Page 110 of The Silent Mountain
“But…” Elio looks at my arm.
“We have no choice,” I say. “We can’t stay here.” I pause, checking our surroundings again. “Elio, do you see where that stream comes from?”
Elio squints his eyes and looks in the direction of the stream. “Yeah.”
“How about we follow it, instead of sticking to our original plan?”
“But wouldn’t that lead us nowhere?”
“Think about it, the curse is man-made. Someone has to be manipulating the water, and he has to do it from somewhere. I doubt it’s here. This is just the place they lure the animals to, so they drink from the stream.”
“You are right,” Elio says. “It’s worth a shot. If it leads us nowhere, we can still return and then climb up there and proceed with the original path.”
He helps me up, eyeing me in worry. I feel shaky due to the shock and the exhaustion, but other than that, I am okay. As okay as I can be, at least. “I am fine,” I say. “Let’s go.”
We set a slow pace not to overstrain me. However, I am not the only one who feels exhausted. Elio has shifted twice today, and he had to nurse me. Furthermore, he is barely clothed, and it’s freezing now. I hope that the underground corridor will give us some much-needed protection and warmth.
It’s when I start walking through the narrow corridor that I realize how much I am used to having two healthy arms. It’s in the intuitive movements and reactions, particularly the way I grab the walls for balance or just reach out to something. It gives me a stitch in my chest to realize what it means for me now that I am without a limb, and how much I need to learn anew.
“This isn’t working,” I say to Elio. “Can you help me attach my arm to my chest?”
Elio swiftly helps me, using parts of the fabric to wrap it around my neck and then safely secure my left arm to my chest, so that I don’t accidentally use it. Having it out of my way now makes it much easier to progress.
“What will Favian say?” I ask into the silence, finally voicing out what I didn’t dare to ask before. I couldn’t ask Ros about it and couldn’t even admit this fear to myself. It’s easier to ask Elio. I am mutilated now. No magic will be able to recover my hand. What if he finds me ugly now? “I am damaged now, aren’t I? I did it because I wanted to return to the clan, but what if they don’t want me this way?”
Elio stops in his tracks, turning around to stare at me. “Now you are the one being stupid,” he says bluntly.
“That was very direct, coming from you,” I say.
“Because it’s the truth!” he exclaims. “Favian will be mad that you got hurt, and then burn this god-forsaken place down, but he won’t love or respect you any less. I know my brother! And I know the clan. The sacrifice you made, just to return to them and to make sure that Favian and the clan survive, will make you a hero in their eyes. Had you died, Favian would not have survived it. I know that, and the clan knows it. Everyone does. And to Favian, you are the person who put the light back in his soul. He loves you.”
I take a shaky breath. “I will try to believe you,” I say quietly.
“Please have faith in Favian,” Elio begs.
I don’t have it in me to give him an answer, as my anxiety is too high, so I just nod. Elio seems to be content with my reaction and continues to lead the way. I let him go ahead to be able to regain my composure; besides, he has proven himself more than capable so far.
To my relief, our new path broadens and keeps leading us along the creepy stream. Looking at it now, it looks so calm and innocent, and like it’s the perfect drinkable water, but we know better than that.
Elio and I walk in silence until we come to a crossroad, one path leading straight forward, towards a room, and one leading upwards. “Let’s take the one leading up,” I whisper. “I am not comfortable marching into that room.”
“Yes,” Elio whispers back. “The last one was traumatizing enough.”
The closer we get, the more sounds we can hear. It’s not the weird scratching and murmuring we heard before, but rather… “Is someone singing?” I ask quietly.
“Sounds like it.”
Elio and I exchange another glance and then fall into complete silence. We carefully scoot away from the path that leads straight ahead and climb the one that leads up. Ahead of us, I can see a couple of openings like windows that open the view to the hall. The noises can be heard much clearer now. It’s not singing, it’s someone chanting something and others replying.
Elio and I go down on our knees to crawl towards the windows and peek through them. I am not sure what I expected, but certainly not the sight greeting us. There are a bunch of people clad in black cloaks, their faces covered. Some of them wear shorter sleeves, revealing a tattoo I remember too well.
Cultists! Like the ones my brother and Azadeh fought! Seeing how we killed their leader and most of the cultists in their other base, I assume this must be another group.
The stream leads directly into the room and to the middle of it, where a huge well is placed, and on top of it, I spot a man sitting on it cross-legged and chanting something. I have never seen anyone like him before. Darkness seems to surround him, and a sense of doom fills me. He is wearing a scary wooden mask, not carved but with two slits for his eyes, making him look creepy and terrifying. It covers his whole face, while his body is covered by a coat of black feathers. It seems like the tips of them are still bloody as if he ripped them out of living birds. While he is facing the water, blood is running down his arms and into it.
That’s when it dawns on me. This is how and where the curse is starting. He is the one responsible for it!
thirty-five
