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Ugh. Not thinking about him right now.
The tunnel continued upwards, spiralling around the mountain. In several places, it split off into other tunnels that dug deep into the stone. I wondered where they all led. What else this mountain held that we couldn’t see.
Eventually, Gahn Thaleo turned and took us down one of those branched-off tunnels. Unlike the main tunnel, this one had no lanterns and, because it plunged into the mountain, it had no natural windows to let in bright asteroid light from the outside. Valeria swore under her breath and a sudden beam of light appeared in her hand. Gahn Thaleo jerked his head back, shocked by the flashlight. If he had questions about it, he didn’t ask them.
The flashlight felt minuscule in the velvet darkness of the tunnel. That darkness didn’t last too long, though. The tunnel twisted and turned until we ended up back at an outside wall of the mountain. We stepped into a small cave with a large clear stone window, as well as a fire already crackling in a small hearth.
He was ready for this. He was expecting us to stay the night the entire time...
I still believed we were safe here in our group. But I couldn’t help but feel there was something calculating to everything Gahn Thaleo did. This may not have been a trap, but it did feel as if we were following along each step of a carefully outlined plan. A plan no one understood but the stony mountain Gahn.
“These are the guest quarters that will suit your party best,” Gahn Thaleo said, stopping in the space. “The Sea Sand warriors can sleep here and act as guards. A larger cave with a heated pool for the new women lies beyond, and smaller caves branch off from that for the mated pairs.”
“Is this the only entrance to the guest caves beyond?” Valeria asked, jutting her chin back at the way we’d just entered.
Gahn Thaleo jerked his tail in confirmation.
“Alright, then. That works,” Valeria said. I nodded, also satisfied by that answer. If that was the only way in, no one would be able to get to us without going through the Sea Sand warriors first.
“Thank you for the meal,” I said to Gahn Thaleo. “And for the bath.”
“Of course,” he said. “We are allies now. Everything in this mountain is yours.”
Once again, I got the unshakeable feeling that he was speaking solely to Nasrin. His sight stars pulsed noticeably when he looked at her before he circled around our group, heading back for the tunnel we’d come from.
“There is always at least one warrior stationed in the Sky Hall,” Gahn Thaleo said from the darkness of the tunnel, just beyond the cave. The shadows there swallowed him. Even with the fire in the cave behind us, he was invisible. A deep and disembodied voice in the gloom. “Make your way back there at any time should you need anything. As I said before, everything in this mountain is at your disposal. I bid you good evening.”
His mention of good evening, followed by silence, was the only indication that the Gahn had left us. There wasn’t a single rustle of fabric or clicking of claws to let us know he’d gone.
“Like a fucking ghost, that bloke,” Fiona said, wiggling her shoulders as if to disperse a foreboding sensation. “Whatever. Let’s go check out the heated pool!”
Now that Gahn Thaleo had left (confirmed by a surreptitious sweep of Valeria’s flashlight beam into the tunnel – obviously she was disconcerted by his utterly silent departure, too) we could relax a bit. I was even getting excited – this felt a lot like going to a hotel when you were a kid.
And despite the rustic nature, there was definitely something resort-like about Gahn Thaleo’s mountain. Even this small, simple cave for the warriors was elegant and clean, free of dust or gravel in the corners. The fire burned brightly, licking up glittering blue walls, and the spray of stars beyond the natural window made everything stunningly romantic.
Zoren, Vaxilkai, and Bariok unrolled their bedding hides in this first cave. I caught quiet snippets of conversation between Vaxilkai and Bariok, commenting on how it would be better here tonight, now that they were not bound as they’d been last time. Last time they’d been here, they’d been prisoners. It must be a stark contrast.
“Are you guys alright? We don’t actually have to stay here,” I said to them. I’d been so concerned about avoiding Gahn Errok, getting some data on the weather systems out here, and checking out the hot springs, that I hadn’t put enough thought into how Vaxilkai and Bariok would feel staying here.
The two of them straightened and looked at me, seeming surprised I’d spoken to them.
“We are at the service of our Gahns and, by proxy here, the new women,” Bariok said, his serious voice quiet thunder in the cave. “We have no qualms with our orders.”
“But how do you feel? Is this... Is this OK? Last time you were here, you were bound and imprisoned!”
“And this time, we are not,” Vaxilkai replied with a swish of his tail. “We have already gotten used to the peace at the Cliffs of Uruzai settlement, living among men who were once our blood enemies. We will get used to this, too.”
Right. I tended to think of us all as one solid unit. We were the group from the Sea Sand settlement. But really, it was less than a year ago that these three men before us – all from different tribes – would have killed each other just as soon as looked at each other.
I nodded, accepting their answer and not wanting to push further.
Us humans collected our packs that the Sea Sand guys had brought in from the shuttle. I was glad Valeria had thought of that. It would be annoying to soak in a hot spring only to have to put on the same clothes we’d already worn all day.
At the far end of this cave, there was a curving crack that led into a narrow, shadowy tunnel. Grim went first, followed by Valeria, then the rest of us humans. Tok brought up the rear, keeping close to Taylor. Behind us in the first cave, the Sea Sand guys discussed sleeping in shifts to be on guard throughout the night.
The Sea Sand voices fell away as we walked through the narrow stone passage, lit only by Valeria’s flashlight. But soon, up ahead, more light glowed.Another fire.
Grim grunted back at us that the cave ahead was empty and looked safe, which made us move faster.
