Heart desired

//Chapter 34//

Resh POV

I was drenched in sweat.

It was not that surprising, since I was thirty feet underground. Judging by the distance and the dry air around us, we must have come halfway through the Bluesunset forest by now.

This forest is too huge and ancient for it's own good. I thought while cutting and burning some tree roots which were grown in to earth. I could imagine the size of the tree compared to the root size. Some even passed the area they were in, which meant they grew more than thirty feet underground.

I was accompanied by four others, namely Zone, Kylan, Relach and Glaze. Zone was the key person in this mission. He had removed a huge twenty feet cube from earth first and had thrown it to Seremeth. After that, it was little five feet cubes, slowly stacking up behind us as we walked straight.

His technique was impressive.

We were waiting for Glaze to check the oxygen in the area we just removed. She had the power of water. Not just to move it, but to create it and destroy it. That girl was completely opposite of me. I created fire from my veins, hot and boiling and always annoyed and angry, brimming with insecurities. She was too cool headed. I had to admit, she got under my skin more than I liked.

Honestly, she was the only thing here that kept the three heat wielders going forward. We knew each other from way back. Since her father was Unnel, the representative of Water in the council, she often visited palace when she was little.

Unnel. Resh gritted his teeth and examined his nails. He had been the one to point out that if both princes were to go on a dangerous mission, it would not be a good idea if the mission failed. That little cunning brother of mine decided to stay behind as soon as he knew Nasha would not be going with us, leaving me with two annoying kids who bickered from the moment they entered and a girl who barely looked at me and a middle aged (when an Elkelyn is middle aged, that just meant he had lived at least five or so centuries, but still looked like he is in his twenties) food processor who liked to give advise about everything. His ability was to create some kind of vaccum around the blood bottles and keep them fresh as long as we wanted.

While all of them were useful, I still couldn't help but curse at Savin. The distance shortening maze would have been a life saver. For five days, we have been digging this tunnel now and still only halfway through. It had taken us only a day and a half to reach for the Heart of Rawen with Savin's maze.

That stupid lovesick nephew of mine must be hitting on my sister now.

Before the thoughts could annoy me more, Glaze came back from the front section, carrying a torch. We all looked up at her. Even Zone and Kylan, who had been quietly drinking their blood bottles, stopped and turned.

"I have good news and bad news." Glaze said, setting the blazing torch on a hole in the wall, which was carved by Kylan. Her face was not showing any emotions at all. She really was a frozen woman. I was about to ast her for bad news first, but she continued, without giving me time to open my mouth.

"The good news is that there are plenty of oxygen here. The bad news is," She paused, as if wanting to know if we were listening. "There is a huge underground water resource right infront of us. We can't go through it, for it will flood the whole tunnel in seconds. As I can feel, There must be a lake up above us. Which means," She paused again and sat beside Zone. "We will have to take a detour."

"It must be the great lake Yelve." I said, cursing myself for forgetting that existed in the middle of Bluesunset forest. I was again pissed at Savin. Last time, we covered twice this length, without encountering these obstacles. But now...

I took a deep breath. Savin was not the Crown Prince. This was my duty. I could not rely on him all my life.

Glaze spoke. "I can measure the ends. Zone and Kylan rest in the mean time. We need your strength to be at full."

"Yeah." I said, stepping up. "Relach, how much food do we have left?"

"Enough to last three to five days, depending how we use it." Relach replied in a monotone.

I nodded. "Nobody had crossed the Bluesunset forest underground like this. No Elkelyn or a mortal had dared to cross it even from the above ground, in fear of getting captured by the Elves who roams this place like their home. We don't know the obstacles. We don't know the path. But, we will continue."

Kylan nodded. "If we ran out of blood, we can always go back and bring more."

"Or we can hunt some underground rats." Zone said. "I wonder why we haven't encountered them yet."

"Probably because we are thirty feet under the surface." Kylan said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah yeah," Glaze said, stepping back to where she came from. I lit up a light in my palm and followed her. "None of us is going to die inside this crappy tunnel. Let's take a detour and finish this in three days."

I had my back to them, but I could feel them nodding in agreement. I looked at Glaze as she put a hand against the wall and concentrated. It seemes that under her emotionless face, there was a qualified leadership hidden beneath.

She dropped her hand and turned to me. "It will take at least a day for the detour." She pointed to right. "This way is the shortest detour. If we get moving right now, we will be able to cover up at least half the distance."

I looked back where Zone was resting his head on Kylan's back. That kid had over worked himself to the core for the past five days.

"Let's slow down." I said. "Pushing forward hard sometimes can be too much, specially for someone young like him. We all deserves some rest."

For the first time in my life, Glaze looked in to my eyes, searching something in them. Under the glow of my fire and the torches behind us, her pale face was flushed in a orange hue. I wanted to step back, but I held my ground, refusing to look away from those navy blue eyes.

She gave me an approved smile. "You know, you are not as cruel as I thought, despite your nick name."

I did not know what to say to that. It didn't matter because she went to the others, not waiting for my answer.

I rubbed my chest. Seeing someone emotionless smiling in approval was different. And despite what she said, there must be low oxygen in this place, because my heart was beating abnormally high inside my chest.

Relach gave me a bottle to drink as I sat down. I took it and drank it slowly, careful to avoid looking at Glaze.

I had a feeling that I won't be able to look away if I ever did that.