My wish came true the next morning. I felt the urge to use my pillow against Yasenka for waking me up before dawn, but I forgot all about it by the time we found ourselves outside.
The birds were already greeting the sun that still lurked beneath the mountains with lazy chirping. Even before it decided to flood the city with its rays, we already witnessed a fairy tale like show.
The mist approached the forefields in a denser mass than the previous day. Soon though, a delicate breeze from the sea began dissipating it. The terrestrial clouds started to stir and cluster, forming pillars and chambers, until some unreal buildings came to life in front of our eyes. And the view became even more gorgeous when the golden rays cascaded upon those structures, smoothly flowing down the semi-transparent walls. It made my heart lighter, giving me the strength to face the last unpleasantries before leaving Tacritia.
Over breakfast, I discussed the last details about the preparation plans we started making yesterday evening with Lythar. Together with Yasenka, we drafted the message that was supposed to reach all possible places, carried by the emissaries. We even had the opportunity to see the first few of them bring the best horses out of the stables and leave the city.
After saying our thanks for the hospitality, the help and the provisions the priests prepared for our journey, we set off towards north-east, dashing above the glittering crops. The contents of the chest found in the underground of the temple lay safely wrapped up in soft fabric in Yasenka's bag. The chest itself we dumped into the sea some distance from the city. If it would somehow still be detectable by Sharish's spells, then it would at least eat away some of his time and draw him away from Tacritia. And if not, then maybe it would serve as a fun find for some young sailors.
The day was a bit sultry, lone, elongated clouds appearing in the sky, arriving with the wind that came from the water. It didn't take long until the mountains in the distance became clearer. The unbelievably high summits, probably reaching hundreds of meters, enveloped with still present snow at the very peaks, didn't exactly make a friendly impression.
Trying to act casual, I sped up a little and caught up with the leading Yasenka. Siaril stayed slightly behind.
"Did you manage to talk to him?" I asked just loud enough for her to hear me above the hum of wind in her ears.
"I did," she admitted rather unenthusiastically.
"Did he tell you anything enlightening?"
"Yes and no... or rather he told me, but without the intention of doing so. I didn't want to be too obtrusive, he was in a really awful mood and that might have been the reason why he let a few things slip..."
"Stop talking in riddles."
"This story reaches a little further behind in fact and is pretty long, but..."
A sudden shout from Siaril interrupted her: "I'm sorry to disturb you both, but we have a tail!"
We both turned around and looked in the direction he was pointing.
Some distance away, around the same height we ourselves flew at, we noticed three blurry, bright shapes. They were coming closer unnervingly quickly, glistening a coppery scarlet in the sun...
"It's the ansirths!" Siaril wasn't able to hide a note of panic in his voice.
"Again?!"
Some word that sounded like an illathan curse escaped Yasenka's lips. "I guess that only proves that we're on the right path," she turned back to face the ridges again. "Hurry, if we reach the caves before them, maybe we'll be able to lose them inside!"
She didn't have to say it twice. We dashed forward, abandoning the strolling pace. I looked over my shoulder every now and then, but even though the hybrids seemed to be quicker than us, we stayed at a relatively safe distance. I inwardly thanked Yasenka for putting the screws on us a while ago. I was sure that if it wasn't for the endurance training, we would be fighting for our lives right now. With little chances of survival.
The wind didn't make the escape very easy. It was rather weak, making it seem like the clouds got stuck on the peaks. Finally, after about an hour, we passed the dark green border of spruces interspersed with brighter stains of birches that were wrapped around the base of the Dragon Mountains. We looked back once more. The ansirths managed to get a bit closer after all, we clearly saw the outlines of the unnatural silhouettes and the movement of the huge, goldish wings now. It seemed like Sharish wasn't accompanying them this time. They were alone.
We started to drop and scan the rocky, almost lifeless summits. It was Yasenka who spotted the abyssal, dark cavity in the wall of a mountain river's channel, partially hidden by a meagerly overgrown overhang. The ravine was deep, patiently eroded for centuries by the masses of flowing water which splashed gently like a small stream in some places, then roared and dashed like a herd of horses in others. It embraced a smaller hill around the north, the rock oaks growing on it extending their shadows towards our destination.
We fell down almost too fast to be considered safe and landed in the atrium of the cave.
"Where did they even come from...?" panted Siaril. "If it was Sharish who sent them after us, it must mean he knows where we are and what we're doing, but how...?"
"I think it's rather a coincidence. He intends to search the mountains, so he sent a reconnaissance party first... but that's not important right now," Yasenka grabbed his sleeve and pulled him deeper into the cave. "We need to hide."
I glanced towards the darkness, trying not to look unsure. "Do you think one can get lost in those tunnels?"
"If one really wants to, then for sure..."
I would have argued, but suddenly the small amount of sunlight that was reaching the bottom of the ravine got further dimmed for a split of a second, as if blocked by a passing wing... I cast one last glance at the fragment of the sky visible between the summits before quickly following my friends.
We weren't progressing very fast, wanting to keep quiet in order to be able to hear our pursuers closing in should they follow. The strenuous flight took its toll as well... In the thickening darkness, our footsteps echoed clearly among the ancient walls, and each of our breaths seemed multiplied, as if the rocks themselves breathed in this place. I couldn't help but feel that the deeper we went, the further back in time we were moving. It was like entering the Silivren Forest in a sense, but different. At last the darkness became so impenetrable that we were forced to use our fire. What we saw as we did so caused us to forget about the ansirths for a second.
We didn't even realize how unbelievably spacious the corridor has become, wide and high, sculptured in the pale yellow stone... which wasn't just simply pale yellow. The surface sparkled with the light of countless, tiny particles with every movement of our flames, mimicking a treasure chest full of all possible gems...
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"What is that...?" I whispered.
"I assume... it's a relic from the time when dragons still lived here," Siaril rose his hand with the flame a little higher. "The heat of their bodies probably caused the structure of the rocks to change, the minerals becoming visible and being polished by the dragon scales when they traversed these corridors..."
The tunnel was so vast that the glow of our fire dispersed the darkness to a certain level only, the vaulting remaining a tangle of shadows. I brushed the surface of the rocks with my fingertips and looked up. The magnitude of this place, along with the awareness that dragons lived here in the past, made me feel weirdly small... I started to wonder if these caverns, similarly to the crypts beneath the temple in Tacritia, concealed some sort of magic. Because when I closed my eyes and concentrated a little, I could faintly sense something, like dim sparks on the very edge of perception... Water murmured somewhere in the distance, and I felt delicate wafts of air coming from the deeper parts of the underground. Was it possible for anyone to unveil the secrets of those mazes now, after so many centuries...?
There suddenly was the sound of heavy, but soft steps, coming from the direction we came from. Along with muffled, low growling.
"They found us..." it was hard to tell what was more distinct in Yasenka's voice: fear or irritation.
"Put your flames out," Siaril whispered. "One will be enough."
He reduced his fire to the essential minimum and we continued onwards, as quickly and silently as we could. The darkness surrounding us wasn't very encouraging. The light of the flame didn't reach far, and the deep shadows lurking beyond its radius could have been concealing a dozen of ansirths, which we wouldn't even notice until the moment we ran straight into them.
We came across a forking after a while, but didn't waste much time on wondering. Even though we knew far too well that the wrong decision could mean death... we picked a random path in hope that the beasts would choose the other. Still, we didn't keep our hopes up. After all, ansirths derived from wild predators, for which tracking prey was everyday life...
We stopped again after a few minutes to listen to the sounds of the underground.
"Do you think they could be close?" asked Siaril in the quietest whisper I ever heard from him.
His answer was a sudden growl behind us.
The three bristled beasts walked into the circle of light slowly and soundlessly, like cougars approaching their helpless victims.
"Yeah..." Yasenka lifted her hand. "They are close..."
Thinking that the ansirths were further behind was a massive miscalculation... I clenched my fists and took a step back. It turned out to be another mistake. One of the beasts roared loudly and leaped forward to stop our retreat.
All three of us dodged, but the attack must have been too sudden for Siaril. The fire in his palm abruptly went out, drowning the tunnel in absolute darkness. And causing an even absoluter chaos. The air got filled with dull growls, and it seemed as if the ansirths were trying to attack blindly, because there was a constant, unpleasant rustle of their scales and occasional swish of a paw cutting the air...
I found the rock wall with one hand and leaned against it, desperately trying to think of a way out. I couldn't just attack, the risk of accidentally hurting one of my companions in this darkness was too great. I was scared to light even the tiniest of flames as well, knowing that it would attract all the attention to me. Siaril and Yasenka must have been struggling with a decision too, I didn't hear nor see any sort of reaction from them. Long seconds passed, counted by the hastened breaths which I tried to stifle in order to not betray my position. But we couldn't just wait forever, the eyes of the ansirths would adjust to the darkness much quicker than our own...
That train of thought got interrupted by the sudden feeling of something rough grazing my side. I distinctly felt the hard scales... I jumped to my right without thinking and heard the screech of the enormous claws on the rock I was standing by just a second earlier. I took a few steps back and froze at the last second upon instinctively sensing a void behind my back... and suddenly a few things happened all at once, too quick for comprehension.
I felt myself losing my balance, as if the earth itself was drawn back from beneath my feet. The only thing I managed was a terrified scream as I started to fall. I think I heard Siaril yell my name, but I didn't get the chance to respond. It lasted maybe two seconds before I hit some sort of solid ground again, sloped and covered in gravel, and started rolling down. The thing I expected the least happened a few meters further below.
I fell into water.
Almost startled into numbness, I quickly resurfaced and coughed up the cold, pure-tasting water and pushed the wet bangs away from my eyes.
I suddenly found myself in a pretty big cave, almost completely covered by a sort of underground lake, dark and calm. Countless grayish stalactites hung from the high, arched dome, next to them a few tiny holes were letting in narrow rays of hazy daylight. Each wave breaking on the rocks and each tiny stone falling into the water after me echoed melodiously off of the shadow-shrouded walls. Somewhere deeper inside the cavern I noticed a gently rising shore and the mouth of some tunnel, drowned in deep darkness.
And that darkness was where I suddenly heard a familiar noise from... a strange rustle, sounding almost like the soft ringing of little crystals... the same we heard in the crypts of the Siracel temple...
Confused, I swam to a tiny, rock 'island' - basically just a big boulder sticking out of the water, and climbed onto it. I was drenched and aching all over... I took another look around. It was hard to tell which way I even fell in here from, and there was no sign of my friends anywhere. The silent, mysterious jingling faded a little...
I suddenly caught a movement out of the corner of my eye, in the semi-darkness closer to the wall. Turning around, I saw the silhouette of an ansirth, bristled, lurking in the shadow on another rock that jutted out of the lake.
Weirdly enough, confidence returned to me. The beast was alone and the cave was bright enough for me to follow every movement. I raised my hand, but immediately had to stop and hold my breath. The almost inaudible sound of soft paws on rocky surface, accompanied by quiet but deep, cat-like purring immediately made my morale crumble away. And I wasn't allowed to think about my situation for even two seconds.
One of the beasts leaped towards me like a lynx onto a deer. One quick swipe of my hand and I created a broad wall of flames between us, immediately jumping up towards the dome of the cave to avoid the attack coming from behind. From there, I quickly dashed towards the farthest wall - two beats of my wings were enough to carry me there - and the third, with a drastically different angle, caused me to stop right at the rock facade. I turned around.
The two ansirths collided and tussled in the fire for a few seconds, roaring in pain. Eventually, one of them unintentionally hit its companion with the mighty paw, I thought I saw a spray of blood, and the unfortunate beast landed in the water with a loud splash. I watched the surface with hope, until the echo died out and the irregular rings that disturbed the water smoothened out and finally disappeared.
A sigh of relief escaped me. But I couldn't relax just yet. I was aware that the death of one of the ansirths was pure luck and I needed more than just fire to defeat the second one. There was not much space for maneuvers in the air within this cave either. I might have been smaller and nimbler, but if I wanted to try escape, then I wouldn't fit into any of the holes in the ceiling. Worse yet, I was starting to feel my strength slowly leaving me. The previous, frantic flight really drained me...
Which meant the only chance was the corridor on the other side of the lake.
When the remaining beast attacked again, I dove beneath it, but felt its claws missing me by mere millimeters. Descending almost to the very surface of the water, I dashed towards the dark mouth of the passage, giving it all I had. If I managed to create a wall of fire right there, at the entrance, I would be able to delay my pursuer, if only for a short time. I was getting closer, measuring the distance with the beats of my own heart...
But right as I passed the shoreline, the ansirth caught up with me and pinned me down to the ground with its terrifying weight. I suddenly felt an agonizing pain in my left wing, my anguished scream echoing throughout the cave.
The impetus of such an attack in flight was so tremendous though that the beast simply tumbled over my head and landed in the rocks by the wall next to the tunnel. I tried to get up, my whole body trembling, but the pain in my wing and the burning of abraded skin made it difficult to even move...
Suddenly, there was a loud swish right above my head and I involuntarily hunched in fear. An almost deafening roar resonated within the cave and I saw the ansirth fly past me and land in the water, as if struck by some tremendous power. I squinted, fighting the pain in my head. Everything before my eyes was annoyingly hazy... I managed to overcome the dizziness and turned my head.
There was another golden shape towering above me, seeming even bigger than the beast that was just sent flying across the underground... but I didn't have any more strength to defend myself. I closed my eyes, waiting for the final strike in this battle...
It was then that I heard a voice...
"Sigrian... Sigrian!"
I recognized it... it was the same, gentle female voice that we heard in the crypts...
But the curiosity wasn't enough to keep my mind conscious. I felt the remnants of energy leaving my body and the last thing I registered was the cruel cold of the rock I was lying on. Was the moisture on them just water, or my own blood...?