Armannii traced his sight rune on the side of his neck while Diomedes watched. The elf offered to draw it on Blanndynne, who hesitated for a moment before finally agreeing.
“Yes, all the portals have twins acting as guardians. The magic that connects them to the portals seems to work best in twins. And before you ask, yes, the main portal has a guardian on each side, but they were meeker than most of the rest and were subdued enough that King Kylian left that portal untouched.” Armannii finished drawing the sight rune on Blanndynne’s neck as he answered Diomedes’s question regarding the brothers. “And I hate to break this to you, Didi, but you’re going to have to make do with the light rune stone. If I had a pair of glasses, I’d put the rune on them for you, but unfortunately, I have perfect eyesight.”
Blanndynne placed a hand on Armannii’s arm, stopping him from putting his rune pen back in his vest. “I have a pair,” she said, holding out her other hand, where a pair of rectangular glasses appeared out of nothing.
“Well, aren’t you handy?” Armannii took the glasses and drew the same rune on the side of them. It glowed light blue when he handed them to Diomedes. “I give you the gift of sight,” he said with a grin. “And you’re going to be glad you have them.”
Diomedes said a word of thanks to both of them before slipping on the lenses. They were at the exit, though Armannii had not yet drawn the levitation rune that would lift the boulder above them. It had surprised Diomedes how alike Zephrium’s home had been to Hessland’s. Not only were the men mirror images of each other, their accommodations were as well.
Their walk down the tunnel toward the exit had been filled with Armannii’s warnings about the Dark. Even as he drew the levitation rune on the boulder, he still spouted out more information. He didn’t complete the inscription until after he had finished his cautions.
“Almost every glowing mushroom is deadly, so don’t touch them. And if we get separated, climb a tree and wait until I find you. Most of the things that can kill you won’t bother to search in the trees unless they’re desperate for dinner. Except for lolangs. They live in the trees. So do the jerju. Definitely don’t want to run into either of those.”
“Lolang and jerju?”
“Basically vicious wolf dragons and giant bloodthirsty spiders with wings.” Armannii finished the rune but didn’t activate it. Diomedes found it quite impressive that the elf had hung on to the ladder with one hand while tracing the rune with the other. “If you stick with me, both of you will probably make it out alive. But I need you to listen to me.”
“I’ve been here before, Armannii. I know what to expect,” Blanndynne said. “I’ll be fine.”
“To be honest, I’m more concerned about Didi. Curiosity has a way of getting him into trouble.”
“Just go,” Diomedes said, smacking Armannii’s boot with his hand. “I can hold my own.”
“Well aware.” Armannii glanced down at him. “Just be careful. I didn’t bring enough medicine for all the things that are in here, and I doubt you dying in here will do anything good to end the war. Ready?”
Diomedes nodded, waiting for Armannii to finish the rune before he scrambled up the ladder. Seconds ticked by, and Armannii rolled off to the side up above. As soon as he was out, the elf pulled Diomedes up, followed by Blanndynne.
“That was almost too close,” Blanndynne said, glancing at the boulder, which had landed where she had been just a second before.
Armannii wasn’t paying attention, having prepped his bow. His shoulders were taut as he scanned their surroundings, his ears perking up as things chittered in the distance. He turned in a circle, squinting in the darkness. Diomedes couldn’t begin to imagine trying to navigate the Dark without some sort of sight rune. Even with the glasses, he couldn’t see more than ten to fifteen feet in front of him.
A wall of blackness surrounded them from all sides. They had come up in a forest, though it was not like the Black Forest. The trees around them grasped the branches of the ones next to them, creating a tangled mess above their heads. The trunks were narrow, and unlike the ones in the Black Forest, which could easily house a hidden staircase, the ones around them were only one or two people thick.
“Where are we?” Blanndynne asked, squinting around. “I can’t tell.”
“Northwest of the castle. Near Bayan Village,” Armannii whispered back.
“Bayan? I’ve never heard of it.” Blanndynne’s voice came out loud compared to Armannii’s whisper, and he shushed her.
“Keep your voice down,” he said, his voice harsh despite the low volume.
Diomedes was thankful he wasn’t the only one who didn’t know about the village. The new surroundings left him with a mix of curiosity and uneasiness. He wanted to be in control, but it was hard to do that when he knew nothing about the world he had just entered.
“Bayan formed after an influx of people escaped Phildeterre at the beginning of the war. Didi,” Armannii said, glancing toward him. “How’s the pen feel?”
“Hot. Not burning, but it definitely raised in temperature as soon as we stepped through the portal.” Diomedes raised his hand to his chest, feeling the warmth radiating from the pocket the pen was in.
“How about I take it? Unless you want to lead us through the Dark.” Armannii held out his hand. Diomedes promptly handed it to him, and Armannii snorted. “Would’ve thought you’d fight me a bit more on that.” He took another second to glance at Diomedes. “Those glasses must also make you smarter.”
“Just start walking,” Diomedes whispered, rolling his eyes. “We don’t have time for your insults.”
“That’s what you think.” The elf smirked, but even as he patted Diomedes on the shoulder, something kept Armannii’s jaw tightened and his posture straighter than normal. Before Diomedes could smack his hand away or ask what was unsettling him, his friend began walking.
Distracted by the new surroundings, Diomedes lost track of how long they had been traveling. It could’ve been hours or only a few minutes. He was unsure. From what he could tell, there wasn’t a way to tell time; the branches blocked out light.
“There isn’t a light source here,” Blanndynne said. For a moment, Diomedes thought she had somehow read his thoughts. But then she said, “Right?”
“Right,” Armannii answered from up front. He had changed directions multiple times, mumbling something about the pen getting cooler.
“No sun,” Diomedes muttered, squinting up at the tree branches above. Not a single sign of light shone through the branches. “I remember reading that, but how do these plants grow?” He pushed the glasses farther up his face. They had a tendency to slip down his nose from time to time. “And what about the temperature? It was colder when we left Phildeterre than it is here. Shouldn’t we be frozen already?”
“The vegetation is accustomed to this environment. And the world is heated from the core, hence the reason we aren’t suffering from hypothermia.”
Diomedes considered his friend’s explanation as a new list of questions arose. “What does the sky look like?”
Armannii shrugged. “No one knows. On the west side of the Dark, kind of near where we are, are the Western Cliffs that reach up past the trees, but the canopy of the forest is so thick that no one has ever been able to get past it.”
“Even with magic?”
“Most of the plants have magic properties in them, so many of them are resistant to magic. Besides, there’s a type of vine that grows in the upper layers of the branches called the Tenebrous Thorns. It’s quite dangerous up close, which deters many from trying to get through.”
“It’s a plant. How dangerous can it be?”
“It slithers like a snake.” Armannii shivered. “And it has a taste for blood. Typically, and luckily for us, it feeds off the blood of unsuspecting animals. But I have no doubt that any idiot who gets too close would do just as well as the giant squirrels.”
Diomedes absentmindedly touched the place on his arm Blanndynne had used to harvest his blood. And then there was his side. He was sure that would’ve made the thorns Armannii spoke about content.
The air carried with it a heavy decomposition smell, which reeked of sulfur, especially when the wind came from the direction they were walking. It left a bad taste in Diomedes’s mouth, as though he’d accidentally bitten into a rotten egg.
“If the cliffs are west, what about the other directions?” Diomedes whispered after a while.
“It’s uncharted.” Armannii paused. “Well, at least no one has returned. There certainly have been people who tried to find something other than these blasted trees, but they don’t return. Most likely died or were killed.”
“And you’re not at all curious about the rest of this world?”
“Of course I am, but even I’m not stupid enough to go. There are dangerous things in the Dark. Things I’m not eager to come face-to-face with. And I suggest we stop talking. It’ll draw unwanted attention to our position.”
“Whatever you say,” Diomedes muttered, earning a glare from the elf.
Though he had never given him the full story, Diomedes knew Armannii had not left his home in the Dark out of choice but out of necessity. It came as no surprise to him that Armannii had found a way to get into trouble. But the mystery lay with who wanted him gone—and why. Both remained unanswered questions, ones he had never pushed too hard to learn.
“Come on,” Armannii said, drawing Diomedes’s attention as he wiggled the pen between two fingers. “It seems we’re heading to Bayan Village after all.”