by Ashley Capes
Luis straightened. “A clasp of silver? Not Aleeta’s Silver Rosebud?”
“That’s the one.”
“And you found it but didn’t take it? Never, the Rosebud would be worth a fortune,” Luis said. “No-one’s seen it in hundreds of years. It’s said to be so beautiful that people who look upon it burst into tears.”
Never held up his hand. “Exaggerations I’m sure. And despite Mal’s help, we didn’t find it, only another dead-end.”
“Besides, it’s supposed to be cursed,” Tsolde said. “I don’t want to unearth it if it’s truly down there.”
Luis started to pace the road. “That’s right. Princess Aleeta was held to ransom for it, wasn’t she? And when everything went wrong with the exchange, the King cursed the Rosebud and sealed the criminals within the mines and no-one has found even a trace of the princess, thieves, or the Rosebud.”
Never grinned. “Let’s worry about food, water, and light first. We need to build some torches and spend a bit of time hunting. I’m hungry enough to eat my own hands.”
Tsolde snorted, but set off into the trees where she bent to the ground, sifting through the pine needles for material suitable for their torches.
“Want to do a bit more hunting?” Never asked Luis.
“I’ll do my best – just don’t expect steak.”
“Understood. I’ll see what I can find in the mouth of the mine.”
“Anything will help, won’t it?” Luis said, then set off with a grin, no doubt thinking about finding the Silver Rosebud.
Never approached the mine and ducked beneath the sinking arch into the shadows. His feet stirred thick dust, a musty scent rising with it. What was once an open space where carts could unload then follow the loop of their steel tracks was now scattered with animal droppings, clumps of leaves and grey pine needles.
A short distance within stood a lone cart, pick hanging over the edge, blade rusted.
Never walked farther along, bending by a dark shape on the ground. An abandoned pack. One buckle was missing from the strap and when he lifted the flap and brushed away old spider webs, he found a tin flask and rotting, frayed rope nestled beside flint and tinder.
Rats had chewed their way into the bottom, obviously to eat whatever food had remained within before it was abandoned.
Would the fire-making tools work? One way to find out.
He returned to the bright daylight with a slight frown on his face. Odd that no travellers or scavengers had taken the pack before – a testament to the fear surrounding the mines? Or an oversight perhaps. But then, for any treasure-hunter, it wasn’t much of a find, nor would they be quite so unprepared to need it.
By midday he’d found an old shovel – its handle was hardly perfect but it held together at least, along with a thin chisel. Both coated in rust, but he could clean them a little at least. In addition, he uncovered a lantern but without oil it was useless and he left it where it hung from one of the dust-coated support beams.
Tsolde had bundled together kindling, dried pine needles and resin into tight bunches, tying them with strips of fabric torn from the hem of the prisoner’s grey tunic the Vadiya had given her. Never handed her rope from the old pack. “Un-weave this,” he said. “I doubt it’s strong enough to use for climbing.”
“That’s more like it,” she said.
Luis had stored his findings on a reasonably flat collection of stones; mostly sour rock berries and nuts once again. Even with the added roots in the pile, their prospects were looking grim. Never climbed between the trees toward where he’d last seen Luis searching, slowing when he caught sight of the man crouched before a ridge.
When the stirring of grass alerted him, Luis turned and waved Never closer.
He pointed down below. “Look.”
Someone had set a snare on a thin trail – a grey hare lay trapped within, unmoving. How long had it been there? Had trappers come to the mountains looking for fur? Or travellers in need of food?
“Whoever set the snare could return at any moment,” Luis said.
“And yet, the hare looks to have been there for some time, probably caught earlier this morning.”
Luis nodded. “And if so, why hasn’t anyone come to collect it?”
“How long have you been watching?”
“Long enough – I think they’ve moved on, or forgotten.”
Never rose. “Let’s eat.”
He slipped down the trail and collected the hare, giving its neck a twist when it struggled, then returned to the mine with Luis. Using some of Tsolde’s kindling, he started a fire with the flint and tinder, explaining to her what they’d found while Luis used Sacha’s knife to skin the rabbit.
“So they might return at any moment?” she asked. “Won’t they be upset that we’ve stolen their rabbit?”
“I’m predicting as much.”
“And if they’re nearby – or if your brother changes his mind? Won’t the smoke lead them right to us?”
“We’d know by now if ‘Prince Tendov’ had changed his mind. Just enjoy the meat, Tsolde – it’s the last hot meal we’ll be having for some time.”
Chapter 19.
Once they’d eaten the rabbit – the scant but hot flesh most welcome – and supplemented it with some of the nuts Luis had found, it was time to enter the abandoned mine. Nearly a hundred years had passed since the Hanik fled.
And just what was left behind?
Never paused before re-entering, glancing at his companions. Tsolde had the chisel looped through a belt of rope and a makeshift pouch contained their store of the woody nuts and the berries. She held a burning torch, the sweet pine scent filling the area. Luis carried the pick and the rest of their food slung over his back within the newly repaired pack. A flask of precious water also lay within, flint and tinder too – along with the rest of the torches. Only a dozen, but it would be sufficient to find other supplies; he’d seen enough on the last visit to know there should be something.
With luck.
“Ready?” Never asked.
Luis nodded. His face was apprehensive but there was an excitement below it – the lure of the hunt. Tsolde had been biting her lip but she stopped. “I don’t like this place... but I’ve seen you do some unbelievable things, Never. Get us through, all right?”
“I will.”
He led them within, raising his torch and starting down into the depths of the mountain. For most of the afternoon there was little to see. The tracks wormed deeper and deeper, passing support columns of cold wood and jagged runs of cut stone in the walls, occasional scraps of steel or cloth along with dozens of empty lanterns.
Chill air hung around them, damp in the silence that filled the mine, broken only by their footfalls. They rarely stopped save to light new torches or once, around nightfall as best he could judge, to eat a portion of their rations. Not once did he turn from the main, broad tunnel, bypassing all side passages – some only a few feet deep and others tangled into the mountain.
“No need,” Never had said when Luis asked. “It’s not until we actually leave the new mine that we have to start taking note of passages. Stick to the main tunnel – it’s in the best shape in any event.”
“The new mine?” Luis asked.
“As I understand it, there’s an older mine that had been emptied of resources before this one was dug,” Tsolde explained. “Others say it was the old mine that first contained whatever it was that eventually led everyone to abandon these mines.”
When it was time to sleep a watch was set. Whoever took on the role had two tasks: listen for anything out of the ordinary and protect the fire. His own watch passed without incident – just as it had the last two times he’d been to the mines. In fact, the only time he’d been concerned, even for a moment, had been near the Night Lake. Just as Darom warned.
But it had
only been a feeling all those years ago – nothing certain.
Not a pleasant feeling, however.
When he woke to a dark morning and the flickering torchlight, Luis and Tsolde offered similar experiences – nothing to report. And so he took a mouthful of water, skipping breakfast, and led them deeper into the silver mine.
***
Little changed until, near late afternoon, they began to climb – the steel rails leading toward the surface.
“Where are we?” Tsolde asked.
“Ascending to what the miners used to call ‘the air hole’ from memory,” Never said.
“Memory?”
“I once read a crumbling journal down here and that’s what the miner called it.”
Luis switched the torch to his other hand, casting new shadows across the walls. “What was it for?”
Never shrugged. “Respite, I believe. It serves no real purpose from a mining standpoint. The quarries are not close by. I think the miners simply wanted to see the sky again and so they followed a vein up to the surface.”
“And we’ll take it?”
“Yes. It opens into a glade that may have food. There’s a stream there.”
“And then?”
“Back down here.”
Tsolde turned back to him from where she’d been watching the shadows beyond the torchlight. “Why? I thought you said we’re travelling to the old mine?”
“A passage connects them.”
Tsolde frowned. “I thought the mines weren’t connected. Why would they do that? They were afraid of whatever was in the old mine.”
He spread his hands. “Something made the tunnel.” Never glanced from grim expression to grim expression. “You’ll feel better when we can see the sky again, feel the air at the top.”
When they climbed free from the mine, a bitterly cold breeze met them – enough to slice across the skin of his nose. But somehow, for all its sharpness, it was better than the damp below. His lungs pulled in the air as if in thanks.
The glade was as he remembered; wide, grassy earth ringed by towering pines.
They spread into it, walking beneath the starry sky, Tsolde rubbing her arms and Luis heading for the trickle of the stream between dark trunks. Never crossed the grass and entered the treeline, foraging for more berries. Each bulb was chill in his palm but he collected as many as he could find in the dark before choosing a suitable clearing to set up camp.
Luis and Tsolde soon joined him and they made a fire within the trees, sitting close. The heat crept through his bones and he closed his eyes. Only the crackle of flames. Soothing, despite his near-empty stomach.
After the meal, Tsolde poked Never’s boot with a stick. “This seems like a good a time as any,” she said. “Have you decided what you’re going to do about your brother?”
He sighed, resisting the urge to stand and pace. Instead, he took out the dice and toyed with them. The question had been troubling him for too long already – and he was no closer to answering it for himself. “His bitterness has consumed him,” Never finally said, shame deep within. For once, in the past, he’d been proud of Snow. His strength, his determination. And now...
“But he let us go,” Luis said. “What is he playing at?”
“He has a purpose, of course. Beyond that which we can guess. He’s working toward something... I don’t know. He told me, while you were affected by his magic, that he wanted an empire.”
“And it will spread from Vadiya,” Tsolde said.
“He appears to have Marlosi added to that – next comes Hanik, it seems.”
“Are you sure it’s Snow behind all this?” Luis asked. “Just as Cog is Snow’s servant, there could be someone directing him.”
Never smiled. “Trying to see the best in my brother? I don’t think he has the temperament to be anything but the man in charge.”
“Perhaps... but we should be careful. I don’t think we should assume too much. Maybe we’re simply believing what Snow wants us to believe?”
Never nodded. “Possible, and that would suit him too. But I fear Elina was right to be wary of my blood. The same Amouni blood runs in his veins; he already knows so much. Snow might want the world for himself and he might be able to take it, if our ancestors are any indication of past success.” Yet still he held back his true fear – that Snow might just be able to take the world and recast humanity in his own image.
“But they, too, fell,” Tsolde said.
“Yes, and it’s my job to find out how to do the same for Snow,” Never said, flicking the die into the air and catching it. Soon he would have to confront the possibility that stopping his brother might mean killing him. Never glanced back into the restless flames. “We have to reach the Altar of Stars in time.”
“And if this trip is part of a greater ploy?” Tsolde asked. “If he wants you there for another reason?”
“No. Snow needs me to learn the truth for myself because he wants me to join him of my own accord.”
Luis gave a low whistle. Tsolde shook her head, curls bouncing.
Never couldn’t grin. “I think he needs my blood, my potential. He can’t achieve his full goal without it, I suspect. And hope.”
“If it was only about your blood he would have stolen it by now,” Luis said.
“Yes,” Never answered softly. “But I may have to take his first.”
“Can you?” Tsolde asked.
“I do not know.” He jammed the dice back into an inner pocket. “Tomorrow is soon enough – I need to sleep. Wake me for my watch,” he said.
While Tsolde and Luis discussed how to split the rest of the watch Never brushed stones clear and collected pine needles for his bed, then more fallen wood for the fire. Arms full, he started back toward the orange glow.
Come to us, Amouni.
He froze.
A slithering voice had spoken within his mind.
He turned slowly, scanning the looming shadows of the pines. Nothing. No-one near; he felt nothing, sensed nothing, not even the wind in the needles. “Who are you?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
Silence.
Chapter 20.
Never did not mention the voice.
Instead, he lay in the dark where embers lit the underside of the pine trees as he fought to decide whether he’d truly heard the voice. It had sounded awfully real – uncanny. There was something else about it too, something... not the sound of the voice, no, it was the sound of the words.
The voice had not uttered Marlosi. Nor Vadiya.
He sat up.
The words had been spoken in the Amouni tongue.
“Never?” Tsolde’s voice was tight with worry.
“It’s nothing,” he said. “An odd dream is all. Try to get some sleep.”
Amouni words. And he understood them – how? There was no answer to that question. And the call itself. Not a true welcome. If there were other Amouni or others who knew the lost tongue, they were not inviting him closer for pleasant conversation over the dinner table.
And it wasn’t Snow either, of that much he was certain.
After taking the middle watch, he lay down again and sleep eventually came. Yet it hadn’t been restful, since when Tsolde woke him to the pale dawn light he was sure only a moment had passed. He groaned but thanked her when she rose from her crouching position.
“Poor sleep?” she asked.
“Very.”
In comparison, Tsolde’s eyes were bright. She didn’t stumble on her way to the river the way Luis did. There was at least one benefit to taking last watch. If you didn’t fall asleep – you were wide awake when it was time to leave.
At the stream he splashed cold water over his face, then drank, wiping the water from his growing beard. No chance to shave – it wasn’t long yet, but it still itched his cheeks and chin.
“I feel about as dirty as one too,” he said.
Tsolde nodded. “You could both use a bath.”
Luis laughed. “There’s no way I’m getting into that bed of ice-water, Tsolde.”
She sighed.
Before leaving, Never collected the extra torches Tsolde had made and the few roots Luis had been able to collect. At least they had gained a little. Then it was time to light the torch, the resin burning-sweet, and head back into the mine.
The trip down the long shaft was swift. They soon strode along level ground again, heading farther – but not deeper – into the mountain. Never held the torch aloft, the heat bouncing off his face. It spread light through the tunnel and revealed a changing mine. Scarred walls and aborted tunnels still appeared but each passage grew narrower and there were fewer.
Abandoned tools appeared more often – three carts they passed, all full of stone thrust through with glittering iron and even a vein of silver. Luis trailed a hand over some and chipped a piece free with his axe, then tucked it into his pocket. “For when we get out of here,” he said with a shrug. “I know someone who can melt it down.”
Never nodded, leading them down a passage barely wide enough to swing an axe and paused at a blank wall. He slapped a hand against it. “Here is the passage. It ends in the other mine, in a... room that overlooks an underground lake.”