Page 194 of Tale of the Heart Queen

“Coming!” he calls. A second later, a small stone plunks through the mist. I stare at it, trusting nothing as I scan left to right, wishing I could see something.

“Okay, just drop down straight from there,” I say. “The way is open.”

I hope.

“Okay, on the count of five,” he shouts. The fog muffles his voice, making him sound further away than the fall would suggest. I hate it. I hate how alone I feel down here, blanketed by this suffocating mist.

On the count of one, he says in my head, thinking one step ahead.

“One!” he shouts, and then suddenly, a dark shape appears above me. He plummets and lands, rolling to the side just as a spike spears up from the earth exactly where he just fell.

Herric, that fucking bastard.

“You said five,” I say to cover our tracks, trying to keep the wobble out of my voice.

“I changed my mind,” he answers, and our gazes lock. The only way to survive this is to think three steps ahead. But how much longer can we rely on that? This is Herric’s playground, and we are less than the ants scrambling through the dirt.

We explore our space, determining we’re at the bottom of a canyon. Everything looks the same: high stone walls on both sides interspersed with those deadly spires of rock. Gauging the slope of the far wall, we surmise we walked further than we realized, and it’s actually the side of the mountain where that rose hovers at the peak. At least we traveled in the right direction. I examine the rock face. Smooth and almost featureless, it would be tough to climb even with equipment and impossible without it.

Hand in hand, we pick our way across the rocky surface. The mist slowly dissipates the longer we continue, but that offers no further clarity. The wall stretches on forever, curving ever so slightly, revealing an endless forest of stone spires. We keep circling, hoping something will present itself.

After we’ve been walking for a long time, I start to wonder if we’ve already made this loop more than once.

“Does this look familiar?” I ask Nadir, and his gaze meets mine with an expression that suggests he was wondering the same. We continue walking, keeping our senses open for any signs of what’s coming next.

It’s then I notice a rumble at our feet. It’s faint at first, but after another few seconds, I’m sure I’m not imagining it.

“Do you feel that?” I ask, and Nadir nods.

“Unfortunately.”

We peer behind us, noting a cloud of dust gathering in the distance. Something is coming. Something big and heavy. Nadir’s hand squeezes tighter against mine as we stand paralyzed in the face of uncertainty. We should run. We should do something, but I can’t make my feet move.

A moment later, a horde of massive shapes appears through the dust. Hundreds of antlered creatures stampede towards us, closing the distance at an alarming rate.

“Run!” Nadir shouts. Finally, I stir myself into action and we both take off.

“What are they?” I scream as we dodge through the maze of stone spikes. They don’t seem to slow the animals, which are simply trampling over them, rocks smashing into pieces under their enormous hooves.

“I don’t know!”

Fuck. What does it matter? We keep running, weaving through obstacles, but it’s clear we won’t last long before they catch up. Desperately, I scan the mountainside, searching for some way we can climb up that I somehow missed the other fifty-three times I checked. One of the spikes? But these, too, are all smooth stone with nothing to hold.

Nadir’s toe catches on a rock and he stumbles. I slow my pace to ensure he’s okay and then we’re off running again. Checking behind me, my eyes widen at the beasts right on our heels. They kick up a cloud of dust that once again blinds me to everything.

Suddenly, Nadir grabs me, and we swerve to the right. He shields my body as we both fall, rolling over the ground, thudding against the back of a shallow cave cut into the side of the mountain.

Lying together, we both pant heavily as we watch the stream of animals thunder past our hiding place. They don’t seem to see or care about us as they run.

After a minute, they finally pass, and Nadir’s head collapses against me as we hug each other in relief.

“Are you okay?” Nadir asks.

“Yeah. Gods, you’re fucking amazing, you know that, right?” I ask, framing his face with my hands and kissing him. He tips up an uncertain smile.

“Now what?” I ask. We sit up and I lean against the back of the cavern to catch my breath. “Was this cave here before? I swear I would have noticed it.”

“I don’t know,” he says, peering out. “We need to find some way to scale this mountain.”