A Lair of Bones

by Helen Scheuerer

  Once again, Roh lost herself in the monotony of the trek, taking the lead from Odi and guiding them through the winding tunnels of Talon’s Reach. It wasn’t long before she was drenched in sweat and her breathing turned ragged. Wordlessly, Odi took the sack of wires from her and slung them across his own back. The return journey went on forever, despite the breakneck pace Roh set. Every now and then, though, she could hear faint notes of music, which told her they were getting close. She yearned to hear the rich, full movements of the fiddles and the delicate notes of the harp.

  Not long now. She forced herself to put one heavy foot in front of the other.

  When they eventually stopped for a rest, Roh was too exhausted to eat. She passed the rations to Odi, who dug in with great enthusiasm. She’d never seen someone eat like that before. When he was done, he sighed, tipping his head back and resting it against the wet stone wall. Despite being more than anxious to return to Saddoriel, she knew they had to listen to their bodies. If she pushed them any harder they might not be in any condition to build the instrument that would save them; they might not make it back at all. Roh couldn’t help glancing at the token resting against Odi’s sternum. The simple shell curling at the end of the leather cord. He followed her gaze and lifted it between his fingers, turning it over, following its lines with his fingertips. ‘It was never going to wear off, was it?’ he asked.

  She lifted her moss-green eyes to his amber stare and swallowed thickly. ‘No.’

  ‘I didn’t think so.’

  ‘And you came back anyway?’

  ‘And I came back anyway.’

  Roh didn’t know what to say to that, didn’t know how to express the immeasurable gratitude she felt, or the relief. So a few moments later, she hauled herself up, dusted the seat of her pants and said, ‘Let’s go.’

  Odi sighed heavily. ‘But, Roh —’

  A high-pitched shriek pierced the air, echoing down the passageway. Roh clapped her hands over her ears. ‘What in the name of —’

  It sounded again, wild and desperate. ‘Help!’ the voice cried. ‘Someone, anyone! Help!’

  Without thinking, Roh started towards it, but Odi grabbed her by the wrist. ‘It could be a trap,’ he warned.

  He was right. And knowing her competitors, it probably was a trap. But her inner compass was pointing her right to it, and that she couldn’t ignore. Roh broke into a staggering run. Heart hammering, she raced towards the cries for help as another scream sounded, even more high-pitched than the last. Sheer terror. A left turn, another left turn, right and then left again. She left Odi behind and sprinted through the passageways. What if it was Orson or Harlyn? What if they’d been used as bait? She couldn’t let them suffer, couldn’t let anything bad happen —

  She skidded to a stop just in time. The tunnel gave way to marshland. Swampy, boggy marshland punctuated with gnarled, stick-thin trees. Stop, her inner compass commanded, revealing what she hadn’t seen straightaway.

  Quicksand. She scanned it wildly, looking for the source of the noise.

  ‘Help me, please!’ The voice didn’t belong to either of her friends, Roh realised, her eyes sweeping across the muck before her. A flash of a pale hand caught her attention. A human. And not just any human. Yrsa Ward’s human. The girl was up to her chest in quicksand, flailing in panic. The swampy mud was sucking her down into its murky depths, moving faster the more she squirmed.

  Roh felt heat on her neck and turned to find Odi panting behind her, laden with the supplies she’d left.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he said. ‘We have to help her.’

  The girl shrieked again as the quicksand glugged, pulling her in up to her throat.

  ‘Roh!’ Odi elbowed her roughly.

  Roh watched, as always, calculating the risks and the consequences. ‘If we leave her, Yrsa’s out of the tournament. It’s one less competitor to beat. One less highborn.’

  ‘You can’t be serious!’ Odi lunged towards the girl, but Roh grabbed his arm, hard enough to bruise.

  ‘Look closer, you fool.’

  She waited for Odi to spot what she had moments before: not just a patch of danger – the whole marshland was quicksand, camouflaged as mossy, muddy grass.

  ‘Gods,’ he murmured, taking in the deathtrap before them. ‘There has to be another way, Roh. We have to save her.’

  There was another way. Roh had seen it only moments after she’d spotted the quicksand. There were slightly raised stepping stones across the marshland, leading to the little islands dotted around and the offshoots of the passageways.

  ‘Roh! Is this the queen you’ll be? A queen who lets someone suffer, lets them die, for the sake of a shortcut?’

  The quicksand was past the girl’s throat and her eyes were wide with panic, her strangled sobs of terror echoing across the swampland.

  Fury surged through Roh. ‘Damn you,’ she hissed at Odi, shoving her cloak into his chest. She leaped out onto the first stone, catching her balance with a gasp as she slid across perilous algae. She didn’t look back at Odi as she jumped from stone to stone towards the sinking human. Roh made for the small island of firm ground closest to the girl and dived onto her stomach. She couldn’t believe she was here, doing this. The stench of the swamp hit her full in the face as she edged towards the quicksand.

  The human girl struggled towards her, managing to free one of her swallowed hands from the sucking mud. Roh swore, inching her body further out across the marshland and stretching out painfully with her arm.

  A wet, slippery hand found hers.

  Roh cursed as the girl’s grip slipped. ‘Come on,’ she ground out through clenched teeth.

  The hand reached for her again, covered in muck, and a rasping gurgle sounded as the human’s mouth and nose went under. All Roh could see were the girl’s terrified eyes.

  With her talons retracted, Roh made a final lunge with her hand, lacing her fingers through the human’s with a vice-like grip, and heaved the girl through the quicksand.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The human was as unsteady on her feet as a newborn calf. A slight girl, no older than fifteen, with mousy-brown hair and a timid demeanour. Her cold, trembling grip clamped down on Roh’s hand hard as she stood upright, dripping with slime, and Roh tried not to gag at the putrid smell.

  How has she lasted this long? Roh wondered in bewilderment as she helped the sopping-wet human across the stepping stones back to Odi, who was waiting with his cloak open for her. The girl dropped Roh’s hand as she stepped into the cloak gratefully and tugged it tightly around herself before turning to them both, still shivering.

  ‘Th-thank y-you,’ she said, making herself smaller beneath the cloak.

  ‘What’s your name?’ Odi asked.

  ‘T-t-t-Tess.’

  Odi offered a kind smile. ‘I’m Odi,’ he told her. ‘And that’s Roh.’

  Roh wiped her muck-covered hands on her pants. ‘We need to get moving,’ she said, scrunching up her nose at the smell coming from Tess. ‘You’d best be able to keep up.’

  ‘I-I … I c-can.’

  ‘Good.’ She made to continue down the passageway.

  ‘Roh?’ Odi’s voice echoed down the tunnel.

  ‘What now?’ Her newfound truce with Odi wasn’t going to last long at this rate. Thanks to him, they were now navigating Talon’s Reach with a massive liability in tow.

  ‘Tess’ token,’ he said.

  ‘What about it?’

  ‘Well, she doesn’t have one.’

  ‘And what do you want me to do about it?’

  ‘Well …’

  ‘Tess.’ Roh turned to the cowering girl. ‘Where do you last remember having your token?’

  ‘I … I t-th-think it was b-b-back in the l-l-lair.’

  Roh clenched her jaw as she faced Odi once more. ‘Chances are, that’s where she lost it, or where Finn Haertel and his underhanded human cut it from her neck as they did yours. We don’t have time to go searching for another competitor
’s token. She’s lucky we got her out of the quicksand. We owe her and Yrsa nothing.’

  Odi opened his mouth to argue, but Roh raised a palm.

  ‘That’s enough,’ she said. ‘I won’t hear another word about it. Every moment we stand here is a moment less we have to work on our project, a moment taken away from something that might grant you freedom. Let’s move.’

  Thankfully, Odi didn’t attempt any more protests as Roh turned on her heel and started down the passageway. She tried to walk far enough ahead that the stench of the swamp muck on Tess didn’t cling to her nostrils, but the humans were slow and she couldn’t leave them completely unchaperoned, not even with Odi’s shell token still intact. She’d left the packs with Odi, figuring he deserved to carry them after his merciful stunt with Tess, but he was also keeping Tess on the right path, as she was continually wandering off, hearing phantom music and cries from people she once knew, down different tunnels.

  ‘Mama? Mama, is that you?’ she’d call quietly into the darkness.

  ‘For Lamaka’s sake,’ Roh muttered, taking the packs off Odi. ‘She’s your responsibility,’ Roh told him, nodding to the dazed girl.

  ‘Fine,’ he said.

  Unbelievable. Fury rolled through Roh as she kept up her pace. She couldn’t believe she’d allowed Odi to rope her into this fiasco. She had much bigger things to worry about than the safety of another competitor’s human. Yet here she was, playing pack mule so her own human could play saviour.

  Suddenly, Roh staggered with a gasp as the ground beneath her shook violently. Stumbling to stay upright, she looked back wildly, spotting Odi and Tess pressing themselves to the trembling cave walls. The uncontrollable vibrations dislodged several stalactites from the ceiling.

  ‘Watch out!’ Roh yelled, raising one of the packs to protect her head as a stalactite came shooting down towards her, its sharp point puncturing the delicate skin of her forearm as it fell, before it shattered on the ground. But Roh barely felt it as she watched in terror while Odi covered Tess’ body with his own, pressing her flat against the cave wall. The dagger-like formations rained down on them, stabbing into the damp earth of the tunnel floor or crumbling upon impact. Roh saw Odi flinch as one skimmed his shoulder, but she was too far away to see how bad the damage was.

  ‘Odi!’ she shouted over the rumbling, but he didn’t turn to her. Roh swore as another stalactite pierced her arm, and this time she felt the wet, warm trickle of blood. A heart-stopping screech sounded in the distance before the tremor stopped, returning the passageway to its former quiet stillness.

  ‘Dresmis and Thera,’ she panted, before dropping the pack and darting towards the others. ‘Odi? Odi, are you alright?’ She pulled him away from Tess, her hands going straight to the shoulder she’d seen hit. He winced as she pulled his shirt down from his neck.

  ‘It’s just a graze.’ Relief surged at the sight of the raised pink welt. ‘It didn’t actually break the skin.’

  Odi gripped her hand, turning it over, inspecting her arm. ‘You’re injured.’

  ‘It’s nothing,’ Roh said. And when the concern in Odi’s gaze didn’t ease, she shrugged him off. ‘Truly. I’ve had worse just from being in the workshop.’ Though her arm pulsed with pain, she scanned the cavern, searching for any clue as to what might be going on. ‘That’s three times now,’ she murmured, more to herself than to the others. ‘Three times the lair has trembled like this.’

  ‘You still don’t know what it is?’ Odi asked her as he checked Tess over for injuries.

  Roh shook her head. ‘All we can know for sure is that something is stirring in the currents beyond the walls of Talon’s Reach. Something big.’

  Odi nodded, as though he expected no less. ‘Tess is fine,’ he added, patting the girl reassuringly on the shoulder.

  Roh eyed her warily. ‘That’s twice now we’ve saved you.’ Pushing the damp hair from her eyes and sighing heavily, she started off again, her legs aching and sweat pricking at her scalp. Exhaustion had its claws in her and she tried to ignore the whispers of the humans behind her; she had no energy to take interest in whatever trivial matters the two saps were immersed in. Roh had places to be, a piano to build.

  The monotony of the journey ate away at Roh, fuelling her impatience to get back to the task at hand. The cut on her arm pulsed with pain, but she navigated the passageways without a second thought and tapped her foot impatiently whenever Odi and Tess fell behind.

  Every now and then, Tess’ voice sounded the same question: ‘Mama? Mama, is that you?’

  Something about it made Roh’s skin prickle. Had she ever asked after her own mother like that?

  To her relief, they passed the original water forest they’d ventured through, and soon, she could hear the faint notes of the harp music playing from the heart of the lair. They were close.

  When at last they entered Saddoriel, Roh realised it was night-time. The enchanted light above mirrored the image of the moonlight she’d glimpsed. But it wasn’t the same. It didn’t have the same depth and the stars didn’t glimmer in the same way. There were certainly no falling stars to be seen. Roh allowed herself a deep breath with closed eyes, picturing what she’d witnessed from the entrance of their territory. She would see it again, just as she’d promised herself. After a moment, she motioned for Odi and Tess to follow her. She didn’t want the three of them to be caught out here by any of the other competitors, knowing that it would be assumed she’d sabotaged Yrsa. That was the way the cyrens thought. It was the way she thought, most of the time. Roh led the humans across the foyer and into the residences at a jog. The sooner this was over with, the better. They encountered no one.

  Thank the gods, Roh thought as she found Yrsa Ward’s door and rapped her knuckles against it. The solid timber creaked on its hinges as it opened a crack.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ said a gravelly voice from within. There was a vicious hiss.

  Roh looked down to see a horned serpent rising up from the ground. With a shudder, she ignored it and pulled Tess to her side, gently pushing the door further ajar. ‘Returning something that belongs to you.’

  The door opened fully and Yrsa stared at Roh open-mouthed. ‘What …?’

  Roh decided then and there that she liked the look of surprise on highborns. ‘Finn’s been stealing human tokens,’ she told Yrsa. ‘You might want to retrace her steps.’ She said no more. She didn’t have the energy to explain it all – she was too focused on fighting down the feeling that this very moment would come back to haunt her. They left the sodden Tess with Yrsa, who stared after them from the door, her serpent coiled quietly at her ankles.

  Though Roh wanted nothing more than to head straight to the abandoned water forest to begin work, she knew it was foolish at this hour, that they were both nigh on delirious from the journey and all it had entailed. She felt off balance, and the stench of the marshlands was still trapped in her nose, so she led Odi back to their chambers. Once they were inside, Roh dropped the packs with a moan and headed straight for the washroom. Frankly, she was sick of the sight of Odi and she needed to decompress in privacy. Did that make her selfish? That her gratitude had been so short-lived? She was too exhausted to delve further into the subject. The question of her own moral compass had been murky for some time now, anyway.

  Miraculously, hot water had been left for them, and she poured bucket after bucket into the wooden tub. She peeled away her clothes, leaving them in a heap on the tiled floor, and tested the water with her fingertips. It was hot, but that was exactly how she wanted it. She stepped into the tub and slowly lowered herself, inch by inch, into the near-scalding water. She tipped her head back to rest against the tub’s edge and let the water flow across her chest. The heat soothed her aching muscles and the tension she carried in her body. This is what I need. She lay there motionless for a time, the silence washing over her. She hadn’t realised how exhausted she was until this moment of stillness. Ever since her entry into the tournament, it had been
one shock after another, one hurdle after the last and her mind … Her mind was so full of questions and worries that it felt tight in her skull, as though it might burst.

  Roh sank down to the bottom of the tub, submerging herself. The water muted the world around her, drowned out the fears, the fury and the clawing desperation for truth. Beneath the surface of the water, she felt at peace. A similar sort of contentedness to when the notes of a melody settled in her chest. She watched her hair float up around her face, revelling in her ability to breathe under water. When she and the others had been nesters they had been given brief sea training. Small groups of them had been taken out into the currents and taught how to manipulate the tides, how to breathe water as though it were air, how to use their scales to communicate with each other soundlessly. But it had been a long time since then. Roh hadn’t felt the salt water of the sea on her skin in years, not since she, Harlyn and Orson had gone beyond the veil to collect the coral larkspur. Saddorien cyrens belonged to the lair. The memory she had of her sea training was faint; the cool kiss of the current and the unending blue vastness seemed far away. She could pretend all she wanted, but it wasn’t the same here. Her breathing abilities were second nature. She didn’t have to think, didn’t have to practise, but … she missed the salt water.

  Roh broke the surface, her troubles returning to her. Filled once more with a sense of urgency, she scrubbed at her skin with the lavish soaps provided, and watched as the bath turned from clear to cloudy. Her limbs felt heavy as she finished washing and heaved herself, dripping wet, from the tub. She would need to rest before starting work – there was no getting around that fact. She’d be useless otherwise. Roh towelled herself dry and pulled on a robe that hung on the back of the door. Tying it tightly around her waist, she entered their main chambers, hair still damp.

  Spotting Odi sitting by the window, she said, ‘Take tonight to bathe and rest. We rise before daybreak.’

  Odi nodded and headed for the washroom. He paused in the doorway. ‘You did the right thing,’ he told her.