Shadows of the Night | BOOK 2 DRAFT

18

18.

The 'dungeon' in the cave can barely be considered a dungeon. Eric and Malik arrive moments after us, staring around in shock. Like every other room here, there are no doors, simply a sheet hung in the entryway, cutting it off from the hall. But this room has metal cuffs attached to the walls, and only one lantern in the far corner, providing a small light. But the most devastating feature of all—it's empty.

"Cassia, you were supposed to be watching her!" Eric scowls.

"I-I'm sorry. The healer said she needed to check on me. I was only gone for five minutes and when I got back..."

"How did she escape,?" Elias says. "This place is like a labyrinth. Did you see anyone go down there, Cassia?"

She shakes her head. "Malik, where were you—"

Malik raises his arms in surrender, but Eric speaks for him, surprisingly coming to his rescue. "Malik and I were together, neither of us saw her." He looks at me. "Milena?"

"You can't really think I helped her escape, right?"

"Someone must've. And you've always been soft. You cared about her wellbeing more than any of us."

I scowl. "Are you serious?"

"Stop being stupid, Eric," Elias interjects, "Milena and I were both on the beach. She helped with the nets."

I send him a snotty look and he huffs. "Great. Just great."

"Calm down," Elias says. "She got out. The hollower is gone and there's nothing we can do about it."

Silence settles around us. "What do we do?" Cassia asks in a small voice. "If she tells anyone where we are, we'll compromise the safety of the whole elder village."

"They don't care about the elder village," Malik says, "they care about getting Elias, and probably Milena too."

"We have to get out of here," I say. "And we have to warn the elders, we have to help them escape. We must—"

"They won't come here, not if we lead them away," Elias says. He nods to himself. "I have to lead them away."

We all stare at him. "What?" Eric asks.

"They'll catch my trail, if I can somehow lead them in a different direction, maybe I'll buy us some time."

"Elias, we're not letting you go off on your own."

"I don't want you to risk your lives, it's safer this way."

"No," I say finally. "Eric's right. We're in this together now, all of this. We'll all lead them astray."

Elias meets my eye, and though he looks like he wants to argue, he doesn't. Maybe because he knows there's no point. Malik, Eric, Cassia and I all wear similar expressions—there's no way Elias is going anywhere without us.

"That's it then," Eric says. "We'll make sure we get close enough that they can track us, then lead them in the wrong direction. And then what?"

"Back to our village," Elias says. "We can lose them over in the east mountains."

"They won't stop tracking us, there's nothing for them in the east mountains, nothing for us," Cassia says. "And sure, we can try and stop leaving trails, but it'll only be a matter of time before they realise we're not there."

"She's right," Malik agrees. "The east mountains are desolate, and if we leave them there, we'll have no way of knowing what their next plans are. They'll be too hard to track."