CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN #2
Eventually the canyon ends, and we are back on the path, under the canopy of leaves where the sun barely breaks through.
Thankfully our eyes adjust quickly to the dimmed lighting and we carry on, waiting for the next obstacle to pop up and make the next line in the journal make sense.
The only thing we suspect is that there is water involved, and I have a dread settling in the pit of my stomach that this might be one of the more dangerous things we come across.
“Are we there yet?” Jesper asks for what feels like the hundredth time.
We decided it was easier to mindspeak with each other, hoping it won’t draw any nearby creatures to us. The more we can stay undetected, the better.
Killian growls in our minds, and I can’t help the shiver that racks through my body at the primal sound. “Jesper, I swear on the Fates, if you keep asking that fucking question, I’ll let the beasts at you.”
He pouts. “I’m just so bored. I thought there would be more action than this. This is supposed to be ‘Death’s Forest’ but it’s all been too easy so far.”
“Be careful what you wish for, Jesper,” Aemon adds.
Talyn hisses. “Shh, do you hear that?”
I tilt my head to the side and it’s faint, but it sounds like running water. “I think we are almost at the next point.”
“Stay ready, ears and eyes open. Let’s move,” Aemon states, urging his horse on, and the rest of us follow in single file to make sure we stay on the path.
Nero takes off, flying ahead. “Just going to see what we are up against. I won’t be long.”
“Be careful and don’t land anywhere!” I tell him, my heart in my throat.
Thankfully he’s back within a couple minutes and his nervousness is vibrating through the bond. “Um. Sooo…”
“Just spit it out,” Jesper sighs.
He hisses at him before turning back to me, leaving the bond open so that my mates can hear his report.
“There’s a massive whirlpool. There’s a stream—or maybe a spring, but the brambles are so thick it’s hard to be sure.
It ends in the whirlpool so large it cuts right across our path.
There’s no way around: the woods surrounding it are so thick not even a mouse would get through it trying to escape me. ”
I swallow hard. This should be easy to figure out. “Talyn and I should be able to create a bridge for us to cross over it, but we would have to see it in person.”
“I don’t think that would be a problem. Great thinking, Princess.”
We bounce a few more ideas between each other as we make our way to the whirlpool, the sound of rushing water getting louder and louder the closer we get.
We break through the treeline into an extremely small clearing with just enough room for us to be side by side on our horses as we overlook the whirlpool in front of us. Violent waters spiral so fast it looks like they’ve cut their own path down into the earth.
“Fuck, this thing has to be at least thirty feet across,” Jesper mutters in awe as he bounces on his saddle, excited about this challenge.
“Surely this is some kind of test? This thing can’t be natural,” mutters Killian, eyeing the liquid tornado with suspicion and checking our six.
“Talyn and I should be able to create a bridge since there’s no canopy. Even if we could go off path, the second line of the riddle said that we shouldn’t. I think this is our only option.” I hop down off my horse and stretch, shaking out my limbs a bit as I move closer to the edge of the pool.
“Don’t stand too close to the edge, Ravina,” Aemon warns, and Killian grumbles his agreement. I don’t blame them—there’s no way in the void I want to fall into that.
Talyn follows suit and steps up beside me.
We kneel against the ground, placing our hands against the moist dirt, and I feel our magick meld together, so easily now that we’ve fully bonded.
We pull vines and roots from the ground, twisting them to arch over the whirlpool, creating the base of a bridge before adding dirt to compact the creases so the horses can also cross.
“It’s not much, but we should be able to cross one at a time. It won’t hold more than that,” Talyn says while dusting off his hands on his pants.
“I’ll go first,” Aemon states. He gently guides his horse up onto the makeshift bridge and we all hold our breath as he crosses. When he gets to the other side, I expel the air that was trapped in my lungs.
“Me next,” Talyn states, which means it’s me right after.
He’s about halfway over the bridge when the water stops churning and something blasts out of the center, nearly taking out the bridge.
“Talyn!” I scream as I pull my sword from its sheath. My eyes widen as I realize what just emerged from the whirlpool. “Look away! Basilisk!”
The serpent-like beast casts a huge shadow over Aemon as it approaches him.
Remembering the way Gretchen protected the two of us all those years ago, I summon fire to my hands and blast the beast as best I can while not looking directly at it.
This one is much larger than the ones Gretchen and I saw when I was a fledgeling.
The beast bellows, and I fling my magick at it.Talyn follows my lead, now on the far side uch closer to it. I’m relieved he made it across, but that is momentarily lasting when another expels itself from the whirlpool. Their nest must be right underneath us.
Killian roars a battle cry, fighting with his eyes closed as this one comes straight at us. His sword arches, slashing the beast. It screams, and is answered by the other. They must be partners. Jesper is just ahead of me, fighting the one on our side, dancing around the beast as it strikes.
Talyn and I focus on our fire, making sure our gazes stay to the ground.
With Aemon and the others keeping the beasts distracted, we manage to hit the basilisks, their scales catching on fire.
I throw more magick, even after the beasts stop their death throes, urging the flames to burn brighter, hotter, until the corpses are nothing but ash before using the water to put out the flames. We don’t need a wildfire starting.
“Hurry, while you can!” Aemon calls.
I rush back to my horse and throw myself up Jesper joins me on mine, his horse having turned to stone. We race across the bridge and Killian follows quickly. We don’t know if there are more, but I’m not willing to risk it.
As soon as Killian’s horse’s hooves touch solid ground we take off along the forest path, wanting to get as much distance between us and that whirlpool as possible.
“Holy fuck,” Jesper states, his arms tightening around my waist.
“If I never see one of those again, I’d be happy for the rest of my life,” Talyn says, raking his fingers through his hair.
We all murmur our agreements as we slow the horses to a walk and catch our breath, the forest somehow seeming even more quiet as we continue.
It must be at least halfway through the day and I never thought I would be the one saying this, but I miss the sun.
Usually I’m more inclined to enjoy the wintery peaks and dark that winter brings.
Aemon suddenly comes to a halt. “I think we have another problem on our hands.”
I try to peer around the two males in front of me but I can’t see anything.
He continues. “I think I figured out part of what the smudged line was. We have a fork in the path, and I’m assuming only one way is right.”
Killian curses, and I slump into Jesper, taking comfort from him while my brain kicks into overdrive to come up with a plan. If there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that the wrong choice in this forest leads to death or serious injury, which in here is more like a prolonged death.
“Nero, let me jump into your mind. We can fly down one of the paths together and see what’s there.”
“No,” Killian states. “What if he gets killed? You die too. I won’t risk it.”
I sigh and reach out toward Kill’s bond, trying to comfort him. “We are already risking our lives by being here. We will fly as high as we can, and Nero is fast, plus I’ll have the four of you here to watch over me and tell you what I see as we see it.”
“Kill, it’s a good idea. Let her do this,” Aemon says.
He growls. “Fine, but you hurry that ass back here or I’m turning it red the moment we get out of this forest.”
“Deal.” I hold Nero up on my arm in front of me. “Are you ready?”
“Let’s do this.”
I grab a hold of my familiar bond and follow it through, and when I open my eyes, I’m looking at myself, and Fates do I look rough. My hair is a mess and I have dirt on my nose.
Jesper looks at Nero and smiles. “Awe, my mate makes such a pretty birdy.”
Nero bites his finger and flies off. “He never calls me a pretty birdy, but when you’re in my body, all of a sudden I’m pretty. I may need to move him down a notch on my favourites list.”