They walked down the hallway for a good half hour with Tathan in the lead, the princess holding on to Sir Danth behind him and Liselle and Vevin taking up the rear. In separate instances, they came across a group of five Rojuun, a trio and a pair. Liselle cast her hold spell on all of them and they proceeded without bloodshed. They knew the Rojuun would speak of their passing, but leaving a trail of dead bodies would tell anyone who followed them which direction the party was going just as efficiently.
At the first opportunity, Tathan had taken a tunnel heading north. There were more plants and various small animals moving about. At one cave, they had found a gate shutting off a tunnel. The companions didn’t go in that direction because it sloped downward. A breeze, colder than they had felt in the caverns, came from it. A few twists and turns had them heading northwest again.
Tathan was a bit worried about Liselle’s use of spells, but she had told them that passive spells like barriers and the such didn’t use too much energy. Explosive spells like fire took the most and healing spells took as much energy as the severity of the injury required. She appeared to be doing fine so far and the rest of them still had plenty to give if Liselle became too tired.
Princess Anilyia hadn’t said another word, staying close to Sir Danth, partially out of fear from the peril they were in and partially out of fear of Liselle. Tathan didn’t get much of a chance to study her due to the fact that he was leading the party, but the few times he glanced back, he was awed by her beauty. Her brilliant blue eyes sparkled brighter than the gem-encrusted jewelry adorning her ears, neck, arms and fingers. At times, when she brushed her hair back over her right ear, an intricate tattoo on her neck showed.
The rich dress she wore was terrible for traveling and the hem had already become frayed from dragging along the stone floor of the passage. She held it up with her hands, but it just didn’t stand a chance.
An increase in the frequency of light globes ahead caught his attention, doubling from every sixty feet to every thirty feet. “Tathan,” Liselle called out softly. He turned to see that she had stopped with Vevin. Sir Danth and the princess stopped to look back too. “Tathan, there’s something very wrong up ahead,” she said, obviously upset.
He walked back to her. “Do you have any idea what it is? Is there an ambush?”
She shook her head. “No. It’s not an ambush, it’s something unnatural, something that’s making the world scream.” Tathan could tell his cousin was distressed. “It feels unnatural like the hhorrj felt unnatural, Tathan,” she said with tears welling in her eyes.
Tathan put a comforting hand on her shoulder as Vevin wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. She took a deep breath and nodded that she was ready to continue. Tathan took the lead again, this time with his sword drawn. The blade eagerly grabbed at nearby light. Glancing back, he saw the princess staring at it in frightened awe.
They entered another small cave a few minutes later. Tathan scouted it before waving the rest forward when he found it empty. “We want to go there.” Liselle pointed to a hallway on the left.
“But that’s southwest, back toward Alluu,” Tathan replied. “There’s one other tunnel, going to the north.”
Liselle shook her head. “The unnatural feeling is coming from that direction. It’s not far away and then we can come back and go north. We need to see what’s wrong and fix it.” Her face was pale, the blood having drained from it.
Tathan looked both directions. He didn’t want to waste time trying to fix anything ‘unnatural’ when they should be concentrating on escape. It was clear his cousin didn’t even want to go that way. He sighed and headed down the passage anyway. If Tathan did many more good deeds, he might not be able to show his face in a dark alley ever again.
The new hallway was well lit and carpeted. A moment later, they came to an intersection. “Go right,” Liselle whispered. Tathan glanced around the corner and saw a glowing barrier with two guards in front of it. They were dressed in bright red and gold colored armor. He turned and held up two fingers. Liselle nodded, moved past everyone to get into the intersection and cast the spell. There was the sound of bodies falling. Then she nodded and Tathan went into the new hall ahead of her.
When he saw the unconscious bodies, he raised an eyebrow at her. She replied with a shrug. “I thought it would be better to put them to sleep.” He nodded and moved to the glowing barrier. It was orange and hummed with energy. There were metal brackets along each side of the barrier and a glowing panel set into the wall.
He looked at Liselle. She shook her head and shrugged. Vevin moved forward to look more closely at the lighted panel. Tathan might be able to figure it out, but magical locks were a great deal more difficult than regular ones and the Rojuun used an entirely different system than human wizards.
After a moment of studying the panel and the force field, Vevin reached down, grabbed the top right hand of the closest unconscious guard and placed it on the panel. The trick worked and the barrier disappeared. “It works by hand wrinkles,” Vevin explained.
“Hand wrinkles?” Tathan asked.
“Yes, look at your hand, there’re all sorts of wrinkles on it.” Tathan did and noticed the lines. Mystics at fairs often made a living by interpreting what the lines meant. Vevin held up the guard’s hand, bending it at an odd angle. Tathan looked closely and saw that they had similar lines, just more of them. The textures of hand and finger pads were rough in comparison to his. Vevin explained, “Everyone’s hand wrinkles are different, even theirs. The magic pad reads the hand wrinkles.” He grinned at them and let the arm flop to the ground.
“That is exceptional work, how did you know?” Sir Danth asked.
“I’m amazing,” Vevin replied with a toothy smile, generating laughter from the companions. Princess Anilyia stared at Vevin. Tathan noticed that her eyes seemed to get wide a lot. He wondered if that was a habit, or just the fact that their party was so amazing.
“Alright, let’s see what’s behind here. There’s likely to be danger judging by the security measures they have, so be ready for trouble,” Tathan warned. They all nodded. He scanned each of them. When he had told them to be ready for trouble, they just stood there acting like they normally would.
“Is something wrong, Master Tathan?” Sir Danth asked.
“No . . . it’s just that if I told anyone else to be ready, they’d draw weapons and get ready for a fight. You three don’t really do anything to prepare,” Tathan explained.
“There is no need,” Sir Danth said with a wave of his hand. “Master Vevin is a weapon, Lady Liselle casts her magic in the blink of an eye and my sword is always in my hand, regardless of whether or not it is in my hand,” he said cryptically. Then he turned to the princess. “And her majesty is a beautiful flower not made to fight.”
Liselle snorted in contempt. “She is not a flower, and I’ll thank you not to suggest such a thing again, Sir Danth.”
Anger and hurt flashed across the princess’s face as she momentarily forgot her fear of Liselle. “I am so a flower!” she protested.
Fire flared in Liselle’s eyes. “I know flowers better than anyone in the world, and you are most definitely not a flower.” The princess backed up, still angry, but not enough to challenge Liselle.
“Cousin, peace,” Tathan said with a hand on her shoulder.
The fire went out and she looked at him repentantly. “I’m sorry, Tathan. The feeling from beyond is setting me on edge and I’m getting tired too,” she said with a weary gesture past where the barrier used to be.
“It’s alright. Let’s get this over with,” Tathan said, turning up the passage. Then he heard the sobbing. Tathan sighed and hung his head before turning back around. Princess Anilyia was bawling while everyone else stood around staring at her. He sighed again and walked back into the guard chamber. “Come along, Your Highness, we’ll get you out of here soon.”
She didn’t respond, her shoulders heaving with each new sob. Vevin, Liselle and Sir Danth exchanged glances and shrugged in unison. Tathan sighed again. There was only one thing to do. He went to her and put arms around her in comfort.
The princess instantly threw her arms around his waist and sobbed into his shoulder. He let her spend a moment getting the worst of it out. The orange barrier came back up behind him and he was helpless to prevent yet another sigh from escaping his lips. Vevin grabbed the unconscious guard’s hand and pressed it against the panel to reopen the barrier. “We should go before it closes, Tathan,” Vevin stated.
Tathan nodded. The princess felt good against his chest, even if she was crying. He liked holding women. They were soft and sometimes they smelled good like the princess did. But it was time to go. He took her by the upper arms and held her so he could look down into her eyes. “Hey, hey. Look at me now.” She slowly lifted her head. Her eyes were bloodshot and filled with tears as she tried to regain control.
“I know you’re scared, but I need you to trust that we’re going to get you out of here as soon as we can, alright?” he asked in soothing tones. She moved her hands to his chest, leaning on him for support as she nodded. He smiled encouragingly. “Stay with Sir Danth. He’ll keep you safe and there isn’t anything that can break through that armor.” The princess nodded again and feebly smiled back, still too distraught to speak. At least the sobs had stopped.
Tathan turned back to the new hall and entered. The passage wasn’t long, leading to large, stone double doors. Tathan leaned down to check the metal handles for traps, reaching into his jacket for lock-picks. “It’s not locked, Tathan,” Vevin said from behind him. Tathan sighed and stood up, ignoring the giggle from Liselle.
He wondered what the best way to proceed would be. Should he sneak in, knock or wait for someone to come through. He quickly discarded the idea of waiting. It wouldn’t do for the guards to wake up or for someone to come along and find them.
“Whatever the feeling is, it’s coming from behind those doors,” Liselle said. “Please be careful.”
“It would be polite to knock,” Sir Danth informed him.
“I have no desire to be polite here,” Tathan responded. “Be ready for a fight.” With that, he opened the door and moved instantly to the right side, his sword drawn. Sir Danth led the princess to the left, keeping her behind him while Liselle and Vevin walked through the middle.
What they saw next, shocked them to the bone. The companions had entered a large cavern with lights hanging from the ceiling. Throughout the cavern were metal tables with bodies on them, human bodies. The cool, motionless air smelled of cleaning liquids mixed with blood and decay. Rojuun healers in robes stood at many of the tables with sharp implements in their hands, dissecting those bodies.
No one noticed the newcomers right away, which was good because the companions were paralyzed by the scene. Bodies had coldly been cut into pieces and opened for inspection. Blood was on the tables and floor around many of them as well as on the robes of the Rojuun. It was more brutal and ruthless than anything Tathan had seen in any battlefield or back alley. He wondered where they got the bodies, whether from Alluu or one of the other cities. Perhaps they were prisoners of the Iynath Empire’s war.
Princess Anilyia screamed, the shrill noise echoing throughout the harsh cave. There was no moss or plant life to muffle the sound as though such things had rejected this room and its unnatural purpose. Sure enough, every Rojuun in the room turned in their direction. A few immediately began preparing spells.
Then Vevin roared. A macabre grin lit Tathan’s face when the dragon dashed forward. He turned to see Liselle standing there with silent tears streaming down her face. Sir Danth was on the other side gesturing for Tathan to grab the princess who was still screaming at the top of her lungs.
Tathan was there in a few steps. Anilyia flung herself into his arms and began sobbing, hiding her face from the gruesome sight of the dead bodies. He also put a hand on Liselle’s shoulder in comfort, all the while thinking that he should really be out there fighting.
As soon as Tathan had the princess, Sir Danth shifted next to two of the Rojuun who had begun casting spells. The knight’s blade flashed through the air cutting through their chests as easily as if their bodies were made of butter. Blood sprayed everywhere as the bodies fell, but it dripped off the knight’s armor and sword.
Vevin ripped apart two with a claw and hit another with his tail. The force of the blow sent the Rojuun flying to smash against the nearest wall and fall to the ground, lifeless. The rest either fainted or ran screaming toward the other two sets of doors leading out of the cavern. Tathan thought that Rojuun screamed more than most women he had met, especially when Vevin went full dragon.
Meanwhile, Sir Danth had shifted to another pair of Rojuun and quickly dispatched them. Princess Anilyia was looking back and forth between the knight and dragon as though trying to figure out which was more frightening.
He noticed his cousin was bathed in fire again, only this time it was up the length of her arms. Tathan removed his hand from her shoulder and took a step back. She turned to him and used that otherworldly voice again. “Go beyond those doors,” she said, pointing to a pair of doors across the way, heading northwest. The blue fire coming out of her mouth was surreal, like smokeless flames close to the wood of a hot fire. He was entranced by it until the princess pulled on his arm. She seemed more afraid of Liselle than the knight, dragon or horrors of the cavern they were in.
They ran in that direction, doing their best not to get too close to the tables. The princess had her dress hiked up around her calves and was moving as fast as she could. Tathan stayed close to her. Sir Danth appeared at the doors and quickly killed three Rojuun who had just opened them in a desperate attempt to get away from the dragon. Vevin roared again before heading toward the door, stepping over the tables and their dissected bodies. Sir Danth led the party into the tunnel a short ways. Vevin became human again so he could fit. Then they turned and looked for Liselle.
She appeared at the tunnel entrance. Seeing they were safe, she turned around. A deafening crack filled the air and the rock floor in front of her broke. Water spouted forth, reaching for Liselle. Tathan dashed forward to rescue her, only to be grabbed and held by Vevin. “It’s magic,” he said. Tathan stopped struggling against his grip and they watched the magic unfold.
The water swirled around Liselle, mixing with her fire to become a living entity that was both liquid and heat. She held her arms out to thrust the firewater into the cavern. The roar drowned out all sound as the cavern was flooded. A sharp smell, similar to rain, filled the air.
From what little they could see, the destruction was complete. Bolted tables were ripped out of the ground with ease and flung against the far wall. Human and Rojuun bodies disintegrated under the spell, regardless of whether they were dead or alive.
For three minutes, water spiraled up to mix with Liselle’s flames creating the destructive flow. It stopped just as suddenly as it had started. Liselle stood at the entrance to the tunnel, staring at the cavern, her fire spent. Tathan and Vevin both rushed forward to catch her, but were surprised when she didn’t fall. They each grabbed an arm upon reaching her.
She smiled. “Hi. It’s all better,” she said, gesturing to the now empty room. They looked and saw that there was no longer any trace of the wickedness that had existed before. The blood was washed clean, the bodies gone and even the tables had been annihilated. Sir Danth and the princess walked up behind them. If Anilyia had been impressed by Liselle’s power before, she was absolutely in awe now.
“Liselle,” Tathan said gently. “You must be exhausted. We’ll get you someplace safe and let you rest. Vevin can carry you if need be.”
“I’m not tired at all. In fact, I feel completely refreshed,” she replied with a smile. Upon seeing his frown, she laughed lightly. “I told you, the world didn’t like what was happening in that room. It asked me to cleanse it and I did so. In return, it rewarded me.”
“Rewarded?” Tathan asked, suddenly very interested. “What reward did it give you?”
The smile became mysterious. “Knowledge,” she answered. Then she turned to walk down the new tunnel. Princess Anilyia jumped out of her way. “The world also refreshed me so that I’m not hungry and tired. It also told me how to get out of the tunnels.” The rest of them hurried along behind her, eager to escape yet mystified by everything that had just happened.