Seventeen

Each stride rattled my teeth, despite my clenched jaw.  Never in my life had I felt so cold or hurt so much.  I could barely think past the pounding in my skull.  It just needed to end.  Now.

“P-please, just r-rip my head off,” I stuttered to Drav.

“No, Mya.  You will die.”

“I’m already dying.”

He growled fiercely and ran faster.  I burrowed my face in his shirt, desperate for some heat.  Some relief.  Tears gathered as I thought what would happen if I died.  My family would be left always wondering what had happened.

We suddenly stopped moving.

“I’m sorry, Mya.”

That was all the warning Drav gave before he jumped.  Icy spears lanced through me as we plunged into the river.  The shock of it kept me from gasping until our heads popped back up.

I choked on a curse and shivered uncontrollably.

“Just a little longer,” Drav whispered in my ear, holding me when I would have flailed in the direction of the bank. “We need to cool you.”

If I’d thought the air cold before, the water robbed me of every ounce of heat, sucking my energy until I could barely cling to Drav.  His lips brushed my forehead, cheek, and mouth.

“You’re cooling.  Hold your breath one more time.”

“N-n-no.”

“Three.  Two.”

I inhaled quickly and held it.

“One.”

He dunked us under again.  I wouldn’t have thought my head held any warmth after the first submersion.  However, I was proven wrong the second time the icy water enveloped us and stole what remained of my heat and strength.

We broke the surface, and Drav surged out of the water onto the bank.  Cradling me in his arms, he sat and gently rocked me.  Some of the pain in my head had eased.  That or the water had numbed it.  For a moment, I let myself float in the almost nothingness that waited at the edge of my consciousness.

Drav’s hands wiped over my face, and his lips brushed mine repeatedly between softly spoken pleas for me to open my eyes.

I felt so tired.  Yet, hearing his gruff demanding voice, I forced myself to try.  As soon as I opened my eyes, he kissed me hard.

“Do not do that again,” he said when he pulled away.

“T-that’s my l-line.”

He hugged me close, melting my anger with his body heat.  We stayed like that until the worst of my tremors stopped.  In the darkness by the river, the pain in my head didn’t return full-force.  It didn’t fade either.  A steady thumping persisted, reminding me that we needed to leave these caverns, no matter what.

In the distance, the faint sounds of baying echoed.  Between the crystal poisoning and the gathered hounds, the journey to the surface wouldn’t be an easy one.

“Drav, I need you to promise me something.”

“Anything.”

“If something happens to me, you need to find my family and tell them everything.  From the moment we met until the end.  Except for the boob grabbing and kissing.  That would upset my parents.”

“Nothing will happen to you,” he said, before pressing another kiss to my temple.

“Drav, I’m sick, and we still have caverns filled with hellhounds to fight our way through.  If something happens, I want your word you will try to find my family.  I have a picture of them in my bag.  I know it’s asking a lot, but I can’t leave them just wondering.  And, they need your help to live.”

“Nothing will happen, Mya.  You will see your family again.  I give you my word.”

I sighed and closed my eyes, knowing that was as good as I’d get from him.  The stubborn man wouldn’t give up on the idea of both of us making it to the surface alive and well.  What would happen then?

“It’s not going to be easy once we reach the top,” I said. “The infected will still be roaming.  The hounds will likely follow us.  And, everyone will probably want to kill you.” I rubbed my head against his wet shirt. “I wish there was a safe place for us to just…be.”

“We will find a place.  Your world is very large.”

“It is.  And a lot emptier now.  Maybe we can find a farm in the middle of nowhere.  We can grow things like you do down here.  Maybe even raise chickens or something…if we can find any.”

“We can do anything you want, as long as we’re together.”

I lifted my head and met his worried gaze.

“Together,” I agreed, ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach.

He kissed me softly then tucked my back against his chest.  We stayed like that until Molev found us a while later.

“We are ready.  Is Mya all right?”

Drav stood with me in his arms.

“For now.  I will meet you at the gate.  We can’t risk lit caverns.  Mya grows too sick in the light.”

“But the hounds.”

“I know.  Make sure to let everyone know what we face and that any lanterns must stay away from Mya.”

Molev glanced at me.  Was he wondering if I was worth all the trouble?  I hoped not because I couldn’t think of a reason to support my worth at the moment.

“We will meet you at the gate,” he said finally. “We will keep you safe, Mya.”

“Thank you.  Can someone bring my bag?  It has things in it that I still need.” Mostly, the picture of my family.  Just in case.

“I will bring it,” Molev said.

Drav set off at a run.  The breeze made me shiver, but I didn’t complain about the wet clothing.  The cold helped numb the body aches.  Closing my eyes, I tried to rest.  It worked until we reached the outer wall.  The sound of Drav’s running attracted the hounds on the other side.  Snarls and growls increased in volume and number as he ran.

“Maybe we should run through the fields,” I said.

“No.  The light will hurt you.”

“So will all the hellhounds that are following us to the gate.”

Drav grunted and glanced at the fields.  The lantern light didn’t hurt my eyes, but it would hurt my head once we drew closer.

“It’ll be a good test to see how close I can be to the lanterns when we’re out there.  Better to know now when we’re safe, right?”

My reasoning seemed to decide him.  He veered inward and wove his way between the lanterns.  The baying fell behind, remaining near the point of the wall where they’d last heard us.

“How do you feel?” Drav asked after passing by several lanterns.  He kept at least ten feet away.

“It’s not getting any worse when we move between the ones with smaller pieces of crystals.  I can feel the ones with bigger chunks, though.”

He pressed his lips to my forehead.

“You’re starting to warm again.”

The hot grittiness I’d felt in my eyes hadn’t returned since our plunge in the water, so I couldn’t be too bad, yet.  A sudden thought occurred to me, and I jerked my head up to stare at Drav.  The move made my head pound a little more noticeably.

“If I get too warm again, promise you won’t jump in any fish infested waters to cool me off once we’re outside the wall.”

“I promise I will care for you and keep you safe.”

I set my head back on his chest.

“Not the promise I was looking for.”

He kissed the top of my head.

“Rest.  Sleep while you can.”

Unfortunately, I hurt enough that resting proved impossible.  But I closed my eyes and pretended for his peace of mind.

While he ran, I listened to the sounds of the hounds fade and swell in waves.  Although I knew he stayed in the fields, based on the pain I experienced from the nearby lanterns, the creatures still gathered at places outside the walls.  Probably near the tiny village stations the men used to guard their city.  I could only imagine how many hounds we would have attracted if we’d stayed running near the wall.  Hopefully, my suffering now would keep us safer when we left.  And I certainly did suffer.  The pulsing energy from each crystal seemed to burrow into my bones and twist me from the inside.

By the time we reached the gate, my stomach churned nauseatingly; and the sounds of the hounds outside grew.

“Do you have her water bottle?” Drav asked, slowing.

I opened my eyes to see a large gathering of men before us.  Those nearest the gate held lanterns, glowing with large chunks of crystals.  I could feel the energy from where we stood and winced.  Drav caught the look and stepped further away.  The men not carrying the lanterns held bows and spears.  Some had knives strapped to their legs.

Molev moved forward.  He carried a spear along with my bag.

“I thought you only used your weapons for hunting,” I said, the words coming out slightly slurred.

He handed me the bottle.

“I’m not thirsty,” I said.

“You need to drink, Mya.  Please,” Drav said.

I sighed and took a tiny sip before passing the bottle back.

“Leaving with lanterns is usually enough to keep the hounds away.  However, we generally hunt in the crystal caverns.  This time, we will travel through the dark ones.  We will need both the lanterns and the weapons to keep you safe.”

“You say that as if you don’t like the idea of killing them.” The effort of the words had me closing my eyes briefly.

“Because, even with weapons, we can’t kill them.  We can only slow them and make it take longer for them to heal.”

Leaving the city walls should have terrified me.  Instead, I only felt relief.  We were finally making our way to the surface.  To my family.  To the survivors who needed our help.

Drav looked up at the men. “The larger crystals poison her quicker.  She can endure the smaller from a distance.”

Molev nodded.

“You will carry her at our center.  Those with the lanterns will form a circle around us in the open caves.  In the tunnels and cross ways, the lanterns will move to the front and the back.  Those of us with spears will guard the lantern bearers.  Those with arrows will remain closest to Drav and Mya.”

I shivered slightly in Drav’s arms.

“We must leave,” he said. “She’s warming again.  No stopping.  No rests.”

“No rests?  Won’t you get tired?” I asked.

He met my worried gaze.

“Resting in dark caves is too dangerous, and I fear what resting in crystal caves would do to you.”

All good points, which made me feel guilty as hell.

“If you get tired, don’t be stubborn.  Ask someone else to carry me for a bit.”

He grunted, and I knew he’d never willingly let someone else carry me.

“Are you ready?” Molev asked.

Drav nodded.  The two men by the gate removed the brace.  The barking outside the wall grew more intense.  Two other men scurried up the ladders and uncovered lanterns on top of the wall.  Yipping and snarls drew further away, and the men by the gate started pulling the rock slab open.  Those with lanterns crowded near the gap.

In the darkness beyond, I could see the multitude of glowing red eyes, and my heart started to thump heavily in my chest.

“I will keep you safe,” Drav vowed, pressing a kiss to my head.

I said nothing, just watched the first of the lantern carriers slip outside the wall followed by the men with spears.  When more than half the group had left, the rest stood aside.  Drav walked forward.  I closed my eyes against the feel of the crystals on the wall as we passed through the opening.  Part of me considered keeping them closed, but I had to know what we faced.  What I saw terrified me.

A sea of blinking red dots circled our group, kept at bay by the weak light of the lanterns and the sharp ends of spears.  As Drav moved forward, so too did the lantern bearers at the front.

“Is everyone out?” Molev asked.  He held a position near the front, spear in hand.

“Yes,” someone said from behind us.  I looked back and saw we stood in the center of a lantern circle.  The gate rumbled closed behind us, and the lanterns disappeared from the top of the wall.

“We run and we don’t stop,” Molev said.