The Carnelian Legacy (21 page)

“Please, hurry,” she mouthed, her teeth chattering.

“Hold your light higher so I can see where you are! We’ve got to get out of here!”

Struggling to hold the phone above her head, Marisa waved it back and forth as a beacon in the darkness. A moment later, she could hear Darian digging into the ice on a shelf just a few feet above her.

There was a deafening roar from the creature that sent tremors across the cavern floor. The unmistakable sound of Darian’s sword being unsheathed echoed in Marisa’s ears. His blade clanged as it smashed into the walls of ice when it missed. The piercing shrieks of the beast reverberated throughout the cave.

Small chunks of ice pelted her, and she quickly covered her head with her cape. Sounds of scuffling could be heard as the beast whistled and roared in anger.

Hugging the wall of ice, she breathed on her hands, trying to warm them as her teeth chattered violently.

Darian grunted somewhere in the darkness, and the beast howled in pain. Again the sword clanged as it missed the animal and slammed into the walls of the cave. She winced as a thousand tiny splinters of ice rained down around her.

She listened to the terrifying struggle going on just above her as the creature’s howls and snorts mixed with Darian’s grunts and shouts. She had no idea what he was up against but could only pray he would be able to defeat whatever it was.

Suddenly, the monster screamed in agony.

Marisa jumped as the lifeless creature tumbled down past her, only visible for a second or two as the dim light from her cell phone reflected in the creature’s pupils.

After an extended pause, there was a loud, echoing thud that resonated upward from the cavern floor deep below.

“Marisa! Where are you?” Darian called to her.

Unable to think or speak, Marisa couldn’t muster the strength to respond. Her eyelids were drooping, and her teeth chattered. She continued to shake her cell phone light above her head.

Darian scurried down the icy slope just as fast as he could go without losing his footing. Within seconds, his head popped over the edge just above her.

“Oh, thank Garon!” He exhaled with relief as he quickly climbed down to her. “Marisa, we thought we’d lost you. We must get you out of here right away. Are you hurt?”

He looked her up and down, trying to see if she had been wounded. Her clothes were soaked and freezing, but she didn’t appear to have any broken bones. In the low light of the cell phone, Darian saw that her face and hands had already started to turn a deathly bluish-white.

“Marisa? Marisa—look at me!”

Darian sounded as if he was far away, and his face was only a blur. If she fell asleep now, she’d never wake up, but Marisa no longer seemed to care.

“Put your arms around my neck. I’m going to carry you up on my back, but you’ve got to hold on. Do you think you can do that?”

She nodded, barely able to make out his blurry shape in the flashlight of her phone. He took it from her and slipped it under his belt to light their way.

“Now I want you to put your arms around my neck, grasp your wrist with your hand, and hold on as tight as you can. Wrap your legs around my waist, and whatever you do, don’t let go. Are you ready? Let’s go.”

Marisa couldn’t feel her feet or thighs anymore, and there was barely a hint of feeling in both hands. She locked her arms around Darian’s neck and struggled to hang on. It felt as if she hadn’t slept in days.

He slowly began to scale the wall using a small dagger to delve into the ice. Using his other arm to hoist them both up, he sought solid footing, bracing his boots against the stalagmites and columns. Slowly, they ascended higher above the cavern floor.

As Marisa fought to stay awake, she could feel the power of his back muscles flexing underneath her. Her body grew steadily weaker as her consciousness finally started to slip away. At last she shut her eyes.

All she wanted to do was sleep.

Darian reached the ledge where Arrie waited with an outstretched arm. He pulled her up over the slippery edge, and was startled by the bluish-white color of her skin as he peered down into her unseeing, glassy eyes.

CHAPTER 15

CONVERSATIONS

AS
MARISA
FINALLY
REGAINED
consciousness, she awoke with a strange jostling sensation. She opened her eyes slowly to find herself sitting on Obsidian just in front of and facing Darian. Startled by their proximity to each other, she sat up quickly and glanced around.

Her legs were extended over his, and her arms encircled his waist under a white linen shirt. He had removed his armored breastplate, and his arms were stretched out around her to grasp the reins and to keep her from slipping off.

As Marisa felt his oblique muscles flexing under her fingers, she sat up straight and stared directly into his amused eyes.

“Good afternoon,” he said softly.

Without breaking his horse’s stride, he gazed down at her, and his eyes seemed to sparkle from within. Her face was close enough to his that they almost touched, and she had the overwhelming urge to kiss him. She decided that it probably wasn’t a good idea at this point.

She squinted in the brightness of the afternoon sun and leaned out to see Arrie leading Siena at the rear. “What happened?” she asked, rubbing her forehead.

“You fell.”

“Yeah, that part I remember. What happened after that?”

“You slipped and slid off down the wall of the cave. If that column of ice hadn’t broken your fall, you would have tumbled over the edge into the abyss just like that
yarmout
did.”

“Yarmout? Was that the hairy, freaky monster you killed?”

He nodded. “Your body temperature dropped so far that you blacked out. We got you out of the cave as quickly as possible.”

“So why do I have my hands inside your shirt?”

“You became under cooled. We had to warm you up as fast as possible. Are you able to feel your hands again?”

“Yes.” She blushed. “How long have I been out?”

“About an hour, I think,” he said softly.

Sinking her head back into his chest, Marisa relished in his warmth. Her muscles felt weak, and she knew they’d probably be sore by morning. Sobered by the fact she had narrowly escaped death that day, she sought comfort in his firm body. As she looked down, a startling realization came over her.

“Uh, Darian—Your Highness?”

He glanced down at her from where he’d been concentrating on the road.

“I’m not wearing the same clothes that I put on this morning. These are the extra clothes I put in the sack.”

He nodded. “Your garments were wet from where the ice had melted through the cloth. The only way we could warm you up was to remove them.”

Marisa’s eyes widened.

“We had to get you into dry clothes immediately, or we might have lost you forever. You have nothing to be ashamed of.” He looked down at her with a smirk.

Her face flushed, and she quickly looked away.

In the late afternoon, they crossed a shallow river and stopped there to allow the horses to drink. Darian dismounted and then lifted her off his horse, setting her down on the ground.

“We’ll set up camp back in those woods,” he said to Arrie. “I’m going further upstream to find some firewood.” He raced off into the woods.

Arrie unrolled the small tent he’d been carrying on his horse and cleared a small patch of ground about a hundred yards from the river. He quickly pitched the tent and built a fire pit.

Darian soon returned with an armful of wood and a giant hare he had killed. “I found us some dinner,” he announced proudly.

Marisa’s jaw dropped in amazement. She watched as he removed a small dagger from his belt and skinned the hare within just a few minutes. She shook her head. This guy was more like Tarzan than a prince.

Once the wood was burning, Arrie whittled some sticks to build a makeshift spit and placed the skinned rabbit on it to cook. The flames licked the flesh, gently roasting their dinner.

Marisa noticed the sun was beginning to set on the horizon, so she stood up to go wash off in the river before it got dark. As she walked through the forest toward the water, she rolled up her sleeves to examine her arms. Sharp edges on the ice had scraped her arms in a couple of places, but by some miracle, she hadn’t gotten frostbitten. Although she had been bruised badly on her hip and back, Marisa was relieved nothing had been broken.

She reached the rocky stream and kneeled down next to a large boulder, gazing at her surroundings. She admired the tall trees that towered along the banks of the river and Marisa inhaled the fresh scent of pine and cedar. The tranquility of the woods back in Oregon had always provided peace for her soul and the place where they were camped out now reminded her so much of home.

She closed her eyes, and for a few brief moments, her troubles and worries seemed to melt away. The sound of the water rushing by was soothing, and Marisa realized that she was quickly falling in love with the breathtaking wilderness of Carnelia.

As she stared down at her rippling reflection and splashed water on her arms, her mind wandered back to Darian. She thought about his confession of love by the lake and was sobered by the fact that it would never happen again. She pulled her hair into a ponytail and stood up to go.

She bumped into Darian who was standing right behind her. Startled, she lost her balance. In a lightning-fast reaction, he reached out and caught her just before she fell in. She steadied herself and glared at him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he said.

“Well—you did,” she said angrily.

“I didn’t think you should be down here alone. This area is a favorite watering hole of many large animals.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.”

“It’s getting dark fast now. Let’s return to camp.”

As they walked back toward camp, she noticed that Darian seemed to be keeping his distance. Ever since they had met, he’d been something of an enigma to Marisa. Although he had opened up while they were at Abbadon, now that their mission was over, he seemed to be retreating into his shell once again.

When they reached the camp, Arrie handed Marisa a small metal plate with some food. She sat down across from him on a log. As they ate their dinner in silence around the campfire, she noticed Darian watching her thoughtfully. Arrie was not in his usual cheerful mood, and she wondered if the consequences of their failed mission would be even more serious than she had imagined. She tried to lighten things up by starting a conversation with Arrie.

“What exactly is a yarmout? I didn’t get a real close look at it in the dark as it tumbled down past me, but what a horrible roar!”

“Well, a yarmout is actually quite similar to the rijgen, except that they only dwell in cold-weather places such as the ice caves,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“You’re not going to believe me.”

“Try me.”

“Have you ever heard of a yeti?” he asked.

“A what?”

“A yeti.”

She blinked. “That’s a car model, right?”

He shook his head. “Otherwise known as the Abominable Snowman?”

“Seriously?” Marisa laughed. “What mythical creature are we going to come across next? The Loch Ness Monster? Unicorns? Wait, I know, vampires!”

“That
mythical
creature we encountered in the caves could have easily killed you,” Darian said softly in the darkness. “Lucky for you, I got to him first.” His remark rubbed Marisa the wrong way.

“Well, Darian, it appears that you’ve saved my life yet again. By the time we reach Crocetta, I’ll probably owe you my firstborn child.”

When Marisa saw his crestfallen expression, she instantly regretted her words. He’d risked his own life to save her when he could have left her down there to freeze.

“I’m sorry, Darian. I just don’t know what’s gotten into me lately. I am grateful to you for saving me.”