The Rifts of Psyche by Kyle West (i love reading .txt) 📕

“That probably won’t be happening, Morgana. Where we’re going is dangerous, and it might be a long time before we return.”

She came forward and kissed him lightly on the cheek. His eyes widened, but he didn’t stop her. She headed back to the village and was soon lost to the darkness.

“Well, look at you,” Cleon said, looking after Morgana. “You landed the prize fish, and now you’re leaving. Fate can play cruel tricks with us, eh?”

Lucian just ignored him and was grateful when Fergus joined them both.

“We’re wasting time.” He turned to the watchtower, cupping his hands. “Open the gates!”

Instantly, the gates opened inwardly, revealing the valley outside. Without even a backward glance, Fergus strode forward, where the Deeprift was already gray with the first hints of dawn. Lucian and Cleon followed the Captain, taking the first steps of a long journey.

20

Fergus set a fast pace. His legs were long, and his bronze armor and pack did nothing to weigh him down. Lucian was almost jogging to keep up.

Worse, the entire way was uphill. If the gravity were anything close to Volsung, Lucian would have been long dead. His pack was heavy even in the lower gravity.

As the sky brightened, Lucian could see Psyche’s rugged beauty. The sides of the Deeprift were like walls rising into infinity. Trails and clefts branched off from the main rift, while silvery cascades fell over the sides. That water, Lucian saw, created a thick mist, through which golden light filtered to create multiple arcing rainbows.

Lucian couldn’t help but marvel, but to Fergus and Cleon, it was just another day.

Cleon started whistling. Fergus grunted, increasing the group’s pace.

Cleon called out. “You’re going to wear us all down when the air gets thinner!”

“I would have us beyond the Snake Pass by lunchtime.”

“Are you insane? We need to pace ourselves. What happens if we run into trouble on the way up? We’ll be too tired to lift our spears!”

At this warning, Fergus slowed down. “All right. A five-minute break.”

When Lucian looked down the rift toward the valley below, its caves and settlements were completely out of sight. They had been walking for several hours without so much as a pause. He took a deep pull from his canteen. He was grateful he hadn’t taken the armor. Fergus was breathing heavily, though it seemed he was good to go for a while longer.

“What’re you trying to prove, Captain?” Cleon asked. “We know you’re a big, strong man.”

“Serah may have moved on by now, and it seems that I’m the only one who cares,” Fergus said. “Frays rarely stay in one place for long, and it’s been two days since Lucian’s seen her.”

Two days? It felt like two weeks. As hard as it was to believe, he had only landed here three days ago.

Going up rather than down, Lucian found he didn’t recognize anything. The light was brighter today, perhaps because the mist was thinner than a few days back. Even if it was thinner, it was still impossible to see the top of the Deeprift. It had to be kilometers above them.

“All right,” Fergus said. “Let’s move.”

They didn’t make the Snake Pass by lunch. It was more like late afternoon, and Lucian was exhausted. He was worried Fergus might want to check out the pass itself, to see if Lucian’s story held up. But Fergus made no comment as they walked by the collapsed pass.

“Keep an eye out, men,” Fergus said. “If what Lucian said is any indication, they expect us to come this way.”

Lucian scanned the rift on both sides, but so far, it seemed they were the only ones here.

It was getting noticeably harder to breathe. It wasn’t just the hard trek. The air was getting thinner, and much cooler and drier. There were also fewer waterfalls, and the greenery clinging to the rift’s sides was all but gone. The wind blew harder, chilling him to the bone. While the cold weather was nothing compared to the Isle of Madness, Lucian hadn’t felt that cold for months. He suppressed a shiver.

“Can’t be much farther, can it?” Lucian asked. “I could swear her cave wasn’t far beyond the pass.”

It was another half hour before the trail branched off to the right. This landscape gave Lucian the creeps. It only reminded him of the wyverns he’d fought off, and it seemed they could be lurking in every crevice and cave they passed.

“This path leads to the Upper Reaches,” Cleon said, fearfully.

“It’s where we need to go,” Fergus said. “Lead on, Lucian. And be quick about it. We can’t be caught out here in the darkness, and we need to get a fire going.”

Lucian led them up the trail, which was rougher than he remembered. In fact, there were multiple trails, leading to varying heights in the rift. It was impossible to tell which one he had followed to get to the Snake Pass.

When Lucian paused at a fork, he frowned.

“Lost your way?” Cleon asked.

“I don’t remember this. It was dark, so I guess that shouldn’t be surprising.”

“I’m not sensing anyone near,” Fergus said. “No mage, anyway. Of course, they might be warding themselves.”

“The cave has to be close,” Lucian said.

“Take the path that looks most correct,” Fergus said. “And don’t take too long about it.”

Lucian fought to remember that night. He had been blinded by fear, and the darkness had made it impossible to know where he was going. He considered the two paths before him. One went straight, not changing in elevation, while the other snaked its way up the righthand side of the rift. Surely, if the trail had been that steep, he would have remembered going down all those switchbacks.

“It’s straight,” he said.

“You sure about that?” Cleon said, his fiery red hair whipped by the wind. “I’m not ready to die yet.”

“We’ll know if I’m wrong after ten minutes.”

Cleon shook his head, and they took the trail.

Lucian remembered then that he had failed to tell them about Ramore. “She’s living with another