Surprised, Flare looked around to see a small black hole in the rock behind him. Maybe two feet wide, maybe. "I thought you said there was a cave."
"It opens up a few feet in and you can stand. The best part is that it goes all the way through."
"Master!" Sadah blurted. Both Flare and Abner turned to the girl but she was looking out over the edge of the cliff.
Thankful that he was still lying down, Flare slid a little farther over to the edge and looked down. It was a long way to the bottom, but it was easy to see what had spooked Sadah. Several black shapes moved across the open area at the base of the cliff. Even with his superior elven sight, he couldn't discern the shapes clearly.
Closing his eyes, Flare forced his body to relax and concentrated on his breathing. After a moment, his eyes opened and he directed his spirit forward to investigate who was following them. He had a suspicion as to who it might be, but he had to know for sure.
Flare's surroundings appeared almost to recede and the surprise almost made him lose control of his spirit. It wasn't that his surroundings had changed, but instead his perception altered. Abner and Sadah were still lying there on the rock shelf beside him, but they seemed farther away and things looked less colorful, like they were graying out. The overall affect was a little bit disconcerting, but for some reason he wasn't scared, it was like he knew things were all right. Even though he knew it was bright and sunny, everything now appeared dark, like it had quickly gotten overcast or the sun was going down quicker than it should have.
One thing shown brightly in his vision, it was something that hadn't been there just a moment before. An opaque white cloud hung directly in front of him. He was confused as to what the cloud meant, but then he looked down and saw that the cloud was connected to his chest. The cloud seemed to be attached to him. Is that my spirit? Flare thought in wonderment. Sorcerers used their spirits to influence the physical world, but he had never seen it like this before.
The spirit cloud continued to hover directly in front of him as he considered what he should do. Finally, he hesitantly nudged his spirit down the mountain.
Fast as lightning, the cloud shot down the slope, all the while one end remained attached to Flare's chest.
The cloud reached the base of the mountain and spread out like a fog covering the ground. It wound through the rocks and the few bushes that managed to grow here. In no time at all, the six men approaching the mountain were surrounded. They continued to move forward, taking no notice of the strange fog that enveloped them.
Before, when Flare had used his spirit to search things out, it had never been like this. This was definitely new. Even though he knew he was still lying on his side, next to the other two, he also felt like he was walking amongst the six men at the base of the cliff.
As soon as that thought occurred to him, he was standing beside one of the six men. Flare staggered at the sudden chang"0"e in his surroundings and perceptions and began to move away, giving himself room to draw his sword. He gasped for breath and his heart felt like it might beat right out of his chest. What was going on?
The soldier took absolutely no notice of him, he just kept moving forward, his eyes on the cliff face.
Flare turned to follow the man as he walked past and realized that his boots made no noise on the loose rocks underfoot. "Can you hear me?" he asked, wondering if he was somehow invisible. The soldier continued walking, not so much as a stumble to show that he heard Flare's question.
Turning, Flare located the other five soldiers. As he located them, one by one, he suddenly appeared beside each one of them in turn. It was a rather sickening feeling.
He tried to push the sick feelings out of his mind and instead concentrate on the soldiers. Without a doubt, these men were soldiers of Telur and they were here for him. They wouldn't stop coming after him, either.
Looking back up the mountain, he began to worry about how to get back up there. No sooner had he thought about it, then he seemed to snap back into his body. He released his spirit and opened his eyes. Sadah and Abner were watching him closely, but he didn't care. He hurt all over, like someone had beaten him within an inch of his life. He let out a low drawn out groan.
"You all right?" Abner asked, looking scared.
Taking a deep breath, Flare nodded. "Yeah, I'm a little sore."
"Why?"
"It's not important," Flare answered. That wasn't completely true, whatever had just happened was important but he didn't want to tell these two that something strange had just happened and he didn't have the first clue as to what it was. "There's six Telurian soldiers down there and they're after me."
"Do you think they saw us climbing?" Abner asked anxiously.
"Don't know. Why?"
The old man didn't answer right away, instead he leaned out over the cliff, looking down.
Watching Abner lean so far out over the cliff was starting to make Flare a little sick so he looked away. His eyes fell on Sadah. She was watching him intently, but not with her normal angry look. Now she looked scared.
Abner moved away from the edge of the cliff, "If we're lucky, then they didn't see us climbing. Few people know of this way over the mountain and those soldiers probably won't think we're stupid enough to try and climb the cliff. Maybe they won't try either."
Somehow, Flare wasn't so sure.
Flare was the last to go through the small cave mouth and was immensely relieved to discover that the cave did indeed open up. After only a couple of feet of his back scraping the ceiling, he slid into a small opening. It was maybe four feet wide but Flare was encouraged to see that the ceiling disappeared off in the distance above their heads. This "cave" was more of a fissure than anything. In some places the floor appeared to drop away and in other places it shot back up over their heads. It was gloomily dark, with a little light coming in through the small opening and there must have been some cracks higher up because the upper parts of the fissure were a linkighter dark than the floor.
"It's actually easier to get through than it looks." Abner said in answer to Flare's unasked question. "I have traveled it many times." He bent down and removed something from his pack. There was a scraping sound and in another moment, Abner stood straight, holding a flickering torch.
Stretching his back, Flare suppressed a groan, although just barely. He hurt all over. Whatever happened out there on the rock shelf, it had left him completely sore and exhausted.
"Hurry. We have to get through the cave and down the other side of the mountain before night fall." Abner said, moving forward quickly. He held the torch high, but the flickering flame wasn't doing a good job lighting the floor.
Flare shuddered, both at the thought of the climb down the far side of the mountain and at slipping in the poor light and falling into one of those deep pits. "Mag Il-lum," he said quietly, picturing the light he desired in his mind. Immediately, a ball of white light appeared beside him. Unlike the torch in Abner's hand, this light lit up the cave, chasing the shadows from existence.
Abner and Sadah stopped and turned, looking back and shielding their eyes from the brilliant light.
Grinning, Flare nodded towards the small torch in Abner's hand. "I could barely see in your light. I hope you don't mind a little help."
After a moment, Abner shook his head. "Not at all. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you do," he trailed off, motioning towards the ball of light. Shaking himself, he turned his attention back to the still burning torch in his hand. "Guess we don't need this anymore." He quickly extinguished the flame and put the partially used torch away, "All right, let's get moving then."
Taking a deep breath, Flare followed after.
They followed the fissure, sometimes climbing up steep slopes, other times carefully climbing down rocky steps. Luckily, the fissure never really opened up, there were not any side passages or openings off the main tunnel, and Flare assumed that this rent in the mountain was caused by a natural shifting of the mountain. It wasn't an altogether pleasant thought, all thos
e tons of rock shifting and moving over their heads, so he tried to think of other things.
Unfortunately, other things that came to mind were not that pleasant either. This trip in the dark reminded him of his last trip underground, in the catacombs of Mount Ogular. That had been when he had retrieved the sword of Osturlius. It had barely been a month ago but it seemed like several lifetimes had passed since then. He had entered the catacombs a loyal soldier of Telur and with absolutely trustworthy comrades at his side. That was before he retrieved the sword, been attacked by and then been forced to kill one of his friends, and then been betrayed by his own father. Understandably, Flare's mood darkened as the gloom settled in around them.
At first, Abner had tried to keep things cheerful and talked enthusiastically, but Sadah had only answered direct questions, and Flare hadn't even answered then. Finally, Abner quit talking and they walked in silence.
Flare wasn't sure how long the trip took, it was nearly impossible to tell in the darkness, but his best guess was a couple of hours. They were lucky, at the base of the mountain, it probably would have taken days to follow a tp hunnel like this through the mountain, but higher up, near the top, the mountain was much thinner and they made the trip quickly.
He was immensely relieved to see that the cave mouth on this side of the mountain was much bigger than the one they had crawled through. The western cave mouth was nearly six feet high and he only had to stoop a little to get through.
They emerged and looked out over the valley below, it was a dizzying sight. The cliff face fell away below their feet and the wind whipped around them, seemingly trying to pull them off the ledge. The path down the cliff had less of the natural feel about it and more steps and handholds were cut into the rock. Farther down, he could see the evergreens running away from the mountains.
"No time to stand there staring," Abner said, moving over to begin the climb. "We don't want to still be climbing in the dark."
Not sure how he would complete the climb in his exhausted state, Flare moved over and began the climb down.
The climb down went even more slowly than the climb up. Flare wasn't sure if it was due to his exhaustion or to the fact that he kept having to look down. Seeing the ground drop away beneath his feet was making his head spin, but there wasn't any way around it, a person had to know where the next foothold was located.
It was late afternoon when they started down the mountain and it quickly became apparent that they were in a race with the night. The setting of the sun seemed to have sped up after they started descending and it appeared to be winning the race.
The side of the cliff would be nearly impossible to climb in the dark, but Flare took consolation in the fact that they would at least be close to the ground when the sun finally did set.
As they continued working their way down the cliff, Flare began to get a little more worried. Twilight was coming on fast, but they still had a good quarter of the way to go.
Abner also sensed the urgency of their situation, "Hurry! We must move faster!" he called back up towards Sadah and Flare.
Reluctantly, Sadah and Flare picked up their pace. The girl was lighter and she had the advantage of not being as exhausted as he was, and she quickly began to pull ahead of him.
Getting nervous as dropping so far behind, Flare picked up his pace, although it was with a sense of dread.
Sadah noticed Flare's increased speed and she also sped up again, but this time it didn't work out so well for her. Her left hand grasped a rock handhold and she let go with her right hand before she had adequately tested the rock. It crumbled under her weight and she frantically flailed for another handhold. For a moment, it looked like she might be able to cling to the cliff face with just her feet on the two small outcroppings of rock, but they too crumbled and she fell away from the mountain, screaming. Sadah fell past Abner, barely missing the old man, which would have been disastrous as they both surely would have fallen.
"Sadah!" Abner screamed, making a grab for the girl. He was way too slow and probably wouldn't have been able to hold the girl anyway.
Sadah fell through the air, her arms and legs whipping uselessly.
Flare acted without thinking. Using sorcery as Dagan had taught h, bim, he directed his spirit at the girl. It was difficult, more difficult than he could remember. Maybe it was due to his exhaustion, but controlling his spirit was like trying to grasp water. It kept wanting to slide through his fingers. Focusing, he redoubled his efforts, flinging his spirit after the girl. She began to slow and finally came to a stop in mid-air some ten feet off of the ground. After a moment, he lowered her the rest of the way, but it was still difficult. Instead of a nice smooth descent, she would drop a foot and then stop, drop another foot and then stop again.
Finally, she was on the ground and Flare let her go, but he did not let go of his spirit. Without the strength that holding his spirit gave him, he was afraid that he too might fall from the mountain.
"That was amazing." Abner called from about ten feet below. "Never seen anything like it."
Flare opened his mouth to speak and nearly vomited. He swallowed hard several times and tried again, "Abner, I'm exhausted. We have to get off of this mountain as soon as possible or I might fall off."
Abner didn't answer right away and for a moment Flare thought that the old man hadn't heard him, but then Abner's face appeared just below Flare's foot. He was peering up intently. "You don't look so good."
"Thanks," Flare mumbled sarcastically, "neither do you."
"Okay, listen," Abner said, moving even closer, "in about fifty or sixty yards we're going to hit a large rock shelf. From there it's easy. It's still steep, but it's a steep slope, not a vertical drop. Can you make it?"
Grinning, Flare shrugged. "Don't know. Guess we'll find out together."
Flare had only thought he had been tired the first part of the journey, the last little bit nearly killed him. Several times he nearly blacked out, twice his hands almost refused to hold onto the rock handholds, but onward they struggled.
Finally, he stepped off of the cliff onto the top of an extremely steep slope. The sight of it nearly made him dizzy as well. He sat down hurriedly and immediately he began to slide.
Abner grabbed him by the shoulder, "Wait! Grab a hold of the rope."
For the first time Flare realized that there was a rope running down the slope. Twisting his head, he saw that it was connected to a metal ring in the stone of the cliff. Smart, he thought, that rope would make it easy getting up and down this monster of a hill. He reached for it but his hands didn't want to work anymore. He reached again and everything started going sort of yellowish and then his head rolled back and he passed out.
He awoke feeling like his head might explode. A dull pain started just above his right eye and ran back through the top of his head. His eyes were blurry and it took several attempts to get them to focus.
He was lying under a blanket and surrounded by evergreens. Several large trees formed a small close-in circle and their camp was in the middle. Several old logs were lying around, apparently used for benches, and a fire burned in the center.
It was early morning, the sun had been up for several hours but there was still a chill in the air. Sadah, wrapped in a thick blanket, sat on an old half-rotten log next to a small fire. She was staronwing into the coals, idly tossing small twigs in.
Flare try to sit up but stopped as the pain in his head exploded. He let out a low groan.
"Master! He's awake." Sadah called out, jumping up from her seat.
Somewhat surprised, Flare noticed that the girl appeared worried. It was not a look he was used to seeing on her face. He groaned again, "Help me sit up."
Sadah took him by the arm and heaved into a sitting position, just as Abner rushed up. "Thank the gods! I was beginning to think you might not ever wake!"
With the excruciating agony of his headache, it took a little while for him to realize what Abner had said. "Why? How long was I out?" As i
t was morning, he assumed that he had slept through the night. Perhaps a little longer than normal, but certainly there wasn't any reason to be worried.
"This is the second sunrise since you collapsed," Abner said slowly. "I was rather hard pressed to make it down the slope with you, but I managed."
"Two days! I was unconscious for two days?" Flare demanded, pushing himself to his feet despite a wave of nausea. "What about the soldiers?"
Abner throw up his hands in a placating manner, "Remain calm! The soldiers have not found the passage through the mountain. I have checked each day. It seems that they are at a loss as to what happened to you." He paused, giving Flare an anxious look. "Actually, I was wondering what happened to you as well."
For a moment, Flare thought about lying. He wasn't overly sure what had happened either, but there probably wasn't any reason to keep it a secret. "I'm not sure," he said slowly. He paused but Abner nodded for him to go on. He dropped his eyes to the ground, remembering exactly what had transpired. "When we saw the soldiers at the base of the mountain yesterday, I reached out with my spirit, I used sorcery to examine them. I've done it many times, but yesterday was different. It wasn't like sensing something at a distance, instead it was like I was actually down there. Like I was standing beside them but they couldn't see me."
"But why did you pass out?"
"Whatever I did yesterday," he shook his head, "I mean several days ago, it left me exhausted. After the trip through the mountain passage and the climb down, that last bit of sorcery took every last bit of my remaining strength."
"Thank you," Sadah mumbled from Flare's left side.
He turned towards her surprised. It most definitely had not sounded like Sadah's usual tone.
With her eyes fixed firmly on the ground, Sadah repeated herself. "Thank you for saving me." She blushed as she spoke.
Flare grinned at her, even though she wasn't looking at him, "You're welcome. I'm glad I was here to help."
Valley of the Ancients: Book Three of the Restoration Series Page 7