God Mage - D.W. Jackson Page 0,67

the door, the light on the end of the staff visibly dimmed. Once all five of them were through the door it closed heavily behind them. As soon as the door was completely closed, everything went cold and the light on the end of the staff went out like a candle snuffed out by a strong wind.

“Thuraman we need light,” Bren told his staff as he struck it against the ground again.

I can’t…Trying…No magic.

Thuraman’s words were halting and broken, but he started to understand as he searched around for any magical energy, but quickly found that the whole area was completely void of any magical energy. “Faye can you use your power?” Bren asked the young girl.

She looked at him oddly then closed her eyes but nothing happened. “No…Something is wrong…I can’t explain but it’s like something is blocking it.”

“That was unexpected,” Bren said as the area around them was lit up as Cass used a flint to light a torch that he had kept in his pack. “Magic of any kind won’t work in here.”

“That might bother you lot, but I am well enough with just my sword,” Cass said lifting the torch into the air. “Speaking of that, can someone hold the torch? In case I need to use my sword.”

Phena gave a short laugh and took the torch from Cass. “I can live without my magic, but I will miss it just like you do your other arm.”

Cass gave Phena a sharp look but the smile she flashed him stole any words that might have come to his mind before they reached his tongue. Before anything else could be said, Cass took the lead with Brenda, with Phena and the torch following closely behind, and Bren and Faye bring up the rear.

The longer they proceeded through the tunnel, the better Bren started to feel. Without any magical energy he could no longer feel its call but on the other hand, it felt as if part of him was missing. At the moment, he was torn between happiness and distress.

The path in the tunnels didn’t twist or turn and there seemed to be no offshoots from the main path, but it was a seemingly endless path. When they had walked for more than two hours, they took a small break so that Cass could prepare a second torch.

“How long is this blasted tunnel?” Cass asked as he pulled the second torch out of his pack. “I only carry three of these and I doubt they will last us for more than a day.”

“I think we might find ourselves walking in the dark before long then,” Bren said sighing.

“That doesn’t sound too pleasing,” Faye said in a shaky voice. “The mountain didn’t look that big. Maybe we won’t have to stay in the dark for too long.”

“We can only hope,” Cass said as he slung his pack over his shoulder and strapped it down so it wouldn’t shift.

Once the new torch was lit, they continued walking down the dark path. Before long, the tunnel started to open up until they could no longer see the edges. Cass had them spread out with Phena in the middle.

“There is an exit here,” Faye yelled after a little while.

“There is one here as well,” Cass hollered a few moments later.

In all, they found seven different tunnels besides the one through which they had entered. Using a white stick made of a mix of fat and oil, Cass made marks outside each tunnel so they could keep track of where they had been in case they needed to backtrack later on.

I think we should make our camp here for now,” Cass said while they were trying to decide which way to go. “I know we have only been walking for at most half a day, but we need to decide the best route as well as to what we are going to do once we run out of light. I would suggest that we save the last torch until we need it.”

“I agree,” Bren said. “I think we should look for any wood or plants that might burn.”

“That sounds good,” Cass said. “But we should work in pairs so that we don’t risk getting lost. No taking offshoots; just stick to the main tunnels, and then turn back after no more than fifteen minutes of walking.”

Four of them paired up into two groups with Brenda waiting in the center to call to them as a guide if needed.

With no light, Bren and Faye