Tin Thoughts (The Downfall Saga Book 2) Read online

  “A manzilla fruit,” said Kort, tossing a golden fruit, about the size of his fist with a waxy skin, into the air and catching it.

  “Griffon feather,” said Finian holding up a large, light brown feather.

  “That must have been hard to get,” said Ravyn.

  Finian let out a laugh. “They were scattered around the base of the cliff where they roost.”

  “And last, but not least, an amruth nest,” said Caddaric. He held up a bird’s nest in his hand, gingerly holding it between his forefinger and thumb. The light shone through its milky green sides. Donovan thought that it looked more like something that had come out of his nose the last time he was sick than a bird’s nest.

  “Let’s get up there as quick as possible,” said Ravyn.

  They climbed through a dense green forest. The thick underbrush clung to their legs and slowed them down. Donovan ducked his head under a thick patch of moss hanging from the branches of a tree.

  “I see the line!” said Ravyn.

  Ravyn escaped from the trees and ran the ten yards across the soft green grass to the thick line burnt around the hill.

  Caddaric got caught up in a vine hanging down from the trees. Donovan went over to help free him as the rest of the team made it to the safe area.

  “Careful, you don’t want to drop it,” said Donovan.

  “Do you want to touch it?” asked Caddaric, still gingerly holding the nest in his hand.

  “Not really.”

  Donovan drew the knife from his leg and sawed through the vine.

  Caddaric turned around to finish freeing himself from the vine and walked backwards towards the edge of the forest. “Thanks.”

  Something rustled in the brush beside him. A figure shot out, cloaked in green and brown which blended in with the trees. It snatched the nest from Caddaric’s hand and rushed up the hill with Caddaric in close pursuit.

  Donovan went to chase after them, but two more figures emerged in front of him. Even standing right in front of him, he had trouble separating them from the trees. His eyes focused on their painted faces, and he saw that they were both elves. He moved his hand to the hilt of his sword and the elf on the right slowly shook his head.

  The two of them slowly backed out of the trees before turning around and running to the safe zone.

  “What happened?” asked Donovan, seeing the other five member of the team standing on the far side of the burnt line.

  Caddaric’s head was hanging down on his chest. Kort and Finian were pacing back and forth, and looked like they were spoiling for a fight.

  “They took the nest,” said Ravyn. “We lost.”

  Donovan looked up at the top of the hill where Eban and one of the elven chiefs were watching them.

  “It’s not over,” said Donovan. “I can still go back and get a replacement.”

  “Yeah, alone,” said Ravyn.

  Chapter 25

  “It’s not worth it,” said Caddaric. “We saw two drakons in the area. It would be suicide to do it alone, especially for you.”

  “He won’t be alone,” said Kort.

  “You can’t,” said Ravyn. “You already crossed the line. You can’t leave until the next challenge starts.”

  “Who’s going to stop me?”

  “The judges,” said Donovan, tilting his head back to point his nose towards the top of the hill.

  Everyone glanced behind them to look at the two judges standing on top of the hill. The three camouflaged elves were talking with Eban. The elven judge waved at Donovan and the rest of their team.

  “We’ve lost,” said Ravyn. “There’s no way that we can make up a full day. All this wasted effort. I should have stayed home and studied.”

  “I promised to do what you two told me, but I’m willing to try it alone,” said Donovan.

  “You’re going nowhere on your own,” said Finian.

  “We’re a team and we won’t let you face this alone,” said Brighid.

  “You were all fine with me heading out by myself,” said Kort.

  “To collect fruit,” said Caddaric. “Even you couldn’t screw that up.”

  “No,” said Ravyn. “If you fail, we’ll be even further behind.”

  “A day. A day and a bit. Will an extra few hours make a difference?” asked Donovan.

  “What if he succeeds?” asked Caddaric. “He’d be back here in less than a day.”

  “I can do it.”

  “Don’t do it,” said Kort.

  “We should let him try,” said Caddaric.

  Ravyn stared at the figures on top of the hill. “Do it,” she said quietly.

  Caddaric and Finian quickly filled him in on where they found the amruth nest.

  Donovan took off his pack and tossed it to Kort, before heading off.

  He slipped his way through the forest, before turning and jogging towards the caves where they’d found the first nest.

  He followed a game trail running along the bottom of a narrow gulley between two steep hills. He couldn’t pick out any tracks, so he wasn’t sure what had made the trail, but it had to be nearly the width of a human. He kept glancing back and forth, on the lookout for any large predators. His cloak kept getting caught on the undergrowth on either side, so he had to pull it tight to his body with one hand as he jogged along the path.

  After spending many days in close proximity with everyone, it felt good to be alone in the wild. He listened to the rhythm of his feet striking the path, and the leaves rustling in the gentle breeze. He inhaled deeply through his nose and enjoyed the smell of the humid air. He hadn’t believed what the book said about the warm weather on the island. He’d expected the temperature to continue to drop as they travelled north, but the opposite had been true as they neared the island. Tuff had tried to explain that there was a prevailing wind which brought warm air from the south, but Donovan still didn’t understand how it was possible, but he enjoyed the respite from trudging through deep snow nonetheless.

  The center of the island was rife with steep hills and plunging valleys, so when Donovan saw a trail leading up to the top of the hill on his right, he followed it.

  From his vantage point on top of the hill, he spotted the lake which he’d been told to look for. It was long and skinny, with a bend in the middle that made it resemble a bent arm. Steep cliffs rose on the far side, and he could make out several dark openings. His eyes searched along the cliff until he found a streak of white running through the otherwise grey rock face. He looked to the left of the streak and picked out the opening that Caddaric had described.

  With a smile on his face, he slowly made his way down to the lake.

  He could hear intermittent droning sounds as he walked down the hill, which grew louder as he neared the lake. He slowed his pace, and searched for the source of the noise. He was nearly at the lake when he realized that he had been hearing someone talking.

  He crouched down and cocked his head to the side, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.

  The sounds had to be coming from the other side of the lake, and the water was somehow helping to carry it across the lake to Donovan. He tried to think of which of his professors could explain to him why he could hear the sound from this distance, or if he was just imagining things.

  He shrugged his shoulders, it didn’t matter either way. What it meant was that there was another team on the far side of the lake, and he was in the mood for a little payback for what had happened to his team.

  He backed away from the edge of the lake. Keeping low, and using the vegetation as cover, he made his way around the tip of the lake, and crept towards the voices. With each step he lifted his foot high in the air and careful placed it down. He slowly stalked towards the voices until he could make out what was being said.

  “This is bullshit. We’d be home right now if you hadn’t lost the map.”

  The voice was deeper than he expected from a student.

  “He was doing research for me,” came a se
cond voice, softer than the first. “If you weren’t so quick with your knives—”

  “You’ve never complained about my quick knives before.”

  “That’s because they were stuck into people who I didn’t know. This was different.”

  Donovan was close enough that he started getting glimpses of them through the foliage. He thought he could make out three people, but wasn’t sure, so he kept creeping closer.

  “You’re not supposed to be with him.”

  “That won’t be a problem anymore, thanks to you.”

  “I do what the boss tells me to.”

  “We were supposed to retrieve the map. Killing Eamon made that impossible.”

  Donovan’s foot came down on a twig, snapping it in two. He froze, trying to not even breathe.

  “Did you hear something?” asked the deeper voice.

  “You’ve been jumpy since we got to this island.”

  “I don’t like strange places.”

  “If you had waited for me to talk to Eamon, we’d have already found it, and be on our way home right now.”

  Donovan released the breath that he’d been holding. He crouched down and crawled a few feet closer to the voices. He brushed a branch aside so he could finally see them.

  Three figures sat in a small clearing. A pot was sitting in the coals from a small fire. Two figures sat with their backs to him, one roughly his size and the second much broader. The figure facing him from across the fire had long silver hair and a navy bandana tied across his face. Donovan couldn’t make out any of his features, but he knew that he’d seen this man before. He’d accosted Donovan the previous year in the woods outside of Kendra when Donovan was trying to get answers from Eamon. His face had been hidden behind a bandana then as well. He knew nothing about the man, but suspected that he was a wizard, and had used magic to knock Donovan unconscious during their previous encounter.

  “Besides, it not that large of an island. We’ll find the entrance in no time at all.”

  “You said that yesterday,” said the large man, “and the day before that, and every day before that since we got to this island.”

  “The first clue said something about still warm water. If it’s not here, then we’ll search the next area.”

  “We’re wasting our time. The lake is as cold as ice.”

  Donovan couldn’t keep from smirking. He’d spent many nights studying the map that he’d found in Eamon’s house, hoping that it would lead him to his father, that it was burned into his mind. The first line on the side of the map read begin where the warm waters halt. He was sure that they were in the wrong place. These waters were neither warm, nor had they been moving so they could halt. He also knew that the square was drawn on a section of the island nearer to the coast.

  He stared at the back of the two men facing the other way, hoping that they’d turn around so he could get a look at their faces. He’d insisted on joining the team because Eamon had told him that his father was interested in this island, and it couldn’t be a coincidence that he ran into these three men on the island. The older man had shown no recognition when they’d met the previous year, and surely his father would have been overjoyed to find his lost son. Donovan wanted to wait for the old man to leave so he could go talk to the other two, but he could hear Ravyn’s voice in his head when he tried to explain why it took him so long to find the amruth nest.

  “The food’s ready,” said the old man. “We’ll check the caves after we’re done eating. Do you have a problem with that?”

  “No, sir. Can I try to track down whoever made those small footprints when we’re done?”

  The old man looked at him like he’d look at an eager puppy. “Okay, just don’t play with your food.”

  “Those kids won’t see it coming.”

  Donovan retreated from their camp, intent on finding the nest before they started searching the same caves as him.

  He looked up at the cave, then back in the direction of their camp. He’d left his pack with Kort, and hadn’t thought to bring any light source. Unlike everyone else on the island, he could not summon a ball of light if his life depended upon it.

  He retreated until he thought that they wouldn’t be able to hear him, then picked up his pace as he searched for the proper tree to make a torch. He was unfamiliar with the trees on the island, and the studying that Ravyn had made them do didn’t include the practical uses of the local plants and trees.

  He found a shady tree covered in glossy leaves with pointed tips, and saw-toothed edges. Golden fruits, similar to one that Kort had collected, hung from its branches. He wasn’t sure if it was a manzilla tree or not, but he wasn’t going to take any unnecessary risks.

  Heeding Ravyn’s advice about the dangers of the trees, he removed his cloak and set it on the ground. He drew his knife and cut a large strip of material off the bottom of his shirt, exposing his stomach to the open air. He wrapped the section of shirt around his hand and grabbed a branch roughly the same thickness as his foreman. He tried flexing the branch, but it proved to be quite rigid, so he got to work cutting it off with his knife.

  Once it was separated from the tree, he inspected the cut edge and saw that it was full of sap. He went to work creating his torch. He cut off the other end of the branch, leaving him with a four foot section. He chopped off the small leafy branches that were sticking out of it, leaving him with a simple stave. He removed the bark from both ends and stood it up on end, with the side cut from near the trunk facing upwards. He set his knife on top and used a rock to pound his knife downwards, forming a vertical slit in the end of the wood. He withdrew his knife and rotated the stave before making a second slit. He pried the first slit open with his knife and stuffed one of the green twigs down towards the base of the slit to open it up. He repeated the process with the second slit. He carved off a pile of shavings from the discarded section of the branch, and using the shirt to avoid touching the sap with his hands, he stuffed the inside of the split full of shavings. He wrapped the leftover shavings up inside the chunk of shirt to use as tinder to light the torch, before making his way up to the cave.

  His gaze kept drifting towards the men’s camp, but he neither saw nor heard them before he entered the cave. He paused just inside the cave’s entrance to unwrap the shavings, and pile them loosely on top of the makeshift torch. The one useful bit of magic which he’d learned during his first year at Haven was how to light a candle, but unlike the rest of the students, he had to be in physical contact with it for his magic to work. He pinched some of the shavings between the thumb and forefinger on his left hand, and focused his energy until they burst into flames. He set them on top of the pile on the torch and gently blew on them until the shavings inside the slit started to catch fire. He examined his fingers and saw that a rash was starting to form.

  The smoke from the torch smelled acrid and burned his eyes when he bent forward to blow on the flames. He coaxed the fire on the torch for a couple of minutes until it was burning intensely. He waved it back and forth several times without blowing out the flames, before heading deeper into the cave.

  The cave smelled wet and left a sour aftertaste in his mouth, but he didn’t see the source of either smell in the dim torchlight. He held the torch high in the air and behind himself as he walked deeper inside, his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. He walked for several minutes along a narrow section before it curved sharply to the left. Past the turn, he came to a crevice in the wall of the cave. He thrust the torch inside and saw that it ended after a dozen feet. It was wide enough that he could squeeze inside, but he saw nothing worth investigating.

  As he continued moving deeper into the cave he began to hear the amruth’s distinctive calls. The birds were nocturnal and used a crude form of echolocation to navigate. The birds let out pulses of audible clicks with short pauses between the pulses, which reminded Donovan of the sounds that someone makes when clearing their throat. Buoyed by the sounds, he rushed forward to find the source. />
  The cave widened as he went until he entered a chamber where his torch couldn’t even illuminate the ceiling high above. He traced the source of the sounds to a shelf on the wall to his right. He scanned the wall below the shelf with his torch until he found several footholds. He awkwardly began to climb, holding his torch as far away from him as he could so he didn’t burn himself.

  A revolting smell washed over him. It smelled like a combination of Kort’s feet on a hot summer day and a pile of spoiled meat. He assumed that he was smelling the accumulation of many years’ worth of bird droppings, so he continued his climb.

  The smell continued to intensify and the birds went silent.

  He turned and looked deeper into the cave. He saw two eyes glowing in the darkness.

  He reached up with his right hand, searching the shelf for a nest, never looking away from the eyes. He walked his fingers along the shelf, slowly stretching his arm until he felt a nest. The nest felt smooth and spongy, but not slimy like he’d expected. He reached a finger inside and felt around to make sure that there were no babies inside before ripping the nest loose.

  The birds went wild, shrieking at him from above. One dove at him, its wing narrowly missing his face.

  The eyes began moving towards him. The light from his torched illuminated its head. The head was covered in scales. It had a long snout and a long, yellow forked tongue flicked out of its mouth.

  It moved closer.

  It was ten feet long from snout to tail, solidly built and covered in scales.

  He recognized the drakon.

  He knew that it has exceptional eyesight and was attracted to movement. What he didn’t know was how to distract it while he ran away.

  He tried to ignore the frenzied birds, and slowly lowered his foot, but couldn’t find a toehold.

  The drakon stopped moving and began emitting a deep croaking sound.

  Donovan drew back his left arm, and threw the torch over its head, hoping to distract it while he ran away.

  It reared up on its hind legs and caught the torch in its mouth. It snapped the torch in two and began attacking the burning end of the torch on the ground.