Daughter of the Dragon

Chapter 14: The Tunnel (UPDATED)

Darya peered into the murk, trying to see how far the tunnel ran, but couldn't see much beyond ten or fifteen feet. The corridor didn't seem particularly dangerous at this end, but who knew what was on the other end. She certainly wasn't going inside alone. Better to wait for Valant—and Meika.

Darya shuddered, thinking about the stuff she had said earlier. How she cared about Meika, didn't want to lose her, those kinds of things. It sounded hollow, but Darya had meant what she said. Meika hadn't believed her. And why would she? Darya had always been such an ass. Darya had made things worse between her and Meika, not better. Why had she even said it? There was this need to get it off her heart. Like that good feeling after admitting you had lied and been forgiven, but stronger.

But then Meika pushed her into the pool. That shove had settled things between them. It had been such fun. Fun—and crazy. Dancing naked in the moonlight in front of a very handsome man that maybe loved her—and perhaps she loved him back. Darya had never done anything remotely as improper. What had she been thinking? She nearly giggled at the thought.

That shared moment at the pool had made Darya forget their troubles, forget the rest of the world. She had even stopped thinking about her father for a little while. But now the thoughts were again churning in her head. He was dead. No, he couldn't be dead. Tessa had been lying. But she hadn't been lying about that. What about Haran? Was he dead too? Maybe the entire village was gone? No, no, no. Don't go there, Darya told herself. Her father was either dead or he wasn't. Nothing she could do about it. Right now they had other problems to deal with.

Meika stopped next to Darya. "I swear, that tunnel has never been here before. I've been here many times... you can't have a tunnel like that and not notice it."

The cave was wider at the front, near the waterfall, then tapered towards the back. It was darker in the back, but the tunnel was big. Even the most cursory check would reveal it.

Valant peered into the tunnel mouth but didn't enter. "It's here now. It's dark in there but not pitch black. I can see maybe twenty feet."

Darya brushed past Valant, stepped through the opening, and took a few steps forward. Valant was right. The tunnel was dark, but not completely. If the cave was lit by moonlight, the tunnel was lit by starlight. The walls and roof were rough sandstone, the floor a bit smoother, though not as perfectly flat as the cave.

"Be careful. It could be dangerous," Valant said.

"Someone made this," Darya said and walked forward, ignoring Valant's warning. "It's not a natural tunnel. It's been hewn, I think. Who did this? The alfr?"

Meika stuck her head into the tunnel and gave it a good look. "I don't know. I never heard that the alfr were diggers, but who else? But then again, I know very little about them or any of the other kindred for that matter. They've been gone from the Inner Kingdoms for so long that no one really knows anything."

Darya was sure Meika knew a lot more than she did. Darya knew nothing about the kindred, except that long ago, before the Old Empire, the alfr lived all over the Inner Kingdoms. Supposedly they looked a lot like humans, but some legends had them with pointy ears, horns, or even clawed fingers. But they alfr left—or were killed, depending on the story—before the Highland Kingdom of Calabria even existed.

The stone circles the alfr built were the only signs of their existence. There was one in the hills west of Stelmond, two concentric circles of tall, dark stones. Not as dark as the stele, but darker than any of the rocks found nearby. Most of the standing stones had fallen, been torn down, or carried away by humans to use as building materials.

Thinking about it, Harress's story about the villagers removing the stele from Old Green suddenly made sense to Darya. If they couldn't read the runes and couldn't remember who had put up the stele, the common folk would begin to fear it, same as the alfr stones. It was such a childish, silly reaction. So typical of her village.