Fellen and I stepped away from the growls to put our backs against the nearest wall as the bane pack slunk out of the ravine’s shadows. There was eleven of them—six blocking the way we came from and five blocking the other way. The largest was about the size of the camp dogs while the smallest was a few inches shorter. Each bane had a different pattern of thick fur on their bodies and tail that looked gray in the moonlight, but that daylight would reveal to be different variations of blond fur. They had oversized ears and long, narrow snouts with their lips pulled back in a snarl to reveal mouthfuls of sharp teeth. Fellen and I flinched back at the sight of those. We knew from our lessons that a bane’s bite was venomous. The slow acting venom worked to slow you down and disorient you. For some people that was as far as the venom went before they began to recover, but for most people the venom kept working until they became paralyzed, and the venom became deadly as they lost the ability to breath. A healer could use a mixture of black powder and long grass to lessen the effects of the venom if it was still in the early stages, but more often than not those bitten couldn’t get to a healer in time for the mixture to work. Of course, all of that was only possible if the bane pack didn’t finish you off first.

Quick, quiet, and nimble, chances were that if they ambushed you, you weren’t getting away—and if you did they would chase you until the last one dropped dead if you stayed in their territory. The bane pack knew this part of Flickermark better than we ever could. Even if we had all the maps and string knot markers we could want.

But that didn’t mean we could give up.

I positioned myself so I was in front of Fellen and I felt one of her hands clasp the back of my dress. I still had a handful of the pebbles we had been using to mark where we’d been, so I shifted them so I had a few in each hand as the bane pack spread into a semi circle around us and began to close in. No use for hesitation in a time like this.

I screamed. As loud as I could and the bane pack shied away from the noise. That was when I threw one handful of pebbles at the pack members on our right, rushing at them as I did. Two of the banes yelped as they were struck by the rocks and moved out of our way. The last three had recovered from my scream and held firm. I threw my other handful of rocks at them as I felt the rest of the pack begin to chase after us. The rocks hit one of the pack members—distracting it—while the other two leapt to attack. Neck and belly. I kicked the one who aimed lower away as Fellen pulled me in the other direction. I heard teeth snap next to my ear an instant before claws raked down my right shoulder and arm.

I pushed Fellen forward, out of the way, as another bane leapt at her back before I twisted and planted an elbow in its neck. It fell, whining and gasping, but I earned more scratches for my trouble. Fellen looked back to see why I pushed her and threw her handful of rocks at another bane that was trying to swarm me. One rock hit it on the snout and I used the distraction that caused to dodge it and catch up with Fellen.

We ran down the path as the bane pack nipped and bit at our heels. I think only our desperation made us faster than them. We didn’t have any more pebbles to distract them. We ran and each time we reached a crossroads the bane pack would put on a burst of speed and force us to take a certain path or be bitten. It didn’t take a genius to recognize that we were being herded—most likely to a dead end.

Fellen gasped out, “What do we do?”

I didn’t answer her. I didn’t want to waste my breath to say I don’t know, and running was aggravating my shoulder and arm enough to not be in the mood to shrug. Blood caused my child’s dress to pull and stick in uncomfortable ways on the upper right side as where the second bane had gotten me on my back. I did my best to ignore the lightheadedness that was settling in.

Hiding wasn’t an option. They could keep up with us or sniff out the blood trail. Running forever wasn’t an option. We had to either somehow leave the bane pack’s territory—which wasn’t going to happen if we kept letting ourselves be herded—or cross a body of water to buy ourselves time Bane packs didn’t like to swim.

I knew what we needed to do then even though I didn’t like it. It increased the chance of one of us getting bit. “Next crossroads—we go the opposite to what they want.”

Fellen nodded, her face an odd contrast of fear and determination. The next turn we came to didn’t have multiple paths, but the one after it did. There were three options: straight, slightly right, and nearly 90 degrees to the right. The bane pack tried to keep us going straight, but Fellen kneed the bane hounding her in the head and I kicked the one on me the stomach. That one whipped its head around for a bite as I tried to running past and I felt some of its teeth graze my thigh. Another sped up and went after Fellen. It got her with its claws before she punched it and I dragged it back by its tail. I kneed that one in the head for good measure and we were past, down the right angle path. That bought us a few precious seconds lead as half the bane pack struggled to correct their course.

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We kept running, but I could feel the blood loss weakening me further, making the thought of stopping and letting the bane pack have me more appealing than it had any right to be. Fellen heard the echoes of running water first. Sharing a quick glance, we silently agreed to head for it. Even if it was only a small stream we had a better chance with it. The noise got louder as we grew closer, and the bane pack made a couple more harrying attempts to bring us back in line but, together, we managed to break through them. At some point Fellen started limping as she ran, but, like me, all she could do was grit her teeth and keep running.

It wasn’t a small stream—though Fellen and I only registered that once we had ran out into it. The whole ravine was flooded in ankle deep water. We lost a moment to marveling at the good luck of it before splashing our way downstream as quickly as we could. The bane pack balked at the water, pacing along its edge before turning away. We couldn’t be sure they weren’t looking for another place to ambush us, so we kept to the middle of the running water and followed it.

The current got stronger as we went, but we managed to keep our feet. The water numbed my feet quickly and once we reached a part of the ravine where we couldn’t see any other pathways we paused to tend to our injuries as best we could. We didn’t talk, in case the noise gave our location away to the bane pack. There wasn’t any way to tell if, or when, we left their territory.

I didn’t like using unboiled water to wash my wounds, but that was what we had and the cold helped numb the sting. We couldn’t rip our woolen dresses to make bandages, even where the bane pack’s claws had damaged the knit fabric, so instead I did my best to use the sleeves to tie a makeshift bandage over the worst of my shoulder wound and staunch the blood. The rest I could only leave to take care of themselves. I didn’t think that any of the teeth that scraped against my thigh had been the bane’s venomous fangs, but it would take time to know that for sure.

Fellen had gotten away with less injuries than I had, but she still had several claw marks on her legs and left hip. The four marks on her hip were the deepest, so she wadded up that side of her skirt and pressed it against her wound. After that, all that was left was to keep going.

It felt like we walked for hours though with the state we were in I doubted we could have gone that long without resting. Once the adrenaline left me, the pain of my injuries flared up and fatigue made every blink a fight to reopen my eyes. Fellen didn’t seem to fare much better, though she did fall back so that we could do our best to keep each other upright. In the end, we stopped because the flooded path we were following led underground.

It left us with two choices: follow it and risk getting lost even further with no guarantee that we could find our way back out again, much less find the entrance to the Statue Garden, or trudge back the way we came in order to leave the flooded path and risk meeting the same bane pack—or a different one—when we had no stamina left to run away.

Fellen and I took stock of our injuries and, after a short discussion weighing the pros and cons, we decided to risk whatever lay down below. That way we would at least have water and a way to escape any other bane packs we came across. We stepped under the lip of the cave and immediately it became much more difficult to see. I held onto Fellen so we wouldn’t lose each other, and so she could snap her fingers to produce little flickers of light while keeping pressure on her hip. The rounded ceiling was about a foot higher than our heads, but thanks to Fellen’s light we managed to avoid hitting our heads on the random rock formations that stuck out. The water got deeper and stronger as we went, rising first to our knees and then just below Fellen’s waist. The roar of the water got louder too.

By the time I fought through my lightheadedness and pain to consider what that might mean, it was too late. Fellen put her foot down on a loose rock, wobbled, and slipped, taking me with her. The current had a hold of us then and we were dragged along. Normally, we were both strong swimmers, but after the last few days of being nearly starved and dehydrated along with the strain of everything else, it was all we could do to stay afloat and together. The flooded path became a full-on river—too deep and strong for us to get our footing.

My shoulder and arm, my back, screamed with effort but I didn’t let go of Fellen. Water was everywhere. It felt like I breathed it in about as much as I got a breath of air. And then—

Then there was too much air. And we were falling as we got pitched over a waterfall. I pulled Fellen close and did my best to make I was the one who would have most of the impact of whatever was coming. I made a promise. I didn’t want to be alone. I couldn’t—

A sharp impact and then nothing.

--

I woke up to watery darkness and something pulling me along by my armpit. Everything felt hazy. But I decided that being under the water was bad, so I did my best to help whatever was pulling me along by attempting to swim. Fellen. Fellen was probably the one pulling me.

We broke through the surface of the water and as I took a breath the air was like a slap of clarity. Our injuries, the river and waterfall, we were in a cave. I heard a snap and the area around us was briefly lit by a flicker of flame. It was enough to spot the nearest shore. We used the last of our strength to swim for it and pull ourselves up. My right arm gave out in the process, but at that point I was already halfway out of the water.

Once we were both on shore, we huddled together for warmth. I’m not sure who passed out first, but there wasn’t a first or second watch that night. Both of us were too exhausted to stay up and stare into a pitch black cave.