She motioned for everyone to follow her, and there was shockingly little debate as Sandor, Bo, Flori, Lovise, and Woltzer took the lead and their whole group made their way down the flower-lined path through Havenfield’s rolling pastures—though Biana and Stina did get sidetracked when Wynn and Luna came trotting over for some nuzzling.
“Are we teleporting somewhere?” Dex asked when they made it to the Cliffside gate.
“You’d better not be,” Sandor warned as Sophie squatted to undo the lock.
She shook her head. “Not today.” And she couldn’t help grinning when she noticed how relieved Stina looked by the news—but her smile faded when Dex turned very pale.
“Are we going where I think we’re going?” he whispered.
Sophie nodded, wishing she’d thought to check with him when she put this plan together. “Is that a problem? If it is—”
“No, it’s fine,” Dex interrupted.
But it didn’t sound fine.
“You don’t have to worry,” Lovise told him. “You have me now.”
“Um… where are we going?” Stina asked.
Sophie chewed her lip, wondering if she should course-correct—or if that would only embarrass Dex.
“There’s a cave down there,” Dex explained, making the decision for her. “It’s… where Sophie and I used to practice alchemy.”
“You mean the cave where the Neverseen grabbed you guys?” Biana asked quietly.
“Yeah,” Sophie admitted. “But we don’t have to—”
“Yes, we do.” Dex stood up taller. “If you can go back there, so can I. Plus, we have five bodyguards with us.”
“Six,” Sophie corrected. “Which is why we’re going there—you’ll see what I mean in a minute.”
“Then lead the way,” he told her, gesturing to the now unlocked gate.
Sophie studied Dex a second longer and was about to reach for his hand—but Biana beat her to it, making Dex jump a little as their fingers twined together.
Sophie smiled, definitely not missing the pink flush across Dex’s cheeks as she pulled open the gate. “Okay, let’s do this.”
Sandor, Bo, and Woltzer drew their swords and marched down the stairs ahead of them, with Flori and Lovise promising to bring up the rear.
“I know that’s supposed to make us feel safe,” Stina murmured, watching the muscled bodies disappear around a bend in the stairs. “And it does. But… it also makes it worse somehow, doesn’t it?”
“I know what you mean,” Sophie admitted.
Having bodyguards meant needing bodyguards.
But that was just another reason why they had to stay focused. None of them would ever be safe as long as the Neverseen were out there.
She had a feeling the rest of her friends were thinking the same thing, because the mood of their group shifted during that descent. And by the time they made it to the stretch of rocky beach leading up to the infamous cave—where their guards were already completing a thorough safety inspection—their jaws were set, shoulders squared, eyes determined.
“So… care to tell us what we’re doing here, Lady Fos-Boss?” Biana whispered as they slowly crossed through the cave’s dark entrance.
Sophie rubbed at her arms, trying to scrub away the goose bumps that had popped up from the damp sand and the brisk air and the bad memories. It wasn’t her first time back in the cave since her abduction—but that didn’t make the flashbacks of cloaked figures and drugged cloths any less vivid. “Mr. Forkle suggested I talk to my dwarven bodyguard—Nubiti—to see what she can tell me about Loamnore,” she explained. “And I figured we should have that conversation somewhere that won’t bother her eyes.”
She headed as deep into the shadows as her courage allowed, then turned and stomped her feet in the pattern that Sandor and Grady had taught her, sending grains of sand flying.
Seventeen painfully silent seconds passed before the ground rumbled and a small creature emerged from the earth, shaking sand out of her brown, shaggy fur.
Nubiti’s nose was pointed, and her eyes were squinted slits, even in the darkness. And her voice was as raspy as tumbling pebbles when she dipped her head with a bow and asked, “How can I help you, Miss Foster?”
“Have you been listening to our conversations these last few days?” Sophie asked, proud of herself for sounding casual, even though her brain got a little weirded out talking to dwarves. It was like chatting with a child-size mole.
“I have,” Nubiti confirmed, studying her hands, which had plenty of long, sharp claws for digging. “You wish to ask me about a threat to my city.”
“Wow, so you guys really can eavesdrop that clearly?” Wylie asked, tilting his head to study Nubiti from a different angle.
“Your voices carry far deeper into the earth than you realize,” Nubiti informed him. “Listening poses no challenge—though understanding can be more difficult. Your species worries about such unnecessary things.”
“Does that mean you don’t think Loamnore’s in danger?” Sophie wondered.
“No.” Nubiti’s voice was much calmer than Sophie felt as the small dwarf crouched and ran her claws through the cold, clumpy sand. “The threat is as real as the worry you’re carrying—and the solution as elusive as your dreams. Our king has done what he can, but he cannot recover what has been lost without first finding it, and there is no trail for us to follow, which is the true mystery.”
“Anyone else confused?” Dex whispered.
“I am,” Biana agreed, and Sophie noticed the two of them were still holding hands.
But she made herself concentrate on what Nubiti was saying. “I’m a little confused too,” she admitted. “What was lost?”
Nubiti scooped up a fresh handful of sand and fished out a delicate piece of blue sea glass. “You already know that some in my species have abandoned their people and formed an alliance with these Neverseen from your world. I do not claim to understand their motivation, nor can I guess their plan. But before they left Loamnore, they… altered the magsidian.”
The last word was whispered, and yet it still seemed to bounce around the cave, echoing out of the shadows.
Magsidian was a rare, onyxlike stone that only the dwarves were capable of mining, which was why the elves used it for security in Exile. The dwarven guards could sense the presence of the gem and know if a visitor had permission to be there, since they’d only given pieces of the stone to the Council.
The Black Swan had also acquired at least one piece as well, which they’d once given to Sophie to use to find them.
Magsidian changed properties depending on how it was shaped and faceted.
“We have stones placed very specifically throughout our city,” Nubiti went on, tucking the shard of sea glass among the shaggy strands of her fur, “carved to serve many needs. And several of those stones were changed before the deserters left—which is not new information. Your Council is well aware, as is your father, Miss Foster. Many inspections have been made on the altered magsidian—as well as many repairs. But no stone can ever be the same after it is altered. Each new facet causes a permanent change. So we have been left with a network that can achieve the same purpose, but it is not the same.”
“Is that what you meant by ‘lost’?” Sophie asked, trying to piece together what Nubiti was saying.
Nubiti shook her head. “I meant the lost shards of magsidian,” she said as she bent to scoop up another handful of sand.
“Shards?” Sophie glanced at her friends, hoping some of them were following this better than she was.
Stina seemed to be, because she asked, “You mean the pieces the deserters chiseled away when they altered the magsidian in Loamnore?”
“Yes. They cut at least a dozen shards, some no larger than a splinter, some similar in size to this.” Nubiti fished a second piece of sea glass from the sand—green this time, and about the size of a small Lego. “And there is no telling what those stones can do,” Nubiti warned as she tucked the green gla
ss among her fur. “They are new shapes, new sizes—and for some reason we cannot feel them, no matter how thoroughly we search.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Dex mumbled.
“It’s not. Especially given what I now suspect is the source of the stone, after listening to your conversations.” She moved to the wall of the cave, trailing her claws along the jagged edges in the rock. “Some stone comes from the earth. Other stone falls from the sky. Magsidian is a blend of both—something new, created by a dark collision.”
“You mean a meteor?” Sophie asked.
“Yes and no. It was no ordinary rock that fell and fused with all it touched. None of my people have a name for it because none of us witnessed the impact. But the stone tells its own tale. One of shadows and energy. One that feels elemental.”
She left the word hanging there, waiting for someone to grab ahold of it and make the connection that would forever raise the stakes of what they were dealing with.
And as the leader of Team Valiant, Sophie knew it was her job to step up to the task. So she whispered, “You think magsidian is made of shadowflux.”
FOURTEEN
COULD MAGSIDIAN WEAKEN TAM’S ability if it were cut the right way?” Biana suggested, earning a round of murmured agreement from the rest of her teammates as Sophie added the question to the list they were building.
Nubiti had tunneled back into the sand not long after she’d led them to the shadowflux-magsidian revelation, and they’d decided that the meeting with Lady Zillah now needed to be their top priority. Stina had hailed the Shade Mentor as soon as they’d made it back to Calla’s Panakes tree, and Lady Zillah had been her usual intense, uncooperative self. But she’d agreed to have a “brief conversation” with Stina and Wylie the next day if they met her at her office in Mysterium at noon—sharp. And she’d emphasized that it would be brief. Which meant that Wylie and Stina needed to be prepared in order to make the most of their limited time. So Sophie had rushed to her room for a notebook and they’d all gathered under the swaying branches as they brainstormed—with Wynn and Luna trotting around, causing plenty of distractions.
But figuring out what to ask was proving to be more challenging than Sophie had expected.
The problem was, everything they’d discovered seemed so abstract.
So… magsidian was made of shadowflux—at least partially. And the dwarves who’d joined the Neverseen had stolen some pieces of the rare stone before they left. And for some reason, the rest of the dwarves couldn’t feel any trace of those shards the way they could with other magsidian, so they had no way of finding or recovering them.
But what did any of that actually mean?
And what did it have to do with Tam?
Nubiti hadn’t seemed to know, and was very reluctant to say any more about it than she already had.
And since there was no guarantee that Lady Zillah would know much either, they were trying to come up with a mix of specific and broad questions, hoping that something might help them figure out what to do with this new information.
So far, including the question that Biana had just added, they had:
Did Lady Zillah know about the connection between shadowflux and magsidian?
Are there any other physical manifestations of shadowflux that they should be aware of?
What happens if magsidian comes into contact with shadowflux?
Would any of the Shade skills that Tam had learned be more dangerous around magsidian?
Could magsidian weaken Tam’s ability if it were cut the right way?
“Do you think we should ask either the Council or the dwarves to give Lady Zillah a piece of magsidian to experiment with?” Wylie asked after Sophie had finished reading their list out loud again.
“Probably,” Sophie told him. “But I don’t know if it’ll do much good. She knows a lot about shadowflux, but she can’t call for it or control it herself.”
Still, that was why Sophie had already taken the time to talk to Grady, hail Councillor Oralie, and have Flori tell Mr. Forkle what they’d learned from Nubiti. And they’d all wondered the same thing Sophie had—the one question she’d managed to ask Nubiti before she disappeared underground again: Why had Nubiti waited so long to tell anyone about this?
Apparently, that had been King Enki’s decision.
Nubiti had only made the connection between magsidian and shadowflux a couple of days earlier, when she’d overheard Mr. Forkle sharing his fears about Tam and the dwarven city with Sophie. And she’d gone straight to her king to see what he wanted her to do. But he’d disagreed that there was any cause for concern. He felt that the cuts they’d made to repair the damage in their existing magsidian network had not only fixed the sabotage, but had enhanced their overall security so well that it more than addressed any potential threats that might arise from the stone’s origin. So the last thing he wanted was to have the elves demanding explanations for how the system worked. He preferred to keep that information classified.
He’d actually ordered Nubiti not to share her theories with anyone in the Lost Cities. And she’d been trying her best to follow that order—but she was also worried that King Enki had spent too long underground, away from the dangers thriving on the planet’s surface, and was severely underestimating their enemies. So she’d decided that if any elves reached out to her, she’d lead them to the information. That way she wasn’t disobeying, but she was still passing along a warning in case the connection between shadowflux and magsidian was significant. And while Nubiti hadn’t asked Sophie to cover for her whenever she and her friends met with King Enki, she’d looked immeasurably relieved when Sophie had promised to make it seem like they’d made the discovery on their own—since, in a way, they had.
“Anyone have anything else to add?” Sophie asked, scanning their list again and wishing it were longer.
“I think that covers it pretty well,” Dex assured her. “Especially since her answers will probably make them come up with additional questions while they’re there.”
“And you don’t think we should all go?” Sophie had to ask.
When they’d decided to split up for the meeting, the conversation hadn’t felt nearly as important.
“Ugh, don’t go getting all ‘I have to be a part of everything’ now,” Stina grumbled.
“This isn’t about me,” Sophie insisted. “I just think it might be good to have all of us there, since any of us could catch something the others don’t.”
“Eh, I think that’ll freak Lady Zillah out,” Stina argued. “You heard her—she already sounded super suspicious. And I can’t really blame her for that. It’s gotta be weird having your only prodigy working with the enemy—”
“Tam’s not working with them,” Biana interrupted. “He’s basically their prisoner.”
Stina shrugged. “Just because he’s not doing it by choice doesn’t mean he’s not still helping them. And hey—I’m not judging. I’d probably make the same decision if the Neverseen were threatening my parents. But that doesn’t change the fact that every time he cooperates, he’s technically contributing to their plans. And I’m sure Lady Zillah’s not happy that the stuff she taught Tam might be used to hurt someone—or lots of someones, depending on what the Neverseen are getting ready for. So I’m betting she’s a little nervous to answer questions about Tam’s lessons. And if five of us show up when she’s only agreed to meet with two of us, I think she’ll freak out and refuse to cooperate.”
“Stina’s right,” Biana agreed, crinkling her nose like those words pained her a little. “I think we should let her and Wylie handle this. If we feel like they missed something, we can always ask for another meeting—and if Lady Zillah won’t agree, we’ll just show up at her office and not leave until she answers our questions.”
“I guess.” Sophie studied the questions one more time to make sure her photographic memory had completely captured them before she tore the page out of her notebook and offered it to Wylie. “You’re meeti
ng briefly with Lady Zillah at noon, right? Then I’m going to hail you guys at one for an update—and I want to know everything she said. Take notes if you don’t think you’ll be able to remember it all.”
She wouldn’t let go of the paper until he nodded—even when Stina mumbled something about bossy Droolmonsters.
“I’m assuming you’ll update Dex and me after that?” Biana asked.
“Of course,” Sophie promised.
“Good. And I’ll hail Bronte as soon as I’m home to see if I can set up a meeting—but I doubt he’ll agree to anything right away. And I should probably update my dad about some of this and see if he has any thoughts or advice—or, wait, am I allowed to do that? Is all of our team information classified?”
“From the general populace, yes. But Alden’s an Emissary with the highest level of clearance, so it won’t be a problem,” Grady told her, making all of them jump—and making Sophie wonder how long he’d been eavesdropping.
Apparently long enough for Grady to also know to ask, “Why do you need to meet with Councillor Bronte?”
Biana’s eyes darted to Sophie, and Sophie gave the tiniest possible head shake.
Grady and Edaline were being way cooler about the search for her biological parents than Sophie had ever expected them to be. But she had a feeling the Bronte theory might be a bit too… head-explode-y, given the implications. So it seemed better to wait until she had confirmation before she hit them with that kind of bombshell.
Plus… she really didn’t want to have to live through any more Bronte-related conversations. She’d already had enough of those to last two lifetimes.
“I wanted to see if he knows when we’ll be announcing our appointment as Regents,” Biana told Grady—which sounded like a perfectly legitimate explanation to Sophie.
But Grady did not look convinced.
Sophie was bracing for him to call them out when Dex jumped in. “So does that mean I can’t tell my parents about anything we’re working on?” he asked. “Since they’re not Emissaries?”
Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities Book 8) Page 24