Chapter 82 The Crossing pt1
“This place reminds me of home, ironically,” Sylvain says with a sigh. She’s sitting on the balcony, legs draped over the flowing lava below as if she’s kicking her feet over a peaceful stream.
The men have gone back to the main cave to see if there’s any other way forward, but I can't stop staring at this challenge. Trying to think like Alric, trying to channel the brilliant older man, but I draw a blank. In all the times we spoke, he never told me about himself, not really.
“Did you hear me?” Sylvain asks, pulling me out of my spiraling thoughts.
“Hmm?” I ask, blinking rapidly and trying to focus on her.
“I said, this reminds me of home,” she repeats. “It’s so deliciously warm. I want to strip down to my underclothes and stretch out on this balcony and just—”
“Wait,” I stop her, getting close and resting my hands on her shoulders. “This place is like home, probably built to be what Alric would be used to. Right? How did you guys get around areas like this? Your home is literally flowing with lava, there has to be a way.”
“Anara, we aren’t living in caves up there. We know how to build bridges and walkways and stuff.” Sylvain laughs. “We just had to build them out of stronger stuff. Stuff that wouldn’t melt. And when we couldn’t do that, we—” her voice breaks off as she stares at the walls and roof of the lava tunnel high above. “When we couldn’t build, we climbed…”
I follow her gaze, seeing the rough rock walls where petrified roots hang haphazardly in a tangled web all the way to the other side.
“He would have had to float us,” I whisper, mentally marking a path of foot and handholds that would lead to the beginning of the vines.
“He’d have to keep us cool, and keep us from falling,” Sylvain says, finishing my thought. She turns and runs down the passageway, intent on telling the others.
Show them it can be done, Daughter of Hellbane. Lead the way. You’re the strongest, the most powerful. Show them.
Squaring my shoulders, I walk over to the nearest handhold. The rock is porous, sharp, and dangerous. My boots will protect my feet, but my hands? Reaching into my pocket, I pull out a pair of leather gloves and hope beyond hope it’ll be enough.
I step up on the balcony walls and grab a handhold right as Zaries bursts onto the balcony. “Come on,” I say with a grunt, lifting onto my tiptoes and reaching for the next rocky protrusion.
It takes me about longer than I’d like to reach the roots on the ceiling and I gingerly touch them to be sure they don't deteriorate into ash. When I’m sure they’re holding, I grab them with both hands and use my feet on the wall to slowly, carefully, start moving down the tunnel. Behind me, and slightly below, Zaries follows. After him, Sylvain, then Oberon, and lastly Malachi.
“Alric floating us would have been easier,” Malachi laughs, the evil in him making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I hadn’t been using any support powers on any of us yet, but I pull some wind between my fingers and shove it at Malachi. Not enough to knock him off, but enough so he knows I’ll be the only thing catching him if his big ass loses his grip.
Malachi looks up at me, tight jawed and narrow eyed, but says nothing.
My body feels like it’s on fire, and it has nothing to do with the lava. My muscles burn with stress and tension. We’re moving slowly, so fucking slowly, down the tunnel and the longer it takes, the more the toll multiplies.
I look back at my companions and the bastard, registering they’re still going strong despite the strain and heat. Each of us has a sheen of sweat covering us, but our gloves keep the slick away from the vines and stones.
I look toward the end of the tube. It’s steadily growing closer, but not nearly fast enough. I summon a gentle breeze to cool brows and lightly support everyone’s backs, including the fucker at the end.
“Thank you,” Zaries grunts, relief rippling over his face as some of the sweat dissolves in the cool breeze. “Don’t overextend, you might need this power to last longer than you ever have.”
I nod, my mouth a thin line of determination as I reach for the next vine. My fingers close around it.
It dissolves to dust, crumbling away as if it had never existed.
A grunt wrenches out of my mouth, raw and primal as I lunge forward with a shocking burst of speed, driven by pure instinct. For a heart-stopping moment, I feel like I’m free falling into the abyss, the wind rushing past me as if to swallow me whole. But then, miraculously, my flailing hands catch another root, my fingers digging in with desperate strength.
I dangle there, panting heavily, my heart pounding in my ears so loudly I can barely hear anything else. I stare at the others, their faces pale and eyes wide with terror, frozen in a tableau of fear and helplessness. The chasm below yawns hungrily, a dark void ready to consume me if I slip again.
“Not all the roots are sound,” I tell them, swallowing hard as I work my way back to the wall. When my feet are stable again, I finish. “Don’t let go of the current root until you know for sure the next will hold.”
I know I’m stating the obvious, but the way my friends look at me with fear and pride scares me more than that fall did. They trust me completely, as I must trust them…
The further we go, the more I find myself using my wind powers. The sweat on my brow is not only from exertion and fear, but now from the sheer power I’ve had to wield to keep everyone upright.
We’re breathing hard, coughing as fumes rise from below and singe our airways, but we’re close. So, so close. The other balcony seems near enough to reach out and touch…yet still so far away that it seems as though the distance will never close.
“Gods above, could you move any slower?” Malachi barks from the end of the line. “I want out of this god forsaken tunnel!”
I freeze in place, watching as he lets his body dangle from the roots and starts swinging like a monkey from vine to vine. He’s quickly gaining on me, passing the others with a speed that makes my stomach churn.
“Malachi! The roots aren’t all sound! You need to get back to the wall!” I growl, cursing under my breath as I try to climb even quicker.
Everyone speeds up, each of them calling out to Malachi in desperate warning.
“You’re all a bunch of cowards! We could have been done with this already if we’d just done it like this,” he barks a laugh, glaring at me as he swings past. He’s so close to the other balcony now, so close—
“Fuck!” Malachi screams, his voice cutting through the tense air like a knife. He hangs by one arm, the other falling slack to his side. There's a root wrapped around it, tightening with a sinister life of its own. “Snake!” he screams. “Fucking snake! It bit me!”