“How am I meant to catch salamanders now?” he shouted when he noticed my gaze. “You’re scaring everything off.”
Just knowing it annoyed him was reason enough to stay there the rest of the day. But I had a better idea.
“You two take the cores,” I said to my friends. “That’s more than enough to get you Flame Shield.”
“No.” Vesma folded her arms.
“Right, right, right,” Kegohr said. “We all shared in the fighting, we should all share in the spoils.”
“I insist.” I handed over the cores I held. “I can get more later. And besides, I’ve got a better idea.”
I strode out of the cave and joined the rest of the initiates to a chorus of murmurs. Some cheered my name, but they were quickly silenced by cold glares from Hamon.
“Are there any more salamander lures?” I asked Rutmonlir.
“You’re meant to be on sprites,” he said.
“The sprites were too easy. I want a real challenge.”
Rutmonlir looked from me to Hamon and then back again before he grinned. “Here.” He threw me one of the larger lures, a metal cage around a bright, flaming orb. “Maybe some competition will encourage his lordship here to catch more than one.”
I used the leather cord that ran through one side and tied the lure to my belt.
“Only one salamander has come out so far!” Hamon’s pretty face crumpled with indignation. “I haven’t had a chance.”
“What’re you gonna do about it?” Rutmonlir raised a bushy eyebrow.
“I figure he’ll be following me,” I answered for Hamon before I sprinted toward the mouth of the cave.
“Hey!” Hamon shouted. “That’s not how this works!”
“Says who?” I shouted back.
As I looked over my shoulder, Hamon was running after me and thrusting the cord from his own lure through his belt. With the other initiate hot on my heels, I dashed into the cave mouth, past Kegohr, past Vesma, and into the Ember Cavern.
Chapter Nine
As I ran deeper into the Ember Cavern, the downside of my plan hit me. I was running away from the light into the darkness beneath the vast stone weight of the mountain. How was I going to see my prey, never mind hunt it? I couldn’t go back empty-handed, not after having made a big display of running in with Hamon on my heels. But how I was going to succeed down here in the darkness was another matter.
I ran around a corner, slowing down as I left the last of the daylight behind, and the answer became clear.
Ahead of me, the walls of the cavern were glowing. More accurately, parts of the walls were glowing. Long cracks in the stone shone with a fiery light that turned the tunnel from a dismal darkness to an artist’s vision of Hell, all red glow and deep shadows. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t religious, I’d still been seeing those sorts of images since childhood and been filled with the dread they were meant to inspire. I squashed aside my fears that the pit would swallow me up forever. I couldn’t lose my cool when a new martial technique was available to me.
The heat was starting to become uncomfortable, and I untied my robes and tucked them into my pants. Sweat made my chest glisten and my hands grow slick while my pulse throbbed in my temples. The further I went into the cavern, the hotter it became, but it wasn’t quite unbearable. I could feel the Vigor inside my body working hard to keep my core temperature down, and I reduced my pace a little to preserve as much energy as I could.
While I slowed my running speed, Hamon rounded the corner behind me. Without missing a beat, he swerved past me and raced on down the corridor, his pale face turned demonic red by the glow from the walls. Whatever his failings, he was nimble on his feet and confident about where he was going. He bounced across the uneven ground without so much as a stumble as he headed deeper into the mountain.
I wasn’t going to let him get away from me. From what we’d seen, there weren’t that many scorched salamanders in the tunnels, at least not within range of our lures.
I took a deep breath and quickened my pace as I pursued Hamon through the fiery glow. The ground was rough underfoot, and I almost tripped several times, but always managed to save myself by shifting my weight or pushing off the wall. Soon, I was gaining ground on Hamon.
The deeper we went, the brighter the tunnels became. It was like walking through the embers of a vast bonfire, not just in the mixture of blackness and red light, but in terms of the heat. I had to pace myself and attempt to regain my Vigor. Luckily, Hamon also slowed down but continued to be just a little faster than me.
The tunnel split, one path heading down and to the left, the other straight on and to the right. Hamon, still a dozen yards ahead of me, went right.
Should I go after him, rely on his stronger instinctive knowledge of the element of fire to help find the beasts? Or should I go my own way, where I wouldn’t have to compete for prey?
I’d never been much of a follower. With little thought for how isolated I might become, I headed left.
Within a few steps, the tunnel widened, then opened out into a 50-foot cavern with tunnels breaking off in every direction. The place was filled with flickering light coming from crystals in the ceiling that glowed red, orange, and yellow. Near the far end, molten lava bubbled up out of a crater a dozen feet across and ran in thin streams into a channel before vanishing down one of the tunnels.
As I entered, I saw half a dozen ember sprites drinking from a
