by Clayton Wood
“This way,” Petra ordered, striding forward past Tavek and Machete. She didn't bother to pull her hood over her head, letting it hang on her upper back. Kyle glanced at the hood, then found his gaze sliding down Petra's back, to her shapely posterior. He felt something hit him on the shoulder, and jerked his gaze away, realizing that Ariana was glaring at him.
“I'll go first,” she grumbled, stepping in front of Kyle and effectively blocking his view. He felt his cheeks flush, and he followed behind Ariana, staring at the ground in shame. It was at least the second time Ariana had caught him gawking, and yet despite her ire he found himself unable to help himself.
“The cave is near,” Petra declared, slinging a backpack she was carrying over her shoulder. “You will stay with me while Ariana is tested.”
“Can I tell her?” Kyle asked. Petra nodded. He relayed the information to Ariana, who seemed a bit distracted.
“Got it,” she mumbled.
“So she won't lose magic in that suit?” Kyle asked Petra. He was worried that she would run out of magic during the test.
“She will, but slowly,” Petra replied. “The suit she wears was mine when I was younger. It is made of the same material as the room you met me in.”
“So that room was insulated too,” Kyle deduced. Petra nodded, stepping around a large fallen tree trunk.
“Without insulation, weaving magic is impossible for all but the Joined,” she explained. “And apparently you.” Kyle's brow furrowed.
“The Joined?”
“If she passes the test,” Petra stated coolly, “...you will have earned the right to know more.”
They walked in silence then. The forest was silent save for their footsteps, the sun's rays streaming through the gaps in the leaves above their heads. Kyle stared up at the sky for a moment, then frowned.
“How come I can see the sun?” he asked. Petra stared at him. “I mean, there was mist all around the treetops when we were flying above the forest.”
“The trees make the mist,” she replied. “Sun comes in, but it doesn't come out.”
“Doesn't that take magic?” Kyle pressed.
“Yes.”
“But...” he began.
“If she passes the test,” Petra repeated, “...you will have earned the right to know more.”
Kyle sighed, continuing forward silently. Petra guided the party around the tree trunks, weaving through the forest with practiced ease. The ground began to angle upward slightly, making the going a bit more difficult for Kyle's sore muscles. He'd been banged up quite a bit on the Defiance during the warship's attack, not to mention during his free-fall into the forest. His left hip was particularly bruised, giving him a sharp pain with every step, forcing him to limp. If Petra noticed, she certainly didn't act like it; she maintained her quick, steady pace. He grit his teeth, refusing to let her see him struggle. He didn't want her to think of him as weak, after all.
Eventually the forest floor leveled out, the trees becoming more sparse as they continued forward. It took only a few minutes – and a few hundred painful steps – later that they came to a sheer rock wall. It was, Kyle realized as his eye drew upward, the base of a mountain.
“Mount Grimore,” Kyle breathed. Petra shook her head.
“This is a hill,” she corrected. “Mount Grimore is much farther away.” She turned left, walking alongside the sheer rock wall, and everyone else followed, Kyle still at her side. “The cave is near.”
After another few minutes, Kyle saw that Petra was right; they came to a large hole in the wall, twice as tall as a man and at least ten feet wide. The cave beyond was shrouded in darkness, the sun's rays not daring to venture too far within. Petra steered everyone far clear of the cave's entrance, stopping some thirty feet away. The tribal Weaver turned to Ariana then.
“This is the cave you must enter,” she stated solemnly. “Immortals have been seen entering this cave and leaving with Void minerals.”
“So I'm supposed to just walk in there, grab a white stone, and bring it back,” Ariana muttered. Kyle translated.
“Correct,” Petra replied.
“Easy enough,” Ariana stated. She strode forward toward the mouth of the cave, her feet crunching on the fallen leaves and twigs littering the forest floor. She stopped before the cave entrance, pivoting about suddenly and looking at Petra.
“What happens if I fail?” she asked. Kyle hesitated, holding Ariana's gaze for a moment, the hair on his neck rising on end. He felt Petra's eyes on him, and he turned to her, using his earring to translate.
“Then you will be dead,” Petra answered without skipping a beat. “And your friend,” she added coldly, putting a hand on Kyle's shoulder, “...will join you.”
* * *
Ariana stepped forward through the gaping maw of the cave's entrance, feeling a chill run through her as she did so. It was not the cold that got to her – she hardly noticed variations in temperature anymore – but the idea of being underground. Over a year trapped beneath the earth, never seeing the sun, had taken its toll on her, and now she found herself suddenly afraid of being trapped again. She glanced over her shoulder, spotting Kyle and that woman standing there watching her. She turned back, facing the darkness of the cave, and continued forward, her boots crunching on the small stones littering the cave floor. It was dark, but with her augmented eyes, the cave's walls and ceiling were plainly visible. Dark gray stone all around, covered in a heavy layer of dust. The air felt heavier here somehow, and she felt a slight pressure in her ears. She forced herself to yawn, and her ears popped, the pressure equalizing. She continued forward slowly, her eyes scanning the tunnel ahead.
The first thing she noticed were the bodies.
There were easily dozens of small corpses a few yards into the cave, most of them birds. Their little bodies lay strewn on the ground in front of her, most having decomposed some time ago. She dropped down to one knee, examining what looked like a freshly dead sparrow. It was intact save for a small hole in its skull. A hole that led to a hollowed-out cranium.
The brain was missing.
Ariana frowned, finding another bird, this one slightly more decomposed. She grabbed a small stone, then used it to roll the corpse over onto its belly, and found a similar hole in its skull. Again, the skull was empty while the rest of the body was essentially intact.
Well that's strange, she thought.
She rose to her feet, stepping over the corpses and continuing forward through the cave. There were far fewer corpses as she went along, the bodies becoming more and more sporadic until there were none at all. The cavern grew narrower, forming a cramped tunnel, the walls only five or so feet apart now. The uneven ceiling drew lower and lower, until it was not even two feet above her head. It felt like the cave was closing in on her, like the earth was getting ready to swallow her whole.
Stop it, she chastised herself. Just get in and get out.
She moved faster, feeling the suit Petra had given her hugging her body tightly, so much so that it was a little uncomfortable. She couldn't help but remember what Petra had said about it...that the uniform had been hers when she was a girl.
Not a girl anymore, she muttered to herself.
She sighed then, quickening her pace. Petra was certainly not a girl anymore, that was for sure. She was a woman, something Ariana would never become. And Ariana hadn't been the only one to notice that; Kyle had clearly noticed too.
He noticed all right, she thought darkly. He couldn't stop noticing.
Ariana felt anger rising within her, and shoved the feeling down, clenching her fists. Then she heard a loud snap, felt something cave in under her left foot. She stopped cold, staring down at the ground. She'd stepped on something whitish-yellow, something round. She lifted her foot up, realizing what it was.
A skull.
She stared at it for a moment, expecting to feel some sort of surprise or revulsion, but felt neither. Just mild curiosity. She stepped back, then knelt down on the caver
n floor, peering at the broken dome of the skull. It was, like everything else here, covered in a thick layer of dust, nearly invisible until she'd stepped on it. She scanned the floor around the skull, spotting the spinal column a few feet away, and a half-shattered rib cage. Some sort of rusted tool laid on the ground near the skeleton's hand; Ariana reached for it, picking it up. Dust cascaded down from it as she did so, revealing a rusted mining pick.
They must have been mining Void crystals, she realized. And if they'd been successful before they'd died, there should be crystals still on them. She shifted her weight, using one hand to brush the dust off of the rest of the skeleton. Other than a few pieces of rotted leather – and some metallic earrings with the gemstones curiously missing – there was no trace of Void minerals. Disappointed, she rose to her feet, stepping around the skeleton and continuing forward. She brushed dust from the front of her uniform as she walked deeper into the cave, grimacing at the flatness there. It'd been obvious what Kyle had been staring at back there, in the forest. And in the room where they'd first met Petra. Ariana stared down at her chest, feeling suddenly inadequate.
Damn hussy flaunting her damn...
She quickened her pace, ignoring the steadily narrowing tunnel, the walls now only three feet apart, barely wide enough to accommodate her shoulders. The floor began to dip downward, at first slightly, then more sharply, until it was nearly at a forty-five-degree angle. Her foot slipped on a few pebbles, and she nearly fell back onto her butt. She caught herself, cursing quietly, her voice echoing off of the narrow tunnel.
He stared at her butt too, she thought darkly, continuing forward and downward. She kept her eyes on the ground, avoiding any more loose rocks. Her suit was so tight I bet he could see her pores.
Something moved near her foot, snapping her out of her thoughts. She skid to a stop, bracing her hands against the rocky walls on either side, and peered down at her own feet. She saw something small and white next to her right foot, about as big as a coin. She leaned over to get a better look; it was some sort of insect, she realized. It had a round, segmented body with a tiny head, little antennae waving about in the air. It was entirely white, translucent even, except for its tiny head, which was black. It paid her no mind, crawling past her, back toward the cave entrance. She straightened up, continuing forward, but keeping her eyes on the downward-sloping cavern floor.
She spotted something round ahead, nestled up against the left wall, and made her way to it.
Another skull, she discovered. A human skull. This one was whole, thanks to her not stepping on it. She crouched before it, brushing the dust from the smooth, white surface, then picking it up. It was nearly intact, save for a small hole in its right temple. The edges of the hole were smooth, and it was just big enough to fit her index finger in.
Strange, she thought.
She put the skull back down, then resumed her slow march forward, and was relieved when the floor leveled out, no longer a forty-five-degree slope. Her relief soon evaporated, however; about thirty feet ahead, she saw the narrow tunnel end abruptly. She felt a sudden pang of fear, and if her heart were still beating it would have hammered in her chest. If this was the end of the line, and there were no Void minerals left in this cave...
She briefly entertained running back out of the cave, and using her shard to blow Petra and her two escorts to bits. But mostly Petra.
They'll kill Kyle, she reminded herself. And as much as she disliked the woman, Petra had been reasonable...had given Ariana a chance. It wasn't the woman's fault that she looked the way she did, although she could at least try to cover herself up a bit.
Ariana slowed as she came to the end of the cave, and stared at the rocky wall in front of her, feeling her heart sink. This was it...the cave went no further. She turned in a slow circle, scanning the floor and walls for the slightest hint of a white stone, then spotted something on the floor to her right. Her spirit soared for a split second, until she realized that it wasn't a Void crystal. It was another one of those white beetle-like insects crawling on the floor.
Damn it, she swore silently. The insect crawled away from her, toward the rightmost wall.
Then in vanished.
Ariana blinked, then dropped to her knees, peering at the cavern floor where the insect had been. She realized that her vision had faded a little, the cavern darker than it had been only a few minutes ago. No light could possibly get this far in to the cave, she knew. It was only due to the remarkable magic of her shard that she could see anything at all. She placed her hands on the floor, tracing her fingers over the path the beetle had taken...and felt her fingers slip off into nothingness.
Huh.
She pulled her hand back, then put it out again, feeling the same, sudden drop-off. She paused, then put her whole arm through, and realized that there was a hole in the side of the floor, where it met the wall. A good-sized hole at that. It was probably large enough for her to fit through.
She felt a glimmer of hope.
Ariana withdrew her arm, then turned around, facing away from the hole and dropping onto her belly on the cool stone floor. She slid backward, her legs slipping through the hole, then her hips. She got stuck there, and wiggled a bit, feeling stone scraping her buttocks. Then she pushed, and her hips popped through. She felt her legs dangle in space below, and swung them forward, her feet striking something hard – a rock wall. She swung one leg backward, and struck another wall behind her, maybe three feet from the first.
It's a chasm, she realized. Maybe if I can brace myself...
She slid down through the hole, all the way up to her shoulders, where she got stuck again. She paused, scissoring her legs, bracing one foot on the front wall below, the other on the back wall. Then she relaxed her shoulders, putting her arms up over her head and sliding her shoulders through the hole. She slipped through, using her hands and her feet stop herself from falling, her head passing through the hole. She hung there for a moment, staring down into the darkness. The walls sandwiching her extending downward as far as she could see, the gap between them a nearly straight vertical drop. If she braced her feet against the wall in front of her, and her hands and back on the rear wall...
She tried it, letting go of the lip of the hole with one hand, then the other. Her heart leaped into her throat as she dropped a foot or two, her feet slipping on the wall in front of her. Panicking, she pushed outward hard with her legs, pressing her back against the rear wall.
Her fall slowed, then stopped.
She hung there for a long moment, suspended between the two walls, staring downward. She had no idea how far down this chasm went; if she'd fallen too far, she'd have been in deep trouble. Her body could recover from any injury, but if her uniform tore, she'd bleed magic quickly...and that would be that.
She took a deep breath in, then slid one foot down, then the other, inching down the gap between the walls. This time, her boots held true, and she didn't slip as she descended further into the darkness. She noticed a faint sound in the distance, coming from below; it sounded like running water. Maybe there was an underground stream or pool below her. Her hand brushed up against something, and she froze; there, crawling on the wall before her, was another one of those white, translucent bugs. In fact, there were several of them. A few were crawling up the wall, while one was climbing down, a small black twig in its mouth.
She continued downward, being careful not to squish the bugs with her hands or feet as she went. She glanced upward, and realized she could no longer see the hole she'd come through. It was impossible to be sure of how far she'd traveled, but she guessed it might be fifty feet or so. The farther down she went, the more bugs she saw crawling up and down the walls. Thankfully they skittered out of the way of her hands and feet as she descended, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to avoid killing them. Picking up a human skull was one thing, but squishing bugs was gross.
Wait, Ariana thought. How can these bugs be alive?
She stared at one of the ins
ects, watching it carrying another small black twig down the wall before her. How could it live in this cave when everything else died? She thought back to the corpses littering the entrance to the cavern, and remembered what Petra had said. Anything that dared to venture into the cave would go mad, then seize, and die. Except, apparently, these bugs. And herself, of course.
Strange.
She tore her gaze away from the dozen or so bugs, glancing downward. To her surprise, she thought she could see something far below, a hint of a rocky floor.
Is it...?
She moved down, faster now, more confident in her ability to scale the narrow chasm. Yes, there was definitely rock below...about twenty feet down. She felt a burst of excitement, and had to force herself to maintain her methodical pace, being careful not to slip. She descended toward the floor, until her feet were only a few feet above it. Then she pulled her arms and legs in, falling the last few feet to the floor below...and stepping on a whole lot of bugs as she did so.
“Ew, gross,” she whispered to herself, wrinkling her nose. She grimaced, lifting one foot up, seeing a mass of flattened white bugs there, their legs still squirming madly. She felt a wave of nausea come over her, and she scraped the soles of her boots against a bare section of wall one at a time, until they were reasonably clean. Then she looked about, getting her bearings.
The two vertical walls extended all the way to the floor on either side, with a third sheer wall in front of her. She turned about, and saw another wall, making an enclosed rectangle. Nearly enclosed; there was a slight gap between the forth wall and the floor, over a foot high. She noticed more white bugs crawling through that gap. Maybe if she flattened herself on the ground, she could crawl under it.