Dawn of the Exile by Mitchell Hogan

Author:Mitchell Hogan [Hogan, Mitchell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781542040303
Publisher: 47North
Published: 2019-03-12T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

When they returned to Linriel, he noticed that she’d finally come to her senses about her clothing. She had loosened the bodice of her dress and shortened and split its hem to allow for more air. Though it was still early morning, the sun throbbed down without remorse. Already the ground baked and the air grew stifling. The heat was nothing compared to Shimrax but enough to think about finding shade when the sun rose higher and beat down like a hammer.

“Are you ready?” Ren asked Linriel.

She nodded. “But I’d like to know more of your plan, if it pleases you.”

If it pleases you . . . Tarrik didn’t like this new subservient Linriel. He met Ren’s gaze and raised his eyebrows.

Ren grinned, then sent a final fleeting glance out over the ocean. “Let’s go.”

Icy darkness swallowed Tarrik, rasping across his skin. This time he thought he could almost sense the direction they traveled in and some details of the surrounding environment. The darkness turned gray briefly before changing to a bluish tinge that he thought might be the surface of the ocean and then abruptly became a dark blue. An immense pressure enveloped him, the sandy roughness turned to soft wetness, and the outside became darker, then darker still. A vibration shuddered through him, shaking his bones and teeth. The pressure increased, and his head began to ache, especially between his eyes. The ache intensified to a sharp pain, but when he tried to raise his hand to clutch his head, he found he was immobile. The pain grew until he thought his head would burst. Then the pressure dissipated, and water soaked him to the skin. Tarrik blinked it from his eyes and tasted saltwater on his lips. He spit to remove the taste.

“Watch it,” snapped Linriel. She sat beside him in a puddle of water, looking like she’d been caught in a storm, and her expression retained the thunder. A tiny trickle of blood ran from her nose. She wiped it away, then squeezed water from her dress.

Ren was standing by a wall, head tilted to one side. A sorcerous globe floated above her, providing the only illumination, and he sensed the swirl of dawn- and dusk-tides around her—or was it a manifestation of the sun-tide? She wasn’t showing any signs that the journey had affected her as it had him and Linriel, perhaps due to the longevity and vitality she had gained through mastery of her powers.

Linriel rose to her feet and spoke a cant. Another globe materialized, its glow faintly blue. She glanced at Ren as if expecting a rebuke; then a fleeting smile crossed her face when there was no reaction.

Ren stood near a doorway in the wall. Behind them, the room opened to a massive cavern, filled entirely with a subterranean lake. The surface was mostly still except for ripples close to them. A thick layer of salt crystals crusted the edges of the lake, and at the bottom Tarrik could see a faint pinprick of light.

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