Unable to spare breath for talking, I questioned Bres mind to mind. Fall, what the hell is a fall?
It could be falls, like a waterfall, he answered.
We need to stop then, I can’t hear anything over my heart beating, and breathing.
Skidding to a stop, I held my breath. In the distance, the rush of water falling over rocks reached my ears. Bres tipped his head. “There. See ta mist curling over ta tree tops?”
In the far distance I could see what he was pointing at —the gauzy film above the cedars and fir was just discernible. It was all we needed. Bolting in that direction, we were again running at full speed, dodging trees and leaping over stumps as fast as we could. But our stop had cost us. Thirty strides into our run the hounds were on us, teeth snapping at our heels, lunging in their attempts to hamstring us.
I spun, and held my hands out, Called my Fire to my fingertips and unleashed it on the hounds, knowing it would roast them, but I hadn’t counted on Card’s power flowing through my veins.
Blue flames enveloped the pack in a mushroom cloudy fire, bigger than anything I’d ever even thought I could do. Their howls lasted a split second before cutting off in mid cry. Shaking, I lowered my hands. The power rushing through me made my skin crawl, as if it were too much for my body. I didn’t like it; it felt as though the power was in control and not me. The flames continued to lick along the charred bodies of the hounds, their flesh crisped black like the ash we’d only just come through.
“Quinn, are you alright?” Bres asked. A quick bob of my head was all I could manage.
He touched my arm. “We’ve got to go. There will be more than that behind us.”
Again we ran, this time towards the growing sounds of the waterfalls. At certain moments I wasn’t sure if what I was experiencing was real, the running drew me into an almost trance-like state. My body was doing the work, keeping me moving, but my mind wandered.
A week ago, I’d been a normal twenty-six-year old. A week ago Ashling had been safe. Life had been good. I’d understood my place in the world.
Now I was running through a forest from creatures that I hadn’t known existed. I couldn’t stop wondering if I would wake up, if this was all some sort of bad dream that had sucked me into another world. Bres was breathing hard beside me, and I knew that except for Ashling, I would take on all the monsters in the world to have Bres at my side.
We’re almost there. His words interrupted my thoughts; I snapped back to the present.
Rocks littered our path and they were getting bigger as we hit the stream and made our way up to the head of the water where the waterfall spilled into a deep pool.
“Through the fall,” I whispered.
Without a question, we dove into the pool in tandem, breaking through the surface and coming up together. Swimming towards where the waterfall spilled into the pool, I could see behind the curtain of it a hazy image of a door. Could it be that easy?
“Do you see it?” I yelled over the crashing of the waterfall.
“Yes!”
We pulled ourselves up over the rocks as the water pounded our bodies hard. Every rock was covered in slime, and it made gripping them damn near impossible. Bres made it out first, then helped me to stand behind the waterfall. From there we watched an army of Fomorii range on the banks of the river. An army of them. All to take on Bres and me.
“Shit,” I said. Bres tugged on my arm and we leapt towards the door, the hinges swinging on the wooden frame with ease.
“We’ve got to keep moving; they’ll still come after us,” Bres said.
“Are you serious? How?”
“One at a time through ta door.” His eyes were grim. Double shit.
We stepped through the door and into a pitch-black room —or at least I had supposed it was a room.
“The next thing was crossing the vale. Which is a valley, right?” I asked. I started to lift my hand to light a flame for visibility, then stopped. “Maybe you’d better light the fire this time.”
A bloom of orange lit over his hand in a perfect round orb and guided us through what turned out to be a valley, indeed, black as a moonless night. If it hadn’t been for Bres’ fire, we would have been lost completely in the darkness.
“We should still run,” he said, his fingers tightening on mine.
“Lead the way.”
Breaking into an uneven jog, we moved as fast as we could. There were no pitfalls, no booby traps, but we were waiting for them, expecting them.
The darkness didn’t fade. It was just suddenly gone, leaving us blinded by the brilliant sunshine.
“Damn it,” I said, shading my eyes. I could see nothing past the bright spots that danced in my vision.