36 The tides have turned

The blood-curdling monster shriek that came from outside the cave grabbed the six assassins' focus away from the romantic sight. Their serious faces hid in darkness once they pulled their hoods back over their heads and shot to their feet.

"We move, now," gestured Cronan as he turned away to head towards the entrance of the cave.

Rue resisted pushing Ezra to hit the wall of the cave and instead marched past him like he did not exist. Even with the hood blocking the side of her face he knew she was mad at him. He could deal with her being mad at him but not Dayrue.

Roshar swiftly fastened the lower part of Ezra's injured hand. It was covered an inch with bandage and secured to the anchor around his neck. The new pain erased the redness from Ezra's cheeks.

They left the cave in a new formation. Skinner and Rue led at the front, Ezra and Dayrue along with the five rattlers were in the center, leaving Cronan and Roshar at the back.

To prevent any more injuries to their members they brutally killed any more of those color snatchers that popped up in their path. One dagger filled with black poison killed them the instant they moved their heads to peek above the ground.

They passed the monochrome nightmare lands to fog hidden trees everywhere. They could barely see a mile in front. Their feet stopped at the edge of grounds that dropped to hundreds of feet to raging waters. They were already exhausted and the sight of a dead-end caused them to drop their stealth fields to become visible.

"Tarnation," remarked Skinner with a low voice that was returning.

They turned away to continue along the edge when a strong force pushed them along with their rattlers to fall hundreds of feet down towards the raging waters. None of them saw it coming.

Dayrue and Cronan used their telekinesis to stop their fall but nothing happened. They realized it had shot off temporarily from the overuse and their weak condition. They needed more time to recover before it returned, making Rue the only one who could still use the ability.

Before she could move her hands to try to do something, a giant wooden cage being held by two large winged creatures dropped down to close around them, trapping them inside. They hit the coarse wooden bars of the sealed cage stopping their fall before they hit the waters.

Several more of the winged creatures gathered at the top of the cage. On the top partially blocked by their moving wings were small blue-furred creatures speaking a language they did not understand. The cage began to move with them over the vast waters when a black veil dropped from the top of the cage to cover all its sides blocking them out from the outside world.

The veil was not thick and so allowed some light to pass through. However, they no longer saw the waters below them nor where they were being taken to.

Skinner took out a sword and moved it through the large space between two bars to cut a hole in the veil to peek through. Cronan and Dayrue tried their telekinesis again but nothing happened. They couldn't even use it to lift their hoods off their heads.

"That can't be good," Ezra said after witnessing their failure.

"So much for avoiding the Dominant species," said Cronan as he used one hand to remove his hood and sat in a corner of the cage.

The wooden bars of the cage were so large they had to be careful how they walked. Their feet could slip through the large spaces between. It was obviously not made for small things such as them. The brow-less skin above Roshar's eyes moved up to form a clump as he began to notice that.

Dayrue crouched to examine where both sides of the giant cage seamlessly fixed together between the large bar ends that interlocked to trap them inside.

"Even if we do open it. It's a long drop," commented Roshar. He stooped to sit in another corner.

"What do we do now?" Rue asked as she moved closer to her father to also sit.

"They're carrying us to the center where the mainland is. Maybe that's not a bad thing," said Cronan as he moved one arm over Rue who sat close to him.

"I'm getting tired of meeting crazy monsters trying to eat us anyway."

Roshar flipped back his eyepatch to cover his bad eye and he shut the other as he leaned his head to rest back against a large bar.

"Now's a good time to take a nap," he said. "Travelling to the center from here even by flight should be about a day's journey."

"That much time will be wasted?" asked Ezra as he carefully sat using his one moveable arm.

"It's worth it," said Roshar with both his eyes closed. "We'll get to avoid more beasties for a while. You two should rest, it's the only way your telekinesis will return."

"He's right," said Rue. "Rest, the rest of us will keep alert and wake you if anything."

Dayrue made a silent sigh before moving to sit close to Skinner.

"Wake me if anything," she gestured to him.

Skinner did not get time to reply before she moved her hood to block out both her eyes, folded her arms, and leaned back against the cage.

Soon, only Ezra, Skinner, and Rue had their eyes opened from being awake. Skinner peeked through the hole in the veil every now and then. Rue kept her focus on the ceiling avoiding Ezra who kept reminding her about the kiss. She was unsure how she felt about it.

Ezra was too busy staring down at his casted arm as his mind began to ponder on more serious things, like whether he would ever use it again.

Rue wondered whether their capturers were border scouts like the Fronteras in her Domain. Things have switched and now she was an intruder across the borders.

It began to get cold and it was about early morning the next day. Hard bumps in the cage got all their eyes to rip open with a dagger in at least one hand. The motion of the cage changed and no longer felt like they were being lifted but rather gliding along something.

Before any of them could ask, Skinner moved to look through the hole.

"We're no longer above water," he signed. "It looks like we're zipping up a habited mountain with lots of moving blue blobs."

They soon moved into darkness and he could no longer see anything. When they felt the cage stop moving, they along with the rattlers carefully gathered to one corner.

Once the veil got removed they saw they were in a large circular room with colorful stained glass forming a dome at the top. Below tall walls went around in a circle.

The giant wooden cage got pulled apart by an unknown force. They decided to step down onto the circular ground that was separated from the rest of the room by glowing yellow lights.

Several slabs moved down from the walls to reveal tall arched pathways. The ground began to tremble from all around and they stared into the darkness of the pathways as the large creatures began to emerge from behind them.

Their two thick front arms emerged first before the rest of their bodies. They gasped at the giant blue apes that marched from out of the darkness to surround them. Their thick coat of fur varied in shades of blues.

Their large sunken eyes surrounded by darkness glared down hard at them like WHEN observing bugs trapped in a jar. Their thundering grunts were frightening. Heavy breaths burst through their nostrils as they began to sniff hard at the air.

It seemed they smelt something edible, and Rue gulped at the idea it may be them. She remembered looking down at the trespasser from the high seats at the trial. Now she was the trespasser being looked down upon. The tides had indeed turned.