A Kelpie of Rowan

Chapter 67

They pass right through the stone as if it isn't there. Rowan's fingers tighten around Camden's and she knows that she should probably loosen her grip, but she can't bring herself to. There is darkness around them despite the glowing runestone in her hand. The air around them feels heavy as well, dense. When she breathes, the air doesn't just rush into her lungs, it moves slowly. Sluggishly, even. When she steps forward her foot seems to break through an invisible barrier and she stumbles forward, gasping.

Camden is pulled after her. The runestone is lighting up everything around them now. They are standing in a small stone cavern. Behind them, where they had just come through, there is solid stone. They were walking through the stone. Rowan shivers and glances down at her hand, still clasped with Camden's. She's been squeezing so hard that his flesh is white. Rowan releases him at once and pulls her hand up to her chest, hugging herself.

"Why didn't you tell me to let go?"

Camden shrugs. "It didn't really hurt, and I think you needed it." He pauses. "Besides that, I wanting some form of comfort in that darkness and you were providing that."

Rowan gives him a small smile and looks up, at the roof of the cavern. At first glance, it looks like the cavern was created naturally, but there is something off to it. Everything is too smooth. There aren't any stalagmites or stalactites anywhere in sight. She frowns.

"Where are we?"

She cries out in surprise when the runestone pulls her forward again, shocked. It leads her throughout the strange system of caverns, the path winding through the maze of rooms. Some of them have things in them, what looks to be couches and tables. A nasty feeling is starting to build in her stomach, an idea forming of where she could be.

The runestone's glow brightens when she passes into the next room. There is a dip in the floor of this cavern, a slope. Something is around the edges of the incline and Rowan frowns. The runestone pulls her forward, towards the dip in the stone. Rowan squints down at the floor, trying to figure out what is circling the hollow in the stone floor.

Her brows draw together in confusion when she sees it. The dip is ringed by iron nails. Why? The runestone keeps pulling her forward and she steps across the iron border. Her skin tingles as she passes through, but it isn't as strong as the barrier at her house. Camden calls out from behind her.

"Ro!" She turns. Camden is frowning down at the iron border. "I can't cross this. The iron . . ."

Rowan smiles. "It's alright. Just wait there."

She turns back to the incline sloping downward and lets the runestone direct her. She walks down and down. The incline turns into a tunnel and she keeps following it, the runestone lighting the way. Something glimmers ahead of her and she frowns. Are those . . . bars? The runestone pulls her right up to them. They are bars, like the ones in a jail cell. She shivers. Or that house the finfolk put her in.

Rowan touches them and pulls her hand back with a hiss. The bars sting. They are iron, but there is something else too. She blinks. The world is going fuzzy. When she blinks again, everything is back in focus. Rowan sighs. How can she get through the bars? The runestone pulls at her again, but it isn't pulling her forward this time. It pulls her to the side. There is a small ledge tucked against the wall of the tunnel and Rowan touches it, feeling its edges.

There is a raised spot at the end of it, closest to the bars. She presses down. There is a shudder and the bars move aside, separating in the middle. Rowan grins and lets the runestone pull her through the new opening. The tunnel continues forward, but now there are several small rooms branching off of it. And by small, Rowan means they are barely bigger than herself.

Something pokes out of the sides of the opening into each room, what looks to be the tips of spikes angled up and down. Rowan shivers again, wrapping her arms around herself. She doesn't like this place. One of the rooms, one at the very end, has the spike across the entire opening, sealing the room shut. The runestone pulls her right for that chamber and Rowan gulps. Andrian is going to be in there, isn't he?

The runestone releases its hold on Rowan the moment she steps in front of the spikes sealing the room off. Rowan glances down at it. The guide rune on the stone is gone, so either Andrian is in this room or something happened to this rune. Please let it be the first option. Rowan frowns at the spikes. They form a web of sorts, crisscrossing each other to seal off the room. Rowan reaches her hand out to touch one but pulls her hand back.

What if they are like the first set of bars? They made her feel strange, what if these ones do the same? Rowan feels along the wall to the sides of the spike web. A ledge is on the left side, invisible to her eyes. Rowan presses the button in the centre of it and watches the spikes retract into the walls. She steps through the opening and calls out, her voice soft.

"Andrian? Are you in here?" There is no response and Rowan twists her bracelet around her wrist. She steps further into the room. "Andrian? Are you here?" There is a soft sound from the corner, breathing. It sounds laboured, raspy. Rowan gulps. "Hello?"
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Where do you think she is?  What do you think is going on with those bars? Is that Andrian? If it is, is he okay? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out.