by JA Andrews
“You too.”
“I’m in the grass. No one can hurt me.” She shifted back and forth, her bare little toes digging into the soil.
“There’s nothing unexpected going on nearby?”
She shook her head. “Three Roven spread out far on the other side of the rift, the one who passed us earlier is still heading south, and there’s a herd of sheep with two shepherds grazing so far to the south you wouldn’t be able to see them, even if the sun was up.”
“You’re amazing,” he said, tousling the top of her head. He sat at the edge of the hole and felt along the wall until he found the rung of a ladder.
She smiled at him, then turned and tilted her head slightly. “That dragon isn’t home.”
Will stopped.
“He’s usually down by a city that sits on a bay, with a big cliff below it.”
“That’s Tun,” Will said. “That’s the city of the Sunn Clan. They are the ones with the dragon.”
“The grass goes all the way to the edges of the cliff and he lies there, looking at the ocean,” Rass said. “But tonight he’s much closer. Not near any cities or any people. He’s just lying in the grass.”
The wind shoved through scrub brush around him, shaking it against the sky. The heavy moon was almost low enough to touch the horizon and the stars above that were bright enough to brave the moonlight glittered clearly. Will scanned them, his mind kept offering the silhouette of wings in any dark spot. “How close?”
“It would take you more than a day to walk to him. But why didn’t he go home?”
“I’m not sure, but keep track of him. We’ll be back soon. I hope.”
“I’d like to meet your sister,” Rass whispered to him. “I hope she’s happy to come.”
“Me too.” He grabbed a handle on the lid. It swung easily, and Will pulled the not-rock down into place. A dim orange glow illuminated the base of the ladder.
At the bottom, a rough dirt tunnel ran off to the east. Hal hunched his head down to avoid the rough ceiling and the thin roots that hung down from it. The air was damp and earthy but not as stale as Will had expected. He blew out a long breath, trying to slow his heart. Somehow being here, below the empty Sweep, was worse than being under a solid mountain. The tunnel left him feeling trapped and vulnerable at the same time.
Sora held a bowl of glimmer moss ahead of her as she peered down the tunnel.
Hal dipped his finger into another one that sat on a rough shelf. “It’s wet. Someone’s been in this tunnel recently.”
Will cast out, but besides Sora, Hal, and the ceiling of grass above them, there was nothing living larger than a worm. “There’s no one in the tunnel, and Rass says no one’s nearby.”
Hal frowned at the bowl before turning and heading down the tunnel. Their feet made no sound in the soft earth, and the silence and the unwavering orange light made everything feel dreamlike. And not the good kind of dream. Will had the irrational fear that this tunnel would never end, or worse—lead him to that horrible barren rift.
The tunnel ran relatively straight. When Hal held up his hand to stop, Will’s fear that the tunnel wouldn’t end was instantly replaced by the fear that it had, and that he was about to sneak into Killien’s house. Hal motioned Will to come up with him. Will put his hand on Sora’s arm as he passed her and could feel her tension. He squeezed up beside Hal and found himself looking at the back of a piece of fabric.
“Anyone there?” Hal whispered, almost noiselessly.
Will cast out past the fabric, but found no one. He shook his head and Hal pulled back the fabric and stepped through. With his heart pounding so loud enough to shake the Sweep, Will followed. Sora came though with the glimmer moss and lit a small room in orange light. The wall to their left held shelves packed with books, candles and paper. Hal let the fabric fall back and Will could make out that it was a wall hanging with the image of the Serpent Queen stretching darkly across it. Most of the fabric was darkish in the dim light, but the form of the queen, which slithered over mountain peaks and coiled around the moon, was utterly black. He reached out to touch her and his fingers ran across soft, thick fabric that caught slightly at his fingertips. Pulling his hand away, he wiped it on his pants to erase the feeling.
There were other wallhangings too, overlapping on the walls. On one shelf, a pile of gems glittered dully in the dim light. Off to the side, two greenish stones glowed with a watery light, like blades of grass under a stream. In the far corner, a set of leather armor hung, silver buckles glinting in the light. Sora walked closer, holding the glimmer moss up to it, revealing intricately tooled leather with runes covering most of the surface.
“Killien’s ceremonial armor,” Hal whispered. “I’ve only seen him wear it once, the day the clan named him Torch.” Hal turned toward the door and stopped so abruptly that Will almost walked into his back. He stared above the door at two empty wooden pegs.
“Killien’s sword.” Hal turned back to the armor, then spun slowly around the room. “Svard Naj, when we’re in the rifts, it’s always here. Killien never moves it. He’s almost superstitious about it.”
“Maybe he took it to show his new son,” Sora said, irritated. “We should move.”
Will looked up at the empty hooks. The seax Flibbet the Peddler had given Killien. The one the Torch had said was “too serious for a mere fight.” The empty hooks looked black and slightly ominous in the mosslight.
With one last frown at the hooks, Hal pulled open the door. It squeaked and Will’s heart slammed up into his throat. They all froze for a moment, but when no sounds came from the house, Hal stepped in to the hall. He led them to the right, and stopped near the end of the hall. Three doors sat closed ahead of them. Will cast out. There were two people, one behind each of the doors on the right. He told Sora and she nodded.
“Any idea which is Ilsa?”
Will shook his head.
“Stay here,” she whispered. She handed the glimmer moss to Hal and walked to the first door. Easing it open, she slipped inside. She was back quickly, and with a shake of her head, moved to the other room. In moments she was out of that one as well, shaking her head again. Will sank back against the wall. He cast out again, but there was no one else on this floor. Upstairs he could just sense someone, but there was no one nearby.
Hal motioned them back to the room with the armor and they crept quietly back down the hall.
“If she’s not here,” he said once they’d closed the door. “She could be anywhere.”
Will sank against one of the shelves, the fact that she wasn’t here loomed in front of him like a blank wall.
Sora paced back and forth down the room. “You have to have some idea, Hal,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “At the other end of this hall a door leads to the kitchen. Upstairs is a gathering room and Killien’s sleeping quarters.”
Sora froze, spun slowly around and fixed Hal with a dangerous look. “You better not be suggesting Ilsa is in Killien’s quarters.”
“No,” Hal said quickly. “He wouldn’t.”
A flicker of anger pushed past the fear and Will stared at Hal. The big man turned to him and held his hands out toward Will, his face earnest. “Killien and Lilit are inseparable. And since she almost died, he barely leaves her side. He wouldn’t.”
Will pressed his hands against his eyes, blocking out the dim light of the moss. Sora’s footsteps paced quietly, Hal let out a long, slow breath, and the fear that had been growing in Will turned icy. Where had Killien put his sister?
“I’m going upstairs.” He pushed himself away from the shelves. “Killien is going to tell me where she is.”
“No you’re not.” Sora stepped between Will and the door.
“I’m not leaving here without knowing where she is.” Will stepped forward, but Sora didn’t move.
“If anyone goes upstairs, it’s going to be me,” she said calmly.
Will stared at her incredulous. “Absolutely not. Killien w
ill kill you.”
One of Sora’s eyebrows rose the smallest bit. “I wasn’t asking your permission.”
“And I wasn’t asking yours. If my sister is here, I’m going to find her.”
Sora took in an irritated breath, then froze. Her eyes flew wide and she spun toward the door, sliding the knife from her belt.
Will cast out and felt the blazing vitalle of someone directly on the other side of the door. He swore under his breath. Killien.
Except this person was too small. He clutched at a strand of hope. Ilsa?
The door began to swing open and the three of them backed up. Will cast out again looking for vitalle to draw in, but found nothing but people. He reached for the knife Douglon had given him, gripping the hilt to keep his hand from trembling.
“You’ll be looking around the rift for a long time if you’re expecting to find Ilsa,” a woman’s voice came through the opening.
The door creaked the rest of the way open and the dim orange light of the glimmer moss barely reached the face of Lilit.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Hello, Hal,” Lilit’s said lightly, looking down at the bundle in her arms. “Sevien was restless, so I thought a little walk would help him. But maybe he’s a blessed child. Maybe he could sense rats in the storage room.” When she looked up to consider them, her face was stony. “Sora,” she acknowledged coldly, “and Will the Keeper.”
The bundle she carried gave an irritated, tiny grunt and Will pulled his hand off his knife. “Where’s my sister?”
Lilit stepped into the room, stopping underneath the empty sword pegs. Hal took a step back away from her, his hands held out to the side, unthreatening. Sora stood her ground, letting her knife fall to her side, but not putting it away.
“I had expected you two to return as Hal’s prisoners.” Lilit’s eyes were cold and flat. “Not as his companions, sneaking into my house like thieves.”
“We were his prisoners briefly,” Sora said when Hal didn’t answer. “And then he was ours.”
“He wasn’t our prisoner,” Will said. “He was merely restrained momentarily so we could make our escape.”
“And then your husband sent the dragon,” Hal said. “And I would have been a charred lump on the mountainside if they hadn’t saved me.”
“That’s very touching,” Lilit said. “Which part of that compelled you to show my husband’s enemies the hidden entrance that leads into our very home?”
Hal dropped his hands to his side. “Did you know it was Killien who brought the frost goblins to the clan?”
Lilit stood perfectly still, her eyes fixed on Hal suspiciously.
“It’s true,” Sora said.
Lilit was quiet for a long moment before she breathed out something between a laugh and a curse. “He called an army of goblins.”
“Where’s my sister?” Will asked again.
Lilit shifted to face him, bouncing the baby in her arms and considering him, distaste mingling with frustration on her face. “I know you were there, with Sora in the tent. The night Sevien was born. I remember your words.” Her eyes closed. “But the Flame of the Morrow was not like the grass…She reached down into the Sweep…and found the strength to fight on.” She opened her eyes. “But it wasn’t the Sweep that gave me strength that night, was it?”
He considered denying it a moment, then shook his head.
“I felt it come through your hands,” she said.
“Does Killien know?” Sora asked.
Lilit shook her head. “I wasn’t sure it was real.” She looked down at Sevien and blew out a decisive breath. “Killien has left, taking several slaves with him, including Ilsa.”
“Where?” Will asked.
Hal looked up at the empty sword pegs on the wall. “He went to the enclave.” He turned back to Lilit, his face incredulous. “He took the seax, and went without being invited. They’re going to kill him.”
Lilit’s shifted the baby and her head twitched in a nod.
“What’s he going to do? How many men did he take?”
“No one, aside from the slaves. He wouldn’t tell me his plans, but I think he’s going to kill Torch Ohan. It was the Panos who attacked us and betrayed their word.”
“He went alone?” Hal shook his head. “He’s gone mad.”
The baby fussed and she dropped her face down to kiss his head, bouncing him gently. When she looked up, it was at Sora. “Go after him.”
Sora stepped back. “There’s nothing we can do.”
“They’ll kill him.” Lilit turned to Hal. “You have to bring him back.”
“He’s not going to listen to us,” Hal said.
“If he kills Ohan at the enclave, they’ll execute him. If he dies we have no strong choice for a Torch. The clan will be overrun. And I—” Her voice caught and her hand tightened on Sevien’s blanket. “He can’t die.”
“He’s impossible to stop once he sets his mind to something,” Hal said.
“Then tie him up and drag him home.” Lilit’s words cut through the room. She spun toward Will, the coldness of her face cracking with desperation. “You saved my life when you had no reason to. And you have no reason to save Killien now, but stop my husband from getting himself killed and I promise you, you will have your sister and your freedom.”
“Why did he take Ilsa?”
She bounced the baby for a breath before answering. “Because she’s the only leverage he has against you. And he wants to make sure you don’t steal her away.”
Lilit clung to the baby. She was angry, but she was genuinely scared.
“How far is it to the enclave?” Will asked.
Sora blew out a frustrated breath.
“We can’t get in,” Hal objected. “They meet in a cave. The other clans bring legions of stonesteeps and their best warriors, all of it spread across the front of it, guarding the entrance. No foreigner could ever walk into the enclave. And even if the Morrow were invited, they wouldn’t let me into the mountain unless I was with Killien.”
“He left hours ago,” Lilit said, ignoring Hal and walking over to a wallhanging mapping the northern half of the Sweep. She pointed at a single mountain that jutted out into the grass. “The enclave is here. It won’t begin until tomorrow night. Killien will have to ride far south of the Panos and Odo rifts to avoid being seen. He’ll be lucky if he reaches the mountain before the enclave begins.”
“Can we get to him before that?” Will asked Sora.
She scowled at the map. “Maybe.”
“You must,” Lilit said.
Will nodded and Sora shot him a glare before giving Lilit a curt nod and pulling the fabric away from the tunnel opening.
“There is no way this will work,” Hal grumbled, following her.
Will pressed his fist to his chest and gave Lilit a short bow. She gave him only a nod in return.
The wind shoved into the far end of the tunnel as Will climbed the ladder. Rass greeted him, peering eagerly down the hole behind Will.
“She’s not there.”
Her face fell as he explained.
“Can you feel them anywhere near by?”
Rass shook her head. “This close to dawn there are more people out. Small groups of rangers and hunters are spreading out everywhere.”
The wind shoved past with long gusts and fleeting moments of calm. The moon was so low it grazed the horizon, sending a thousand golden fingers dragging through the fur of the giant creature that was the Sweep.
Sora turned to him. “Was she lying to us?”
Will shook his head.
“Did you read her? Or whatever you call it?”
“I didn’t need to. It’s hard to fake that sort of desperation.”
Sora looked unconvinced.
Hal sat on a low rock his eyes fixed on the mountain peaks stretching to the west. “If Killien’s going to the enclave, he’s not going with a handful of slaves.”
Sora nodded. “He’s planning to call the frost gobli
ns.”
Will turned to Rass. “Can you tell if there are goblin warrens under the grass?”
“If they’re not too deep.” She knelt down and ran her hand along the new grass that reached a handbreadth out of the ground. “There are some, but they are small and feel…unused. There are none like the night the goblins attacked the clan.”
“Makes sense,” Will said. “He won’t call them until he reaches the enclave.”
“Which means”—Hal pushed himself to his feet—“we need to get to him before he gets there if we have any chance at stopping him. Does anyone have any idea how we’re going to do that?”
“Did Patlon tell you how far west the dwarven tunnels go?” Will asked Sora.
“Not exactly, but I think a good deal farther than we are now.” Sora’s gaze trailed along the Hoarfrost mountains. “I had no idea the dwarves had tunneled so far from Duncave.”
“Neither did I,” Will said. Did they have an equal amount of tunnels stretching along the northern end of Queensland? Burrowing through the Wolfsbane range? Did their tunnels stretch down the Scales to the sea?
“We’re running out of darkness,” Sora pointed out.
The jagged top of the Scales cut a crisp purple line across the indigo sky, and Hal led the way back toward the dwarf tunnels. Will cast out across the Sweep, as though he’d find Ilsa and Killien walking over the next rise instead of hours away already. He found Hal and Sora, two pillars of energy moving steadily ahead of him, and the bright burst of life that was Rass, gamboling through the endless carpet of vitalle made by the spring grass. There were bright bits of energy from small animals scurrying across the plains and some bird soaring off to the south, but no other people.
The sky over the Scales glowed a serene blue by the time they reached the boulders at the dwarves’ tunnel. Will peered at the dark lumps of rock, none of which looked like the entrance. Patlon called to them from off to the right and they wound their way to the tunnel entry. The pale sky above them was empty of any little hawk-shaped specks. Will cast out, and even though he found nothing, he lingered an extra moment before squeezing his way back into the small room.