Chapter 3 #2
“This isn’t manmade. There must be another way in and out.” My words echo around us before they’re swallowed up in the darkness outside of our meager candlelight.
A torch blazes to life as Mathilda holds her tiny candle flame to the end of it. The stronger light casts eerie shadows on the surrounding rock, like the jaws of an enormous beast about to swallow us whole.
“Look, there’s a table here,” her voice cuts across the cavern.
Sure enough, a long wooden table sits against the wall, covered with books, clear decanters, and several large rocks. I walk with slow, measured steps towards the table, careful of the slick floor and treacherously bladed rocks sticking up from the ground.
“Is it some kind of altar?” I ask, eyeing the random selection of oddities.
“I don’t think so … ” Mina’s voice whispers from beside me. I flinch. She moved so quietly beside me, I hadn’t even realized she was there.
Mathilda switches the torch to her other hand to pick up a book. “I think they were doing experiments.”
“Experiments? What makes you think that?” My nose scrunches in confusion.
“Well, this book is about magical properties,” she sets down the first book to grab another, “this one is about crystals, and those are beakers.” She points to the glass bottles in various shapes. I take a step closer to the table and stub my toe on another book.
“Whoops.” I bend down to pick it up and nearly scream when the light reflects off the cover. An artist’s rendition of an asphidra. “Gods,” I mutter, holding the book out with two fingers.
“It looks like this is where they stashed all the useful books,” Mina grumbles. She nudges a stack of books in front of her, and a thick one with gold letters titled ‘Prophecies’ falls to the floor.
Rocks skitter down the passageway that we entered through. Lachlan’s voice bounces through the opening. “Ye canna wait one damn second!”
My footsteps echo our giggles as I walk closer to the entrance. “We found something!” I shout back.
“Aye?” his voice volleys back. “Well, we canna fit through the opening!”
“It’s a natural cave, so there’s another way in! We’re somewhere behind the Great Hall, by the mountains!”
“Ach fine! We’ll find another way through. I ken you willna listen but, Key, please stay there this time!”
I smile, even though he can’t see me. “I make no promises.”
He doesn’t respond, but I can barely make out the slamming of the door as he leaves Odessa’s room.
Glass shatters on the ground and is followed by a sizzling sound.
“Ah shit,” Mina mutters.
“What was that?” I ask, making my way back to them.
“I accidentally dropped a glass and—it’s burning through the stone.”
My head cocks to one side. “What color was the liquid before you dropped it?”
“Bright green, I think. Why?”
Dread curdles my stomach. “Because I think you dropped asphidra venom.”
Mathilda comes to stand beside us and holds her torch closer. The hole grows deeper and wider as the venom burns its way through the stone.
“How come it didn’t burn through the glass, but it’s burning through that rock?” I ask, looking back at the table with the various containers still full of liquid that could potentially be venom.
Mathilda picks up a glass container and holds it close to the torch. “I don’t think this is glass.” She turns the container around in the light, and it shimmers unexpectedly.
“Whoa, what is that?” I reach out to rub my finger across the edge of the container and feel a slight tingle.
“It’s crystal,” Mina breathes.
The whites of her eyes swallow the golden hazel of her irises.
My mind spins. The familiar puzzle pieces stretch out before me. There’s something glaringly obvious right in front of us.
“So, the venom doesn’t burn through quartz?” Mathilda asks, peering down at the hole in front of us. The sizzling slows. We look down, and she holds her torch to the opening again. Just in time to see a small puff of black smoke as the venom evaporates against a different kind of stone—black stone.
“It’s just—gone,” I whisper.
“That was wild. Do you think there’s more of that kind of stone under the ground?” Mina asks.
“I don’t know, but I’m glad there is. What if there hadn’t been? Would it have just burned through to the other side of the realm?”
My brain hurts trying to think about the logistics of that. What is beneath us? Is it like an Earth situation with layers?
Mathilda shudders beside me, while Mina picks up another book from the stack.
“This one is about bridges,” she squeals, bouncing on her toes.
Normally, I would share her excitement, especially when it comes to books. But I can’t shake the feeling that the answers we seek will only lead to more questions.
“We need to get this stuff out of here and into better light. Should we start moving it into Odessa’s room, or should we wait for the guys?” I ask.
Mathilda’s expression twists into a mischievous grin as she looks around the cave. “Or we could do some cave exploring?”
After the past couple of days, I could go for some rest, but there’s a larger part of me that is in a hurry for more answers. The quicker we solve our magic problem, the quicker I can get to Gran.
I bite my lip, thinking it over before shrugging. “Let’s see if we can find the other entrance and meet up with the guys, then they can help us move this stuff out.
Mina groans, throwing her head back and dropping the book onto the table.
“Come on! It’ll be an adventure!” Mathilda replies, her voice taking on a child-like excitement.