JAMES
We break down camp and head deeper into the fortress.
The number of bodies we come across continues to grow—all of them still with the disturbing look of terror on their faces—perfectly preserved in their last moments.
It’s eerie and more than a little rattling, especially when a lot of them are looking up.
The fortress is at times completely intact, encased in ice, and others in massive ruin where we can’t even tell what we’re walking through.
We’re in one such space now, picking our way through a hallway of some sort.
There’s a rumbling. The ground shakes, ice splinters and cracks, the sound deafening in the small space.
“Go!” I shove everyone back. “Get back!”
We run backwards down the hall as debris rains down on our heads.
Massive boulders and jagged rocks crash around us.
Dust and ice particles drop visibility down to nothing.
Something hits me in the back and I get slammed to the ground.
I throw my arms over my head and wait for the onslaught to stop.
It’s over in less than a minute but nonetheless terrifying.
I shove rocks and ice off of me and pull myself free, yanking my pack out behind me.
“Everyone okay?” I call.
I hear a chorus of voices, and as I make my way through the rubble, I come upon Harrison digging Van out. He has a gash on his forehead but otherwise appears unharmed. The other three men also made it past the cave in.
I look around. “Caspian?”
No answer. I toss my pack and scramble through the rubble towards the worst of the cave-in. The entire passageway is blocked in the direction we were headed.
“Caspian!”
Van appears beside me, calling for him too, and together we manhandle rocks and ice out of our way.
“Caspian!”
“I’m here—” A voice, faint but strong in tone, comes through the wall in front of me.
“Are you okay?” Van shouts.
Silence for a beat. “Aye.”
I don’t believe him but there’s nothing I can do about it. To my right there’s a transparent wall of ice and I see movement, followed by the distorted shape of Caspian as he appears on the other side. I climb over and peer through, trying to make him out enough to see if he’s okay.
“The way is blocked,” he says rather unnecessarily.
“Give me the axe!” I demand over my shoulder.
Harrison hands it to me and I swing at the wall of ice. A crack appears. I swing again. And again and again.
“Captain!” Caspian calls. “It’s not doing anything—it’s too thick. I’ll find a way. Keep heading down—”
I don’t want to leave him. I don’t like that idea at all.
“It’s okay,” Caspian says.
His hand is on the ice overlapping where mine is pressed. I don’t even feel the cold. I can’t really read his expression but I know what he’s trying to say.
“I’ll find you,” I say gruffly.
I reluctantly turn away and follow the others, an uncomfortable feeling settling in me at the thought of how dangerous this place is to navigate alone.
It takes us hours to find a passageway that takes us back towards where we were originally headed.
I follow it, hoping it dumps into the original hallway, but instead we run into another cave-in.
We backtrack and try again. Again, another cave-in.
I see Van and Harrison exchange glances and I know what’s running through their minds.
What if Caspian is trapped from all sides?
The rest of the day is spent following the maze of hallways. From the way they’re laid out, I get the feeling we’re in the lower servants’ quarters—the labyrinth beneath the main floors, once used by the workers of this place. We don’t run into any more large halls, or open courtyards.
I’m carrying a torch because the light barely permeates down here.
The air is stale and bone-chillingly cold.
The walls seem to press in on us, and I feel the edge of claustrophobia creeping up on me.
The others feel it too, hunching their shoulders and keeping up a quick pace in an effort not to feel trapped.
There is not a moment I’m not thinking of Caspian. It’s an obsession, that uncomfortable feeling only intensifying the longer we go without finding him. There’s an urgency driving me, and I realize I haven’t thought about the gold once since leaving him.
Because maybe it’s not about the gold anymore—maybe it never was.