14
Lina
“Finally,” he says in a gravelly tone. “It’s my turn.”
Bile rises in my throat as the warrior rips me from my seat on the ground. He drags me through the darkness. I scream and thrash but it’s no use.
The masked warrior drags me by the waist into the dark tunnel and down a winding stone walkway that curls through a massive cavern.
I panic, fighting against his hold, but his arms are like solid stone around my waist, pulling me against his chest.
I can’t see him, but I know. This is the man from the forest. The one that took me.
My captor stops. “I suggest you stop struggling, Mouse.” The man’s voice is soft. “The draken do not take well to commotion.” There’s amusement in his voice.
I stare at the doorway ahead. Pitch black. I can’t see what is beyond.
Where is he taking me?
“And if you think I would protect you if they come for you—” He chuckles. “You’ve overestimated your value.”
This time, fear clenches my muscles enough that my body obeys his words. When I’m still, he restarts his slow march and carries me into the darkness.
Icy cold. My breath trembles and comes out in a cloud.
It’s so quiet. So still. And yet, the shadows in the pit below slither.
Whispers float through the air. Incomprehensible words jumbled together soft and melodious.
He takes careful steps, as if he too is afraid. Or maybe, he simply wants to drag out my fear.
A set of eyes flickers open, reflecting yellow light. A rumble begins slow and lazy but shakes the ground beneath me.
I can’t tell how far the monsters are, or how large, but I can feel their presence.
Their attention is on me.
I yelp as a sharp scraping sound screeches, ricocheting through the room. A talon against stone.
“Calm down, Mouse,” he murmurs against my ear.
I want to tell him to stop calling me that, but my cowardly lips refuse to move.
Ahead, light grows, and the overbearing pressure of the reptiles’ presence passes away like fog in the mountains.
In a flash and a jerk, light floods my vision.
Someone chuckles several feet away.
Anger flares in my mind, chasing away the vice grip of fear. I blink rapidly, taking in the new world before me.
It’s a massive cavern, larger than my village and three others combined. Fresh blue water cascades out from a giant skull’s mouth against the far wall. I peer over the ledge, following the water down, down, down, to the cave floor.
It is both terrible and glorious at once. The most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. And yet, it’s marred with the symbol of their god. Nihil, death himself.
The warrior does not pause to allow me to dwell in my awe and horror. He carries me down a spiral path leading into the pit below, where the waterfall splashes into a pool of crystal blue water. The scent of death is almost covered by the fresh mist rising up from the waterfall, but I never lose the crawling sensation under my skin everywhere he touches me.
Finally, after an eternity, I am released. My body drops to the stone floor a dozen feet from the misty basin of water.
