Chapter 15 | Part 5

“I know where we need to go.”

Drusniel woke with the blanket twisted around one leg. Elion was sitting upright, both hands pressed against his stomach.

“What?” Srietz sat up, reaching for his pack.

“Obsidian caves. Northeast.” Elion swallowed and waited before continuing. “Three days, maybe. I remember shelter there.”

“How do you know this?” Drusniel asked carefully.

Elion’s brow furrowed. “I… don’t know. It’s like remembering something I never learned. The caves were there.”

“Were?”

Elion swallowed. “I don’t know when the memory is from.”

“Another memory? Like the route out of the caravan?”

“More of them since we got out.” Elion rubbed his mouth. “I can’t make them stop. Can’t see what happens after we get there, either.”

Srietz watched him. “Can you tell whose memory it is? Someone who got out alive, preferably.”

“What do you remember of the entrance?” Drusniel asked.

“Wait.” Srietz lifted a hand. “A hiding place is also a good place to put a trap. Srietz wants to know where this knowledge comes from.”

Drusniel remembered Elion stopping at the unfamiliar turn, with the guards behind them.

“I don’t know.” Elion took his hands off his stomach. They were trembling. “I can remember the way in. That’s all.”

“Those memories did not get you out of the forest,” Srietz muttered. “Remember that part too.”

“We look before we go in,” Drusniel said. “From somewhere we can leave.”

The scraping moved deeper into the cavern. Srietz sat up and began tying his pack closed.

Time to move.

“Northeast,” Elion said. “Three days, maybe. If what I remember is still true.”

“Tell me if you lose the route. Before we have to run.”

Elion looked toward the entrance. “If I notice in time.”

End of Chapter 15.5 —> 15.6: The Goblin Who Counts Costs: The Smoke