“No problem,” I said as I looked over at Pachi. “I am glad we could help. I’m afraid for my friend, though. She was poisoned, and I don’t have an antidote. Do you know how long the poison lasts?”
Pachi spoke to me mentally, but as the wyvern turned to look at her as well, it was apparent she was speaking to us both. The poison will run its course until I die, Hana. I am sorry.
Speaking up again, this time with more levity in its voice, the wyvern said, “My people have an antidote. I am not allowed to show anyone our home, but…” It seemed to struggle with its conscience a moment before beginning. “No, it must be. You have saved me when it would have been easy enough for you to walk away. Follow me. If you have any healing herbs, eat them now, and drink some of the water here. It will bolster your body and slow the poison, though it will not last long. We must hurry.”
I found the last of the herbs Judas had given me and fed them to Pachi. She chewed them thoroughly and swallowed. While she did so, I ran over to the nearest pool and filled the skin.
I winced as my fingers touched the water, but it was not as hot as I’d feared. The bubbles were not from boiling heat, but rather some gas that was escaping.
Pachi drank the whole waterskin and we all began descending into the mountainside again, following our limping friend.
“How were you injured?” I asked it. “And what is your name, for that matter?”
“You may call me Quelten,” the creature said aloud, the word coming out with a hard K sound. “To answer your first question, I was only caught in the troll’s whip. Normally, such shallow wounds would not hinder one of my kind, but it had covered the lashes with poison. We have some immunity, but already I feel my legs weakening.” As it spoke, the wyvern increased its pace, moving in the side-to-side fashion of a huge lizard.
“It is nice to meet you Quelten,” I answered, following closely behind. “I’m Hana, and my friend is Pachi. Thank you for helping us in return. It might be fortunate. We were tasked by the Sirrushi rangers to try to find your people. I need to speak with your leader. Do you know them?”
A rasping hiss escaped the wyvern’s mouth—laughter. “My mother. I am sure she will meet with you, though she will no doubt be angry with me. I was not supposed to venture so far without the company of guards.”
The notion of these dragonlike creatures having positions within their society like guards made me reorient my perspective somewhat. How else might I be underestimating them if this was surprising?
Rather than question Quelten further, I helped Pachi, taking some of the weight off of her injured leg. The further we traveled, the slower her movements became. Whatever poison the troll had used had an inhibiting effect, like paralysis.
The tunnels became narrower, no longer running through larger caverns but burrowing lower into the mountain in long passageways. Occasionally, we would pass around some gaping hole in the ground, a fell wind blowing up from its depths.
At last, the tunnel we were following flattened out and began to open up. Far ahead, I thought I saw the red and orange flicker of firelight. Torches?
“We are close,” Quelten called back. “Just a little more.”
My heart began to lift. This had been a costly adventure so far, only worthwhile if Pachi could be healed. But before we’d gone another hundred feet, she tripped, her injured shoulder no longer able to hold her weight. She lay quivering on the cave floor, her breath labored.
I urged her on, trying to help her lift up some of her weight. You can’t stop now. I’m so sorry, but you have to get up!
She lay still for a few long moments, then answered, I don’t think I can. I’ll try once more when I catch my breath.
Quelten had stopped and turned back, and I noted that his own legs were wobbling more than before. “We cannot stop here. If we do, they will not know to help us.”
“I know, just give us a minute,” I explained. “She needs a rest, I think.”
Quelten shook his head from side to side, almost like he was tearing meat from a carcass. “No! That is how the poison works. As soon as you give in to stillness, you are lost!”
Pachi seemed to be listening. In one great effort, she managed to lift herself up once more.
The wyvern took off ahead of us, moving fast despite his growing clumsiness.
The chamber collapsed again into a small tunnel, this one carved from stone, and I glanced up to see intricate patterns etched there.
Then it opened up into a vast cavern. I could barely make out the ceiling, which was a hundred feet above us and glimmering. Torches burned in sconces that hung from numerous pillars as thick as the trunks of oak trees.
Hoping the distraction would help her continue our flight, I said, Pachi, isn’t it beautiful? Are you seeing any of this? But instead of answering, I felt the muscles along her shoulder go as rigid as the stone around us, and she crashed into the ground.
My heart twinged as I heard the yelp that escaped her.
I found myself on hands and knees, staring in horror at the sight of Pachi seizing on the cave floor.
Quelten turned around and said something to encourage us to keep moving, but I couldn’t focus on his words. I was too concerned by the approaching wyverns, covered in plates of steel armor and five times the size of young Quelten.
Then a voice as deep and cold as the mountain itself demanded, “What is the meaning of this, hatchling!?”
I lifted my body up and froze, the sight of the wyvern guards more terrifying than any cave troll a hundred times over.
The guard continued to admonish
