POV Selene
Cold water closed over my head like a fist. I surfaced gasping, lungs screaming for air. It was completely dark. The torch had been lost in the fall. I could hear Casimir thrashing nearby, water churning.
"Selene!"
"Here!" I swam toward his voice, arms heavy with soaked clothing. Our hands found each other in the blackness and we clung together, treading water.
"Are you hurt?" His voice was tight with controlled panic.
"I don't think so. You?"
"No. But we've lost the torch and I have no idea which way leads out."
We felt around in the darkness, hands searching blindly. The water was ice, already numbing my fingers and toes. We needed to get out before hypothermia claimed us both.
Casimir found a rock ledge after long terrifying moments. We pulled ourselves up with trembling arms, dripping and shivering violently. The darkness was absolute. I could not see my hand in front of my face, could not tell if my eyes were open or closed.
"We need light," I said through chattering teeth.
"I have flint in my pack. If it's still dry..." He fumbled with the waterproof pouch at his waist. I heard him cursing softly as cold fingers struggled with buckles. After tense minutes, he struck sparks. Once. Twice. On the third try, they caught on dry kindling he had packed for emergencies. A tiny flame bloomed like hope.
By its flickering light we saw we were in a smaller cave, cut off from the main chamber. Water surrounded us on all sides. No obvious way out except back through the underwater passage we had accidentally found.
"We'll have to dive back down, find the passage again," Casimir said, studying the dark water.
"Let me catch my breath first." I was shaking so violently I could barely speak.
Casimir removed his wet cloak and wrung it out with methodical focus. "We need to get warm before we attempt diving, or we'll die of cold before we find the way back."
He built a small fire using emergency supplies from his pack. We huddled close to it, but it was not enough. We were both soaked through, and the cave was freezing, temperature dropping as shock set in.
As feeling returned painfully to my limbs, I tried to stand. Pain exploded in my right ankle like lightning through bone. I cried out and collapsed back onto stone.
"What's wrong?" Casimir was beside me instantly.
"My ankle. I must have twisted it in the fall." I tried to put weight on it. Agony shot up my leg. "I think it's broken."
Casimir carefully removed my boot, movements gentle despite urgency. Even in the dim firelight we could see the swelling already starting. He probed the bones carefully. I hissed in pain, biting my lip until I tasted blood.
"Definitely broken," he confirmed, voice grim. "You cannot dive back through that passage. You cannot even walk properly."
"Then you go. Get help from Theron—"
"I am not leaving you alone in a freezing cave with a broken ankle and dwindling supplies." His voice was flat with finality. "We'll find another way out together."
He tore strips from his shirt, splinted my ankle using a piece of wood from our supplies. His hands were gentle despite the urgency singing in every movement. When he finished, he sat back.
"Can you stand with support?"
I tried, using him as a crutch. I could manage barely, but it was slow and every step sent agony through my leg.
"There must be another passage," Casimir said with forced optimism. "Caves like this usually have multiple entrances and connections. We explore systematically."
We searched the cave inch by inch. Casimir supported me, practically carrying me, one arm locked around my waist. I tried not to slow him down, but each step on my broken ankle was torture that made sweat break cold on my forehead.
Hours passed or maybe days. Time lost meaning in the darkness. We found nothing but dead ends and impassable gaps too narrow for human bodies. Our small fire died. Casimir lit another using our dwindling supplies, face tense.
"We're running out of kindling," he said quietly.
"How much do we have left?"
"Enough for maybe two more fires. After that..." He did not finish.
We both knew. We would freeze to death in the darkness. Die in this mountain tomb while Ari waited in the palace, blood factors declining daily.
"I'm sorry," I said, guilt choking me. "If I hadn't slipped, if I had been more careful—"
"Don't. This is not your fault." He adjusted his grip on me. "We're getting out of here. Both of us. I refuse any other outcome."
We continued searching with desperate thoroughness. Finally, after what felt like days but was probably only hours by the dying fire, we found it. A narrow passage leading sharply upward. Fresh air flowed from it, cold and clean.
"This leads out," Casimir said with relief.
We squeezed through. The passage was tight, barely wide enough for Casimir's shoulders. It climbed steeply at an angle that made my stomach clench. I could not walk it. My ankle would not support my weight on such an incline.
"Get on my back," Casimir ordered.
"Casimir, you cannot possibly carry me up this slope—"
"Get on my back."
I did. He lifted me carefully, adjusted my weight across his shoulders, and began to climb. It was brutal work. Steep incline, loose rocks that shifted underfoot, carrying a full-grown woman while navigating treacherous terrain. But he did not complain, did not stop, did not even slow.
I clung to him, arms around his neck, trying desperately to make myself lighter through will alone. I could feel his muscles straining beneath me, hear his labored breathing that spoke of exhaustion pushed past limits.
"Put me down. Rest," I pleaded when his breathing became ragged.
"No. We keep going."
He was stubborn, impossible, magnificent. I pressed my face to his shoulder and held tight, trying not to think about what would happen if his strength finally gave out on this narrow passage.
After an eternity of climbing, we saw light ahead. Gray and weak but unmistakably daylight. The passage opened onto the mountain's opposite side, much higher than where we had entered the cave system. Storm clouds gathered thick and dark above us. The first drops of rain fell cold.
Casimir emerged from the passage still carrying me. He stumbled, nearly fell, barely caught himself against rock. We were on a narrow ledge far above our original camp. Rain fell harder, turning quickly to sleet that stung exposed skin.
"We need shelter!" he shouted over rising wind.
He spotted another cave nearby, smaller and shallower but mercifully dry. He carried me to it and set me down carefully against the back wall, collapsing beside me with exhaustion.
The storm broke fully. Torrential rain hammered the mountain. Thunder rolled through peaks. Wind screamed across exposed rock faces with voices like the damned.
We were trapped.
Casimir built a fire with the last of our supplies. This time he used it to dry our clothes, stripping to underlinen without false modesty. I did the same, practical necessity overriding propriety.
He checked my ankle again. Worse now, swollen to twice its normal size and already bruising purple. I was running a fever from cold and shock, shivering despite the fire.
"We need to get you down the mountain to doctors," he said, real worry breaking through his controlled facade.
"We need to find a dragon," I countered stubbornly. "We did not come all this way to give up when we might be close."
"Selene—"
"Promise me. Promise you will not give up on saving Ari."
He looked at me. This woman who had endured poverty and exile and conspiracy and kept fighting. "I promise."
Outside the cave, through sheets of rain and storm, something massive moved past our shelter. A shadow too large to be natural, too deliberate to be cloud. We heard it over the thunder. A sound like wind through caverns and stone grinding against itself.
Lightning flashed.
For one impossible second we saw it illuminated against storm clouds. A scaled wing larger than any ship's sail, cutting through the air with terrible grace.
Then darkness swallowed it again, leaving us staring into rain and wondering if we had truly seen what seemed impossible.