CHAPTER 26

 

THE COMPANY SET OUT IMMEDIATELY, wanting to cover as much ground as possible before darkness fell. As usual, Kai took the lead, with Fiona flying alongside his head and using her magic to open a pathway through the impenetrable forest. Leah walked right behind Kai, with Leesa and Rave following next.

Leesa was startled when she saw open space and daylight ahead of them after less than a minute of walking. Her first trip through these trees with Rave seemed to have taken hours. She twisted her neck around and looked behind them. Ariandre’s silhouette was still visible, watching them from the beginning of the path—the forest was less than one hundred yards wide! Any doubts she might have had about the magic of the forest were dispelled. Now she wondered what awaited them on the other side of the trees. Even though it seemed they had entered the woods in the same place from which she and Rave had emerged, she was not at all sure they would exit onto the same barren plain they had crossed.

Her thought proved correct when the group gathered at the edge of the forest, still partially concealed by the shadows of the canopy above. If front of them stretched a landscaped that looked as if it had been ripped and gouged by hundreds of earthquakes and explosions.

“Did you and Rave come to the forest by way of this land?” Kai asked her.

Leesa shook her head. “No. We crossed a barren plain, but it was nothing like this place.”

“We’ll be traveling below the surface,” Kai said, “following the bottom of some of the countless rifts that crisscross this plain. Watch your step—the path will be dark and the rocks are loose and treacherous in many places. We suffered one broken ankle on our way here. Fortunately, Doc healed it quickly.”

“Will we be going back the way we came?” Leah asked.

“Only for a very short distance,” Kai replied. “Our way lies to the north. We came from the east.”

Kai turned back to Leesa and Rave. “The shadows and the walls of the crevices will conceal us from most dangers. The only thing we really have to worry about here is scorpions.”

Leesa was surprised. Of all the things she might have expected to hear they needed to watch out for, scorpions would not have been on the list.

“Scorpions?” she said. “Really?”

Radar grinned. “That was my exact reaction when I first heard it. Apparently, these are quite a bit bigger than what we’re used to.” She held her hand up level with her chin. “This big is what I hear. Very poisonous, too.”

“They’re quite deadly,” Kai said. “And difficult to kill. Follow directly behind Leah and me, Leesa. And keep your magic at the ready.”

Leesa nodded. “Don’t worry, I will.”

Kai led them down into the nearest rift, a narrow crevice that slanted steeply downward until it reached a depth of twenty-five feet or so. They moved slowly over the rough ground at first while their eyes adjusted to the shadows. Kai and Raj could see fine, and to Rave it might as well have been daylight, but the rest needed time to become accustomed to the darkness. Fiona turned her glow very dim so the light would not give their presence away.

The closeness of the rough stone sides forced the party to walk single file, and it took Leesa a few minutes before she grew used to the claustrophobic dimness. She reached her right hand back behind her, knowing Rave would have no trouble seeing it in the dark shadows.

Rave took her hand and gave it a light squeeze before releasing it. Leesa immediately felt better—Rave always knew what she needed.

They hadn’t gone far when Kai turned into a branching opening. If anything, the bottom of this one was covered with even more loose rocks, making the company tread even more carefully. Concentrating on every step, Leesa quickly forgot about scorpions.

They continued plodding through the dimness, occasionally veering off into a new passageway. Kai never hesitated. How he knew where he was going, Leesa had no idea, but he seemed certain of the way. Sometimes their route slanted up, other times it sloped gently downward. They never got closer than a few feet from the surface. Now and then the pathway widened, allowing her to walk side by side with Rave, but most of the time it was too tight a squeeze.

Judging the passage of time down in the shadows was nearly impossible, but she guessed they had been walking for at least an hour when Rave suddenly pressed close behind her.

“Kai,” he called in a sharp whisper past her ear.

Kai halted immediately. Leesa looked and listened, but she neither saw nor heard anything.

Rave squeezed past her and then past Leah, coming up alongside Kai. Leesa moved up closer, until the four of them were clustered in a tight little group. The rift was about four feet wide here, but it seemed to widen further up ahead.

“There’s something in front of us,” Rave whispered. “I heard it.”

Kai’s eyes narrowed. Clearly he had heard nothing, and was wondering how Rave had.

“Rave has amazing hearing,” Leesa said softly, but convincingly. She didn’t want Kai wasting any time deciding whether to believe Rave.

Kai nodded. Apparently, Rave’s demonstration of his supernatural speed was enough to allay any doubts the warrior might have had about the keenness of Rave’s senses.

“What did you hear?” he whispered.

“A faint scratching sound, not too far ahead. I don’t know what it is.”

“Let’s go check it out,” Kai said to Rave. “The rest of you wait here.”

“I’m coming, too,” Leesa said without hesitation.

Kai looked from Leesa to Rave, who smiled a wry smile.

“I gave up trying to stop her years ago,” he said.

Leesa couldn’t help smiling.

Fiona landed softly on Kai’s shoulder and twittered quietly.

“No, you can’t go take a look,” Kai told her. “Even with your glow muted, it’s too visible here in these shadows. You could be spotted too easily. And if you get excited, you will glow brighter.”

Fiona uttered a single chirp and flew off of Kai’s shoulder. Kai grinned, and Leesa guessed that Fiona’s brusque reply might have been what passed for a curse word in the faerie tongue.

Kai turned back to Rave. “Is the sound still there?”

Rave nodded. “It’s not constant, but yes. Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure there’s more than one. They don’t seem to be moving any closer, though.”

“Let’s go have a look,” Kai said. “If we’re forced to go around another way, we could lose hours.” He hesitated before adding, “Take the lead, Rave.”

Leesa could tell Kai was not giving up the lead easily, but he recognized that Rave’s superior hearing made him the best choice.

Kai turned to Leesa. “Step where we step,” he instructed.

Rave set off, moving more slowly than he might have so that Leesa could keep up on the treacherous ground. They had gone only a few steps when Leesa sensed movement behind her. She turned to see Leah following her.

Leah smiled. “If you can go with Rave, I can go with Kai.”

Leesa grinned. She liked the way Leah thought. She was pretty sure the two of them were going to get along very well.

The crevice began to gradually widen, allowing Kai to walk beside Rave. They were rounding a slight bend when the two men stopped so abruptly Leesa and Leah almost crashed into them.

Leesa peered around Rave’s side. The reason for the sudden halt was obvious. Gathered in an unusually wide area less than a hundred feet away were seven or eight giant scorpions. Something about the acoustics of the rocky rift must have tricked Rave’s hearing into thinking the sounds were farther away than they really were.

The scorpions were bigger than Leesa had expected. While their heads were no higher than her own, their bodies were as long as a small horse and their wicked-looking stingers curved upward several feet higher than the heads. Their huge pincers looked like they could easily sever an arm or a leg with one snap. She couldn’t see the creatures’ faces, but their bodies were covered with a chitinous black material that made them difficult to see in the dimness.

So far, the beasts didn’t seem to have noticed their presence. Leesa hoped it stayed that way.

Kai waved for her and Leah to back up slowly. The two girls inched their way backwards, stepping carefully to avoid making any sound. Kai and Rave followed silently behind them. They were almost out of view of the scorpions when a loose rock under Leah’s foot suddenly shifted, sending her tumbling to the ground with a loud clatter.

The scorpions whipped around at the sound. They wasted no time deciding what to do—their nature was to attack. They skittered forward, their eight legs carrying them with unexpected swiftness across the rocky floor.

Leesa reacted instantly, shoving her arms between Rave and Kai and unleashing blasts of yellow magic from each hand. The scorpions’ shells were thick and hard, but her magic beams could bore through stone. It took a few seconds, but the beams eventually cut through the creatures’ armor and boiled their insides.

The first two monsters crashed to the ground, but those behind didn’t hesitate, scrabbling over their fallen brethren and continuing the attack. Rave and Kai pressed themselves against the sides of the rift, giving Leesa as much room as possible while still remaining in place to protect her in whatever way they could. Once again, she fired twin blasts of magic, felling two more scorpions. Still, the other beasts kept coming, seemingly oblivious to the fate of their fellows.

The next two fell mere yards away, leaving only one more. This one was almost upon them, though, and Leesa had no time to stop it. Even as she raised her arm to try, she knew she would be too late.