Page 73 of Dark's Savior

Breathless, Ryziel swerved around and saw Nar stretch out his shaking hand to point at the center of the room. Confused, Ryziel followed his pointing finger to the monstrous corpse, and his heart leapt to his throat. He stalked over to the giant body and tried to search underneath it, terrified of what he might see. He lifted several limbs but found nothing below save for a narrow portion of a hole that the beast was now covering.

"It was...quick," Nar said, still trying to catch his breath. "But I saw her go under as the floor...collapsed."

Ryziel checked around the corpse then attempted to lift it. He knew he had strength to do so, but the beast had wedged itself so fully into the floor that it was stuck and, as heavy as it was, Ryziel couldn't move it off the opening. Cursing, he was very close to hacking it apart with his bare hands to get underneath when Nar made another sound.

"She slid down. A piece of the floor is...is slanted but still intact, which means it...most likely hit another tunnelway below."

Ryziel thought he understood. She may well have fallen underneath and could just be lying below, possibly injured. He brought up his techband and called her, praying he might hear something. The call went through, but there was no answer. He cursed again and withdrew his band.

"Xilya, take Nar back to the lair. I'm going to search for her." He started for the door, his mind tracing a mental map in his head of possible stairways or passages. The duo did not argue, but Xilya did fix him with a concerned stare.

"Find her if you can...but be prepared for what you might discover," she said carefully. Ryziel didn't need to be told. He turned for the door and left without another word.

***

His mind raced as he flew down passageways and through inner chambers, looking for stairs or cave openings leading downward, struck by images of Aly's mangled body covered in rocks or her head split open from the fall. Even when he did eventually find his way below, he couldn't tear those images from him, and the more he searched, the worse they got. Then, as he continued to find empty rooms and caves, another awful thought hit him: he may never actually find her.

Suddenly, the idea of returning to the hidden chamber and cutting the dead thing open in order to get through to the broken floor below was very tempting. He had no more bombs, but he could find a sharpened rock or crystal. But if he did that, he risked moving the creature where it might fall through the floor and drop on Aly, crushing her. If not that, then the rest of the ground might give and fall as the beast may be the only thing keeping it intact. So, he continued to fly through caves in desperate hope. He checked the map on his band several times but the Keep and the tunnels around it were a maze, and it only showed him where the tracer had gone, not any of the undiscovered places beyond. He could only use his senses, and he did so to the best of his ability, following the vibrations of his receptors, seeking a familiar scent.

Those damning thoughts of Aly being dead or injured or lost drew out dark and intense emotions that burned him from the inside. As he raced through the endless passageways and began to call out her name, uncaring of anything that might hear, he could feel the guilt gnawing at him like a flesh-eating parasite.

He had pushed her away. He had hurt her. And he hadn't even apologized. He never forgot the look on her face when he had said those harsh words to her, words he wished he had never given voice. Words that could never be true in his heart, no matter what he was supposed to think or feel as a nillium.

And perhaps worse than that was that he hadn't thanked her. Hadn't even shown his gratitude for what she'd done for him while in his Drega's hold. She had helped him despite her fear. She had been so brave. And what had he given her? Nothing. Except a constant reminder to keep her distance.

Ryziel's face twisted, a low growl ripping from his throat. He pushed on and knew he wouldn't stop searching, even if he collapsed from exhaustion—wouldn't stop until she was found, even if all he found was her lifeless body.

As he went on through the endless dark—a place Aly was lost in, alone—he felt the fire in him grow cold.

He hadn't apologized, and he hadn't thanked her.

***

The first thing Aly felt was something sharp grating against her face or rather several sharp things. She turned her head away and felt herself blink, though the black nothingness across her vision didn't change whether her eyes were open or closed. This brought her mind to focus immediately, and she came around enough to realize she was lying on the ground. A few seconds after processing how she got there, she remembered she had been in the hidden room with Nar when that monster, Coria, had found them, and she had felt the floor drop under her, and she had been falling, falling for what felt like forever.

No, maybe not falling, exactly, but sliding. First from the collapsed floor then down some more from a sediment of smooth rock onto what she could only feel now as a pile of loose rubble underneath her. Thinking this now, she steadily sat up and felt around her. She moved her arms then her legs then turned her head from side to side and bent her back. She took off her helmet and found the front was broken, one side split across the top. She touched at her face and skull but found them dry then she patted at her torso and found her suit intact. She let out a deep sigh and, besides the soreness across her back, she felt no serious pain. She touched at her arms and felt their tenderness and knew it was likely from the rocks that had pelted her. But she was okay. She wasn't greatly injured and that's what mattered most.

Carefully, she tried to stand, but the rocks under her were not stable. Instead, she crawled her way off the pile until she touched solid ground. With shaking limbs, she stood and, besides being a little shocked, she felt fine, good even, as her adrenaline began to wear off.

She looked around, realizing she still couldn't see a thing. She turned on the lights at her collar, which were dimmer than usual but gave her enough to see at least a few feet in front of her.

The passage wasn't large by any means. In fact, it was rather small compared to most, though it was still big enough that several humans could walk side by side. It went down straight, with no obvious curves or bends, and, since the opposite way was blocked by rock, Aly would have no choice but to follow the path forward.

She took a step then realized she didn't know where she was, and neither did the others. They didn't know what happened, didn't even know if she was alive. Heart pounding, she brought up her techband and went to make a call, but then she heard something slither by the wall. It could have just been her imagination, but it was enough to make Aly drop her arm and bolt away, in fear that Coria somehow wasn't dead (she had only seen the fall, after all) and that the creature might be trying to slink its way into the tunnel Aly was now in.

So, she ran blindly down the passage, passed an open door, and went up a flight of stairs. She only slowed when she started to see the soft glow of what she thought had been muirlemp, only it was moving and that spurred her onward even more.

She fell onto the landing of the stairs, breathing hard, and quickly looked back behind her. But she saw nothing coming up to attack her from below. She fell back for a moment on the cold, smooth rock, trying to catch her breath, then she slowly rolled over and stood back up. There was a soft beam of light ahead of her, sneaking out from under a door not too far ahead. Aly chose to head toward it, hoping it might be one of the others looking for her.

She crept to the door and pushed it open just enough to see inside and saw it wasn't Ryziel or Xilya or Nar. She opened the door all the way and stepped inside and just stood there, staring.

It was a vast chamber, which was nothing new in the Keep, where she clearly was now. It was what was in the room that brought Aly to stop dead and stand there in complete awe.

It had to be the throne room, that's all she could think. Giant statues stood straight and proud along each wall between thick pillars that connected an arched, vaulted ceiling. A large throne-like chair sat at one end, with a high back and twisted metal legs welded to the shiny black floor. And behind it, an even larger statue of a crowned woman, the very same one Coria had been trying to imitate with her false light. Yurza, the queen of this dead kingdom.

All these things, which had been made by long-gone ancients, were now covered in muirlemp. From ceiling to floor; from head to toe. Aly slipped farther into the room, and she could see something else giving off light, some kind of insect fluttering about the glowing fungi. Something like a firefly.

Seeing them suddenly made Aly want to cry and laugh all at the same time. Her throat tightened, and her eyes began to sting, but she refused to let tears fall. She smiled and laughed softly instead, wishing she had her sketchbook with her but then knowing she would easily be able to recreate it from memory if she had to because she would never forget this place. This world that was so different from home.

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