Haven Lost

by Josh de Lioncourt

  Emily tried to keep her thoughts away from Daniel and what might have become of him, forcing her gaze to focus on the pool of light from the next torch…and then the next…and the next…

  They saw no one as they went. From time to time, the faint echo of a shout reached their ears, but the sounds were far away.

  They reached the main tunnel. To their right, in the direction of the cell where they’d been held, they heard the sounds of panicked voices shouting orders, and the eerie, disconnected sound of mining. Even in the face of obliteration, the deaders worked on. The image of the hand reaching out of the rubble and clutching her arm swam up before her eyes for a moment, and Emily shuddered.

  “Why haven’t we seen anyone?” she asked as they turned left and started in the direction that, if the vision could be trusted, should lead them to the guards’ quarters and freedom. “They can’t have all been caught back there.”

  Even as the words left her mouth, she felt her stomach tighten, and she wished she hadn’t said them. Daniel was back there, somewhere. Maddy and the other prisoners were too. Had any of them been caught in the collapsing tunnels? Were they buried alive? Already dead? Would they be able to dig themselves free?

  “I don’t know,” he said, wiping a trickle of blood from his brow. “Just be ready to run if we have to.”

  They passed beneath the shaft they’d been lowered down on the platform, and Emily glanced up its long, dark throat. The faint silver glow of what might be moonlight filtered down from its mouth. So close, and yet so far. There was no way back up this shaft. It was used as a psychological tool and nothing more, designed to fool prisoners into thinking it was the only way in or out. It made escape seem hopeless. Simple and terrifyingly effective.

  What would have happened to them down here without Derek’s instructions? Even if Daniel had still decided to cause his diversion for some other reason, they might’ve wandered the labyrinth of tunnels for hours or even days before finding the way out. They might never have found their way out at all.

  The tunnel began to narrow and slope upward. There were cracks in the walls here, too, but the damage was not nearly as extensive as it was deeper in the mines.

  “You sure you know where we’re going?” Corbbmacc asked, eyeing the walls that were rapidly closing in around them. “I don’t like this. Not enough room to fight, and nowhere to flee but back the way we came.”

  “I think so.”

  They made their way onward. The silence was oppressive, adding its weight to that of the mountain above their heads.

  At last, the tunnel opened out into a large circular chamber, and new passages led to their left and right. This was it—the way out that Derek had shown her in the vision.

  “Which way?” he asked her.

  Emily stood for a moment, debating.

  “He said we can get out either way. The tunnel to our left empties out of the side of the mountain. The other ends in a shaft we can climb up out of. I’m not sure which is safer.”

  Corbbmacc’s brow furrowed.

  “If there’s any spare weaponry, it probably wouldn’t be so close to the main entrance,” he said, his gaze flicking to the passage on the left. “It’d be somewhere else. Probably down the passage that ends in the shaft. I say we go that way and grab anything we find to defend ourselves. It’s less likely there will be guards posted at the entrance to the shaft, but if there is, we’d stand a better chance if we had some weapons.”

  “Okay.”

  As they turned and started to make their way across the chamber, they heard a shout from farther down the other passage. For a moment, they froze. Emily strained to hear over the thundering of her heart in her ears.

  All at once, the tunnel behind them was filled with the sounds of running feet.

  “They’re this way!”

  “I want them alive! Take them alive, damn you!”

  They didn’t wait to hear more. They just ran.

  Alcoves with bunks, similar to those in the guards’ tower at Seven Skies, flashed past them on either side. All were deserted. The damage here was minimal, though they did see a few cracks in the walls.

  Behind them, they heard the shouts of more men, the steady rhythm of their feet on the floor growing louder as they gained. Would they have enough time?

  The sleeping areas gave way to long niches cut out of the earth and stone that housed mining equipment. More of the carts that carried the crystal lined the walls, and haphazard piles of hand picks and other implements were scattered everywhere.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw Corbbmacc scanning everything they passed, a look of quiet desperation in his eyes.

  They rounded a gentle bend in the tunnel and came upon a pile of old and rusting picks. Unlike the ones they’d been given that were far too small to be used to attack anything larger than a hampster, these were full sized. They reminded her of the kinds you saw carried by forty-niners in old black-and-white westerns. Corbbmacc skidded to a stop, grabbing one at random and hefting it.

  She stopped beside him and snatched up the nearest one to hand as well. It was heavy, but it felt good to have something solid in her hands again. She wasn’t entirely convinced it would be all that effective against the guards’ swords, but it was certainly better than nothing.

  Behind them, the guards were still coming, but their pace seemed to have slowed.

  “Shaft!” she heard one of them shouting. They must have thought they had them cornered and didn’t need to hurry.

  Her heart sank, what if Derek was wrong? What if there was no way up the shaft?

  Corbbmacc started running again, and she hurried after him. She was dimly aware that the throbbing in her head had entirely faded, and her skin, despite the running, no longer seemed to burn with fever.

  The tunnel ended in a small, circular chamber, no more than eight or nine feet across. Far above them, dim silver moonlight filled the opening at the top of the shaft. How far was it? A hundred feet? Two hundred? It was impossible to guess.

  A rope ladder ran up the side of the shaft. It looked old and worn, as if this shaft had been the original entrance to the mines but had long ago been superseded by the tunnel that emptied out at the side of the mountain. In places, the ropes were fraying, and it didn’t look at all like something she would, under any other circumstance, trust with her life.

  “Go!” Corbbmacc shouted at her, turning to face back the way they’d come.

  “What about…”

  “I’m coming. Just go!”

  She shoved the handle of the pick into the collar of her jerkin behind her head and moved to the ladder. The guards were very close now. She needed to hurry, or Corbbmacc wouldn’t have enough time. She started to climb.

  She moved as fast as she dared, feeling her heart leap every time the ancient rope creaked and moaned beneath her weight.

  When she was a dozen feet from the ground, she felt the ladder sway, and she looked down to see Corbbmacc coming up after her. She had to hurry.

  She climbed faster, the coarse, rough strands of rope rubbing her hands raw. The ladder swung crazily from side to side in response to their frantic movements, and the groaning intensified under their combined weight. Popping noises accompanied their movements as some of the threads from which the ropes were made snapped.

  She started counting the rungs, trying to keep her mind clear and free of panic.

  At seventy-five, she looked down again. Corbbmacc had nearly caught up to her, and she saw a small knot of guards standing at the foot of the ladder. One carried a torch, filling the tiny space with brilliant flickering light.

  Another was about to step onto the ladder to follow them. As she watched, he looked up, and she saw his eyes widen in recognition at the same time her heart stopped in her chest.

  She was staring down into the familiar, scarred face of Dalivan.

  “It’s them!” she heard him shout, and without waiting to see what they would do, Emily started climbing for all she was wo
rth.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  The rungs flashed past her eyes in an endless stream as she climbed. She’d forgotten to keep counting, and now panic was starting to overwhelm her, fueled by the adrenaline that coursed through her veins.

  Stay calm, she told herself. Stay calm. The words became a chant in her head, matching the frantic pounding in her ears.

  The circle of light above her grew larger with painful slowness. It wavered crazily as the ladder swung, and she resolutely lowered her head and stared only at her hands as she placed one above the other and tried to block out everything else around her.

  The pop and crackle of snapping threads increased, becoming the fluid white noise of a roaring blaze. From below, she heard guards shouting, and Corbbmacc’s labored breathing.

  After what seemed an age, she risked a glance down, grimacing at the pain in her shoulders. Corbbmacc had fallen back. He was now at least a dozen feet below her and losing ground. Just a few feet beyond him, she saw Dalivan, gaining on him with alarming rapidity. Dalivan’s larger bulk was undoubtedly putting a greater strain on the ladder than either of theirs.

  Her hands and feet kept moving automatically as she stared down at the two men below her. She might reach the top, but she didn’t think Corbbmacc would. Why couldn’t he climb faster?

  With shocking suddenness, she reached for the next rung and found herself swiping at empty air. She looked up and realized she’d reached the top of the shaft. An iron support beam had been hammered into the ground, and with an effort she caught hold of it and hauled herself up and out onto solid ground.

  The shaft seemed to be situated at the edge of a long-abandoned campsite. The remains of a firepit marred the ground a few feet in front of her. Beyond it, the mountain fell away in a series of jagged steps. Boulders and sharp outcroppings of rock gleamed in the moonlight before being swallowed up by the trees that fought for purchase on the mountainside.

  She took this all in with the merest glance before she spun around, one arm wrapped around the support, and looked back down into the shaft. She watched helplessly as Corbbmacc drew closer. He was still at least twenty feet from the top, and Dalivan was nearly on him.

  Then Corbbmacc ceased climbing, and she felt her heart come to a halt in her chest.

  “What the hell are you doing?” she screamed at him as Dalivan shot up another few rungs.

  Corbbmacc looped an arm through a couple of the rungs and reached for the pick he’d jammed into his belt.

  “Corbbmacc!”

  Dalivan’s fingers closed around his ankle just as Corbbmacc took his first swing at the side of the ladder at waist level. There was a dull thud as the pick pinned the rope to the wall of the shaft, and bits of dirt and a cascade of pebbles rattled down and disappeared into the darkness.

  Dalivan pulled himself up along side Corbbmacc, one hand wrapped around his knees, the other reaching to wrestle the pick away from him.

  Corbbmacc’s elbow shot back and hit Dalivan in the face. The sudden movement caught the big man by surprise, and for a moment, Emily was sure he would fall.

  Dalivan did slip a few inches, but recovered quickly and regained his grip around Corbbmacc’s calves.

  Corbbmacc seized the opportunity these precious few seconds offered, and struck the ladder again…and again…

  With the fourth swing, the rope on the right side of the ladder broke, and Dalivan lost his footing as the rung he was standing on sagged. He screamed and, as he started to fall, wrapped both arms around Corbbmacc’s ankles.

  The men hung, suspended over empty space. She could see the tendons drawn taut in Corbbmacc’s neck as he fought to hold their combined weight with the one arm that was looped through what remained of the ladder.

  Dalivan was trying to climb up Corbbmacc’s body to get a grip on the section of the ladder above the break. He was cursing and now clearly more concerned with saving his own skin than taking Corbbmacc alive.

  Corbbmacc twisted around, trying to squirm out of Dalivan’s grip. He swung at the man with his pick, but the quarters were too close. Dalivan ducked inside the arc of his swing easily, and Corbbmacc’s pick clanged harmlessly against the side of the shaft. Grit and pebbles clattered down the wall, the ghostly echoes of their descent like the rush of sound from a colossal rainstick.

  Emily knelt at the edge of the shaft, frustration building in her, carried on a wave of fury. She felt a blazing heat rising in her veins, and with a feeling in her head that was like a bubble popping, it seemed her mind detached itself from her body.

  She couldn’t hear Dalivan’s curses anymore, or Corbbmacc’s breathing. The world around her came into focus with startling clarity, and she could see every minute detail in the pale moonlight. Every crack in the sides of the shaft was burned into her memory; every strand of the rope was as brilliant as if it were spun from gold; every bead of sweat on Corbbmacc’s face came into sharp relief, a gem of moonlight captured in each like a tiny prism.

  And then, like clear, cold water sliding down her throat on a summer’s day, she felt that sweet, sweet electricity in her muscles and heard the low whine of the knowing as it rose to a crescendo inside her.

  Battle, she thought distantly. It peaks in the heat of battle…

  Without thinking, she was pulling the pick from where she’d tucked it inside the back of her jerkin. She leaned out over the precipice, staring down at the men grappling with one another a few feet below. She’d only have one chance, and if she hit Corbbmacc, he would surely fall to his death.

  She stared down and let the knowing clear her mind, trusting in it to guide her hand. Time slowed; each instant that passed offering limitless opportunity to calculate and consider. She watched, detached, as her hand took careful aim—and threw the pick.

  It tumbled end over end, moonlight glinting off its surface. It twisted and spun, and at last found its mark.

  One sharp tooth drove into Dalivan’s shoulder. It wasn’t a direct hit, but it was good enough to make him loosen his grip.

  Corbbmacc kicked out at him, but missed. The movement caused the ladder to swing wildly to one side, and Dalivan began to slide downward again, scrambling for a grip on anything that would hold him.

  He caught hold of the remains of the ladder just below Corbbmacc’s feet. He clutched it in both hands with a snarl of triumph, and for a few seconds, it held his weight as he dangled above the drop.

  With a pop of a gunshot, or perhaps the crack of a whip, the rope snapped, and Dalivan tumbled down the shaft, howling. The scream was short-lived and ceased abruptly, as if someone had just snapped off a radio.

  And then, the silence was absolute.

  For a long moment, Corbbmacc only hung there, his feet dangling above empty space.

  “Climb!” she shouted at him. “What the hell are you doing? Climb for Christ’s sake!”

  Corbbmacc climbed.

  She reached for him as he neared the top and helped him over the edge onto solid ground. He sank to his knees, panting and pale. He staggered a few feet forward on his knees, then turned away from her and vomited into the remains of the fire pit beside them.

  He fell back onto his haunches, breathing hoarsely and wiping his mouth with the back of one hand. He was trembling, and he didn’t look at her. He simply stared out over the mountainside. She followed his gaze. Below them, she could see the flickering red fires of Hellsgate.

  When he turned toward her at last, his eyes were wide and shellshocked. Fresh blood trickled from beneath his hair and ran in a thin line across his forehead. In the silvery moonlight, the blood looked black.

  For a long time, they only stared at one another, neither with words enough to express what they were feeling.

  She still felt strangely disconnected from herself. It was like the visions she’d had, where her mind seemed split between two trains of thought. As the knowing receded, the image of the banquet hall came into focus before her mind’s eye again, unbidden. She felt she was on the cusp of
understanding something immensely profound—some connection between it and the ordeal they’d just been through.

  The image faded, slipping through her fingers like soft white sand, and she was left just staring into Corbbmacc’s pale and handsome face.

  His breathing had slowed, and his eyes had lost some of their wild look. Slowly, she reached out and wiped the trickle of blood gently from his forehead. It felt hot in the cool night air. She pulled her hand back, looking down at the dark smears on her fingertips.

  She looked up and was surprised to find him smiling. It was a small, crooked smile. She realized it was the first truly genuine smile she’d ever seen on his lips—and it was directed at her. She found herself returning it, tired and frightened as she was.

  “Thank you,” he said softly, and then reached out and pulled her toward him.

  She let him hold her as the seconds slipped away. Her eyes slid closed, and she listened to the steady beating of his heart, laying the side of her face against his chest. She savored this moment, however brief it would be, for its relative calm. If only this moment could go on…

  “We should go,” she said at last, reluctantly pulling away from him.

  He nodded. “Someone will probably be here looking for us soon,” he said, getting slowly to his feet.

  “And isn’t this interesting?”

  The voice was low and toneless. It rasped like the rustle of dry leaves in an autumn wind, and they both turned toward it.

  Gliding toward them down a path between the rocks, almost invisible in the shadows, was the cloaked and hooded figure of a wraith.

  “Two frightened mice, driven from their burrow by the barn cats sent to catch them. Tsk tsk.”

  Emily moved to stand beside Corbbmacc, and they faced the thing as it neared, shoulder to shoulder.

  “The question is,” the wraith went on, “whether I leave you here to be gathered up by the cats, or claim you as my own prize.”

  A definite note of sardonic humor had crept into the voice. It halted a few feet away, seeming to contemplate them from the depths of its cowl.