The Crooked Knight (The Path of Zaan Book 2) by C.K. Rieke

Author:C.K. Rieke [Rieke, C.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crimson Cro Publishing
Published: 2017-02-27T18:30:00+00:00

PART IV

A Refugee's

Bitter Exile

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

IN the dark, the thick, stagnant air felt ancient, as if it hadn’t seen light or life in ages. They strode through the dark tunnels beneath Barrier Cliff. Breathing it in, the air was damp and heavy, and the stone crumbled at their feet as they ran in the dark. Tilda’s face faded into view, dimly lit by the light of a warm, blue-burning torch. He laid his hand on the stair below him, feeling the cold wet stone, and the cobwebs that littered the underparts of the city.

“Why did we leave them?” Zaan said angrily, still partly in a daze. “We need to go back.” Tilda grabbed him and began walking him down, urging him to keep moving down the winding, dark stairway. “We have to go back,” he said, but she continued pressing him downwards.

The blue light of her torch reflected of the wet, dark stone walls as they walked. He yelled out in pain, but she dragged him on.

She turned to face him in the darkness. Her eyes produced a faint blue haze in the blackness. “Zaan, I understand you want to help them, but we have to leave. We need to escape from the city. We cannot stay here. It isn’t safe.” But I’ve let them down. My shoulder feels like it’s going to explode, but those are my friends alone with that devil.

“They might need our help,” he managed to say through his stabbing pain, and he wiped the pouring sweat from his brow.

“They’re on their own. You had nothing left to give,” she said.

I knew she was right, but it didn’t help to hear it.

“Gogenanth told us to leave. There was nothing more we could have done. We would have died against that demon. Now come, we have to go, now.”

Zaan, full of rage and pain, did his best to let logic prevail. He knew there was little, if anything, he could have done against the demon with the ax of flame or the dozens of undead dragons that swarmed around them. He simply took one more step down the staircase, and his decision was made.

For another half an hour they roamed around in the darkness. Zaan followed the sounds of Tilda’s footsteps, as she listened for the sounds of his. His body was soaked from dripping water, and he was littered with cobwebs. Eventually, they reached an area so low in the castle, Zaan picked up the scent of salt water. “Are we close to the Rion?”

“Yes, we will wait until the cover of dark, then we will get you out of here.” She stood with her back to the stone wall at the bottom of the long, circular staircase they had ran down. She gently pushed at the corner of the room, and warm, dry air whooshed in, reflecting light off the dagger in her hand. “Get some rest, you can give into it now.”

Zaan almost instantly gave into his delirium, and the pain faded as he drifted off into darkness.

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