Serpent's Lair (The Forgotten: Book 1) Read online

CHAPTER 1

  Katya looked around at the barren landscape. She had retraced her steps to Fire Mountain, only to find that it had been completely changed by the explosion that they had fled after destroying the dragon-god, Nuko. She took out the Bloodstone and held it to her chest. It was the only memory she had of Nathair. Even after all this time, the strange connection she had felt with him had not lessened, and the pain of his death was still fresh in her mind. She stepped around a river of stone. It had run down the side of the mountain in a flow of bubbling liquid after the explosion and hardened into solid rock miles from its base. Nothing could have survived it.

  Since escaping from the slave collar that had kept her mentally and physically imprisoned, she didn’t know who she was anymore. She wasn’t sure what memories were hers and which were remnants of what her captors had implanted within her. Her emotions had been completely blocked, and when they were released, she had needed to learn how deal with them. Her guilt and remorse over deeds she had been forced to commit while under its power haunted her.

  She wiped away a sweaty strand of hair from her forehead. Her feelings for Nathair had been strong. Though her good sense told her that Layna had been correct, that she was only drawn to the man as a result of her over-working emotions combined with the enchantment of the mark to bring those with it together, it didn’t make the feelings go away.

  So she was stuck in a dark place. The words of the Oracle preoccupied her thoughts, echoing their eerie promise in her mind, “Your soul is marred by many evils. The path to becoming whole once more will not be an easy one. Until such time as you are reunited with your missing half, those you cherish most will be fated to suffer...” Though she had helped Gryffon and Layna to save the world from Nuko’s aspirations, even delivering the death blow to Nathair in order to do so, she was still no closer to finding out who she was, nor to finding her elusive other half. But at least she was beginning to come to grips with her emotions. She almost felt normal in that respect, so that was something.

  She increased her pace to a jog and reentered the forest, heading back out towards the Ferryn Plains. She had discovered that coming up from Gelendan the wooded region was much thinner than from Treymayne. She emerged out on the barren side much sooner than she had when she’d first traveled this way. She passed quickly through the trees, alert for signs of trouble, and before she knew it was back out in the grasslands. She adjusted her direction and walked along the edge of the forest. She still wasn’t quite ready to reenter society, nor was she eager to reunite with Layna and Gryffon while they still could be potential liabilities of her prophecy.

  Suddenly she got an eerie feeling – as though she was being watched. Marak, her magically animated snake armband and closest friend, tensed on her arm. Her spine tingled, and the tiny hairs on her skin rose in alarm. She stopped her movement and controlled her breathing, listening for sounds. Slightly panting breathing came from behind and above her. Something wet and warm landed on her shoulder, and she stiffened. Moving slowly, she turned her head to examine the substance. The thick liquid was attached to more of the same, still dripping down onto her. She followed the long stream of saliva back up to a very large and hungry-looking mouth. She hastily wiped the disgusting slime off of her and wheeled around to face the creature.

  It resembled the pictures Katya had seen in Karl’s books on mythical creatures; something called a lion. Only this creature was most definitely quite real. It towered above her and opened its mighty jaws to let out a thunderous roar.

  “Holy-“ Katya swore, drawing her sword as she leaped to the side, deftly avoiding the swiping paw that lashed out at her. Luckily, the thing’s massive size hindered its movement and she was able to dance out of the way with ease. Unfortunately, there was nowhere for her to go, so other than taking down the beast or scaring it off she had few options.

  It didn’t seem very likely she’d be able to scare it off.

  She slashed at it with her sword and landed a glancing blow on its leg. Blood welled to the surface, wetting its fur and creating a dark stain. It growled in annoyance, but it didn’t appear to slow any. It lunged at her again, snapping its teeth together mere inches from her face.

  She side-stepped once more, bringing her sword around in another arc, and aimed for the jugular. The beast snapped its head around and caught the blade between its jaws, bending the sword in two. Katya’s jaw dropped and she scrambled backwards on all fours from where the force of the blow had landed her. Marak launched himself off her arm and towards the beast. The thick fur hindered his movement and she saw him slithering harmlessly around in the thing’s mane, searching desperately for an opening.

  The creature leaped towards her again and Katya held her arms over her head, opening herself to the chaotic magic of the Plains in a wild attempt to control them enough to create a shield. The spell fizzled and died on her lips. The beast’s considerable weight loomed ever closer, its paws outstretched to reveal razor sharp claws on the ends.

  Katya sent a silent prayer to the Three, knowing its futility, and squeezed her eyes shut.

  Then suddenly, the Bloodstone flared to life, and she felt a shield immediately go up around her. The lion creature landed on her, knocking the wind out of her despite the shield, and chomped down on her head. She thought of Nathair, hoping to find him in the otherworld, as she squeezed her eyes tighter, waiting for the lion’s teeth to pierce her skull.

  But instead of crushing her head, the jaws encountered a rock-hard substance surrounding it, thankfully keeping it intact. The lion bit down a few more times and Katya actually burst out laughing. It tickled. This had the effect of enraging the lion, however, which abandoned its efforts to bite her head and instead slashed at her again with its paws.

  Katya took the Bloodstone in her hand and willed the lion to retreat. The thing did so grudgingly, pushing against the invisible wall forcing him off and away from Katya. As she did so, the Bloodstone burned into her flesh, but she didn’t relent. She didn’t know how long the shield would stay intact and did not want to risk the brute coming at her once again.

  It finally reluctantly turned heel and fled, having decided that this meal was not worth the effort and Katya stopped the spell. She grabbed her hand with the other and looked in horror at the marred flesh there. The hand was burned to a crisp, and many lines – like veins of amber – crept up her arm.

  Tears of pain sprang to her eyes and she shook her head clear of them in annoyance. Moving the hand was agony. She tried reaching for the power to heal it but the wild magic that prevailed here had blown away into the wind, leaving her nothing to work with. She tried drawing upon the Bloodstone again, but it seemed disinclined to come back to life.

  “Are you alright?” yelled a voice, and Katya spun around. She hadn’t heard another person for months, and certainly didn’t expect to see any out here. The man was approaching quickly, a spear in his hand, and was dressed in brown and green clothing, obviously camouflaged for the forest. What was he doing out here?

  “I’m alright,” Katya answered, lowering her hand and ignoring the pain. She felt Marak winding his way up through her pant leg, and almost let a sigh of relief escape as he bit her arm, injecting her with a pain killer. He couldn’t do much to heal it himself, but at least she wouldn’t have to endure the torture.

  The man – no, boy – came closer and Katya realized he was actually much younger than she had thought at first. He didn’t pause as he came to stand directly in front of her and pick up her hand. Katya forced herself not to step back a pace.

  “This doesn’t look alright. Is this from the beast or from the magic you were attempting to use?”

  “The magic, I think,” she answered cautiously, not about to tell him about the Bloodstone.

  He examined her hand closely and sighed. “I’d better get you back to the encampment to have a healer look at this.”

  Katya raised an e
yebrow. There were more of them?

  He looked around guiltily and bit his lip. “I think it was my fault that the lion attacked you. I had been stalking it through the forest and I spooked it into coming out here.”

  “You hunt those things?” Katya asked, astonished that the boy would attempt such a creature alone. She glanced around her hurriedly. Or perhaps he isn’t alone…

  He still wouldn’t meet her eyes, and he dug his toe into the dirt. “I wasn’t exactly hunting it…”

  “So you were…” Katya prompted, waiting for him to fill in the blanks.

  He looked everywhere but at her face, but finally blurted. “The other boys dared me I couldn’t get a tuft of his fur.” Now he did meet her eyes, pleading with her, “Please don’t tell the Elders…the other boys are always teasing me…”

  Katya gave him a winning smile. “I won’t tell.”

  “So what were you doing out here?” the boy asked.

  Katya’s mind raced.

  His face suddenly lit up as he thought of something. “Are you from the Dena’ina tribe? Everyone else came ages ago, we thought you weren’t coming.”

  “Plans changed,” Katya answered vaguely, grasping at this explanation. It was better than any she had without giving away information she wasn’t ready to part with. “Are we close to the encampment?”

  “Sure, but since you’re from the Dena’ina, I’ll just bring you straight to the village, they’ll be excited you’re here.” The boy skipped out in front of her, but then stopped and looked back at her as though just remembering something. Katya hoped it wasn’t something about this Dena’ina tribe she just insinuated she was a part of.

  He stuck his hand out at her, “I’m Lorcan, of the Myaamia tribe.”

  “Katya, orphan of the Dena’ina tribe.” She took his hand and shook it, hoping that orphans were a universal constant. He gave her a slightly sad look, but said nothing about it and Katya breathed a sigh of relief. Better to refrain from mentioning names that she had no way of verifying when she had no idea how much these people knew about the other tribes. Plus, the more truth to her story, the easier it was to remember. Katya thought it was a fairly safe bet to assume that these tribes were the remnants of the mages who fled from the Dark King and the disruption of the magical barrier after the Massacre. That meant that they probably all had a fair amount of talent. She would have to watch her step.

  She followed Lorcan back towards the forest and listened carefully as he rambled on at a million miles a minute about everything. Apparently the tribes were gathering for some big event that they had been planning. The tribes did not have much contact regularly, which was good for Katya’s disguise, and it was very unusual that they were doing so for this ceremony, but it was some kind of spell that required special talents. He suddenly paused his narration.

  “But why am I telling you this, you know it already and I’m sure they explained it all in the summons.”

  Katya nodded halfheartedly, disappointed that he had come to this realization before telling her more about this mysterious event. It had piqued her curiosity. Without the restraints on magic that Gelendan had placed upon its people, there was no telling what kind of advances could have been possible. Add to that the fact that this was most likely a community of high talents…

  When they reached the forest, the boy moved with a speed that Katya had trouble matching and twice he had to pause and let her catch up. She felt a strange tingle of magic flow over her, but when she searched the forest for the source, she came up empty. Eventually, they came to a clearing where a large fountain was built in the shape of a woman pouring water with one hand through a pitcher into the pool below. Her other arm extended upwards, but was cut off at the elbow, the rest of the statue broken off and gone.

  “That’s Sheila Greyclaw,” Lorcan announced proudly, seeing Katya staring at the statue. “She was the founder of our tribe.”

  Katya glanced around and saw a few small buildings and a corral of some strange-looking animals, but not much else and so far no other people. Katya wondered how big this ‘tribe’ of his was.

  Lorcan skipped past the fountain and headed for an enormous tree. As he reached its base, he lifted his hand and tugged on a vine wrapped around it. To Katya’s astonishment, it peeled back the bark in the shape of a door, revealing a spiral staircase within. Katya’s gaze was drawn upwards and she gulped.

  In the trees far above them were countless wooden bridges creating snaking pathways in the canopy, connecting many more tree-house buildings. They seemed to come in all shapes and sizes and looked to have been shaped from the very trees themselves as living buildings.

  Lorcan motioned her inside the doorway, and as Katya entered, she got a claustrophobic feeling. It would be much harder to flee if need be from up in the trees. Her curiosity was ignited beyond her capacity to ignore it, however, so she followed the boy up the winding stairs and paid no heed to her own rapidly beating heart, nor Marak’s tense presence on her arm.

  Her breathing eased slightly when they were out in the open once more, though when Katya looked out over the edge of the suspended walkway she felt her stomach go a little queasy. She had never been necessarily afraid of heights - her work with Karl had often found her scaling walls and climbing up the sides of buildings - but she wasn’t particularly fond of them either. And she had never been so high in the air with only a few feet of branches between her and the hard ground below. Far, far below. Katya closed her eyes as the ground seemed to waver beneath her, and she refocused on Lorcan when she opened them again.

  He scampered across the first bridge and immediately onto the next, going around the building situated there, and Katya tried to catch a glimpse of the inside. She thought she heard the sound of laughter, but the windows were too narrow for her to see much of anything. As they rounded a bend, more of the city came into view and Katya finally saw the people. Most were dressed in similar fashion to Lorcan, wearing the colors of the forest, but some of the men and women were wearing more vibrant hues. All had the taste of talent around them.

  Katya’s unease grew. Lorcan was pausing in front of an enclosure and Katya felt the urge to go anywhere but back inside the confines of one of the trees. She didn’t have a chance to make any sort of excuse, however, as the door opened right at that moment and a man stepped out.

  He was wearing all brown, a soft tanned hide of an animal Katya didn’t recognize, that matched his brown hair and deep brown eyes. He was carrying a rolled up parchment.

  “Lorcan,” he greeted the boy, and then looked over at her, asking rather sharply, “who’s this?”

  “This is Katya from the Dena’ina tribe, I found her out on the Plains.”

  “The Dena’ina tribe?” There was a strange undertone in the way he said it that Katya couldn’t place, but her unease grew. Luckily, he was distracted by another subject. “What were you doing on the Plains?” the man asked him with a stern voice and Katya bristled.

  “He was saving me from a lion,” she informed him. “He must have heard the roaring or my screaming and he rushed to my aid.” Lorcan gave her a grateful look.

  The man raised his eyebrows. “Is this true?”

  Lorcan nodded emphatically, “Uh-huh, good thing I was there too, I think there might have been another one coming.” He looked as though he was concocting a much larger story in his mind to play out for the man and Katya shook her head slightly at him. Luckily he picked up on it and came to his senses in time to prevent the fabrication from escaping his lips. “But anyway, she got a nasty burn on her arm from the chaos so I was bringing her to the healer.”

  “You haven’t even brought her to the Chamber yet?” the edge in the man’s voice was back. He grabbed Lorcan’s arm rather roughly and took him aside. Katya could still hear what he was saying. “You’re not supposed to just bring strangers into the city. They need to go through the Elders first.” He glanced back at Katya and
said under his breath, “Especially a Dena’ina.”

  “I know, but she was hurt…” Lorcan glanced over at Katya, “And she’s really nice…”

  The man sighed and dropped his arm. “Fine, but make sure you stay with her and then escort her directly to the Chamber afterwards, got it?”

  “Yes, sir!” Lorcan exclaimed, throwing his hand up to his forehead in salute. Katya wondered just who this man was.

  He nodded acknowledgement of the salute and turned back to Katya, extending his hand. “My apologies for your less-than-formal welcome to the Myaamia tribe. My name is Slade and I’m the captain of the Forest Guard. It isn’t often we meet one of the cave-dwellers, it’s a pleasure to have you here. Please make yourself at home.” There was something he wasn’t saying, and the feeling Katya got from him was anything but welcoming.

  With that, he gave her a stiff bow and headed off, leaving Lorcan to stare after him, an odd expression on his face. “He’s my brother,” Lorcan informed her with a touch of resentment. “Everyone always tells me I should be more like him, Mr. Perfect.” A flush spread over his face and he looked down hurriedly, as though realizing he had just made such a comment to a stranger. “Um, healer is this way,” he tried to cover up his blunder by changing the subject.

  Katya didn’t say anything, but let him lead her into the spherical room. Inside was much larger than she had expected from the looks of the outside and Katya felt a little less claustrophobic than she had feared. The exits still left something to be desired, however.

  A gnarled old man sat at a table in the center of the round room, the surface of which was covered by flasks and bottles of all shapes and sizes. As Katya glanced around the room, she noticed that all of the walls were built-in shelves carrying more bottles of liquids, powers, dried herbs, and mage-stones. The room nearly radiated power from the inside, yet she had felt none of it when standing directly outside.

  The man, who she presumed was the healer, looked up at their entrance. “Ah, hello again young Lorcan, what brings you here this time? Failed attempt at flying perhaps? Hmm? Or maybe that awful pet of yours bit you again?”

  Lorcan’s still-present flush deepened. “I’m fine,” he said hurriedly, obviously hoping to stave off any more of the healer’s suggestions. “This is Katya of the Dena’ina tribe, she burned herself while using the chaotic magic of the Plains.”

  The healer turned his attention to her for the first time and looked surprised. “A Dena’ina you say? I’m surprised you answered our call, given…” he trailed off, much to Katya’s dismay, giving her no clue as to why they might have ignored the summons.

  “I volunteered,” she stated - that way she could either be going against or with the wishes of the tribe as a whole.

  The healer didn’t comment. “Well,” he said instead, “Let’s take a look at that burn then, shall we?”

  Katya obediently stuck out her arm towards him and he took it in gentle hands. He inspected it closely, then left her to rummage through the shelves. He mumbled to himself and shuffled around the room, returning to her side when he had located the potion. She sucked in a breath as the cold liquid touched her skin, but its soothing effect was almost instantaneous.

  “Thank you,” she said politely to the healer and looked expectantly at Lorcan to take her out of here. The old man seemed a bit too knowledgeable about the Dena’ina and she wanted to avoid any questions he may have for her.

  Luckily, Lorcan seemed just as eager to be out of the company of the healer as she, and the moment he was finished, the boy stood. “Well, we must be off, Slade told us we needed to go straight to the Chamber after you were finished.”

  He whisked her out of the hut before the healer could respond. The bridge-way creaked underneath them and swayed slightly at their passing. A few people nodded ‘hello’ to Lorcan and gave her curious looks. Before them loomed a great bulbous mass that looked to have been a knot in the tree. Or at least that’s what she might have thought if it had been a hundred times smaller. Katya assumed it had been magically enhanced into the impossibly huge structure it now was, and the massive vine door left no doubt in her mind that at least that portion had been magically constructed. This must be the mysterious Chamber that had been spoken of. She was rather wary of exactly what was to happen to her there.

  Lorcan paused at the doorway and turned back to her. “I’ll have to leave you here, but when they’re done, I’m in the Fifth Circle,” he hesitated a moment, “if you want a tour or anything…” He looked down and turned away.

  Marak gave her arm a few quick squeezes and she felt him winding down towards her wrist. She looked down at him and saw that he had something clamped in his tiny jaws. Katya smiled as she saw what it was.

  “Lorcan,” she called to the retreating boy.

  He paused and looked back at her. “Yes?”

  She took the tuft of lion fur out of Marak’s mouth and held it out to him.

  His confused look transformed into a broad smile as he realized what it was and he took it from her gratefully. He hurried off happily, no doubt on his way to show the other boys that he had succeeded in the task that they had challenged him to.

  Katya looked over the side of the walkway, determining whether or not she would survive a fall. It was a long way down. Resigning herself to the uncertain fate that awaited her within the Chamber, she took a deep breath and stepped inside.