Tin Thoughts (The Downfall Saga Book 2) Read online

  Donovan let go of the wall, and jammed his knee when he hit the ground. He trailed his arm along the wall as he staggered his way back to the chamber’s entrance. His breathing sounded unnaturally loud in the darkness. He reached out and could finally feel the rough walls on either side. Now all he had to do was keep running until he rounded the corner, then he’d escape outside into the afternoon light where he’d find a way to get away from it.

  He looked back. He couldn’t see anything in the darkness, but the smell was stronger than ever.

  “It reeks in here! Let’s try another one.”

  Donovan recognized the voice of the large man.

  “We will check every cave,” said the old man. “End of discussion.”

  The narrow tunnels distorted their voices, and Donovan couldn’t tell how far away they were. He thought that he could see a faint glow ahead, which must be where the tunnels bends.

  He raced towards the light. He wasn’t sure if it was the better choice, but he could at least try to reason with people.

  “Are you sure it’s safe to be in here?” asked the large man. “It smells worse than a dead body left out in the sun.”

  “Which means it’s still more palatable than walking downwind of you.”

  Donovan could make out the bend in the tunnel, and the voices sounded like they were coming from right on the other side of the bend. His eyes swept the walls in front of him and locked onto the crevice that he’d saw on his way in.

  He sprinted forward and jammed himself into the narrow gap. He fought to bring his breathing under control as he pulled himself further into its dark recess until he could go no farther.

  He watched the opening of the crevice as the light outside suddenly grew in intensity, signaling that they’d made it around the bend, and would be passing in front of where he was hiding in several seconds.

  He cleared his mind and tried to focus on Professor Nikka’s teachings. There was no way to blend into the rocks around him, but he hoped that his dark cloak would be mistaken for a shadow. He focused on his hands and face. He stopped himself. He’d only ever been able to keep one illusion in place at a time. With no time to experiment, he focused on his entire body and made it as dark as night.

  The large man walked in front of the opening.

  He walked past the opening without turning his head.

  The old man’s attention was focused down the tunnel as he passed by.

  “I think I see a pair of eyes ahead of us,” said the old man.

  “Maybe this wasn’t a waste of time after all.”

  The third figure walked in front of the opening. He was the only one who didn’t have a ball of light floating over his head, but he could be clearly seen by the old man’s light.

  He glanced inside the crevice. His eyes locked onto the spot where Donovan was hiding.

  Donovan hoped that he was far enough back that he was cloaked in shadows.

  His eyes drifted up to the figure’s face.

  If Donovan wasn’t wedged so tightly between the rock walls, he’d have let out a yell.

  He recognized the face. He’d seen it every day of his life.

  It was his own face.

  Chapter 26

  The moment seemed to last for an eternity.

  The ball of light ahead of him in the tunnel highlighted his features, which were identical to Donovan’s in every way, except for the eyes. Many people had commented on the strangeness of Donovan’s violet eyes, but they paled in comparison to the red eyes on this doppelganger.

  The figure started to turn his head. His long hair slowly cascaded through the air.

  Then he was gone, down the tunnel to rejoin his companions.

  Donovan was sure that he’d been spotted, but he must’ve been mistaken. Why wouldn’t the figure have called to his companions if he’d seen Donovan?

  The drakon began to make croaking noises again, and he heard the large man tell the others to stay back.

  Donovan’s breathing was deep and ragged. His ribs were hammering against the tight walls. It took him several moments to get his breathing under control, and squeeze his way out of the crevice.

  He turned to look deeper into the cave. The three figures had their backs to him.

  He had so many questions to ask them.

  Are you my brother? Who is my father? Why did you abandon me?

  Deep down, he was more afraid of the answers to his questions than living alone, wondering who he is.

  He fled from the cave.

  He didn’t slow down until he approached the safe area. Kort had apparently been watching for him, and was waiting beyond the burnt line when he approached.

  “Are you okay?” asked Kort.

  “I got the nest,” panted Donovan, holding it up in his hand.

  “Are you okay?” repeated Kort. “You look like you took home the prettiest girl at the dance, and found yourself snuggling with a pig when you woke up in the morning.”

  “I’ll be okay.”

  Kort wrapped his arm around Donovan’s shoulders, and the two of them climbed up the hill. They found Eban and Tuff sitting at the table where they had the feast the previous night.

  “One amruth nest,” said Donovan, handing over the nest.

  Eban gave it a cursory look.

  “That’s the final item for Haven. Congratulations, you finished the first task.”

  “Where’d we finish?” asked Donovan.

  “Right where everyone expected you to,” said Tuff. “Last place.”

  “If those rotten elves hadn’t robbed us, then we’d have been in second place,” said Kort, dropping his arm from Donovan’s shoulders and balling his hands into fists.

  “They broke no rules,” said Eban.

  “Let’s find the rest of the team,” said Donovan.

  He grabbed Kort by the arm and pulled him towards their camp.

  “It’s not all bad,” said Kort. “The other team of elves arrived only a half hour ago.”

  “Speaking of elves,” said Donovan.

  Donovan tried to pull Kort around so that he couldn’t see Ravyn and Treowe talking under a tree, but he twisted free and caught sight of them.

  They sat beside each other, their knees touching, and Ravyn was giggling. She wiped her fingers under her eyes to brush away tears and reached out to pat Treowe on the thigh. She made some comment that they couldn’t hear, but didn’t remove her hand from his thigh, and he looked to be in no hurry to make her move it.

  Kort stormed off towards their tents, with Donovan hurrying to keep up.

  “If it bothers you so much, then you need to tell her,” said Donovan.

  “You know what she’s like when I try to tell her what to do.”

  “Tell her how it makes you feel, not what you want her to do.”

  “Bah. That’ll do nothing.”

  Kort ducked inside a tent and pulled the flap closed behind him.

  Donovan went looking for Osmont and eventually found him in the pavilion. He sat cross-legged on the floor, sharpening his sword.

  “You busy?” asked Donovan.

  “Does it look like it?”

  Donovan sat down in front of Osmont.

  The stone made a grating noise as Osmont ran it along the edge of his sword.

  “We’re not alone on this island.”

  Osmont glanced up at him for a moment before going back to his sword.

  “Of course we’re not alone on the island. What I meant to say is that there are people on the island that shouldn’t be.”

  “Do you decide who comes and goes now?”

  Donovan cuffed Osmont on the ear.

  “This is important.”

  “It better be if you want to keep that hand.”

  “I saw a group of people when I was searching for the nest. Three men, all human.” He’d almost said two men and a kid, assuming that whoever had his face was seventeen as well, but decided to keep the details vague. “They’re here looking for something, and
they mentioned Eamon’s name.”

  Osmont set down the sword and stone and gave Donovan his full attention.

  “That sounds too specific to be a coincidence, but no one could have followed us. The entrances to that tunnel are a secret to all but a few people outside of Kern.”

  “It sounded like they’d been here for a while.”

  “Did you get a look at them? Was it the same people who followed you and Tuff to Lornell?”

  “Could have been. I didn’t get a good look at them. One man was older, and the other was quite large.”

  “And the third?”

  “Smaller build, roughly my size.”

  Donovan described where he had seen them, and that they had talked about searching the caves in the area.”

  “They sounded dangerous,” said Donovan. “I don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

  “I’ll go find Tuff and Nads, and we’ll see if we can track them down.”

  He picked up his sword and left the tent without another word.

  Donovan glanced around to make sure that he was alone. He pulled out the map that he’d found in Eamon’s house from an inside pocket, and spread it out on the floor.

  It showed a map of the island with a square drawn around one section. Four lines of writing had been added along the side of the map.

  Begin where the warm waters halt.

  Start your journey to the skies.

  Find the light in the darkness,

  And walk through the door of glass.

  He had no idea what the writing meant, but was determined to find whatever was hidden before anyone else.

  ***

  “We’re wasting time,” said Ravyn. “Let’s pick a direction and get moving.”

  “You’re the one who convinced them to work with us,” said Caddaric. “Be patient and let him finish.”

  “I don’t like standing around like this.”

  “We have no choice. They’re better at navigating than we are. If we leave now, and they get ahead of us, we’ll never catch them. We’ll lose and won’t even be competing in the final task.”

  “You’re right,” said Ravyn. “They’ve already been a big help. It wouldn’t feel right to use them, and then leave them when they can’t help us anymore.”

  “If we can pass one other team, then we can work together until the end of the task.”

  Treowe sat on a bare patch of ground. He had placed a stick upright in the ground and marked the top of its shadow with a small stone. Since then, he and his five teammates had been having a quiet conversation in their native language.

  “Is that too tight?” asked Kort, as he finished tying a bandage around Finian’s arm. “You were lucky, the cut’s deep but clean. Next time, when someone tells you to wait, you should wait.”

  “I didn’t think they’d attack like that.”

  “Just be happy that none of us were seriously injured.”

  They’d started the second task a couple hours earlier. Ravyn had convinced Treowe to persuade the rest of his team to wait for them, so they could pool their resources together and catch up to the other two teams.

  The first clue that they were given was simple enough. It contained a list of bearings and distances which would lead them to their second clue. The elves had spent most of their lives outside tending to their herds, and were quite adept at navigating. They found the spot where the second clue was hidden with no difficulty and were now following its directions, however they had a mishap along the way. They were carefully picking their way through a field of cacti, when Finian disturbed a large flock of birds nesting in the area. Eva had tried to warn him, but he wasn’t afraid of a bunch of small birds. Little did he know that their beaks were three inches long and razor sharp, designed to allow them to get at the moisture inside of the cacti. Their beaks proved to be more than adept at cutting through flesh, and they quickly found themselves being attacked by a flock on angry birds while getting torn up by the large spines protruding from the cacti as they tried to flee from the birds. They’d spent the last twenty minutes pulling out spines, and bandaging cuts while Treowe was taking a bearing.

  “Are both of you okay?” asked Kort, as he walked over to Caddaric and Ravyn.

  “We’re fine,” said Ravyn.

  “I should go see how Finian is doing,” said Caddaric.

  He walked over to Finian, but kept glancing back at Ravyn and Kort.

  “I hate to admit it, but it may have been a good idea working with these elves,” said Kort. “I doubt we’d have found the first clue by now if we were on our own.”

  “I’m glad you approve of my decision making,” said Ravyn in an icy tone.

  “I didn’t mean it like that. Look, I’m sorry. It’s just that I don’t like seeing you hanging onto another man.”

  “He’s an elf, you know. He finds me interesting, and I thought it would help us to connect. Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.” She let out a sheepish laugh. “I just wanted to talk, and I thought that he’d be more likely to listen to me that way.”

  “I think I understand, but it still hurt to see you two like that.”

  “I wasn’t trying to hurt you, or make you feel angry. You know that I never would, but I understand why it could make you feel like that.”

  “I need to tell you these things more often, so we can talk it through,” said Kort. “I’m sorry for being an ass.”

  “I wouldn’t recognize you if you acted any other way,” she said.

  “Are things good between us now?”

  “You have a long ways to go to make up for what you did.”

  She walked over to where Finian and Caddaric were talking, while Kort stood there dumbfounded.

  The smile that had been building on Donovan’s face disappeared. It was a start, but they apparently needed more time to work through their feelings for each other.

  He walked over to the elves, who ended their conversation when he got close.

  “Can you teach me how this works?” he asked, pointing to the stick in the ground.

  “You ... maybe,” said Treowe, with a laugh. He looked up at the position of the sun in the sky before continuing. “Mark the tip of the shadow.” He pointed to where he placed the first stone. “Then you wait for the sun to move and mark the new shadow.” He picked up a second stone and set it at the tip of the shadow. “The stones point east and west.” He set a stick beside the two stones to demonstrate where east and west were. “Which means that we have to go that way.”

  The elves wearily climbed to their feet and waited for the humans to come over.

  “We’ve got our bearing. It should be another four miles in that direction,” said Eva, pointing towards a green hill on the far side of the arid region that they were in.

  “We still haven’t seen either of the other teams, so let’s hurry,” said Ravyn.

  They headed towards the hill at a trot, several of them wincing from their wounds with every step.

  The distances were deceptive over the open terrain, and Treowe claimed that they had nearly travelled the four miles when they reached the base of the hill.

  They climbed to the top of the hill and found a large pit of mud, clay and water waiting for them. Short trees with long, branches covered in tiny leaves grew in the field of mud. Bubbles of air rose to the surface and popped, releasing an odor which reminded Donovan of horse manure.

  “Now I’ve seen everything on this island,” said Kort.

  “You know it’s not natural,” said Eva.

  “What? How could you possibly know that?” asked Kort.

  “Look at the trees growing out of it. Big, leafy trees like that wouldn’t grow here. This is not natural.”

  “Which means that it was constructed specifically for the competition,” said Caddaric. “Everyone stay alert.”

  “At least we don’t have to catch any pigs in this,” said Kort. “Those things get slippery.”

  “It smells like they’ve been living here,” said
Ravyn, holding her nose.

  “Everybody pay attention, and let’s get this over with,” said Caddaric. He looked over to Eva who nodded in response.

  “Can anyone see where the clues are?” asked Donovan.

  He received a few head shakes.

  They split up and began circling around the edge of the mud.

  “There’s a solid spot in the middle,” said Treowe. “That’s a likely spot to hide the clues.”

  “What’s the plan?” asked Donovan.

  “If this isn’t natural, then there should be solid ground beneath the mud,” said Caddaric. “We’ll wade out and get the clue.”

  “What if the mud’s too deep?”

  Caddaric shrugged.

  “Aren’t you worried about traps?”

  “Of course, but we won’t know what they are until we spring one, then we’ll improvise.”

  Treowe gave Caddaric a smile, before taking off his pack and setting it on the solid ground.

  It took them a few minutes to remove anything which could burden them as they fought their way through the thick mud. Donovan looked down at his sword, but decided to keep it with him in case he needed it to fight off whatever surprises were waiting for them.

  He found himself in a small group with Kort, Ravyn and Eva as they started into the mud. Kort ploughed in first, without a care in the world, and sunk up to his shins. The mud continued to get deeper as he moved forward until it rose over top of his knees.

  Their progress was slow as they fought to free their feet with every step. Kort stayed in the lead and headed towards one of the trees, hoping to find solid ground around its base. He walked right up to the tree and spent a minute digging beside its trunk.

  “It looks like the tree was growing in the ground here, and then someone came along and added a pile of mud on top.”

  “This was done for a reason, and I doubt it was just to make us dirty,” said Eva.

  “Should I climb up to see what’s out there?” asked Kort.

  “To see what?” said Ravyn. “Just keep moving.”

  Kort muttered something that Donovan couldn’t make out, and continued towards the middle of the mud.

  Kort had made his way past the second tree when Donovan stumbled and fell forward into the mud. He was still fighting to get his feet back under him when he heard Ravyn scream.