Shadows of the Night | BOOK 2 DRAFT

14

14.

We walk through the night and into the morning. Elias doesn't wake up. Anastasia doesn't object. We don't get caught. But as the sun hovers along the horizon and waves away the night, I don't feel relieved. Anxiety creeps up my spine as we trek along the coast. The escape felt too easy.

The terrain shifts from pine trees to a type I've never seen before—wide, rubbery leaves that point to the sky. We walk on the pale sand, our footsteps washed away by the encroaching tide. Mud encrusts my skin and clothes, and Eric, Malik, Elias and I stink like a swamp. Anastasia doesn't seem to notice, but Cassia, so close to Malik, only breathes through her mouth.

It feels like an eternity before we reach the edge of the cove. The land gives way to sharp rocks that protect the cliff from the water, guarding whatever lays beyond it. Malik stops ahead, shifting Cassia in his arms so he can look at us.

"It's just around the corner. The tide is in so we'll have to climb across the rocks," he says. "Let me go first—they won't be expecting you."

"But we're safe here, right?" I ask.

His piercing gaze is oddly comforting. "Of course."

Anastasia stares up at me with wide eyes. When I notice, she drops her gaze to the ground. Her hair curls around the nape of her neck from the humidity in the early morning. I feel a heavy weight as I stare at her, of fear and something else. We said we'd let her go, we promised. And yet she knows too much for it to ever be safe. What's going to happen to her?

We climb the jagged rocks to the beach around the corner. Salt fills the air, splashing us as it smashes against the rocks. They're jagged and uneven beneath my feet, some unstable. I look to Malik and Eric, both carrying someone, and yet they still manage to make the journey more gracefully than me. Malik stops up ahead and I pause next to him, gazing at what lays around the corner.

As he said, it's a small cove, the waves crystal blue and gentle as they wade on the white sand. It's protected by cliff walls, the only entrance the rocks we just scaled. The beach is vacant except for a man, working on a wooden boat dragged onto the sand. He hasn't seen us.

"Where's the village?" I ask.

Malik smiles and nods towards the cliff face. On the far left corner, it opens into the mouth of a cave. "The village is built into the cliff face."

"Why?"

"This area is dense with hollower settlements, and this is a small village. It's mainly the elders who reside here," he explains. "The hollowers are aware there's an elder village here, but they don't dare attempt to infiltrate it. The elders are very powerful. Still, it was always safest to stay hidden."

"Let's go," Eric says. "We need to get Elias help."

We follow Malik onto the beach. The fisherman notices us and immediately takes up a fighting stance, but as we get closer, he relaxes. "Malik?" They embrace one another. "We haven't heard from you for some time. We thought something went wrong."

"I've brought the others with me," Malik says. "We've got the wisper."

The man freezes. His gaze brushes over each of us till it stops at Elias. "Come quickly, I'll find the healer."

He turns and hurries to the cave entrance. Eric nods me forward reassuringly and we follow. I shiver as we enter the cave, the blazing sun falling away. It stretches further than I imagined, and it's much larger than the cave Ana lived in, veering off into different channels.

"The infirmary?" Eric asks.

"This way." Malik leads us down one of the side paths. It narrows out till there's only room for us to walk single file, but after a few moments, it opens into a wider cavern with a small stream running through the middle. The roof is lined with lanterns, and patches of plants line the stream edge where wooden stalls are built into the walls. There are only a few people loitering around, casting us curious stares. I'm sure we look terrible, and smell even worse.