Impossible. There is no way up and no way around.
Erynn stood watching the sea’s relentless dash against the wall of stone, her face wet with the heavy mist churned up by the action. Trying to escape between the rocks and the pounding ocean would be certain death. Returning to the clearing was riskier with each passing moment.
Birk will come down this same path. My only hope is to find a way up to the forest above from here.
She ran. Wet sand sucked at her boots. She stopped when she reached the black wall of stone. Her hands moved over the rock face, searching for handholds to aid her climb. Sharp points cut her numb fingertips. Blood heated her skin before quickly becoming icy and slick.
The wind picked up, increasing the pace of the clouds. She ached from the cold. A shiver shook through her. She glanced behind. Cloud shadows darted across sand and rock like vast yawning mouths swallowing everything in their path.
Still gazing behind, she sidestepped. Her hands slipped into a wide crevice. Her head snapped around. She peered into the pitch-black maw of the gap. The opening blended with the dark surface of stone. Turning to look back at the small beach, Erynn compared the diminished but comforting light of the moons to the absolute blackness inside the fissure.
“Birk will come.”
The truth of this knifed through her mind. She slowed her breathing and faced straight ahead. Erynn began to feel her way deeper into the crevice, choosing her chances inside the rock.
If there is this way in, maybe there is another way out.
Chapter 9
ERYNN CREPT INTO THE DARK fissure, forcing her breathing to remain rhythmic. She remembered Jaer’s warmth and the powerful feel of his chest as her hand moved under his. Her stomach fluttered and her fingers tingled with the memory of the electric charge that had passed between them. “Stop it,” she chided. “He’s beyond my reach. He doesn’t think of me this way. Never will. I’ll only get hurt again.” A deep ache replaced the flutter in her gut.
But he’s so beautiful. Sad but beautiful. I understand pain. Could I make him forget his?
She shook her head to clear her inappropriate musing and focused on the feel of the damp, icy rock at her back. Her hands ached from the cold. She tried not to think of the occasional squeeze of stone as she pressed through narrow passages. She glanced back. No light made its way through the twisted warren. A chill began at the base of her neck and slid down her spine. “A strange stone beast must have swallowed me whole.” A nervous laugh escaped her. The high chuckle was muted in the tight space. “It’s just a rock. There’s nothing alive in here. I hope,” she whispered.
The booming of the waves diminished. Sand beneath her boots became sodden. She hesitated. The vision of tide waters rushing in seared through her brain like cold staser fire. Her stomach knotted. A breath shuddered past her icy lips. Her heart beat against chest muscles squeezing to contain the galloping pace. She fought the impulse to turn back.
“Keep moving. Go forward.”
Her eyes were open but useless against the absolute dark. She reached out with her mind and fought the urge to pull back her awareness, to shut down.
What will I find?
A calming sensation swirled around her, pulled at her, and encouraged her.
The path altered as Erynn shuffled ahead. She kept track of those changes. A bit to the right for five steps, then up a slight rise another four. The gasping pull of her lungs slowed. The only sounds were the slow, steady beat of her heart and the low whisper of her breathing.
A puff of air brushed against her hot cheek. The now familiar spicy aroma from her visions followed.
No. This is not a good time. I need to keep moving.
With her back pressed to the rock, she reached out. Her fingers contacted the opposite wall centimeters before her. She held her breath and listened.
Nothing yet.
She turned and faced forward. Sweet air enveloped her sweaty face. She saw a quick blink of radiance and then the unyielding dark. Erynn squinted into the blackness. Green light exploded before her. She winced and drew back at the sudden brightness.
A meter ahead was a cavern. The walls shimmered and shifted under the luminous green. Taking a quick glance behind, she searched for the small white glow of a lamp. Only darkness. She listened for the soft scrape of someone pushing through the dark. Utter silence. If she found the entrance to the fissure, Birk would also.
He will follow me into the rock.
Erynn stumbled forward. The brilliant green walls and ceiling illuminated an area roughly twenty meters wide and forty meters long. The height varied from six meters on the sides to about twelve meters in the center. Outcroppings of small rocks covered with the pulsing green radiance scattered the sandy floor of the cavern. The one thing she couldn’t see was a way out.
She continued forward, searching for a passage, an escape. The sweet aroma increased. The green substance of the surrounding walls and rocks must be the source of the spicy scent. The glowing forms shifted as she passed, following her movements.
Is there a pulse beating inside this… plant? Is it breathing?
She reached out to a small patch. The glowing green turned a bright yellow, shivered, and grew still. When she pulled her hand back, the soft green radiance returned. “All right, I won’t touch.”
She continued her exploration finding several openings into the rock, none more than a few meters deep. Thinking she should try to hide in one, the far side of the cavern turned an iridescent blue. Not the warning yellow from before, this color shimmered with a palpable insistence.
Erynn stood a moment before making her decision and a dash. The wall jutted out at an angle. By moving to the right of the point, she saw a recess behind the protruding rock. She stepped into inky the blackness and turned back. The previously illuminated cavern was now dark. Her heart jumped in her chest.
Is this a trap? Am I about to become lunch for an animal with a symbiotic relationship to the glowing creatures of the cavern?
A faint white light appeared at the far entrance to the cave.
Birk.
From all around her and inside her mind, high voices urged, “Rihl.” Run.
With her hands raised in front of her, she hurried as quickly as possible after being plunged back into total darkness.
Am I rushing into the maw of a hungry beast?
She tripped over a rock. Her momentum threw her headfirst into the fissure wall and down. Erynn lay still, wanting to disappear, to blend into her surroundings. She listened for the growling, shuffling, snuffling sounds that would precede her becoming a main course. Instead, when she raised her head to peer into the dark, she detected a faint gray glow ahead. Pulling up, she leaned against the rock, allowing her eyes to adjust.
The ceiling of the fissure angled down ahead of her, but the sides remained wide, the ground cluttered with small rocks. Crouching, Erynn moved toward the pale light but stopped short of bursting out of the fissure.
Tattered moonlight skimmed the sand. The crashing surf roared off to her left.
Icy air driven by the rising wind whistled into the gap, a cool embrace against her hot face. To the right, the outline of trees was perhaps thirty meters away. Ahead, the beach stretched as far as she could see. Gathering clouds wrapped the moons, trying to extinguish their comforting glow. There were no rocks, cliffs, or snarling, snuffling beasts. Surf foamed and bubbled on the beach. The play of light and dark skated across a sandy illusion of ice.
Erynn licked her lips and tasted salt in the moisture collecting there. She stepped out of the fissure and glanced back. Nothing but the dark met her gaze.
“Birk is coming.”
The storm collected around her. Gusting winds chilled her. She reached up and back, unbraiding her long hair. The dark auburn color transformed to silver in the waning light. The freed length fell in crimped curls around her face and down her back.
Warmer.
“Get off the shoreline, too visible,” she s
aid through chattering teeth, scanning the incoming storm. She ran up the gradual slope of the beach. Loose sand slid under her boots. The ground firmed inside the cover of the woods. Wind compelled the smaller branches of the trees to flutter and jump. Frantic hands of twigs and leaves grasped out for her in the broken shards of moonlight.
Erynn stayed hidden inside the shadow-filled cover of the trees and made her way back to where Birk’s ship had plunged over the cliff. The fiery remains would act as a beacon for her rescue. She needed to get back to Korin. Her dad needed her. There would be nothing she could do from Arranon to stop this invasion.
Chapter 10
FROM THE COVER OF THE woods, Erynn stared down at the glowing ruin of the ship. Crushed, twisted metal lay on a long rugged shore among massive boulders. There could be no rescue made here. The beach she’d just left was the logical place. Aircraft could easily land there. She had to return. Cale was here. She searched the stony shore, the forest, and out onto the choppy surface of the black ocean.
But where?
She needed to make it easy for him to find her. The likelihood that Birk, or his kind, would meet up with her first if she went back increased as well.
A chance I gotta take.
Erynn doubled back. She crept over fallen limbs and stealthily pulled her boots through clinging ferns. Wind sighed through the high canopy, blowing in the clouds. She searched the ancient forest, listening to the beat of life surrounding her. She peeked around each massive trunk before slipping to the next, weaving her way through giant trees. The snap of twigs and crunch of dry leaves under her boots were carried off by surging gusts to join the storm.
A mournful cry sounded behind her. Close—too close. She froze. A low growl followed. Limbs shook and branches cracked to her right. She dropped below the undergrowth. A large, dark form lumbered past. Erynn held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut. Her hands, stiff from the cold, clutched at the loose leaves and dirt. She shivered. A thin film of ice covered everything. She raised her head and peered through the lacy pattern of ferns. No beast stood over her, ready to pounce. A whisper scraped out of her dry throat. “Stop. You’re only making it worse.” Movement through the low limbs and brush receded. She stayed down, staring up through the leaves. “He’s gone. Get up.” She didn’t stir, feeling safe below the thick web of ferns and close to the ground.
The visible sky was now dark and moonless, churning with iron-gray clouds. She smelled the rain. Erynn whispered, lowering her head, “Keep moving.” Whatever made the threatening growl and rustling through the branches had moved on. She took a deep breath. The rich aroma of soil filled her lungs. Again, the scent gave her courage and eased her fear. She accepted the phenomenon and pushed up, grateful for whatever caused the reassurance. She concentrated on getting back to the beach.
During her short time in the woods, the wind strengthened, pushing the clouds through the forest and surrounding her in a swirling mist. Fat drops of rain hit with a soft phifft. Erynn crouched next to a wide, tall tree and glanced up at fog shrouded tree tops. Branches and foliage buffeted by the gale creaked and thrashed, slapping like a thousand whipping leaves. Dark shadows raced around her, catching her eye, giving her heart a jump start.
A creature stalking me, or merely limbs propelled into action by the wind?
The storm’s abrupt arrival unsettled her, solidifying her memory of recent visions.
Wind impelled the rain sideways, the drops large and cold. A movement to her right through the fog caught her attention.
Sean stood a few meters away. His rain-wet face shone through the churning mist.
Her breath caught and she rose, stumbling into his line of sight, wanting to call out to him but not daring to.
Sean? How is this possible?
Sean glanced at her, his eyes wide. He motioned her forward before returning his attention to her left.
Erynn followed Sean’s gaze.
Tiar walked out of a swirl of fog. Water dripped across his high cheeks from his wet hair. “Birk is near. I sense his anger,” he whispered as he approached. “We need to get to the rendezvous point.”
“Sean? How… why?” Erynn shook her head, turning to Tiar. “Rendezvous point?”
Holding his finger to his lips, Sean whispered, “I came with Cale to help find you. You forget—Tiar and I can sense emotions like you can. We knew you were here, close.” Sean pulled her into a quick hug. “I’m not going to tell you not to be scared anymore. Too much can go wrong.” He took her hand. “We need to meet up with Jaer and his people. They’ll get us to safety.”
“Jaer? Is he here?” Erynn’s heart tripped for a beat or two, and she felt that flutter in her stomach. Before she could enjoy this encouraging news, hairs at the back of her neck stood up, and an icy alarm slid across her skin.
A crashing and snap of thin limbs caused them to look around.
Through the heavy mist a few meters away, Birk and Pak appeared. Birk pulled his weapon and laughed. The deep cackle was carried off by the wind. His strange eyes danced with amusement.
Tiar stepped in front of Erynn and Sean.
“No Athru? Too bad,” Birk yelled over the storm. “Maybe he’ll show up yet.” He stared at Erynn. “I’ll have another chance to get Athru if… no, when he comes for you.” He tipped his head and frowned. “What is it about you, Erynn? You’re from Korin and he’s Arranon. Why does he care what happens to you? Why is he so interested? I’m curious. Is it because of your father?”
They were all rain soaked, clothes dripping, hair clinging to their faces. Erynn couldn’t believe the night could get any darker as the heaviest of the storm clouds moved in. The air thickened. Rain and wind strengthened with fierce purpose. The storm braced itself around them, penetrating the forest.
The downpour masked Mikal’s arrival behind Birk and Pak.
A brief smile crossed Erynn’s face.
Had Cale brought Mikal? And Tam? This is the end of you, Birk.
Mikal stepped forward and stood a meter from Birk. He didn’t draw his weapon.
What is he doing? He’s going to get caught.
Birk spun at Mikal’s approach but visibly relaxed when he saw who moved next to him.
A frown replaced Erynn’s smile.
“Get us out of here, Captain Brandon—or should I call you Mikal?” Birk snorted and returned his attention to Erynn.
Erynn’s stomach dropped. She stared at Mikal, her eyes wide, lips parted.
“Ah, Erynn, don’t look at me like that.” Mikal raised his hands in an imploring gesture. He stepped forward, closer to Birk. “I was only doing my job. I do like you, though. This isn’t goodbye. You’re far too talented for us to kill. I’ll see you again.” Mikal smiled, flashing those perfect white teeth, and turned to Birk. “As for our escape Major, there’s a ship waiting not far from here.”
Erynn felt the blood drain from her face. The ground disappeared beneath her as she accepted the truth. Nothing in her life would ever be the same.
Tiar stiffened, his hands curling into tight fists.
Sean took Erynn’s arm, steadied her, and kept her upright. “Why us, Mikal, or is that even your real name?”
“Doesn’t matter, Sean. And why not align myself with the commanding general’s daughter?” He shrugged. “Maybe my friendship with Erynn would help me get to her father. When my superiors found out that Athru was coming and wanted Erynn around him, I received an order to stick this out—see where my position took me.”
Anger returned heat to Erynn’s body.
The wind intensified its assault with a sudden ferocity that drove the stinging rain. The branches to her right cracked. Booming roars accompanied the exploding trunks of several trees.
A huge furry animal broke through, sending branches and limbs flying in all directions, aided by the strength of the twisting wind. Behind the first, three more followed, and then more after those. Their massive heads swayed back and forth in their haste.
Erynn expec
ted to see terror in the eyes of the herd. But in the brief moment given her, she saw conscious purpose. No sensation of fear came from them. Their course was mindful as they made for the small opening between Tiar and Birk.
They’re helping us escape?
Sean reacted first. He grabbed Erynn by the arm and pulled her back from the charge. Tiar’s reaction was a fraction later. He turned and took Erynn’s other arm. She hesitated and stumbled, still watching the herd, and struggled to understand what she witnessed.
The animals cut a path toward Birk, Mikal, and Pak.
Shrill voices echoed around her. “Cheim.” Go.
Tiar, Sean, and Erynn ran, swallowed by the heavy foliage.
Chapter 11
ERYNN PRESSED THROUGH THE TANGLE of limbs and vines as they made their way deeper into the forest. The rain didn’t penetrate the thick canopy. In the treetops, the wind was a high, keening whistle above them. Tiar and Sean possessed an uncanny ability to navigate through the dense woods in the dark.
Do they know where they’re going?
Tiar grabbed Erynn’s arm, stopping under the heavy boughs of a thick tree. “Let’s rest a moment.”
Erynn’s heart pounded and her lungs burned. Tiar let go of her. She stepped back and tripped over a downed branch, falling heavily to a seated position. Her rain-soaked hair hung around her face. She worked at catching her breath.
Sean knelt next to her. “We can’t stay long. They’ll be back with scanners and troops. There’s a place not far from here. You’ll be safe there.”
Erynn stared into Sean’s wet face. “You think they’ll come after us?”
“Yes. Birk will. And not us—you.”
“Why? Why not let the forest kill us—me?”
“This is personal for Birk now. I sensed his intent. He won’t stop.” Sean turned to Tiar.
Tiar crouched beside Sean. “When Birk failed to assassinate Cale, you became his target. He transferred his determination to taking you.” Tiar’s eyes, the same deep green as Sean’s, narrowed. “He needs to return to his ship with something or face the anger of his superiors. The commanding general’s daughter will do. And he’s come to the awareness that there’s something special about you.”
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