spaces, Sash suddenly dives to the mud. Larn and I both throw our bodies to the ground and slide across the wet, mushy dirt. When we come to a stop, we raise our heads to check on the guards. They’re both less than half a mile away from us now. I can make out their pale shapes on the hilltops, which means they could see us as well. The northern guard is looking away from us, but the western guard seems to be staring straight in our direction.

Lying in the mud for close to a minute, none of us makes a move. The rain pounds down on our bodies while puddles of water grow by our sides. Dull reflections occasionally shimmer in the wet flats, which is what I hope the guard believes he saw. He finally turns his back to us.

Sash scoops another handful of mud and spreads it over her hair. After Larn and I do the same, we check to make sure the guards aren’t looking in our direction. Slithering on our bellies across the black sludge, we pull our bodies with our hands and push with our feet. By the time we reach the last of the low hills, the muscles in my arms are numb.

Sash leads us around the hill to a semi-secluded spot with a clear view of the guards. They’re no more than a few hundred yards away from us.

“Be ready,” Sash says quietly. “The moment they head towards Jeni and Roen, follow me to Tela’s cavern.”

While Sash spies on the guard to the north, I focus on the Murkovin standing watch on the western hill. He takes a few gulps from what appears to be a Traveler’s canister. After he finishes his drink, he jerks his head to the south. The beast takes two steps forward, studies something in the distance, and then runs down the hill away from us.

“One guard just left,” I say to Sash.

“The other one is looking at something,” she replies. “It has to be Jeni.”

“We’re ready,” Larn says.

“There he goes!” Sash exclaims.

She zips into the open towards the valley that leads to Tela’s cavern. Trying to keep our footing through the slippery dirt, Larn and I stay right on her tail. When we reach the narrow valley, we continue towards a sheer face of rock on the side of a steep hill.

At the base of that hill, the valley forks around the bluff. We veer to the south, but three silhouettes cross our path about fifty yards away. Glimmers of white shine from their black hair. Slipping and sliding in the mud, Sash cuts hard to her left. With a dull thud, she flattens her body against the side of the bluff.

I lose my footing while trying to follow her and splatter to the wet ground. After Larn slams into the wall of rock beside Sash, they both arch their necks to see if the Murkovin spotted us. Lying face down in the mud, I stay as still as a corpse, afraid to even breathe.

“They kept going,” Sash says. “I don’t think they saw us.”

I spring from the ground and scramble to the cover of the cliff. Sash and Larn step away from the rocks to scan the land around us.

“We’re almost there,” Sash says. “Let’s go slower to be safe.”

At a much more cautious pace, we jog the final hundred yards to Tela’s cavern. Although we continue to scour the terrain for Murkovin, we don’t spot any along the way. The vertical wall of rock beside us gradually angles down until forming the steep slope of a hill. When we reach a cavern entrance in the bottom of the hill, we come to a stop and check around us one last time. Sash raises a finger to her lips to keep Larn and me quiet.

“You two go in,” she whispers. “I’ll go up this hill to keep watch.”

Sputtering through streams of water that flow down the slope, Sash fights her way up the hill. Larn and I wait for her to get halfway to the top before squeezing into the tunnel that leads to Tela’s cavern. With me in the lead, we feel our way through the dark passage. The gurgling of a waterfall in front of us becomes louder with each step we take.

I come to a standstill when I feel the wall of the tunnel curve into what seems to be an open space. Reaching out a hand behind me, I stop Larn with a palm to his chest. If Tela is asleep inside the cavern, we can catch her off guard.

“Be ready,” I whisper to Larn.

Priming my muscles to leap inside, I wait a few seconds while listening for any movement. It’s impossible to hear anything over the spill of the waterfall.

“Light,” I say.

The purple glow that I became so familiar with while trapped in the Barrens gradually illuminates a small cave. My eyes dart around the room in search of Tela, but there’s nobody inside.

A crude, wooden table is pushed up against a wall on one side of the cave with a wooden stool underneath it. On the other side, a mattress lies on the ground. A small waterfall pours over the uneven rocks at the far end of the cavern. After slowly leaning my head through the entrance, I snap it to the left and right to make sure no one is hiding on the sides.

“It’s empty,” I say to Larn. “Keep watch on the tunnel in case she comes in.”

I take a few steps inside the cavern and then stop to look around. I don’t know what to expect in a typical Murkovin habitat, but the room seems bare to me. There’s no pillow on the mattress and nothing on the table. Although there’s a couple of steel spikes driven into the wall near the bed, no clothes are hanging from them. The only other item that indicates a person might dwell here is a small bundle of black fabric

Добавить отзыв
ВСЕ ОТЗЫВЫ О КНИГЕ В ИЗБРАННОЕ

0

Вы можете отметить интересные вам фрагменты текста, которые будут доступны по уникальной ссылке в адресной строке браузера.

Отметить Добавить цитату