Chapter 16
Wodred
As I rise from the cavern floor, my only thought is for Melelea.
“Melelea!” I exclaim. “Are you hurt? Injured?”
“I-I’m fine,” the trolless replies through chattering teeth. “J-just a little sh-shaken.”
Something’s wrong. She shouldn’t be acting this chilled. Not if her heat charm is still working. Without thinking, I reach forward, gently pulling her cloak back from her body. Little shards of glass fall as I do, tinkling on the stone floor. The remains of the heat charm.
“Your heat charm must have broken when we fell,” I tell her gravely. “We’ve no way to fix it.”
Melelea shivers violently, a rueful expression on her face. “Oh. I-I thought I was j-just in shock.”
In the extremely low light of the cave, it is difficult to see, even with my orc eyes, but from what I can see, she looks paler than usual.
Deathly pale, except where her cheeks and tip of her nose are purpling as the blood rushes there to try to keep her warm.
Her shivers are getting even more violent, her teeth and tusks chattering uncontrollably.
“We need to share warmth,” I say, pulling back my cloak. Heat wafts forward as I do, the warmth from my own heat charm radiating out of the confines of my cloak.
Melelea doesn’t argue, merely nodding and crawling forward onto my lap and into the effective range of my charm. I let my cloak fall shut around her, and she shudders with relief, leaning into my chest. She feels frozen in my arms, and I begin to chafe her limbs to bring warmth back faster.
I am unsettled. I can still see the imps clawing at Melelea, trying to carry her away as the storm raged around us.
They were targeting her from the beginning.
It dawns on me that Melelea is a magic user, the very thing that Grazrath has been collecting to increase his power.
And we’ve delivered her straight to his doorstep.
Now we’re trapped, neatly, waiting for the imps to dig us out and take Melelea.
I cast my eyes at the wall of snow in front of the cave mouth.
It appears thick and deep. It will take effort to dig it away, but not impossible.
We have time before they can fish us out, but not forever.
I doubt Grazrath will let Melelea go, not when he seems so intent on taking her.
Then there is the question of air in the cave.
How much time do we have in that regard?
I look to the back of the cave and am surprised to see wooden frames lining the inside of the cavern.
Is this an abandoned mine of some kind? That could be good news.
Depending on how deep the mine goes, there could be plenty of air and maybe even an alternate way out. We must get moving.
But something about the trolless in my lap stops me from saying my thoughts aloud.
Though the shudders from the cold are diminishing, her body still trembles lightly with exhaustion.
I remember her arms shaking as she did her wayfinding.
The amount of magic she expended must have been enormous. Can she even move right now?
“Are you fit to travel?” I ask.
“Hmm?” murmurs Melelea, her voice weak. “Travel?”
“We are in an old mine,” I tell her. “There may be another way out. We should get moving as soon as we are able.”
I feel like a cruel taskmaster saying this to her when she is so obviously depleted, but it is true. We need to get out of here and not wait around for the imps to dig us out.
“I don’t know,” Melelea responds truthfully. “I overtaxed my mana outside. All I want to do is sleep . . .”
My jaw clenches. We are in a bad state, that is the truth.
Trapped in a mine, cut off from our companions who might not even be alive, and waiting to be delivered to a demon.
Now, to top it off, Melelea is weakened and without a heat charm.
It is hard to think of a way that things could be more dire.
No, that’s not true. At least we are alive. Melelea is alive. I’ve experienced the pain of losing her once. I never want to experience that again. And I won’t. But, first, I must make sure that she can make the journey into the mountain safely.
“Then sleep,” I say to Melelea. “We can’t stay here indefinitely, but I can give you an hour or so of rest before we have to move.”
“Thank you, Wodred,” Melelea replies, turning her face so that it rests on my shoulder. “Sorry for my weakness.”
“You are never weak,” I rumble at her. “You saved us innumerable times on the mountain face. Do not forget that.”
But Melelea is already nodding off, her tangy lemon-ginger scent wafting up at me as she finds slumber.
I carefully put my arms around her, supporting her as she sleeps on my lap.
As I do, feeling the precious weight in my arms, I make a vow to any gods that might be listening.
I will get us out of this mess in one piece, no matter if I have to defy demons and Fate itself to do it.
This is a vow I’ll never break.