Anilyia (21 page)

“Of course. You do understand that if a
Rojuun insists you must work, you will be obligated.”

“We know,” Tathan replied miserably. “We’re
going to keep our heads low and pray we make it through as fast as
possible.”

The administrator looked the party over. Not
knowing what to make of them, he just shrugged. “Very well. Do you
have contraband or anything that is not legal to take into the
caverns?”

“No sir. Nothing at all,” Tathan assured
him.

He looked them over one more time, opened
his mouth to say something then thought better of it and shrugged
again. “Alright. Go ahead. Don’t break any laws, don’t . . . just
don’t be idiots,” he finished with a sigh.

“We will avoid idiocy and pray it avoids
us,” Sir Danth stated in a deadpan voice. It was enough to get a
grin from the administrator as he waved them on.

The Cavern Road was a tunnel wide enough to
fit three rows of wagons. Sir Danth explained that the people he
had talked to about the road told him a few sections were only
small enough to fit one, which was why the wagons were so thin and
long.

The floor of the tunnel was slightly rough,
but had been smoothed out by workers and a few centuries of wagon
travel. The companions walked comfortably with the exception of
Tathan. His new shoes needed time to be broken in, but the rock
floor was not the best place to initiate them. New skin and muscle
in his healed foot began protesting after the first mile.

Until that point, they had been making
excellent time. Liselle saw him begin to favor the foot. After a
while, she made him sit on one of the benches placed along the
wall. The bottom of the foot was red and raw. When Liselle touched
it, Tathan jerked backward with a hiss of pain. “This is really
sore, Cousin. We’re going to have to take it easy,” she told him
with concern in her voice.

“I don’t see why,” Sir Danth protested
playfully. “His shoes are much more comfortable than mine and you
don’t hear me complaining about sore feet, do you?”

“You don’t have feet anymore, Sir Knight,”
Liselle explained.

“Well, that’s no excuse for him to
complain,” he said with a gesture toward Tathan. “Besides, it’s not
very nice to remind me of that you know. The loss is still
fresh.”

“You lost your body centuries ago,” Tathan
pointed out helpfully. “I think it might have been over a
millennium, but I’m not sure.”

“So now you are saying that I’m old, Master
Tathan. Is that it?” the knight challenged.

“You’re extremely old!” Vevin agreed
enthusiastically. “I met some dirt once that wasn’t as old as you.”
There was a big toothy grin on his face.

Sir Danth laughed out loud. He gave Vevin a
clout on the back that sent the purple haired creature staggering.
It caused Tathan to burst into laughter, thankful that he wasn’t
the victim of the knight’s friendship for once. When Vevin
straightened, his eyes were narrowed and his jaw set.

Vevin forced a fake laugh out and returned
the gesture. A great clang ran the length of the tunnel. Instead of
Sir Danth staggering, Vevin shook his hand in pain. “Owww!” he
yelled out.

The armored knight laughed even harder. It
sounded more human than it had in the past. Little by little, Sir
Danth was becoming more alive. The metal was still there, but it
wasn’t all there was to him anymore.

Vevin didn’t like having his hand hurt and
turned it into a dragon claw bigger than Sir Danth’s head. The
knight stopped laughing and moved into a defensive crouch. “Vevin!”
Liselle chastised. “Play nice.” She stood up, waggling her finger
at him.

The dragon claw disappeared, but Vevin
grinned mischievously. Sir Danth came out of his crouch looking
more worried than before. Liselle scolded both of them. “You boys
are to get along. Is that clear?”

They looked contrite, but did not answer.
“Is that clear?” Liselle asked more forcefully, crossing her arms.
“Yes, Milady,” they said in unison. When she turned her attention
back to Tathan’s foot, the two looked at each other with grins.
Tathan decided not to bring it to his cousin’s attention.

“I think I can help a little,” Liselle said
quietly.

Tathan reached down to put a hand on her
shoulder. “I don’t want you wasting your energy, Cousin.”

She smiled. “Don’t worry. It’ll take only a
small amount.” Liselle took a firm hold of his foot with one hand
while gesturing with the other. Blue glow came from her palm and
fingertips to envelope the foot. The flower in her hair moved
forward in interest.

It felt wonderful. Tathan breathed deeply,
laying his head back. A moan of relief escaped his lips. The magic
massaged the sore muscles and cooled the skin. It worked its way
into the bones, strengthening them as well.

When she was done, Tathan looked at his
foot. It wasn’t so pink or tender anymore. Wiggling the toes, he
could feel that the muscles had relaxed. There was no longer any
pain.

Liselle sat down next to him and took a
drink from her waterskin. “Put your shoe on and try walking a bit,
Cousin,” she told him.

He did so. The foot still didn’t feel
completely normal, but it was much better than before. The
tightness of new skin was gone. Muscles felt as they were supposed
to instead of unexercised.

“I sent some healing into it, but also tried
to age everything so it would fit the rest of the body,” Liselle
said with a frown. “That’s not exactly what I did, but it’s the
best I can explain and I’m learning as I go.”

“Thank you so much,” Tathan replied with a
happy smile. He even did a poor version of Vevin’s happy dance,
causing them all to laugh.

After pausing awhile for a snack so Liselle
could rest and regain the small amount of energy she had used, they
set out.

There were benches all along the road like
the one they had stopped at. Wherever the tunnel widened seemed a
good place to put another. On occasion, the party would pass a
traveler or group sitting on one.

Sometimes the tunnel widened more than
usual, or a side cave appeared. In these areas, benches would be
set up in a circle for camping. One of the caves they passed had a
pool at the back of it with crystal clear water, which was
wonderful to the taste. The companions ate a late lunch there.

Globes placed at intervals along the length
of the tunnel provided light. They glowed yellow, casting light
that was comfortable to the eyes. When Tathan asked a woman driving
a wagon if she knew how they stayed lit, she merely replied
“Magic”.

The Cavern road angled downward gradually,
going deep beneath the mountains. In some sections, the tunnels had
ribbed braces providing strength. In others, the rock was strong
enough that braces weren’t needed. Liselle asked one of the Rojuun
who passed if the tunnel was safe and he assured her that minor
collapses only happened once or twice a year and people rarely died
in them. Oddly enough, that did little to comfort the
companions.

Sound echoed in the tunnels. It was possible
to hear a wagon train for a long time before they could see it. The
rolling creaks of wagon wheels mixed with clip clopping horses to
create quite a racket. Wagon drivers hollering at each other and
the horses added to the din. The companions covered their ears the
first few times a train would pass, but gradually became used to
it.

Voices were another thing that echoed. Even
when they tried to whisper, the noise carried for a long way. At
any distance, the sound became garbled to the point of being
unintelligible. Murmurs ebbed throughout the tunnel that the human
ear could not separate.

Vevin, on the other hand, could tell exactly
what people were saying for miles in any direction. He would tell
his companions some of the more interesting bits like a woman who
had an affair with her husband’s best friend. Most of it was just
gossip, but every once in a while he would hear information about
something that could help them.

Tathan finally asked, “Why haven’t you done
this before to find out where the princess is?”

Vevin looked at him in surprise. “Why, I
never even considered it. Most of the time, people are boring. It’s
all about kids, work and . . . boring stuff.” He shrugged. “Plus
listening to all those voices gives me a headache after a
while.”

Tathan considered for a moment. “Sometimes I
think of a word or two, like princess, then listen for that word
when I’m in a crowd. Can you do that? Then listen for what’s said
about it.”

Vevin stopped walking, tilting his head in
each direction. The rest of them stopped as well. “I think I can,”
he said slowly. “I don’t hear it right now, but I can tune my ear
to that word. That’s very clever, Tathan. I’ll have to remember
it.”

Tathan clasped Vevin’s arm. “Yes,
definitely. Let us know if you find out anything that might be
useful.”

Vevin nodded enthusiastically and did a
listening dance.

The temperature became cooler as the party
traveled deeper into the ground. Soon plants began to appear on the
walls and ceiling. The plants were rich with oxygen, which made it
possible to breathe the air.

Bioluminescent fluids creeped through the
plants, creating light. It was similar to the glowflies in the
forest, but much more powerful. They were different from plants on
the surface. Their powerful roots dug deep into the rock, but at
the same time secured the stone so that ribs and braces were no
longer needed to keep the tunnel secure.

Plants that grew in the ceiling and walls of
caverns and tunnels tended to be unfit for human consumption,
though the Rojuun could eat many of the varieties. The roots
collected nutrients from deep within the rock. This made them
metallic and heavy in a way humans couldn’t digest. The floors of
Rojuun caverns often had softer and more fertile dirt distributed
by extensive underground rivers flowing throughout the world of
Ryallon.

From this softer dirt, grew plants edible to
humans. They glowed and produced copious amounts of oxygen as well,
but were softer than their hanging counterparts were. Animals of
all sorts fed on them. Meanwhile, other animals fed on those
animals. When the animals died, they lay in the soil adding their
nutrients to it. It was a vast cycle of life underground that had
taken thousands upon thousands of years to develop. From that life
came the Rojuun, later than humans had developed upon the surface,
but perhaps that was the way the gods intended it.

“Vevin,” Liselle said thoughtfully. “If the
humans came from the surface of Ryallon, and the Rojuun came from
the caverns, where did dragons come from?”

Her mate, who was still listening for the
word ‘princess’ in conversations, considered the question
absentmindedly. After a moment he answered, “Why, from the stars of
course.”

Near the end of the day, the party came to a
small town set within a cavern. There was a lake nearby providing
water and fishing for the citizens. They chose the simpler of the
two inns and spent the night.

For a week, they traveled east along the
Cavern Road. Other tunnels and caverns appeared along the route.
Most were either barricaded with locked gates, protected by guards
or both. Humans were allowed in other areas though, including
caverns that were beautiful to the point of inspiring awe.

Vevin insisted they explore each one. Tathan
originally wanted to push on, but the dragon insisted. Most of
their meals were taken in those caverns while Vevin examined every
nook and cranny.

Water running through rock brought colored
minerals into many of the caves. The multicolored luminescence of
the plants would cause the caves to glow in soft hues. Sometimes
tiny crystals would tumble through the water, acting as prisms. The
sight would entrance Vevin, who stood there swaying from foot to
foot with a wide smile on his face. Sir Danth called it his ‘trance
dance’. It would last awhile before he would eagerly suggest they
go find another cave.

Air currents underground created breezes and
winds within the caves. It seemed odd to feel air moving
underground as they traveled. There was no rhyme or reason to how
it moved either. More than once, they wondered where a particular
breeze came from and what happened to it when the air shifted in a
new direction.

A feju they met along the way talked to them
about the caves. She explained that most caves throughout the world
weren’t connected to each other naturally, instead forming over
millennia.

The world of Ryallon had a great deal of
water running through it, which played a vital role in the
existence of life in the caverns. Plants deposited their seeds in
this water, either directly or through animals that drank from the
water or swam in it.

Many animals could breathe underwater for
amazing lengths of time and swam from cavern to cavern. Some
animals even gave birth in the water, letting their offspring
travel to other caverns.

Another Rojuun told them about buutor:
large, stone-eating creatures that spent their entire lives
creating tunnels. They did so using claws and hard head to break
rock. Buutor could tell where caverns were and dug through the
ground, joining them together.

Nine days after starting the passage into
the tunnels, the party entered Rainbow Caverns. A cool mist filled
the air hours before they arrived and with each step, the roar of
waterfalls grew louder. Moisture glistened on the surfaces of the
walls and on the plants. Vevin was hopping and skipping in his
dances, creating a new one Sir Danth labeled ‘The Rainbow
Dance’.

The party began to see small rainbows
everywhere. Light from plants and birds reflected through the
mists. It was odd to see one appear nearby and then disappear when
a hand would reach out to it. Ropes cordoned off the road from the
plants alongside in order to keep travelers from destroying
them.