by PT Hylton
That meant there was a chance she might be able to pry a little more information out of him.
She decided to try again. “You know, where we come from, guard duty is pretty much the lowest job you can have. He knows what I’m talking about.” She nodded toward Clemens.
The sailor picked up on her approach and nodded sadly. “She’s not lying. I’ve spent more time as a lookout than I have in a warm bed. I’ve stood guard in rain, snow, blistering heat, and icy cold, you name it.”
The Stone Shaper raised an eyebrow. “Cold? You think you know cold?”
Abbey smiled slightly. They had him talking now, which was a step in the right direction. “I don’t know man, it gets pretty cold on stormships. If you haven’t felt a winter wind on the open sea, you don’t know cold.”
“Ha.” He turned toward her. “You’re in Gren, girl. We invented cold. I’m from the north, where your winter winds would be considered a summer breeze. If a man spits, his phlegm freezes before it hits the ground.”
Elliot’s eyes widened in surprise as he joined in on the show of bravado. “You call that cold? I thought about my mother once on a winter night and the tears froze in my eyes. I couldn’t blink for a week.”
The Stone Shaper chuckled. “Speaking of mothers, mine made sure I was raised as a true Grensman. She didn’t give me a blanket until I was strong enough to rip it away from her. I was ten years old. She gave me a black eye, but I had the first warm night of my life.”
“You had blankets?” Clemens asked. “I’ve heard of those. Coverings for weak southerners who can’t handle the cold, right?”
Hekla had looked perplexed during the entire exchange, but she spoke up now. “It’s so cold in Barskall that...that…” Her eyes brightened as the rest of the sentence came to her. “It’s so cold we have to wear clothes made from thick animal fur or risk being very uncomfortable.”
Elliot shook his head sadly and turned to Clemens. “She means well.”
Abbey sidled up to the guard. “The point is, guard duty is difficult. It’s uncomfortable. And boring.” She touched his bicep and let out a little whistle. “You ever notice how they only put the strongest men on guard duty? They’re the only ones who can handle it.”
The Stone Shaper’s cheeks reddened a bit, but his bicep tightened under Abbey’s hand. “Well, it does take a certain fortitude.”
“And strength of will,” Abbey added. “You have to remain alert at all times, and I’ll bet you go days without a single person trying to get into the cave.”
“More like weeks. And most of them come stumbling out again in a couple hours.”
She lightly caressed his arm. “How about the ones who get through. What’s different about them?”
The Stone Shaper chuckled. “It’s only happened once on my watch, and I’ve been doing this job eight years. But that group was smart. We’re only allowed to give one piece of advice, and they listened to it.”
“And what’s the advice?” She subtly inched closer to him as she asked the question.
He grinned at her. “I already gave it, and I’m not going to repeat myself.”
Abbey patted him on the arm one more time, then stepped back. She’d been hoping for more, but apparently that was all they were going to get out of him. “Thanks. You’ve been a big help.”
The grin never left his face as he watched them disappear into the mouth of the cave.
They made their way down the narrow tunnel of stone, their torches illuminating the way. When they were out of earshot of the guard, Clemens nudged Abbey.
“Damn, boss, that was pretty good. Sometimes I forget you’re a girl under all that fur.”
“Hey!” Abbey objected. “I can bring it when I need to.”
“It?” Elliot asked with a sly smile.
“She’s referring to sexual prowess,” Hekla said.
Abbey’s cheeks reddened. “Thanks, Hekla. That was very helpful.”
The Barskall woman nodded. “It did make me miss Olaf, though. Why didn’t we bring him instead of this annoying man?” She gestured to Clemens.
Clemens let out a short laugh. “I don’t know, but you and he deserve each other.”
They walked for ten minutes before they came to the first split in the path. The tunnel forked exactly in the middle.
They stopped and Elliot held his torch down each fork, but both showed identical columns of black beyond the limited illumination.
He turned to Abbey and Clemens. “What do you think? It didn’t work out so well last time Hekla and I were down here. You two should choose.”
Abbey was about to tell him both ways looked identical to her when Clemens spoke.
“Actually, I have an idea. You said this place is like a maze, right? I’m pretty good at mazes. I knew an old sailor who was obsessed with them. He spent every penny he had on parchment, and designed these elaborate labyrinths. Most of the sailors made fun of him, but I liked trying to complete them. I learned a thing or two about mazes.”
“Okay,” Abbey said, “so which way do we go?”
Clemens smiled. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Wait, what?”
“I mean, of course it matters, boss. But we have no way of knowing which way is correct, so the best thing we can do is pick a direction—let’s say right. We keep turning right at every opportunity. It won’t be the quickest path, but we’ll eventually work our way to the end of the maze.”
“See, Hekla, that’s why we brought him instead of Olaf.” Elliot looked at Abbey. “What do you think?”
Abbey shrugged. “It’s better than anything I’ve got. Let’s do it.”
With that, she turned down the righthand path and headed deeper into the cave.
****
They’d been walking through the tunnels for nearly an hour, their footsteps and the squeal of bats the only sounds, when Abbey noticed their torches had started to burn down.
She was just about to say something about it when they reached a place where the tunnel walls widened. Four unlit torches lay in the middle of the path in front of them.
“Huh,” Abbey remarked as she picked up one of the torches. “That’s a little too convenient.”
Elliot sounded thoughtful when he replied. “Of all the places we could be, all the possible paths we could have taken, they somehow knew exactly where we’d need new torches? Seems impossible.”
Abbey tossed the unlit torches to Hekla, Elliot, and Clemens. They lit them and set the old torches along the right side of the tunnel.
Clemens had been quiet during the journey. He touched the righthand wall as he walked, dragging his fingers along it as if he might forget to take the next right if he lost contact. But he moved quickly and confidently, leading the way and turning right every time they came to a fork, which was frequently.
For Abbey’s part, she was happy not to be in the lead for once. Clemens’ theory made sense, and she was content to let him test it.
At the same time, something felt off about this place. Even before they’d found the torches, she’d had the distinct feeling of being watched. She imagined Stone Shapers waiting just beyond the reach of their torchlight, observing from the safety of the darkness.
It was nothing more than a feeling, though. A few times she had signaled for her friends to halt, but she never heard anything other than the bats and the occasional distant sound of running water echoing through the cave.
Elliot and Hekla seemed to notice something strange as well. They moved more hesitantly than usual, and they held their torches in their left hands and kept their right hands close to their weapons.
Twenty minutes and two more right turns later, Clemens halted suddenly. “You’ve gotta be shitting me. Boss, check this out.”
Abbey trotted up alongside him and saw what he was looking at. “No way.”
Their four torches lay along the right side of the path.
Clemens shook his head in disgust. “This is impossible. Even if we somehow circl
ed back, we’d be coming down the path the other way. The torches would be on our left.”
Abbey grimaced. He was right. They were heading down the tunnel exactly the same way as twenty minutes ago.
“I’m telling you, this is impossible!” Frustration was clear in his voice. “I’ve done a hundred mazes. My method works.”
Elliot grunted in annoyance. “We’re stupid.”
Abbey shot him a look. “Speak for yourself!”
“No, I mean, Clemens is right. This would be impossible, except that this place was built by Stone Shapers. It doesn’t follow normal rules.”
Clemens frowned. “Wait, you’re saying they’re changing it as we walk?”
“I’m afraid so. Which means this whole thing is pointless. We won’t make it through here unless they want us to. Hell, we may have been walking in circles this whole time.”
Abbey looked up suddenly. “You’re right.”
Elliot grinned. “Finally somebody gets me.”
She couldn’t help but smile. Something about being around Elliot, even in this dark, cold cave, warmed her. “You’re right, but you’re also a terrible listener.”
His face fell. “What do you mean?”
“Remember what the guard said at the mouth of the cave? Each must find his or her own path to the Heart of the Stone. I will allow you to find yours.”
“Must be Stone Shaper for ‘Wander around in the dark for a few hours while we fuck with you,’” Hekla muttered.
Abbey shook her head. “Think about it. Each must find his or her own path.”
Realization dawned on Elliot’s face. “They want us to split up.”
It was quiet for a minute, then Clemens broke the silence. “No way. All we have is each other. If we let them split us up, we’re helpless.”
“We’re standing in a cave controlled by Stone Shapers,” Elliot countered. “We’re pretty damned helpless already.”
Abbey put a hand on Clemens’ shoulder. “We don’t have a choice, not if we want to get through these caves.”
After a moment, Clemens reluctantly agreed.
The group continued until they got to the next fork, then Clemens went right and the other three headed left. Hekla split off at the next. Finally, Elliot and Abbey were alone.
The two of them only had covered thirty yards before the path split again.
Abbey turned to him and grinned. “This is it. Race you to the Stone Shapers!”
He looked like he was going to turn away, then he impulsively reached out and took her hand. She felt a bolt of excitement as he touched her.
“Abbey, we have to be smart if we want to survive this. Please be careful.”
“One thing I’ve learned is, being smart and being careful are rarely the same thing.” She squeezed his hand, then turned and trotted down the right fork. It took all her willpower not to look back to see if he was watching her.
She moved down the trail with brash confidence, not hesitating. Somehow, knowing that she was being watched instead of just suspecting it was a relief. Now that she knew the way she was walking didn’t matter, she didn’t pause at the forks. She just marched one way or the other and kept going.
After Abbey had walked alone for fifteen minutes, the Stone Shapers became brasher. They would let her see the tunnel shifting. She’d approach a fork to her right, only to have it close, forcing her to go left.
“You creepy bastards better be worth all this trouble,” she muttered.
After another forty minutes—and another torch replacement—she began hearing voices. At first she thought it might be her imagination, but they got louder as she progressed, growing from a barely audible murmur into discernible language.
“Stranger,” a voice said.
“Hello? How much farther do I have to go?” Abbey called, but the voices either didn’t hear or didn’t decide to respond to her question.
“Slave to the shape of things,” said another.
“You walk the stone. We shape it. We mold it with our thoughts. It takes the shapes we command.”
“Yeah, I get it, you’re special. Now show yourselves.”
“Why do you go where you don’t belong? Turn around, or you will be buried.”
“Not on your life, buddy,” she muttered grimly. Then, in a louder voice. “I’m not stopping! I just want to talk to you.”
The strange, echoing voices continued for the next hour. She tried speaking to them, ignoring them, and asking questions, but none of it worked. They just kept babbling in a strange mix of cryptic insults.
Just when she thought it was never going to end, another voice—a new voice—spoke. “Do you mean us harm?”
“No,” Abbey answered loudly. Her voice echoed down the tunnel.
“Are you here to steal our secrets?”
“No.”
“Do you seek our help?”
“Yes!” She practically yelled the last answer. Then she stopped short. A stone wall stood in front of her. There was no way forward.
“Then you may enter.”
The wall quivered, then all at once an opening appeared with a whoosh.
Abbey took a deep breath and stepped into the home of the inland Stone Shapers.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The man on the other side of the opening looked as old as the stones surrounding him. His hair was gone, revealing a perfectly round head. Deep creases lined his face, looking like cracks in stone. Even his mouth reminded Abbey of a jagged slice in a rock.
A guard stood on either side of him. Abbey noticed none of them wore shoes.
“What brings you to our home?” the old man asked bluntly.
Abbey recognized the voice as the one who’d asked her the final questions as she walked.
“I told you. I need your help.”
The man groaned thoughtfully, a rough sound like rock sliding against rock.
Abbey peered past the three men into the cave beyond, but saw only blackness. “Where are my friends?”
“They’ll be here soon,” the old man told her. “Or they won’t. Up to them, really.”
Abbey grimaced. She wanted to tell this doddering old fool he could take his cryptic remarks and shove them up his personal cave, but she held her tongue. There was too much at stake to go shooting off her mouth.
For now.
“My name’s Abbey. I’m from—”
“The Kaldfell Peninsula,” the man said, cutting her off. “It’s obvious. I knew a few of your kind years ago.” He tilted his head, distracted. “One moment.”
The old man inched his right foot forward and the cave around them began to quiver. A tiny opening appeared in the wall to his right. He leaned forward and spoke into it. “Do you mean us harm?”
“No,” a distant voice responded.
It was Elliot.
“Are you here to steal our secrets?”
“No,” Elliot replied.
“Do you seek our help?”
“Yes.”
The old man wiggled his toe and an opening appeared in the wall. Elliot stumbled through, blinking hard as he entered the brighter cavern.
Abbey smiled. “Beat you.”
Elliot ignored the comment and turned to the old man. “We need your help. Are you the one in charge here?”
There was a long pause before the man answered. “I guide and advise my people. I suppose you could say I’m one of the people in charge.”
“I’m Elliot.”
The old man simply nodded, not supplying his name in return. “Tell us about this help you need.”
Elliot gave a brief explanation of Magnus’ rule, the way he was oppressing the people of Gren, and their plot to deceive the Stone Shapers.
In the middle of the story, the old man held up a hand. “One moment.” He then opened another small hole in the wall and asked his questions. This time it was Hekla who answered, and she came stumbling through the opening a few moments later.
“Seas and stone, that was annoying,” s
he muttered.
After Elliot finished, the old man said nothing for a long while. The only sounds were the strange, thoughtful grunts he continually emitted.
Abbey’s patience was beginning to wear thin. Images of Dustin, Syd, and her father surrounded by Magnus’ Stone Shapers filled her mind. This was beginning to seem more and more like a waste of valuable time that would have been better spent fighting for her friends’ lives.
Eventually the old man spoke. “It seems my instincts about Magnus were correct. I never should have let him venture into the coastal areas. He should have stayed here where I could keep an eye on him.”
Abbey and Elliot exchanged glances. If this man had allowed Magnus to leave, that meant…
“You’re Tomas,” she said. “The first Stone Shaper.”
He nodded. “That I am.” A slow smile spread across his weathered face. “They’ve heard of me on the Kaldfell Peninsula, then?”
“Um, sure. You’re very famous there.”
“Good, good.”
Abbey waited, but Tomas didn’t continue. “Are you going to help us?”
The smile faded from his face. “You topsiders, always in a rush. You’ve only just told me the problem, and you already expect a decision?”
Elliot held up a hand. “We don’t mean to rush you, sir, but time is a factor. We have friends who—”
“You have friends?” Tomas eyes flashed with anger. “I thought this was about the people of Gren. Now it’s about friends.”
“Our friends are just another example of how Magnus is using his power to oppress,” Abbey explained.
Tomas thought for a long moment. “No.”
Elliot took a step toward him. “No?”
“No, I will not take your side. I barely know you. The council would never approve this based only on the word of three outsiders, and I can’t make a decision this big on my own.”
Abbey and Elliot exchanged another glance. “There’s a council?” she asked. “Let us speak to them.”
Tomas let out a gruff laugh. “Impossible. The council is in Horg, our city. Outsiders who enter Horg are never allowed to leave. Even Stone Shaper children aren’t allowed to enter. Only full citizens, those who have walked the Path, may enter the great city.”