Mercury Mind (The Downfall Saga Book 1) (32 page)

“You okay?” he asked.

She gave him a nod, and he climbed his way over to her foot.

“Let me know if it comes over here.” She gave him another nod. “I’m going to take off your boot. This might hurt.”

He loosened her laces as much as he could. She braced herself, but still winced as he pulled off her boot.

“It’ll be okay,” he said patting her calf. “My brothers and I have rolled our ankles many times. I’m somewhat of an expert at this.” He rolled down her sock, before pulling it off. “Now I just need to let it air out before I touch your disgusting foot.”

“Please. I’ve smelt some of your shirts and my foot smells like roses in comparison.”

“I think that’s manure you’ve been smelling, not roses.”

She gently began banging the back of her head against the trunk while laughing. “This isn’t the time for jokes. Someone could get seriously hurt.”

“That’s why it’s the perfect time for laughter. Now, tell me if this hurts.”

He slowly bent her foot back and she let out a yelp of pain. He spent several minutes bending, prodding and massaging her foot. He slide up her pant leg and held her calf while gently rotating her foot.

He mocked being blinded by the moonlight reflecting off her pale leg. “You know if you showed some more skin, the Clachwards would be afraid of the moonlight reflecting off it.”

“Now your jokes are getting bad. How’s the ankle?”

“Better than my jokes apparently. It looks like it’s only a sprain.” He removed his cloak and hung it over a branch. He tore a sleeve off his shirt and wrapped it tightly around her ankle. “It’s not too swollen at the moment. This will hurt, but I want to get it back in your boot before it does.” He put her sock back on, and carefully slide her foot back into her boot. He tied her boot up tightly to help support her ankle.

“Any sign of danger?” he asked.

“I haven’t seen a single Clachward since we climbed up here.”

“They must be afraid of you. How’s the ankle feel?”

“It actually feels pretty good at the moment. You have a surprisingly tender touch. You’d make a good Healer.”

“I wish I could afford to come back next year, but my family doesn’t have the money.”

“I had my mind set on becoming a War Wizard since I was accepted.”

“Is that what your parents wanted you to be?”

Kort climbed his way back to the trunk and wedged himself in beside Ravyn, and wrapped an arm over her shoulders.

“No, that’s why I wanted to do it, but I froze when I saw the Clachward. A War Wizard would never be afraid.”

“Everyone becomes afraid. It’s about learning to deal with it. The first step is accepting that nobody is perfect. I mean, look at me. I’m out here in the woods. My best friend is being chased by people who want to kill him. The woods are full of scary monsters. What am I doing? I’m sitting in a tree with the most intelligent and enchanting woman I’ve ever met—”

He was interrupted when Ravyn leaned in, resting her hand against his smooth cheek, and gave him a slow, probing kiss. Kort’s eyes went wide in shock before he relaxed and let his lips join the symphony.

D
onovan twisted around and fought to free his arm. With the grating sounds of ripping fabric, he fell free. Scrambling backwards he watched the Clachward stalk towards him.

His attempt to create a ball of light failed, just like every time he’d tried in Professor Moncha’s class. Every other student could summon a light to repel the Clachward and here he was, alone in a dark forest with none of his classmates nearby. He had to settle for scrambling away as fast as he could.

“What do you want?” he screamed at the Clachward. “Why me?”

It stared at him with its eyeless face and continued its relentless pursuit.

The thick underbrush kept tangling his feet and slowing him down, while his pursuer ripped through it as if it didn’t exist. He could feel its heavy footfalls behind him and he didn’t dare turn around, in case he tripped due to his inattentiveness.

He took a quick look around, trying to get his bearings. He had a vague recollection of the open slope he’d run through on the way here being on the far side of the Clachward.

Its pursuit was relentless yet measured. He thought about climbing a tree, but where there was one, there were many of them and he vividly remembered what they’d done to the last tree he’d climbed. He felt the reassuring weight of the machete bouncing against his thigh. Drawing it forth, he hacked his way forward as fast as he could. It was a dangerous gamble, and he kept expecting its massive hand to clamp around his neck at any second. Just when he thought that he might be able to outdistance his pursuit, he heard the crashing of something large moving through the trees ahead.

Not stopping to think about what he was about to do, he spun around and ran through the semi-cleared path he’d carved out a moment ago. If the Clachward could feel surprise, none showed on its featureless face or in its actions. They headed straight towards each other, the Clachwards arms outstretched, while Donovan pumped his arms at his sides.

Right before impact, he dove between its legs. Its hands narrowly missed snagging his clothing, as he skidded through its legs. Turning, its leg hit him in the ribs, whether intentional or by accident he couldn’t tell. Rolling to his feet, he headed for the slope near the creek, arm pressed tightly over his sore ribs.

The Clachward had torn the underbrush in its passing and he had a much easier time following its trail. Climbing over the fallen log, he made it back to the open slope. He didn’t see anybody in the area, and his instincts told him to keep running, but he had to try and warn Caddaric’s cronies in case they were still in the area.

“Hey!” he yelled. “If anybody can hear me, there are Clachwards in the area. Watch out for Clachwards!”

He stared up the slope and, as if on cue, Clachwards emerged from the trees ahead of him. They were spread out and not coordinating with each other. In the open area, he had more room to maneuver, and ducked and weaved his way around them as he made his way up the hill. He stumbled cresting the hill, and rolled partway down to the creek. He was just getting to his feet when he heard a familiar voice.

“Hey, we were looking for you,” said Kort.

It took Donovan a few moments to locate the source of the voice high up in a tree to his left.

“What are you two doing up there?” he asked.

Kort and Ravyn climbed out of the tree before responding, and Donovan would have sworn that both of them were blushing.

“I hurt my ankle,” said Ravyn. “We climbed out of the Clachwards reach while Kort tended to me.”

“I’m sure he did a great job,” said Donovan. “Can you walk?”

Ravyn took a few careful steps. “I’ll manage,” she said.

“Good because there are a bunch of Clachwards on the other side of that hill.”

Ravyn struggled to walk down the steep decline, so they ended up cutting across the face of the hill as they made their descent.

“I haven’t seen anyone recently,” said Donovan. “Is everyone okay?”

“Not sure,” said Kort. “We haven’t come across anyone either. Caddaric was fine last we saw him and was trying to find his buddies. We haven’t seen any signs of him recently.”

“Delaney?” asked Donovan.

“She was spooked by a Clachward and headed in the general direction of the clearing, but ...” said Ravyn, shrugging her shoulders.

“I guess that’s where we’re going then,” said Donovan. “Let’s find a spot to cross the creek.”

They walked along the bank looking for a narrow spot where Ravyn could step across or where the banks were low enough that she could easily cross. It would have been a nice night if it wasn’t for the Clachwards roaming around. It was a warm spring night, clouds were threatening to come in but until then there was plenty of moonlight reflecting off the sluggish creek.

The birds took flight from the trees.

“What the h—” said Kort, interrupted by a quivering of the ground.

They all were knocked to their knees when the quakes grew. Trees started swaying, then sharp cracks echoed as the first tree began to fall.

“Where do we go?” asked Ravyn.

“I ... uh,” said Kort.

They had all experienced earthquakes before, but never when they were in the middle of a forest. The decision was made for them, as the bank gave way beneath them and they splashed into the shallow creek, only to feel the ground give way beneath them. They fell through a mess of water, stones and mud, before landing on a hard, flat surface.

“Is everybody okay?” asked Kort groggily.

The fall had aggravated his sore ribs from when he’d collided with the Clachward’s foot. Donovan got to his hands and knees and vomited onto the floor in pain, each heave created a shooting pain in his side.

“We’ve got to move,” said Donovan, wiping his mouth. “More could collapse on top of us.”

The three of them dislodged themselves from the debris, and crawled away from the waterfall that used to be a creek above them. After taking a moment to collect themselves, Ravyn and Kort lit up the tunnel around them.

“Why ... why is there a cave here?” asked Ravyn.

“This is no cave,” said Kort, running his hand along a smooth limestone wall. “The walls are too flat to be natural. If it wasn’t for the water seeping in from above, the floor and ceiling would be too.”

They found themselves in a large rectangular tunnel. Over time, the tree roots and water from above had penetrated the ceiling, causing small sections to collapse into piles on the floor. A few roots snaked their way down the walls and had started forcing their way into cracks on the floor. The engineering of the tunnel was excellent to have held up so well, but they had no idea who could have carved it out of the solid rock beneath the forest.

They each sent their light the opposite way down the tunnel until they were only a pinprick of light in the distance.

“In that case, why is there a tunnel here?” she asked.

“Your guess is as good as ours,” said Kort.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Donovan. “There must be a reason why the Clachwards are in this area, and they need a place to take shelter during the day. This tunnel provides an awfully convenient solution.”

“Think of the time it would take to do this, let alone the money involved,” she said.

“Nothing compared to what is required to make all of those Clachwards, and who knows how many more could be down here.”

“I’ll take your word on that,” said Ravyn. “The important thing is getting out of here. One of you try boosting me up.”

Kort put his back against the wall under the collapsed ceiling. Donovan helped her climb onto his shoulders. Stretching as far as she could, she was still a few feet from the opening.

“It’s no good,” she said. “Even if you boosted me over your head, I wouldn’t be able to reach, and there’s no way either of you would be able to follow.”

“I think it’s time to call for help,” said Donovan.

They carefully set Ravyn back onto the floor. She created a small red light in the palm of her hand. The red glow painting sinister silhouettes onto her face. She closed her eyes to concentrate and it grew in intensity until they couldn’t look directly at it. She let it rise slowly in the air until it towered over the trees.

“Now we wait,” said Kort, lighting the area around them with a pale white orb.

They didn’t have to wait long until the moonlight shining through the opening above was blocked by a dark shape.

“Thank g—” said Kort.

A small section of the ceiling collapsed around the opening and a Clachward fell into the tunnel. It made a large splash when it hit the puddle that was forming on the floor.

Shocked by its sudden appearance, Kort lost his concentration and the tunnel fell back into darkness, the only light was from the pale moon high overhead, and then it too was blocked by a dark shape. The floor shook as the second shape fell into the opening a moment later.

“Get your light back,” said Donovan, surprisingly calm despite their circumstances.

Kort’s light flared back to life and they saw the two Clachwards climbing back to their feet. Kort shooed them back a couple of feet with his light until another fell into the tunnel in front of them. As the newest one got to its feet, it tried to move away from the light. Its large frame blocked the light from the two behind it and they began pushing it reluctantly forward towards the light.

“I say we run for it,” said Kort.

“No, we need to wait for help,” said Ravyn.

Donovan wasted precious moments trying to make up his mind, and a fourth dropped from above.

“We go,” said Donovan. Ravyn flashed him an angry glare which he tried to ignore. “If any come down the tunnel from the other way, then we’ll be trapped, and you’ll have to drop the signal in order to help hold them off. Look, I’m sorry. If I wasn’t the worst in our class I could actually help you too. Instead I’m just deadweight for you to protect.”

“I know I haven’t said this out loud, but your—” started Kort. As soon as he turned his head to face Donovan, his light began to dim.

“Your light,” said Donovan.

“Right,” said Kort.

“Ravyn, you’ll have to go first to light the way for us,” said Donovan. “Kort, you’ve got the rear.”

“Thanks for noticing.”

“What? It’s not the time for jokes.”

“I’ll keep making jokes until my cold corpse is lowered into the ground.”

“That could happen sooner than you’d like.”

“All the more reason to get it out of my system.”

“Boys!” said Ravyn. “Are we going or are you staying here to have a heartfelt moment.”

“I just wish it was brighter so I could stare into his lovely violet eyes,” said Kort.

The three of them retreated down the tunnel. They walked in a small pool of light, the rest swallowed by darkness. Their feet splashed in the occasional puddle on the floor, and they had to wind their way around long, pointed stalactites hanging from the ceiling, some of which hung down at head height. The air was stagnant and musty, and grew worse as they moved away from the opening.

The tunnel ran straight for a long time before reaching a tee intersection.