Читать книгу Rise to the Rahz - Erik van Mechelen - Страница 15

Kaydin’s foot felt the bottom of a two-pitch wall. The beginning of this descent was not too far from the back loop of the Haven entrance corridor, but he hadn’t been down this way in over a year. Rescuing Maryn, then Bel, and subsequently teaching them the ways of Haven had taken up most of his spare time in the last year and a half.

In the beginning, he had spent a lot of time with Maryn. He had even slept with her. Kaydin shook his head at the thought. If Ry had ever wanted to throw someone out of Haven, it was when Kaydin saved Maryn without permission. Ry’s words were still clear in his memory: She didn’t show the curiosity, Kaydin!

But who had? Ry claimed Gara had. And Mav, too. But Haven also needed the skills Gara and Mav brought. So was it curiosity or necessity? Ry constantly dodged this point. Gara could carve, shape, and make stone into almost anything his imagination inspired. Mav’s skill in combining all manner of elements and materials to form new things was to this day mesmerizing to Kaydin. Their team had grown from two to four members. Overnight they could shift from pure survival mode to exploration. Ry said it felt like the old days, when he and Dag mapped much of the underground city. Adding two members meant Ry and Mav could manage the base while Kaydin and Gara sought additional secrets. They explored many of Dag's passages, scaled the highest walls of the chasm cavern, created new lookouts and listening slits. It had been an exciting few years. But the caverns were dark, cold, and mostly barren.

Then Kaydin had saved the young women. First Maryn, then Bel. Things had grown tricky when he rescued Bel about a half year after Maryn. Not only did the two compete over him, mostly ignoring Mav and Gara, but Kaydin used up most of his turma to keep the secret about Bel’s escape. From Bel herself. She wasn’t curious, at least not to the extent that would draw her out past the first toll. Kaydin had lured her out past the tolls, like he had for Maryn, and claimed to have shown up at the right moment to save her.

Why had he done it? He had thought about this a lot. The best he could do was to admit that he was bored. The day-to-day slog of scouting, planting, exploring, and surviving had its novelty, but it took a strong mind to keep oneself sane. Ry had this, it seemed, and despite everything Kaydin disliked about the old man, he admired that much: Ry had survived this long.

As for Maryn, she knew full well she’d been taken without Ry’s consent.

Bel didn’t. In the first few days of Bel joining Haven, Kaydin had used almost all of his turma Subduing and Amplifying Bel’s various memories. Eventually he resorted to Inspiring her. Fortunately Maryn had shared a lot of her turma with him at the time, not knowing he was using it to affect Bel’s memories.

Kaydin shook his head. In a way he had done to Bel exactly what the Rahz did to all the city’s workers. Their memories were controlled. With the mind under control, their actions were predictable, their loyalty established.

Abyl was yet another example of their control. His loyalty was strong and annoyingly lingering, but he did seem genuinely curious. Maybe Ry did have a point about curiosity. Kaydin wondered what other workers would have done had they noticed the sixth bulb. Would they have taken the same actions Abyl did? It was hard to know, especially since Kaydin happened to be in Growing Room One that same night. His being there affected Abyl's actions the following day.

There’s something about him, though. He moved too fast. The sentinel should have mauled him, but he got off with only a few scratches.

Kaydin turned away from the wall. He whispered to the glowworms wrapped around his wrist. They offered less light than earthlights, but required no turma. He checked that the pickaxe was still tied securely to his belt and bent to enter the tunnel. He met a drop-off not far along.

I remember this. This was as far as I got last time. He dropped a small stone, listening for a sound. He counted to two. Several pitches down. Dag could not have cut this one; it was too tricky to carve downwards so sharply.

He shimmied out above the drop off, hands and feet straddling opposite walls. Without proper holds, he would have to keep pressure on three points, then move the fourth limb down a step.

Several minutes later, forearms twitching from strain, he reached the bottom. He sang a soft tune Ry used to sing him as a young boy, and the glowworms wriggled. Kaydin lifted his arm into the room.

This is where the dotted lines lead.

A circular room, jagged edges. It was probably just a natural crevice in the limestone. That, or Dag was taking out his frustration on these walls.

Kaydin retraced his path in his head. He liked to compare his position relative to the chasm and the main chasm walks running parallel to the chasm, which were connected by the chasm bridge. Haven’s main entry corridor was maybe three pitches below the walkways. And he’d climbed several more. He was perhaps ten pitches below the walkways.

This is as deep as I’ve gone.

Kaydin and Gara loved discussing the possible entry points into various rooms and caverns in the city. The one that evaded them—and the only one that mattered—was the escape point from the city itself. If it still existed. The exit that Dag, Ry, Dylan, Mirai and baby Kaydin had attempted to take began about six or seven pitches down from the chasm bridge where the Rahz Spire connected to the apex of the chasm. Ry had since warned Kaydin that it was blocked, but Kaydin had scouted it out anyway once old enough to climb confidently. From as close as he dared go alone, it sure looked blocked. Just a sheer stone cliff face.

Kaydin assessed his current position again, following Dag’s journal. If a way out even existed, this particular path was unlikely to lead to it. It was too far down and led well away from the Rahz Spire. At least I’m unlikely to run into sentinels.

Kaydin fingered his pickaxe and took a swing at the wall across from his drop-in point. Surprisingly, the rock crumbled easily. He stepped out of the way to avoid them crushing his feet. That’s interesting. Kaydin hacked at the wall again, releasing more stone. The wall was not really a wall after all, but a kind of crevice. He broke away a few body length’s of rock, slowly maneuvering his body further in. A few more swings and he found an opening he could pass through.

Air brushed against Kaydin’s chin and into his nostrils. He smelled something unmistakeable. The stone underfoot was damp. Moisture coming up on a draft.

Water.

His glowworms shone into the darkness. Kaydin traced the jagged platform ahead a few paces to what seemed like a drop-off. Darkness engulfed him only a few steps forward. Kaydin knocked gently on the wall with the blunt side of his pickaxe. The reverberation echoed out into the cavern, then down.

So the roof is near, but the cavern descends further. Much, much further.

Kaydin dropped another pebble over the edge. Even with a dose of turma resting within him, his advanced ears didn’t pick up a sound. That was surprising.

I’ll call it Kaydin’s Abyss.

He could even start his own city, he considered slyly.

Kaydin reached into his belt for a vial of turma. He downed it, willing it from his chest into his head, pushing it back and to the bottom. He closed his eyes a moment and used Retain. The tickle on his eyelids indicated the activation was successful.

Time to see if there’s a way down from here.

He drew out an earthlight shard, whispered it to life and tossed it into the utter dark. It was a large price to pay. But how that stone fell! It careened, spinning, until it was a mere point of light like the stars in Ry’s tales of the Above.

A tone echoed from behind him. It was faint, but it drew Kaydin into the familiar memory of a snowy hill. The first toll. It was fainter here, so far away from the Rahz Spire where the gong was rung.