The Winds of the Past [Rune Factory 4]

Chapter 31

Gripping her paired swords tightly in her hands, glaring defiantly in her fury, Avani shouted, “Ethelberd, Emperor of Sechs! Return the rune spheres to me!”

The silver-haired despot slowly turned, a malevolent smile twisting the corners of his mouth. “So, you have come at last, Earthmate of Selphia. Relax! I have something… most interesting to show you.” As he pulled out a rune sphere, laughing darkly, I decided I had a really bad feeling about this.

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It had taken several long, hard days to catch up to Ethelberd. First, we had to take the Maya Road over  the dangerous mountain pass that was the sole link between the two kingdoms for hundreds of miles in either direction along the border. The road alone was bad enough, with its many ferocious monsters. Man-sized heracles beetles attempted to impale us on their long horns. Foul-tempered trolls tried to crush us with their massive war hammers. Enormous black birds that strove to blast us off the many ice-slicked precipices with the wind generated by their powerful wings. Enraged hornet queens as big as my leg, relentless planchoas, vicious airrors, and wily green fey attacked us at every turn, not to mention the natural hazards—freezing temperatures, strong gusts of wind, and boulders tumbling down from the slopes around us, threatening to crush us or blow us off the mountains all together. But all of that was as nothing compared with the dangers that had lurked below in the unmapped caves deep within the mountains.

The caves beneath the Maya Road were dank and dark, dimly lit by weird, spongy growths on the cavern walls that glowed with a sickly, unnatural light. A few caverns also had large outcrops of rune crystals, the largest of which cast a faint blue light that reflected off the smaller clusters of crystals.

The caves were populated with trolls, giant beetles, slimes, and fairies that all seemed to be much stronger and hardier than their aboveground counterparts. They were all characterized by a common, vile appearance—skins and shells all shades of green and blue and purple, calling to mind heavy bruising or decay. Upon closer inspection, Avani decided that these bizarre monsters were undead—zombie forms of the creatures that dwelled along the Maya Road and some areas of the Autumn Road, probably reanimated by some spell or perhaps the result of some toxin. We all felt a singular repulsion—coupled with not a little dread—towards the denizens of the caves, though, and I know I shuddered whenever we found ourselves below ground yet again—whether forced to go beneath due to a blocked path or falling through one of many holes or weak spots in the ground.

Initially, we had returned to town each night to rest and mend our equipment, but progress was so difficult, so agonizingly slow, that we soon abandoned that plan. Instead we huddled together in whatever shelter we could find from the icy winds, or occasionally, when desperate, we camped down in the caves, staying close to the stairs carved into the rock leading down from the surface. We took it in turns to keep watch, since fires were impossible—there was too little fuel at that altitude, and anyway the surface was too windy and the caves too damp. We also gave up on cooking, instead relying on dried and preserved foods eaten cold and on hardtack. Fortunately there was adequate potable water—we even found a tiny but deep lake near the summit of the highest peak, Mount Maya itself.

After a many days, we finally reached the end of the Maya Road and caught up to the Sechs soldiers. However, by that time, they had already summoned a clone of the Divine Fire, Fiersome. This clone, though certainly challenging, was easier to defeat than Terrable’s clone had been. Although Fiergaenger, as one of the soldiers named him, was more powerful than the Terraclone had been, we three had become stronger and more skilled in the interim. Furthermore, we now had better equipment. So although we were exhausted, scorched, and wounded at the end, nevertheless we defeated him with no critical injuries among us.