By nightfall they finally reached the base of Evernight Waterfalls. Suroyi secured the two horses to a tree and led his three companions to their new camp.
Trudging along the mountain's path, the air began to vibrate with a gentle sound of swooshing and humming. The further up they went and the swollen and drumming noise of waters plummeting from on high transferred into the ground, rippled under their feet, and finally the vibrations travelled throughout their bodies.
They rounded the corner of the mountain and Li Ji paused, head tilted back and eyes wide open. Two luminescent waterfalls spurting over the ledge thundered down, and spiralled down at their feet into a whooshing vortex, becoming one opaline glass pool.
The brilliant and iridescent stars mirrored into the waters had the same shimmering sorcery a mirage brings. They gasped in astonishment—should they jump into the waters it would be like swimming into the universe.
Looking down into the pellucid pool, fronds of phosphorescent green plants waved gently in the depths. Under the pearlescent moonlight, the translucent waters sparkled like fairy dust. They were surrounding by a galaxy of fireflies, both newborn and millennia, swirling and dancing in and out of the water spritz.
All of this lending an hallucinatory and magical quality to the scenery.
It tugged at their heart in a way that almost made them forget the worries and the pain straining their minds and bodies.
And for a moment they stopped walking. They stopped thinking. They just gazed.
Here, it felt like not a single thing could harm them anymore.
They carried on along the edge of the rocks. With each step they got closer to the clamorous cascades rushing down the mountain, and with each step the cascades threw at them colder and bigger bubbles of spray. They kept wiping their faces with their sleeves.
The waterfalls growled and bubbled, churned and rumbled. It was the noise of thunderstorms getting nearer. They shivered as the air became even more chilling and numbing. They finally entered a concealed entrance under the arch of the tallest waterfall.
In a single file, they followed Suroyi along the curve of the wrinkly mountain. They had to strain their ears to catch what Suroyi was saying beneath the deafening noise of the curtain of waters glistening like thousands of diamonds. Their eyes marvelled to find out that the pulsating lights saturating the waters were in fact tadpole-like aquatic creatures riding the watery slide.
The footpath's glossy edges were slippery and carpeted with curls of juniper-purple algae. The algae was surprisingly crispy beneath their feet, and its aroma very powerful and peculiar—like the sweet nectar smell of spring flowers. The water slapping them hard across the face, Li Ji closed her eyes, spitting water like some lame water feature. Suddenly her foot slipped on a bunch of algae and she lost her footing. She would have hurtled down the waters towards the rocks below if it weren't for Jian swiftly extending his arm to pull her weight back onto the ledge.
When they finally stepped into the cavernous hollow, at first sooty darkness hit their vision; and as they dwelled any further, their eyes adjusted to the soft light radiating all around them. Yellow bell-like flowers hanging like stalactites glowed brightly like little suns, and tickled their noses with their saccharine sweet smell. They scuttled along putting a distance between them and the swivelling flower heads following their movements.
On the next corner, round mushrooms adorned the rocky walls and flared up in a luminous neon-blue, flickering like pulsing lodestars.
"How beautiful!" said Li Ji as she extended her dainty fingertips towards the light.
"Stand back!" Suroyi shouted instantly.
Startled, they all took a step backwards from the pretty mushrooms while Suroyi explained: "They are poisonous, deadly as a samurai sword."
As they left the luminous tunnel, all of a sudden they were lost in the chilling darkness. Relying solely on Suroyi's familiarity with the topography of the cave, one behind another they followed the damp and rough walls of the cave with their hands, stumbling blindly along a chain of tunnels; and coughing out a strong smell filling their nostrils and burning their throat.
It was a musty smell with a dash of rancid meat lingering in the heavy, damp, and fetid air. Before long their stomach heaved. How relieved they were that they hadn't had food for days!
There was no sound but the noise of the disturbed rocks echoed off the dense stone walls and the centuries-old hissing drips of raindrops. Now and then, under their feet there were the popping and the snapping sounds akin to the splitting noise of small bones.
Shufeng grimaced with each step, dragging his injured leg across the floor. Without seeing he knew there was blood seeping from his thigh through his clothes. He just needed to make it to the hideout, he could rest and heal then. He tripped on the loose stones littering the floor and landed on his knees. Arms tightened around the prince, Jian lifted him up and supporting most of his weight they pushed forwards right behind Li Ji and Suroyi.
This narrow tunnel and the darkness were like an invisible force squeezing the life out of Li Ji and she struggled to catch her breath. She tugged at Suroyi's sleeve and they halted.
"I–I can't breathe..."
"Light is just around the next boulder."
Shufeng leaned forward and groped about for her shoulders but his hand fell on her waist instead. Unable to see, he hesitantly slid his fingers along her back to find her neck, then he pulled her head against his chest. "Close your eyes, and concentrate on my breathing."
He was stroking her head lightly with a brotherly tenderness, the while as his chest lifted up she inhaled deeply, and as his chest flattened she exhaled. She unconsciously calmed down the beating of her heart to match the steady rythm of the prince's breaths. After few minutes she had settled down, and they quickened their pace into the obscurity.
They turned right at the next boulder. A tomb-like silence haunted the small corridor. And exactly as Suroyi had said, ahead of them, a flickering orange glow cast long shadows over the rocky walls and it felt so good to see where their feet treaded again!
Jian's nose twitched and sniffed. "Stew? I can smell... stew?"
"Me too," nodded a puzzled Li Ji.
The smell, as well as the orange light, sparked to life from behind a thorny climbing plant concealing a jagged opening. They followed Suroyi and entered into a vast chamber.
Flaming torches bathed the entire room in a comforting reddish-yellow glow. In the centre, a pot filled to the brim with meat and vegetables was cooking over a small fire. After weeks in hiding without a proper meal, the smell of the bubbling stew reassured their senses that they would finally find comfort here.
Suroyi gestured to them to sit on the willow woven mats. Their weary features illuminated by the flickering light, they watched the flames curling and swaying, and crackling the dry wood.
It was so good to feel their body returning slowly to a comfortable warmth. Feeling the rock floor beneath them, all dampness had magically disappeared. They held out their hands to the fire to get just a little more heat. Strangely, the air didn't get smokey.
While they sat comfortably, as if hypnotised by the dancing flames, they took no notice of Suroyi disappearing into an unlit corner of the chamber, and of the faint murmurs of voices melded into the crackling fire.
They were not the only ones in this room. In the dark, a tall hooded figure had been lurking since their arrival.