He extricated himself from our hold. “I’m okay. I’ll be fine. Let’s keep moving.”
I stared down at the compass. The caves were clustered somewhere in the northeast. The checkpoint for the end of the Trial had appeared to be true east.
“I think we should go straight to the checkpoint,” I said.
Lana nodded. “There’s no need for us to go to the caves now that we’ve rested.”
“Agreed,” Moric said. “I’d very much like to finish this challenge.”
“Okay. Checkpoint it is.” I adjusted our course, and we set off.
The air between us was solemn and exhausted. I jumped at every single branch that rustled in the breeze and every dry leaf that crunched beneath our boots as we continued east. Once, I thought I saw a pair of yellow eyes peering out at me from the treetops and pulled Moric and Lana into a sprint that nearly had us pitching forward onto our faces.
My knees buckled as we broke through a line of trees, and I caught sight of some large, dark formations jutting from the ground. Lana’s hand linked through mine, and she squeezed tight. Moric gripped my other hand.
Caves. Four of them, all set in a semicircle almost equidistant from each other.
“Something’s not right,” I said. The compass needle pointed directly east. “We should be at the checkpoint, not the caves.”
Moric’s eyes flickered over my head. “Look.”
Lana and I whirled around, our gazes tracking Moric’s. There, on the trunk of a thick oak, a page fluttered in the wind. It had been stabbed through with two daggers to hold it in place. We approached as one unit, cautiously, as if one of the branches might whip down and strike us.
There was lettering on the page, in the mortal language of Grilish. The curlicue was familiar. I clicked my tongue as I realized where I had seen it: on the letter we had found inside the chest the morning we had woken up on Lortan. Nothing good had happened since then. My stomach gave a nervous flip, and foreboding tingled beneath my skin.
“‘Welcome, candidates,’” Moric read aloud. “‘To the first challenge.’”
So wewereat the checkpoint. I had thought the challenge would end once we made it here. And from the look on Lana’s face, so had she.
I blew out a shaky breath as Moric continued reading.
“‘Set out before you are four caverns. They each lead down to a network of tunnels, created by a monster that slumbers deep beneath. To succeed in this challenge, each of you must choose a cave to enter and collect the set of keys that has been placed within. Once the challenge has been completed, you must make your way back to Valhan House. Should you not return, you will be considered lost to the forest. Good luck.’”
“Well, fuck,” Lana muttered.
“Wait.” I stepped closer to the trunk, peering at the page. In small print beneath the larger instruction, and barely legible, another sentence was written. “‘Hint: The monster cannot see and relies on its ability to collect scents from the air through its tongue.’”
“Like a snake,” Moric murmured.
“If there’s a giant fucking snake down there, I think I’ll puke.” Lana flattened a hand against her hair, which was plastered to her face and smeared with dirt. I was sure I looked the same after having spent the night running through and then sleeping on the floor of the forest. But the monster beneath would not care about that. It would only care how we smelled and tasted.
“There are two daggers,” I said, jerking my head toward the tree. “You two should take them.”
Lana and Moric shook their heads vehemently.
“You can’t go in there weaponless,” Lana objected.
“I won’t be. Don’t worry, I have a plan.”
I did not have a plan.
Stupidly, I had left the dagger Umma gifted me beneath my pillow at Valhan House. But I would be damned if I let my friends go into those tunnels without some form of protection. I had already lost one; I would not be able to live with myself if I took a chance of survival from Lana or Moric.
Are you willing to give up your life for it?A distant voice whispered at the back of my head. I shook my head to clear it away, but was reminded of Umma’s mantra:
It is vulnerable to feel – to love – Lirah. In a world like ours, we are not afforded that luxury.
I don’t care,I thought.