Читать книгу Rise to the Rahz - Erik van Mechelen - Страница 4

The stone steps led the worker from the growing room toward the chasm bridge. Underfoot, the obsidian was cool, and his leg hairs were made rigid by the air streaming up from the Abyss.

The worker walked along the middle of the bridge to avoid looking down to where those possessed spirits roamed. The shadows. They took the shape of an overgrown lizard and their movement was faster than thought. At the halfway point he glanced to his right. There was the Rahz Spire, a jagged obsidian tower rising like a disjointed finger from the knuckling limestone lips of the chasm. Against all judgment, the worker stopped to gaze upon the monument.

Empty balconies curled up its perimeter. He saw no-one, but he hoped the Rahz were watching over him. He hoped they were protecting him from the the shadows. He hoped. Then his eyes found a small patch of red like an earthlight's glow. So faint, and so high! But his awe was cut short.

A hiss sliced through the darkness. He remembered where he was, and where he should be going. He briefly imagined a scene where the noise hadn't come to him. He failed, and fear took him.

He urged his legs forward. As he carried himself along the bridge, he realized he had not run since he was a young child. At the bridge’s end he followed the path at chasm's edge. Glancing up and to his right the red glow remained and he asked for protection, reached out for it with his mind. Just a little further now. His heart thumped repeatedly.

As he neared the workers’ quarters, he wondered if he would be let in. Another hiss cut through the crevices in the stiff air.

He took the brief stairway two and three steps at a time. He slapped his hand against stone. “Let me in!” he cried. But there was no reply except his voice echoing through the cavern behind him. I’m too late. He pounded both his fists against the rock face. “I’m here, outside!” He pressed his ear against the stone, panting. “Let me in,” he whispered. He dared not turn around, afraid the shadows would greet him, lifting him in their jaws and carry him down into the Abyss. I guess this is it for me.

The wall moved and a hand was on the scruff of his neck, pulling him in. “You’re late."