71

Dark Heart

Linda felt like she was in some cheap and cheesy amusement park House of Horrors. The garish glow of the Fareima around Beilla's neck combined with the strobing pulse of the Kareima made the huge chamber leap with shadows and false movement. The effect gave her a headache.

"Deilune, I need to sit for a moment."

"What's the matter?"

"You name it. I'm tired, my head is throbbing, and I’m scared. Beilla is totally nuts. He thinks he's the self-appointed savior of your quaint little country."

"We're not a country, dear. We're a semi-autonomous region."

Linda put her head in her hands. "You're not helping my headache. What happens if we can't find Beilla's heart-shaped passage?"

"We don't pass Go?"

"Dale!"

He backed off. "I'm so sorry, Linda. Really. I’m trying to laugh about this because it’s too surreal. Like a dream. A fever dream.” He motioned around them. “But, even I have to admit that Beilla has made an amazing discovery. If the Astreima is really down here, it would be monumental for Lebreima."

Linda looked at him, her brows pinched. “You’re not going all la-la Lebreima-land on me too, are you?”

“Not yet. I’m just intrigued by this place.” He led her to a gently sloping cave wall. “Here, let's rest here."

It felt good to sit down, but, almost immediately, Linda noted the warmth of the cave wall and floor. "Deilune, why is the stone so warm to the touch? Is Mount Breima volcanic?"

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"At one time it might have been, but I really don't know."

From the shadows of a nearby stalagmite, Beilla's loud voice interrupted. "Of course it is. The legends tell of Feodeim’s descent, of the fiery rivers and blast furnace heat of the underworld. It is all here waiting for the Feirengahst to bring it forth."

"Give it a rest, Beilla,” Deilune shouted back. “We can't even find Door #1, let alone the secret formula to your so-called world domination."

His cape billowing menacingly, Beilla moved towards Deilune. At the same moment, from across the chamber, Abzeig barked in surprise. Swiftly, Deilune helped Linda up, and they followed Beilla’s purposeful stride towards the sound. They found Abzeig huddled beneath his cape at the base of a large outcropping of rock.

Beilla went to the cowering Abzeig and spoke to him in Lebreiman. With a quivering hand, Abzeig pointed at a strange collection of stalagmites a few meters away, muttering ominously, “Deimahn. Deimahn.”

Linda squeezed Deilune's arm. "What’s he saying?"

For a moment even Deilune seemed a bit stunned. "He’s saying a name. You remember the legends I've told you? Of how Feodeim came to the underworld and destroyed the demon that guarded the Fareima?"

"Yes, you said that Feodeim slew the demon with the creature's own horn."

"Good memory. Well, I believe Abzeig thinks he’s found Deimahn's horn."

Deilune pointed to an ominous shape. There, embedded in the thick sediment of many a millennia, a quartz-like protrusion some five feet in length, curving and tapering to a lethal point, thrust out towards a dense thicket of stalagmites. He could well imagine that the deadly-looking object being a serviceable weapon against a monstrous foe.

"Could it really be the demon's horn? Is that possible?" Linda asked, her headache forgotten.

"No. I think it's just a wicked looking piece of sediment, but let's not tell Abzeig or Beilla that," he whispered, motioning to Abzeig who was struggling to regain control of himself.

Any feeling of security left the couple when a strange sound near the "horn" made them jump. Deilune cautiously stepped towards the "horn" to investigate the startling noise. The light from his chest pulsed into the shadows as he neared the formidable tip of Deimahn’s Horn. Then he heard the sound again. Then he felt it. Something had splashed onto the end of the horn. He held out his hand and waited until a single drop of water hit the tip of the “horn” again.

"Just a drip," he told Linda and craned his head to locate the source. Then he cried out in amazement, not unlike Abzeig had.

Linda rushed to his side. "What is it, Dale?"

In answer, his finger traced along the gentle arc of the deadly looking "horn" for her. Then he traced an airy line through the shadowy thicket of stalagmites to a darker shape. A dark heart.

Beilla saw it, too. He and Deilune, in the competing radiance of the Fareima and Kareima, made their way guardedly toward the heart-shaped opening that Beilla insisted was the passage to the long-lost Astreima.