27. Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter twenty-seven
Willa's sympathy is unwelcome when I get back and head straight for our tent to change, as is Felix's fury on my behalf when he comes to check on me, seeing evidence of Jeska’s handiwork painted across my face. They mean well, but I don't want to talk about it. I don’t want to talk at all.
Scrubbing blood and dirt out of my leathers until they're purple again is therapeutic, the repelling magic imbued in the fabric making it easy work.
I can't risk the quick-healing tonic with such visible injuries, so I throw back an extra-large measure of the pain blocker and crawl into bed.
I don't care if it makes me weak. I'm ready to surrender to the heaviness of the last few hours.
I drift in and out of sleep for the rest of the day and most of the next when a heavy snowfall traps us.
I’ve stopped joining Cayzenn for coffee and don’t bother with meals, finding it easier to pretend I don’t hear Felix or Willa when they whisper my name. Now, we're heading up into the thick, grey sky, another endless hike up a white-dusted peak in search of another cave.
A hollow, empty ache echoes within me, like one of the unnamed gods reached into my chest and yanked the stopper from my energy tank.
Surprisingly, physically I’m coping alright, the cut on my cheek is healing and my ribs only twinge every now and then.
It’s my split lip that bothers me most, raw and stinging in the blistering wind, leaving me with the incessant taste of coppery blood coating my tongue.
At least the weather means I don’t have to talk to anyone.
Nav leads us up the steep slope, monitoring and tweaking our direction occasionally, before he and Hendrix test each section to create a rough walkway the rest of us follow.
The higher we get, the fewer trees we see, and the temperature plunges until our noses and ears redden and our breaths become puffs of white.
Nobody seems inclined to talk, other than the odd shout to be careful or avoid a patch of black ice. Aven and I check in briefly, but the connection feels muffled at this distance, so we don't talk for long. "Get ready to climb. We're almost at the summit," a voice calls from above. Hendrix, maybe?
Relieved groans tumble down the slope to be swallowed by the valley below.
I make the mistake of peering over the edge while I detach my small pickaxe, and my heart starts to thunder like hoofbeats.
I hope we won't be up in this impossibly thin air for too long.
If we have to find shelter to sleep, we'll be dangerously exposed to the elements.
Grabbing the pick, I follow the twins up the near-vertical incline, ignoring the protests from my bruised torso.
Up here, the cold is more painful than anything else; my fingertips sting despite the thick, fur-lined gloves.
"Are you good?" Felix calls, tousled, fire-bright hair stark against the endless white as he clambers up the hard-packed snow with an ease I envy.
I nod just in time for him to hook a long arm over the ridge and haul himself over it.
I hadn't even realized we'd made it to the top.
I'm about to swing my pick up and anchor it to pull myself up when large hands reach down, grip tight around my arms, and yank me through the air.
I land instinctively in a slight crouch, finding myself staring into a pair of brilliant blue eyes as icy as our surroundings.
Cayzenn. He drops his hands, and I look away, taking a huge gulp of air, not trusting myself to speak without snapping. My gaze falls on a gaping dark passage being swallowed by the mountain, where the rest of the squad huddle, sheltering from the elements and chewing on dried strips of meat.
"Can I speak to you for a minute?" His low voice is warmer than expected, considering he's barely looked at me since training.
He's standing so close, I feel the words rumble in his chest, sending an unwelcome shiver down my spine.
He angles his body to block the wind, eyes finding the bruise on my cheek then dropping to my swollen lip as he leans down so I can hear him over the gale. "About what happened. It wasn't–"
I cut him off, making my tone cool and clinical. "Don't worry about it, Cayzenn. I'm fine." I have no interest in his pity; my injuries weren't his fault, or even Jeska's, really. "It was just training. People get hurt during training all the time. Nothing to worry about."
He looks almost shocked before his face goes hard, and when he replies, he’s frosty, like he doesn't believe me but thinks he has a responsibility to fix this. "You should let Lira check nothing's broken. Jeska said she got a few good hits in. Knowing her, they weren't only to your face."
They talked about it? Gods, like this isn't already embarrassing enough.
"Most of the remedies and salves were in the bag we lost. She can give you something for the bruising and pain, though."
“I said, I'm fine, Commander.”
He steps back, an emotion I don't dare name flashing across his face before he looks me over warily, as if trying to decide if he should keep pushing or not.
I refuse to meet his eyes, glancing meaningfully back to the squad waiting for us a few feet away.
After a few awkward seconds, he nods stiffly.
"There's no shelter up here, and we're pretty sure the path to the next peak involves going deeper into this one, so you're coming with us. "
He doesn't give me a chance to respond before he stalks through the middle of the group, grabbing a light stick from Hendrix and heading into the gaping mouth of the mountain.
The air is dry and stale, and my calves feel like they're being shredded by tiny blades as we descend.
While there is a clear path, we have to walk in pairs so no one gets left behind.
It’s a tight squeeze; my shoulder keeps bumping into Willa's arm. We come to a sudden stop, and I let out a muffled groan when I walk straight into Hendrix, and Xaavi does the same to Willa. "A little warning next time," she whisper-shouts to her brother and Jeska up front.
"Quiet," they hiss in unison, and I lean around the bodies blocking my view to see why we've stopped, noticing the path has widened, and we're standing in an arched entrance to a cavernous space.
Holding his index finger to his lips, Cayzenn beckons us forward.
I hurry past him to follow the others into a cavern lit with a fiery orange glow from a sizzling pool near the back of the stone room.
Crouched over it, watching through tendrils of smoke with luminous green eyes, is a firecat.
It’s just like the one I'd seen in our campfire a few weeks ago, though I hadn't known what it was called until Nav had pointed out their tracks.
This one is a hell of a lot bigger than the one I’d seen.
Letting out a deep growl, it stands to its full height, blazing liquid from the pool dripping from its maw, white stripes lit up around its face and neck.
Without hesitation, Drea conjures a bow, aiming an arrow straight at the cat's heart, but as she goes to plant her feet, she stumbles on the uneven ground.
Time slows, a scream rips from my throat, and, quick as lightning, Cayzenn throws a translucent shield…
around the cat, just as the arrow flies, grazing off it to explode when it strikes the wall of the cave.
The firecat startles, leaping over the lip of the pool, lunging for my sister's head with a roar.
"No," my second scream pierces the dense air, reverberating with the sound of the animal's fury.
It considers me, massive teeth closing in on Drea, before twisting its body midair to land on a rocky ledge above us, disappearing with a lash of its tail and one final echoing snarl.
Holy fuck. I rush to my sister, who's gone white as a sheet despite her scowl.
"Are you ok? It didn't get you, did it?"
"I'm fine." she spits, knocking my hand away. The sharp dismissal doesn't even sting. Brushing over embarrassing moments of vulnerability is a family trait. "Why?" she demands, glaring at Cayzenn. He frowns. "Why what?"
"I had it, and you blocked me."
"There was no reason to kill it." He turns to Xaavi and Nav.
"See if you can get up there and check it out.
" He points to the ledge where the firecat disappeared.
"Be careful in case it comes back. Don't follow the path.
It's too dangerous." They grab fresh light sticks and start scanning the rocky walls for hidden steps or footholds.
"You three stay right here while we search." He gestures between his siblings and me, and we roll our eyes while the others spread out and start searching—for feathers, if Cayzenn is to be believed. On the walk up, I told the twins what he’d said and even tried to get answers out of Drea, who wouldn’t give me anything.
I refuse to sit here like a child for hours, though.
Making sure everyone else is engrossed, I trace the deep, smooth groove carved into the wall that leads all the way to the pool of liquid fire.
Without meaning to, I'm stepping closer to examine the glossy, black stone basin and the smoking surface within.
The heat radiating from it is fierce and so dry, it steals the water from my body, making my eyes and throat sting.
The molten oranges and golds are mesmerizing; it has to be connected to the unnamed fire god or goddess.
Willa and Felix join me, wincing at the heat just as Cayzenn's whisper breaks the silence, so loud and clear, it feels as if he's right behind me, though I don't sense him.
When I spin around to ask what he wants, I see him locked in conversation with Jeska and Hendrix on the other side of the cave. How can we possibly hear him?
"Can we talk about what we do if the feathers aren't in any of the caves? Are we still going to try and meet before heading home?" That's Hendrix, just as clear as Cayzenn sounded, the occasional word slightly muffled.
"You know she said one of the last few caves is the likeliest location for the dragons' sovran lair.
If they left their old wingfeathers anywhere, it will be on peak six or seven.
We're only searching here to be sure our bases are covered," Cayzenn replies.
"You saw the archives map. It wasn't exactly detailed. "
They're so far away from any of us, he didn't even bother with a sound shield.
The twins and I exchange wide-eyed looks, and Willa mouths, "Dragons?
" I mean, sure, we've all been told the stories of the ancient winged creatures that used to rule alongside the gods before the Split, but they died out more than eight hundred years ago.
Felix moves to the wall behind the pool, trailing his fingertips along the smooth band of carved stone I'd been admiring minutes ago.
"It's a whispering gallery," he exclaims quietly.
"The sound is clinging to the walls and travelling around the circumference, carried in waves all the way over to us.
" His sister presses a finger to her lips.
We break eye contact and pretend to be absorbed in examining the pool as we listen intently to what seems like a new conversation.
"Have you guys noticed anything different about your magic yet? Mine's still wildly unstable at times, it’s driving me crazy." That's Jeska's voice this time. Wait, did she say unstable magic?
"Ah, Commander," an amused voice rings out from above, startling me as I look up into the grinning face of Xaavi.
Standing on the ledge he and Nav obviously found a way up to, he flicks his gaze across the cave.
"Probably wise to continue the rest of that conversation later.
You might as well be addressing the whole group with the way the sound is carrying over here, and I'm not the only one who's noticed.
" He glances meaningfully down at the three of us, shaking his head in mock disappointment, and I give him a rueful smile in return, not even pretending to feel bad.
"Gods damn. Why am I not surprised?" Cayzenn narrows his eyes, striding over, the rest of the squad coming to join us. I don't miss the worried look he exchanges with his second and third. "What did you hear?" The orange glow emanating from the pool casts half his chiseled face in eerie shadows.
"Something about unstable magic," Felix is quick to reply, not revealing we heard anything else, at least not yet.
Cayzenn seems to relax at his brother's confirmation, making me wonder why the dragon wingfeathers are such a big secret—or did they talk about something else we missed?
"Alright, well, that's not as classified as it used to be, so I can explain.
As long as it doesn't go any further than this group, understood?
" He looks each of us in the eye until we agree.
"As you know, our magic always acts a little wild right before the Renewal period, as if there's an increased risk of a threat.
As soon as the Offering is made, the barrier is reinforced and magic settles. This year, it did not."