Weaver's Curse

They chatted with Nigel for a little longer, polishing off the donuts, before he wandered back into the undergrowth. They decided to have Pinky keep watch for the first couple hours, just in case their enemies had somehow found a way past the barrier.

“You damn bitch!” Salazar shouted at her as soon as she drifted off to sleep.

“Hello to you too.” Sedine said.

“You think you’re so sly? There are plenty of paths up that mountain.” He said.

“Mm. I see.” Sedine said.

“And you’ve revealed you have a witch working with you!” Salazar said.

“Are you sure I just have the one?” Sedine asked, taking Pinky’s suggestion.

Salazar’s mouth snapped shut.

“Watch your back, Salazar.” Sedine advised, smirking at him.

“You…” he stammered.

“I’m already watching mine.” Sedine said.

She stepped out of the dream and fell into a dreamless sleep, for about a minute. Then someone else took control of the dream, and she stood in the gardens of Malachite Manor.

Her father stood there.

“I guess you finally woke up.” She said.

“For about a day. Your visit snapped me out of it.” He said.

That wasn’t my intention.

It didn’t really matter to Sedine whether he woke or not, however.

“I’ve sent both the boys to find you. We’ll have everything resolved soon.”

“How very… considerate of you.” Sedine said. “But are you perhaps a fool?”

“Do not speak to me like that.”

“Minutes before you invaded my peace, your son visited me to threaten me.” Sedine said. “If by ‘resolved’ you mean I’ll be in an unmarked grave somewhere in the wilderness, then you’re very correct.”

“They both have orders not to harm you!”

“Orders.” Sedine snorted. “Thanks for the heads-up, though.”

She wrenched herself into the waking world, and relieved Pinky of her watch. She’d let them sleep a few more hours, but with Darren after her too… It’d be better to get to the Weaver as soon as possible.

She shook them awake when the moon had changed positions in the sky, and under it’s bright light, they trekked up the mountain, Sedine quietly explaining to them what she’d learned while she slept.

“We have to find a way to deal with them. Permanently.” Indeara said grimly.

“Murder?” Vassa asked.

“Probably.”

“It’s them or us.” Pinky said.

Them or me, Sedine corrected silently. But still, she appreciated their willingness to help.

“I think we should meet The Weaver before acting.” She said. “Unless it becomes impossible to do so.”

“It’s up to you.” Indeara agreed.

Finally, the cliff-face that The Weaver had directed Sedine to in her, strange, garbled way, a few nights ago. Glow worms crawled all over the stone, adding additional illumination.

“Let’s find the cave entrance. And hope that this isn’t a trap.” Sedine said.

A few moments later, Pinky grunted “found it.”

She’d nosed aside a curtain of ferns, revealing an entrance lined with glow worms.

“I’ll go first.” Indeara volunteered. “If anything jumps out at us, I’ll blow it up or something.”

“Okay.” Sedine said.

They pulled out their lanterns and lit them before stepping inside.

The floor of the tunnel was lined with sand, and Sedine noticed that there were torch brackets set into the walls every few paces.

That’s weird. Was this tunnel used more frequently, once?

Closer inspection showed her that they were badly rusted.

They walked along the straight tunnel long enough that Vassa had to stop and add more oil to her lantern. Sedine thought that it must be mid-morning by now. They must have walked for miles.

“Hang on.” She said, right as Vassa was about to re-light her lantern. “Why don’t we each take a torch from the wall? We might need to conserve oil for the way back.”

“Oh, didn’t think of that.” Vassa said, grabbing a torch from one of the rusted brackets.

The other two followed suit.

“We should rest a little before we go on.” Sedine continued. “None of us got much sleep last night.”

They huddled together in the chilly cave, quickly drifting off.

Mercifully, no one jumped into Sedine’s dreams. They were probably all awake, by now. So, she was able to sleep peacefully until Vassa shook her awake.

They lit the torches they’d grabbed off the wall and continued down the endless tunnel.

“Weird.” Indeara muttered from the front. “I keep feeling flashes of heat from the mark.”

“Perhaps the parasite has run into trouble?” Pinky said.

“Pfft. Can’t believe that stuck.” Vassa said.

“I can’t either,” Indeara said, sounding much less amused about than Vassa.

“How much rock do you think we have on top of us?” Sedine wondered.

“A lot?” Vassa said.

“I wonder how long this tunnel goes on.” Indeara said.

“I hope it’s not too much longer.” Vassa said. “It’s a little claustrophobic.”

Vassa’s hopes were in vain. They walked until their torches were almost spent, and replaced them with more from the wall, and kept walking until they were too exhausted to keep going. An entire day must have passed at that point. Sedine couldn’t tell. She was really starting to hate the tunnel.

When she slept, it must have been nighttime outside the tunnels, because she unfortunately received a dream visitor. At least it was Darren this time, and not Salazar.

“Where are you?” he asked.

He says the same thing every time. I guess he’s too stupid to come up with a different dialogue.

“Hell, now that you’re here.”

“That was rude.”

“Oh, was it? That definitely wasn’t my intention!”

“Sedine.”

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to get any decent sleep when you three fools keep bothering me?” Sedine said. “Perhaps you keep doing so because you want to hear an in-detail lecture on music theory?”

“I really don’t.” Darren said. “I guess that’s my cue to leave.”

Sedine sank into an actual sleep as the dreamscape faded, satisfied.

She woke feeling refreshed. And after eating a breakfast of bread and dried meat, they set off for another day of walking.