Analindë (The Chronicles of Lóresse) (8 page)

Analindë looked around the small mountain shelf. Nowhere to go, except back down. She sighed and gingerly started picking her way down the track she had so laboriously hiked the previous evening. Before too long she came upon a rockslide she barely remembered scrambling over. A few massive boulders had fallen awkwardly together at the side of the track. They caught her eye and so she paused a moment to study them, taking the opportunity to rest. Something about the light falling just above them wasn’t quite right. She squinted her eyes, turning her head sideways. Ahhh, an opening! Was it the cave? She hobbled closer, then became more sure. “It is the cave!”

Exhilaration zipped through her as she studied the opening. It couldn’t be reached from the ground below so she stepped back to study the rockslide. The mountain was a smooth cliff along one side of the cave, but on the other side lay the river of boulders. If she could scramble her way up high enough she’d be able to jump down or lower herself into the cave opening.

Smiling now, Analindë picked her way up over gigantic chunks of rock, thinking only of finding a place to sleep. She finally reached a point where she could jump down to the cave opening and reality kicked in.

“What am I doing!” She recoiled, then warily judged the distance to the opening at thrice her height; it would be a hard landing. But there was nowhere else to go, and she needed to sleep. She gathered her courage, saying, “If I break something . . . then I break something.” But then, just as she was about to leap, fears came rushing back in. “What if something dangerous lived in there? . . . “Stop it! You’ll be just fine!” She muttered to herself.

While she was still brave enough to do so, Analindë lowered herself down the rock face and let go. Landing awkwardly, she rolled until she hit the side wall of the cave and stopped.

With the last of her strength, Analindë crawled into the dark cave, pulled off her scout pack to use as a pillow and collapsed. As she drifted off to sleep, feelings of warmth and welcome stole over her.

When dawn came, she pried her swollen eyelids open and stretched the aches out of her muscles. She broke her fast on the last of her bread—it was already going stale—and some of the fresh fruit.

She shuffled over to the ledge just outside the opening of the cave and looked out over the scene. The view was spectacular. Several smaller mountain ranges crisscrossed the scene below ringed by larger rocky peaks, a few of them snow capped. Leaves had begun to turn; vivid reds, yellows, oranges of the oak trees and occasional blues of the
asperil
trees mixed with the dark evergreen forest. A waterfall in the distance fed one of the rivers she had crossed two nights ago. Sighing, Analindë turned and re-entered the cave.

As she passed through the opening, a curious sensation moved through her; it was a barrier of some sort, like the ones on the workshop doors at school. She hadn’t noticed it before, but now she tingled warmly all over.

Analindë pressed her arm back and forth through the barrier as she studied it. “Comfort, . . . the perfect thing to project in a stone cave,” she murmured, then chuckled. “Someone must have lived here, or at the least used it as a stopover on journeys.”

Puzzle solved, she limped away from the entrance, turning her attention to the rest of the cave. Wanting to explore, she summoned a shielded magelight, then left her pack against a wall. She walked gingerly along the uneven cave floor toward the back of the cavern and the knots in her muscles slowly worked themselves out. Before long, she found two tunnels and decided to explore the one on the right first. The smell of damp earth became stronger and the air grew chilly the further she explored. Pebbles skidded to the side as she stumbled along, her gait eventually smoothing as time passed.

Her magelight reflected harshly off the cave walls revealing little but a tunnel carved out of rock by water, barren at first, and uninteresting, but then the tunnel narrowed, elongated by other means to accommodate the height of an elve. Eventually the blank walls began to include items etched into the stone: a few curious glyphs—she couldn’t read them—and animals. Among the animals was an elven horse running at full gallop, hair streaming gloriously in the wind and a dragon, sinuous body, neck arched, mouth gaped in a defensive roar. “I wish there was such thing as dragons,” she whispered as she wistfully traced her finger along its sinuous body, her fingers came away wet from the wall.

“Water!” She looked more closely at the tunnel surrounding her, water trickled intermittently down the walls of the passage leaving beautiful stone patterns in their wake. She summoned her shielded mage light closer to the ground and followed the water along the now muddy ground hoping that there might be a pool ahead. The tunnel emptied into a dry, small, barren room.

Disappointment washed through her as she realized there was an efficient drainage system of sorts that ringed the room, letting any and all water escape before collecting. Frowning, she made her magelight brighter and scanned the enclosure. The left side held nothing, but on the right side, a basin had been carved into the rock wall. A slow steady stream of water gurgled down the wall, filled the hollow, then spilled out onto the floor where it seeped back into the rock using the aforementioned drainage system. A half-grin moved across her face. Next to the bowl was a block of stone that could be used as a chair; upon it sat a stone cup.

“Ha! Someone
had
stayed here,” Analindë strode forward and grabbed the cup, “Thank you, whoever you were!” She placed her hand over the water and sent her Energy down into it to see if the water was clean. At last she had found something she could do with ease. A small corner of her heart fluttered, pleased.

Her senses told her the water was pure with no taint. Smiling, she dusted the cup off and dipped it into the basin. Analindë had never tasted anything so good, cool and crisp. It took four cups to quench her thirst. Overfull, she sat for a moment and admired the cup. It was elven and utilized a beautiful vine motif. Delicate grooves wrapped around the cup forming places where fingers could rest.

She put the cup down and stared at her hands; they were filthy. She was filthy. She undressed, then dabbed the hem of her shirt into the water using it to wash, wincing as the cloth found open cuts and scratches.

She discovered a large bruise on her hip where she’d fallen and myriads of superficial scratches on her legs. Where had she gotten those? She wondered. As she rinsed her clothes, she wished she had thought to bring another set. She wrung them out the best she could and thanked the stars that at least they were scout clothes and would dry quickly.

She scooped the dirty water out of the basin so it could refill with fresh, then placed the stone cup back upon the seat. She tied her wet hair back into a simple braid, pulled her damp clothes on, and followed the narrow corridor back up to the main cavern. She ignored her hunger pangs and started down the second passage, determined to find where it led before eating her noon meal.

This tunnel felt completely different. A light breeze blew through it. Dry and feeling of lightness, although the passage was cold and dark, it was not musty like the other. Analindë trod along the dust laden path as it twisted through the mountain. At times the passage narrowed and was confining, at others the opening was comfortably wide but stretched up further than her light could reach. As a particularly strong burst of wind whistled past her, she looked ahead to see a faint stream of light illuminating the cavern floor.

Realizing the tunnel must be a passage to the far side of the mountain, she quickened her pace. A brief moment later she reached the patch of light, turned, and found another cave opening; this one faced north. She saw that a switchback track led down the barren face to the foot of the peak. Elated and with a smoother stride, she retraced her steps to collect her pack.

She extinguished the magelight once she reached the main cavern again and sat down near the cavern opening for a brief meal. She pulled out a block of cheese and sliced off a piece. Her damp hair and clothes chilled her, so without thinking, Analindë lit one of the small mage fires she’d learned about at school to warm herself. She sat, enjoying the happy warmth it provided as she finished off a slice of cheese and a handful of nuts.

As she repacked her belongings, a prickling sensation ran up her neck and she realized an awareness—she couldn’t think what else to call it—was circling her.

The awareness said, “Analindë.” Her heart fluttered and she skittered backward against the cave wall at the sound of the deep voice.

A moment later she jumped to her feet and summoned a magelight bright enough to fill the entire cavern. No one was there. Panicked, she looked to her shields. They were gone! She’d forgotten to check them this morning when she’d risen. When had they fallen?
Why
had they fallen? She’d told them to hold! Naïve of her to think so, but she’d thought the shields would last. The prickly awareness probed her and she flinched. Could she out-run it?

With a thought she extinguished both the fire and the light, then erected a shield and felt immediate relief from the awareness. If it spoke again she did not hear it.

Analindë dashed across the cave, but the awareness not only kept up with her, it felt like the thing was attempting to grab her, slow her down, get inside her. She stepped quicker, but something made her look back over her shoulder as she entered the tunnel. Her pack! She’d left it near the entrance.

The awareness pressed in against her again and she darted back across the cave. Anticipating her move, and in a fraction of a moment, the awareness jumped from the tunnel back to the cave opening to block her path. She skidded to a halt a pace away from the hazy awareness and grabbed her scout pack off the stone floor. She scuttled backward as she quickly strapped the pack to her body.

The awareness swarmed toward her and her heart thumped painfully in her chest. Every cell in her body shouted at her to RUN. Logic told her she couldn’t outrun it, so instead, Analindë cowered within her shield. She felt the awareness circle round about her looking for a way in and it frightened her. There was something different about the Human wizard today; he felt different from the pinprick of light she’d gotten used to in the void. Speaking of the void, where was the whirring spark of warning light upon which she’d depended! Currently, only small pinpricks of light flickered in the void; there ought to have been a flare! The Human wizard was powerful, more powerful than she had thought. Somehow he had learned how to port himself partially to her and she didn’t know how she was going to get away. Perhaps she could outlast his Energy reserves and then she could make a mad dash for safety while he regained his strength to try again. But those hopes were dashed when he began to attack her shields. Terrified that he would get in, she created another shield and layered it beneath the first.

Trying a different method, the awareness struck the outside shield shattering it like a piece of glass, then started working on the second. Fear drove her to begin a continual layering of shields as the awareness found and destroyed each sphere moments after she’d layered the next one in place. She worked more quickly, pushing herself faster. She began mutating her shields, seeking a way to keep the awareness out or at least slow it down, while the attack continued from the outside.

The awareness shattered her shields, then cracked and pried them open. Later it stuck to the shield’s surface before eating through the outermost layer. Unlike the night she’d spent cowering in the tree, she couldn’t think of any type of shield that would hold the Human wizard at bay.

She reached for her Energy reserves to start another layer but found nothing left. “No!” she cried, falling to her knees as hopelessness engulfed her. She stared at the awareness with her magesight as it swirled around her shields, dissolving them as hot water does ice. The awareness had become substantial, something very close to tangible, as if the Human wizard would manifest himself through it if he could. When she looked through her magesight, the awareness became a white haze almost substantial, not the wispy thing it had been at first. Wary and fearful, she watched in anticipation as her shields fell one by one. “I need more power.”

In desperation she threw her senses out to every part of her body to find more Energy. Locating every scrap of every particle of Energy she possessed, she commanded it just as she did when making a shield. Only this time she demanded that her reservoir be filled. There was resistance, a snap, and then a great rush as her entire body answered the call. Unleashed Energy stores quickly flowed to her reservoir, filling it halfway. Weakness rushed over her briefly and a burning, tingling, sensation started. In that moment, she knew without doubt that she would find no more Energy beyond what had just pooled together. Her body had given all it could. She hoped it would last. It had to be enough.

Whimpering, she pushed the building pain within herself to the side and turned back to her shields. She spun off a few new layers, making them slicker and the weave more complex than anything she could have previously imagined. The awareness cut through the last of her old shields and cannily searched for a way through the newest. She watched as it extended one tendril after another; each one slid to the side as it found no place to grip.