Souls of Aredyrah 1 - The Fire and the Light (17 page)

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Authors: Tracy A. Akers

Tags: #teen, #sword sorcery, #young adult, #epic, #cousins, #slavery, #labeling, #superstition, #coming of age, #fantasy, #royalty, #romance, #quest, #adventure, #social conflict, #mysticism, #prejudice, #prophecy, #mythology, #twins

BOOK: Souls of Aredyrah 1 - The Fire and the Light
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Dayn leaned against the wall of the tunnel,
his rapid breathing echoing that of his sister. “Keep going,” he
said, his voice trembling almost as much as his hand.

“But Dayn, it’s too narrow.” Alicine glanced
between her brother and the walls that seemed to converge upon
him.

“Keep going,” he commanded.

They made their way laboriously along,
Alicine now with torch in hand, leading the way. Dayn scooted along
behind her, his body at times forced to turn sideways. The corridor
narrowed and widened, then narrowed again. The walls continued to
test him, forcing him to squeeze in his gut as his chest and back
scraped along. At times he felt panic squeeze his heart as if a
cruel hand had reached inside of him. Then he would become
nauseated and his body would break into a cold sweat. But he never
spoke a word of it.

A surprisingly cool breeze wafted through the
passageway, teasing Dayn’s hair as well as his spirits. Alicine
turned and smiled, an expression of relief replacing her once
frightened visage. She increased her pace, her tiny frame able to
move between the walls with ease. Dayn struggled behind her,
grumbling about the decreasing light from the torch now moving away
in the hand of his sister.

He reached the end of the corridor and found
himself beside Alicine, standing atop a rocky outcrop that
overlooked a massive chamber. But this chamber was unlike any they
had seen before. The span of the place was so vast it could have
almost housed all of Kiradyn.

“Is this it?” Alicine whispered.

“I don’t know,” Dayn said, but in his heart
he knew it must be. There could be no grander place than this.

The great chamber was illuminated in a
gold-green light, as though lit by a thousand tiny candles encased
in emerald glass. The strange lichen and shiny mosses that coated
the walls radiated a brightness all their own, and the glow of a
hauntingly green pool added to the mysterious aura of the place.
Across the distance, a thundering waterfall plummeted down a
towering wall of stone and plunged into the pool. The pool spilled
over its banks at either end and tumbled through a maze of boulders
as it rushed out opposite sides of the chamber. The waters, it
seemed, had not abandoned them.

As they made their way down the sloping,
rock-strewn path toward the floor of the chamber, Dayn began to
notice things, familiar things. There were massive paintings
splashed across the walls, much like those that decorated the
Pavilion back home. Cracked and faded by time, sections of them
were difficult to decipher; fragments had broken free of their
rocky foundations and crumbled to the earth below. But there were
faces there—he could see them—golden-haired, pale-eyed faces. Faces
like his. Then he saw, on the opposite walls, faces with dark hair
and eyes. Two peoples, light on one side, dark on the other, had
been here together. But when, and why?

The chamber was like a great amphitheater,
much like the one they had seen outside the mouth of the cave.
Stone benches sat in a semi-circular pattern around the stage-like
area where Dayn and Alicine stood. The cascading falls and glowing
pool seemed to serve as a spectacular backdrop.

Alicine propped the torch against a boulder
and wrapped her arms around herself. “It’s cold in here,” she said.
“What is this place; those faces, that altar?”

“Altar?” Dayn said. “What altar?

“That, over there.” Alicine pointed to a
great marble table situated at the front of the stage. “Isn’t that
what that is?”

Dayn hadn’t paid the table much mind before,
his attentions having been primarily focused on the pictures that
adorned the walls as well as the breathtaking natural wonder of the
place. But now he found himself drawn to the rectangular slab,
though he found the idea of it being an altar somewhat disquieting.
He walked beside it slowly and ran his finger along its top,
tracing a line in the thick layer of dust that coated its surface.
There were sacrifices, or perhaps gifts, placed upon it, all
carefully arranged. Some looked old, like a tiny faded blanket and
bits of clothing obviously meant for a babe. Other things, such as
a toy spinner wrapped with gray chord, and a carved wooden horse
with black eyes, looked to be for an older child. But a knife, its
blade long and narrow and its handle carved with intricate designs,
was surely meant for a young man. As Dayn scanned the items, he
noticed that some seemed to have been placed there more recently
than others. A yellow tunic lay neatly folded and was barely dusty
at all. He held it up and caressed the silky material. It had to be
for a girl; the color was too bright for any boy to wear.

Then there was a bottle. The tiny tear-shaped
container was covered with dust, but Dayn found his eyes strangely
drawn to it. Something about it made him uneasy, yet he could not
help but reach for it. As he fingered it, his prints revealed it to
be made of cobalt glass, the blue of it inlaid with decorative
animals fashioned from shells. He inspected the figures that
encircled it and felt the shock of realization. The shell beasts
were much like that of the brooch his father had given him, the
very one his mother had pinned to his breast but days before. He
opened his coat and gazed at the golden beast clasped to his tunic,
then back to those that decorated the bottle. They were indeed the
same. An indescribable longing stirred within him, and he lifted
the cork from the bottle’s top and brought it to his nose. He
sniffed, drawing in the sweet scent, and was reminded of something
familiar, though he couldn’t recall what. He replaced the cork,
then moved to set the bottle down, but found himself unable to do
it. He didn’t know why, but he could not let it go. He tucked the
bottle into his coat pocket.

“Dayn, is this the place?” Alicine asked.

“It has to be,” Dayn replied. “But, I’m not
really sure what we’ve found. Clearly Kiradyns made their way here
a long time ago, just like we have. So Father would have been able
to find his way here, too, I suppose.”

“Those faces, the pale ones. They don’t look
like demons, do they,” Alicine commented, gazing at the great
murals to the right.

“Who knows what one really looks like?” Dayn
replied.

“The Word says they are a ghostly white with
yellow hair and grinding teeth. These look more like you,” she
said.

“Yes. Like me,” he responded.

“The woman was probably just a woman, Dayn,
not a demon.”

Dayn felt anger ignite within him. “Then
where is she! Why did she turn me over to a stranger? Was I a curse
to her?”

Alicine stared at her feet and remained
silent.

“And what about my father?” he continued. “I
had to have a father—a real one, I mean. Did he hate me, too?”

“They didn’t hate you. How could anyone hate
their own child? But it doesn’t matter now, does it? They’re long
gone, and you won’t likely find them. You still have us, though,
the family that does love you. Please, Dayn, let’s go home.
Please.”

Dayn looked around and realized she was
right. His real parents, whoever or whatever they were, were long
gone. What could he do about it anyway? Search his whole life for
faceless strangers who might not even be alive? Maybe Alicine was
right. The family that raised him was the family that loved him.
Perhaps things could get better back there. If he told the others
about the cave, about the beautiful golden faces, maybe he could
convince them he wasn’t a demon.

“All right,” he said. “We’ll go back.” He
glanced toward the spot from which they had descended and realized
they would have to return to the sulfurous chamber, the one with
the flying creatures. Surely there was another way out. The
Kiradyns could not have ventured to this place through such a
narrow passageway, could they?

“There has to be another way,” he said. He
walked over to a great tumble of stone that lay beneath the mural
of Kiradyns and picked his way along it. The barrier was half
hidden in darkness, making it difficult to tell if there was any
sort of corridor beyond. He clambered over the rocky debris,
slipping in places as he made his way further back. As his eyes
adjusted, he became aware of the crunch beneath his feet.

He cried out and staggered back, staring in
horror at the ground. The debris on which he was treading was not
rock as he had assumed, but something that sent his stomach to his
throat. Bones, ages old and barely identifiable, lay crushed and
broken at his feet. It was clear that more than one creature had
met its fate in this place. Then he noticed bits of clothing,
shoes, and jewelry. The realization that the bones were human, not
animal, raised new terror in his heart.

“What is it, Dayn?” Alicine called to
him.

“Nothing! Stay back!”

He backed his way toward her, unable to take
his eyes from the evidence of carnage scattered amongst the rocks.
What had happened here? Were these people sacrifices, victims of
the demons and their evil god? His answer came sooner than he
expected.

The earth suddenly rumbled and undulated
beneath their feet. Dayn staggered toward Alicine and pulled her
into his arms. They clung to each other, not knowing what to do or
which way to run. Rocks creaked on the walls above, then tumbled
down in thunderous roars. Great clouds of dust billowed up around
them, threatening to smother them where they stood.

Dayn’s eyes darted around. The horrible demon
that had devoured the others was now coming for them. “We have to
get out!” he cried. He directed his attention to the passageway
from which they’d come. A barrage of rocks crashed down upon it as
an avalanche of debris rumbled in their direction.

Dayn pulled Alicine behind him, dodging the
rain of death that tested their every step. The light of the cavern
began to grow dim. Dayn grabbed the torch where Alicine had propped
it by the pool, its once crystal waters now murky with mud.

“There!” Alicine shouted. “There!” She
pointed toward a pitted area in the wall, the wall beneath the
fair-haired faces.

The great mural above them crackled as
lightning-shaped fingers crept across the golden features. Dayn
pushed Alicine toward the passage, then shoved her and dove in
behind her. The faces crumbled to dust, then crashed down behind
them.

They curled up against the wall, Dayn
covering his sister’s body with his own. A thick cloud of dust
followed them in and filled the air. Alicine sobbed while Dayn held
her tight. This was the end, he was sure of it; they were going to
die here and no one would ever know.

Suddenly the rumbling stopped and all went
quiet.

“Alicine—are you—all right?” Dayn asked
between coughs. He could feel her move beneath him, but she did not
reply. He lifted himself off and rolled her over gently.

Silent sobs wracked Alicine’s body. Dayn
pulled her into his arms. “It’s all right; it’s over now,” he
whispered.

She opened one eye, then the other, and
looked around. They were in a passageway, but not the one from
which they had come. The torch that lay on the ground beside them
barely flickered. Dayn rose and grabbed it up, then pulled Alicine
alongside him.

“We have to get out of here,” he said. “It
may come back.”

“But where will we go?” Alicine asked.

“I don’t know, but look—markings—there on the
wall.” Dayn raised the torch to the marks etched into the rock,
then frowned. “But I don’t know what they say. They’re some other
kind of rune.”

“I suppose it doesn’t matter,” Alicine said.
“We have to go this way.”

“You’re right. There’s no going back the way
we came.”

Dayn took her by the hand and forced a smile.
He wanted to comfort her, but how could he when there was no
comforting even himself. He had brought her to this dreadful place
looking for answers, but the only answers he had found were winged
creatures, bones, and a murderous demon wandering somewhere in the
mountain.

Dayn squeezed his sister’s hand in his. “Come
on. We’re going home.”

He pulled her into the darkness, praying the
strange runes would lead them back to Kirador. But if that was not
to be, then anyplace but here.

 

Return to Table of Contents

Chapter 11: Captured

 

I
n the cave, time was
all but lost. The strange runes vanished from the walls by the end
of the first day, if it had indeed been a day, and the journey
became a series of missed passageways and rocky barriers. Dayn
tried to be optimistic, directing frequent words of encouragement
to his sister. But her response was usually a clear but silent
communication of hopelessness. Over time he too fell silent, until
the only sound left was the rumbling of their hollow bellies and
the crunching of rocks beneath their feet. Boredom and repetition
diminished their fear of the demon, but a new fear was kindled by
the realization that they would soon be feeling their way in total
darkness. Although the torch was still lit, the bottle that had
contained the herbal oil was empty.

The torch sputtered until its flame weakened
into a tiny orb of embers. Dayn stared hard into it, willing it to
re-ignite. He blew some gentle breaths onto it, and the glow
brightened momentarily. Then it grew fainter, until there was
nothing left to it at all.

Their rapid breathing echoed in the
nothingness. Dayn fumbled for Alicine’s hand. “Put your other hand
out to the wall,” he said. “We’ll have to feel our way.”

Alicine replied with a sob, but did as
instructed. Dayn pulled her along for a few steps, then let go and
ordered her to latch onto his coat. He needed a free hand to find
his way; there had been too many unexpected walls to risk his face
to one. They made their way along, their pace nearly slowing to a
standstill. Not only did they have to feel along with their hands,
but now with their feet as well.

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