Four months had passed since Alistar had met Servan. He and Kaila were currently waiting for him in one of the naturally formed tunnels of the upper mines. They hadn’t returned to the lower levels since Alistar’s seventh birthday, when they had discovered the strange flower within the crevice.
The only light to be seen was emanating from the lantern that Alistar held in his right hand. A slight crack marred one of the panes of glass that encased the slow-burning candle, the result of Alistar’s absentmindedness while supporting Kaila during the process of retrieving the lantern.
Alistar subconsciously caressed the red stone that sat hidden in the pocket that his father had installed within his sackcloth clothing. His mouth was twisted into a deep frown. His easygoing lifestyle had taken a steep dive in recent weeks, and the cause of this unwanted change clawed its way into his mind at almost every waking moment.
His mother was sick.
The symptoms she showed emulated the sickness that had taken his father. It was no longer her soft and comforting figure that smothered him with reassuring warmth in the resting hours of the day, but he who warmed her shivering body in a desperate attempt to lessen her discomfort.
It wasn’t just his mother. Recently, his uncle Raidon’s health had also shown signs of deterioration. He wasn’t sure what the cause might be, but he guessed that it was related to their labouring. When he asked them what was wrong, they would say that they were fine, and that his mother just had a simple and harmless cold. He knew better. The shivering, the coughing, the shortness of breath—although it was still premature, he had seen this process before.
Kaila, who was aware of her auntie’s condition, had also fallen into a dejected state. Not only did she seem worried about Laisha and Raidon, Alistar could tell that she was conscious of him as well. One night, he had woken from a grievous nightmare to find his face stained with tears, and had noticed Kaila’s nocturnal stare from her and Talon’s living space. During the following nights he had learned that Kaila nearly always watched him sleep, at least to some extent. She never said anything, but she must have been aware of the tears he’d shed so frequently since his father’s death. He was almost always having nightmares these days, and was embarrassed that she knew this. Still, he was grateful for her discretion. Kaila was a good friend.
“Where is he?” she muttered.
Had something come up? They usually idled in the lit areas of an agreed-upon tunnel until sounds of his approach became apparent. They would then withdraw into the cover of darkness as a trio, and walk a ways so that their lanterns wouldn’t draw attention to any passersby. Perhaps he had arrived early and was already awaiting their arrival?
As they idled quietly, Alistar regarded Kaila in the waning light. For her not to cry after falling like that…how strange.
Another ten minutes passed. There were still no signs of Servan’s hurried footsteps, nor the sharp tune of the now familiar bit that he often whistled to announce his arrival.
“Alie?” Kaila’s sweet voice carried the same warmth that it always did whenever she spoke to him. He sensed the worry that was there. How many times had he heard her speak his name in such a way, he wondered? “Why don’t you put down the lantern?”
He realized that his right arm was shaking from the strain of holding the lantern. He hadn’t noticed. Just when he thought to place it on the ground, a sudden sound caused him to flinch and the lantern slipped from his quivering grip.
Everything went dark.
The lantern had broken and the light of the candlewick had been doused by the small amount of melted wax that had gathered at the base of the candle.
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“A-Alie?” Kaila trembled. She was terrified of darkness.
“Kaila,” he said, returning to himself in a heartbeat. “Follow my voice—there, now grab my hand. Good.”
He pulled her close, and they held one another in the darkness.
“Do we go back?” Kaila’s voice tickled his ear. When he didn’t answer, she asked, “Or do we wait for Servan? He will have a lantern, won’t he?”
But Alistar was hardening his focus. He’d heard something move just then.
That wasn’t Servan.
There had been no signs of any light other than theirs. Nobody would travel through the unlit tunnels without a light source. And that sound had come from the opposite direction that Servan should have been approaching from. If he’d heard correctly, then there was no way that the sound had been made by Servan. Those footsteps had been too quick, too numerous.
“Kaila,” he whispered. “Stay put.”
Silence reigned for a time. Eventually, more quickened footsteps were heard, brief but distinctly inhuman.
“Al—” Kaila’s voice was quickly cut off as Alistar clamped a hand over her mouth. She started shaking.
Aside from people, there was only one other existence within the mines that was large enough to make such sounds. They rarely strayed from the lower levels, but when they did, they usually caused a good deal of trouble.
The pounding of his heart was almost as loud as the recurring scuttles, which could have come from any direction.
Remembering something that his father had told him long ago, if his suspicions were true, then it was crucial that he and Kaila regulated their breathing. They needed to lower their heartrates.
As panic began to interfere with his attempts at calming down, a small light began bobbling from the direction of the Long Tunnel, a strained tune accompanying the hurried footsteps. It was Servan, approaching from behind them. Alistar wanted to yell out to him, to warn him of their current predicament, but he knew that it was in their best interests to keep quiet. As the light approached, the scrambled footsteps resumed, now much closer than before.
Very carefully, Alistar turned Kaila around so that the two of them had their backs to whatever it was that remained hidden in the darkness. He needed to relay the danger of their circumstances without speaking a word, so he’d have to rely on his eyes.
After a few more moments of terror, the light of Servan’s lantern reached their feet and his brows jumped up in surprise. He was probably wondering why they were huddled next to each other in the darkness, and why they hadn’t called out to him. He glanced down at the broken lantern and shook his head with a wry smile as he continued to approach them.
He slowed once he saw the look in Alistar’s eyes, but continued forward with a quizzical expression as it became clear that something was amiss. When the light of his lantern reached well past the two of them, he froze in place, his eyes dilating as his breath caught in his throat. Whatever was behind them, Servan could now see it.
Alistar slowly followed his gaze, heart hammering almost painfully as his eyes settled a few paces away from where Kaila stood beside him. Sticking to the wall as if it were a spider was a large lizard around two paces in length, its bulk covered by dark green scales, its eyes opaque and its mouth wide. Large teeth poked out here and there, each at least the length of Alistar’s index finger.
It was his first time seeing a cave lizard, and it was much more terrifying than it had sounded in the stories that his father had told him.
Kaila started to turn her head in order to see what they were looking at, but Alistar removed his hand from her mouth and covered her eyes with clumsy speed. It might have been the sudden movement, or maybe the presence of a sudden source of light, or possibly even the arrival of a third person, but the moment Alistar covered her eyes the cave lizard sprang from the wall and sailed toward them through the air.
Alistar almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He had been exploring the caves for nearly all his life, to the point where he could imagine every section of the upper mines clearly in his head, and could navigate anywhere in the area without conscious thought. In all that time, he had never encountered a cave lizard, not even in the lower levels.
The single moment that the cave lizard was airborne seemed to last an eternity. First, it would hit Kaila, who was not even aware of the imminent danger. After that, it would tackle them both to the floor with a weight many times that of theirs combined.
His mind went blank, his legs freezing so he couldn’t even quiver in fear. His breath left him.
The cave lizard sailed through the empty space where the two had just been standing, missing Alistar’s head by inches. Before he’d realized it, he had spun Kaila on the spot and tripped her over his ankle, landing on top of her as he braced for the unimaginable pain that would no doubt follow.