Chasm Walkers by Raquel Byrnes

Author:Raquel Byrnes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: christian Fiction
ISBN: 9781611169416
Publisher: Pelican Book Group
Published: 2018-01-18T05:00:00+00:00

19

Ashton

There was no light. No sun pierced the ice storm outside the cave. Wind, thick and frigid, seeped along the tunnel shaft whistling softly as it drifted past them. Keeping an eye on the immobile Tremblers, Ashton panted against the cold biting his skin and rode out the shiver rattling through him. He paused at a sound. Deep within the darkness, the uneven noise set his senses on edge. Unable to see if it was above or behind as the echo warbled around them, he gritted his teeth, pressing onward.

“Do you think there are more?” Charlotte’s voice floated to him in the darkness. Wary, but controlled.

“If there are, I hope they are as unenthusiastic as the first one.” Ashton shook his head in an attempt to right his mind. Mottled with cold and pain, he fought to keep his wits. His ice-laden clothes crunched with every step, dropping sheets of frost at his feet. He slid with Charlotte against the rock wall, deeper into the darkness of the cave. Arm across her small shoulders, he tried not to lean on her as he limped. Crackling hair sticking to his face, he fought for balance despite his injured leg. Another knock deeper in the cave and Ashton’s hand twitched, reaching for the sword no longer at his side.

“You are certain the entrance is in here?” Charlotte moved against him, her grip steady on his arm. “You’ve been here before?”

“Y-yes, I believe so.” Ashton blinked the melting ice from his lashes. Reaching into his vest pocket, he located and lit the igniter. The shivering of his hands cast a shaking shadow on the stone walls.

Charlotte squinted, raising her hand as if the flame were the sun. The black rings once again lined her irises. The chill of her body next to his made him wonder if she, in her constantly cold state, suffered the bone deep ache that assaulted his joints with every step. “Are you all right…are you in p-pain?”

“Just slower.” The meager light from the igniter lit up the wisp of white vapor that escaped with her words. She nodded to the prone figures on the ground. The Tremblers did not move, merely watched their progress with unblinking coal-black eyes. “I fear I may be doing what they are. Shutting down.”

The shadows moved with them, skittering along the uneven path hewn from the cliff’s stone. Light for only a foot or two in front of them, bodies and menacing faces emerged from the darkness. A woman lay on the ground in the long white skirts and apron of a nurse, her face turned to the wall as her arms bent at wrong angles and twitched when he and Charlotte passed.

Ashton raised his arm, illuminating a figure curled on the floor.

A young man, tufts of hair missing from his head, grimaced at them when the light slid across his ravaged face.

Charlotte’s breaths paced up next to him, her eyes wide.

“Quiet and slow,” Ashton whispered. “Let us not rile them up.”

They edged past another Trembler.

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