“Is that the monster’s fang?” It was curved and more than three feet in length.
“He wouldn’t let go, Mother.” She sighed and wiped some bloody snot from her nose. I couldn’t tell visually if the blood came from her or was just left over from the serpent, but a quick flick of my tongue confirmed it was the creature’s.
“You ripped its fang out?” She sat on the smooth rocky shore of the stream and I moved my hands over her legs. I found the place where the monster bit her, but the ripped deerskin pants were the only proof of the assault. Her white skin underneath was perfectly healed. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tightly for a few seconds. She pushed away, irritated and too excited to stay still in my arms.
“Yes but he still wouldn’t let go so I had to stab him in the eye.” She held it up in her small hand to show me the fang and I realized that a part of it was broken off at the tip. “The poor thing is dead now. We should have climbed the side walls of the pool.”
“I am just relieved you are okay. Did you feel poisoned?” Viper venom from a normal sized snake would be enough to render one of my kind unconscious for a day, but it would not have the same potency in my own body. However, I understood very little of Vaiarathe’s powers and the giant monster might have delivered its toxin in a dose too large for her small body to handle.
“I need to drink a few skins of water, but other than that I feel fine. Just thirsty.” The disappointment on her face from the death of the monster was replaced by a smile when I voiced my concern. I passed her my water skin and she drank it all before we filled it up again.
“I lost the spear in the water.” She frowned after she returned the skin.
“No matter. We’ll craft a new one once we reach our destination. There is a branch behind you that looks to be the correct size.”
“We are almost there, Mother. I can feel the presence of the Radicle.” She pointed up ahead and sprang to her feet like a playful kitten. Then she grabbed the new walking stick and waded into the moving water.
“I will lead for now.” I took the point position and guided us through the currents and cuts of the deep stream for another two hours.
“Mother, look,” Vaiarathe said from behind me and I glanced back at her and then followed her finger to a cave in the side of the canyon. The cave reminded me of the one I had entered thirteen years ago to make the deal with Recatolusti’catri and her diabolical brood. It was carved like the jaw of some beast that lay in wait to devour any foolish enough to pass.
“There is the trail.” I saw the narrow path that descended the steep canyon face above the stream. The cave was forty feet above us but still ten feet below the trail. If a traveler did not know the opening was there, it would have been easy to miss.
“Let’s climb.” I checked the straps on my pack and then did the same for Vaiarathe. I let the girl ascend first in case her wet hands slipped on the rocks. I was used to worrying about her, but a few seconds of watching her climb made me feel foolish. She ascended like a squirrel up an oak tree and reached the mouth of the cave before I even got my boots out of the cool water.
“I feel good about this one. It is different.” She offered me her hand when I reached the top and I grasped it even though I did not need her assistance. It made her happy when she believed she helped me.
“What is different?”
“It tastes strong.” She licked her lips and I repeated her movement with my own tongue. I tasted the water, damp jungle air, dust from the cave, and the clay mixed with granite.
“I’ll choose to believe you.” I forced a smile to my lips. This was the last Radicle on the map Relyara and Nyarathe put together for me. I needed one of the small orbs that powered the temple but I had been unable to find one yet. I knew that the O'Baarni had captured a few in their looting of my race’s tribal lands, but I did not want to risk stealing one until I had exhausted all our other options.
This was our last hope and I prayed that my daughter was correct.
“I’ll make the light!” she whispered but could not hide the excitement in her voice. The flame appeared in her hand: a faint shade of white mixed with violet. We were still at the mouth of the cave, but the extra illumination allowed me to see that the path into the cave bent down at an angle that reminded me more of the dragon’s lair.
“How far do you feel it is?” I tried not to rely too much on the girl’s odd predictions since she could not explain to me how she made them. Yet she was often correct.
“It is far. Deep down in the heart. That is why there is still an Ovule.” I nodded and tried not to share her excitement. I could not stand being disappointed again.
“We ate the last of our rations.” I gritted my teeth and wondered how far of a descent this would be. I didn’t want to waste time gathering food or hunting when our goal was so close. Especially after she had pulled down my hood and alerted every nearby enemy of our presence. We had little time to spare.
“We should hunt and spend a night smoking what we catch. When we go through the Radicle to our new home we might need extra provisions.” She nodded her head and took steps back to the edge of the cave mouth.
“No, Vaiarathe. We don’t have time. Our water should last us a few days if we conserve it. We will fast until we reach the Radicle and then settle with what we can eat in the new world.”
“Ugh.” She sighed. “I was afraid you would say that.” She wiggled her lips and then spoke again. “You wouldn’t believe me if I said that we have enough time?”
“No.” I forced a smile to my mouth, but the word was firm enough to let her know that I wouldn’t tolerate any of the girl’s arguments.
She turned away from the ledge and walked deeper into the cave. Her boot steps were squishy from our swim and I almost changed my mind about my daughter’s recommendation. Dry clothes and a satchel full of smoked fish or monkey would make the last part of our long journey more enjoyable.
Vaiarathe led me down the deep cave for a few hundred yards before pulling the hood down from her head and shaking her wet hair loose. I followed her example and we both used magic to conjure small flames to our hands. Mine glowed a faint orange but Vaiarathe’s was white with a pulsing purple current at its base.
“The ground is smoother here. I’m going to take my clothes off so that they will dry.” She called over her shoulder while she tugged her pack straps loose.
“We are still close to the entrance. I’d prefer we keep them on in case they track us here.”
“They won’t, but even if they do we will hear them coming from far away. This place echoes.” She smiled at me while she pulled her clothes off and then draped them over her pack. Once she was naked she tied her boots to the latches of the leather kit and slung it back over her shoulders.
Then we continued onward.
After another hour I asked the girl to stop so that I could do the same with my clothes. What I wanted almost as much as an escape through the Radicle was a place to wash our garments with soap. Thoughts of laundry made my imagination wander to the idea of a bath and my mind floated away thinking about such a luxury. I had always wanted to take a bath with Kaiyer, but it would have been too dangerous to sneak him into my bedchambers. Now that the man was dead I would never have the chance, but even a bath alone with a tub full of soapy water seemed more than a divine experience.
Even if we did escape through this Radicle, there was no way to know what the next world would be like. I hoped we could find a relatively uninhabited planet, which would keep us safer, but also mean that it would take years to establish a home where I could enjoy any of the luxuries I had grown up with. I wondered if Vaiarathe was lucky in that she had never grown accustomed to comfort. She only knew this life and seemed content enough, though she enjoyed fantasizing about our new home as much as I did.
“Do you think this Radicle was built in the depths of this cave? Or did the earth just swallow it up one day?” Vaiarathe asked.
“I don’t know, Daughter. Does it even matter?” When she had first started talking a few months after she was born, the babe had bothered me with all sorts of useless questions, but as the years passed I learned to appreciate her ability to distract me from the drudgery of travel.
“Sure it does! I wonder who built these places and who used them. If what Nyarathe believes is correct, then the Dead Gods crafted them for the ancient humans, but why would this one be so far removed from the sunlight?”
“Maybe it was a strategic decision to make the place harder to find.”
“But Relyara said the Gods made these places well before the humans decided to attack. They wanted the humans to use them.”
“Perhaps during the war the earth was moved and swallowed up this place.” We both slid down a steep section of rock on our bare feet but easily regained our balance when it flattened out. I tasted the distant scent of water and felt some of my concerns relax. If there was a creek or river down here, we would not have to worry about drinking and there might be fish or crayfish to catch.
“That was what I think happened, Mother.” She had a big smile on her face, obviously pleased that I agreed with her. “I think the mountain was moved during the war and swallowed up this Radicle.”
“The Ancients were said to be powerful.” I nodded
“Is that why the Gods created the dragons?”
“Do not ever speak of those creatures!” I seethed the words.
“Sorry.” She pouted after a few moments.
“I have told you before—”
“I said I was sorry. I got excited.” She sniffled slightly, but I didn’t think the girl was crying.
I left the conversation alone after our exchange and we didn’t speak for another few hours. The path of the cave continued to take us deeper into the tropical mountain and we did eventually come to a stream that was seven feet across and just as deep. By then our clothes were dry, but we left them off and I swam across first before Vaiarathe tossed me our packs.
“How much farther?” I doubted that she knew exactly how much more distance we needed to cover, but I had grown frustrated by our silence and I knew she would be happy if I asked her opinion.
“It is still far away, Mother.” She pursed her lips.
“Let us rest here for the night.” It was past evening but the absence of the sun or wind was disorienting.
“I’ll set up our bed rolls.” She got to work on the campsite while I removed a small mesh net from my pack and set it up at one of the bends in the river. By the time Vaiarathe finished with our bedrolls my trap had caught four small fish. They were ugly things, devoid of eyes and possessing strange tentacles around their toothy mouths, but we roasted them over our hands with our fire and they tasted delicious.
When we awoke from our slumber we drank deeply from the river, donned our clothes, filled up our skins again, and then continued deep into the darkness of the earth. By now I had lost track of how many hours we traveled, but as soon as I began to feel tired from our endless spelunking I noticed a change in the scent of the air.
“We are close, Mother.” I nodded and we increased our pace. The cave walls had become oppressively close at some points and we had to descend in a single file, but as the air took on a more organic scent, the cavern widened and massive tree roots pushed through the rock of the ceiling.
There was a glow ahead, it was a deep green and my nose filled with the flavors of vines, dirt, and honeysuckle. I could hear the excited heartbeat of my daughter. I heard something else, another beat that knocked slowly from the origin of the distant glow.
“There is someone else in the Radicle. I will lead,” I commanded Vaiarathe and she nodded before falling in place behind me. We continued the last two hundred yards and then came upon the ruin of the Radicle. It was spiraled as the others we had encountered, but this one did look tilted and the top portion was broken apart by the rock of the cave. Or maybe the tower passed through the ceiling like a skewer. It seemed that Vaiarathe’s prediction was correct: the earth had attempted to swallow this Radicle.
The green glow flowed out of the windows of the tower like fog and it carried even richer scents of life and honey. I drew the short bow off of my back and slid four arrows between the fingers of my right hand so that I could quickly fire them. I was sure that there was someone alive inside the shrine and the pulsing of their heart was unlike anything I had ever heard.
“Hello?” I called out toward the ruin. I didn’t expect an answer from whoever occupied the large structure, but my voice was more than loud enough to carry into its depths.
I heard movement inside, the slow shuffle of feet and the soft dragging sound of cloth across tile. Someone moved through the ruined tower toward us.
“Greetings,” an old voice called out from inside of the green stone spiral. It was a man’s timbre and shortly I saw his ancient form creep out of the entrance.
“Who are you?” The Elven looked older than any I ever recollected seeing. I had heard legends of our kin being able to extend their lives past the five hundred years that were the norm, but I always doubted the truth of these rumors. This man proved me wrong, for he must have been many thousands of years old and looked like his flesh was cut from the same stone as the Radicle.
“I am the caretaker of this Radicle. Do you seek passage to a seed?”