“What the actual—?” her outburst is cut off when the pretty picture suddenly shimmers at the edges.
She pauses, confusion causing her to reevaluate the image. The picture flickers, as if she’s reached the glitch in a looped video recording, and reveals what truly lies beneath the scenic view. Instead of a clear, inviting pond, a pool of yellowish water bubbles in the center of the cavern, emitting a distinctive smell of rotting eggs. She suspects the fluid to be sulfur, or a similar Fae chemical. Instead of vegetation surrounding the pond, there are jagged rocks with dangerously sharp edges waiting.
“It’s a security glamor, isn’t it?”
Ziggy flashes once in answer.
Without a word, Rachel inches back through the narrow passage, intent on retrieving her backpack. She’s ready to make several trips if she has to, prepared to carry every individual item through if she must.
When she arrives at her destination, she quickly unhooks the blanket and tosses it over her shoulder, and pulls out her toiletry bag.
Rachel holds it in one hand and makes her way back to the cavern’s opening, where she sets her belongings in a heap beside the entrance. She makes a second trip to retrieve the food she’s brought along. The third trip is easier. After Rachel repositions the remaining contents, she’s able to fold the bag in half and squeeze it through the tunnel.
Rachel rushes to stuff everything back into the backpack and somehow closes the bulging thing without issue. She straightens, breathless after the exercise.
“I need water, Ziggy,” Rachel says.
Ziggy floats around the side of the cavern, no more than a foot away, and keeping close to the wall.
“If I die here, you tell Mercia I’ll see her in her nightmares.”
Rachel presses her back against the wall, holding her backpack in her hand, and follows Ziggy around the cavern. She tests the surface with the tip of her hiking boot before putting her full weight on the ground. Now and then, the glamor shimmers or flickers around her, giving her an idea of where the most treacherous parts of the cavern are located. Still, she doesn’t want to take any unnecessary chances by rushing.
At the opposite side of the cavern, Ziggy ascends diagonally, as if signaling a rise in the floor. She takes baby steps behind the Fae light. Rachel feels, rather than see, the gradual rise beneath her feet, thighs, and calves. Her muscles strain as she climbs the slope. Subtle changes in the cavern walls become visible as she makes her way higher.
She glances down.
“Oh. Bad idea. Bad freaking idea.”
Rachel swiftly averts her gaze from staring at the ground, which seems miles beneath her feet. Her pulse races. Flashbacks of how the Akrah Cloak dropped her to distract Orion fill her thoughts. Her stomach does a few somersaults. Overcome with a bout of vertigo, she squeezes her eyes shut and forces herself to take the next step forward, even if her mind screams for her to stop. The first step is the hardest. The second step is better.
“Just keep moving forward.” Rachel takes a chance to open her eyes again and focuses on Ziggy.
A few feet higher, Ziggy disappears into the cavern wall, before he reappears a heartbeat later to reveal another glamor.
“Overkill much?”
She presses her hand against the wall to feel the actual opening. Rachel steps closer to the half-visible Fae light, and the cavern wall gives way beneath her palm, vanishing behind the glamor.
Disregarding the illusion completely, she turns on her heels and walks through.
Ziggy’s soft glow illuminates the tunnel, zigging ahead.
“Hold up,” Rachel hisses. She hunches to avoid hitting the low ceiling. Soon, the tunnel opens into a wide chamber, the ceiling now high enough for her to stand upright without worrying about hitting her head. “Thanks for waiting,” she mumbles.
Only then does she see Ziggy bobbing above a dark pool, his light revealing a shimmering trickle of water running down the roughly hewed wall.
Rachel falls to her knees in front of the pool, eyes stinging with gratitude as she submerges her hand.
Ziggy dips lower.
Her haggard reflection stares back, emotion and exhaustion clear beneath the dirt embedded in her skin. She leans down and splashes the cool water on her face and neck, washing away the accumulated grime and sweat. She cups her hand and bows closer to the pool, lapping up the water in a desperate attempt to soothe her dry throat.
Once her thirst has been quenched, Rachel removes her backpack, unhooks the blanket, and rummages around inside for her bottle. Rachel fills the bottle, and places it on the uneven floor beside her before she pulls out her toiletries bag.
“One more day, then we’ll hopefully find Orion.”
Ziggy flashes once, and moves toward the blanket, ready to rest for the night.
Ten
Brittle But Not Broken
Sometime the next morning, as she’s packing up her belongings, a scuffle manages to catch her attention. Confused by the sound, she looks to where Ziggy is bobbing near the entrance.
“Ziggy?”
Ziggy flies back to her side, flashing golden light in her face.
“What is it?”
Something moves outside the cave, somewhere in the death trap they’d traveled through to get here.
Rachel waits, listens. How many have stumbled into this place and will she be able to fight them off if the need arise? There’s no way to tell from her position. She gets to her feet and puts her backpack on.
“There’s a way out, right?” she whispers.
One flash.
“Okay, stay close.”
Ziggy leads her deeper into the narrowing cave, where the ceiling lowers drastically. Soon, she needs to go on her hands and knees to crawl through the passage.
She doesn’t know if she’s on the right path anymore, having neglected to check Mercia’s mirror for the next landmark. If Ziggy’s haste is anything to go on, getting to Orion is the least of her concern.
Her knees and palms ache as she moves as fast as she can through the winding cave.
The passage opens up a smidge, just enough for her to get back on her feet.
A frustrated
