Chapter Seven

Ty's words gave me strength as I continued walking toward the feeling of the moving air. It was cold and thin, not what I expected coming from deep underground. Then I remembered my few visits to the caverns on Earth when I was younger and the way the air felt thinner once we got deep inside them. As I thought that I started to wonder if I was always going to be trying to draw parallels between the world I left behind and the one that I chose for my future. I wanted to embrace Uoria for all it had to offer, which meant that I would need to find a way to stop thinking about it as something to compare to Earth and start realizing all of its potential and beauty.

I took a calming breath and asked Zuri to bring the torch a little closer. The warmth from the flame seemed to dry the air around me just enough so that it no longer felt like it was crawling across my skin and I glanced down to realize that the ground at my feet had become wet and muddy. The terrain had definitely changed and I had the strange feeling that we had entered an area far from the cliffs where we had started. It felt like we had done more than just walk through a tunnel, that we were much further away than we should have been.

"Ty?" I called out to him in my mind.

"Yes? I'm here."

"Can you go into the cave?"

"Pyra said we won't fit in the tunnel."

"No, no, that's OK. You definitely won't fit. I just need you to find the entrance to the tunnel and yell into it for me."

"Did your torch go out? Are you lost?"

Ty's thoughts were starting to sound frantic and I tried to send him calming vibes. I didn't know if it worked that way, but I was hoping that I could send him soothing feelings through my thoughts that would work the same way holding his hand would.

"I'm not lost and the torch is still just fine. Don't worry about that. I just need you to go into the cave, walk all the way to the back, and find the entrance to the tunnel. Pyra can probably show it to you. When you get there, just shout in to me."

"Alright."

Ty didn't sound convinced. I kept walking as I waited to hear his voice, but it never came.

"Did you shout?" I asked, hoping that he would say that he hadn't.

"Yeah. I screamed your name a few times."

"As loud as you could?"

"Yeah."

I took a breath.

"OK. Is Pyra there with you?"

"Yes."

"Have him try."

I waited for a few seconds but still didn't hear anything.

"Did either of you hear the guys shouting?" I asked Zuri and Leia.

I could barely make out Leia's face behind Zuri, but I could see that both women were shaking their heads. I closed my eyes briefly, trying to orient myself and figure out what this meant.

"How far do you think that we walked?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Zuri asked.

"Do you think that we've come so far that if the guys were shouting into the tunnel we wouldn’t be able to hear them?"

"No. Those men are loud, besides, the tunnel would only amplify the sound. We haven't gone far enough that the sound couldn't travel to us. Why?"

"I had them shout into the entrance to the tunnel."

Zuri and Leia both got nervous expressions on their faces that told me they understood exactly what I was saying.

"How did we get that far away?" Leia asked.

"I don’t know," I replied, "but do we go back or do we keep going and try to find out where this tunnel leads?"

There was a moment of heavy silence. Even Ty wasn't talking to me through his thoughts.

"We came in here because Pyra and the other warriors believe that this tunnel has something to do with the Klimnu being able to get into the compound and attack and we are the only ones who could get inside," Zuri said slowly and carefully, "If we don't keep going, there'll be no way for any of us to find out what's going on, and it could leave the entire clan at even greater risk."

"You're right," I said, nodding, "We have to keep going. Turning back now isn't going to help anything."

"We're going to keep going," I told Ty through my thoughts.

"Do you want me to keep shouting?" he asked.

"No," I replied, "Just stay close to the entrance and as soon as you hear us coming, let me know. It might be a little while, but just listen for me. When you hear my voice, shout in to me."

"I will. Samira?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

I felt my breath catch in my throat and my grip loosen on the knife. I had to regain my composure quickly to prevent myself from dropping it.

"I love you, too."

If I had been vacillating at all in my determination to continue forward, that had sealed it. I had never seen the Klimnu and I didn't know exactly what they were capable of, but in that moment there was absolutely nothing that could have frightened me enough to stop me from fighting to protect Ty, his people, and our future together. I tightened my grip on the knife even further, set my jaw, and surged forward. I picked up speed until I almost left the other women behind. The faster I walked, the less nervous I felt, and suddenly I realized that I was excited to find out what was at the end of the tunnel. I knew for certain now that if this was in fact the path by which Ullie had been interacting with the Klimnu to remain undetected, he had not been acting alone. Unless the creatures had always come to him through that tunnel, which was highly unlikely considering the amount of vigilance the warriors used to protect the compound, there was someone else, someone small, who was acting as a go-between for the Traitor and the Klimnu.

I was determined I was going to find out who that was.