Ryan asked, “Will they follow us through this tunnel? I saw the one skeleton outside.”
“Not sure, but they know where the tunnel leads. The one we saw probably flew out and came around to the opening.”
“So they could trap us inside.”
“Yes, they could, but they don’t fight well in small spaces. And they aren’t likely to enter the tunnels very far.”
“Still leaves you trapped. They can wait you out.”
Novir said, “Let’s not worry about it. We have a wizard and a dragon in here with us and two more dragons outside. The kirii would see Brazin and Sebast and turn around at once.”
They descended in silence from there, the tunnel sometimes getting wider or taller but seldom much smaller. They passed through several small caves and a cave-in, which made Ryan wonder how stable all of this was. The possibility of getting trapped or lost underground wasn’t something he had considered until now, and the number of natural tunnels branching out from caves made him want to concentrate and memorize the way. Only a few looked to have been created manually, as evidenced by chisel marks and scattered debris, but they sometimes came upon multiple openings of different sizes and leading up, down, level, or in other directions. It was not obvious which way to go, and their reliance on Novir bothered him. What if something killed him? Ryan had been making a point of always looking behind him when they reached a cave, to visually identify whether other openings were there and which one they had just exited. He couldn’t see Eric up ahead until then, but his friend was doing the same. They finally stopped, gathering close.
“We are near,” Novir whispered. “Around the next turn. It is best to ready ourselves here.”
He wound the crossbow he had been carrying, as Ryan did after watching to see how he did it. He needed to learn these things back on Earth and practice everything related to it. He hadn’t opened the weapons that had arrived. He’d been loading them into the house when he was summoned. Confidence that he was an excellent shot would have eased his nerves, and maybe those of his friends. Eric had already drawn a throwing knife, and Ryan knew his friend was deadly accurate. He wanted the others to rely on him the same way he did on Eric right now. As he stood thinking about this, Matt was fumbling in his robes for what turned out to be a vial he held up, nodding that he was ready.
Ryan turned to Anna, asking, “Have you been able to reach a god?”
She nodded. “Yes, on the way here.”
“Then I guess we’re ready.”
Seeing agreement, Novir quietly led them another ten paces and around a curve. A bit farther and it appeared to end in blackness. They continued forward, Novir the first to step out a few paces and then aside as the rest joined him. Ryan exited last and looked around, but there wasn’t much to see in the dark. Seeing Novir put a torch on a wall sconce someone had fastened beside the opening, he looked for a second on his side and put his there. The light being in his hand wasn’t helping his eyes adjust, but now they all stepped forward on the stone, which extended twenty feet out and to the sides as the cavern opened around them. While most of the lake appeared to be directly ahead, some of it lay to either side of their position.
Two dim shafts of light above revealed two openings to the outside. Against them, they could see dark shapes hanging from the cavern roof, scores of them by one shaft and more by another. Given the room’s size, Ryan guessed that well over a hundred kirii were here, most out of sight, and he knew that the number could be far higher. They seemed small from here, but he knew they were four feet tall. None appeared to be moving.
One small, somewhat flat island lay off to one side, but a large, rockier, and taller one stood farther away, jagged spires of rock straining upward. Both seemed to have various shiny items laying on them, and he wondered if they were “treasure” to lure people out there. A rowboat lay on the shore. Another rested off to one side of where he stood, available to them if needed. A third floated aimlessly on the still waters, and the wreck of a fourth jutted up from beneath the dark surface nearer to them. He saw no bodies, but from what Novir had said, maybe the leviathan or kirii carried away anything left here. Nearby, he saw a rusting sword, broken arrows, and loose stones that might have been fired from a sling.
“You’re up, Soli,” Eric whispered.
Matt sighed and moved carefully on the dark, slick stones, stopping at the water’s edge and resting the crook of his staff in one arm. Ryan moved toward him in case Matt needed physical protection, but his eyes were on the kirii, not his footing, and he stepped on a loose rock that slid out from underfoot. He nearly fell with what would have been a loud clatter, but caught himself. The rock wasn’t so fortunate, rattling over the other stones and into the water with a small splash. He cringed and watched helplessly as ripples of water spread out and away. He knew Eric’s incredulous eyes were boring into the back of his head without bothering to turn around to confirm it.
Ryan asked in a whisper, “Any chance you can direct a focused beam of light from the staff? I’d like to know what is out there.”
“What if I wake something up?
“Good point. Maybe right before we leave. Or maybe not.”
“Hold the staff, please.”
Ryan took it as Matt crouched to the water, opened the vial in one hand, and emptied it into the waters as he spoke words of magic, which Ryan only understood thanks to
