Firebrand

“Perhaps they missed something.”

They soon entered parts of the cave where little or no glowstone shone, his stalactite the main source of light. If others had come this way before him, he saw no evidence.

“Zachary,” Nari said sharply. She grabbed his arm before he took his next step.

“What?” he asked in surprise.

“You must take care,” she said. “There are pits underfoot.”

He lowered his stalactite and saw that he’d almost stepped into a gaping abyss. He swallowed hard. The shaft was deep enough that no light reached the bottom. He did find scrape marks along its lip.

“Thank you,” he said finally, a quaver in his voice. “You knew it was here . . . ?”

“It is a grave,” Nari explained. “The dead ones must go someplace.”

The dead ones, Slee’s victims. He had almost joined them. How many were down there? How many children and mothers? Fathers, brothers, and sisters? From how many lands and what peoples? He took a glowing rock from his cloak and set it on the rim of the pit.

“What is that for?” Magged asked.

“It’s a marker,” he replied, and he stepped around the opening and continued down the passage, careful to watch his footing. Every so often he set a pebble down to mark where they’d been.

Did Magged and Nari follow him out of curiosity? For a change in routine from their dreary existence? Perhaps for companionship?

“Zachary,” Nari said, “how do you expect to find a way out?”

“There could be a change of air current,” he replied, “and that underwater stream has to come from somewhere and go somewhere.”

He poked his “torch” into side passages. Some were just nooks, while others went beyond the glow of his light. Some were so narrow that he’d have to crawl through them, and the thought of it made beads of sweat break out on his brow. He decided to keep on this main passage first, then systematically check the side passages.

The footing was often a fine silt, but there were places where they had to clamber over rocks that clattered beneath their feet. Despite the light he carried, Zachary found the dark of the cave oppressive as it bore down on them. He kept leaving pebbles along their route should he decide to turn from it. He glanced over his shoulder to ensure he could see them.

After what felt like hours, they paused to rest, sitting on boulders. Magged drew in the dirt with her finger and hummed to herself. She seemed completely at ease in this subterranean world. To Zachary, it was an unnatural place for a person to exist, with no sunlight, no contact with the outer world. There was no bird song, no wind in the branches of trees.

“How have you survived here so long?” he asked Nari.

“What is long?” she asked. “For me, Magged’s arrival and her growth are but the blinking of an eye. Such as she have come and gone, but I have learned how mortals value time with their short lives running out. When I was taken from the world, it was long before the one called Mornhavon came upon these shores, and your folk were but tribes roaming the lands. I am to understand there has been much change in the world. Slee has deigned to tell me some of it, and those it has brought here have told me more. For me, it does not seem so very long, but yes, I know for mortals it would.

“Magged knows no other life. The cave is her home and always has been, as it has been for other children. They never get to know their families, so they never miss what they have never known.”

“I want a family,” Magged chirped.

Zachary gazed sadly at her.

“Magged did not know her family,” Nari said, “but she understands the concept. I taught her to read the walls, and of course, she asked questions.”

“It is wrong,” Zachary said vehemently. “This is all wrong, what the aureas slee does.”

“It is the nature of elementals to love that which they find beautiful.”

“Are you defending it?”

“You misunderstand.” Nari’s eyes were dark, like midnight over the ocean, but for the glow of his light glimmering in them. “I wish to escape this place, to return to the ones I have left behind. But I am afraid, too. I am of Argenthyne, Zachary, and I have heard of its fall.”

“That was a thousand years ago or more,” Zachary said softly.

“Yes. I was told there were many who did not escape.”

“Queen Laurelyn kept some of the Sleepers of Castle Argenthyne safe in a piece of time, and they were taken to Eletia.”

Nari’s gaze sharpened. “Truly? You must tell me how this happened.”

It was strange recounting what was really Karigan’s story, but to see the joy in Nari’s face was more than worth it.

“Had you kin among the Sleepers?” he asked.

“I do not know who may have been asleep after the time of my taking. Some may have awakened before Mornhavon, and others fallen asleep. But to know that some of my people are safe in Eletia? It is the most precious piece of news I’ve heard since Slee brought me here.”

“I am glad I could tell you. It would not have been possible without your queen’s foresight and . . .”

“Your Karigan,” Nari filled in. “I can see she is of some importance to you. Was she not one of the forms Slee took to taunt you?”

“Yes.” He looked away.

“She is a remarkable person to do what she did for my people, and I am grateful to her for it.”

Zachary knew Karigan was remarkable, had known from the moment they met. But if he were to succeed in escaping the aureas slee, he must not allow thoughts of her to distract him. He stood, ready to go on.