Chapter 13 #2
She shivered. “Dangerous mines, remember, Kavon? You need to focus.”
He slid a hand down and patted her thigh. “I remember. I will also not forget that payback.”
Soon, the warriors were all settled in the mine carts. Colm released the brake on his, the metal screeching with age, and his cart disappeared into the darkness. Kavon reached over the edge and released his brake. With a small jerk, the cart moved forward.
They gathered speed. The tunnel walls whizzed past them, just murky shadows beyond the light of the wand. The tunnels dipped and turned, and sometimes ran straight. At other times, they twisted down in a spiral, taking them into the depths of the mine.
“This reminds me of a ride I took at the theme park on Yavik,” Aurina called back breathlessly. “Just a little darker and scarier.”
“I do not believe people would do this for fun.”
She snorted. “Of course you wouldn’t.”
Suddenly, Colm shouted from ahead. Kavon grabbed at the brake and yanked it. Metal shrieked against metal, and the cart slowed.
Ahead, he saw Colm’s cart stopped at a huge pile of rocks.
The tunnel had collapsed.
Kavon glanced back and bellowed for the others to stop.
Then he caught Colm’s gaze. The shadows cast his friend’s face in sharp relief as he lifted his chin. “There’s no way through. End of the line.”
“No, the map says the tunnels continue.” Aurina climbed out of the cart. She stared at the huge pile of rocks and cursed. “It must go through there. If I hadn’t burned out my laser…”
“We’d have been eaten by the trondor,” Kavon said from behind her.
“We need to get through these rocks. We’ve come too far to give up now.”
He nodded. “Warriors, let’s move these rocks.”
She stayed clear as the men got to work shifting rocks. Two of them together could move some of the big ones. She was woman enough to admit she enjoyed seeing the flex and bulge of Kavon’s muscles as he hefted rocks. Okay, all of the warriors were prime specimens.
Finally, Kavon told them to stop. He was frowning.
“What is it?” She pushed forward.
And stared at a huge, blank wall of rock.
The track stopped just short of it.
“It doesn’t continue?” That couldn’t be right.
She pressed her hands to the rock. It was smooth, nothing unique about it.
No joints, no door, nothing. She snatched up her Sync, paging through the ancient maps.
“It’s right here. The tunnel continues onto what looks like a large open area.
This is wrong.” She waved a hand at the wall.
A hand touched her shoulder. “Or the map is wrong. The maps are old. The memories of the few survivors who made it out of the tunnels were likely muddled.”
“No.” She shook her head. “There’s a way. I know it.”
He forced her to turn and face him. “Your dedication to this quest is admirable. I have enjoyed watching you as you’ve pieced this together.
You’ve brought me closer to finding Durendal than anyone or anything before.
But your beacon is no longer contingent on finding the sword.
” His face was strangely blank. “I will give you the beacon.”
She blinked. Hell, those were the words she’d been so desperate to hear…
so why wasn’t she jumping for joy? She stared at the man in front of her.
Her big, tall warrior. Respected leader, honored warlord, brilliant lover.
A man who, in such a short time, had pushed her and tested her, made her angry, happy, and thrilled all at once.
A man she was falling in love with.
Her throat closed and she felt lightheadedness hit her.
She was falling in love with Kavon.
And he was going to give her the beacon and let her go.
She cleared her throat. “This isn’t about the beacon anymore.”
He tilted his head. “What is it about, then?”
She looked around at the warriors watching them.
Right, she so did not want to have this conversation here.
“It’s about finding the sword. For you, your family, your father, your people.
I’d do anything to honor my mother. I understand what you’re trying to do, and I’m not giving up.
” She thrust her hands on her hips and looked around.
“The tunnels continue downward. We just have to figure out where.”
Kavon was silent for a second, then nodded, his eyes glowing. “Warriors, we search.”
The men scrambled, studying every inch of their surroundings. Aurina stared at the metal and wood track. She crouched to look closer. It was an interesting design, the metal wrapped around the wood. As she touched the metal, it glowed, and she snatched her hand back.
“Nanami,” Kavon said. “They infuse the metal. That is why the track in this part of the mine is in such good condition.”
She touched a design etched into the side of the track. “This almost looks like writing. You really have to?—”
The ground beneath them dropped several inches.
The warriors cried out and Aurina lost her balance, falling squarely on her ass. She snatched up her fallen light wand and looked around. A five-by-five-meter square of stone had dropped down in the floor. As she watched, it dropped another few inches.
Kavon hauled her up and wrapped his arms around her. “We need to get off this?—”
The platform dropped…and this time it didn’t stop.
It picked up speed, air rushing past them. As they whizzed downward, the warriors shouted. All around them was a vast, empty darkness.
Viken teetered on the edge of the platform, crying out. The others grabbed at him, but as the platform gathered speed, the warrior lost his balance and fell off the edge.
Colm knelt at the edge before bellowing a curse.
Aurina gasped and pressed her face against Kavon’s chest.
He muttered a curse against her hair, his arms tightening around her.
She wasn’t sure how long they fell. It felt like hours, but in reality she knew it must have only been a few minutes. The platform started to slow. The warriors all crouched near the center, hands touching the ground to keep their balance.
Then it jerked to a stop, and she was thrown against Kavon.
She pulled back.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded. He looked fine, his long hair windblown.
“Colm?” Kavon asked.
“Fine.” The warrior stood, his face a little pale. “Viken—” His voice was grim. “The fall was too high to have survived.”
Oh, God. She swallowed the lump in her throat. The warrior had been nice, in the prime of his life.
A muscle ticked in Kavon’s jaw before he gave a short nod. “We can’t grieve for him now. He may not have been fighting an enemy, but it was a warrior’s death. On an honorable quest.”
The other warriors nodded, bowing their heads.
Finally, they all stepped off the platform and Aurina looked around. She gasped.
The platform was an elevator. She could see the framework and some complicated system that worked it. They’d descended deep below the mountain and were now in a giant cavern. This deep, the air was hot and thick.
And she could see.
The walls of the cavern all glittered with a shimmer of silver. Like the rocks were sprinkled with glitter.
“A primitive form of nanami,” Kavon breathed.
“I swear, if you could bottle and sell the stuff, you’d be the wealthiest planet in the galaxy.” She looked around, noting dozens of mine carts nearby. Some were still loaded with a sparkling ore.
“These nanami are unable to do what the nanami in our blood can do,” he added. “They are wild, simple, unable to be directed.” He looked around. “Where to now?”
She pulled up her Sync. “God, the maps fit. I thought they continued on the same level, but they are below the other tunnels.” She studied the map, then pointed. “That way. We need to go into that tunnel.”
Kavon nodded and his men moved in closer. “Everyone, watch where you step.”
As they approached the tunnel, she looked along the rock wall, and saw another entrance to the left and another to the right. In the light of nanami, she could see an entire row of tunnel entrances. The mine was huge.