Nalor charged out of the cave mouth in a running crouch, then stopped abruptly. Night had fallen.
Weyd was standing a few paces away, plainly shocked by Nalor’s sudden appearance. His stunned surprise only lasted a moment before he too drew his sword and whirled to face away from the cave, searching for the threat. Graj was the first to speak. “Weyd was that you shouting?”
“Yeah. I started to worry when you didn’t come back at dusk. I waited a couple more hours and thought I might go in after you, but I didn’t want to leave the horses an-
Graj cut him off. “Weyd we’ve only been in the cave for half an hour at most.”
Weyd stared, then shook his head, holding up the watch lantern. “I lit this at dusk, a good three hours after you went in. It has burned through three and a half hour marks since then. If it hasn’t been more than six hours since you went in that cave, then I’ll eat horse biscuits for supper.”
Graj started to say something else, but Nalor spoke over him.
“Look at the moon Graj. It’s already over the rim of the pass. Weyd is right. Something’s not right about that cave, we–”
“Where’s the Healer?”
Cursing, Nalor spun back toward the cave.
“Stay here! If I’m not back by morning, take the horses and get out of here. Tell Kernon what happened.” Re-entering the cave, Nalor quickly made his way to where they had been when they heard the shouts. It was easy to find, only about 80 paces inside the cave. Even in the dim light of the torch, their footsteps were plainly visible on the floor. The Healer’s torch was there, still smoldering, but the Healer was gone. The soot on the floor was smudged around where the torch lay, but beyond that point the soot layer was smooth and unmarked.
Nalor began walking forward, eyes scanning the blackness ahead. Alone now, the silence of the cave felt deeper, the hollow echo of his own footsteps out of place in the stillness. Every few paces he used his foot to scuff the shape of an arrow into the soot on the floor, pointing back the way he had come. It wasn’t the best way to mark his back trail, but he didn’t have time to do more. After only a few minutes of walking, he was forced to stop. The smooth floor of the cave ended in a chasm. The edge was a straight line stretching away to his left and right as far he could see in the dim torchlight.
Standing as close to the edge as he dared, he raised his torch high and peered into the darkness. For all he could see this might as well be the end of the world. He could make out nothing of the far side. Taking a scrap of paper from his pouch he lit it with his torch and tossed it over the edge. To his surprise it sailed upward as if caught in a strong, steady wind, rising into the blackness until it winked out. Cautiously he stretched his torch out over the void. The flame stayed as steady as it had always been in the stillness of the cave. Fishing a coin from his pouch, he flung it as hard as he could into the darkness ahead, listening for the sound of metal striking rock. There was no sound.
Baffled, he followed the edge of the chasm to his left until he reached the cave wall. But the cave wall also ended in line with the edge of the floor, as if they had both been sheared off by a single stroke from a colossal blade. Following the edge in the other direction he soon found the other wall of the cave ended in the same way. Following the curve of the cave wall away from the chasm, he eventually reached the mouth of the passage leading to the cave’s entrance. He considered for a moment going out to see whether Graj and Weyd had left, but he didn’t want to lose the time. Time. What was happening in this place? How had he and Graj lost half the day in the span of half an hour? How much time had passed since he had re-entered the cave alone.
Passing the passage leading to the cave’s mouth, he continued to follow the wall around until he again reached the edge of the chasm. From what he could tell the cave was shaped like a huge half-circle. The regularity of the shape suggested that it wasn’t a natural formation, but when he examined the walls and floor he couldn’t discover tool marks of any kind. He methodically crossed the cave back and forth searching for any sign of the Healer. Nothing.
Finally he returned to where he had last seen her. He picked up her fallen torch and lit it again. His own torch was nearly spent. Then he returned to the edge of chasm. She hadn’t come out of the cave, and he could find no sign of her in the chamber behind him. He feared she may have become disoriented in the darkness and stumbled over the edge of this abyss. If so, she was lost.
With a frustrated shout he hurled his expiring torch out into the darkness. Instead of falling it began to arc upward, its speed increasing the further it flew from the edge. It sailed upward, shrinking to his view until it was only a glimmer in the darkness. Just before it vanished from sight, it struck something. Maybe the far wall? As if set in motion by the torch’s impact, a deep rumble came from the depths of the chasm, followed by an orange glow. The ground trembled faintly as if shuddering before what was coming. Nalor stepped back from the edge. Even accounting for the strange effect of the cave the fires were coming sooner than he had anticipated. He was out of time.