Page 46 of Tethered Thrones

It would be such a shame for us all to lose our chance at this second life now, after everything we had been through together.

“There,” Clem whispered.

I didn’t know how he spotted the river through the trees as we left the battlefield behind us. When I finally saw the streak of water catching the light of the sun, it was in the distance.

My heart sank.

“It's too far,” Bracken said, reading my thoughts. He sounded so disappointed that my heart ached. “They'll never make it to us in time.”

“Then we shall have to be the ones to make it to them as quickly as possible,” I said. “Swoop to the river Bracken and we will not rest until we find the entrance.”

“But we have no idea how far the passageway goes,” he argued. “We have no idea where to start our search. What if we miss it entirely?”

“I won’t let us,” Clem promised.

His eyes glowed red now as he searched below us, and a shiver traveled my spine. Clem was changing and I did not know what to think of that. He had always seemed so meek and now, looking at him, I wondered... How far would his power truly grow? Surely, there had to be a limit.

Swallowing, I pushed the thought down.

It didn't really matter. Clem was one of mine.

“Lower down there, at that hill,” he said suddenly. “We're getting close.”

Bracken followed his order, another shocking development. We were all on much more even footing now.

The thought was nothing but comforting. We were in this together, in life and even death. But not tonight. Tonight, we were finding Sun, and Clem would heal him. We would live to fight another day and we would not stop until our goals were met.

Chapter 15

Hadi

Iwalked forward, hoping that Sun was right. He was half delirious, his eyes drooping and then opening again and again, but I had no choice but to trust him.

Suddenly, his head lolled against my shoulder and despite myself, I stopped breathing, waiting.

“Sun?” I whispered and he startled, lifting his head again before resting it tiredly on my shoulder.

“Where are we?” he asked.

I swallowed and shook my head at the sound of his groggy voice.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, continuing.

My footsteps echoed, a steady set of eight in a clipping pattern, back and forth over the walls of damp rock and mud. I couldn't make out exactly how big the tunnel was, but the fact that I could walk comfortably suggested that it was quite big. Big enough for an army to sneak through, I bet. That was comforting at least. Perhaps Sun was right.

He started awake once more and then hissed in pain.

I bit my tongue and kept walking.

It would have been faster and easier to have him sitting on my spidery back, his warm arms around my waist, his chestagainst my back the way I had gotten used to. But I did not dare rest him there with the hope that he would stay put and not slide off and get even more hurt.

“It's cold,” he whispered and that nearly undid me.

I stopped dead, straining in the darkness to see more. We were in complete darkness, but my ability to see in the dark made it so that I could make out a small bit down here. I couldn't see the whites of his eyes anymore. They were closed. And he was indeed cold.

Even at the top of the mountain, after walking through snow in slippers for days, Sun had not complained of the cold. He was stronger than that. He was stronger than this.

“Sun,” I whispered, but he did not answer.

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