Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
The mountains in the heart of the Withered Undulations tower above us like sleeping giants, their peaks lost in wisps of cloud that curl around them with a lover-like embrace. Ancient forest stretches in every direction, hiding ruins that books claim exist but can only be found through hunting.
Just like this damn portal we’ve searched for since departing the palace yesterday.
With each passing hour, Sterling’s shoulders grow more rigid, and I catch the twitch in his jaw that means he’s grinding his teeth again.
We all have our wings out, using the enhanced vision that comes with them. We’re utilizing every advantage we have.
And still, nothing.
“We’ve walked the entire perimeter of this cave twice.” Sterling drags a hand through his dark hair for perhaps the twentieth time today. His fingers leave furrows resembling a freshly plowed field. “Our notes on the map said—”
“It said ‘vicinity of the northern peak.’” I share his frustration, the emotion a low-grade fever in my blood. “That covers a lot of ground.”
Agnar slaps a palm against the stone wall. The hollow clang echoes deeper into the cave. “Excellent progress, wouldn’t you say? At this rate, we’ll find it by next winter. Maybe the one after.”
I shoot him a look that he pretends not to see while his blue eyes scan the ceiling like the answers might be written there. His sheathed sword bumps against his leg as he shifts his weight in the nervous habit of a man who’d rather be taking action than standing around.
I press my palm against the cool stone wall, seeking…something.
Anything.
My fire magic tingles beneath my skin, but I hold it back. Magic responds to magic. That’s what the old texts say.
Then I see it.
A shimmer in the rock face, like the air above a bonfire but more subtle.
“Wait.” I gesture straight ahead. “Look.”
Sterling and Agnar both pivot. Sterling’s brow furrows, but Agnar’s eyes widen ever so slightly. “What is that?”
I gravitate closer. “The rock…it’s moving.”
As I approach, the gleam intensifies, spreading like ripples in a pond.
Sterling’s fingers close around my arm in gentle warning, but I slip from his grasp, lured forward by an inexplicable urge.
Magic recognizes magic…and something inside me recognizes this.
Before our eyes, the rock melts away like dispersing mist rather than crumbling stone, revealing a crystalline archway that wasn’t there a moment ago. These are the same kind of crystals that cover the temples.
Anticipation builds as the three of us exchange glances. No words necessary.
Finally. We’ve found the way through.
I flex my fingers and summon a small flame, letting the blaze dance across my palm before shaping it into an orb that hovers just above my open hand. The fire casts warm light that pushes back the darkness and creates strange shifting shadows on the cave walls.
The crystals catch and split the flickering light into dazzling colors I’ve never witnessed before. Shades that shouldn’t exist and have no name.
A shiver quakes my body as I step through the archway. “Stay close.”
Beyond the entrance, a high, narrow passageway lined with massive crystal formations awaits. Ancient. Impossibly old. They jut out from the walls like giant beehives, translucent and seemingly filled with old honey, the amber fluid trapped in geometric prisons.
My flame illuminates the formations in unsettling ways, refracting and reflecting until finding the light’s origin becomes impossible.
The effect is beautiful but wrong, like tumors formed of jewels.
As I stare at them, my stomach begins to writhe.
“Anyone else feel that?” Agnar’s voice is strangely muffled.
I don’t need to ask what he means. The crystals vibrate in intermittent waves that cause my ears to pop repeatedly. A metallic tang clings to the air.
Sterling says something, but his words echo and distort until they’re incomprehensible. When Agnar replies, his voice is swallowed entirely, as if the air itself is eating the sound.
If Sterling’s hand weren’t still on my arm, I’d be terrified of losing them both.
As we venture farther down the passage, the temperature fluctuates.
One moment, my breath clouds before me, and my fingers numb with cold despite my flame. The next, sweat trickles down my spine, and I battle the urge to extinguish my fire because of the unbearable heat.
Agnar wipes his palm on his shirt before gripping his sword hilt again, knuckles white. Sterling prowls forward with careful precision, each step measured while he constantly scans our surroundings.
The farther we go, the stranger things become.
On my next step, the ground tilts at an impossible angle. I gasp, bracing to slide down it like a child’s playground slope, but nothing happens. My feet remain planted as if the ground were still level, though my mind screams otherwise.
“Don’t look down.”
Though I can hear him clearly again, Sterling’s advice comes too late.
I peek at the ground, and my stomach lurches with vertigo.
Ahead of us, gravity seems to reverse in patches. Loose stones float upward in spinning, cylindrical sections like inverted underwater whirlpools.
Agnar extends a tentative hand into one of these phenomena. Immediately, an invisible force pulls his arm upward. He yanks it back. “I don’t like this.”
I shudder. “The feeling’s mutual.”
We press on because we have no choice and dodge what we can. The passage narrows even more, and I inch through it only to find myself lunging forward and covering twenty paces in a single stride.
Sterling cradles my elbow to steady me. “Careful. The distances aren’t what they seem.”
“You think?” My next step barely moves me at all, as if space itself is fan-pleated, expanding and contracting at random.
To my left, a crack appears in the floor, widening into a chasm that didn’t exist seconds ago.
I jerk back, heart hammering.
The crevice seals itself just as quickly, leaving no trace behind. “It’s like the laws of nature are fighting among themselves.”
Sterling cocks his head to the side, as if listening to something only he can hear. His eyes carry that distant haze they get when he’s working with his magic. “The water. I can feel it everywhere.”
He extends his fingers, and tiny droplets of moisture appear from nowhere, coalescing into a thin stream. The water flows ahead of us along the tunnel, bending and curving to avoid invisible obstacles.
The unease dripping through me shifts into a languid trickle of fear.
I squeeze his hand. “What’s happening?”
“The water shows the safe path.” His eyes stay fixed on the liquid’s movement. “Where it travels freely, we can walk. We shouldn’t step where it distorts or breaks.”
I eye the stream with suspicion. “Because that’s not weird or anything.”
After Sterling nudges me, we follow the elemental guidance, growing more confident as we progress without issue.
Then the booms begin.
The first one, a low, resonant sound that rumbles through the passage like distant thunder, catches us off guard. We stop short, hands on our weapons. Another boom shakes the ground. Then another.
Followed by…silence.
Sterling sways into the wall. Afraid he might fall, I grab his arm.
“Sterling?”
“The water here…” Radiance imbues his face, and his eyes brighten. “It’s everywhere. In the air, the crystals, the stone. It’s like…”
Agnar tilts his head as if listening before kneeling and pressing his ear to the ground. “Like what?”
“Like I’ve been reading single words my whole life, and suddenly I can see entire libraries.” Sterling extends his hand again, and this time the moisture droplets prance around his fingers in complex patterns. “The water wants to be shaped. It’s alive.”
My neck tingles. I’ve never heard him speak of his power this way. Sterling is always practical about his abilities, using them efficiently, strategically.
This level of reverence is new…along with the idea of an element wanting something. My fire has never shared any desires with me. Unless…what am I missing?
The passage begins to climb, steeply at first, and then more gradually. The air changes, carrying a new, fresh quality. Ambient light appears, though I can’t identify the source. My flame seems dimmer now, less necessary, but I maintain the fire out of habit. And to stay vigilant.
We venture up the spiraling path. The crystal formations grow larger and more complex. Some pulse with internal light in time with the distant booms that continue intermittently.
Without warning, the narrow passage ends.
Beyond it, we find…absolute nothingness.
No floor, no walls, no ceiling. Just open, swirling space filled with glowing pinpoint stars that swirl in anomalous patterns. The void twirls and eddies like a whirlpool of light and shadow.
Beyond the nothingness lies a vast, verdant meadow.
Lush grass ripples in a breeze. Wildflowers, surrounded by trees with silver bark and golden leaves, explode in brilliant colors. Sunlight bathes everything, but how? How can the sun reach deep inside a mountain?
Crystal forms the “sky” above the meadow, refracting colorful prisms. Stars wheel through this bright “sky” in slow, deliberate constellations.
A fragrant breeze caresses my face, carrying the scent of autumn leaves, crisp air after a storm, sunbaked grass, and something that reminds me of the pure air of a cold winter night.
“Well,” Agnar stares, eyes wide, “that’s properly godly, isn’t it?”
Another boom—this one louder and closer—echoes. The noise is followed by deep sonorous voices angrily arguing in a language I don’t recognize.
With each boom, the glimmering formations on the walls pulse like heartbeats. Goose bumps erupt over my skin.
I’m starting to feel as if we marched right into the stomach of an enormous crystal beast.
Agnar grips his sword hilt. “Not liking those booms.”
“Same.” Those noises are concerning, but what can we do? Retreat? Everything in me screams yes, to haul ass out of this unnatural place. But we came here for a reason.
We need this passage.
I gesture to the whirling, sparkling mist of nothingness before us. “How do we get across that?”
The void might be ten paces across, or it might be fathomless. Distances are meaningless here.
A reply emanates from the air itself. “You don’t.”
The voice surrounding us comes from everywhere and nowhere.
Before I can freak out about that, a figure emerges from the void as if walking through an invisible door.
His armor twinkles like liquid starlight.
Weapons gleam in both his hands, but they shift shapes even as I watch.
A sword morphs into a spear before changing into an axe, followed by an object I have no name for.
Energy swirls around him. Magic beyond my experience. Not elemental like mine or Sterling’s, but something wilder. Ancient.
“You should not be here.” The command in his voice hums through my bones. “You do not belong.”
His hands wrap around the shifting hilts of his weapons.
Oh. Shit.