Death Flag

  “What do we do?” Warren asked, panting and out of breath.

  Madison looked over his shoulder at the oncoming mob. They were close enough now that he could see the same fervid determination in their eyes that he had seen before. It wasn’t that they simply wanted to kill him; they wanted him dead, and they were zealous about doing it.

  “We jump,” Madison answered, vaulting over the edge before he had time to think about it.

  CHAPTER 16

  Madison wasn’t exactly afraid of heights, but he wasn’t one of those people who could peer out over the edge of a cliff without getting dizzy either. There was some primal instinct inside of him that told him, ‘This is death. Back away slowly,’ and he had never been able to conquer it. Even when he had gone cliff jumping when he was younger, he had to be forced over the edge before his better judgment kicked in.

  “What—”

  Whatever protest Warren might have had was lost to the sounds of air rushing over Madison’s ears and Shayna screaming at the top of her lungs. He held onto her as tightly as he could, dropping her legs and clutching her smaller form to his chest. He had absolutely no idea if it would help protect her from the impact, but he wanted to mitigate the damage from the fall as much as he could.

  Time seemed to tick by slowly as they fell through the air. The canyon walls rushed by around them at an alarming speed, and Madison sucked in a massive breath in anticipation of hitting the water below. At last, after what seemed like forever, he hit the water feet-first and plunged beneath its surface, losing his grip on Shayna at almost the exact same time. The freezing water rushed around him as he sank deeper and deeper into its depths, and he immediately felt the irresistible tug of the current as it began pulling him downstream. He kicked as hard as he could and began pushing himself toward the surface.

  There was a whole host of dangers that came from floating in a river, and almost every single one of them seemed to flash through his mind as he struggled to make his way back to the surface. He broke through and pulled in a ragged breath of air and spray before the current jerked him back under again. He was spun around and floating backward for a moment, and he worked furiously to correct that by twisting his body around, waving his hands and kicking hard with his legs. He broke through to the surface a second time and sucked in another precious breath of air as he peered through the foamy spray in an attempt to get a view around him.

  The water suddenly changed direction as the canyon shifted to the right, and he was thrown up against the canyon wall. His hands scrambled futilely against the smooth-worn rock, desperately trying to find something he could grab ahold of and use to stop himself if even for a moment. He was jerked along a moment later, and he flipped over and started swimming back towards the center of the narrow channel where he was less likely to be beaten against a rock. Once he was there, he flipped over onto his back again, lifted his feet up as high as he could so that they wouldn’t get snagged on something underneath the surface, and concentrated on correcting his course. The freezing water washed over him time and again, making it absolutely impossible to get a clean breath without sucking down water along with it. He never knew when he was going to be sprayed and had no way of anticipating when a sudden wave would plunge his head underwater again, so he focused on taking quick, shallow breaths whenever every chance he got.

  Madison fought for control of his body as the water pulled it in first one direction and then another. The current no longer threatened to slam him into one of the canyon walls, so he was able to keep both of his feet and his head up near the surface, and he somehow managed to stay facing downstream, but that was about all he could manage. Other than minor course corrections, he was just along for the ride. A roaring sound deeper than the raging of the river filled his ears and started to grow. Madison could see a bend in the river approaching ahead as the canyon abruptly changed direction again, but he couldn’t find anything that would account for the growing noise. Then, without any warning, the river suddenly disappeared out from under him. He was plunged into darkness as the river fell out from underneath him and what he had thought to be a sharp turn actually turned out to be a waterfall plummeting down beneath a mountain.

  Madison lost all sense of direction as he tumbled head-over-heels through the darkness. He felt himself float through the air for a short period of time and then plunge into the icy waters once again—this time at an awkward angle that was guaranteed to leave a thick bruise over most of his right side. The sudden shock from the pain caused him to gasp out in surprise, and he came close to choking on a mouthful of water before he was able to stop himself from swallowing it. The current pulled him away from the base of the waterfall and then downstream once again, and he completely lost track of how far or long he traveled. Completely blind from the dark, all he could do was keep his head above water and hope for the best.

  Eventually, the current eventually slowed down as the river widened out, and he felt his body bump into something solid. He grasped around blindly until he realized he had brushed up against a rock, which he promptly wrapped his arms around so that he wouldn’t go floating off again. Gritting his teeth against the pain in his side, he pushed his mostly-numb body up out of the water and collapsed onto the rock, gasping and out of breath.

  He stayed that way for a long time as he sucked in air, his brain completely devoid of all thoughts as he focused on the simple fact that he was somehow alive. Eventually, however, his higher brain functions eventually kicked in, and he began taking stock of his situation. There only a few things that he knew for certain: He was somewhere underneath a mountain, he was separated from everyone he knew, and any hope he had of actually completing his mission and finding Lord Fox was basically gone. The forest above had been completely ablaze the last time he saw it, and anyone trapped in that inferno was likely toast. Shayna had gone into the river with him, so there was a chance that she was down here with him somewhere, but there was also an even better chance that she hadn’t made it. He had gone through two huge drops, and it was something of a miracle that he was still breathing at all, much less conscious to consider that fact.

  Madison sighed and pushed himself up into a sitting position, taking care not to move too far from the small pedestal of rock he had perched on. A quick survey with his hands told him that rock was larger than he had initially imagined, but that didn’t make him any more willing to stand up. Pain flared up in his side with the simple movement, and he let out an involuntary groan. He was going to have to make a decision, and he was going to have to do it before long. His body was completely exhausted, and if he kept going at the same pace he had been, he was going to pass out sooner rather than later. There was only so much he could do before it simply gave out on him.

  Well, I can jump in the water and see where the current carries me, or I can hope that this rock somehow turns into something even bigger. What wonderful choices.

  Sighing again, Madison held up a hand and thought about the jerky that had been in the rations that Burke had left for them that morning. Sure enough, he felt the rough, dried meat appear within his grasp, and he bit into it greedily. It was extremely salty and hard to chew, but it was food, and his stomach was grateful for it. He held up his hand again, and on a whim, he tried thinking about a lighter magically appearing. When that didn’t work, he also imagined a flashlight, which also failed. Then, chuckling to himself, he imagined one of the strange smokeless torches that were everywhere around K’yer Utane. The small glowing orbs never seemed to go out, and they had been everywhere. Against all hope, he felt a hard, cylinder-shaped object appear in his hand, and a moment later, a dim red light flared up in his hand.

  Madison stared at the light, slack-jawed and in disbelief, a half-eaten piece of jerky hanging from his mouth as he forgot to chew. The rod only gave off enough light to weakly illuminate his hand and the front of his clothes, and it didn’t seem to create any sort of heat or smoke, but it was a light. He quickly turned over onto his stomach and
lowered the light down as close to the waterline as he could. He didn’t know if water would put it out or not, and there was no way he wanted to risk dropping it, but he had to find out where he was if he was going to make a solid decision.

  He started crawling back away from the river while he chewed his jerky, only making one small motion at a time, and much to his surprise, he realized that the rock he was perched on was actually attached to a much larger formation. He followed the waterline around until the small outcropping of rock ended and he ran up against the cavern wall, and once that happened, he stretched his arms out in either direction as far as he could, holding the light out over the water and peering desperately into the darkness on either side of his island. Unfortunately, if there was anything there for him to see, he didn’t find it.

  Finally feeling brave, he unsteadily pushed himself to his feet and stood upright. There, at about chest height, he found a shelf cut into the cavern wall that extended back away from the river. It was relatively flat and went back further than he could see from the dim light the rod gave off. He jumped up as high as he could, caught ahold of the ledge with his hands, and then muscled his way up against the protestations from his bruised side and worn body. He followed the narrow shelf back for about twenty feet before finding another another shelf. He forced his way up onto that ledge, and he soon realized that the process repeated itself yet again.

  Madison stood where he was, weighing his options for one last time. He wasn’t certain how far back into the mountain he was going to end up going. Without having any idea of how far down he had gone, he didn’t even know how far up he needed to go to get out, much less which way to start walking. His side felt like it was on fire every time he moved, and he was starting to shiver slight from the river water as a damn chill settled in. Still, the other option was risking it with the river. He was almost certain that it would come out somewhere eventually, but there was no guarantee when or where that would be or if he would survive until then.

  Resigning himself to his course of action, Madison leveraged himself up onto the third and final ledge. Once there, he realized that the path actually widened out a bit and that he was actually in a cave. The rock formations he had crawled up were unusually flat and well cut, and it was almost as if someone had hewn a rugged and awkward staircase into the cave leading down to the river. Now that he was able to better see the natural formations around him now, he couldn’t help but become slightly suspicious of the path he had followed up from the river.

  The passageway itself wasn’t very large, only about seven feet across and just under six feet high, and Madison had to duck his head slightly to avoid bumping it on the ceiling. He wasn’t so uncomfortable that he felt the need to crawl or completely double over at the waist, but the constant fear of bumping his head was very much real. There were also random stalagmites growing up from the floor, further reducing the size of the passage by a few feet. Strangely, he didn’t see any stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

  Madison was suddenly stuck with a strange feeling, as if he were being watched, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end. He had become accustomed to this reaction over the last few weeks, and he instantly equated it with being in the presence of magic. His body seemed to hate the supernatural almost as much as he did, and it seemed to have developed a sort of warning system as a result. He quickly ducked behind one of the largest rock formations and hunkered down, making himself as small as possible. It went against all common sense and logic that someone might have been able to follow him down here, but he had learned long ago that he needed to trust his gut, and at the moment, his gut was telling him to hide. He squeezed himself in behind the rock formation and wedged himself against the damp cave wall before crouching down and waiting. He wanted to be ready to react if something attacked him, but he didn’t want to present too obvious of a target.

  Madison relaxed and slowed his breathing, willing his heart to stop pounding so that he could hear better. He stayed in the same position for several long minutes as he strained his ears for any unnatural sound. He could hear the river flowing by down below, and he could hear the drip of water as it slowly and rhythmically fell from the ceiling, but that was it. He had almost convinced himself that he was being overly paranoid and imagining things when he heard something different: a low rattling and then a scrape. Madison froze at the two noises, slowly exhaling out of fear of making even the slightest noise that might give himself away. Several long seconds passed, and he heard both for a second time, and then a third. Several seconds passed again, and then he heard both sounds, only they were much louder this time. Something unnatural was making those noises, and it was coming down the tunnel toward him.

  He weighed his options as quickly as he could, and he didn’t particularly like either of them. He could stay hidden and hope the thing passed by without noticing that he was there, or he could make his way back to the river as fast as possible, dive in, and hope that whatever it was didn’t know how to swim or want to follow him. He heard the scraping again, suddenly right beside him, and then a foul, sulfuric stench hit his nose. It was such a strong, nauseating smell that Madison involuntarily started to gag before he realized what he was doing. He choked down the feeling, his throat locking up as he fought back the urge to retch. His throat burned horribly from the effort, and he tasted stomach bile as it crept up from his stomach along with the urge to vomit. He managed to win the fight and relax again, but it was with agonizing slowness and tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

  The scraping noise grew louder again, and Madison realized that the rattling he had heard was the sound of a creature wheezing as it breathed. A subtle, blue-tinged illumination softly filled the tunnel as it drew closer, and Madison peeked between the stalagmites to watch as a creature shuffled past. The troll-like monstrosity almost filled the tunnel with its size, and the top of its head seemed to drag along the rough ceiling of the tunnel despite its horrible, bent-forward posture. It had pronounced facial features with a sloping forehead, narrow eyes, and a large ridge where its eyebrows should have been, and there were two long tusks sticking out underneath a large upper lip. It had long, gangly arms, and its knuckles came close to dragging on the ground like a gorilla. It stood on stubby, trunk-like legs that ended in sharp-tipped claws. Something rattled in its chest ever time it drew in a breath, and the scraping noise he heard was from a badly twisted leg that it dragged around. The creature was incredibly pale, as if it had never seen the sun, and it had covered itself in a strange blue moss that cast the meager blue illumination Madison had seen.

  The creature was also clearly the source the foul stench that threatened to make Madison retch, and it was almost unbearably strong when it was right beside him. Madison ducked his head, squeezed his eyes shut, and carefully covered his mouth and nose with the collar of his shirt. His clothing was still completely soaked from being in the river, and he hoped that it might do something to diminish the effects of the creature’s odious stench. He couldn’t tell if it helped, but he did manage to stop from choking until the creature moved past him.

  The beast braced itself on its large knuckles and swung forward, quickly lowering itself down the large step that Madison had labored to push himself up minutes before, and Madison braced himself as he prepared to take off running at the first chance he got. Then, Madison noticed something else just before the creature disappeared down the hole: a dagger hilt sticking up from between the creature’s shoulder blades. The creature was down the hole the next moment, and the image was gone as quickly as he had seen it, leaving Madison to stare at the darkness and question himself.

  Did I really just see that? Or am I imagining things? It’s probably nothing. But if it’s not . . .

  He was bone tired, weary in a way that he hadn’t been many times in his entire life, and it was easily possible that he had just seen a piece of the creature and mistaken it for something it wasn’t. For all he knew, the creature had a bone-lined exoskele
ton designed to protect it from attacks that just happened to look like a weapon. Even if it actually was a dagger, it could have been there for weeks or months or years—he had no way of knowing. Madison had survived making it this far down, so it was entirely possible that someone else had as well—and that was what worried him. It was the third option that made his stomach sink: it might belong to Shayna.

  Madison clenched his teeth together and fought back the urge to groan and sigh and punch the wall in frustration. He was the one who had jumped over that cliff. There was a very real possibility that he might have literally carried her to her death in his haste to protect her. He had lost all contact with her after hitting the water, so he had no way of knowing if she survived the first fall, much less the current, the rapids, or the second fall into the cave. Even if she had managed to make it through all that, there was still this lumbering beast to contend with. It made him sick to think about the possibility of her surviving the magic attacks, the archers, the crazed men trying to kill her and everything else only to have a creature like that kill her, and it made him sick to think about the possibility that every bit of it was his fault because he had been cocky. If he had sentenced Shayna to her death, he’d never be able to forgive himself.

  If I hadn’t turned back for my sword, I might have been able to keep everyone together. I might have been able to protect everyone. But I got cocky. I wanted to send a message, to let that man suffer. I was smug because of my success, and it was everyone else who had to pay the price for it . . .

  Madison leaned his head back against the cold wall and drew in a deep breath to clear his head. His body was shaking in bouts, shivering from both the cold and his anger. Still, there was nothing he could do about it now, and he knew it. He would have to push forward as quickly as he could and deal with the rest later. If he didn’t take too long, and if he was lucky, he might still be able to save someone.