The creatures laughed, which sounded like sandpaper on glass. The hair on the back of Aleah’s neck stood up, and she resisted the urge to cover her ears as she took a step back.
“You shall not bother the queen anymore,” one hissed. Its glowing green eyes burned into the terrified travelers to make sure they understood.
“Especially you, marked light descendant,” the red-eyed Demon hissed, staring straight at Elurra.
She was terrified they would charge forward and kill them like they did to her mother, but instead the green-eyed Demon advanced a little into the cave, then stopped and retreated.
“I detect imminent seismic activity in this area. Our presence has made this fault line unstable. While we were ordered not to terminate them, this may seal their fate. Should we withdraw?” the green-eyed Demon asked the red-eyed Demon.
Aleah had no idea what it was saying, but she assumed it had to do with the ground underneath them starting to shake. The red-eyed Demon agreed with the assessment.
“The tectonic movement should take care of this cave system, and the lifeforms.”
The two beings dissolved into the darkness as the earthquake intensified. Chunks of rock and dirt fell from the roof of the cavern, and Aleah grabbed hold of a stalagmite near her to keep from collapsing. Thunder seemed to reverberate from the walls as the first of many chunks of cave met the ground. Tons of rock collapsed inward, closing off the cave from the world beyond. Aleah was afraid the ground would split open and suck her in. She said a silent prayer as Elurra grabbed her wrist with one hand and Kai’s arm with the other, then dragged them both deeper into the cave to avoid the collapsing entrance.
Stalactites fell from the ceiling seven feet above and crashed down all around them, exploding into tiny chunks. A huge stalactite above Elurra loosened and hurtled toward the princess, but Kai pushed her out of the way before she was crushed. Kai cried out in agony, but Aleah couldn’t make out what was wrong.
After what seemed like an eternity of running, crawling, and dodging, the cave stopped shaking, and the deafening sound of rock meeting rock faded away to silence. Aleah stayed still for a few moments before finding the courage to move. She gave herself a quick evaluation and noticed she had a few deeper cuts and scrapes, but nothing seemed to be broken or fatal. The torch had gone out during the earthquake, but she still had the flint and stone in her pocket, so she quickly relit it.
She found her voice and called out, “Are you two alright?” as she picked through the rubble.
She heard Kai groan and followed the sound to find him sprawled on top of Elurra on the floor, clutching his thigh. Elurra groggily pulled herself out from under the prince as she cradled her forehead.
“I believe I whacked my head,” she moaned as she propped herself up on her elbows.
Aleah bit back a gasp as she saw the blood dripping down from Elurra’s hairline. “Princess, you’re bleeding,” she informed her as she knelt beside her and wiped some of the blood away.
Elurra winced, but Aleah could see the cut was long and shallow. Elurra pressed her headscarf against the wound, and Aleah turned to ask Kai if he was alright. Kai didn’t move; he clutched his thigh with his eyes tightly closed. He was obviously in great anguish. Aleah spied blood blooming around his fingers.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded before kneeling beside him.
He moved his bloody fingers to reveal a shard of rock sticking out of his leg. Aleah’s stomach somersaulted, and she tried not to gag.
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“I’m going to try to pull it out, alright? Don’t move.”
Aleah handed Elurra the torch and motioned for her to hold it so she could see what she was doing. She wrapped her hands around the rock, and Kai whimpered in pain.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. It will be out in a second. One, two—” She yanked it out before reaching three, and Kai screamed and spasmed in agony. “There we go. All better.”
She tried not to vomit at the sight of all the blood. Elurra wasted no time handing Aleah her head cloth, which she used to dress his wound. Elurra looked at the injured prince, and then back to Aleah with a worried expression.
“What do we do?” Elurra hissed.
Fear was evident in her blue eyes. Aleah knew exactly what she was thinking. She remembered reading young Elurra stories about the creatures that lived in caves, although in those stories the protagonist always lived through it all. Unfortunately, this was the real world, and starving or bleeding to death were much more likely outcomes in their current predicament.
“What were those things?” Aleah asked. “Were those…Demons?”
Elurra averted her eyes and looked at her hands. “Do you remember the storybook my parents brought from Tipet?”
Her voice was almost too quiet to be heard, and it faintly echoed off the walls around them. Aleah tried to recall what she was talking about, but the king and queen had brought lots of books for Elurra from their travels when she was young, and remembering specifics was difficult.
“What was it about?”
“It was a very strange tale of a girl whose father was a miner. One day, she went down into the mines to give her father some food. She got lost, and a witch captured her. Her father came looking for her, and when he found the witch, he demanded she let his daughter go. The witch told him either he could fight for the little girl’s freedom, or he could sacrifice her and get what he desired most. Unfortunately for the little girl, her father was a greedy man who was tired of working for so little, so he sacrificed his daughter. In turn, the witch told him how to get into the castle, kill the king, and take the Kutsal Stone as his own. The man did as the witch said and summoned the Demons, which had no true form—just bodies of smoke. With his evil servants at hand, he controlled the land and oppressed the people. It was the darkest fairytale you ever read to me.”
Aleah recalled asking Elurra’s parents about the story, but they said it was a tool used in Tipet to scare children away from playing with sorcery and Demons. Terrible dictators ruled Tipet for decades and were rumored to be in league with the Demons, but their reign of terror finally ended in recent years. Only a few subjects had escaped the closed borders at the time to tell tales of soul-devouring creatures that appeared during the no moons. The current ruler of Tipet spent over a decade attempting to open trade routes and get the kingdom back on its feet, but it was difficult for the South after so long in solitude. The story had given Elurra nightmares, so Aleah read the book only once and promptly forgot about it.
“Those did look like the creatures described in the story,” she mused. Aleah’s fear grew as she realized the beasts could easily hide in the huge cavern filled with eerie noises and darkness. She pushed the unsavory thoughts from her mind to focus on the task at hand: escaping the cave.
“We need to find an exit. Or somewhere less exposed, at least.” Suddenly, Elurra perked up. “What is it? Do you have an idea?”
“Maybe.”
Elurra positioned herself between Aleah and Kai and closed her eyes. Her face scrunched in concentration before she said, “Ťo nobi maş!”
Her words echoed around the cave before fading into silence, but nothing happened.
“What do you think you’re doing, young lady? Are you trying to use magic?” Aleah demanded furiously.
Elurra opened her eyes sheepishly. “Yes?”
“After all the problems and dangers Nitiri’s dark magic has caused? Are you insane? The last thing we need is more trouble, and that’s all magic has brought us so far! Sorcery has consequences, Elurra, and I don’t want you to get hurt, so no more of it.”
Elurra mumbled an apology and changed the subject. “What supplies do we have?”
Her head was no longer bleeding, but the dried blood made the cut look terrible against her pale skin.
“We have my pack and Kai’s, so we have enough food for now. Our biggest concern is getting out of this cave,” Aleah replied.
“We also need more light. How many strips of cloth do you have? That is all that will last us until we can find wood.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem, actually. Some of the ground from above caved in, including that.” Aleah pointed to a small tree trapped in the rubble that had been the mouth of the cave.
“Let’s get exploring, then. I will go first while you stay with Kai. Later, we can switch. Maybe we will get lucky. The cave-ins might have created another exit,” Elurra said hopefully.
Aleah didn’t like the idea in the slightest, but she knew there weren’t many other options.