Chapter 9
H is body tensed under her arm. He strained to hear what she had.
“It’s a sharp sound,” she whispered. “Do you not hear it?” The sound was faint; she could barely notice it past the atmospheric sounds of the cave, but it seemed to be getting closer.
“I do not hear it,” he replied. “But I do believe you.”
“It comes toward us.”
They both looked out at the yawning cave before them. Nothing but darkness for Aelrie, but the sound grew louder the longer she stared.
“I hear it now,” he said. “It is a sound as if metal scrapes against stone.”
“Should we run away? Back through the cave?”
“Through the dark?” he questioned. “We would not make it.”
“Tell me what you see. I can see nothing but darkness.”
“I see a bend ahead of us. It heads to the left. But that is all.”
She continued holding onto his arm, not letting go for anything.
“The cave,” he said after a moment. “It has gotten wider, larger than before, the size and appearance of a hall. The farther we travelled, the change took place. You did not notice because you could not see.”
“The sound.” She breathed in. “It comes.”
“Ready your blade,” he said.
Her fingers trembled in the dark as she fumbled for the dagger in her boot, but once they gripped her blade, they calmed.
“ Logi ,” the Dark Elf called out. A flame ball appeared above his hand, which he placed onto his dagger, turning it into a fire blade. He could enchant. He knew the fire magic spell. “Let me see your blade.” She handed him her dagger, and he enchanted hers as well, turning it into a fire blade.
“Thank you,” she breathed, looking at the blade glow, ignited in enchanted flame, glad she now had an edge in the fight to come and a small source of light, even if it only illuminated what it was up against.
“It won’t stay enchanted for long, so make the first strike count,” he warned.
She could see traces of his face now in the glow from their fire blades, and she gave him a solemn nod.
“The element of surprise is all we have,” he told her, directing her to stay on the right wall. “We must take it. And ambush whatever comes round.”
A yellow glow emerged from the left. It was small at first, but it grew until she could see the outline of the walls of the cave, how wide they were, and how high the ceiling was. She could not see how far up the ceiling went past the gloom. Both things bore ominous tidings.
What manner of place was this ?
A loud snort came from the left as the yellow light bobbed up and down. Someone or something was holding a lantern. Then came the sound of bulky footsteps and the scraping sound she’d heard earlier, but louder.
The lantern emerged first, being thrust forward by a hand, and then came …
horns. Curved black horns were followed by the face of a bull on a hulking creature that turned around the bend.
It carried a vicious-looking axe on its back that had a long, thin needle at the top made for stabbing, and this blade atop the axe was the thing making the scraping sound on the stone floor.
Without a signal or word spoken between them, in tandem, they jumped from their hiding places and stabbed the minotaur in its thighs with their fire blades, Aelrie on its left and the Dark Elf on its right.
The minotaur was as huge as the legends told, and they barely came up to its waist. It roared in pain and lifted its heavy axe up above its head in response—the enchanted blades had seared deep into its leathery hide where ordinary daggers would have failed.
The lantern tumbled from the beast’s hand and clattered to the stone floor, spilling golden light across the chamber. The darkness parted, revealing their location, but now they could see. Fumbling around in the dark with an enraged minotaur swinging its battle axe at you was not ideal.
The minotaur’s axe slammed down, just inches from her skull.
She leapt back, but the shockwave knocked her off her feet.
She struggled to recover as her vision spun.
Gritting her teeth, one hand clutching her head, she fought to stay alert.
But a flash of light caught her attention.
She shot her head up to see the minotaur’s shiny black horns glistening in the lantern light, pointed straight at her.
He was charging her! She didn’t have time to get out of his path, and there wasn’t much room in the cave.
“Logi!” The Dark Elf’s yell cut through, and a fire bolt blasted into the minotaur’s back, stopping him in his tracks.
With the minotaur turned on the Dark Elf now, she was able to stand. Her fire blade was spent, and her dagger couldn’t cut through his flesh as it was. She had to get to a more vulnerable part of him, like his eyes. But he was so big that there was no way to reach them.
The minotaur went for the Dark Elf, slamming his axe down on his head. But one moment, the Dark Elf was in front of the minotaur, and the next, he was gone.
Behind the minotaur, he ran to her to check that she was alright. She stared at him, trying to judge whether he was really there or not.
The minotaur growled, enraged at missing again. It turned to face them, crouching down, horns forward, ready for another charge.
The Dark Elf wrapped his arms around her in an embrace. In the blink of her eyes, Aelrie had her back to the wall about to be crushed into it, and the next, she was behind the minotaur, near where the Dark Elf had been earlier.
A loud bang sounded from where she once stood, but a heartbeat ago. The minotaur had rammed itself headfirst into the stone wall. He grunted, trying to move, but was stuck there and struggled to push against the wall to free his horns.
The Dark Elf grabbed the lantern on the floor. “Hurry while he’s preoccupied,” he said and took hold of her with his other hand. Aelrie obliged, and they ran together through the cave.
The walls around them came into view, passing her by in a blur, painted a weathered off-yellow with undecipherable orange runes written across. There were also long torches, which finally gave them the light they desperately needed.
The Dark Elf threw the lantern down; it was impeding his speed.
This mysterious place, full of walls, had many twists and turns. “Keep going right!” the Dark Elf told her. They ran side by side through the wide-spaced halls.
Keep going right. That’s what one did in a maze. Then this was a labyrinth. That’s right, minotaurs guarded labyrinths because labyrinths held treasures.
There were bodies littering the floor. She had to take care as she ran not to trip over them.
Some were skeletons, their flesh rotted off long ago, and they weren’t all intact; ribcages were broken in two, and skulls were in shattered pieces.
Others were “fresher,” and Aelrie tried not to look at them, or what was left of them. It was a grim sight.
Some were Dark Elves, but there were other elves too, and even many orcs who came to try their luck to brave the labyrinth and claim its treasure, but all of whom fell victim to the minotaur’s axe, or his charge, as some of the bodies were stuck in the walls from the impact.
And that is what would’ve happened to her earlier if the Dark Elf hadn’t saved her somehow.
How had he done that? He’d disappeared like that before. She had a suspicion he’d used the same tactic in Emerald Forest when she attacked him, but he’d disappeared and then reappeared behind her with a blade to her throat.
She was a fast runner and usually had to check behind her that others kept up, but glancing over at the Dark Elf, she was somewhat surprised he hadn’t fallen behind. Usually, she won the races, no matter her opponent.
Well, they were running for their lives.
The walls stretched on and had no sign of ending. Sprinting at full speed like this was tiring and dangerous with how many bodies littered the floor, which they could trip over. She slowed down to a jog. The Dark Elf slowed down beside her.
“What do we do?” Aelrie asked, catching her breath. “We cannot go on like this forever.”
The Dark Elf huffed his breaths quickly in and out. He was clearly as exhausted as she, maybe even more so. “The monster … does … not follow … anymore,” he said between drags of breath.
“Let’s stop.”
The Dark Elf stopped running and caught his breath.
“You’re fast,” she said, and he turned his head to her, a little surprised by it. Did he think it was a compliment? Well, it was like a compliment, but more of a statement. “Usually, no one can keep up with me.” She added the last part to remind him that she wasn’t impressed, not yet.
“I would say you’re fast too,” was his quick reply, “because you can keep up with me.”
He wasn’t just charming but was also cheeky when he wanted to be. “Am I to refer to you as ‘Dark Elf’ or are you going to give me your name?”
A grin crossed his face, but it quickly disappeared.
“But of course, my lady.” She watched, cautious, as he sauntered closer to her.
Placing one foot in front of him, he knelt, bowing his head down to her, imitating the Light Elf greeting to a lady with too much precision.
She wondered if he’d spent time in Light Elf society.
He waited in that position and did not move. She sighed and held out her hand. He came up from his bow and took her hand. “Shikra, at your service.” He placed a feather-light kiss that hovered above her hand but didn’t quite touch it.
Equal parts cheek and charm. She had to watch out. Her virtue was no plaything for him.