A Hero's Curse by P. S. Broaddus Page A

here!” Cheep lets out a couple of whistling breaths and then continues. “He did his muttering, and then I could understand what he was saying, and I could speak Lingua Comma.”
    Cheep drops his voice a little. “So he didn’t really choose me from the crowd. I was just a spotter. I’m glad he did, though. I’ve been moved to translation and strategy. Spotters don’t last long.”
    “What did the king say he was doing here?” I ask.
    “He said he was hunting for information on the daemon. He said the daemon was causing the drought, and he meant to stop it, so of course we helped him as much as we could.”
    “Wait, they’re connected?” I ask. I guess I should have known that, but the daemon has always been a story that Dad avoids and the valley folks use to scare stubborn children. It seems so far away. Sometimes I even wondered why Dad and the rest of the kingdom protectors were trying to pick a fight so far away from the Kingdom of Mar.
    Cheep interrupts my thoughts. “Here we are.” We pause in the mouth of the tunnel, and I can feel that we are facing an enormous cavern. I can hear water lapping somewhere below us, the echoes bouncing strangely off of rock and then water.
    “Of course they are connected Essie Brightsday,” Cheep says. “The daemon destroyed our home and forced us to come here.”
    “You can just call me Ess,” I say in a voice that carries out onto the water in front of us, twisting and echoing back to us as something foreign.
    “Sure, Ess,” says Cheep. “Have a seat.” The rock has a smooth, rippled pattern, and I realize that the tunnel we’ve been following was probably a river at some time. I cross my knees up under me and feel for Tig. He crawls into my lap and demands attention. Sitting as I am, Cheep comes up to my shoulder.
    He continues with his story. “We’re sitting on the far side of the Lake of Hemleth. This is the source for your river of Mar. It was once the source for the Redlan River that flowed out to the east. It fell hundreds of feet out of the Valley of Fire and down the Red Giants. Those were the Watangau Falls. It fed the swamplands of Bangular. That was our home.” This time I don’t interrupt. I massage Tig’s ears and let Cheep continue.
    “The Urodela people started their exodus from the marshes when the daemon came. He blasted a crater in the middle of the marsh and built a lair there. Some of the older Urodela say there was a black pool that formed in the middle of the crater. They called it the Cauldron. They also said it was sucking the life out of the marshes. Whatever it was, it happened quickly. Within months the marshes were mud flats. We knew about the underground caverns here in the Valley of Fire. There are dangerous creatures deep below the Valley of Fire, but up here around the lake it was relatively safe. And it was wet. Those who could either climbed the cliffs or wandered through the deep tunnels to try to make it here, to the Lake of Hemleth.”
    Tig has been quiet this whole time, not even purring. “I notice the water line has dropped,” he says.
    “It drops every month,” says Cheep. “Within a few weeks even your river Mar will stop running.”
    Cheep turns toward me. “You asked how Crypta is dying. We’re dying the same way you’re dying.”
    I shake my head. “We’re not dying. It’s hard, but we’re still doing okay. Our kingdom’s main problem is Brogan, not some daemon. But I’m sorry that he did that to your swamp,” I add.
    Cheep’s voice gets quieter. “After the Mar stops, how long do you think your valley will last? There are a few Urodela who came late. They say that after Watangau Falls stopped feeding the marshes, the mud disappeared and within a few weeks the swamp had turned to desert. You know what they call it now?”
    I shake my head, assuming there is still enough light from the glowworms for him to see.
    “The Stone Forest. The trees have turned to rock,” says Cheep. “You’re