“Are you alright?” I asked.
She gave a weak nod. “Yeah. I think so.”
“We need to get out of here,” I said. “It’s not safe.”
She felt along her ribs, her eyes widening further. “How…” She touched her rib cage, feeling each bone individually. “My ribs are fine!”
The lake hadn’t tried to kill Anna. It had healed her.
I didn’t see how it was possible, but I had seen a lot of things that should have been impossible in the past few months.
“I was scared to death,” I said. “You’d think they’d give us a heads up.”
“There isn’t time to worry about it,” Anna said. She faced the dragons, who watched serenely. Seeing those dragons there made me wonder where Askal was. I saw, looking into the corners of the cavern, that the lake appeared to branch off into other areas.
“Come on,” I said. “We have to keep looking for him.”
We waded out into the cavern. As the lake deepened, our feet could no longer touch the bottom. I’d had experience swimming in Bunker 108’s pool, but Anna was struggling. Her eyes widened in fear.
“This place won’t let you go under,” I said. “If you want, hold onto me.”
This was something that would have never worked in a normal body of water, but Anna grabbed on. As soon as her weight pressed down, the liquid pushed up from beneath, keeping us afloat. I swam forward, but wasn’t making much progress on my own. A current began to push us between the dozing dragons.
Looking through the clear pink ichor of the lake, I could see deep gashes lining their forms. Wounds from the battle. I understood why they were here; the pool was healing them. The extent of their injuries must have been severe; otherwise they would have healed quickly, like Anna.
“They’ve already fought,” I said. “That’s why they haven’t come to help us. They were the ones who needed help.”
Anna watched the wounds along the back of the largest Elekai dragon I’d ever seen. The pink liquid of the pool was stained purple from the many deep wounds marring its body. Its wings were settled on the surface of the lake, around which wrapped the healing liquid.
The current pushed us toward the back of the lake. As it curved onward, another cavern opened, much larger than the first, where three dragons bathed in the ichorous substance. On the far side of the lake, a shore of silvery sand rose, meeting a line of xenofungus. From the fungus grew twisted, alien trees, the boughs of which glittering silvery with long, wavy fronds. There were so many trees that it was hard to discern the treetops, and it all seemed to be the same organism. Maybe the trees were the same organism. It was an entire underground forest.
“I wonder where this is,” Anna said. “This cavern had to have formed naturally.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m not even sure where we’re supposed to be going.”
The current pushed us past a dragon whose right wing was almost ripped in two. His eyes were closed, though his chest rose and fell in short, ragged, breaths. Looking around the cavern, I didn’t see any sign of Askal. Either he was in another part of the lake, or…
I didn’t want to think of the other possibility.
As we neared the shoreline, I made myself stand. My feet found the lakebed, and I pushed myself up and walked onshore. We stood on the sand, the pink liquid rushing from our clothes and skin to rejoin the lake. Anna felt along her ribcage, still unbelieving of what had happened. My own body felt reinvigorated.
I reached for my radio to call everyone else above. But when I pressed the talk button, the line was completely dead. The radio had been so drenched in liquid, and we were so deep underground, that it wasn’t surprising that it didn’t work.
Anna stared into the trees. The land sloped downward into a narrow valley with sheer sides, in which the trees grew more thickly. The forested valley opened about one hundred feet from the shoreline. I looked upward at the sparkling ceiling of the cavern, which cast bioluminescent light. It was hard to believe this place existed; it was more magnificent than even the first Elekai home.
Somehow, I had a feeling that we’d find the Wanderer in the forest ahead. I thought it was strange that he wouldn’t have come out to meet us, and it gave me a bad feeling. My Beretta was still strapped to my belt; hopefully, it still functioned, even though it was soaked. If nothing else, Anna had brought her katana — now healed, she would have no problem in using it.
We started walking. As we did, Anna placed a hand on the hilt of her katana, sheathed on her back. We entered the first of the trees, finding ourselves on a narrow path. Pink limbs overhung the path, forming a glowing tunnel. Alien blossoms spiraled from above, their scent sweet and sharp in the air. I could feel the trees’ collective sentience bearing down on us as we walked, as if they were watching us. Anna’s shoulders hunched. She could feel that weight, too.
The air was heavy with…something. I wanted to speak, but found my voice caught in my throat. The path twisted and turned, delving deeper into the cavern, deeper into the trees. The thickness of the xenoforest blocked any view of how deep this valley actually went.
The path snaked back and forth, plunging further and further down. The vegetation became more alien, more magnificent. Among the pink branches were now blazes of orange, of deep crimson, of yellow, of silver. The colors were incredibly bright, almost unreal in hue. Thin tree trunks rose in perfect spirals high toward the ceiling, forming arches before descending somewhere far distant in the xenoforest. Some tree trunks even fused together, two or three at a time, before forming an enormous, multicolored treetop.
Just when I was wondered if we should turn back, the path made a final bend, going from there in a straight line. Before us a massive tree grew from the fungus in a wide meadow, hemmed in by trees. The meadow was a near-perfect circle, and the trees on its rim leaned forward, as if bowing to the central tree. This tree had silver bark, and was probably larger than any tree that had ever existed on Earth. Its colossal trunk shot upward in a straight line — even at my distance, I had to crane my neck to see its height. Its treetop billowed near the cavern’s ceiling, casting silvery shade onto the meadow below. Sparkles lit the air, blossoms falling thick as rain.
Though beautiful, something about the scene just felt wrong. Again, the Wanderer wouldn’t have made us walk all this way just to see him.
And in the shadow of the tree, right against the bark, a small shape sat hunched. Anna drew her katana, its metallic ring violent in the still, blossom-strewn air. Time stood still as the trees waited, like a whip about to snap.
The form turned from the tree, slowly, revealing a monstrous face, long spindly limbs, and a drooping chin. I didn’t know what to call it, but I knew it was nothing like the Elekai. It wasn’t a crawler either, but I knew only Askala could have made a monster so hideous.
The monster’s mouth opened; from it emanated a long, high wail, which pierced the air, my skin, my bones. It was the most horrible sound I’d ever heard, paralyzing me to my spot. The thing advanced, its hideous call never abating. Its six scythed legs clawed into the xenofungus, piercing it like knives. From its long mouth shot twin fangs, dripping silvery liquid. Perhaps the sap from the tree. Or poison.
As if emerging from a dream, Anna changed her stance, holding her blade aloft and bracing herself with her back foot while the left leaned forward. I took out my gun.
The creature paused and ceased its wail.