Page 41 of Dragon Sword

A breath escaped him and his hands on me relaxed. He searched my face for the same answers I wanted. “You froze and wouldn’t reply to my questions.”

I cupped my forehead in one palm and scrunched up my face. “Is that. . .that’s not how I remember it at all. You didn’t answer my question and when I looked at your face you were-” I froze and the color drained from my face. I clapped his face between my hands and searched him over. “You’re okay, aren’t you?”

He gently grasped my hands and smiled. “I am fine.”

I scoured the area around us. “So what exactly happened?”

“The magic of the tunnels,” he reminded me as he, too, inspected the space with pursed lips. “It feeds off your worst fears and drives you back to the exit.” I recalled the mirage and shuddered. He drew me against his chest and into a nice, warm hug. “There is nothing to what you saw. The magic can only frighten you. It cannot predict the future.”

I took a deep, shaky breath and nodded. “I’m ready. Let’s get going.”

Will took my hand and we ventured deeper into the tunnel with his flame providing light. We hurried our steps and soon found the scenery changing again. The roots thickened and the grass cracked the cobblestones and there were now doors and side passages. Soon a maze presented itself to us and we stopped at a crossroads with both of us looking this way and that.

“Where do we go?” I asked my guide.

He shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

My face fell. “You haven’t been here?”

“Not in this particular spot in the manalla,” he confirmed.

I swallowed the growing lump in my throat and looked around. “Then we guess.”

Will smiled down at me. “The tunnels lead over the entirety of the city. We may become lost.”

“If that happens we’ll dig our way out,” I suggested as I squeezed his hand. “But at least we’ll be chewing through stone together.”

He chuckled and looked ahead of us. “There are certainly worse circumstances. Now let-” He paused as a scuffing sound came from somewhere head.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention. “What was that?”

“We should find out,” he mused as he led me down the leftward path.

His flame wavered as we moved quickly down the passage. Its light danced along the walls and illuminated doors with small storage rooms and other hallways. I smelled the stench of rot and I nearly choked on the damp that suffocated us. In a minute we had reached a spot where the doors had changed to cells.

“Is this another dungeon?” I asked my companion as we passed one of the cages. The shadows were so deep that I couldn’t see anything in it.

“It would appear so,” Will mused as he slowed his pace and held his light higher to illuminate the depths.

A hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed my arm. “What are you doing here?’

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the voice and Will was quick to grab the hand and jerk it off me. The arm retreated into the darkness and a bitter laugh came from the shadows beyond the cell bars. The voice was familiar and Will lifted his flame to illuminate the space.

Terve’s sallow face stared back at us. He was so changed that I hardly recognized him, so pale was his face and so sunken his eyes. Their depths looked as if nearly all the light had been extinguished.

“I never expected to see you, or at least so soon and without escort,” Terve commented.

I stared at him in horror. “What happened to you?”

“Elves need to absorb light to keep their magic,” Will explained as he studied the elf with pity. “Without it, they wither like a plant.”

“And thrice as fast,” Terve chimed in with his bitter smile as he stumbled back into the darkness. His faint outlaw fell against the rear wall and he slid down to the cold floor. “We die within a fortnight without sun.”

I stepped up to the bars and grasped them in my hands as tears came to my eyes. “This is because you helped us, isn’t it?”

He shook his head. “It is because I helped my people by telling you our troubles and I have no regrets about that. Neither should you.”

“We will get you out of here,” Will spoke up as he grasped one of the bars.

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