“You got tested?” he asked in exasperation. “Why does that not even surprise me?”
“It wasn’t purposeful. I wanted to know what testing was, but when I stepped inside, Gelryn said he’d been waiting for me.”
“Ominous,” Fordham muttered.
She laughed. “A little bit. But it ended up being fine. He actually left and went to the Holy Mountain to try to find information on my visions.” She shrugged. “I don’t know if he’ll find anything, but he seemed confident.”
“That’s good at least. You need to get those under control.”
“Hey, they’ve helped you!”
“They have,” he admitted. “I just don’t want them to control you.”
She nodded and fell silent. They did control her, and if she didn’t find a way to stop them, then they always would. It was why she’d gone to Gelryn in the first place.
They continued trudging through the plane and watched as they crossed over the South River without ever getting wet. Then, the landscape turned rocky, and suddenly, they were in the mountains. The sun was low on the horizon when they began to trek through the Vert Mountains toward the cave system. The bright and vibrant plane turned darker and darker. If she was right about where they were, then they were traveling across days of land in a matter of hours. It was unfathomable.
“I wish we still had those torches,” Fordham muttered.
Kerrigan gulped. “Me too.”
Then, she heard a dark, rasping noise.
“Do you hear that?” she whispered, shaken by the first sound other than them or their raven in the plane.
“Hear what?”
Kerrigan waited and listened, straining her ears. The noise came again—a low, scratchy groan, as if someone were straining against their bonds or reaching for them in the darkness.
“That,” she whispered again urgently.
Fordham shook his head. “Nothing, Ker.”
She strained again, but couldn’t hear anything. The sound still shivered down her spine, but whatever it was… if it had even been real, was gone.
“I guess you’re right,” she said with a sigh.
The bird cawed then, making Kerrigan jump straight out of her skin. Well, she already had been.
“We’re here,” Kerrigan said.
“Where is here?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, but we must have made it as far as the raven can take us.” She respectfully bowed her head to their guide. “Thank you so much for your assistance.”
Fordham likewise bowed, and then with another caw, they both snapped back into their bodies.
Kerrigan jolted into reality, feeling the full weight of her existence settle over her again. She felt heavy, like her limbs were made of lead. “Oof!”
Fordham cursed and dropped to one knee. “Well, that’s… something. Where are we?”
She looked around at the dip in the mountain pass. “There!” She pointed to an opening in the rock. “I think that must be the cave.”
“The raven actually took us here,” he said in amazement.
“You should go,” she encouraged. “You want to be one of the first five to make it through.”
Fordham was about to respond when they heard a battle cry behind them. They both whipped around to find Darrid standing on the high ground, holding up an axe. Where he’d gotten it and how he had made it to the cave system at the same time as them was a mystery. His threat was not. With no magic and no weapon, they were defenseless.
“Go!” Kerrigan cried. “He wants to stop you, not me.”
“Kerrigan.”
“Go!” She pushed him backward. “I’ll handle it.”
“I won’t leave you.”
“Don’t be an idiot. You taught me well enough. I’ll be fine.”
He searched her eyes for a lie.
She just laughed and pushed him again. “Get out of here.”
Fordham took off at a run toward the tunnel. Kerrigan turned back to face Darrid. He looked every inch the Herasi warrior as he charged toward her. She scanned the area for a weapon of some kind, but there was nothing to use, except small, pebble-sized rocks. Nothing sharp. Nothing that could go up against a Herasi battle ax.
“Darrid, stop!” she cried, stepping into a defensive position.
He just screamed at the top of his lungs. And at the moment that he brought the axe down to sever her neck, she pivoted out of his way. The axe barely grazed her shoulder. She cried out but had enough strength to slam her hand into his kidney and dash farther away from his weapon. He clutched his side, looking like he might vomit, but he was a soldier after all, and he knew enough not to collapse here.
“Please just stop.”
“I’ll never stop,” he snarled. “He doesn’t deserve to enter the Dragon Society.”
“Well, I think that’s already too late,” she said, edging closer to the mouth of the cave that Fordham had entered.
He yelled out another battle cry, held the axe aloft, and charged for her. Her eyes rounded in horror. There was nowhere to go. Nothing to do. If she stayed where she was, Darrid would kill her in cold blood.