The storm swept in at midday, and by then Rose was already hidden in the cave, waiting out the tempest as it slammed rain against the walls of the cave and howled its primal fury throughout the vast mountain rage. If this lasted for days, as it very well might, it would be a costly setback. She could ill afford the loss of that valuable time.

The goddesses, it appeared, simply did not care. For the past hour or two, she been holed up in this miserable cave, curled up as a wolf to ward off the cold, praying fervently to the Mother and the Twins, only to be ignored.

I'm trying to help out your people, here she grumbled at the cave roof that now substituted for a sky. Trying to preserve their right to build temples in your name. Why, then, am I being sent this miserable storm?

The goddesses did not deign to respond. Typical. Just typical.

Rose pulled out the slightly mouldy bread roll that represented the last of her supplies—back to hunting and berry-scavenging in the morning, then—and shoved it down her throat.

Why the storm? She asked Lyra, the Mother of All. Why the storm? Look, I know I forgot Friday prayers. This is about the fate of a kingdom. I pray a little extra next Friday. I promise.

To her teachers' and her mother's disdain, Rose had never been great at the whole devout worship thing. It seemed rather purposeless to her. Now, of course, she realised that faith in the Mother and the Twins might have been a good idea. Oh well, then. What was done was done.

Rose faded into an uneasy sleep a few hours later, the wind howling like a dying animal outside the cold, damp cave.

She dreamt. She dreamt of the thundering of wings and the screeching of birds. When she woke, the screeching went on. The thundering whispered through the air, barely audible. A few seconds later, the exact same sounds echoed through the air

She was still in a dream state, half conscious and half aware, but the sounds sent a bolt of lightning through her. Rose had been listening for those sounds—thundering wings, gryphon screeches, wyvern roars for the past few days. Anyone else would never have picked over the lashing winds of the storm and the thundering of rain.

Thank you, Sarai, Rose thought desperately. And Belle. And Lyra. I will pray really hard on Friday. Every Friday. I promise.

She stood up immediately and raced deeper into the cave system. Previously, she hadn't seen the point-or safety-in exploring when she wasn't staying here long, and she had no idea what creatures resided deep within the cave. But if the gryphons and wyverns were somewhere in here...she had to brave whatever hidden hell these caverns held and hope for the best.

Still, she at first followed the paths lit by glowworms, remembering her mother's stories about the caves in these mountains. The echoes grew further and further away as she followed those paths, until eventually she could no longer hear them. Rose groaned. Why couldn't the War Queens of old have made this easier for her?

 She nabbed a glowworm—sticky, gross little thing—and shoved it into her empty bottle of water in a makeshift lantern. Better than nothing, she supposed, and as the other glowworms were retreating from her as quickly as they could manage, she supposed it would have to be enough.

Rose drew in a deep breath as she entered the darker caves. Naturally, the thundering grew louder as she came closer into the darkest of them all. Goddesses above, did they really think a threat—either an elf or a human—was going to get this far? How had the trainers taken the wyverns and gryphons every year from this miserable place?

A roar echoed through the chamber and she froze. It had not sounded particularly like a wyvern or gryphon. She had spent nine years in the Hawk Mountains, and she knew exactly what wyvern roars sounded like.

After a minute, she stepped forwards, quietly as she could manage. She was just letting her imagination get out of hand. These mountains belonged to the three goddesses, and whether or not she had done well at Friday prayers last week, Belle, Sarai and Lyra couldn't let one of the last great hopes of their people die at the hands of one of the monsters deep within their own land.

The light from the glowworm suddenly extinguished. With the light gone, she might as well have been blind. Even a valkyrie's enhanced vision couldn't do anything in the face of the blackness of the cave.

Of course. There was no air going into the water bottle, which meant that if it hadn't died, then at least it could no longer produce light. She tipped the bottle out helplessly, but no sudden glow.

With no other choice, she continued through the cave systems, running her hand around walls and extending her foot only slightly with each step unless a hole had opened up. She blindly followed the faint sounds of the wyverns and gryphons. Surely, once she was there, they might be able to show her the way out.

Or she would perish here, alone, with no one to ever know how or why she died. Her friends would never know. If any of her family was still alive, they would never be able to even guess what had happened to her. She wouldn't even get to go out to the ocean. A hot tear slid down her cheek, but she took a deep breath. 

Don't show weakness, she told herself. If something is down here, it might think it can attack you if you're weak. 

Rose pulled out the blade in her makeshift hilt of plants. It made walking through the cramped spaces cumbersome, but at least it might give her some protection.

For hours on end she wandered, lost and blind, through the cave system.

Time became meaningless, any attempt to hold onto it futile. Her body clock was lost with the continuing darkness of the caves. The only thing she had to go off was that the hammering rain continued, which meant she wasn't too deep underground and that hours had passed, rather than days.

Hunger soon gnawed at her stomach, but that was nothing compared to her thirst. Exhaustion began to set upon her body as well, another sign of hours passing. Even with her valkyrie endurance and warrior's training, she could not keep going much longer. 

But there was no way to turn back. No way to know where she had come from. Her only map was the thundering of wings and the screeches of birds, occasionally coupled with roars and caws that could only belong to wyverns. They were her only hope now.

The space she was walking through began to widen, every so slightly at first, but more and more as time went on. Hope started to rise again. She knew that the narrow, small passageways she had walked through were said to be the most dangerous of the caverns, and the wider ones might lead her back to more glowworms, or even a breath of fresh air on the other side of the mountains.

Rose was shaking and weak by the time the light of a glowworm-infested cave peered through the narrow passage she walked through. She muttered a prayer to Belle and Sarai and Lyra and every minor descendant of the goddesses in between and rushed in, collapsing on the rocky floor. At first, she had to close her eyes to get used to the light, but eventually her pupiless vision adjusted.  

This time she poked a hole into the water bottle and shoved about twenty of the squirming saviours in. Soon, she would have to continue. Exhaustion might be deadly, but hunger and thirst were even more urgent. Rose knew her only chance was the wyverns and gryphons, even with the glowworms shining brightly.

The roars, caws, thunderings and screeches grew steadily stronger as she went on. Although occasionally they would weaken as she went down the wrong path, they always returned. As though the triad of goddesses were guiding her forward.

Just as hope began to flicker back to life in Rose, she slid on the rock and pain lashed through her. Her hands were wet with blood. It took all her effort not to scream. Even without looking, she knew her leg would be broken. There was no way she could go on. She would die here.

Rose closed her eyes and slipped out of consciousness, knowing the last time she saw any light would be the worms' weak glow as they fell out of her shattered bottle.