessa peered ahead in the shadowy darkness, trying to decide which way to go. Left, she decided. There were less trees to the left. But when they went that way, the branches seemed to close in on them, catching on their clothes. Tessa drew in a deep shuddering breath, closed her eyes for a moment, and stepped forward. There was nothing else to do but keeping moving.
She must have missed it when she closed her eyes. The telltale wisp of smoke, which indicated a monster’s lair.
With a shriek she couldn’t hold back, Tessa and Finn fell to the ground and then through the ground—falling, falling, falling.
When they finally hit, Tessa felt an excruciating pain in her hand. Then there was nothing but blackness again.
Chapter 20
Finn hit the bottom of the hole with a groan of pain, but he didn’t lose consciousness, and for that, he was grateful. At the last moment, before they had fallen through the sinkhole, Finn had seen the smoke twisting up through the chimney hole of the monster lair and had known what it was they were falling into.
He pulled his sword, feeling grim.
When he nudged Tessa, she didn’t move or respond. She was out cold, or at least, she wasn’t moving. This was bad. She might die. Not now. But her not waking up might eventually lead to her actual death. Because if she was out of commission, then they would fail to achieve their goal, thus ensuring the queen’s wrath. And if the queen was angry, she would probably kill Tess.
He watched for her chest to rise and fall—it did. And he let out the breath he’d been holding. Then, he took stock of their surroundings while he waited for her to wake up.
There was a tiny amount of moonlight that filtered in the hole they had fallen through, giving him enough light to make out a few things. From where he sat, he could see several large grey rocks in the cave, and he wondered whether the monster that lived in this cave slept behind one of them and that was why he couldn’t see it? There was a sound like waves on the shore that rose and fell. Finn hoped it meant the beast was sleeping.
Monsters of all kinds burrowed into the ground and created caves where they lived. The softer or smaller kinds would reuse old caves of monsters that had died so they didn’t have to dig their own. This cave certainly smelled as though a monster had died here. He could hardly breathe, the stink was so suffocating.
Finn heard Tessa give a quiet gasp of pain as she awoke, and he watched her curl up into a ball. Thank goodness she was conscious. They needed t
o get out of there as soon as possible.
“Tess?” he whispered, moving his eyes around the cave and trying to spot the creature. Even though she was clearly hurt, she didn’t make a sound, only quietly sat up, holding her hand against her chest. “What’s wrong?”
She shrugged, clearly ignoring some serious pain.
“Broken bone in my hand maybe,” she said quietly. “Doesn’t matter.”
Finn thought that probably it did matter, but they had bigger problems at the moment. The rising and falling sound of what he thought was the monster breathing stayed steady. That meant that whatever it was was probably still sleeping.
“We’re in a monster’s lair,” he said, keeping his voice as low as he could and still be heard by Tessa.
Her eyes got wide in the dim light, but she nodded like she already knew.
“But Finn,” she said, and swallowed hard before continuing. “There’s only monsters in…”
Finn gave her a grave look and, with a feeling of dread, finished her sentence.
“Tartarus.”
“Chasm and Severance,” Tessa cursed, using as soft a voice as Finn. She felt panicky. “We have to get out of here. There’s a dim light over there. Maybe it’s the entrance to the cave.”
She scrambled to her feet, stifling a groan of pain as she unthinkingly used her hurt hand, and dislodged a rock. The stone bounced and rolled a couple feet—the sound excruciatingly loud in the stillness of the monster lair. She stopped moving, giving Finn a petrified glance. Then she mouthed sorry.
“Yes,” he murmured, limping closer. “We do need to get out of here. But preferably without waking whatever’s sleeping in this cave.”
Tessa grimaced. She needed to calm down. She was making the situation worse. But her old trauma from the monster arena was coming back worse than it ever had, and she felt scared out of her wits. She could barely breathe, never mind think up a plan to escape.