The Rising Stones (Ihale Book 1)

by A. Lawrence

  It was big, that was her first impression. Then it lifted its head, nearly lost in the darkness of the cave, and she realized that big didn't quite cover it. It looked like a massive black snake with a bird's beak. The pale plating over its head looked like a skull and large, white spines jutted out of the back in a thick row. Vin had always told her to look for the eyes and go for the soft tissue in the joints, especially when something had scales, but she didn't see either one at first. A moment of panic hit her, the thing was shaking its head and making the spines rattle like dead tree branches in the wind. It lunged at her and she saw the legs, small, but definitely there, the claws scoring the ground.

  Rhyss dove out of the way, rolling into a crouch. The beak scraped a long, dark line in the moss. The head swiveled towards her again. This time, when its head snapped forward with frightening speed, she was ready and slashed at it with her knife.

  It bounced harmlessly off of the creature with a spray of sparks and magic, startling it enough that it jerked away from her, knocking her onto the ground.

  If she lived through this, she was going to shake Heln until his teeth rattled.

  "Follow the stream!" There were no other options. The thing was blocking the only other exit; every time she tried to sidestep it weaved into her way even though she still hadn't figured out where its eyes were. If she had any luck at all the stairs would lead up to the Temple so at least Bel and Heln would be safe.

  It looked like she might to die in the line of duty after all.

  The monster chittered at her, sounding eerily like one of the birds in her mother's garden. It clacked its beak with the harsh sound of bones snapping. The inside of its mouth was a vivid blue, almost the same color as the pond.

  "Hey, ugly!"

  That was Bel's voice, just before a ball of magic flew over her shoulder. It would have missed the creature entirely, but it swiveled around to catch it in midair, the magic shining through the nostril slits in its beak before it swallowed the script.

  Rhyss turned and ran, not waiting to see if Bel had helped or hurt her immediate survival. She caught up to them easily, shoving a hand between Heln's shoulder blades and pushing him forward.

  Bel made a loud noise of disgust when they hit the mud and Rhyss thought she might have to haul her through it, but her self-preservation instincts must have finally kicked in and she waded into it with a face that in any other time or place Rhyss would have wanted painted, framed, and put in a hall of portraits of her enemies so she could laugh at it forever.

  "This is by far the worst day of my life."

  "Shut up, Bel," Heln told her, his voice a lot quieter, though Rhyss didn't think the volumes of their voices made much of a difference with all of the splashing they were doing.

  She was quickly up to her waist in freezing cold mud. It made her movements sluggish. When Heln stumbled, she barely managed to grab his hood to keep him from eating mud pie. A moment later, her own boot hit the stair that had nearly tripped him up and she scrambled up onto it.

  They were out of the mud and up several steps before she realized that they weren't being followed.

  "I think it's eating your barrier, Bel." Heln looked faintly ill.

  "That. That is disgusting." Bel was shivering on the step above her. The end of her blue ponytail was black with mud. "These stairs had better lead directly to the Temple or… or I'm going to be really, really upset."

  "I think they do, but wherever they lead we should get there. Now." Rhyss deactivated her dagger but kept it in her hand. The familiar weight kept her focused. She thought about bringing out her second, non-magical dagger, but she didn't want to give it to either of them, so it stayed in her boot for emergencies. Bigger emergencies.

  The stairs were easy to climb. She kept getting too far ahead of her companions and finally settled with being at the rear, trusting that Bel would at least yell out a warning of anything ahead before her untimely demise. There were two tunnel entrances halfway up, dark like empty sockets. Bel ignored them so Rhyss did, too. If Heln had any comment he let it go to focus on breathing.

  The stairs evened out and Bel sat down, gasping like she'd been running for hours. Rhyss was suddenly glad for all the times she climbed a tree with a bag of rocks on her back. Her breathing was still even and the hike had warmed her up. It took Bel minutes before she could even talk. "I… I think we lost it. Right?"

  They both looked at Heln, who sat down, curling his knees up to his chest. He looked startled when he realized they expected something from him. "Don't look at me, I didn't know that thing was there, why would I know where it is now?"

  "Well, maybe now that it's eaten—"

  "Your barrier is gone, that's all I can tell you, but I think we would probably hear it coming if it was after us again. If you're hoping that I can sense an absence of magic in a place full of magic then you're going to be really disappointed." Heln shrugged.

  Maybe Rhyss wouldn't make his teeth rattle as much as she had initially planned. Once they were out of this she still planned on a good shaking.

  She settled for punching his arm. "Well, tell me if you do sense anything."

  He just glared at her and rubbed his arm.

  Chapter Five

  "You know," Bel was telling Rhyss as they both got as much mud off of their clothes as possible with a cleaning script, "I totally saved your life back there."

  Rhyss, of course, didn't even bother to look at her. "How do you figure that?"

  "I threw the magic that distracted it." Bel didn't even have to watch the lines of magic that knocked the mud from her clothes and skin. Ihalins, especially high Ihalins, were supposedly graceful from the time they were teenagers and nearly fully grown. Bel was pretty sure this was a lie because she still needed that particular script a lot. "Therefore, I saved your life."

  "But you missed."

  Bel bit her lip to stop what she was going to say and gave Heln a look that clearly said, "Can you believe this girl?"

  Heln either got the message or didn't; his shrugging didn't really convey that much meaning. He was still rubbing his arm where Rhyss had hit him.

  After a moment she felt safe enough to take a breath and try again. "Well, I didn't want to hit you, now did I? It was a distraction. Clearly. And it worked! So, you're here and you're alive. You're welcome."

  Rhyss gave her a blank stare. "What exactly do you want from me?"

  "Well. You know. A 'thank you' would be nice." Bel felt smaller than she had a moment ago. Rhyss had a way of making her feel that way. It was unlike anyone else in the rest of her life.

  "Thank you." Rhyss rolled her eyes and turned around, slapping Heln on the shoulder and performing the same cleaning script on him. "Let's get moving once we're cleaned off. We don't know how far this tunnel goes."

  She started walking despite that, mud flaking off of her like dead leaves and splattering on the tunnel floor. Heln rubbed his shoulder and looked at Bel. "Why does she insist on hitting me?"

  Bel shrugged.

  "Wow, great insight." Heln looked down at the ground, or at the trail of mud that Rhyss had left.

  "Well, I don't know. Sometimes I want to hit you, too. Maybe she likes you? She seems like the type that would hit people she likes." Honestly, Bel had no idea about the kind of people Rhyss liked. From what she'd seen, Rhyss didn't seem to like anyone.

  Heln shuddered, which honestly even she thought was a bit of an overreaction. Even she knew Rhyss was smart and not actually horrible to look at. "No. That's… no. Besides, Rhyss likes girls, so you're the more obvious option."

  How did Heln know that? Rhyss liked girls. Bel was a girl. Rhyss could possibly like her.

  A notion that had to be destroyed immediately or she would keep thinking about it forever. "Well, her preferences aside, she actually does hate me. Maybe she hits people she hates and likes. Complete equality in gender and violence and all that. Or, more likely, she just likes hitting people! Did you ever think of that? Because I certainly d
id."

  "Are you done?" Heln looked dangerously close to laughing. If he did, she was pretty sure she was about to understand Rhyss a little better and start actually hitting people herself.

  "Yes! Let's follow her before she falls in a hole or something." Rhyss could not possibly like her, Heln was just trying to annoy her. She was more annoyed that it had worked.

  "Once again, you're the more obvious option for that."

  "You are the worst."

  Heln shrugged and turned to walk away, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. Bel let her illumination bubble hover next to her, but she had to jog a bit to catch up. Heln was getting tall. He was already taller than her by over an inch. Soon he wouldn't be much of a little brother, half or otherwise.

  The tunnel was a lot like the first one they had been in, with a smooth floor and moss coated walls. The ceiling curving above them, the monotony of it broken by the occasional dangling tree root. Rhyss was far enough ahead that she could see the way the tunnel curved, hiding part of her light from view. The moss glowed faintly and the floor sparked and glittered sometimes, quartz and mica deposits flashing when their light moved.

  "So, what's the plan?" She had to break the silence and get away from her own thoughts. The only noise for what felt like hours had been the sound of their feet on stone and the occasional drip somewhere, whether it was behind them or ahead of them she wasn't sure. If the creature was behind them it was much stealthier than she would have thought with its little leg nubbins dragging around its oversized body.

  "Keep moving, don't look back, don't die." Rhyss spared her a glance this time.

  "I like the last part of that plan," Heln said.

  "So, what, we just keep moving forward and hope the tunnel lets out somewhere? What if it's some sort of drainage tunnel and it gets flooded while we're down here? Or it's caved in?"

  "The walls and floor are saturated with magic." Heln reached over and touched some of the moss on the wall. "I'm guessing that they're protective scripts."

  "Okay two questions then. Why wasn't that thing that apparently eats magic back there gnawing on the walls and why are there tree roots?" Bel pointed at one that looped down the wall like a white snake.

  "The trees above us are part of the Grove, so they're probably tied to the script." Heln at least sounded somewhat like he knew what he was talking about, but Bel knew Heln said things that weren't true all the time that sounded perfectly reasonable to her. "As for the monster or whatever it was, its mouth didn't really look suitable for gnawing on anything, but you'd know more about that than me."

  "Okay, fine, pecking at the walls, but the point still stands."

  "That and there were stairs, so I don't think they use these tunnels for draining." Rhyss cut in. Bel hadn't even been aware she was still listening. "Besides, Vin said the tunnel led to the Temple, and I believe him."

  "They could be for maintenance or something." She decided to let it go. For now. "Still, this seems like a bad idea. I mean, we could end up outside of the city. Then what?"

  Her companions were silent at that. No one had been outside of Ihale City for as long as history had been recorded, after Eleti brought magic back to the land and founded the valley that now housed the enormous, sprawling city within which Bel had spent her entire life. There were probably other cities, but no one remembered where they were or what they had been called. The forest that surrounded them was too dangerous to travel through. Bel had been raised on stories of people who entered the forest and never returned.

  So Ihale City continued to grow.

  "If that's the case, then we figure it out and you feel lucky and privileged that you're with a member of the Guard." Rhyss seemed to puff up as Bel watched her.

  "Trainee." Bel felt that was a very important distinction.

  "Either way it's better than you being alone with your brother."

  "Half-brother." Another important distinction.

  "Whatever."

  It wasn't 'whatever' to Bel. Heln had just shown up the year before, dumped unceremoniously on their doorstep. Their dad had enrolled him in Bel's school and insisted that Heln be included in any plans Bel made with a smile and a sad look in his eyes that meant Bel couldn't refuse. It wouldn't have been so bad, Heln was pretty quiet for the most part, but she hated how other people treated her. With pity. Like having a low Ihalin for a brother was the worst thing that could have happened to her. Suddenly she wasn't defined as Bel, top of her class, breaker of hearts, granddaughter of the former leader of the Enforcers who would probably take that same position someday. She was defined as 'the one with the low for a brother.'

  Heln didn't really seem to care, either, that they were siblings or that Bel tried to keep her distance from that idea. Maybe he didn't like to be defined as 'Bel's brother' and he was just a lot less outspoken about it.

  Heln clearly hadn't been listening to Rhyss and Bel talking. "Look at these pillars."

  Bel obliged. She hadn't even been aware that there were pillars, but there it was, a solid half cylinder of stone that held up a cross piece above them. Roots and moss hung like Festival streamers from it. When Heln touched the moss on the pillar it lit up a vivid orange, cutting through gaps in the green, shooting up and down the wall like lightning. "Um. I think that was just… moss stuff, not magic."

  "Bioluminescence." Bel nodded. Honestly, she didn't need magic sensing abilities to know that. "Is that what you wanted to show me?"

  "No." Heln pulled a loose streamer of moss back. "It's all carved. I'm not an expert, but they look like runes to me."

  Bel frowned, moving her light a little closer. The blue glow cast the impressions in the rock into stark relief. "Those are runes. I couldn't tell you which ones. No one's used runic magic since… well, Eleti. These tunnels must be ancient."

  "Or the person who carved them was a little behind the times," Rhyss said. "Right now I'm more concerned with getting us out of these tunnels than figuring out why they were built."

  "But if we figure out what they are and why they're here then it could be easier to find a way out," Heln argued, but he let the moss drop. "Or at least, I don't know, a safe place."

  "The sooner we get moving, the sooner we get out of here and are safe," Rhyss said. "Besides, none of us can read runes. Not even the nerd."

  "I don't resent that remark at all." Bel gave her a bright smile, and Rhyss glared back. Exactly as she had expected. "I suppose you have both made your points and it's up to me to make the best course of action."

  "No." Rhyss deadpanned, turned on her heel, and started walking again, stomping hard enough that each step rung clearly around her.

  "Sorry, Heln, she made the more valid argument." Bel shrugged. "Alas, we'll just have to follow her. But I'm totally on your side. It's what half-sisters are for."

  "Shut up." Heln tugged at the moss again and his eyes widened. "Bel. Bel look at this."

  "I told you: I can't read… wow. That's. Uh. Vulgar."

  The pillar had a deer skull in profile carved onto it, the horns rising in jagged lines and fangs protruding from the upper jaw. It was probably a trick of the light, but she swore something glowed deep in the socket facing them. "Drop it. Let's go."

  "But—" Heln started.

  "Drop it," Bel advised him. "It's just a carving, it doesn't mean anything."

  Even with the moss covering the skull, Bel felt like cold fingers were being pressed one by one all the way up her spine. "I don't think there is a safe place here."

  Heln was still staring at the moss. Bel wrapped her fingers around his wrist and tugged him down the tunnel and away from the moss that'd so captivated him.

  The tunnel branched off a few times. Each time it did, Bel noted that Rhyss marked their way with the dagger. Heln didn't say anything more about the pillar, Bel didn't want to talk about it, and none of them wanted to think that they could have made a wrong turn, despite Rhyss's self-proclaimed incredible sense of direction. Everything looked the same to Be
l and she honestly couldn't tell if it had been hours or days when she finally just sat down in protest.

  "Look, Trainee, the rest of us didn't run up and down stairs with old men strapped to our backs."

  "I think your ideas of what my training entails are a little skewed."

  "The point is, it's cold, I'm tired, Heln is shaking, and maybe you can keep this up, but us defenseless civilians can't." Bel took off her bag and rolled her shoulder. "Ow. I am too young to lose my legs and my shoulder."

  "Your legs are fine." Heln said, but his words didn't stop him from sitting next to Bel. He was pale in Bel's illumination bubble, which was starting to look more white than blue.

  "You're wrong. They're about to fall off. And that would be a crime. A shame. A dark day in history." Bel leaned her head against Heln's shoulder. Her feet had hurt while she was standing and now they felt like they were on fire. It was the only warm point in the tunnels, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to appreciate it. "And then you'll have to carry me."

  "I wouldn't, though, so you'd just have to crawl around down here by yourself."

  And yet, Heln didn't shrug her off, so Bel doubted that, slightly. Still, she couldn't help another moment of bravado. "Rhyss would carry me."

  "No, I'd leave you to die." Rhyss sat down, a little too hard for her to be as ready to go as she acted. "I need a short break. I was hoping to find an area where you could carve magic script into the floor, but I suppose this will do."

  "Oh Rhyss, you trust me to create all of our barriers?"

  "Oh Bel, I just want to conserve my own magic for more important things." The smile Rhyss gave was saccharine venom. "Like fighting off monsters when you won't move your butt."

  "At the time it was a hypothetical monster, in my defense, but I won't question your insane instincts ever again."

  "If you have enough energy to snipe at each other, then you probably have the energy to walk," Heln said.

  "Well, I would feel a lot better about walking if I knew that we were actually getting somewhere." Bel looked up and down the tunnel. It looked the same both ways, only broken by more pillars that she didn't care to count and didn't dare look at. She wondered if the tunnels they hadn't traveled down looked the same and if the one near them had the same symbol. It was coated by a long, snarling tree root so it was impossible to tell. She didn't want to think about it anymore. "I'm starving."