The Fallen by J Squires

Author:J Squires [Squires, J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-25T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Losses

No wonder Fenric’s men don’t know about this cave.

Alexian was with the rest of the group outside the entrance to the cave in the back of the mountain. Even while standing right in front of it and knowing it was there, Alexian could barely see it. It started as a large crack at the base of the mountain, which opened into a tunnel initially running parallel to the rock face, but with the small amount of fog still constant on the outskirts of the mountain range, not enough light went into the cave mouth to cast a shadow revealing it. It looked like a solid sheet of rock. The only thing that could have given it away was a small patch of dirt in the opening.

The rest of Alexian’s group were equally amazed. They all stared at the opening, wondering at it and how such a well hidden cave could exist naturally.

As Brute squinted hard to make out the entrance, he said, “How did they find this? I’m having trouble seeing it knowing it’s there!”

Zahmil was standing on her own apart from the group. “It was not found from out here,” she reminded him. “It was discovered while scouting caves from inside the mines.”

“Enough gawking,” Jereg said with the authority of a leader. “We have a mission to do, and three hours to do it.”

That brought everyone back to attention.

Jereg lit a lantern, and began walking into the entrance of the cave. He only barely fit in it without having to turn sideways. Following him was Garoth, then Brute, who did have to turn sideways, then the rest, with Zahmil in the back, and Alexian in front of her, right behind Daren.

Everyone was tense as they made their way through the cave. It was slow going, everyone only able to shuffle a little bit farther ahead at a time. The air also got hotter and stuffier the farther they went in, making it even more uncomfortable.

Alexian soon lost sense of how long they’d been walking. It could have been a few minutes or already a whole hour. If it had been an hour, that didn’t leave much time before they had to lower the gates.

Thinking about this, Alexian had a sudden realization.

How are we going to lower the gates?

It seemed like a pretty important thing to know, and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought about it until then.

No one had spoken a word since entering the cave, but Alexian thought this was too important not to know. That being the case, he still didn’t want how uninformed he was to stand out, so he quietly whispered behind him to Zahmil, “So you’re one of the spies who's been in these mines?”

Zahmil seemed put off by the question. It seemed like she wouldn’t answer, and Alexian was starting to regret having asked, but then she whispered back, “Yes.”

“So you know how things work inside?” Alexian pressed on.

“Yes,” she replied raising a brow in question.

“So you know what we have to do to lower the gates?”

“Yes.

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