Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
FRID
My breath sounded loudly in the empty chamber.
The quivering surface of the water reflected the light of the torch, but the flame was slowly dying down.
I lifted myself up, baring my teeth. My skin had already healed, but my muscles still ached.
After the rush was over, my body felt empty and lacking energy.
My head spun and my vision nearly got blurry.
Despite all that, the night was not over.
I had to get back to the compound, even if that meant that I would have to face the remaining dragons.
With that thought, I picked up the torch and waited until the fire reignited on its own.
The sounds of dripping water echoed against the walls, and boomed in my ears.
Slowly, I made my way through the tunnel toward the center of the temple.
I still did not know how I managed to repel all the other beasts from coming inside.
My boots were soaked, there was still at least an inch of water inside them, and my wool socks readjusted around my feet in the most annoying way.
If only I could take them off and dry out, but in the situation I was currently in, that was impossible.
Finally, I made it to the front room. The entrance was still wide open.
Beyond it, the sky remained pitch black.
I reached the threshold and slowly moved behind one of the door panels.
I carefully pulled it away from the wall, just enough to leave a narrow opening to see out of.
In the clearing, sat one of the crawler dragons.
It did not move, it was as still as a statue.
Fucker! Maybe if I flew really fast I could make it to the hill?
I chewed on my lip, staring at the decayed shape.
No. There may be others on the roofs, quietly waiting for their next prey. If I tried to get away in the air, they could surround me in minutes. There would be no chance of surviving that.
I crouched on the floor, staring at the street.
If there was one aspect I did not excel at it was, waiting, waiting, waiting.
With nothing to do, dark thoughts filled my head as my memories went back to all the things I had been through.
All the pain and loathing, experiencing it again and again.
Always bringing with them a strange mixture of self pity and self depreciation.
That was probably one of the reasons I liked my friends. None of them were particularly sensitive. We barely talked about feelings, and that was what I needed. My thoughts switched to Alina. She was extremely sensitive, feminine, and careful with the feelings of others.
Was that what men wanted? Were they looking for someone who could support them emotionally?
I tried to remember if I ever supported Victor with my words, and nothing came to mind.
I wasn’t particularly gentle with him.
I smirked at the thought.
A faint growl came from outside. I placed my hand on my dagger, watching through the opening.
The sound of slow, unsteady steps grew closer.
I stayed where I was. Only a moment later, the crawler stepped right in front of me and I could clearly see its face.
It was a woman in ragged clothes that hung off her body, barely covering her chest. Black veins intertwined on the surface of her skin in places where the blood no longer flowed.
Her lidless white eyes looked past me, but she just stood there.
Her rugged, low, guttural exhale was faint as her breathing slowed.
It seemed that she looked right at me, and for a moment, it felt like she could see me, really see me.
Then she simply wandered away, moving along the front of the building.
I released my breath.
With one last, careful look outside, I quietly closed the double doors. I collected the extinguished torch and placed it between the two handles, securing the entrance. The sky was turning light blue when I stretched out on the floor behind one of the columns, and tried to make myself comfortable.
When I opened my eyes, the temple was partially lit by strips of orange sunlight.
I looked up at the ceiling. In all my previous visits to this place, I never noticed the row of circular windows high above.
To be fair, every time my feet stepped on to the sacred lands, I was either close to death, or carrying someone who was close to death on my back.
I sat up, battling the numbness in my legs. Sleeping on the floor was not ideal. The cool stone slowly chilled my body, making my already fatigued muscles hard and achy. The back of my skull hurt as if someone took a swing at me while I slept. Slowly, I got to my feet, stretching my limbs.
What is he doing right now? Probably still lounging in our comfortable bed.
I made my way to the doors and carefully removed the torch.
The clearing was filled with the warm and bright morning light, no monster dragons in sight.
Several crawlers stood in the middle of the street slowly swaying on their unsteady feet.
I took a step forward, keeping an eye on the sky and the roofs of the buildings around me.
There was no way I could transform and fly back, I had no clue as to where the monsters were.
The safest plan was to make my way toward the commune on foot, as far as I could.
I still remembered that the compound had another tunnel I could use. The one by the well.
I took out my dagger and the familiar weight of my blade filled me with confidence. All I had to do was stay close to the buildings, ready to take cover.
That shouldn’t be too hard. I could do this.
With this thought pounding in my head, I darted to the closest building.
Everything seemed quiet on the street. The abandoned storefronts with dusty gray windows looked less than cheerful in the rays of the golden light.
I scrutinized the old signs: bakery, florist, cobbler.
On the corner was a tiny art gallery. The painted canvases, torn from the frames, laid on the ground in front of the open door.
There was no simple way to make sense of this collision of two worlds.
One perished in just a matter of weeks, along with all its culture and traditions, while the other, devastating and cruel, emerged in the ruins like a poisonous plant.
While I spent my days in Darragh, or flying missions for the capital, the duality never stood out to me.
But staying in a city that perished after the first wave gave me a new insight to the lives that were lost.
I kept searching the rooftops while carefully stepping around the debris. Finally, I spotted the familiar street where the tunnel was.
Ahead of me, bodies of multiple crawlers were stretched out on the pavement.
Their skin, and the clothes they wore had turned pale, but they were still mostly intact.
No animal or insect would feast on the dead flesh.
Suddenly, a shape appeared on the street.
I immediately took cover behind a wooden post in the shade.
A small figure was timidly approaching the well.
It was a young girl with a bucket in her hand.
She was dressed in the same clothes the daughters of the commune wore.
But contrary to the inhabitants of the underground city, she looked dirty, her skirt was torn, and her hair was matted and tangled.
She looked like someone who has not had a good meal in a while.
Who was she?
I scrutinized her while she adjusted her bucket, and checked her surroundings.
Then she turned her head to the left and I followed her gaze.
A crawler was slowly walking toward her.
The girl continued to watch the undead, not in the least concerned.
The crawler paused and a familiar growl reached my ears.
I was going to step forward, but the girl froze, not moving a muscle.
After a long pause, the crawler shuffled its feet along the street walking in the opposite direction.
It did not see her as a threat because she did not move, did not react to it at all.
At the well, the girl moved the handle like she had done it many times before. She lifted the attached bucket and steadily filled the empty one. I could not stop staring at her thin arms, her neck with its tendons clearly visible on the surface of her skin.
She was about to leave and I had to make a decision.
Do I let her go, or make my presence known?
But I did not have time to think it through because she was already moving down the street, back the way she had come.
For a moment I stayed rooted to my spot.
I chewed on my lip, unable to decide. At last, I followed her, hiding my presence the best I could while keeping my distance.
The girl was too frail to carry her bucket, her skin appeared paper thin.
She looked like someone who was repeatedly exposed to the beating sun.
Everything about her screamed that she was in distress.
We spent thirty minutes travelling through the city, and then when buildings became scarce, we took a winding road, leaving the settlement behind.
Every time the girl encountered a crawler, she stayed motionless until the undead simply moved away.
Finally, she stepped on a long pathway between two abandoned buildings.
The ground was covered with shattered glass and pieces of wood and fabric.
I lifted my eyes to an enormous storage house up ahead.
What do we have here?
I could not help a smile.
This was it!
The place the high priestess wanted me to find.
The settlement was not far out in the wastelands. It was right under their noses, all along. It occurred to me that the presence of the crawler dragons was the reason no one wanted to search the area. I could not blame them, I barely made it out alive.
As the girl approached the building, I found more and more evidence that the place was occupied.
There were more buckets hanging on hooks along the walls of the building.
There was also a barrier closer to the entrance made out of furniture and repurposed iron rods that created a gate, securing the building from the front.
It was definitely the Scar’s place.
I switched my gaze back to the girl, wondering if she was one of the sisters.
Why would she willingly return to the building if she had been kidnapped as Mahin had said? She definitely went straight to the building on her own. If she was one of the disciples of the goddess, why not run? She had to know multiple entrances leading to the compound.
I frowned, watching her enter the building. One of the enforced steel doors opened with a dull metallic crack, letting the girl in. It was too dark to tell who was on the other side.
The girl clearly lived there. She was alone, no one was watching her, she could escape, and yet, she walked straight in.
They couldn’t be that bad then. I could walk over there and simply knock.
Or could they? What if Mahin was right? What if I’m ambushed once inside?
No. I wouldn’t risk it.
Slowly, I took a step back.