Coil of Worlds

After a hundred yards of following the pull on his hands, Skye had to admit he was able to walk without fear of smashing his face into the wall, though he stumbled when his feet met uneven ground.

Closing his eyes took away some of the headache, and he realized his other senses sharpened when he no longer focused on his loss of sight. He could smell the woman walking in front of him from time to time. She smelled of a combination of clean earth and some, unknown herb. She made no noise except for the occasional rub of cloth as she walked.

His thoughts flew as they traveled away from Gharra. Scenarios for escaping were quickly discarded for the sheer fact the dark tunnels were more an enemy to his survival than his current captors. He knew the longer they walked the more lost he became. According to what he overheard his captors were keeping him alive for information he didn’t possess. The Kurites had no need for a torch, so they wouldn’t carry the necessary tools for lighting one. It would take sheer luck to find a way out of the tunnels.

By the Goddess, Skye had been captured like a newborn baby and was now being pulled by a female like a koti. His abilities as a warrior and a sword fighter were useless in his current predicament. What Skye needed was Dane’s talent for thinking his way out of any situation. His friend would have already escaped.

After endless stumbles and missteps, Nyah called for a stop. When the noble and Neal joined the group, Neal commented to his companions, “Two more days at that speed and we will reach the Gais Desert.”

Once Skye was penned down by a stake driven into the tunnel floor, the three Kurites ignored while they set up camp. Neal called over to him, “We’ll untie you once we are settled for the evening.” Unable to see anything else, he watched their glowing eyes while tugging ineffectually on the rope. After several minutes of pulling, he knew it was hopeless.

Skye noticed Neal made more noise than the other two Kurites, and he smelled strongly of the ocean. The docks were always a good place to gather information about the political changes taking place in other kingdoms. The rumors had caused more than a few higher nobles to tighten their trading routes and transport goods.

He had not paid the rumors much attention as the war with the Kurites held a higher priority for the trainees and warriors. Merchants didn’t travel overseas; instead, they paid mercenaries to attend the cargo ships.

He was jerked out of his thoughts when something soft landed in his hands. His eyes widened in surprised. Interesting. His captors planned on feeding him. He tasted jerky when he took a tentative bite of the foodstuff. With his mouth full, his stomach’s fierce growl reminded him he hadn’t eaten anything in more than a day. He devoured the small meal without an issue. Munching on the last bit of jerky, he watched as a pair of eyes approached. A half-full cup was shoved into his hands at the same time the woman said, “Drink this.”

After she took the empty cup, he shifted his torso around, searching for a more comfortable position against the wall. Straightening his legs out in front of him, he realized his headache had lessened to a dull ache and he was no longer stiff. He turned his head toward his captors’ camp and closed his eyes.

Listening to their movements, Skye found the noble made no noise, not even a whisper of cloth. He also realized the noble never came close to him and had not spoken since he woke.

His attention wandered for a while until Neal said, “We should move on in a couple of hours. Cai has been on his own for the past week. I don’t like to leave him alone more than necessary.”

He detected a strange slapping sound, and the source was quickly explained as a slap on Neal’s back when Nyah spoke. “I understand. I would never leave Chazo without reason. But we all agreed Cai should stay behind. Someone needed to guard the tunnel from Pyranni scouts. Do not worry. Cai is more than capable of taking care of himself.”

“I know, but I still dislike leaving him without anyone to guard his back.”

“Let us rest for a few hours, and then we’ll meet up with him, if only to keep him out of trouble.”

The nobleman snorted.

“Who wants to stand guard for this stop,” the woman asked. Although Skye did not hear a response, Nyah replied, “Yes, My Lord.”

The woman came over and said, “If you try anything, he will not hesitate to kill you. However, I promised I’d untie you when we stopped to rest. Don’t make me regret keeping my promise.”

After she unfastened his hands, Nyah returned to their small camp. He rubbed his wrists and listened as Nyah and Neal settled into their blankets. Not too long later, a soft snore escaped Neal.

When Skye looked toward the third person, an unnerving pair of eyes stared back at him, watching him intently. The eyes never blinked. A small, internal shiver went through him at the inhuman stare. He knew escape was not an option with the noble standing guard. Skye turned his back to his three captors and relaxed on his side. Patience. He needed to bide his time for his chance to escape. The Gais Desert would be soon enough.

When he heard the others pulling up camp, Skye sat up and pressed his fingertips to the back of his head. His head barely twinged after sleeping a few hours. Skye was stretching his legs when Nyah strode over to tie his hands.

Over the next two days, the never-ending dark forced him to rely on his other senses. Learning to read things through his other senses taught him the benefit of training his battle awareness to a new level. He used those senses to learn more about his captors, knowing their strengths and weaknesses would assist him during his escape. But the information he learned confused him. It contradicted a large portion of what Skye knew of Kurites. If they were not intentionally giving him false information, the majority of what he knew was incorrect.

The realization was staggering.

He never saw the giant cats that were said to follow the golden-eyed Kurites. These Kurites also didn’t use or mention magic. One of the historic texts he translated spoke of Kurites using evil magic against their enemies. He’d formed two possible explanations for the discrepancy. The first was the Kurites used magic, but his captors carefully chose their words while in his presence. But this explanation made no sense. In their eyes, he was entirely at their mercy. As soon as the Kurites retrieved the information he had, they’d kill him. Another possibility, and one far more unsettling, was that the texts were wrong. He firmly disregarded the thoughts this explanation provoked.

The Kurite heathens made frequent references to the God and Goddess, using similar phrases as the Pyrannis. Their mention of the God and Goddess was troublesome. His beliefs warred with their common-day usage of his religion.

Restlessness filled him by the end of the second day. His eyes constantly seeking some source of light with every breath he took. By the third, claustrophobia had fully set in. When the nobleman and Neal joined them later that day, Skye realized for the first time the location of the noble’s eyes was positioned lower to the ground. His voice had not given Skye the notion the noble was young, so was he short?

The sound of a sliding door rumbled to the right. After spending three long days without benefit of sunlight or candlelight, his eyes flinched at the unexpected light. The two moons were incredibly bright as they shined through the thin slit of a trapdoor. His eyes adjusted and they landed on three steps leading to the ground above. Nyah moved up behind him and pushed him. He felt like a moth drawn to a flame with every step forward. But his enthusiasm stopped short when he came face to face with a large, black cat. It sat blocking the exit.

He had almost talked himself into believing the cats were a legend used by the veteran warriors to cow the new trainees. As he stood in shock at seeing a great cat for the first time, the animal sneezed in disgust and stepped back, letting him climb the last step into the open.

“Cai! It is good to see you. Have you been well?” shouted Neal. Hearing Neal’s enthusiastic greeting behind him, Skye skirted to the side before he was shoved. Neal scratched the cat behind its ears with both hands, and it purred in contentment. The creature was large enough to almost bowl Neal over when it rubbed its entire length across his legs. Neal said with a laugh, “You, my friend, have not learned any manners this week.”

Skye stepped back in deep-seated aversion and some fear, only to run into another large cat sitting on its haunches. The animal lifted its front, right paw and licked the claws in an obvious display of aggression. Nyah smiled at Neal and Cai greeting each other as she came up from the tunnel. Still half-relying on his other senses, Skye heard the trapdoor close with a soft snick.

Catching a slight movement in his peripheral vision, Skye found Nyah sprawled on the ground, leaning against the second feline. She said with affection, “Chazo, we have a long way to go tonight, and I’d rather sit here and scratch you behind the ears myself. But someone must watch the Pyranni.”

Chazo flicked his eyes toward him and yawned, displaying his fangs. Skye felt the hair on his neck stand up. It was almost as if the creature understood every word the woman said. The other animal, Cai, came over and bumped Nyah, knocking her backward into the sand once again. Chazo growled at the other cat, lifting his lips to bare his teeth. The woman chuckled, then grabbed Chazo and pulled herself back up.

The time spent underground had him hunching, unconsciously making himself smaller. Every time he straightened in the tunnels, he’d felt the ceiling as a heavy, forbidding weight that loomed over him. For the first time, Skye realized he could stretch himself to his full height without fear of hitting his head. When he stretched his arms over his head, working out the kinks, both cats turned and growled at him, lowering their heads in warning. Bringing his cuffed hands in front of him, he stepped back. Though he dared not show his fear, tension thrummed through his body. When he made no other move, both cats returned their attention to their masters.

A few minutes later, Nyah spoke, “We will rest here for an hour to eat before we cross the desert.”

Skye turned in a full circle, gazing out into the distance. As far as he could see in the moonlight was sand. For the first time since entering the desert, he felt the desert—a silent, foreboding entity. An eerie feeling crept in. Taking another, long glance around at the stark nothingness surrounding them, he wondered if he might prefer traveling in total darkness instead. The Gais Desert lived up to its name.

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Later that night, Becky found Lara rubbing her temples from reading so many chapters. Rolling her chair out from her desk, Lara swiveled around and propped her feet on the bedframe. Her friend, hot and sweaty from the rugby game, flopped down with the widest grin on her face. Throwing a wadded piece of paper at her friend, Lara teased, “You lost, didn’t you.”

An offended look crossed Becky’s face, her right hand touched above her heart as if deeply hurt. “Lost? Are you kidding me? We won forty-eight to twenty-two. Yes!” Punching her fist into the air, she added smugly, “We kicked their butts all over the field.”

Lara giggled. “Were you guys that good or were they that bad?”

Her friend rolled her head around, shooting her a peeved glare. When Lara only giggled, Becky groaned dramatically. “I’m changing the subject now. But seriously, Jonathan and I are going to go grab a snack somewhere after I take a shower. Do you want to come? I told him to give me twenty minutes, then come back by and pick me up.”

Lara debated for a second, fingering her hair. “I’m going to say no. I still have one more chapter to read before I quit for the night.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. How long do you think you’ll be gone?”

Becky went to the door and started swinging it back and forth, making it squeak. “I don’t know. Maybe a couple hours. Why?”

“No reason. I was just wondering if I’d still be awake when you got back.”

Becky flashed a quick smile and with a last squeak she pushed herself away from the door and strolled across to her room. Lara spun herself back around to her desk to flip the page in the textbook. After another hour of reading and her hair sticking out in every direction, she shut the book feeling a sense of victory about such a small accomplishment.

While combing her hair, she reflected on her strange desire to share her day with Chion. She wanted to talk to him and hear his reactions, even if he was a figment of her imagination.

She swallowed and held the comb in her hand, where it trembled a little. Since this morning, a sinking feeling had grown in the pit of her stomach, telling her she was missing something important. Maybe there was more going on than simple dreams. If she needed any evidence, her feet were in enough pain that she could barely hobble around the room. Lara knew she shouldn’t contemplate such an outlandish idea, but she couldn’t help it.

Because…maybe it wasn’t a dream at all.

Even so, she dithered, rifling through her clothes, as the two sides—denial and caution—warred in her mind. The latter won, making Lara question her hold onto reality. She chose durable clothing, settling on a pair of old, black exercise pants and a dark green, long-sleeve shirt. She then slipped her sandals over her bandaged feet and lay down in the bed. Exhaustion soon dragged her down into sleep.