Hailen, and reaching Enarium before the Sage freed Kharna. He was running out of time, he could feel it.
He stared down at the book in his hands. It had held such promise, yet now proved utterly useless. He had no idea how to crack the cipher or find whatever message was hidden within its pages.
He made to throw it into the fire, but stopped himself. He was tired, frustrated, and worried about Hailen's wellbeing. The lack of results couldn't cause him to give up. He'd try again tomorrow with a clear head.
For now, I could use a good night's rest. With Hailen beside him, he could sleep without worrying about the demon or Soulhunger's voices driving him mad.
He kicked dirt to snuff out the dying fire and turned toward his tent, but paused when he saw an odd glow coming from the mouth of the cave. A faint blue light, the same deep shade of the plants in Sapphire Lake.
The glow turned out to be the plant he'd plucked from the lake for Hailen. He realized he'd brought it out of the lake with him in his rush. Somehow, it must have gotten tangled in his or Hailen's clothing and been carried from the lakeshore up here.
He studied the glowing flower. It had dozens of perfectly symmetrical petals identical in size and shape to those around it, spreading out in four neat spirals. The smaller petals at the heart of the flower glowed brightest, while the larger petals along the outermost spiral held only a faint luminescence.
Hailen will love this when he wakes up.
He had just taken the first step back toward the tent when he suddenly stopped, his jaw dropped in surprise.
There, on the stone wall of the cave, just above the level of his eyes, were etched two glowing runes.
Chapter Twenty
What in the bloody hell?
He blinked, but even after he rubbed his eyes, the symbols remained visible. His eyes went wide as he realized the runes glowed the same blue as the flower in his hand. The symbols faded when he concealed the flower behind his back, but sprang back into view as he held it up again.
He recognized the runes immediately. He'd seen thousands just like them in the tunnels beneath Voramis, and again carved into the walls of Kara-ket. The long-dead language of the ancient Serenii.
Hope surged within him. He had no idea what the runes said, but their presence had to be a sign--literally. The Empty Mountains spanned thousands of leagues, with hundreds of mountain peaks. What were the odds that the Serenii carved their runes into every cave wall in the entire range? And how likely was it that the runes were visible only in the light of the plants that grew in the depths of Sapphire Lake? No, the Serenii had carved these runes here for a reason. What that reason was, he didn't know, but it couldn't be a coincidence.
He had to be on the right track.
His mind raced as he tried to figure out his next step. If the Taivoro book proved useless, perhaps he could use the Serenii runes to find his way to Enarium. Which meant he needed the glowing plants to light the runes.
He stared down at the flower in his hand. The petals emanated a soft, steady glow, even though he had plucked it up by its roots hours earlier. But how long would the light last? He was no botanist or Secret Keeper, and he had no idea how the plants generated the light.
It didn’t matter. He only cared that the flowers could guide his way.
Decades spent as an assassin had taught him to always bring more weapons than he believed necessary. If he lost his sword, a back-up dagger or swordbreaker could still take down his target. He'd apply that same principle here. More of the glowing plants meant a higher chance that the light would last long enough for him to find more Serenii runes, right?
He crouched and peered into his tent. Hailen lay sleeping still, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. Though the Hunter's worries for the boy's wellbeing hadn't diminished, his excitement at the discovery ensured he wouldn't fall asleep any time soon. He could survive on an hour or two of sleep. After he gathered more of the glowing plants, of course.
A biting wind greeted him as he stepped out of the cave. Rassek's prediction proved true; the mountain chill had descended over the peaceful lakeshore, and an icy breeze set the water of Sapphire Lake rippling. Gritting his teeth against the cold, the Hunter strode toward the lake and prepared to dive in. He'd brave even the glaciers of the Frozen Sea if it meant he could find Enarium. He could handle the cold, for Hailen's sake, and his.
* * *
Rassek and Darillon seemed surprised to see him awake and tending to the fire when they emerged from their tent before dawn. The two men exchanged a glance, then shrugged and accepted the bowl of gruel the Hunter offered them. Their surprise doubled as they found the breakfast more than just acceptable, but actually enjoyable. The Hunter had picked up a few tricks of cooking over his months spent on the road.
Evren thrashed about in his sleep so violently Rassek went over and shook him awake. The young thief bolted upright and scrambled backward, his eyes filled with fear.
"Easy, lad." Rassek held up empty hands. "Time to be breakin’ yer fast and gettin’ a move on."
The terror slowly faded from Evren's gaze, and his face hardened as he climbed out of his blankets and came to sit before the fire. He fixed the Hunter with a hard glare, but spooned the meal into his mouth without a word.
The Hunter poked his head into his tent to check on Hailen. His heart sank as he found the boy awake and staring off into space, his eyes vacant. Hailen seemed not to notice the Hunter dressing him, and he accepted a few spoonfuls of the gruel without protest. It pained the Hunter to see the boy thus; the effects of the Irrsinnon hadn't yet passed. He tried in vain to shove down the nagging worry that the boy would never truly recover.
His three companions pretended not to notice, but more than once he caught them shooting sidelong glances at the two of them. Finally, he gave up on trying to feed Hailen and set about packing their gear. The sooner they rode out, the sooner he could get away from those questioning eyes. And the sooner they could get on their way to finding Enarium.
His pack contained nearly a dozen of the glowing plants; more than enough, he hoped. Unless he cracked the secret of the Taivoro book, this was their only way to find the path.
Rassek and Evren tore down the tents while Darillon covered the fire with dirt. Within half an hour, only a small black circle remained to mark their presence in the cave.
"Ready fer another day?" Rassek asked with a grin that looked forced. "We should be reachin’ the Black Cliffs before noon, and we ought to have enough time to gain plenty of altitude before dark, says I."
The Hunter shot a worried glance over at Hailen. The boy sat slumped in his saddle, his eyes glazed over, his features slack. "We'll keep pace."
"Ye need to be takin’ a rest for his sake, ye let us know, eh?" Rassek jerked a thumb toward Hailen. "No reason to push him too hard."
"Of course," the Hunter said. "I'll ride with him."
Rassek shrugged. "The offer stands. Just give us the word and we'll halt."
"Thank you." The Hunter nodded. He didn’t have much experience with this manner of kindness; Voramians weren’t known for their decency or altruism.
Darillon shot a worried glance at him and Hailen, but Rassek's expression kept the older man from speaking up. With a grunt, he turned and rode out of the cave.
The Hunter lifted Hailen from Ash's saddle, settled the boy in front of him on Elivast's back, and kicked his horse into motion. A bracing wind greeted him as he rode out of the cave, but he could feel the warmth of the rising sun driving back the chill. The first rays of daylight shimmered on the rippling surface of Sapphire Lake. It was a cold, crisp beauty like nowhere else in Einan.
The Hunter's arm soon ached from holding Hailen upright and lifting him in time with Elivast's trotting pace. Though the boy hadn't yet emerged from his stupor, the Hunter tried to force the worry from his mind.
He'll come out of it. He always has before.
The thought rang hollow. In his memories, he'd seen what had happ
ened to Aerden. The Irrsinnon had affected the young Elivasti far worse than Hailen's fit the previous night. He could forestall the thought no longer: Hailen descended deeper into the madness. The day would soon come when he would be too far gone to return.
But not today. Today, he'll be fine. It took all the Hunter’s stubborn willpower to make himself believe the words.
Darillon and Rassek kept them moving at a steady pace along the lakeside trail, and the horses’ jog trot ate up the leagues quickly. The path circumnavigated the lake for another four hours before turning off onto another winding road between steep, jagged cliffs. Rocky mountain peaks towered hundreds of paces over their heads, blocking out the sunlight and casting them into deep, chilly shadows.
Something nagged in the back of the Hunter’s mind. He could sense Her presence growing stronger to the northeast, but that didn’t explain the sense of…wrongness that also increased with every passing hour. Though he had no idea why he felt that way, it left him uneasy, wary. His eyes darted around as if expecting danger to lurk behind every boulder.
The trail rose at a steep incline for half an hour, then flattened out into a rocky shelf fifty paces wide and twenty long. Instead of turning toward the path that led off to the north, Darillon pulled his horse to a stop before the cliff face at the far end of the shelf.
"Keeper's teeth!" Darillon growled as he craned his neck.
"What's wrong?" the Hunter asked.
Darillon was too busy muttering a steady stream of curses to answer.
"The ropes are gone, see," Rassek said, sighing.
"Ropes?"
Rassek pointed at a strange, tilted tripod-looking construction made of wooden beams standing atop the cliff. "That's used to haul the horses, gear, and us up the cliff face." Rassek's expression soured. "But it be lookin’ like some bleedin’ idiot took the ropes with them last time they passed."
Darillon scowled. "It's got to be Hlareth and his cronies."
"Ye’re likely right, says I." Rassek inclined his head. "That’s just the sort of thing those cheapskates’d be doin’. Save them from havin’ to buy their own ropes, t’would." He sighed and pointed toward the cliff. "But goin’ up that cliff’s the quickest way to get where ye’re wantin’ to go."
"When you say quickest, you mean there's another way?" the Hunter asked.
Darillon snorted. "Sure, there's the fool's way around."
"The long way ‘round." Rassek shot his partner a stern gaze. "It'd take more’n a day goin’ up the mountains to find the trail that cuts back along the cliffs to get here. What should be half an hour's labor is now goin’ to cost us a bleedin’ lot of time, says I."
The Hunter narrowed his eyes and studied the cliff face. He'd spent most of the last fifty years of his life climbing walls, buildings, and rooftops with far few hand and footholds than this. Frozen hell, he'd even scaled Shana Laal just a few weeks ago. How hard could a cliff like this be?
He turned to Rassek and Darillon. "I'll climb it."
The two men's eyebrows rose in surprise. Darillon shook his head. "No bloody chance. I'm not having you fall to your death because some—"
"Have you ever heard of Shana Laal?" the Hunter asked.
Darillon rolled his eyes. "Of course we have. Highest peak in the Yathi Mountains."
"I climbed it without a rope." The Hunter said it in a matter-of-fact tone, without a hint of braggadocio.
"A likely story!" Darillon growled.
The Hunter met the man's gaze without hesitation. Darillon's expression went from mocking to hesitant to surprised in the space of a few seconds. "You're serious?" the man asked. "You climbed Shana bloody Laal?"
The Hunter nodded. "Took me two days, but it was worth it." In Kara-ket, the temples atop the mountain peak, he'd found the Sage and the Warmaster, the two demons controlling all the Abiarazi and Elivasti around Einan. "If I can get up there with a bundle of rope, I can haul one of you up. Do you have enough rope to get that thing working?" He had no idea what the strange construction was or how to work it, but he’d have no problem pulling one of the mountaineers up.
Rassek and Darillon exchanged glances. The older man's brow furrowed, and Rassek pursed his lips in concentration. "It might work," Darillon said after a long moment. "But you're not going it alone. Even if you say you're a climber, that doesn't mean you know your way around the Empty Mountains. These cliffs can be mighty temperamental."
Rassek looked ready to protest, but it was Darillon's turn to silence him with a glance. "We're the ones getting paid to do the mountaineering," he told his partner. "It wouldn't be right to let him take all the risk himself."
Rassek's mouth curled down into a frown. "Doesn't mean I have to let ye take the risk, says I."
"We both know which of us is the better climber." Darillon folded his arms, his expression growing stubborn. "Don't bother denying it, either."
Rassek scowled but said nothing.
Darillon turned to the Hunter. "You'll need a harness and some rope to—"
"No, I won't." The Hunter shook his head. "That'll just get in my way."
Darillon's eyes narrowed. "You'd be taking a mighty risk."
The Hunter shrugged. "Risk worth taking, if it means we save a day or two." He held the man's gaze steadily. "We only have ten days out here, remember?"
After a moment, Darillon grunted and inclined his head. "It's your neck."
As Darillon rummaged in his equipment for ropes, the Hunter checked the plants in his pack. He'd considered using them to check the cliff wall for any Serenii runes, but their glow was too faint to be visible in the bright daylight. Maybe they only glow at night. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen the plants glowing as they rode around Sapphire Lake during the day. They’d only come to life after the sun had set.
He hesitated as he glanced over at Hailen. The boy remained listless and slouched, his eyes vacant. He hadn't snapped out of the madness. He hated the thought of leaving Hailen like this, but if he didn't, they'd waste too much time going around.
"I'll gladly be keepin’ an eye on him," Rassek said.
The Hunter turned to find the younger mountaineer's eyes on him.
"He's got me and Evren lookin’ out fer him, see. Isn't that right, young man?" Rassek shot a glance at Evren.
The thief seemed genuinely surprised that the man was talking to him, but managed a hasty nod. "O-Of course."
After a moment, the Hunter inclined his head. "Thank you." He pushed back against the nagging worry in his mind. As long as Hailen has Soulhunger, he'll be all right.
He stripped out of his leather armor and slung it over the saddle, along with his heavy cloak, sword belt, and the baldric that bore his many daggers. Wearing nothing but his tunic, breeches, and boots, he strode toward the cliff.
"You sure you don't want the harness?" Darillon asked with a skeptical expression. "These mountains have seen enough death already."
"I'll be fine," the Hunter said as he slung the coil of rope around his shoulders. He leapt high into the air and grabbed a ledge three paces off the ground. Turning his head, he shot a triumphant grin back at Darillon. "I just hope you can keep up."
The mountaineer seemed to come alive at the challenge. "You're on!" Excitement sparkled in his eyes as he found his first hand and foot-hold on the cliff face and began to climb.
The Hunter had to admit Darillon truly was a skilled climber. Before he'd taken three steps up the stone face, the mountaineer had closed the gap between them. He climbed at a speed that shocked even the Hunter, clambering up the cliff with the agility of a spider.
With a grunt, the Hunter pushed himself to climb faster. No way I'm losing my own challenge.
He chose a path of ascent that ran along a deep fissure in the cliff face. The crack provided good footing, though he had to choose his handholds carefully for fear the outer edges would crumble in his grip. His trajectory was aimed toward a chimney, a cleft in the rock with two parallel sides. If he could wedge his bod
y into that crack, his ascent would prove much easier.
When he looked to his left, he found Darillon a full man-height above him. The mountaineer might have been older, but he showed no sign of slowing. He only paused long enough to dip his hands into a pouch containing a chalky white substance.
The Hunter had to admire the man's climbing skill. Even with his inhuman strength, Darillon was proving even more adept at scaling the cliff face.
To make things worse, the grey limestone of the cliff kept crumbling in the Hunter's grip. He had to keep his pace slow, else risk losing his grip and plummeting to the rocky ground. A glance down revealed he'd climbed at least twenty paces. A fall from this height would shatter bone. He'd rather not explain how he could recover from an injury like that too quickly. Better safe than—
"Darillon!"
A shout came from below. Rassek's voice, filled with horror. Darillon's grunt was the only warning for the Hunter to look up—in time to see the mountaineer falling straight toward him.
Chapter Twenty-One
The Hunter acted purely on instinct. His left hand dug into the crevice he was holding while he reached out with his right to snatch for the falling man. His fingers closed around Darillon’s wrist, and he gritted his teeth against the pain he knew would come.
He growled as the tendons in his shoulder pulled taut. Agony flared along the muscles of both arms as Darillon's weight dragged on him, and it took all of the Hunter's inhuman strength to keep his grip on the cliff face. His gut clenched as he felt the stone in his right hand shifting, as if it was about to give way. The Hunter braced his feet against the wall and swung Darillon toward a deep crack in the rock face. The mountaineer jammed his arm into the crack and dug his feet in to support his own weight.
Not a moment too soon. The Hunter's left hand darted toward a crevice, and he caught hold just as the stone in his right hand crumbled to dust. He gasped as he hung from one hand, heart hammering in his chest.
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