2. Chapter Two Rhowyn
Chapter Two: Rhowyn
On the other side of the door were walls of stone covered in ivy and vines. The walkway in front of us stretched beyond the horizon that I could see. We glanced at each other briefly before I stepped forward into the maze.
When we had all made it inside, the door closed behind us with a resounding thud and disappeared. We were effectively trapped inside the largest maze I had ever seen.
“How was this entire thing hidden behind such a small area?” I asked in awe.
“Magic,” Baer said playfully.
“Not just any magic, but the magic of the land, which we all get our magic from,” Arryn elaborated.
“So, I guess we just keep walking? I'm not seeing any turns yet. Do y'all?” I asked.
“I don't see any more than you,” Lennox said, and the others made noises of agreement.
“Alright. Forward it is,” I said joked, trying to dispel the nervous energy coursing through me .
We walked at a quick pace, their longer legs eating up the ground before us, making me almost have to jog to keep up. I couldn't help the niggling sense that this seemed too easy. After all, this was supposed to be a trial.
“Guys,” I called out to them, causing them to slow and turn around. “Does this seem wrong to y'all?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t the one going crazy right now.
“I was about to say that something seems off,” Lennox grumbled as we slowed down even more.
“Now that you mention it, I can feel it too,” Baer said.
We stopped completely as we evaluated our surroundings further. My best guess was that we had made it halfway down the straight path, the way we had come from no longer in sight. “It feels like we haven't made any progress even though I can't see the entrance anymore.” I voiced my thoughts out loud, hoping they had more insight than I did. All I could go off of was my gut instinct, which was currently screaming at me that I was missing something.
“I still can't see a turn from here, as if the path goes on forever. Hell, for all I know, it could,” Arryn agreed, the tallest of my guys. Then he spoke as if to himself, deep in thought, “Is that the trial? To test our dedication to keep moving forward?”
“What if there's something behind these walls? Maybe a door we missed because the vines are so thick?” I asked, something behind the walls tugging at me, urging me in that direction.
“I mean, that's possible,” Baer said, stepping forward, about to brush the vines aside in an effort to get a better view of the wall, which stretched well above our heads, only the open, cloudless sky above us.
“Wait!” Arryn called out just before Baer touched the green foliage, a mere centimeter separating his skin from the plants.
He snatched his hand back, fear and shock on his face, especially after seeing the panic on Arryn’s. “What? ”
Arryn stepped closer to the vines to inspect them, all of us watching him. His signature calm nature returning now that Baer wasn’t in danger. “These are Sol Shadow vines, the thorns poisonous. They typically only grow in Summer Court and are known by the low fae as Devil’s Ivy.”
“How poisonous?” Baer asked nervously. In my opinion, anything with the name of Devil should be avoided at all costs. I gazed at the vines with a new respect, determined not to touch them.
“Not deadly, but they give horrific hallucinations that can last days,” Arryn explained.
“That was too close,” Baer muttered to himself, sighing before taking a step backward away from the vines, relief written in his body. Looking at Callum and Lennox, it was clear that we were all realizing that this maze would not just be a pleasant stroll in the park.
“Maybe we should treat the maze itself as hostile from here on out,” I suggested. “I sure won't be doing anything quickly.”
Baer laughed. “That sounds like a brilliant idea.” He slung an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into him to kiss my forehead, shaking off the shock and returning to his playful demeanor.
“So, how do we continue?” Lennox asked.
“I think if we’re careful, we can pull the vines back to at least look at the wall to see if we've missed something,” Arryn said, still deep in thought and studying the vines in front of him.
“That's easy for you to say,” Baer teased, but he released me and stepped forward again.
Arryn placed the stem of one of the vines between his thumb and forefinger, careful not to grab a thorn and bent the plant back. After watching him, the guys all stepped forward to help him until they had cleared a small area .
The stone of the wall that had now been revealed didn't show anything out of the normal. No hinges, no gaps, and no doorways. Just plain old stone. Callum stepped forward and pushed on a couple of random stones, which didn't budge.
“Okay. I guess that answers the question about whether or not we missed something,” I stated the obvious, trying to prompt a discussion of what to do now.
“Technically, it's just this area that doesn't have a door, but there's really no way we can clear the entire wall of vines to be sure. That would take too long,” Arryn replied, turning to face the direction we were initially heading, brow furrowed.
“What if I burn the vines away?” Callum asked him.
“We could, but I can't honestly remember if the poison is dangerous when burned. It could still cause hallucinations in its gaseous form,” Arryn told him.
“Then I could blow the air away from us or create a bubble of air for us to breathe from that's safe,” Baer chimed in excitedly, as a real plan started to take form.
Arryn continued to think about the ideas. “That could work,” he finally said, but didn't seem fully convinced.
“I say we should at least try.” I put in my two cents for what it was worth, considering I didn't know anything about this place or magic. I had to rely on these practical strangers to keep me safe. Despite what we’d already been through, I’d only known them for about a week. I sure hoped they knew what they were doing.
“Okay. It's better than wandering forever to find an end that may not even be there,” Arryn capitulated. “Baer, start a breeze pushing the fumes behind us.”
Baer did as instructed, and once we all felt the breeze on our faces, Callum focused and brought flames to his hands, which he sent toward the vines.
The vines didn't burn easily. A thick, gray smoke clogged the air coming from the moisture inside the vines. “At this rate, I'll burn out of magic. The vines are too wet,” Callum said to us.
“Let me try something,” Arryn said as he stepped up to a section of unburned vines and held out his hands. I watched the vines shrivel slowly as he pulled the water from the plants, his Earth affinity allowing him to manipulate the plants and pull the moisture from them. “Now try,” he told Callum after he had finished with a section.
Callum’s flames ate away at the dried vines a lot more quickly with less smoke and magic needed. “That works!”
Arryn just nodded and started to pull moisture from the next section of vines, Callum following behind to burn them away, and Baer pushing the fumes away from us.
We moved slowly like this for about thirty minutes, Lennox and I studying the cleared walls for any signs of a door, pressing on random stones as we followed. “Let's take a break,” I called out, seeing the fatigue starting to hit the guys from using so much magic. “I don't want y'all to burn out.”
“She's right, I could use a breather,” Baer said, prompting the guys to all pause and step away from the wall, sweat beading on their skin from the exertion.
Lennox and I observed the section they had just finished while they rested, but still, nothing had revealed itself. “What are we missing?” I asked myself, pushing on a random stone again in frustration. It shifted in my hands slightly. “Guys!” I called out as I pushed the stone again. “This stone is moving.”
The guys gathered around me. “Should I keep pushing on it?”
“It's definitely better than continuing on this way. I didn't want to say anything, but I was getting tired,” Arryn admitted.
I shoved again, but the stone only moved slightly, maybe about a millimeter. Callum came up beside me, his broad chest and muscles brushing against my arm. “Let me try?” he asked, somewhat nicely, to my surprise.
“Be my guest,” I told him as I stepped back and gestured my hands at the wall.
He took my place and pressed on the stone, managing to move it halfway out, his muscles bulging in delicious ways as I watched him work. He shoved again, and the stone clinked to the ground on the opposite side of the wall from us.
“What do you see?” I asked him, crowding closer to him and catching his leather and spice scent.
“Looks like just another stone wall covered in the same vines,” he said, frowning down at me. I could feel his confusion and frustration through our bond, especially this close to him.
“There's got to be more to it than this,” Lennox pondered out loud. “Can I see?”
Callum stepped back and allowed Lennox to take his place without a word. Lennox looked through the stone, and I crept up close to him, wanting to see as well, his smaller frame allowing me closer to the hole in the wall.
“I wonder….” Lennox said to himself as he reached his arm out carefully, so he didn't snag a poisonous thorn that still covered the other side, until his face was pressed up against the wall and his arm was shoulder deep. I could hear his hand grazing the stone on the other side as if searching for something.
I heard a snick, which caused a section of the wall to swing away from us. Lennox stumbled forward with it, trying not to fall into the vines that still covered the opening, keeping the door from opening fully. I grabbed him before he could lose his footing out of instinct and kept him from narrowly becoming tangled in the vines under his feet.
“Shit,” he hissedd, realizing how close he had come to being impaled by the poisonous thorns. “Thanks,” he said, looking back at me as I released him once he was stable again .
“No problem,” I responded to him. “What'd you do?”
“I thought there might be a latch on the other side. It didn't make sense that only one stone would be loose in this wall, which meant it had to have been loose on purpose,” he explained.
“Let's clear the way,” Arryn said, moving forward to start clearing the vines using their previous system, so that we could all walk through the new door.
We passed through it, hoping we'd have a new direction to go from here. Sure enough, on the other side of the wall, we could see where the path came to a “T”. Without consulting each other, we walked forward until we were standing in the intersection.
“Which way?” Baer asked.
“I haven't the slightest idea,” Lennox said.
A rumble shook through the ground, the vibration enough to make its way through my boots and up into my legs. “What was that?” I asked, startled by the sensation.
“I didn't feel anything,” Lennox said.
“I felt something rumble on the ground. Y'all didn't feel that?” I asked in shock, glancing at them.
They all looked at each other and back to me, but I could feel their denial through the bond. The ground shook harder this time, and I glanced at my feet and then back up to them as soon as it passed. “It happened again!”
Arryn stepped toward me, looking me over. “Are you sure you didn't touch any thorns?” he asked me, taking one of my arms and turning it over to inspect the skin. As he grabbed the other arm to inspect it, the shaking began again. This time it was more intense, causing me to grasp onto him for balance and out of fear. A loud rumble accompanied the feeling, only making me more certain that something large was coming closer.
“Okay. I definitely felt that,” Baer admitted, his own fear coursing down the bond.
“It's got to be something large moving toward us,” I said, hoping one of them knew what was causing the mini earthquake.
“I don't know,” Callum said, only causing my concern to grow.
“Wait,” Lennox muttered, gesturing down the left side of the intersection. “Are the walls moving?” His shock barreled down the bond, and we all turned quickly to look at where he was pointing.