by Miles, Amy
My fingers grip the curve of the final bend in the tunnel just as the ground rocks underfoot and I’m thrown hard into the stone wall. My shoulder throbs with pain, but I ignore it as the floor ahead of me begins to crack open. The opening branches out, eating up the base of the walls and rising to the ceiling. I back away, shielding my eyes from the bright light that pierces through the cracks.
“Well, I guess I found the machine,” I mutter. “Now what?”
“Illyria?”
The call is faint, barely audible over the pounding drill that spirals up through the stone. It sends me sprawling, my tailbone smacking hard into the unforgiving floor. A hand wraps around my arm and yanks me back as the drill makes contact with the tunnel roof, making a cave-in imminent.
“Are you insane?” Eamon roars, lifting me to my feet. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”
“I had to do something to slow them down!”
“Always the hero,” he grunts, snatching my hands and racing back down the tunnel. I can see our distorted shadows dancing on the walls as the light spills over my shoulder. The drill grinds through the stone and then the deafening sound lessens as the machine powers down.
“We have to stop them!” I scream as I hear metal cranking from within the burrow. It sounds like a door opening.
“They’re coming in from all directions. The Sky Ships landed a couple minutes ago.”
My heart rises into my throat. “Did everyone get out?”
“Almost.”
Fear strangles my voice as I follow his lead, confident in his ability to know the twists and turns. I stumble after him, weak and numb from the day. I can’t bear to ask who didn’t make it. I fear if I know I might never make it out of this cave alive.
Eamon yanks me around a corner and we stop just short of hitting the main tunnel wall. Already I can hear the pounding of boots but it’s impossible to tell which way the sounds travel from through this maze.
My heart thumps wildly in my chest. I gasp in small breaths, sure that at any moment I will begin to lose it. I can’t die down here.
“Follow me!”
I have little choice as Eamon darts back toward the blackberry bush entrance, nearly yanking my shoulder out of its socket in the process. All I can focus on is keeping one foot in front of the next. If I let myself think of how many aliens are racing toward us I might really lose it.
I can see flickering light against the damp walls in the distance. We’re going to meet up with those lights in less than a minute. “Eamon?”
“Turn, now!”
I dive on instinct, following him toward a narrow crevice in the wall. We explored this section of the cave when we were children and could easily fit through the slim passage. Now I have to shimmy sideways to pass through the first twenty feet of solid rock that presses tightly against my chest and back. I suck in my stomach and slip through to the space on the other side.
Eamon doubles over as soon as he squeezes through, letting his diaphragm expand to suck in a full breath. I struggled to get through the gap, so I’m know Eamon must have.
“They won’t find us here,” he wheezes, pounding on his chest.
I press back against the wall, well out of the light that filters down from the small natural vent that opens about a foot over Eamon’s head. Shouting rises and falls as the aliens rush past, unaware of our hiding place. I release a sigh as silence falls over the cave once more.
“What happened?” I ask, working to slow my breath.
“Bastien arrived only a few minutes before the Caldonians landed. They must have known they were getting close and sent word to Drakon. By the looks of it, he sent a whole battalion of aliens down on top of us.”
“Aminah and Zahra gathered the children and headed for the southern tunnels but a cave-in forced them to retreat back to the Temple. Toren and Bastien collected the weapons and prepared to make their stand, but Kyan arrived just ahead of the Caldonians.”
“Kyan?”
“Yeah. He said his people have a camp nearby, somewhere we can hide the children. The girls went with Kyan.”
“What about Toren and Bastien?” My throat constricts at the thought of just the two of them against the Caldonian army.
“Toren set off our last two blast charges. Took out the main entrance, hoping it would slow them down. When you didn’t show, Bastien tried to come after you but Toren convinced him I’d find you faster. Should’ve known you’d be pulling some harebrained hero crap again!”
I scowl at him. “Did they get out?”
Eamon shrugs. “I don’t know. They were supposed to follow the girls, but I didn’t stick around to see what happened.”
I lean my head back and stare up into the light high above. It is faint on the sunniest of days but, with night beginning to fall, it won’t be long before we return to pitch darkness in this small tomb-like room.
“We need to climb,” I say as an idea forms in my mind.
“Climb that? Are you insane? It’s at least a hundred feet straight up. We’d never make it,” Eamon protests. He cranes his head back to take a closer look.
“And the alternative is to wait here to die while our friends are fighting for their lives?” I snap. I take a steadying breath and remind myself that Eamon would never risk our friend’s lives if he could help it. “Can you see what happens?”
“No,” he says, scrunching up his brow. “I can’t clear my mind.”
“Ok,” I say, pushing off the wall to my feet. Exhaustion weighs me down, but I force myself to shake it off. “You go up first. I’ll follow.”
I watch as Eamon sizes up the small space. Although wider than the crack we just pushed through, it’s not going to give us a ton of breathing room. “Fine, but you’d better be right behind me.”
“I will be.”
Eamon places his hands on the entrance to the hole, cupping his finger into the small notches in the stone. His muscles ripple as he strains to lift himself. A vein pops out on his forehead and his face slickens with sweat. “Give me a lift, will you?”
I kneel down beside him, locking my knee as he hesitantly steps down onto my thigh. His touch is light, much too gentle for a good push. “You’re not going to break me.”
“If you say so.” With a mighty push, he stomps down on my leg and leaps into the narrow shaft. I bite my lip to still my cry as tears sting my eyes. “Do you need a hand up?”
“I’m fine.” I squat down low and leap into the shaft. My hands and legs spread out to grasp the stone. I falter, sliding several feet before I get a firm grip.
“You ok down there?” Eamon’s blond curls are illuminated as he dips his head to see me around his torso.
“Yep. Just keep going.” It’s hard to hide the pain from my voice as I peel my back off the wall. A small trickle of warmth down my spine confirms my suspicion that I just scraped a couple layers of skin off during my downslide.
Our climbing is as treacherous as it is tedious. It feels like we gain only a few inches before we have to stop and reposition. As we rise to the halfway mark, my arms begin to quiver violently. My toes are numb from attempting to curl around notches in the stone through my boots. My fingers are bloody and I’m pretty sure I’ve lost some of my fingernails.
“You’re doing good. Keep going,” Eamon coaches from nearly twenty feet above me. His progress is steady, sure. Mine is pathetically slow and stunted.
The higher we rise the easier is it to hear the thrumming of the Sky Ship’s engines. Distant booms echo down the shaft but I can’t tell from which direction they come. From time to time, I hear boots pounding past the crevice below, no doubt in frantic search of me. Drakon won’t take kindly to losing his prized possession.
The thought of wiping that smug grin from his face keeps me moving. I gain speed on Eamon and manage to get to within ten feet of him when he reaches the last few feet of the tunnel.
“Stay where you are. I’ll go up and take a look around to make sure the coast is cl
”
“Eamon!” I scream as hands reach down through the opening and drag him out. He kicks wildly, shouting as his legs disappear over the ledge. I can hear sounds of a scuffle overhead and a grunt of pain.
No!
The sudden intrusion of Kyan’s voice in my mind nearly makes me lose my grip. Kyan? What’s happening?
Stay where you are. They’ve got Eamon.
I know. I’m right below him.
Crap! Ok, stay put. I’ll see if I can free him.
A tremor works its way from my head to my feet as I wait. The sound of laser fire overhead makes my blood run cold.
I close my eyes and focus all of my energy on the fighting overhead. At first, all I see is the back of my eyelids, but as the heat begins to simmer in my chest, an image forms. I can see Kyan fighting hand-to-hand with a broad chested ogre of an alien. Kyan takes a low jab to his ribs and crumples at the alien’s feet.
I can hear Eamon shouting, his cries rising to a guttural scream as a stout alien with pumpkin orange eyes stomps on his arm and twists it around so far I’m sure it will snap. I grasp my stomach, sure that I’m about to be sick when I see a blur of color. Within the image, I see Bastien leap onto the stout alien’s back, punching his ear repeatedly until he releases Eamon.
The sound of a laser charging just behind me makes me twirl around. I stare into the unblinking, dead eyes of Commander Drakon. A triumphant leer contorts his gaunt face as he flips from green to red.
“No!” I scream as the laser lances straight through my mental self and slams into the middle of Bastien’s back. Smoke rises from his shirt and he collapses to the ground, his open eyes staring lifelessly up into the sky.
I wrench back from the vision, trembling so violently I wonder if it’s me or an earthquake rippling through the sediment. Rage blackens my vision as I press against the stone, shrieking as it begins to shift away from me.
Illyria? What are you doing?
Bastien is gone! I scream back.
No, he…
A tremendous crack forms in the walls around me. My arms tremble and legs quake but I push with all my supernatural might. The walls shudder as the ground begins to break up. Rocks fall from above, pelting me.
As the shaft begins to cave in around me, I don’t have to see my eyes to know they are black. I can feel the venomous Shadow coiling around my mind, hissing in my ear. For once, I’m grateful for the whispers that cheer me on.
Chapter 23
Darkness surrounds me like an oppressive cocoon. It is everywhere. Instead of giving into the terror of being buried alive, I close my eyes to try to focus. No sound penetrates my space, no hint of the outside world. That is an unbelievably disturbing feeling. I try to conserve my breaths, telling myself that someone will find me, but one nagging thought keeps me perched on the edge of panic what if there is no one left to search?
I have tried to reach out to Kyan several times but find myself too weak to maintain any semblance of a connection. My arms ache, cramped between my head and the rocks hovering only inches above.
The sensation of falling through the earth was not nearly as frightening as when it tumbled in upon me. I was sure I was dead. Considering I feel like I’m sucking in fire every time I take a breath, that still feels like a very real possibility.
After what seems like an eternity trapped within my rock tomb, I’ve long since stopped analyzing the impossibility of my predicament. I have no clue how I’m able to hold back the avalanche of rock that caved in when I parted the earth, but the longer I remain imprisoned here, the heavier the weight feels.
Sweat beads along my brow as I press upward with my hands, trying to shift some of the crushing weight off, but my arms wobble under the pressure.
I can’t do this on my own. Kyan, please find me soon!
Tears slip from between my clamped eyes as a sense of hopelessness falls over me. My back arches, strained by the weight that seems to increase with every passing moment.
I sink lower, contorting into a small, disfigured ball. The sound of rocks shifting all around wrenches a cry from my throat. Growing up in the rebellion, I knew death was not just a possibility, it was a likelihood. I accepted the fact that someday I would fall to the hand of a Caldonian who bested me, but never would I have dreamed up a death such as this.
My body begins to tremble as my legs give out on me and I collapse to the floor, my cheek pressed to the cold stone. The rocks shift again, pressing down on me. I try to press back, but I have no strength left.
I can hear the plinking of rock as it falls, altering to fill the space I have unwillingly provided. The sound is quickly followed by a scraping. I open my eyes and try to crane my neck back. “Hello?”
The rocks to the right of me quiver as they unsettle, inch by inch, but they are definitely on the move. “Can you hear me?”
My screams ricochet off the stone, drowning out any response that may have tried to poke through the moving stone. Silence is my companion once more, as infuriating as it is terrifying. I know someone is out there.
At this point, I really don’t care. The thought of being able to see sunlight and take a deep breath of fresh air is enough to make me weep. It doesn’t matter who is trying to rescue me as long as they get here soon.
“Help me!” I scream until my voice is hoarse. “Please! I can’t hold it much longer!”
Shouts rise on the other side of the rock wall and I can hear the stone tumbling faster. My neck cramps as I crane to see the progress just behind me. Someone must have found the crevice Eamon and I used. The thought of Drakon forcing information out of Eamon sends a burst of heat racing down my arms and into my fingertips.
Trembling so badly I can hardly keep my hand aloft, I stretch out my fingers toward the rock wall. An invisible pulse ripples through the large stones, disintegrating them to a fine dust.
I gasp, choking on the gritty powder and suck in the blast of fresh air that pours through the opening. A hand grasps my foot and yanks me through the hole. The instant the heat retracts from my fingertips, the rocks collapse behind me with a thunderous roar.
My ankle pops as I’m pulled into the small space Eamon and I occupied not long ago. Strong arms wrap about me as I’m lifted into someone’s lap. I double over, hacking up the particles in my lungs.
“That was a bit over-dramatic don’t ya think, Princess?”
I jerk upright, ignoring the stabbing pain in my side as I stare into Bastien’s beautiful blue eyes. “You’re alive?” I croak, trying to blink away the mirage.
“Last I checked.”
My world careens out of control as Bastien holds me close, cradling me like a little child, safe and protected.
***
“You sure do know how to make a statement, little lady,” a voice calls me from my slumber.
I groan, raising my hand to hold my forehead. “I feel like I dove head first into boulder.”
“That’s not too far off, actually,” the masculine voice chuckles.
My eyes flutter open and I stare up at an unfamiliar ceiling. It is wood instead of stone, slatted with uneven, knotted boards. The texture is rough, riddled with splinters. I ease my head to the side and wait for the nausea to subside as I look about me. The walls and floor match the ceiling. A tall wooden door with a rope latch rests off to my right. A crude table and chair set, hewn from pine, rests in the middle of the room. Low wooden cots, adorned with jet-black blankets neatly tucked under, line the far wall.
Light drifts in through a window on the opposite wall. The small square space is lined with a thick opaque plastic, tacked down with rusted, bent nails.
“How are you feeling, besides your headache?”
I try to crane my neck back to see who is speaking to me, but the muscles in my neck spasm painfully and I sink back down. “I will live.”
“Yes, it seems you’re quite the fighter. Kyan will be pleased to hear of it.”
“I can’t see you,” I whisper hoarsely. My throat is
parched, almost as if it’s been weeks since my last drop of water.
“My apologies. I was just trying to finish repairing your head wound. You roused much sooner than I thought you would. You’re a stubborn little thing too, I’d wager.”
I hear a clink of metal and a scrape of a chair. A man comes into view, beautiful but older than any Caldonian I’ve ever seen. His face is kind and weathered. Wrinkles line his forehead and the corners of his eyes. They are the color of warm butterscotch, dulled with age. “Who are you?”
“My name is Brym.” His voice is gritty, reminding me of dirt rubbing against stone.
“And you are Kyan’s friend?”
He nods with a tender smile. “I’m his custodian, his keeper I suppose you would say.”
“I bet that’s a fun job.”
He grins. “It’s often challenging. He always was a difficult child.”
“You raised him?”
“Indeed. Not long before his dad went off to train with Commander Drakon’s forces, his mother became pregnant with a second child. She didn’t survive the birth. With Kyan’s father away, I was charged with his care. Been with him ever since.” He wipes his hands on a cloth and I can’t help but notice they are stained with blood. My blood. I begin to feel weak and am thankful that I’m lying down.
“What was he like?”
“Not all that much different than he is now. Always a dreamer, that one. I’ve never seen a child with such love of the prophecies. Can’t say I was surprised when he enlisted for this mission. Years away from home meant nothing to him. He had nothing to stick around for, but had every reason to leave.”
“Why?”
Brym pats my hand with a rough, calloused palm. “Because of you, dear.”
The reminder of the destiny that’s been dumped on my shoulders makes me want to flee. I grip the edge of the cot and try to rise up. “I need to find my friends.”
“Easy. It’s too soon. You need to rest. Kyan will be along to see you shortly.”