As they entered the sandstone passage, Jay started to calm down a bit. The caves were deep and there was darkness so thick that the light of the orbs rarely strayed far away from them, but at least no guard would be able to follow them there. Smugness filled her chest as she thought of the job that they were able to pull off.
They moved down the corridor and Jay was starting to believe that they’ve missed their turn when Lethe finally stopped at the staircase. One flight of stairs and one passage later and they were standing at the wooden walkway thrown across the stone funnel, the one with strange lichen growing over the walls. Jay and Lethe were half-way through it when it became clear that they’re no longer alone.
At first, Jay thought that this is just a flicker of light, a shadow that moved over the stone wall. But as she looked she could now see a tubular body and plethora of tiny, chitinous legs. There was creature climbing up the funnel’s wall! It was large, almost as big as Jay herself. Its carapace was split into three segments like a beetle’s and it shined in the weak light. The red-and-black pattern on its back resembled a maw filled with needle-like teeth. Its tiny feet were numerous, ending with hooks, like those of a centipede, and they were dug deep into the lichen. It had sharp jaws that were protruding to the front, serrated and curved like a pair of shears. Currently the jaws were busy with snipping of the eye-like stalks and loading them into its cavernous maw, but Jay had no doubt they would be capable of cutting through both muscle and bone.
Both Lethe and Jay froze at the sight. The creature didn’t seem to be noticing them just yet, too busy with its meal. Jay looked at Lethe. He was observing the creature closely, his face tense. Neither of them uttered a word. In the ensuing silence only the sounds of the creatures munching on the stalks were heard and the clicking of the great jaws opening and closing.
Jay felt her legs growing stiff. She tried to shift a bit and assume a more natural position. But as soon as she moved her foot, the bridge creaked, the ancient floorboards protesting against the pressure. The creature stopped munching. Jay felt Lethe’s muscles tensing even more but he never let the enormous insect out of his sight.
In the meantime, the monster started to move its head from left to right as if it was trying to ascertain the source of the sound. Apart from the huge jaws and the hole of a mouth, there was nothing on the shiny globe. No eyes or hair or antennae. ‘It’s blind’ realized Jay.
Blind. But it most definitely heard Jay moving, even if it was but a bit of a board creaking. Jay did not dare to move again. They were both riveted in the middle of a rickety bridge that span the deep chasm of the funnel underneath them. Waiting for the monster on the wall to go back to eating and move away in search for more food. A long minute passed and it almost seemed like the monster would calm down. But instead of applying the jaws back to the stalks, the carapace opened. The mouth-pattern on its back split and a pair of diaphanous wings unfolded. A deep buzz filled the air as the wing started to beat and the creature detached from the wall. It hung in the air for a moment and then, with enormous thud, landed on the bridge. The wings folded under the carapace again and the head bobbed from right to left as the monster continued to scan the area for stray sounds.
Jay looked to her side and saw Lethe’s hand slowly reaching back for the handle of his dagger. Holding her breath, she did the same, slipping the blade out of the scabbard with a speed of a creeping slime as not to make any sound. Another minute passed, as long as a year in Jay’s mind. Then, not finding a source of any sounds, the creature turned, slowly heading towards the end of the bridge. Jay felt Lethe’s muscles relax just a little bit as the tiny feet went tapping on the wood, carrying it away from them.
Jay didn’t see the pebbles falling. She just heard the sound of gravel slipping from somewhere above and the sound of little stones hitting the wood in front of them. The creature screeched. Immediately, it was back on the bridge rolling towards them. Jay saw it tearing at the bridge, the jaws swinging wildly as it hit the sides. They turned heel and run, trying to reach solid ground as the creature moved the planks behind them. But all of the sudden, the bridge gave way.
Falling! Jay was falling surrounded by rain of broken beams and splinters!
She fell, but not very far. Almost immediately she felt her back hitting the sloped side of the stone funnel. Half-rolling, half-sliding she tumbled down into the funnel’s gullet, feeling the lichen being crushed beneath her body. She shut her eyes, trying in vain to slow her descent by flailing her hands, trying to grab something, anything!
The next thing she knew, she was on her side, sprawled among the debris that fell from the bridge. She gasped for breath; the sound came ragged from her throat. In the weak light from her orb she saw a large chamber with a wet, spongy floor all around her. She looked for Lethe and spotted him not very far. Her heart twisted itself in a knot seeing his body crumpled under a wall but relaxed immediately when she saw him move. She wanted to call out to him but suddenly she felt the air shudder and a buzz filled the chamber. The creature was descending after them!
Jay watched as it landed, its shimmery wings folding under the grotesquely-marked carapace. It moved its head around and took a few steps forward then stopped. The jaws discovered something on the floor and were now in the process of loading a heavy shape into the gaping mouth. The thing jangled a bit as it was moved. ‘Our loot bag!’ thought Jay. ‘It is eating our loot bag!’ With a few gulps, the loot bag disappeared inside the creature and the shear-like jaws resumed their search, inching closer and closer to Jay. A few more minutes and they will meet her shoe, and close over her ankle!
Feverishly, Jay tried to figure out what to do. She looked across to Lethe but she could no longer see him, the round body of the creature obstructing her view. Jay dropped her dagger as she fell and now she tried to extend her hand and feel for it on the floor at the same time remaining as silent as an ancient grave. But her blade wasn’t anywhere near, only bits of wood littered the ground. Her fingers wrapped themselves over a long piece of a thin, square beam. Jay looked at it. Even though its broken-off end was sharp and pointy, she had no illusions. The carapace of the creature looked hard, there would be no way she could strike with enough force to pierce it. Nonetheless she picked it up. A few splinters of wood moved as she did so, and rolled away with a slight rustle.
The monster stopped mid-stride. The mouth opened wide and a screech shattered the air. The beast charged. Jay slid herself away from the beast her back hitting the wall behind her. She stuck the beam in front of her like a spear and shut her eyes, turning the face away from the rampaging monster. She felt the blast off hot air and droplets of saliva falling on her face. Then there was a disgusting gulping sound and she felt the heaviness of the carapaced body pushing on the beam. She could hear the clicking sound of tiny chitinous feet over the stone floor, the furious clashing of the terrible jaws.
Everything stopped suddenly. The pressure of the monster’s body on the beam lessened. The horrifying sounds stopped as if cut by a knife. There was no more hot air washing over her face. Jay risked opening one eye then the other but immediately she wished she never did that. The jaws pointed at her forehead, stopping but a finger-length from touching her skin. The beam, that she was still holding, mostly disappeared into the gaping maw under the jaws practically skewering the beast. It must have pierced a vital organ inside it because even though it had no eyes that could close, there was a deathly stiffness in the entire body. Only the small, segmented legs underneath the torso still shuddered for a few seconds more and then stopped moving too.
For a few more heartbeats Jay remained motionless then lowered her end of the beam to the ground and crawled from under the creature, still barely believing that she was not going to be dismembered by the serrated jaws, now very much dead. She rose to her feet shakily, feeling her body protesting after being dropped from some height but then it went away as she remembered.
‘Lethe!’ she cried out and rushed to the other side of the chamber. As she got to him, he was just in the process of sitting up, still disoriented and shaking his head.
‘The fuck just happened?’ he said and spat to the side.
‘We fell.’
‘That I gather. Just our luck to run into an ogmotra. Where is the sodden bastard anyway, we need to-‘
He broke off suddenly at the sight of the dead creature.
‘You did that, kid?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘Damn that’s awesome’ he laughed. ‘One filthy beast less in these sewers.’
‘We better see how to get back up there’ he added, rising to his feet. ‘We don’t want to run into its buddies after all.’
Jay looked around the ground. She found her dagger nearby and the other loot bags. She checked the rolled up material that was still on her back for any tears but it looked like the Sacred Bond didn’t suffer any damage, still safely stashed in the folds of the bag.
In the meantime Lethe was walking around the chamber, holding the magic light as high as he could.
‘Looks like we’re in some pretty deep shit now’ he said finally. ‘I don’t see how we could climb out of here. Just look.’
Jay looked up but couldn’t even see the edge of the funnel. Just above their heads the sloped walls climbed up as smooth as polished marble and overgrown with lichen. There was no way they could move up more than a few paces before sliding back down.
‘Whatever’ Lethe grunted with displeasure. ‘We’ll going to do it the usual way. Start looking for an exit, kid.’
Jay started walking, touching the walls with both her hands, but the only thing that she found was more lichen and more eye-like stalks that seemed to follow her with their unseeing gaze. There was nothing down here but a couple of stones and floor that felt mushy under her feet and a small puddle of water that seemed to trickle from between the eye-stalks down the sloped wall.
‘This makes no sense’ mused Lethe.’ This place looks like there should be water coming through here from up there and down this funnel-thing. But where does it go?’
Jay shrugged. She stepped from one foot to another, feeling her shoes starting to sink a bit in the mulch under her feet. She tried to stomp it off. The ground under her feet swayed and rang a bit hollow.
‘Do it again!’ said Lethe. Jay stomped. ‘Hmmm.’
He came closer and plunged his hand into the mud, pulling a large, half-rotten plank. The mud from around Jay’s feet slurped and slowly disappeared as if it was sucked underneath.
‘Well fuck me sideways!’ laughed Lethe.
There was a grate underneath all that muck and squelching debris. A stone grate that seemed to be fused into the very walls of the funnel. As they pulled more of the planks away, they discovered an opening in the grate under one wall. Lethe shone light into it. There was a stone ladder hewn into the wall below, the rungs slippery and smooth, but still wide enough to be used on the way down into the darkness. Jay wasn’t impressed though. The drop looked like it was a long one, and seemingly going into the bowels of the world itself.
‘Yeah well what are you gonna do? Stay here with the dead ogmotra for the rest of your days?’ said Lethe as he prepared to slip under the grate.
‘The ogmotra!’ exclaimed Jay. She stood up from the opening and turned to the fallen beast. Fighting the disgust, she latched onto the iridescent carapace and heaved the beast on its side, the ridges of its much softer belly exposed.
‘It ate our loot bag’ she said and unsheathed her dagger. ‘I’ll get it back.’
‘Kid, don’t!’ called out Lethe, but it was already too late.
With one slash, the belly was cut open. A greenish sludge sprayed from it, landing all over Jay’s handwarmers. Jay shrieked as the handwarmers started to smoke and melt. In seconds, the wool was eaten through by the acidic gloop. She dropped the dagger and tried to rip the material off her hands but it was too late. She felt her skin burning at the touch it, leaving long stripes of quickly reddening skin. Looking desperately around, she spotted the puddle of water trapped into the debris. She plunged both her hands in into the sludgy water and kept them there, hissing from between clenched teeth as the burning slowly abated. She took them out only to see the top of her arms scalded like they were splashed with boiling water.
‘Ogmotras got acid in their stomachs’ said Lethe looking over her hands. ‘Can melt pretty much through anything. You’re lucky you’ll get to keep your skin. Will hurt like a motherfucker though. Ehhh nothing that we can do about it now.’
Jay sighed. This job was starting to look better and better. And now not only she had to climb down, but she had to climb down with her hands burned. Jay tore her gaze away from the burns and went to find her dagger, just to notice how dull and brittle the blade had become- half-consumed by the acid. She grimaced at the thought that her recklessness completely ruined her first proper dagger.
‘Let’s go. The loot won’t get itself to the surface on its own.’
With a deep sigh Jay lowered herself down the opening, clinging to the stone ladder. Below her she could see only darkness and Lethe’s shoulders as he descended at a steady pace.
Jay was not sure how long they were descending. All she paid attention to was making sure she had a good grip on the smooth stone, that her feet were firmly planted below her and that she was properly ignoring the pain in her burned arms. At last the ladder ended and they were now standing in a corridor that was gently but surely slopping downwards.
The corridor broke off suddenly as if somebody cut it off with a knife. They were now standing at its mouth, lodged in a face of tall underground cliff. A vista was opened in front of them- an enormous cavern. Somewhere up above their heads, light was trickling from a gash in the ceiling, a pale light of winter dawn seeping down, barely illuminating the cliff and the cavern itself. Down below their feet, at the bottom of the cavern an underground river snaked lazily among the broken rocks in its bed of stone. Clearly the outlet that they were standing at was feeding the excess water from above directly into the river creating, now still dry, waterfall.
But the light and the river among the stones paled in the presence of what stood in the centre of the cavern. Broken and mistreated by time, smoothed by the river that overflowed in the heavy rains, was a city. Those ancient walls were huddling close to the ground, seldom rising much but a few storeys. The windows gaped with their holes and crumbling balconies supported themselves with cracked columns in vain effort of holding up their dignified position. At the centre of the city, a tower rose. Once of smooth stone, now full of holes and cracked in many places. A small, peaked dome covered its top, the remains of metal lattices and studs hinting at its former glory.
‘Somebody was living here? ‘said Jay, looking at the crumbling buildings with a mixture of dread and fascination. ‘Here in this awful place?’
‘Not really here and more like above’ said Lethe. ‘Don’t look so surprised. There is a city above us, yeah? Cities are often built over cities that were here before them. Once-a-ceiling-now-a-basement type of deal. Stick them one on top of another and you’ll get something like this.
‘But this looks nothing like Arklington. Not a little bit.’
‘Kid do you think that Adanish were first to be living here? Well think again.’
‘If not Adanish then who?’
‘Abrecari, Nyrah, Who-the-Hell-Knowians, you take your pick. The point is- if somebody tells you they’ve been here from since forever then you can bet your knickers that they took the place from some other poor sods before them.’
Jay stared at the city, the crumbling walls at the same time inviting and repulsive, shining with a magical residue that stained its stones.
‘There might be more ogmotras over there…’ she said as if trying to convince herself she shouldn’t be here. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was supposed to be.
‘There might’ agreed Lathe. ‘But we’re shit out of luck because we have to go through there anyway.’
Jay looked around at the bare face of the cliff above them. She thought that they could try to scale it, but scale it to where? There was nothing to climb to but the ceiling, with no real hope to reach to the gash in the middle of it. Wherever the way out was, it wasn’t through there.
They went the only direction they could- down. The now-dry waterfall ploughed deep furrows into the soft sandstone, shaping it into nooks and chutes, the force of the water creating plenty of places not only to cling to but also to stand. It took some doing and lot of pain from both Jay’s back and burned hands but she managed to get down without slipping.
As they entered among the buildings Jay was struck how different the place was to its distant cousin on the surface. Where Arklington towered with its brick stone and wood walls blackened by the magic and soot, here the walls rolled alongside curved paths, the old walls brushed with the colour of aged china-clay. Arklington bristled with its iron-wrought braces, heavy doors guarding the boundaries of the building and steel poles of arc-lights, the ancient city had none but a few ornaments made of forged metals, and if it was illuminated in the past at all, it would be with only the soft sheen that seemed to seep from the walls. The silence here was intertwined with the whistling of the draught and scurrying of the creatures that made their homes here while Arklington above them pounded and hummed with people and industry, never really falling into stillness.
Among the buildings, pale plants grew in the crevices and pushed their roots between the cracks of the pavements. Their seeds blown in through the gash above or washed-in by the water of the river found some support in the corpse of the city and now their barely-green leaves were sucking up the little light that reached here. To Jay’s surprise, animals dwelled here too. Some half-collapsed doorways were veiled with spider webs that were much too large for Jay’s liking, but despite occasional hiss from the darkness, no creature with too many legs and eyes approached them.
They walked along, following the ruined roads, until they found themselves at the feet of the tower. The round body of the building was once open in all directions; the archways in the walls made the construction seem light and airy. Many of the entrances were now inaccessible though, filled with rubble or caved-in. Lethe peeked inside through one that was still standing.
‘We might as well go and see. Wouldn’t it be just great if we could find something useful in place of the stuff that the ogmotra ate?’
Jay wondered if they should, but the lure of possible treasures buried by time itself, treasures that could be worth more than the things they managed to take out of the Cathedral, was too strong to ever resist. But as they entered the tower, it was clear that there are no treasures hidden within the walls. The tower had no floors or stairs, those caved-in eons ago. As Jay looked up, she could only see the top of the dome barely visible in the shadows that covered the upper portion of the tower. The floor was cracked and covered with dirt. From the marks on the stone and the walls it seemed like this this place was being periodically flooded. Whatever precious stones or materials there might have been here are now long gone, scattered by the current of the floods.
Still, there was something in the tower that attracted the attention of both Lethe and Jay. A sculpture stood in the middle of the round chamber made out of pale grey stone. It was a person, the face, age and gender eroded by the coming and going water so much that it was impossible to tell. The person was kneeling on the ground, the whole body tensed like it was caught in the middle of a struggle. One hand was trapped in a bond that pulled it towards the ground, the other- stretched high and ready to strike as in attempt to pull free. The stone fingers of the raised hand were wrapped around a dagger. It was a slim blade, widening in the middle and tapering towards the point- a simple but elegant design. It wasn’t made of stone, but of bright steel and put into the statue’s hand. There was no rust anywhere on the dagger, no patina or any other signs that it had been resting in the statue’s hands for years on end and subjected to the cold waters of the flood.
Jay stared. Something about that statue had riveted her attention. Despite lack of any features, the statue seemed almost alive, as if it was caught in a spell that was just about to break. She held her breath, almost expecting that any moment the figure will move and strike the bond that was binding its hand.
‘Well lookie here’ said Lethe. His eyes were trained on the dagger. ‘Beautiful work that one. Would be such a shame to leave it here for no one to use.’
With one move her stepped up to the statue, climbed its water-smoothed frame and reached for the dagger. The blade wouldn’t even wobble in the statue’s grip, no matter how much force he would apply. He grunted with annoyance and struck the stone hand, trying to break it off at the wrist. But despite looking worn and brittle, the statue wouldn’t break. He worked at it with the handle of his dagger, striking the coiled fingers with the pommel. But despite his efforts, nothing happened. The statue just stood there, its weapon raised as it was for eons and it seemed it would be like that for eons to come.
‘They made this to last, didn’t they?’ he said finally, stepping off away from the statue, a bit winded from the effort. ‘Whoever they were.’
Jay said nothing. For some reason that she couldn’t name herself, she stepped up to the statue. She reached out towards the weathered stone and brushed it with the tips of her fingers. The moment she touched the figure the statue shuddered.
Clack!
The dagger fell out of the stone fingers and skidded away on the stone surface of the floor to the loud exclamation from Lethe.
But Jay didn’t move. Instead, she still stood there, her hand over the stone, feeling its coolness. Almost immediately she felt sorry for the statue, now without the dagger, with only its bare hand to struggle against the shackle that bound it. Without even thinking, Jay reached for her own dagger and pulled out the dulled blade. She stepped up onto the statue, coiling her arm around its neck. She reached out with her dagger and tried to place her blade into the half-opened fingers. As the handle touched the fingers, the stone shuddered again, wrapping the hand around the handle. Jay heard a crunching sound and watched wide-eyed as the stone invaded the brittle, acid-bitten metal. Within seconds, Jay’s dagger was completely covered with stone, as if it was never a real dagger at all but was always a part of statue. The charm of St Garret, that she had wrapped around the handle, broke off before the petrification crawled over it and rolled away into a crack of the floor.
Lethe whistled.
‘This here was the most incredible or the most fucked-up thing I have ever seen. And right now I can’t decide which.’
Jay looked around for the fallen dagger. It was right there, close to the statue. She picked it up and looked at the metal. Even though it was beautiful in its simplicity, it seemed so normal, like something that you’d be able to buy at every weaponsmith. Not even very vicious-looking like the work of Brigfen. Just a very old, even though solid, workmanship.
‘It…wanted me to have it?’ she said, looking again at the statue, searching for a sign of more strangeness. But the statue remained motionless, locked with its silent struggle against the bond that was restraining it.
‘I might be a damn good thief, maybe the fucking best. But this thing right here? Magic, that’s what it is. It’s a bit above my pay grade you might say.’
Jay sheathed her new dagger then took a last look at the statue.
‘We should probably go now.’
Lethe shrugged.
‘Yeah, there is nothing here to take anyway.’
They left the tower to its loneliness and followed the shape that the river carved for itself through the city, arriving at the other wall of the cave after some time. It was now clear that the only way forward was down to where the river flowed even further down. At its full strength it would be impossible, but now as the flow was diminished, there was enough space to descend, and the slope wasn’t even that steep to begin with. Jay looked down the river, barely being able to spy the water reflecting the weak light from their orbs. The thought of going even deeper and away from the light was not a pleasant one. The daylight, even weak one, was infinitely better than the complete darkness of an underground river.
‘I don’t like this way’ she said immediately feeling like she chose the wrong words. She hated this way actually.
‘I don’t like it either’ said Lethe. ‘It’s as dark as inside a black horse’s arse and smells not that much better. If you have a better idea then you can tell me now.’
Jay shook her head.
‘I just hope that the light won’t give out on us when we’re down there.’
‘I hope so too. The shopkeep said these should be able to burn for a few days straight. If they give now I’ll make a point to come back and pull his tongue out through his stomach.’
Jay shook her magic light, the radiating fuel sloshing back and forth. She wished there was a way to turn one off at least, to make the light last longer, but there was no way to do this. Once the magic fuel ignited, there was no switch on the orb that would extinguish it.
Lethe went into the tunnel first and Jay followed him, supporting herself over the wall as the dry path on the jagged bank was narrow and she did not want to risk losing her footing and plunging into the inky waters. As they moved deeper in, some glowing shadows started appearing under the current, like ghosts of the drowned, slithering swiftly back and forth, breaking the surface and disappearing back into the depths. Jay shuddered at the thought of those strange creatures that made themselves home in this forlorn place, but then she realized those were just fish, gulping water just as the ones resting in the ice at the fishmarket, despite their translucent bodies.
The gently sloping corridor turned sharper suddenly and once again they were forced to climb down, almost blindly, on the rocky face of a cave wall next to rushing water. Jay wasn’t delighted, wondering if closing her eyes would improve her chances of not slipping over the smooth stones since the light at her belt bounced with every move and made the shadows skip and skitter over the uneven surface.
As she put her feet down on the ground, Jay took a longer pause, breathing heavily. The climbs started to take a toll on her. Her arms’ skin, burned by the acid, began to feel too tight causing additional pain as she put her weight on them during the climb. She stood there, bent in half and panting, not paying any attention to her surrounding until Lethe called out to her.
The moment she raised her head, she gasped. They stood at the foot of the waterfall form the top of which they just climbed down from. Here, the waterfall emptied into a lake with its water as smooth as a mirror, reflecting the cool light of their magic globes. It was dark here, as dark as in a midnight’s dream. But darkness was soft here only made softer by deep blue glow that some walls and rocks gave, criss-crossed by veins of ore that was completely unknown to Jay. Some flat stones, rounded by the uncounted years of water periodically flooding this place were scattered over the muddy ground, like tables and stools of some long-forgotten cave-dwelling race.
They stood for a moment, trying to take all of this strange sight at once.
‘This place looks like we could rest here’ said Lethe. ‘We’d been fucking around underground for hours and who knows how long we’ll be at it still.’
‘Yeah’ said Jay still a bit out of breath and feeling drained of the rest of her strength after the last climb. A rest seemed to her as the best idea they had for hours now.
She came close to the edge of the lake and kneeled in the mud, submerging her arms up to her elbows, letting the freezing water cool the afflicted skin. Lethe came down too, and gathered the water into his cupped hands, tasting it carefully, then drinking. Jay did the same. The water tasted surprisingly fresh.
Lethe perched himself on the flat stone close to the edge of the water, pulling his knees close to his chest. Jay joined him, glad to take the weight off her feet and the feet out of the mud.
‘I’m sorry’ she said after a moment of silence.’
‘What for?’
‘For this job. This…was a bad idea after all.’
‘Ehhh, don’t beat yourself up about it kid. Every job, even the best planned one can go to shit in five seconds flat. As long as you can walk away free from one and still take a little something for yourself, then it’s all good.’
‘But we’re lost.’
Jay sighed. The thought finally came to her, the thought that maybe all that distance they travelled was in vain. Maybe there wasn’t an exit from the bowels of the earth, just a tomb that closed over their heads the moment they fell down the funnel. She shook off the thought as soon as it came. It was too early to think that.
‘Yeah. And we’ll be lost for good if we don’t have enough strength to pull ourselves out of this shithole. So stop yapping and get some rest.’
He shifted his body more towards the centre of the stone and scowled.
‘Damn this stone is as cold as a pair of balls swinging in the northern wind. But I guess it’s better than the ground.’
‘At least we could have this’ said Jay, unstrapping the roll that she still had on her back. The Sacred Bond wrapped in the loot bag seemed to be untouched by the climbing and jostling it endured. For a moment she toyed with an idea of unrolling it and using it as bedding. But then she knew that the thin, finely-spun silk would not make a good barrier between them and the chill of the stone. It looked as they had to be content with using it as a pillow.
‘Heh, look at that. What would the Lectors say if they could see the two of us using their precious treasure to rest our unworthy heads?’
Jay sniggered, thinking of the appalled faces of the divine servants.
She shimmied closer to Lethe. Here in this cold and damp place they would have to share their body warmth as much as possible, not even having the comfort of a cover to keep them away from the chill. But the moment she felt his arms closing around her, she felt a hot shiver flashing through her body. ‘Oh…oh, no…’ she thought, struggling to keep her breathing steady as her heart hammered against her chest. ‘Why now…’ She felt the flush spreading over her, engulfing her spine and filling her belly with molten lava. She pushed her face into his shoulder and shut her eyes, waiting and willing her body to relax and calm down. She was just lying there, alert to every sensation, to every inch of his body connecting with hers, hoping that he can’t sense the fire that raged just below the surface of her skin. Unmoving she listened to the even breathing of the Kou next to her, waiting for the hurricane of rushing blood in her ears to fall silent. She waited for eons to the lava within her to cool down, chasing away any thoughts that were pushing into her mind. She waited the hot flush to finally ebb, to be overpowered by her tiredness and for the coldness of sleep to swallow them both.
