Return to Caer Lon (23 page)

“I’m sorry.”

Derek stopped walking to look at her face, surprised.

“What for?”

“We were attacked and you got wounded
;
then I fell and you had to jump in
to
the water to help me
. N
othing would have happened if I hadn’t force you to come with me.”

“You didn’t force me to do anything.”

His tranquil voice contrasted with the riotous bounce in her chest.

“You asked, I agreed
,
and I’d rather be wet in this place than hav
e
you dead.”

Her hug erased the fatigue; it was over before he even realized her arms had circled his shoulders but it chased away doubt and worry. She trusted him with her life
,
and it was enough to renew his strength. The ice of her touch when Sacha slipped her hand into his reminded him to take in air. The strange cave didn’t feel that cold anymore.

Chapter 24

Derek
looked anxiously at the wax in his hand. He had two more candles but God knew how long it would take them to get out of the tunnels.

Going back meant div
ing
and swim
ming
against the stream if the bank had totally collapsed. The idea had less than little appeal. But if they didn’t find their way through the caves or if they reached a dead end, the third candle might be their only chance to walk back to the waterfall.

He made a mark with his nail in the wax; past this, he would blow it up. They could not afford to waste their resources.

Sacha was spreading their wet clothes on the ground the best she could, maybe hoping the air would be enough to partly dry them. He didn’t dare to say her attempt was fruitless; with the humidity around the cave and the absence of a proper warm source, their clothes had little chance to dry.

Her face
was marked
by
the
trauma
of her near-death experience. White circled her lips
,
which had taken
on
a worr
i
some
dark shade. She tried to
hide it -
she always tried to hide everything
-
but he could see she was trembling again.

They had nothing
with which
to build a fire, basically no light, and
they
were possibly trapped inside a mountain. Derek punched the wall
in frustration.
Sacha glanced up.

“Derek, your hand
is hurt
!”

He grunted
. Of course it
was
hurt, he had just hit a stone wall…

“You’re bleeding...”

In the dim light, he barely made out the red color staining the ground.

“Don’t worry about it. Sacha, we have some food in the bag. Can you-
?"

”Come here.”

Her order suited him better than seeing her desperate
, as she had been
earlier. He failed to swallow his smirk when she motioned
for
him to sit down.

Sacha
gave
him a reproachful glance and took his hand to check the sore skin; h
er
fingers were so cold he flinched
. Another
cutting
look shut him up
before he protested.
She abandoned him briefly to tear a band of cloth from her wet shirt.

While she knotted her pitiful bandage around his hand, Derek concentrated on their goods.

“We have enough for two days, I think, if we split it carefully.”

Two days of food, for two days of light.

Sacha nodded, still occupied with her tending, and he went on with his examination. The bread was a little spongy and the dry meat, not that dry. He also found an apple and some brown sticks he supposed were sugar canes. Derek nearly added they couldn’t afford to stay in those caves more than two days; but seeing her eyes watered when she yawned, he said nothing.

“We should
put
out the candle while we sleep. I can light it again later.”

The wax had melt
ed
past his mark. Sacha was already curling into a ball like a cat, her eyes fluttering closed. Her features were strained with drain, greyish despite the gleeful candlelight. Food lost the little appeal it had. Derek bl
e
w on the little flame before he leaned backward slowly. The stone
at
his back didn’t feel that cold; unless he was getting use to the chill. The cut in his hand
pounded
painfully under her tight bandage.

“Can we go out by the waterfall?”

In the dark, her voice stretched on a note a little too high to ignore the anguish behind her question. Derek tried to remember where she was and held his good hand forward, brushing something round and soft he hoped like hell was her shoulder. He told the truth.

“I am not sure. The bank partly collapsed.”

Derek jolted when her hair wet his arm as she turned to face him. Sacha moved to push away but he wrapped his arms around her, bringing her to his chest. She stiffened at the contact. For an instant, he wondered if her shivers came from cold, or the intimacy of his hold.

A drop of ice glided along his hip, silencing the devilish voice in his head
,
which ha
d
started to detail the many ways to share and increase body heat, one by one.

“We’ll find another way out. Take some rest.”

A low, thankful sigh answered him. Derek wished he could believe his own words.

oOo

He kept his eyes close. Listening to Sacha’s fractured breathing helped him concentrate. He couldn’t sleep, though his body longed for the rest. His mind raced over that poem again and again, trying to make sense of the strange stances.

Derek mouthed some of the verses silently.

If I cry, share my tears,

And guide me through my fears;

If I fall, help me stand,

And in your right
,
take my hand

He had taken a wild guess, turning left each time the wall curved or split, because if the right hand was offered, then the escort would have to give its left. He interpreted tears as the waterfall, and the legitimate fear anyone would have
at
walk
ing
through it.

He could be wrong. He could lose his way in the endless maze of pillars and turns and lead them to a death of freez
ing
and hunger. Maybe the prayer meant to take the right path and not the left
.
M
aybe…

Sacha shivered and his eyes snapped open. His mind was so blurry it didn’t shock him to be able to make out her delicate frame. The cave might not be as pitch black as he thought, or his eyes were getting used to the darkness. She stirred, her legs hunching higher under the garment, so her knees pressed hard into his flank. So much for the romance.

The
tunic had slipped down her collarbone to bare the inviting swell above her breasts, more than decency would have normally a
llowed
. Derek swallowed, watching the feeble light played on the landscape of her throat. Had her skin felt that soft under his palm when he thought she was an intruder in his chambers? It was only days ago; an eternity. It would be so easy to close his eyes and truly lay with her. It amazed him how different she was since they set off together. Unless she had always been like this, both defying and tender, and he had never taken the time to notice. Shaken, he
forced his hand to withdraw from the curve of her neck.

Sacha sighed softly and Derek jerked back, letting go of her. He needed some distance, something to distract himself from acting like a lustful teenager.
Think about weapons
.
F
oot play
T
raining
.
T
ournaments
.
F
ully
-
armed tournaments.’

His armour would have been great to wear at the moment instead of being barely covered near her: some cold, hard steel, thick enough to protect both of them. Unfortunately, his armour was in Haven. Humid breeches and shirt would have to do. Derek gathered his clothes as quietly as he could not to disturb her and started to dress. His elbow hit the wall behind him when he slipped his tunic on.

The
loud
curse echoed in the empty cavern. Sacha opened her eyes slowly and instantly gasped, reaching to the loose end of her bodice to cover herself.

“Derek!”

The young man searched his mind for a suitable excuse for whatever she
might
chastise him for: the improper touching, the swearing, anything, as long as she
would
stop looking at him with such a baffled look on her face. Then he realized her widened eyes were focused above his shoulder. His mouth clasped shut instantly as she babbled:

“The wall… It’s glowing!”

If he had not been so keen on listening to his lowest instincts, he would have noticed. Maybe he had slept after all, and the day had broken again, dawn pouring into the cave from a natural chimney he hadn’t heeded when scouting with only a candle.

“Yeah, I know
,
”
he lied cheekily.

Still protecting her modesty with one hand, Sacha tottered up to approach the opposite wall, touching the stone lightly in bewilderment.

“And it’s warm too…”

She laughed
. H
er happiness pearled in the air, enticing, right before goose
bumps attacked her once more and she inched closer to the
seemingly
hot wall, nestling against it, her beautiful smile chattering. Derek grumbled.

“Please, take it.”

His cloak enveloped her from head to toes when he put it on her shoulders before he took a quick step back when Sacha flashed a grateful smile above her shoulder. She pulled the garment closed, briefly burying her nose in its folds with her eyes shut. Her cheeks flamed to match his cloak’s crimson color at the indulgence.

Where had he
gotten
the idea that getting dress
ed
would help? His tunic glued to his back. The pants seemed wetter now he had them on
,
and s
queezed his lower body disagreeably
. He jittered to get accustom
ed
to the itch on his skin. Derek looked for another topic, finding none.

Sacha crouched against their wall again yawning as discreetly as she could. Derek perused their provisions. The apple didn’t look that bad, maybe a little crushed on the side. In any case, it still looked better than the bread.

“Here.”

She munched at the fruit
,
barely taking a bit
e
before she put it away.

“I’m not hungry.”

Maybe she wasn’t. She looked paler than usual
,
nonetheless. Derek frowned.

“We may have light, but we still need to keep
up
our strength to get out of here.”

Her snort
was
miss
ing
her trademark bristle at
being
patroniz
ed
.

“You’re not eating
,
either.”

Derek lied again. It was a skill he had mastered around her, it seemed.

“I ate while you were sleeping.”

Sacha scowled in doubt
-
alright perhaps master
ed
was an overstatement
-
but she said nothing, taking another nibble before she abandoned her apple for good.

“Can we stay here, just for a little while?”

They shouldn’t. Deep within the cave, they should use every minute of light they could get to move forward. He detailed every reason they should move on in his head as her green eyes opened to fix
o
nto his.

“Yes
,
of course.”

Derek leaned into the wall, savoring the heat in his back through his shirt. Sacha pressed her cheek on her knees, nestled under his cloak. Uneasy, he grabbed his sword to check the blade. After a while, he couldn’t pretend anymore.

“The light probably comes from some sky
li
ght
I didn’t spot earlier.”

Sacha turned her head toward him and for a minute, he could only stare as her hair cascaded over her knees like ebony silk.

“Do you see how the wall seems to glow? I never saw anything like it…”

Her murmur finally got to him and Derek gulped. The wall
was
glowing; it radiated light from within. A gleam coming from a ceiling opening would not do that. It would break into a cone of light, dimming away from the source. What he saw was different; the light was everywhere. And the warmth… The warmth enveloped him, welcomed him like a lover’s arms. It made him long for home and peace.

Derek snapped out of his thoughts to find Sacha’s sea
green gaze still on him, studying his face. He insisted
.

“It must be you. This place recognizes your powers
,
or something.”

Sacha took her time to reply, long enough for him to notice her lips had regained some of their natural strawberry coloring, as she slowly warmed up. Her voice seemed more assured
,
too.