Rise of the Erifs (The Fire Song Chronicles Book 1)

Chapter 33

Keppar

AURORA FELT SICK. "I THINK I'M..." SHE PAUSED THINKING OF THE WORD. "Pathway sick?"

Alex laughed. "I'm all right. The only things that make me sick are oysters and your driving."

"Thanks, Alex." Aurora rolled her eyes.

"You'd better get ready because we're moving out," Torin said, his expression serious. 

Daye replaced the device in her axe, which they had used to travel to Keppar. She glanced down at it, the little red glyph beeping insistently signalling they were standing right on top of a blank. Daye slung her axe over her shoulder and surveyed their surroundings.   

The land was a deep red, the blue sky above a stark contrast. The hot sun was beating down on her head. In the distance she could see the red city walls. Daye frowned. There wasn't much cover. A few boulders and some medium height shrubs scattered around but that was all.

She turned to Torin. "What's the plan?"

"We get in, find Jaydar and then we get out," Torin said, checking his weapons. "Anything else useful we find along the way is a bonus."

"So how are we going to do that?" Aurora said, glancing around the barren land. 

Torin pulled out the map from his inside pocket. He quickly scanned it before answering.

"According to this there are two gates leading into the city. But we're not going to use either of those because we have this." Torin pointed to a spot on the map.

"What's that?" Daye said, peering at a dot followed by a line leading from one end of the map to the centre of the city.

A grin spread across his face. "That is our ticket into the city."

Daye waited for him to elaborate.

"This is a tunnel leading right into the city," Torin said.

"A tunnel?" Daye said.

"Yeah."

Daye frowned. "Is that the map Avian drew?"

"Yeah." Torin nodded.

Aurora started laughing. "That's just great! We've come all this way banking our hopes on a tunnel that probably doesn't exist."

"Hey! Who said anything about not existing?" Torin said, his brow creasing.

"Torin, the map was drawn by an Erif! She probably lied!" Daye said.

Alex sat down on a rock. "So it's the four of us against the whole Erif army with no map and no help."

"Stop it!" Torin hissed, trying to keep his voice low. "I've got this all sorted out."

"By all means lead then." Aurora swept her hand before her. 

Torin glared at her before consulting his map. "This way."

Torin led them away from the cluster of boulders they were hiding in. He glanced up, the sun was still high in the sky. They had plenty of time. Torin just hoped they would get out of there before nightfall. He wasn't planning on stumbling around this rocky terrain in the dark. He quickly checked all was clear before running across the open ground to the next cluster of boulders a few metres away. Just beyond them was where the tunnel entrance was located. Apparently.

Torin quickly checked over his shoulder and saw everyone was following. He glanced around again making sure there were no Erifs in sight.

"The entrance is around here somewhere. Fan out and start searching," Torin ordered.