Chapter 167: Using A Bird To Get Inside The Cave

’HUHHHHHH... AN HOUR!!!’ I thought.

To me, it had only been less than a minute!

It was the only thing my head could hold for a moment. Less than a minute. I had stood in that void, cut my palm, watched the Shard vanish, and traded a handful of sentences with a light. And outside, a full hour had burned away without me.

This made me realize why Ouroboros was called the Spirit of Time.

Sera only sighed. Arthur, Lee, Mary and Theodore sighed along with her, a long, tired sound from five people who had spent an hour guarding a closed door. Sera did not ask where I had been. Her eyes said she would, later, and that I should start preparing my answer.

"The captains are here. We have been waiting for you for some time now. It’s time to go," Saud said.

I looked at him. He had a neutral expression still, the same one he had worn when he opened his eyes against the gates. I could not tell what was behind it, and he did not seem to want me to.

I looked toward the staircase, and I saw all the captains.

They were... dumbfounded.

Daniel stood in front with his long red hair loose and his mouth slightly open. Rico stood a step behind him.

The others stood in a loose, stunned row, staring at the revived soldiers, the rebels, the king, and the hall that was supposed to be a battlefield.

Hah. Probably a sign of my immense intelligence that tricked them.

I kept the smile off my face. Barely.

Culex stepped forward, and the whole hall turned toward him.

"The path to the cave that contains the portal is narrow and dangerous. I will use my summon. Which is basically a large bird. And you people will sit on it to get inside the cave. At a time, 25 people can sit on it.

"Now, let’s get outside the palace. So I can summon it. First, me and my captains and the rebel army’s leaders are going to go. And then when the bird will return, you will sit on it by turn without causing any chaos."

He said it in his bored tone, as if he were reading a list of chores.

Then we began taking the stairs and got out of the palace.

The great hall was crowded with people, and nobody pushed. They parted for us without being told.

I felt hundred of eyes on my back as I walked. Some of them were grateful. Some of them were not, and I understood those ones better.

Rico came up beside me as we walked.

"Hmm... You sure are an interesting person."

My heart did one slow, heavy beat. He had watched me too long before, and now he had said it out loud, in a voice so mild it could have meant anything at all.

I chuckled. "I sure am."

He smiled at that and fell back into the line. I did not look behind me. I did not want to know if he was still watching.

Outside, the sky over the mountain was the usual dull red. Culex lifted one hand, and the air in front of him rippled like heat over stone.

King Culex summoned a giant bird.

It was more than 70 feet wide and 20 feet in height. It was basically like a dragon, but it looked more like a phoenix, with long feathers that hung like folded cloth and a neck that curved like a question mark. Its eyes were golden and very calm, and they moved over us one by one as if it were counting.

It was beautiful, to some extent.

Culex sat on its neck while we sat on its spine. Some others grabbed hold of its wings.

In front of me sat Charolette, and in front of her was Sera.

Behind me sat Theodore.

Behind Theodore sat Lee, behind Lee sat Arthur, and behind Arthur sat Mary, her hair already pulling loose in the wind.

The others were the captains. I could feel the feathers shifting under my palms, warm and a little rough, like the hide of a living wall.

The bird flapped its wings a few times, and the ground sank away. Then it bent its legs, dropped low, and took off.

It went up at a 45 degree angle, and we were pushed backward all at once. Someone yelped. My fingers dug into the feathers and my legs locked, and for one long second I was sure I would slide off into the red air. However, we held.

It really was awesome.

The bird then moved around the mountain, slow at first, then faster. The palace shrank behind us. The swamp, the five roads opened out below like a map somebody had unrolled across a table.

I looked for Lee’s old camp and could not find it.

Before I could look any longer, the bird shot itself toward somewhere in the middle of the mountain.

The wind tore at my eyes and filled my ears.

Then it stopped, hard, 4 feet away from the rock.

Blocking the entrance of the cave was a massive boulder.

And we were 4 feet away from the ground. We had to jump while breaking the boulder. Otherwise, we would fall.

I looked down. It was a long way to nothing at all.

Culex rose from the neck of the bird and jumped. In mid-air he made his fist as large as a boulder, and he punched the boulder while grabbing with his left hand.

Boom!

The boulder was crushed to dust.

The dust rolled across the ledge in a thick wave, and I coughed into my sleeve. When it cleared, a black mouth of a cave stood open in front of us, and a cold, stale air flowed out of it, smelling of old stone and something that had not seen light in a very long time.

We jumped inside the cave, one after the other. I landed on stone, rolled, and came up on one knee.

Charolette landed lightly beside me. Sera was already on her feet, and Mary dropped in next to her, brushing hair out of her face.

Theodore, Lee and Arthur followed, each landing with a grunt and a scrape of boots.

The bird turned in the air and went back to the palace to fetch the next group.

It was quiet for a few seconds. Only boots and breathing, and the echo of both going deeper into the dark than I liked.

"Screech!"

A loud screech came from deep inside the cave.

And with it followed scarlet flames.