“Different, how?” Blodwyn said.
“I hit one of these guys, it’s just to shut them up, make a point.” Coil pointed at Quill and Anthony. “Cavers hit us, we’re might never get up. It’s been said they’ve never ventured out from below, have never seen the sun, or moon. And they’re crazy, barbaric, and violent. They’re as territorial as hornets.”
“And you’ve encountered them?” Anthony asked, more a challenge than it was a question.
Coil blinked slowly. His lips were dry. The fire seemed to have taken what little moisture there was. His skin was red, and not only from the heat of the flame. “I’ve never seen them, but that doesn’t make it a lie! I have plenty of friends who have seen them—seen them and managed to escape from the mountain before getting caught.”
Mykal was tempted to ask, who? But refrained.
He refrained. No good could come from such a question.
“And those same friends told me about others, slower men behind them, who weren’t so lucky,” Coil said.
Silence descended.
Quill broke it. “Why are we talking about this?”
“I think it’s only fair,” he said.
“What is?” Anthony said.
“Before we go any further, I wanted you all to know. If we encounter the Cavers, I’m not going to get caught,” Coil said.
“Every man for himself, is that what you’re saying?” Quill said. “You’d just hightail it out of here, leave us to die?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. I mean, if you can keep up with me, fine. But I ain’t slowing down, and I ain’t coming back for anyone. You trip, you fall, I wish you all the luck,” Coil said. “I said it before. All this money you have paid me isn’t any good to a dead man.”
Quill clicked his tongue. “It’s good to know, Coil. Good to know.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” Coil said.
Quill wagged a finger back and forth between them. “This works both ways. I guess, may the gods help you if you’re injured, or trapped, or caught by Cavers. Good guide like you, seems like a waste to just let you die.”
Coil squared off. He dug his feet into the ground. “I’ve got no problem with that.”
Quill matched the moves. “Good. Us either.”
Mykal wanted to object. Karyn must have sensed his intention and clasped onto his wrist. He looked over at her. She shook her head, No.
“Then what are we doing just standing around? Let’s keep going,” Coil said.
“Let’s,” Quill said. He followed the burly man.
“Remember the things we talked about, Mykal. You are a Natural. And you are not alone,” Galatia said.
A natural.
A wizard.
He just needed to concentrate. Being deep inside a mountain, he knew concentration would not come easily. He could barely focus on breathing normally.
“Oh yeah,” Coil called back. “The snakes down here, they’re poisonous. Don’t get bit. There ain’t no antivenin. And the bats, they all have rabies.”
“Great,” Mykal said. “That’s great.”
“Hey, at least he didn’t say anything about spiders.” Karyn thought she was being helpful. She wasn’t. He rubbed the spot where he’d been bitten. He might have been healed, but the skin was scarred, raised. He hadn’t been thinking of spiders.
He subconsciously scratched the place where he had been bitten.
Now he was.
***
“Old man?” Coil said. “Come up here. Let me see your cane.”
“Cane?” Blodwyn said. “I believe he’s talking to me.”
They watched Blodwyn move forward until he stood right behind Coil.
“There was ground here before,” Coil said.
“Was?”
“It erodes. Time chips away at everything. The temperatures fluctuate in here. Sometimes it’s as cold as winter during the summer,” he said.
“Like now?” Blodwyn said.
Coil smiled. “This is nothing. At other times it is a furnace regardless the season. The heat, it comes from below.”
“How far down?”
“I’ve no idea,” Coil said.
“Why are you here? Why does anyone come here if it’s so dangerous? Crumbling ground, bizarre weather, venomous snakes, rabid bats. . .Doesn’t make sense, does it?” came Blodwyn’s reply.
Coil ignored him. “Let me see the cane.”
“It’s a staff.”
“Like I care,” Coil said. “Hand it over.”
Blodwyn watched as Coil knelt at the edge and stretched the staff across.
“Doesn’t reach. What’s this about five and half feet long?”
“Six. Exactly,” Blodwyn said.
“We have us an eight-foot gap,” Coil remarked, stood up and handed over the staff. “Okay everyone, back up. Go on. Back up. One at a time we’re going to get a little bit of a running start and then—”
“Wait, what?” Anthony said.
“It’s not that far. We’re going to have to jump across,” Coil said.
“We’re jumping from here, to there?” Anthony said.
“Eight feet. Easy-peasy,” Coil said.
Mykal looked at Blodwyn. “What do you think?”
“Nothing to think about,” Coil said. “We either leap across, or turn back. Only way to go down, is to go forward.”
“I saw other tunnels. We walked by many,” Galatia said.
“Place is a maze. I know this way. Those other tunnels, who knows where they lead. You want to wander around lost, at risk, be my guest. You don’t want to jump, don’t. I have no problem going back. I’ve been paid. Coins are mine. Choice is yours. You all want to talk about it? Talk about it. But don’t take long. Because no answer is the same as telling me we’re goin’ back.” Coil smiled. It didn’t express happiness, rather his smug cockiness.
Mykal walked up to the edge. “Hold the light still. I want to see how far down the drop is.”
“Can’t see it,” Coil said. He dropped to his belly. He held the torch below them. “See that? Nothing. Blacker than my lungs, that’s for sure.” He laughed.
Mykal didn’t find that funny. He kicked loose a small rock. “Hold it steady,” he said as he dropped the stone.
Everyone seemed to hold their breath, listening.
“It must have it bottom,” Mykal said after a few moments. “We just missed it.”
“I didn’t hear a thing,” Quill said.
“It’s not that far,” Coil said. “I don’t see anyone really struggling to make it. Maybe the old man with the walking stick. You want to head back, old man?”
Mykal grit his teeth. He pushed himself chest to chest with Coil. “You need to show some respect.”
“Oh yeah,” Coil said.
Quill dropped a hand on Mykal’s shoulder. “Easy, killer.”
Coil laughed.
“Where is he? Wyn?” Mykal said.
“Over here,” Blodwyn said.
Mykal waved his torch around. Blodwyn stood safely on the opposite side. He smiled, and ran his tongue over the corner of his teeth. “Looks harder than it is,” he said.
Anthony shook his head, laughing. “Well, I’ll be.”
Without warning, Anthony ran forward, past Mykal and Coil. He leapt in the air. He cleared the gap easily. Blodwyn stepped aside so over the two wouldn’t collide.
“Galatia,” Mykal said, as if unsure how to proceed.
“I can do this,” she said. She lifted the length of her dress into her hands, ran and jumped across. She landed in a crouch. Anthony and Blodwyn helped her to her feet. She brushed the dirt and crushed rock off her clothing. “It wasn’t that bad.”
It wasn’t that bad, but she almost hadn’t made it, Mykal thought. “Quill?”
“After you, nephew,” he said.
Mykal shook his head. “You first. Then Karyn. I’ll go last.”
Quill looked at each of them, sighed and nodded. With barely a running start
he jumped and landed on the other side smoothly.
“He makes it look easy. They all did,” Karyn said.
“You nervous?”
She swallowed. “No. Well, maybe a little.”
Mykal walked her up to the end of the ledge. He held the torch. “I will stand right here. Keep the path lit so you see right where you are going. Do like Coil said. Get back some, and run all out. Won’t even be like jumping.”
“You think?”
“You’ve got this,” he said.
She backed up several feet. Mykal saw the nervousness in her posture. “Count down for me?”
“Three. Two. One. Go,” he said.
Karyn ran for the edge of the lip. Mykal saw her hesitate, anxious. He knew at that moment she wasn’t going to make it. She was in the air. The pause just before she jumped stole her momentum. Reaching out with an arm, he tried to catch onto her arm.
He couldn’t reach her in time.
Mykal dropped the torch. It landed by his feet.
He reached for Karyn with both arms.
Halfway across she plummeted, screaming, “Mykal!”
Chapter 32
“Karyn!” Mykal’s voice echoed. It bounced off the rock walls.
Karyn had disappeared into the abyss below.
Mykal reached down for her, his mind saw him catching her, holding her.
A sudden pressure crashed inside his head.
He dropped to his knees.
Inside his mind, he held her. Tight.
“Oh man,” Anthony said over and over.
“I have her,” Mykal panted. He remembered using magic in the forest, how he couldn’t control his power and killed a man, frying him. “I have her.”
“Boy, what in the world are you talking about?” Coil said.
Galatia moved forward and stood at the edge on her side of the path. “Don’t let go.”
Karyn shouted from below.
“She’s alive?” Coil sounded perplexed, excited, but perplexed. “How is she alive? What is going on?”
Mykal couldn’t answer the guide. He kept his focus on Karyn. “How do I bring her up?”
“Lift her,” Galatia said.
“How?”
“With your mind,” she said. “Concentrate. See her rising. See her floating back up to us.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“You can. See her floating up. Don’t let go,” she said.
“I won’t let go,” he said. “I’m not letting go Karyn. I’ve got you.”
With eyes closed he saw Karyn in his arms, saw him lifting her higher and higher.
“I don’t believe this,” Coil said.
“A little higher,” Quill said. He was on his belly, reaching over the edge. “We can see her.”
“Grab onto his legs,” Blodwyn said.
“A little higher, Mykal,” Galatia said. “We’ve almost got her.”
Karyn cried, sobbing.
“A little more.”
“Reach for my hand,” Quill said. “I won’t let go.”
Mykal didn’t dare open his eyes. He did as Galatia instructed. He concentrated on levitating Karyn higher and higher.
Her weight became less obvious, as if she had grown lighter.
There was weight associated with the magic.
He felt it in his brain. His arms grew weaker and weaker. The muscles ached, straining, though he wasn’t lifting her in the air with the muscles of his body. “I can’t hold on any longer,” he said.
“Don’t you let go,” Blodwyn said. “Just a little higher.”
Mykal was holding his breath. Spittle sprayed from between clenched teeth, quivering lips. “Get her.”
“Just a few more feet, lad, a few more feet,” Anthony said. “Grab her, Quill!”
“I’m trying.”
“I can’t do it,” Mykal said to himself.
“Don’t drop me,” Karyn said. “Mykal, don’t let me go.”
The tremble in her voice gave him the extra bit of needed strength. With the last bit of effort he could muster, he lifted her as high as he could.
He couldn’t do anymore.
His head spun around, and he collapsed to the ground. His arms fell away from Karyn. He knew he’d failed. She would fall again, only this time he wouldn’t be able to save her. His mind switched off. She fell.
***
Mykal slowly returned to consciousness. His memories were real. It had not been a nightmare. He didn’t want to open his eyes. If he couldn’t sleep forever, he wished for death. Karyn had saved him from the spider bite, and he’d let her die.
He heard them calling him, saying his name.
Ignoring them wasn’t an option. They voices were too insistent. Over and over they said his name. He knew they wanted him to wake up. They didn’t understand, they couldn’t understand, he had no interest in ever opening his eyes.
“Mykal.”
That was Karyn’s voice. He heard it above the others. Her ghost was already haunting him. He deserved it. If he was still alive, the days he had left should be filled with haunts and terrible nightmares.
“He just needs a moment.” Galatia spoke more softly that the others. “Using magic that powerful exhausted him.”
“He saved me,” Karyn said.
I let you fall, he thought. That is not saving you.
“Yes,” Blodwyn said. “He did. I wouldn’t have believed it possible if I hadn’t of witnessed it with my own eyes.”
Who was Blodwyn talking to?
“Will he be alright?” Karyn said.
“His strength will return in a moment or two,” Galatia said.
“Will he be strong enough to make the jump?” Blodwyn said.
“In time,” Galatia said.
Mykal felt it in his lungs. Heat. They grew hotter and hotter. Pressure filled his mouth. He felt it press against the roof of his mouth, and up into his nose. Mostly it closed in on his chest. Although he never wondered what swallowing fire was like, he felt that he now knew.
And then his eyes and mouth opened wide.
He shot up into a sitting position, gasping.
He hadn’t been breathing.
“Mykal! Mykal!”
He turned around, leaning his weight on one extended arm. His palms pressed into the gravel. He felt stones cut into his palm. “Karyn?”
“You saved me, Mykal. You saved me,” she said.
She was okay. Somehow he’d managed to lift her high enough. He almost couldn’t believe it. The others were smiling at her. He pushed himself to his knees, grabbed the torch. He was close to the edge. Had he of rolled around while unconscious, he would have fallen.
He held out his arms. His legs still trembled, but he didn’t think he would fall.
Standing still for a moment, he waited for his balance.
“Don’t rush it, Mykal. Rest,” Galatia said.
“We don’t have a lot of time for resting,” Coil said.
“You have your money,” Quill said. “Let the boy rest. We have no idea how he feels. After what he just did, he deserves a minute to catch his breath.”
“I’m not arguing that. The way we’ve been yelling, I’d be surprised if we weren’t heard all the way on the east end of the Zenith Mountains. We’ve been shouting in here so much, I’m worried about what the Cavers might do. This is where they live. We’re trespassing. And we’re being very, very loud about it. I don’t know any Cavers personally, but I think it’s safe to assume, they won’t be too thrilled we’re here, you see what I’m sayin’?” Coil raised his eyebrows.
Mykal pulled a deep breath through his nostrils, and exhaled from his mouth. “Catch,” he said, and threw the torch across. It flew end over end, and for a brief moment looked as if the flame might blow out.
He wasn’t worried about that. Galatia could make fire with her hands. For that matter, so could he.
They would have light, one way or another.
He took a few steps back, and once again h
eld out his arms. He was sure he could stand without falling. The idea of running made him apprehensive.
For some odd reason he thought about a specific section of fence on the farm that he’d been repairing, and couldn’t recall if he’d left the hammer and a container of nails in the grass.
Shaking his head, he pushed away thoughts about of the farm, and the unfixed sections of fence.
“Mykal,” Galatia said. She stood beside Karyn. They had their arms wrapped around each other.
“I’m okay. I’ve got this.”
The worst thing he could do would be to overthink the situation. He thought of Karyn, and began a countdown. “Three, two,” he said, took a deep breath, and added, “one!”
He ran, and immediately understood what Karyn had done wrong. Your eyes played tricks on you. It was too dark. Seeing exactly where the edge was, was difficult. It was why she had hesitated and came almost to a stopped before jumping. He sped up, and at the very last second leapt into the air.
He stared only at the faces waiting for him across the chasm.
In his heart, he knew he’d make it to the other side.
In his head, his arms pinwheeled and his legs flailed as he fell.
His arc across the gap ended, and his feet crashed to the other side. He exhaled, panting. “There. That wasn’t so bad.”
Karyn released Galatia and hugged Mykal quickly, before pulling away.
He not only didn’t mind her hugging him, rather wished she’d not have let go. Quill clapped him on the back, then so did Anthony.
“Well done, kid,” Coil said.
Galatia just smiled at him. The admiration in her eyes Mykal was unmistakable. That troubled him. For some reason she stared at him as if he were something special. Like she knew some huge and wonderful secret about everything but was keeping the news to herself. She couldn’t be further from the truth. Could she not see that he’d almost let Karyn die?
“If the circus show is about done, can we move on?” Coil said. He did not wait for a reply. With the torch back in his hands, he began walking. “Stay close to the wall on the right, now. The right. Go too far to the left, and all of this jumping was for nothing. Understand?”
Blodwyn winked at Mykal. “Nice save.”
“I don’t know how I did it,” Mykal said.
Severed Empire: Wizard's Rise Page 25