The Underground Witch (Incenaga Trilogy) (27 page)

E
rick’s frustration grew as day after day passed and he and his men had failed to extract any information. He feared Cardoon would prove to be his only source of information, that is, if he talked, and it frustrated him to no end that he had still not returned.

The
Dolmerti Army arrived days later and Erick sent thirty men in thirty different directions to find Cardoon and bring him to Mishel. His patience had grown razor thin. He could feel his self-control slipping away. More than once he found himself snapping at Commander Benshi or barking at his men without reason. At least he had enough composure to return and apologize for his behavior, but the more time that passed the more he feared he was losing his mind.

While waiting for his men to return with Cardoon, Erick continued hounding
the townspeople for information. But while their eyes showed a desire to please their prince, they clouded with fear and kept their mouths shut. Whoever had instilled such fear into their minds had done a thorough job.

He was restless to be in action, desperate to find a way to bring him closer to finding Emmeline.
But something in the back of his mind told him he couldn’t leave Mishel and search elsewhere. Something was coming. He just didn’t know what.

The ground trembled beneath Emmeline. She steadied herself with a hand on the wall and looked up to find snakes pouring from a sizeable crack. They slithered toward her, moving closer and closer with each hiss. She braced herself against the wall and kicked her feet toward them. They crisscrossed toward her, hissing and bearing their pointed fangs.

A small snake broke from the
mass and slithered near her, ignoring her kicking feet. Emmeline opened her mouth to scream but her voice made no sound. She tried again, and again, and still no sound left her mouth. Hooking her toe under the snake’s belly, she flung it back into the tangle of reptiles.

The snakes
continued spilling from the opening, flooding the pit floor with their slick bodies, their beady eyes glinting in the moonlight. Emmeline gathered her skirts into her hands and stood on her toes. They slithered closer. She turned toward the wall and clawed at the stone, but no matter her effort, she couldn’t get above the snakes. A fat snake slithered up her left leg and Emmeline flinched and then shivered like a cat shedding water. Despite her efforts to shake it off, the snake wound up her torso and around her neck, squeezing tighter and tighter until she could no longer breathe.

She opened her mouth
, but still no scream sounded. The snake brought its face in front of hers, opened its mouth and then hissed. Although, the hiss sounded odd.

It hissed again.

“Emmeline.”

Emmeline jolted awake. Her own hands clung to her neck and a set of smaller hands shook her shoulders.

“Emmeline.
Wake up.”

Emmeline blinked.
“O’fin? What are you doing here?” She let go of her breath, glad that the snakes had only been in her dream.

“Are you awake?”

Something slithered across her ankle and she jumped to her feet. If she wasn’t awake before, she certainly was then.

“What was that?” she squeaked.

“What was what?”

“
Something touched my ankle. Was that you?” With her dream still fresh in her mind, she hoped it had only been her imagination. But it felt so real.

“Oh, that
,” O’fin said with a wave of his hand. “It is just a Cantil snake. There are plenty of them in the tunnel. One must have followed me out.”

“Snake!”
Emmeline shouted. She slapped a hand over her mouth and looked up as O’fin dove underneath the straw.

The night guard
grumbled and shuffled his feet to the pit opening. “What is it this time? Another rat?” He laughed.

“No…
a snake…. I felt a ….snake.” She backed up to the wall and stood on her toes.

“Ah, the feeding begins.
Do me a favor and keep your screams to a minimum so you don’t disturb my sleep.” He laughed, but his shoulders quivered and he backed away from the pit, his eyes wary.

O’fin
crawled out from underneath the straw and placed his hand on her trembling arm. “It’s fine, Emmeline, they’re harmless.”

“The guard said they were dangerous.”

“That is just a rumor. Trust me, they won’t hurt you.”

“I
don’t know.”

“Well, you’ll have to
forget about them where we are going.”

“
O’fin, I told you. I can’t go anywhere. I can’t leave here or Tiergan will send Demyan for Erick. I’m still working on a way to get out that will keep everyone safe.”

“You can’t stay here.
I won’t let you.”

“
That is very kind, O’fin, but I’d rather be eaten by a thousand snakes than know Erick died because of me.”

“Girls.” O’fin rolled his eyes. “Here, I brought you some bread. You eat and I’ll talk.”

Emmeline
took the bread and chewed methodically while searching the ground. Where had the snake gone? Was there only one?

“There is an old woman
who wants to help you,” O’fin whispered. “She said she has been expecting you.”

Emmeline shot him a skeptical look.

“I promise. She is a good person. She won’t try to use you. She wants to teach you how to use your gift.”

“
She knows I’m an Incenaga?”

O’fin rolled his eyes
again. “Everyone does.”

“And she thinks she can hel
p?”

“She said she could and I believe her.”

Emmeline folded her arms. “Can she teach me how to keep from being controlled?”

“She
didn’t say much, just that she wanted to help you and that I needed to make sure you understood she expected nothing in return. She wanted me to come for you.”

“Do you think Tiergan is a part of this?”

“No, I trust her.”

“But if I leave…”

“If you want, we could leave during the night and come back before morning. Your guard will never know.”

Emmeline hesitated.

“Come on, what do you have to lose? You could learn how to beat Tiergan and Demyan.”

Demyan. She’d do anything to h
ave another chance at him. She suspected she’d have to learn how to fight Orinda in order to reach him. For whatever reason, Orinda seemed fond of him, at least enough to protect him. If what O’fin claimed was true and this woman could teach her how to better use her power, she would be all the more prepared to defeat Demyan.

“Just come,”
O’fin said when she didn’t respond. “Talk to her. See what she can do to help.”

“
Are you sure she is safe?”

“Of course
.” His eyes brightened. “And I bet she’d let you take a bath.”

Emmeline smiled and ruffled
his hair. “You make a compelling argument.”

O’fin
took her hand and pulled her toward the hole in the wall.”

“Whoa, wait.
What about the snakes?” Emmeline asked.

“There aren’t
too many of them, I promise.”

“
Too many? One is too many.”

“They won’t bite you.”

“Says who?”

“Says me.
Come on, Emmeline. I’ve been through this tunnel twice now and haven’t been bitten once.”

“That’s comforting.”

He pulled on her hand again. “Good, let’s go.”

Emmeline crouched
low and took a deep breath, peering into the darkness for anything moving. Nothing. So far.

“Watch your head.”
O’fin warned.

“I can’t see a thing.
How am I supposed to watch my head?”

“Just keep it down.”

Emmeline pressed her chin to her chest and followed O’fin into the narrow tunnel. Creatures scurried into the crevices around her. Shivering, she pushed herself forward on her stomach using her elbows and toes as leverage. Unless she kept her nose pressed to the ground, her hair brushed against the top of the tunnel, or whatever else lurked above. Her muscles felt tight, uncertain, as if something might make a nest in her hair at any moment.

As if
knowing her thoughts, a Cantil snake dropped from a crevice above and landed on her head. The weight of it sent her face crashing into the dirt. She let out a yelp and then pressed her lips together. The last thing she needed was to alert the guard.

She tilted her head t
o the side, hoping the snake would slide off, but it only adjusted itself, circling on top of her head in a figure eight pattern. She tilted her head the other way and it slithered down her neck and underneath her collar.

“Gaaah.” Emmeline said with clenched fists and the shiver of a lifetime.
“O’fin! I have a snake on me!”

“Just keep moving,” he whispered.
“It’ll leave you alone.”

“No, you don’t understand
. It’s in my dress!”

“Don’t move.”

“What do you mean? You just told me to keep moving. I thought you said they were harmless? I think I’m going to vomit.”

“Just don’t move.
It’ll leave eventually.”

“
Eventually?” she said between her teeth.

The
snake moved again, its head reaching her lower back with a good portion of it still coiled on top of her head.

“It’s moving
down my back!” Emmeline shouted in a whisper. She couldn’t take it anymore. The snake’s smooth body slid across her skin, its tongue flicking in and out. She couldn’t just lie there and wait for it to bite. Knowing she had only a few moments before the rest of the snake slipped underneath her collar, she took a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut and reached behind her shoulders. Its scales were smooth and dry, its body a full fistful around. Emmeline shuddered. The snake, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind her touch at all.

Summoning all the courage
she could muster, she slowly pulled it up and out of her collar. Every part of her screamed to yank it out in one swift motion, but she feared such a move would prove fatal. Bit by bit she pulled it out, gagging as its tongue grazed her skin.

The body of the snake thinned as her hands pulled closer to its head.
Her heart quickened and in her haste to get rid of it she squeezed a little too hard. The snake jerked and its head thrust toward the small of her back. She stiffened, waiting for the moment it sunk its teeth into her flesh.

Emmeline held back a scream as the snake slid through her fingers and into the depths of her dress. It writhed back and forth where the fabric tightened at her waist and hindered its escape, but it never bit her. She reached up to pull on the end of it again, but the whole of it had disappeared underneath her collar. With no way of getting it out, she could do nothing as it searched for another route inside her dress. She buried her face into her folded arms and prepared herself for the uncomfortable wait, hoping it wouldn’t last all night.

The snake seemed to calm
after awhile, despite Emmeline’s growing discomfort. It slid across her skin in smooth, supple movements, gradually moving away from the confining fabric and toward the opening between her shoulder blades. As it emerged from her neckline, its tongue flicking the back of her ear, Emmeline squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists. Fortunately, it didn’t linger long before it slithered over her head and into the dark unknown.

Emmeline bit her quivering lip.
“That was horrendous,” she said with a severe tone.

“Is it gone?”
O’fin asked.

“Yes.”

“Good, let’s keep moving. We still have a ways to go.”

“How much fa
rther? I don’t know how much more of this I can handle.” She tucked her arms underneath her as she inched forward. Was it only her imagination, or was the tunnel growing narrower?

“You’ll get used to it, especially if we come t
hrough every night.”

“Let’s just see what t
his woman knows before I commit to crawling through here again,” Emmeline said.

“I know
she’ll be able help you. I just know it.”

“Well, I appreciate your optimism
, but you never answered me. How much farther?”

“
At this pace? Another thirty minutes. Tops.”

Emmeline groaned and
pushed forward with renewed determination. The faster she moved, the sooner she could get away from the snakes. O’fin quickened his pace to match hers, seeming to require no more effort on his part. She realized with a frown that he had been moving slower for her sake. Unwilling to admit she could be out-crawled by a child, she concluded his smaller frame allowed for much easier navigation. And she was sure his lack of respect for poisonous serpents helped as well.