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It was hard to tell if the growing distance was a good thing or a bad thing, but I trusted Emilie’s judgement. At each fork in the path, she paused and listened to the quiet, waiting for the air to guide her in the right direction. Each time, she was sure of herself as she led the way.
We were traveling down a particularly long and narrow path when she stopped abruptly. I nearly toppled her over, and the harpy bumped into my back as well.
“What is it?”
She held the torch higher, staring into the dark abyss in front of us. “Something isn’t right.”
I stiffened, feeling for the sword tucked away at my hip. “Murvort soldiers?”
She shook her head. “No. The air feels…different. Before it felt hopeful. Bright and optimistic. Now it feels…wrong.”
“Did we go the wrong way?”
“No. I’m positive we went the right way. It feels…deceptive.”
Gods only knew what lurked in these tunnels. Maybe she was sensing some other magic. Something up ahead that we didn’t want to run into. I weighed our options. Go back and find another route or charge ahead and deal with whatever monstrosities awaited us. I was debating which would be worse when Emilie gasped.
“The tunnels—they change directions, magically appearing and disappearing at will. The path has changed.”
That certainly beat the imaginary beast I was picturing in my head. We could deal with clever tunnels.
“Do we go back or keep moving forward?” I asked.
She tugged on my hand and replied, “We keep going this way. Turning around won’t do any good if the tunnels are going to change at random. We’ll keep moving forward and get straightened out at the next divide.”
There was something admirable about her certainty and the way she took charge. While I had hated that arrogance when I’d first met her in Renoa, I now respected her confidence. It was well deserved. What she lacked in physical strength, she made up for with her intelligence and composure in a tough situation.
She led us through wandering paths and decidedly chose which turns to take. I followed closely, still holding her hand tightly. The harpy was so quiet; I almost forgot she was with us until she occasionally stumbled on loose rock.
“Careful,” I said to her, and she responded with a wide-eyed gaze. She relaxed ever so slightly. There—we were making progress. I went as far as reaching my hand out to her to help her over the rocky pass. It looked as if part of the tunnel had caved in at one point and massive boulders were strewn about the path. She stared at the treacherous terrain for a moment and then opted to take my assistance.
As I was helping her cross that difficult section, I heard a noise ahead. It sounded like crumbling, and the mountain shook again. Gods, what would we do if the mountain caved in on us?
The rumbling subsided, and our surroundings went silent. Emilie raised the torch to check on us. “Are you both okay?”
“Yes, just a few more steps.” The harpy was almost across the fallen rock when suddenly, Emilie was screaming, and then there was a splash.
“Emilie!” I shouted, turning to find a massive hole where she had been standing. The light she’d been carrying was lying on the ground, and I quickly picked it up before the damp stone could extinguish it.
“Emilie,” I called again. I got as close to the hole as I could without falling in myself. These tunnels were so delicate. One wrong step could send us plummeting into the unknown. “If you can hear me, I need you to respond.”
“I’m alright.” Her voice sounded far away. Far down. “I…I landed in a bit of a lake.”
She also sounded like she was spitting out water, treading to stay afloat.
“Can you see anything?”
“No. Well, there’s a bit of glowing moss down here. It’s not far away. I can swim to it.”
The sound of wading water drifted up to me, and I breathed a sigh of relief. But then a fresh wave of worries hit me. How in the hell were we going to get her back up?
“What else do you see, Emilie? Are there more tunnels? A staircase? A…rope?” I doubted she had the strength to pull herself up. Even with her training, she’d lost a lot of muscle while being held in isolation. But I could pull her up if she got the rope to me.
“No, I don’t see any stairs or rope.” She laughed at the last word. At least she hadn’t lost her sense of humor. “I can’t see the other side of the water from here. I could swim and try to—”
“Don’t,” I said. “Who knows how far away the other shore is? If you’re safe where you are, don’t move.”
Shit. If she couldn’t come up, then we were going to have to follow her down.
