In My True Element

Chapter 17

In the morning my eyes are burning from the dust and fatigue. I haven't slept a wink thinking about her words and trying to find them some explanation. The only thing I came up with was that she's blaming me for something I've done. But kill my now if I know what it is. She called me a murdered, but I hadn't killed anyone when her bullet penetrated my chest.

Rubbing the burning scar I quickly eat breakfast and we resume our walk.

"How are you two doing down there?" Davidson's distant voice stirs me from my thoughts.

"Still moving forward. I can't hear you that well, though. Is everything okay there?"

"You're moving farther away and it looks like the cave keeps going deeper and deeper underground. We might lose the connection altogether."

"Shit. I don't like that." We stop and Ilana looks back to where we came from.

"Do you want us to send someone down your way?"

"No, not yet." She weighs all the options and finally makes up her mind. "We have enough food and water for two more days. If after thirty-six hours there's no word from us, then send people down here."

"Ilana, I don't like it."

"Well, what do you suggest we do? Air thinks we're getting closer. If all is well, we'll be back here by the end of today, tomorrow at the latest."

"Okay, we'll be here waiting."

After the silence reenters our cave, Ilana exhales audibly, drinks some water and we continue moving.

"Can you see this?" She suddenly stops and brings me to a halt.

"What is it?" I look around, failing to understand what has caught her attention.

She takes a step forward and waves her hand in the air.

"What're you doing?" Maybe the darkness and the general creepiness of this place have made her hallucinate. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, I look deeper into the darkness and see nothing but emptiness.

"There's something here. The air," she waves her hand once again. "It changes colors."

Convinced that she's definitely out of her mind, I play along. "Changes colors how?"

Throwing me an annoyed look, she waves her hands in the air. "How? I don't know how. It just looks different. It's like there's a magnetic field of some kind."

I scratch my head. Well, as a daughter of Brackwick she would be more sensitive to magnetic fields. After all, she's a descendant of Aether; she must be more sensitive to light.

"Do you think it's dangerous?"

"How should I know? You're the only one who's been here before. Would you have left a booby trap?" She takes a step to the left and then to the right, studying the extent of the field.

"No, that certainly doesn't sound like me. However, the witch who helped me might have had a different idea. And the nymph at the lake did say there would be more challenges." Unable to help in any way, I lean against the wall and let Ilana do all the decision-making.

"It's an even layer that's stretched from one wall to another. No gaps or blemishes. The only way to get past it would be to go through it." She takes one of her bottles of water and throws it forward. Nothing happens. "At least we won't be obliterated on the spot."

"Unless the booby trap is set off by biological forms."

"Then I guess you should go first." She takes a step back and extends her arm in an invitation to move forward.