Chased By Fire (Book 1) (29 page)

Roine led them more carefully, looking from side to side as he moved deeper into the cave. Trees and bushes sprouted from the ground of the cavern as well, growing tall and high, stretching up toward the rock overhead. They blocked the light filtering down as they moved further into the cavern. Tan thought he heard the sound of birds chirping among the trees, but decided that must be imagined.
 

Roine turned to Amia. “Which way?”
 

She closed her eyes. “It’s hard to tell. Everything feels different here. I think—there.” She pointed left, off their current path.
 

Roine allowed Amia to lead and she moved carefully along the soft greenery of the cavern floor. If Tan hadn’t known better, he would have imagined they were in a warm forest, though none of the trees looked familiar. Neither did the flowering plants erupting along their path. The vegetation had the air of familiarity to it, but the trees, the flowers, and even the grass growing under his feet were unlike anything he had ever known. A soft sensation, almost an itch, beat at the edge of his consciousness. It took a while to realize that he
sensed
the strangeness around him.

Amia led them toward the soft burbling sound. As they approached, the towering trees stopped, opening into a clearing within the cavern. At the center of the clearing was a circular pool of silvery water, bubbling softly. An object hovered in the middle of the pool of liquid, suspended above it.
 

With absolute certainty, he knew they’d found it. “This is it.” He started toward it.

Roine restrained him and pointed toward a huge stone pillar rising from the ground. Deep etchings marked its perimeter, carvings and runes similar to those on the cave entrance. A suppressed energy emanated from the pillar.
 

He let his consciousness stretch toward the pillar, trying to sense it. A painful crack within his mind sent his sensing snapping back to him. Tan dropped to his knees with the pain.

Roine reached to help him stand. “Tried to sense it?”
 

Tan nodded. Everything swam around him and spots danced in front of his eyes.
 

“It will pass,” Roine said.

“How do you know?”

Roine laughed. “I’ve already done the same. My touch is gentler. Or weaker. So my response was less.”

“What is it?” Tan asked.

Roine shook his head. “Pure earth, channeled and trapped, almost like an elemental.” Roine stared at the towering pillar, hesitant to approach it. “Perhaps it is an elemental,” he mused. “Though that is not golud. You’d know golud if you met one.”

“Why?” The effects of whatever his sensing had done faded somewhat, but had not cleared completely.
 

“They create a barrier of some kind.”

“They?” Tan asked.

Roine nodded, pointing to their right. He had been so focused on the pillar of earth that Tan hadn’t looked around the clearning. A flame shot up and out of the ground, reminding Tan all too much of the fiery cage the lisincend used to trap Amia. The fire sizzled quietly, stretching toward the sky. Flames sputtered briefly before spouting higher into the cavern.
 

In front of the spout of flame, beyond the silvery pool, a wide stream of water poured from the ceiling of the cave, running straight down and out through an unseen opening in the floor of the cavern. There was a faint glow to the water. He knew without sensing there was an elemental power to the water.

Tan looked over to the stone pillar and over to the far left corner, expecting to see something there, another pillar of sorts, but saw nothing but the nearby leaves fluttering wildly as if in a heavy wind. Another elemental forming in a different sort of pillar.

Tan shook his head. “How is this possible?”
 

Roine looked at the four pillars surrounding the silvery liquid. “I would have loved to see the shaping of this.”
 

“These are elementals, Roine.” Tan felt certain of that.
 

The faint glowing of the water was almost certainly the nymid from the lake below. Tan began to wonder if the flames were once channeled from the draasin. That didn’t explain the pillar of rock or of air.

Roine shook his head. “Not elementals. They can’t be.” He looked at everything in the cavern with a mixture of awe and disbelief.
 

“Look at how the water glows and how the fire sputters. I can’t sense the nymid, but I suspect they flow through that water. And the draasin once created that fire,” he said, pointing. “I don’t know the golud or the ara, but they must be a part of this as well.”

Roine stared, looking at the cascading water and then over to the fire. “They trapped the elementals here?”
 

Amia shook her head. “I don’t think they were all trapped,” she said. “I can’t speak to them—not like Tan—but I sense the nymid offer themselves freely.” She tilted her head, as if listening. “There is a deep presence within that rock, as well. I don’t sense the anguish I felt with the draasin.” She shivered from the memory. “I sense nothing from the wind.”

“Nor would you,” Roine said quietly.

Amia frowned at him a moment. “I think only the draasin had been forcibly held.”

“Why would the ancient warriors trap the elementals? What could be so valuable to need that kind of protection?

Roine closed his eyes, looking from each of the pillars before finally settling his eyes on the silverly pool at the center. Anguish covered his face, that and another emotion that Tan couldn’t recognize.
 

“Perhaps there was no other way,” Roine said.
 

“No other way for what?”
 

Roine pointed toward the silvery liquid, toward where the object hung suspended at the center. “To protect that.”

“That’s the ancient artifact? Just out in the open?”

Roine shrugged, squinting as he stared out past their barrier, trying to see what it was hovering above the liquid. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “The artifact isn’t described. There were only vague references to what it does. Its power. So I don’t know what it might look like.”

Tan looked from Roine out toward the silvery water. “What now?”
 

“We get past this barricade.”

“How?” Tan asked. “If this barrier is powered by elementals, how can we get past it?”

“I don’t know. I’m working on it.”

Roine paced along the outer edge of the pillars, walking past each one, moving slowly and stopping, staring, as he came to the next. Tan and Amia followed him, watching, waiting for Roine to come up with the answer, but Tan wondered if an answer might not be had this time.
 

The power that stood before them was greater than Roine, perhaps even greater than the ancient warriors who crafted this place.
 

Roine approached the pillar of water and paused, staring at it briefly, before moving on.
 

Tan started to follow but Amia touched his arm and stopped him. “Can you speak to them?” she asked, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked at the water pouring out from somewhere overhead. It funneled down, hitting the stone without splashing before running out unseen below them. It created no spray, nothing but a solid sheet of water.

“I don’t know. I’m not even sure if this is the nymid.” He looked at the water, at the way it glowed as it flowed down. “What if this is the udilm?”

“Can you speak to them?” she repeated.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, staring at the water, hesitating. The last time he had tried reaching for the nymid, he’d encountered the draasin. What if this was something different than the nymid? What if they were more like the draasin?
 

And if they couldn’t reach the artifact, then the lisinced probably could not either.
 

“We don’t even need to do anything. This protects it. Even the lisincend can’t pass.”

She frowned and looked toward the pillar of fire. It sputtered more than before. “Are you certain?”

The draasin likely had powered the pillar. And now that they were free, that connection would fail. Eventually the barrier would fail. Then the lisincend would reach the artifact.
 

Had they not freed the drassin, it might not even matter. The lisincend wouldn’t have been able to reach the articact. Now, because of what they’d done—what
he’d
done—the draasin flew free. And the protection around the artifact failed.

“This is my fault,” he whispered.

Amia took his hand. “They deserved their freedom,” she said, as if reading his thoughts. With the connection formed by her shaping him, perhaps she did.

“What if we fail?”

She looked at Roine as he limped around the outside rim of the pillars, the limp more pronounced than before. His shoulders sagged and his eyes lost some of their luster. Roine would not be able to help if the lisincend appeared.

“Then we fail. At least we’ll have tried. And done right for the lisincend.” Amia let out a soft breath. “These others serve willingly, but they grow tired. They deserve their release too.”

Tan closed his eyes and focused his thoughts as he had when standing along the lake as he reached for the nymid. “I’ll do what I can.”

Nymid!

He sent the thought with as much force and energy as he could muster. He swayed in place. Then he waited.

Long moments passed. For a while, he thought he’d failed. A soft tickle came to the back of his mind, the sense of something else there, fleeting.
 

Nymid!
 

He sent the thought again with as much strength as he could manage.

Again the soft tickle came to the back of his mind. Tan felt a definite presence, soft and gentle, settle into his mind. He took a deep breath, easing the tension he’d held.
 

Who calls the nymid?

I am Tan
.

He who is Tan. You know the nymid?

Tan nodded and then sent the answer.
Yes. You helped me once.
He held up his arms and lifted the shirt Roine had lent him, revealing the burned and charred shirt below.
You healed me once.

You wear our armor
. The nymid fell silent for long moments.
We know you, He who is Tan.
There was a pause.
You released True Fire
.

We did
.
The Daughter felt their pain.

He sensed sadness from the nymid.
They felt much
.
If we had known, we would never have agreed to the plan. They were not to have suffered
.
Once we knew, there was nothing that could be done.
 

They are free now.

The nymid seemed pleased.
You have done well. What can we do for you?

We must reach the artifact.
Tan sent an image of the object at the center of the pool.

That is protected by the Mother,
the nymid said.
Only one blessed by the Mother can touch the object.

Blessed by the Mother?
We can’t pass even this barrier
. Tan showed created an image of the pillars for the nymid.

The barrier is weakened,
the nymid said.

It may be weak, but we still cannot pass. What is it?

A bargain
.
And one made freely.
There was a pause.
Nearly freely
.
And made to protect these lands, this place.
 

Why?
Tan asked.
 

There was something more to what the nymid had agreed to than simply protecting the artifact. He got no answer.

The nymid were silent for long moments and Tan worried they were done speaking with him.
 

What would you do with the object?

We protect it from Twisted Fire
.

Twisted Fire cannot reach the object. We protect it well. The Mother protects it well.

There is one among Twisted Fire who is powerful. We fear that in time he might succeed.

Tan sent an image of Fur and his battle with Roine.

The nymid seemed to consider.
That cannot happen
.

No
.
 

We have protected the object for countless cycles. Those who created the object saw its danger and tasked us with watching over it.

Why?

It provides great power.
 

What does the object do?
 

Only the Mother knows for sure
.

Tan decided to try a different approach.
Did releasing the draasin weaken the barrier?
The sputtering pillar of fire had him wondering how much of this he had caused.

It is possible
.
True Fire did not remain to participate in the protection.

What effect will that have?
Can Twisted Fire now pass through the barrier?

You reason well, He who is Tan
, the nymid said.
And may be correct. The object must not be possessed by Twisted Fire
.
 

Let us protect it
.

The nymid fell silent for long moments and Tan again thought that they had broken off communication. He turned to Amia, uncertain, when he heard the nymid’s soft presence once more in his mind.
 

You may pass
.
The armor granted you will allow you to move through the barrier, but know that the object can only be possessed by one blessed by the Mother.

The nymid receded from his mind, leaving him. He shook his head, clearing the sensation, though felt none of the pain as he had with the draasin. Fatigue nearly overwhelmed him, leaving him weakened as Roine after a shaping.
 

“The nymid state I can pass.”

Roine had come behind him. “We can?”
 

“They said I can pass. I think that means just me. I’m still protected by the armor they granted me during Amia’s rescue. They said it will let me to move through the barrier.”