Yes, it’s ruining my stale air, but I’ll survive.
The water turned from a dribble to a faster flow. Sardelle shifted away from the opening and returned to navigating the soulblade through the tight passage, though she let her awareness seep into the rocks around, searching for the source of the water. It seemed to be coming from behind that huge slab of granite she had broken up. Her first silly thought was that one of the pipes her people had installed to supply indoor plumbing had erupted, but surely that had happened long ago. This was probably some hidden spring she had stumbled across. A spring that—
Hurry, Jaxi urged. Something’s groaning in here. It sounds like a dam about to burst.
Great.
At least they were close. Sardelle stretched out her hand, certain Jaxi’s sleek steel form would float out of the hole at any moment.
But an alarming crack emanated from the rock first. The mountain groaned, not just from the direction of the granite, but all around her. A tremor ran beneath her feet, this one fiercer than the one the dynamite had caused. And it was followed by a second and a third, until Sardelle had to brace herself against the tunnel wall to keep from tumbling to her knees. Behind her, dirt shifted and trickled down from the ceiling.
With single-minded determination, Sardelle kept her focus on Jaxi, on pulling the blade out, on—
There. The soulblade flew out point first on a gush of water that spattered Sardelle in the chest. The sword might have struck her, too, but it flared with a silvery glow and pivoted in the air. The hilt came to rest in her hand, even though Sardelle had been focused more on flailing and staggering back from the gushing water than on catching it.
Go, Jaxi urged, the word echoing in Sardelle’s head with twice the power now that they were touching.
She would have sprinted away regardless. More than dirt was falling around her now. With the shaking of the earth, rocks flew free and smashed down from the ceiling with the intensity of meteors slamming into the earth. Thanks to Jaxi enhancing her mental energy, forming a shield around herself was a simple matter, but neither of them had the power to unbury themselves if the mountain fell on them.
Sardelle leaped ore carts and abandoned tools as rocks and dirt bounced off her barrier, inches from her shoulders and head. A boulder as big as she was crashed down not three feet in front of her. She almost smacked into it—Jaxi did gouge a chunk of it away before Sardelle stopped. There was no way around it, so she climbed up the side. There was only a foot of space at the top, and she had to suck everything in to squeeze between the boulder and the dirt ceiling. Rocks clawed at her shield.
The lighting grew dimmer—the lanterns behind her being shaken out or smothered by dust. She glanced back, and her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. It wasn’t dust. A torrent of water was racing toward her, knocking off the lanterns and dousing them as it rushed closer.
She scrambled the rest of the way across the boulder, tearing her fingernails in her effort to pull herself over faster. She tumbled down the other side, managing to land on her feet, then sprinted again. The open chamber at the base of the tram came into view.
Almost there. Ten more steps. Five.
At three steps, the river smashed into her back. Her shield kept it from hurting and dulled some of the iciness, but it didn’t keep the flow from sweeping her up into its grasp. The force knocked her into a wall and then tumbled her feet over head, mocking the power she thought she had.
If not for the big chamber, Sardelle would have drowned in a tunnel flooded with water, but the flow spread out, its height diminishing. She scrambled to her feet as it gushed out around her. Thinking she would have to deal with guards, she lifted the sword, ready to deflect bullets if she had to. But nobody was there. A good thing, since Jaxi was glowing like a comet.
Calm that down some, will you?
Sorry. I’m excited to be out.
It’ll be hard to sneak out of the fort with you outshining the sun.
Is that the next goal? Out of the fort?
Sardelle thought of Ridge. It pained her to say it, but she whispered, “I think it has to be.”
Water continued to gush out of the tunnel they had exited. Some of it was being funneled into other tunnels, but the level was rising in the chamber too. Sardelle sloshed toward a cage resting at the base of the tram shaft. It would be easier to sneak out if she climbed up the long passage, but going up would be much harder than sliding down it had been. Even on the way in, it had been a tedious slog.
Speaking of slogging… More water coursed toward the shaft, making the cage wobble on its track.
Yes, I’m hurrying. Sardelle pulled open the cage door.
She waved at the lever outside. It flipped upward, but the machine that powered the tram groaned. Its big flywheels were half underwater.
Uh oh.
We might be climbing after all, Jaxi thought.
We? You have some legs tucked under your hilt that you’re going to use to help?
Hush. I’ll see if I can get that machinery moving.
Sardelle had the engineering knowledge of an ox, so she was happy to leave that task to Jaxi. The ever-rising water level made her nervous though. “We can always get out and climb if we have to,” she muttered.
She imagined the water rising up the tram shaft, threatening to drown her if she couldn’t climb quickly enough.
No, numerous other levels existed above them with countless miles of tunnels. It would take an ocean to flood them all, and even if she had chanced across a spring that big, it would take a long time for all that water to fill in.
A thunderous crack sounded, so loud Sardelle brought her hands to her ears for protection, clanging the sword on the roof of the cage. More cracks followed, each one like an explosion of dynamite.
Jaxi, if you can’t get that contraption moving…
The cage lurched. Sardelle couldn’t hear it over the snapping rock and groaning earth all around her, but she felt it. After a few awkward trembles that nearly hurled her into the walls, the cage started upward. It bumped and twitched, as if it were going over rocks on the tracks—and maybe it was—but it continued upward.
You were doubting me?
Who, me?
All the lights disappeared below, swallowed by water and collapsing rocks. Jaxi didn’t know if the entire level had gone down, but she prayed that all of the miners had fled because of the ruse with the gas.
Guess they won’t be finding and burning any more artifacts for a while. Jaxi sounded smug.
Sardelle couldn’t summon a similar emotion. She hadn’t meant to create all that chaos. She was lucky to be alive.
She lifted her gaze toward the top of the shaft. Darkness must have fallen while she was digging around, for she couldn’t pick out anything. Had the soldiers and miners above heard all the noise? Did they know she was down there? She stretched out with her senses… and cringed.
No less than fifty people were gathered around the mouth of the shaft. She doubted they had come together to play card games. She also doubted that their presence had anything to do with enemy attacks—everyone would have been on the walls then.
Maybe we should stop the cage and climb out, Sardelle suggested. But what would that do? She would have to crawl up the steep, slick shaft, and she had a feeling those people would still be waiting there when she arrived.
Yes.
Yes, we should stop it, or yes, they’ll be waiting?
They’ve been there a while.
Sardelle remembered Jaxi’s earlier warning.
Because of me. She didn’t make it a question.
Yes.
Sardelle made sure Jaxi wasn’t glowing as the cage traveled the final meters. If she had to, she could fight her way out, shielding herself from bullets and blades the same way she had against falling rocks, but she didn’t want to warn anyone of her powers by emerging with a glowing sword. Although thanks to that book, they probably already knew what to expect. And even if she fought her
way past everyone, what then? Magical talents or not, she wouldn’t be able to navigate that pass in the winter, not without a ship. She wasn’t about to call down that shaman for a ride.
It’s a possibility.
She shuddered—or maybe shivered, thanks to being wet and feeling the icy drafts coming down from above. No. It’s not.
Maybe she could figure out how to fly Ridge’s dragon contraption. Powering it wouldn’t be a problem, but the rest? She had been daunted by the simple tram machine.
“Let’s just see what’s waiting for us,” she muttered.
She might have sensed fifty people, but when they came into sight, it seemed like a thousand torches out there surrounding the tram cage. After the ride up in the darkness, Sardelle squinted at the light. It didn’t keep her from seeing all the rifles aimed at her. Even miners were armed, albeit with pickaxes. Fear hung in the air. Fear of her? Gods, she had been helping them all month. How could they forget about that? How could they think she was an enemy now?
Through the cage bars, she spotted General Nax at the back of the crowd—he also had a rifle aimed in her direction. Ridge stood next to him. He had a rifle, but the butt rested on the ground. Only his frown was aimed at her. Somehow that was worse than all of the weapons.
Sardelle blinked back tears. A sorceress striding out to fight shouldn’t be weeping.
I can send the cage back down if you want.
It’s flooded by now, I’m sure.
Not all the levels.
Sardelle shook her head. With all of those men, Nax could guard this exit indefinitely, and she couldn’t stay down there forever.
She was tired after her ordeal below, but she threw her remaining strength into a shield around her body, then pushed open the gate door. The men tensed, their fingers tight on their triggers, but nobody fired.
Of course not. The general wants to know where the rest of the crystals are first.
Hopelessly mired under the new lake, I hope. Sardelle held her arms out and let the soulblade dangle in her grip. Unthreateningly.
She met Ridge’s eyes. He didn’t look away, but he did mask his expression. She could have probed a little and figured out what he was thinking, but she had a feeling she didn’t want to know.
“Take her sword,” General Nax said.
Her hand tightened on the hilt. Fight now or fight later? If she fought now, she risked hurting a lot of people. She ought to be able to escape whatever cell they locked her in and find Jaxi later. At night, when most people would be sleeping.
Sighing, she turned the soulblade, extending it hilt first toward one of the twitchy privates who crept forward. Once she was unarmed, two other soldiers walked up, grabbed her by the backs of her arms, and steered her toward a building she knew held cells. She looked up at the sky, at stars so big and bright they seemed touchable, and hoped she hadn’t made the wrong choice.
She almost tripped at a sight below the stairs—while she had been down in the tunnels, one of the wall towers had been obliterated. Now that she was out of the crowd, she could see rubble in the courtyard, too, dark rocks against the stark snow drifts. So, she had missed the first real battle. How had it gone? Had Ridge and the others driven off the Cofah? Brought down their ship?
You found a soulblade, came a hungry and unwelcome thought in her head.
Sardelle’s shoulders slumped. The shaman. He, at least, was still alive.
Now I see why you’ve been here, what you wanted. Brilliant.
Thank you, Sardelle responded though she knew it was more Jaxi’s existence he found brilliant than anything she had done.
A soft laugh sounded in her thoughts as the soldiers led her into a cell-filled basement hallway. Better sleep with it under your pillow. As rare as they are anymore, I’ll be looking for it when we return.
Ugh. Not three minutes had passed, and she was already certain she had made the wrong decision. Jaxi was getting locked in some office or supply closet—where a powerful shaman would have no trouble finding the blade—and Sardelle was getting locked in a cell.
A heavy iron door thumped shut behind her, and a latch was thrown. Utter darkness filled the tiny room.
I think we need to break out tonight, Jaxi.
Sardelle expected an answer along the lines of, “That’s obvious,” but she didn’t get an answer at all.
Jaxi?
Silence.
She realized with an alarming start that she couldn’t feel Jaxi anymore, either. Not on the fort, not anywhere. Even when the soulblade had been buried in the mountain, she had sensed it. What had they done? Thrown Jaxi off a cliff?
Sardelle dropped her hands to her knees and told herself hyperventilating wouldn’t do her any good. The advice didn’t help.
13
Sardelle needed to escape and find Jaxi—wherever the soulblade was—but she had to wait until some of those milling soldiers and miners went to their beds. Maybe the guard outside her door would grow less alert too. She paced in circles around the tiny cell. The carnage she had left down below had people buzzing around the courtyard, going up and down on the tram. And she sensed Ridge and the engineer working on the flier again. Er, wait. No, he wasn’t up there anymore. She swept across the fort with her senses—others she might not have been able to identify so readily, but she knew his aura well by now. She halted in the middle of her circle and faced the door.
He was on his way down here.
To see her? Her heart swelled with relief, but the emotion soon faltered. She didn’t know what he felt, what he wanted. Maybe the general knew they’d had a relationship and had decided to send Ridge to question her. And if, instead of strong-arming her, he gave her that quirky smile, she would tell him whatever he wanted. No, she would do that anyway. What did the crystals matter to her? What mattered was finding Jaxi. She would trade him whatever information he wanted if he gave her the soulblade’s location.
It took Ridge longer than she expected to come down the stairs and into her hallway of cells. There was an uncharacteristic anxiousness about him. Those pauses… was he stopping to listen? To glance back over his shoulder? The general hadn’t sent him at all, she realized. He was sneaking down. Did he know about the guard? What was he going to say to the man?
Soft murmurs started up outside the door. Sardelle leaned her ear against the cold iron, but she still couldn’t make out words.
A soft thunk sounded below her ear—a key turning in the lock. She stepped back.
“Sardelle?” Ridge whispered, pushing open the door a couple of inches.
“Yes.” Ridiculous that her heart was beating so loudly that he could probably hear it. His opinion of her shouldn’t matter so much. But it did. She could fight against everyone else in the fort, but she didn’t want to fight him.
“I thought you might have sneaked away already.” Ridge stepped inside, a lantern in hand.
The hallway outside was dark, and Sardelle didn’t see the guard. Ridge leaned his back against the wall, not coming close.
She tried not to let that distance sting. He was here at least.
“Not without Ja—my sword.”
“Ah.” Did he sound hurt by her answer? Did her feelings toward him still matter?
“And,” Sardelle added, “I would not wish to leave you without… ” Knowing if he still cared? Knowing if he could possibly see past that which he feared in her?
Ridge sighed. “Saying goodbye?”
“No. I mean, I don’t want to say goodbye.”
Sardelle shifted from foot to foot in the silence that followed. She didn’t regret saying the words, but maybe she should have waited and let him talk first.
“You’re not saying anything,” she observed oh-so-helpfully.
“You can’t read my thoughts?”
“I don’t. We aren’t like that. Very few ever were, except for those who went rogue and quite literally ruined the world for the rest of us. There are rules that we swear by and hold dearly. Or did.”
&
nbsp; After another long pause, Ridge asked, “How old are you?”
“Thirty-four.”
“How… ”
“This is hard to believe—trust me, I had a hard time believing it myself when I woke up, but I basically missed three hundred years.”
The single lantern didn’t provide a lot of light, and Ridge’s face—which had been carefully neutral through most of their conversation—didn’t change much, though his bottom lip did lower a few millimeters.
“I was here when the original attack came that collapsed this mountain,” Sardelle said. “It was actually your ancestors, I suppose. They figured out a way to sap in beneath our community when nearly everyone was home for a big celebration, and I’m not sure how it happened exactly or where they found such powerful explosives—your dynamite hadn’t been invented yet, so far as I know—but it was devastating.”
“My ancestors.” He sounded like he didn’t want to believe her.
Sardelle shrugged. “Well, maybe not yours specifically. Yours might have been off inventing flying machines somewhere.”
She watched him, hoping for a smile, but he was either too stunned or wasn’t believing anything she said.
“Ridge,” she said, then paused, half-expecting him to tell her not to call him by first name anymore. He didn’t. “The sword. It’s mine. I don’t mean in the I-found-it-so-I-have-the-strongest-claim-on-it way, but in the… we were bonded when I was sixteen and passed my exams. There’s a spirit inside, that of someone who was once a sorceress but who died young and placed her soul in the blade so she could continue to live on, in a manner of speaking. This happened over three—er, six hundred years ago, and Jaxi has been bonded with several handlers since then, but most recently with me.”
Somewhere during her speech, Ridge had leaned back against the wall, one hand propped on his hip. If he weren’t holding the lantern with the other, he probably would have propped that one up too. The stance said… I’m not buying this.
“I don’t need you to believe all that,” Sardelle said, “and it’s perfectly understandable if you don’t, but I just wanted you to know what Jaxi—the sword means to me. She’s all I have left of my family, my friends, my life.” Her voice broke, and she took a few breaths, struggling for equilibrium. The last few weeks had been busy enough to distract her from all she had lost—aside from a few nights in those awful barracks when she had allowed herself to weep silently—but that didn’t mean the emotions weren’t there, hovering beneath the surface.
Beginnings: Five Heroic Fantasy Adventure Novels Page 103