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He shrugged. “Did I? We don’t even know what time it is here. For all I know, you’re up early.”
I made a face. “How much water do you have left?”
“Enough to get me through today. You didn’t expect this to be the greatest threat we faced in the Black Mountain, did you?”
“I hadn’t expected to die of dehydration before I finally found my father, no,” I said ironically. “We’ll just have to find water.”
“Find water. Find a way to destroy the most powerful objects in existence. I adore your optimism, silver one.” He rose to his feet. “Well, if my mate says we must, then we must—and we will. Shall we?”
I gathered my things, and we resumed our march.
This time, Draven held the grail aloft as we walked through the hall.
For the next few hours, we followed much of the same dreary pattern as the day before. Walk through endless hall after endless hall into an endless corridor into a new endless hall. Repeat.
By afternoon—or what felt like it, we emerged into a space larger than any we had seen before. Before us stretched a winding staircase leading down into the depths of the mountain.
This staircase had guardrails, which was the best that could be said for it. The worst was that on either side, as far as we could tell, lay nothing. Nothing more than a black abyss.
Draven leaned over the edge of the rail and tossed a pebble down.
We stood, waiting for the sound of it hitting the floor below.
And waited.
Finally, a tiny thud.
I held the grail higher. There was no end to the staircase that we could see.
I swung the light around. There was no other way to go. Not unless we went backwards.
But to do so would mean finding our way on our own, as the grail’s beam of guiding light went only down the stairs in front of us, forcing us forward.
“Wonderful.” I stared down the steps. “Lovely.”
“Really? Bleak and barren, I would have said.” I stuck my tongue out at Draven’s back as he stepped around me and set his foot down carefully on the first step. “Do you think it’s leading us to your father, or leading us to our deaths? Guess we can’t do anything except follow and find out.”
Clenching my jaw in frustration, I went after him.
Soon it seemed as if we had been walking downwards for a day and a night.
Step after step, step after step. The staircase seemed to never end. It simply spiraled down and down.
At first, we talked to pass the time. But after a while, with our water reserves diminishing, we began to try to save our breath.
Draven stayed in the lead, carrying the grail in front of him like a torch. After what felt like at least three hours, I forced him to switch places with me and held the grail as I led the way.
About an hour after that, I stopped.
Draven hit my back, and I nearly stumbled.
“Sorry,” he said, sounding tired. “What is it?”
“I thought I heard something. Did you? Listen.”
We stood there in silence. I swung the grail around slowly, but no matter where it swung, the beam of light continued to point to the steps right in front of me. Downwards. And down again.
“There.” Draven sounded excited. “I heard it.”
