by T.M. Nielsen
***
Kyrin took a bite of apple and sat back to listen as her summoned rat clean his whiskers. The cave was damp, cold, and dark, but she got tired of casting for light, so she waited in the dark. The cave wall leading to the Qualsax dungeon was a higher temperature than the rest of the room, so she sat against it, trying to keep warm.
Several times a day she walked through the wall to check and see if Alric was there yet. She was sure the Qualsax had him and that eventually he would be tortured. After checking the actual torture room, she would then crawl through the half door into where the prisoners were kept. No matter how hard the prisoners begged for her to help them, she wouldn’t let them follow her back through the wall, where she would sit to wait until the next time to check.
Marching into Qualsax wasn’t going to work anymore. Now, all of them knew her face and her illusion into another only lasted for a short time.
Kyrin jumped to her feet when screams penetrated the thick rock wall. She wasn’t sure, but it sounded like it might be Alric that was in the hands of the Qualsax torturer.
She readied her flail and then cast on the wall, which slowly began to melt downward. Her eyes grew wide when she saw eight Qualsax facing her, armed and ready to fight. Without another thought, she spun and ran down the cave’s passageway. She was acutely aware that the Qualsax were close behind her but falling farther away as her speed boots kicked in. She still couldn’t run the entire length though, and her mind ran through ways to get rid of them.
Kyrin was sure there would be more than just the eight or so she’d seen, and she wondered how many were now following her. She couldn’t cast and prove she used magic, though she was pretty sure the cave wall melting gave it away anyway.
“No,” she whispered when her boots began to give out, and her running slowed. She pushed harder but heard the pounding of footsteps getting closer.
The sudden force knocked the wind out of her when a large, burly man slammed into her and pinned her against the wall. Two other Qualsax immediately took her hands and turned her to face their leader, with her arms stretched out to her sides.
“Fancy meeting the Lady of Valhara here,” the leader said, smiling down at her with brown, decayed teeth.
“Do you have Alric?”
“Oh, I wish we did. I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on that Holy Knight.”
Just as he finished talking, he punched her in the stomach and then stepped back as the other warriors all laughed.
Kyrin was finally able to look up at him and just glared.
“We figure now that we have his Lady, your King will come to us.”
“And we can tell Erianah that she does use magic,” another said proudly.
“I don’t use magic,” Kyrin told them.
“Then how do you explain that wall?”
“Touch it from the cave side, and it melts away.”
“Just shut up,” he said, and punched her in the stomach again. She couldn’t double over because the warriors held her firmly against the wall. He slipped her flail from her belt, weighed it in his hand, and then tossed it into the dirt.
“Dyer, let’s just get her back,” one of the warriors said, and looked nervously around the cave passageway.
“Bring her.”
Kyrin’s eyes grew wide when massive eyes appeared behind the Qualsax. They glowed yellow and the stench of burning sulfur filled the area. Without warning, the beast closed his enormous jaws on the lead Qualsax, and then threw his head back and swallowed the warrior whole.
Everyone froze, too afraid to move. The blue dragon looked down at them, studying their every move. Running to the left toward Qualsax would take you past sharp talons that had appeared from the depths when the beast surfaced. To the right was closer to his head and the teeth that dripped with fresh blood.
No one dared to even move as his yellow eyes moved past each of them. His head was three times taller than the largest Qualsax and just as broad. The blue scales were tattered and worn, and the singed gash across his body warned Kyrin that this beast could breathe fire.
His giant eyes focused in on Kyrin, and he moved closer to smell her. Another talon appeared from the darkness, and his body slowly slid onto the cave floor. The scent of sulfur became stronger as his nose brushed her lightly and his breath caused her clothes to ruffle. She couldn’t breathe and was just waiting for the feel of his teeth tearing her flesh to shreds.
The Qualsax, no longer being scrutinized by the dragon, took that opportunity to run. The creature turned to them quickly when he saw the movement and caught the closest warrior in his teeth. His screams stopped abruptly when half of his body slumped to the floor while the other half disappeared down the throat of the monster.
The beast’s chewing knocked another Qualsax off the edge beside Kyrin’s flail, but he managed to grab onto the rock floor. She watched as his fingers desperately grabbed at the ground, trying to keep himself from plummeting into the depths of darkness far below the surface. She peered over, and his terrified eyes met hers.
“Help me,” he managed to whisper.
She reached down quickly and grabbed her flail, then pushed his fingers with her boot. His screams seemed to go on forever but eventually faded away to silence, and all that could be heard was the cracking of bones as the creature finished off the Qualsax in his mouth.
Kyrin saw the beast’s chest begin to expand, and she knew that he was inhaling deeply. Not wanting to stay around to see what he was doing next, she took off down the right passageway, headed toward the Valhara side of the cave.
When the roar of anger sounded from behind her, she felt her feet leave the floor, and she was thrown forward with a wave of the explosion and fire. She could hear the horrified screams of the Qualsax as they burned, and she knew she’d only caught the light end of the beast’s fury.
She dropped to the ground and rolled around, making sure she wasn’t on fire, before standing up and running again. This time, she was slower. Being hit several times and then thrown around, her entire body was hurting.
The second she got into the bottom of the hole leading up to the surface, she started up the thin rope ladder she’d used to crawl down in the first place. Halfway up, another roar sounded. This time, it was higher pitched and much louder. The entire cave began to shake, and Kyrin had to hang on to keep from falling down to the floor again.
She looked over as the entrance began to fill with rubble and a cloud of dust flew out from the passageway, slamming her into the cave wall again. The screaming became louder and her ears began to ache. She couldn’t cover them without letting go of the rope, but the sound was intensifying, and she squeezed her eyes shut as the pressure in her head began to build.
Kyrin felt herself falling…