Mercury Mind (The Downfall Saga Book 1) (34 page)

A few students were heartened by the authoritative tone, and started leading their fellow students into the center of the fires.

A student was trying to crawl away from a Clachward to his left.

“Alicia,” he said. He thought it was her but couldn’t tell in the darkness. “Alicia!” This time she raised her head to look at him. “Light. It’s the only thing that’ll stop it.”

He sent a light in between the two of them. In its frenzied state, the Clachward barely reacted to it.

“Alicia, help me.”

She added a second light to his, and the Clachward stopped its advance.

Caddaric ran over and help her to her feet.

“Head to the center of the fires,” he said. “There’s a gap on the far side.”

“Thank you.” She released her light, and fled towards the fires.

As soon as her light disappeared, the Clachward headed towards Caddaric. He dodged around it and moved towards Clyde who had emerged from the forest.

“He’ll be safest behind the fires,” said Caddaric. “The Clachwards are aggressive and it may take a few of us to hold them back.”

Bodhi, Clyde and Caddaric all summoned lights to keep them at bay while they travelled through the clearing and past the ring of fire. They gently set the stretcher down, and everyone turned to stare at Caddaric.

“If we keep calm and work together, we’ll get through this,” said Caddaric. “They are more interested in the students out there than those in here. We need to help get all of our friends in here. Now I don’t know about any of you, but I’m not going to cower behind these fires while my friends are in danger.”

Caddaric stepped through the gap in the fires, the heat kissing his skin as he passed. He paused to let his eyes adjust to the dark clearing. Clouds covered the entire sky, burying the moon. The occasional flash of the storm lit the clearing as bright as day before falling back into darkness. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, scenes of horror took shape. A Clachward stepped on a motionless figure, causing a sickening crunch of snapping bones. Everywhere he turned, he saw another stomach churning sight. Two Clachwards picked up a dark figure and ripped it in two like a couple of kids with a wishbone.

Caddaric doubled over and nearly vomited. He was dry heaving when he heard steps coming up behind him. Turning his head, he saw other students leaving the safety of the fires to help their friends. He stood up and took a moment to steady himself before turning around.

“Keep each other safe, and don’t do anything stupid,” said Caddaric.

Caddaric watched a Clachward heading towards a small figure sitting on the ground, knees pulled up to her chest. He hurried over, flanked by Clyde and Brutus, and placed himself in its path.

“Help her up,” he said. “You got her?”

When he heard no response, he turned around to see Clyde and Brutus running towards the woods. He turned back only to be lifted off the ground in a rib crushing embrace. The air was forced from his lungs and he couldn’t cry out for help. His vision began to narrow and he heard a popping sound from his ribs. The last thing he remembered before blacking out was the smell of moss and mildew.

A bright flash erupted from nowhere and he was falling.

He opened his eyes to see Ravyn’s pale, round face. A look of concern plainly etched across it.

“I ...,” he croaked.

“Don’t speak,” she said. “Your ribs may be broken.”

“There’s an awful lot of them,” said Kort. “We better get going while we can.”

Kort helped Ravyn back to her feet. She fought to keep her heavy eyes open, and nearly fell when he released her arm. With Ravyn leaning against his side, Kort reached down to grab Caddaric’s hand, and helped pull him to his feet. There was a pile of dust and small shards of rock on the ground where the Clachward had stood.

“Did you?” he asked, staring at the pile.

“Yeah, but I don’t have another one in me,” she said.

Most of the students had taken one look at the carnage and either ran for the woods or retreated behind the fires. The three of them were on their own.

“There are too many,” said Kort. “We’ll never find a path through them.”

“We have to try,” she said.

With Kort in the middle and the two of them leaning on him for support, they slowly made their way towards the safety of the fires. They continually changed course to avoid the closest Clachwards, but it wasn’t long until they found themselves surrounded, with no way out in any direction.

“It was nice knowing you two,” said Kort. “If a gap opens up, take it.”

He unslung both of their arms, and they wearily leaned on each other for support. Kort boldly moved ahead to the right.

“What?” said Ravyn. “No! Get back here!”

Kort ignored her and continued on.

The Clachwards ahead of them shifted their aim to the closest target and stalked towards Kort. A gap formed between two Clachwards and with a burst of speed neither knew they still possessed, they made it through the gap, narrowly avoiding the clutching arms.

Kort tried to dodge away from them, but there were too many. He tried juking to his right, but hit something solid and fell to the ground. He stared up at the immense, dark forms all around him. He whipped his head back and forth but couldn’t find an opening between them. He tried to summon a light, but couldn’t bring his racing thoughts under control. He closed his eyes and waited for the end.

“Come on, we have to get behind those fires,” said Ravyn.

“We can’t leave him,” said Caddaric.

“We can’t let his sacrifice be in vain.”

A small form raced out from between the fires. Delaney ran low to the ground towards the cluster of Clachwards. Lights flared in front of her and two Clachwards crumbled to the ground. Delaney threw herself on top of Kort and tried summoning a light. A light flashed between her and the Clachwards, but quickly dimmed, then went out.

A Clachward calmly reached down and picked her up. A second grabbed her head from behind. It slowly twisted her head around until a loud crack echoed throughout the clearing. They dropped her lifeless body to the ground and reached towards Kort.

Ravyn and Caddaric staggered towards the fires, tears in their eyes from witnessing what had just happened to Delaney when flashes of light began erupting behind them, casting long shadows towards the ring of fire ahead of them. They stumbled to a halt and turned to see what was happening.

Their professors, led by Headmaster Marrok, marched purposefully across the clearing. Osmont was strangely absent from the group. Marrok, who had always struck them as a gentle old man, strode across the clearing like a force of nature, Clachwards crumbling to dust before him.

Kort lay coughing in a pile of dust. He bore a couple of new bruises, but the professors had arrived before anything more serious happened. Delaney lay on the ground beside him, face peaceful as if she was sleeping.

In a matter of minutes, the professors had emptied the clearing. The students slowly emerged from behinds the fires when it was safe to do so.

“How many are here?” asked Cleary.

After a headcount, they discovered that nearly half the students had fled back into the woods. Marrok and Cleary stayed behind to guard the remaining students, while the rest went searching for the missing ones.

“This is my fault,” said Caddaric. “They were all here, and I allowed them to run off.”

“I doubt there’s much you could have done to stop them,” said Marrok. “Take heart in knowing how many you managed to help.”

“Excuse me, Headmaster,” said Ravyn. “Donovan was never here in the clearing. He became trapped in a system of tunnels to the east.”

“Tunnels?” said Marrok. “I know of no tunnels under these woods.” He gave Cleary an inquiring glance.

“I have not seen any records of tunnels in this area,” said Cleary. “Are you sure that it wasn’t a sinkhole he fell into?”

“No,” said Ravyn. “We were down there with him, but managed to climb out. Everything was too flat and square to be natural.”

“Interesting,” said Cleary. “Do you remember how to get there?”

Ravyn and Kort looked at each other, before both shook their heads.

“No worries,” said Cleary. “Osmont will find him. He’s one of the best trackers around.”

“I didn’t see him with the rest of you,” she said. “Where is he?”

“We saw a couple of red lights in the woods, and he went off on his own to find their source.”

“He’s out there alone?”

“Don’t worry about him. He’s a survivor.”

Many of the students who had fled the clearing hadn’t made it very far, and within a couple of hours they had accounted for everybody except Donovan.

“Everyone stay together,” said Professor Moncha. “We’ll be back in the safety of Haven in no time at all.”

“Donovan’s still out there,” said Kort. “We can’t leave him.”

“We are heading back together,” said Headmaster Marrok. “No exceptions. We’ll send out more people to find him once all of you are safe.”

T
he Clachward crumbled under Ravyn’s assault and Donovan found himself free, running down the dark tunnel, not noticing the start of the Downfall. His shoulder bounced off a wall, and he nearly fell. He held back a cry of pain, and continued on at a slower pace. Reaching out, he trailed his right hand against the wall as he continued on. He felt the smooth tendrils of a tree root and jerked his hand away, before realizing what it was. Steadying himself, he kept his hand against the wall as his only point of reference.

He found himself in a deep and impenetrable darkness. The air was still, stale, heavy, and the sound of his footsteps fell dead around him.

Each time he felt an opening to his right, he paused to listen and searched for any sign of light. Not seeing any light, he continued on in the same direction that he’d been travelling.

The Clachwards trailing behind him sounded like an avalanche. The crunch of their steps continued to grow and he knew that he’d be crushed if they ever caught him.

The longer he walked along the tunnel in pitch darkness, the more he could feel the weight of the earth surrounding him. His other senses seemed to sharpen, almost painfully. The walls were smooth, the floor flat, and his way straight. Time and distance lost all meaning. He thought he could sense the tunnel before him and the intersecting tunnels coming up ahead, but dismissed it as fallacy.

His hand groped something slimy running along the wall. Pulling away, he tripped over something on the floor and scraped his knee. He stayed on his hands and knees for a moment, savoring the abyss, before the sound of the pursuing Clachwards jolted him into action. Climbing to his feet, he continued on. He didn’t know where he was, or where he was going. All that he knew was that he had to keep moving.

The tunnel continued to run straight, and he tried to figure out what direction he was travelling to keep his mind occupied. He thought he might be heading north, but had no way to know for sure. He got drowsier as he walked, but kept walking absentmindedly ahead. He was in such a daze that when the light that he’d been praying for appeared down the tunnel far ahead of him, he didn’t grasp what it meant for several seconds.

It glimmered, faint as a rising star trapped in a heavy fog. As he continued his approach, it grew into a silver flame, burning through the fog. It continued to grow into a dazzling light.

He kept up his steady pace until he entered a large cavernous room. Something incredibly bright shone from a top a marble pedestal near the center of the room. A high, arched ceiling stretched into darkness overhead. There was a small opening in the ceiling which let in a small pool of moonlight. A stalagmite rose up from the floor under the opening. It rose up at least fifty feet, its top capped in moonlight.

He didn’t know how long he’d been underground, but the steady moonlight told him that the storm was passing. Hopefully someone was looking for him, and would come to his aid at any moment.

His elation at seeing the light quickly deflated when he realized that he couldn’t escape the tunnels from this room. The walls were smooth, and he knew he’d never be able to climb up the inside of the arch to get to the small opening high above.

He circled the large room, and found no other exits. He was trapped.

Turning back to where he’d entered, he saw that none of the Clachwards had followed him into the room. He wasn’t sure if they hadn’t caught up to him yet, or if they were afraid of the light.

He walked over to the marble pedestal. The light on top was so bright that he had to shield his eyes with his hand as he approach. It struck a sharp contrast to the natural limestone of the rest of the room. A black, mirror-like, square plinth sat on the floor. A marble pedestal sat on top, coming up to Donovan’s waist. Shielding his eyes, he could barely make out the shape of a dagger carved into all four sides of the pedestal. The top of the pedestal had been carved into the shape of a human hand, palm facing upwards, fingers curled. A pendant hanging from a chain sat on the palm of the hand. The light radiating off it was so bright that he couldn't make out any details. When he turned back to the only exit from the room, he could see spots in front of his eyes.

There were no Clachwards in the room, but he thought he could see dark forms standing in the opening. In a moment of bravery, or maybe stupidity, he walked over to the exit. Pulling off his pack, he pulled out a stack of Caddaric’s notes. Crumpling them up into a ball, he pinched a corner between his thumb and index finger. Channeling his magic, the paper eventually caught fire. Holding his hand aloft, he saw Clachwards crowded in the tunnel as far as he could see by the meagre fire. Dropping the burning bundle before he burnt his hand, he stomped out the fire.

He gave the room a second, more detailed examination but didn’t find anything new. The sides of the stalagmite were sheer, but he thought he could climb it in a pinch. He stared into the small opening high above him, wishing that he had a way to reach it.

With nothing else to do until someone came and rescued him, he walked back over to the pedestal. He reached down and picked up the shining pendant.