Trail of Flames

by Marlow York

  “Stop thinking like that,” Saven said nervously.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I can’t help it.”

  “Well, focus on something else,” Saven hissed.

  There wasn’t much to focus on, visually. The torch only illuminated a small area, and it all looked the same: dark rock walls to our left, and the river on our right.

  I thought instead about my sister. I forced her face to fill my mind, the way it had been before the City’s attack. Jenassa’s confident smile reminded me why I was doing all of this. Revenge was a necessary pursuit, as was the freedom of the remaining clans, but it was my sister I fought for. Without her, my family was truly gone. She had been there for me my entire life, and I needed to do the same for her.

  “Look at that,” Cypress breathed.

  The path widened, and we stood in a huge dome. The river rushed angrily below us, a drop that was at least twenty feet or more. Across the river, the walls were covered with faint designs, but most of the images were too worn to decipher.

  “Who made those markings?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.” Cypress looked genuinely confused.

  “Look that way,” Saven said.

  I followed his gaze and spotted a narrow strip of rock bridging the two sides of the river.

  “Want to take a closer look?” Cypress asked.

  I’d prefer to get out of the cave, but Cypress was already headed for the bridge. I noticed immediately that Saven was too large to safely cross.

  “Just stay here,” I said. “We’ll only be gone a second.”

  “Be quick then.” Saven flicked his tongue. “It smells strange down here and I don’t like it.”

  Reluctantly, he watched as we crossed the bridge. The thundering water threw a fine mist upward, dampening my pant legs. We reached the other side and Cypress held up the torch. I lit a flame on one of my hands, doubling the illumination.

  I furrowed my brow. “They don’t look like pictures. Are they symbols you recognize?”

  Cypress frowned at the wall. “I don’t think they’re symbols.” He reached up and brushed his fingers against them. “They look like…claw marks.”

  He was right. The markings were in no discernable order. They were carelessly and haphazardly scratched into the wall. “What could have made those? Birds?” I asked hopefully. I stood on my tiptoes and brushed one of the scratches. “They seem…fresh.”

  “They look too big to be a bird.” Cypress swallowed hard, his face drawn with worry. “I honestly don’t know what could have made them, but we should keep moving.”

  We hurriedly rejoined Saven on the other side of the river.

  “Is it possible,” I asked Saven aloud, “that maybe a Grakkir and his Animal God could have gotten down here and made those marks?”

  “All the way out here?” Saven asked. “Didn’t they all go west?”

  “Yes, I was certain they all went westward.” I shook my head, hoping it were possible but knowing it wasn’t. “It was just wishful thinking on my part. As far as I know, I was the only one who didn’t go with them. Unless a solo Grakkir has a few days’ head start on me, I probably would have seen them.”

  “That’s a lot of guessing,” Cypress said.

  “I know,” I agreed. “It’s possible, but I don’t think that’s the case.”

  I’m sure we all felt the same shiver of fear and worry. We quickened our pace.

  “When we take a break,” Cypress said breathlessly, glancing over his shoulder at us, “we’ll only stop for a couple minutes, okay—ah!”

  The torch skittered across the floor as Cypress fell to the ground.

  Instinctively, I lifted my axe. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  “I tripped over something.” Cypress’s voice was both pained and embarrassed. “Just wait there.”

  He stiffly got to his feet and retrieved the torch. When he stepped closer, the fire illuminated a human body lying on the ground.

  Chapter 7

  Saven hissed in alarm, and I gasped, covering my mouth. “Is this the weird smell you were talking about, Saven?”

  He nodded. “It’s so musty down here, I didn’t think….” He grumbled to himself. “I was hoping it would be an animal.”

  “Oh, no,” Cypress breathed. “Breen.”

  “You know this person?” I asked.

  Cypress knelt beside the body, covering his mouth in disbelief and disgust. Breen’s face was blueish, and his body torn with scratches. The death blow must have been the huge cut at his throat. The ground around us was reddish brown with dried blood.

  “Breen is a…was a trader, like me,” Cypress said. “He left the village only a few days before you arrived. We knew it could take him weeks to reach all the villages he had intended to trade with, so it didn’t surprise us he’d been gone this long.”

  Cypress gazed along the path and noticed what was left of the goods Breen had intended to trade. His massive backpack was shredded, some of the contents strewn around the ground.

  “Do you think he was attacked by thieves?” I asked.

  “It’s possible,” Cypress admitted quietly. “Perhaps we aren’t the only ones who use this tunnel. There are others who are…good at getting around underground, I guess you could say.”

  “You mean…?”

  “The Nordahl,” Saven said slowly, looking at me.

  Cypress’s face contorted with anger. “Those scratches on the walls, perhaps that was where they had engaged with him. He managed to run all this way before….” His voice trailed off.

  “If they were thieves, why didn’t they take everything?” Saven observed the bulging backpack.

  “Good question.” I considered asking Cypress about it, but his face looked so sorrowful and angry. “We shouldn’t just leave him here,” I said quietly.

  Cypress cleared his throat. “I need to bury him. That way, his body will become one with the earth, just as all Secara yearn to.” He glanced around. “But we have nothing to dig with.” His fists clenched angrily. I could tell he and this trader had been close. I wanted to help him, because I knew the despair in his eyes all too well.

  We needed to leave. The human or creature that had mangled Breen might return, but as I looked at Cypress, I couldn’t bring myself to rush his mourning. My throat tightened when I realized how many times I’d regretted the way I’d left the Fiero village. I never had time to mourn my people or perform a memorial for them. Their bodies had been unceremoniously taken by the City, disappearing from my village as though they’d never existed. I didn’t want to rob Cypress of his time, so I looked around for a way to help.

  It didn’t make sense to drag the body outside to bury it. I touched the wall beside us, scratching at the dirt with my fingernail. It gave way easily. “Maybe we can improvise,” I said.

  I swung my axe at the wall. Dirt showered around us, leaving a large chunk missing from the wall. I glanced at Cypress.

  He nodded. “That will work.”

  “Saven, will you hold the torch?” I asked.

  He nodded and held the piece of wood in his mouth.

  Cypress lifted his small hatchet and together we hacked away the wall. We sweated for an hour or more, and as the earth loosened, we were able to pull it out in clumps. We didn’t stop until there was a shelf in the wall large enough to fit Breen’s body.

  Our arms shook as we lifted the man. Together we pushed his body into the wall. We tried to pack as much dirt as possible back into the opening, but most of it fell out.

  Without a word, Cypress put his hand on my shoulder, signaling me to stop. He touched the wall beside Breen’s resting place. Roots weaved around the outside of the opening, safely holding Breen’s body inside. Cypress covered the roots with moss, closing the tomb off from the world. Cypress called some ferns and small flowers to bloom around the grave, a last tribute to his friend. The flowers wouldn’t last long without sunlight, but it was a thoughtful gesture.

  We stepped back and looked a
t our work. It was obvious the area had been disturbed, but somehow the mossy wall appeared natural.

  “It looks nice.” I turned to Cypress. Tears glinted in his bloodshot eyes, but he managed an appreciative smile.

  “Do you want to say anything?” I asked.

  Cypress thought for a moment. He sniffled and swallowed hard. “Breen lived well. He was a helpful and crucial member of the Secara clan. He will live on forever in the plants. He is one with the earth.”

  We watched him silently for a long time. The torch crackled and popped. After living with the Grakkir and experiencing Tarek’s death, I found that each clan had their own ways to honor the dead, and each had their own idea of how their legacy would live on. For the Grakkir, the greatest honor was to be burned so that one’s spirit could easily pass into the world where the Animal Gods lived.

  I’m sure the Ancient Fiero burned their dead, but I knew very little of their rituals and traditions. In the Fiero village, we covered our dead with a sheet and then family and friends came to the house to pay their respects. After that, the City guards took them into the City to be cremated. At least, that’s what they’d told us. Many hated that we couldn’t have our own cemetery, but no one was stupid enough to protest. We were told that the land around the City was precious and needed to be used for planting crops and raising animals. Not a single grain of soil could be wasted.

  Now, I could only imagine how they had disposed of us when we were no longer useful to them. Were my people experimented on? Turned into fertilizer? I didn’t want to think about it.

  Cypress knelt and compiled the items from Breen’s ruined bag. “The greatest honor for a Secara is the continuation of life after they have died,” Cypress said without looking at me. I helped him pick through the items and shove them into his backpack. “When we are buried, our bodies decompose and nourish the dirt and plants around us. Those plants give life to animals and humans in the form of oxygen and food. It’s very common for the family of a deceased person to give away all their belongings to the rest of the village, so that everyone can benefit from them. If taking his things is making you feel uncomfortable, that’s why we’re doing this.”

  I shook my head. “That makes sense. It’s best not to waste all these items down here in a cave.”

  Cypress passed me a glass jar of what appeared to be peaches. I took it and gave him a quizzical look. “The more who benefit after his loss, the more honored he will feel.”

  I took the jar and put it in my bag. When everything was salvaged, we stood and brushed the dirt from our clothes.

  “Okay.” Cypress glanced once more at Breen’s grave. “Let’s get going.”

  I heard Saven writhing behind us, his body scratching against the cave floor.

  “I know you’re feeling restless, but you can slither normally,” I joked.

  “What do you mean? I wasn’t moving.”

  I grabbed Cypress’s arm, pressing my finger to my lips. We held our breath and listened. Somewhere behind us there was a distinct scratching noise—a sound completely different from the hiss of water we’d heard for the past several hours.

  “What is that?” I asked Cypress.

  His eyes were wide. “I have no idea.”

  We all looked behind us, but there was only darkness.

  Darkness, and the sound of scratching and clicking.

  “We need to move.” I turned and ran. Saven hissed wildly in pain.

  I spun in time to see a giant, metallic spider the size of a dog latched onto his back. Its shiny body glinted in the firelight, while a dozen tiny eyes rolled in all directions, taking in their surroundings, gathering information. It whirred and clicked with each movement, sending a shiver down my spine.

  The spider lifted one pointy leg and drove it into Saven’s flesh. A stinging pain shot through my back, but I ignored it. Axe drawn, I hurried to his side and sliced at the spider. The blade collided with a crack of metal on metal, and the spider hurtled over the edge of the path, down into the river.

  “Run!” Saven cried. “They’re coming!”

  The furious noise of scratching and clicking nearly drowned out the sound of our feet thumping against the ground. We dared not look back, afraid to see what we knew was following us. I sensed Saven behind me, pressing encouragement into my mind. I used his courage to push myself harder, my breath coming out in gasps as a sharp stitch developed in my left side. The frantic clatter of metal feet grew louder and more determined.

  Something shiny flashed in the torchlight to my right, but before I could lift my axe, one of the giant spiders jumped up from the river, colliding into me. It latched onto my right shoulder with its pointed legs, scratching and clawing at my face.

  “Valieri!” Saven hissed loudly.

  Cypress dropped the torch and grabbed the spider with both hands, ripping it away from me and throwing it across the river. I felt warm blood running down my face and neck, but there was no time to stop and check my wounds.

  “There must be dozens of them!” Cypress called.

  It sounded more like thousands of scratching feet and the whirring of metal as they stormed after us.

  “How much longer until we reach the exit?” I gasped for breath, tasting the metallic blood dripping into my mouth.

  “I’m not sure. We might have to make a new one.”

  “There isn’t time!” Digging Breen’s grave took an eternity and that was just a simple hole in the wall.

  Saven hissed, slapping his tail angrily and sending several spiders over the edge of the precipice. A spider crawled up the bank on the other side of the river, relentless in its pursuit. This time I had a chance to react. I spun, calling the Ancient Fire to my hand, and blasted the spider with fire at the same time it leapt across the gap. The flames hit the spider head-on. The gears inside it whined and shrieked as the metal components melted. It fell to the ground and the legs wiggled in a feeble attempt to stand back up, but in seconds it was reduced to a smoking pile of liquefied metal.

  “Cypress!” I called. “Can you open a tunnel while I hold them off?”

  He locked eyes with me. “Yes, I think so.”

  “You think?” I shrieked, swinging my axe at another jumping spider.

  “I’ve never made a tunnel! I can manipulate the plants, not the dirt or rocks. It may take a while and might affect the stability of the wall.”

  My fear of the cave collapsing made me hesitate for a second. “That’s a risk we’ll have to take.”

  Cypress gave me a nod and pressed his hands to the wall. “Keep them busy for me!”

  “Saven, you hear that?” I said aloud. “We need to hold them off for as long as we can!”

  “I’m already on it.” Saven whipped his tail again, sending at least a dozen of the spiders into the river. As soon as they were knocked down, they began crawling back up. Whatever type of metal their bodies were made of, it was extremely resistant to brute force.

  “We need to destroy them, otherwise they’ll keep coming back.” I focused fiery energy into both of my hands. “Saven, when I tell you to, duck as low to the ground as possible.”

  Saven hissed as a spider latched onto his side. He grabbed the robot with his mouth and chomped down, breaking the spider into shards of metal. “Just say when.”

  The ground rumbled as Cypress worked on the tunnel. A huge tree root shot out of the cave wall and burrowed back in. Dirt rained from the ceiling, but I ignored the lurch of fear in my gut. I focused on my hands, breathing deeply and building as much power and momentum as I could. My entire body felt hot, and that’s when I knew it was time.

  “Saven, now!”

  He dropped to the ground. I aimed the fiery blast at the shining hoard of machines behind him. The spiders hissed and shrieked as the metal melted and broke down. The room filled with acrid smoke, but I kept the fire going as long as possible. Panting, I lowered my arms. I watched the clearing smoke for signs of movement, but most of the spiders were reduced to a smoking pil
e of molten metal.

  “Wow,” Cypress breathed behind me.

  My arms and legs shook. “Are you done?”

  “Yeah it’s done. C’mon!”

  The tunnel was narrow, but at the very end I could see a patch of daylight. Cypress knelt at the opening and called a pair of roots. The roots wrapped around his arms and torso. “I’ll use these to pull us up. It will be faster.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  I watched as he ducked into the tunnel and the roots pulled him up. A moment later, the sunlight reappeared. “Put your arms up and let them grab on.”

  I looked at Saven, who watched the mess of spiders. The few that had survived the blast were crawling towards us.

  “I’ll hold them off,” he said. “You hurry to the top.”

  “Okay,” I said. “It won’t take long, I promise.”

  Saven nodded and swatted an approaching spider.

  I knelt at the tunnel entrance and held my arms up. Roots wrapped around my biceps and torso, and I let myself be pulled through the tunnel. I closed my eyes as soil fell around me, and a moment later, I felt Cypress’s hands grab my wrists and pull me out.

  My eyes took a moment to adjust to the sunlight, though it must have been late in the day. I peered down into the hole. “Saven!” I called.

  He seemed a million miles away as his face appeared at the entrance. He climbed inside and wriggled his massive body upward. Cypress used roots to pull and guide him through the small space.

  Saven’s amber eyes peeked through the tunnel and into the sunlight. “Get ready. They followed us.”

  The chorus of clicks and scratching made my spine shiver. I readied the Ancient Fire, and when Saven’s body emerged, I shot flames down into the passageway.

  “Move,” Cypress said. “I’ll seal the opening.”

  He pressed his hands to the ground. Roots crisscrossed the tunnel, filling it from the bottom to the top. Cypress replaced the grass over the entrance, and by the time he was done, it looked like the earth had never been disturbed in the first place.

  We jogged away from the cave hole until we felt certain the spiders couldn’t escape our rooted prison. I pressed my back to a pine tree and sank to the ground, panting with exhaustion. The cuts on my shoulder and face throbbed with each frantic heartbeat. I pressed my hand to my shoulder and restrained a cry of pain. My arms and legs shook with fatigue and adrenaline. I glanced at Saven, then at Cypress. “Are you guys alright?”