One step at a time, she passed through the clearing around the cave. The two human guards were drinking cups of something hot as they chatted. They didn’t seem too worried about anything coming out of the cavern, she noticed hopefully. That would help her make it in without incident. And then she was past them, inside the cave.
Dropping her spell as she hid around a corner, Helia let out a breath of relief and took a few moments to catch her breath and calm down. Then she straightened and started to follow the path she remembered from a few weeks before. Hopefully, she remembered the route correctly.
* * *
For a moment, Sistina was afraid she was about to get raided, and this time in major force. Worse, she still wasn’t ready for a group that was prepared for both her animals and plants. Oh, certainly, she could probably deal with any interlopers if they got to her, but that wouldn’t help Ilmas, Lily, or Sina if they got caught too far from her.
So Sistina was surprised, then delighted, when she realized that the person who’d come inside was actually an elf with a slave brand who was entirely on her own. And she grew even more surprised when she looked more closely and found that she recognized the woman who’d entered the tunnels. The woman had been with Phynis when she’d come through before, so Sistina looked closely at her link to Desa for the first time in a long while and was startled to find that the faint connection had grown stronger again, indicating that the elven mage was nearby once more.
On the other hand, Sistina had been working on making the tunnels more complex since the prior invasion, so the elven guard was heading toward the tunnels leading downward instead of toward her cavern. And since she didn’t want to send the woman on a trip through her new caves, Sistina mentally sighed and got to her feet with a wince. She hadn’t moved in a touch too long, but she’d just have to go fetch the woman herself.
* * *
Pausing in a tunnel, Helia’s frown deepened. She would have sworn that this was the right direction, but she didn’t recognize where she was at all. She remembered the route clearly, and they’d discussed it back in camp, but the tunnels didn’t seem to match at all. She murmured softly, “What’s going on? I shouldn’t be going down at all.”
The sudden echo of footsteps made Helia tense, spinning around, her sword hissing out of its sheathe, glowing with a faint blue light. A few moments later, the pale form of Sistina stepped out of the gloom, this time wearing delicate pair of green trousers and blouse. Seeing her, Helia relaxed slightly and shook her head as she sheathed her blade.
“You startled me, Sistina. I was coming to see you, but I seem to have gotten lost somehow. I thought I knew the way, but obviously not,” Helia told the dryad with a sheepish shrug. “Sorry that you had to come get me.”
Sistina smiled and shook her head, then touched one of the cavern walls and spoke in her usual curt manner. “Moved.”
“You moved your cavern?” Helia asked, her eyes widening in shock. Her discomfort eased slightly as she noticed that Sistina also seemed startled by the thought, and shook her head in response.
“Intruders,” Sistina told her, pointing back down the tunnel. Pausing as if trying to think of how to explain, Sistina eventually added, her tone slightly questioning. “Maze?”
“Uh… you made this place a maze? That seems… well, it makes sense. Why?” Helia asked. Sistina gestured for her to follow, and the elf did so.
“Dungeon,” Sistina said simply, shrugging. “Safer.”
And wasn’t this a fine situation for her to bring the princess into, Helia reflected grimly. A new dungeon under siege by the army of Kelvanis? Well, at least they didn’t know that Phynis was here. Yet, anyway.
* * *
“Hello the camp!” The soft voice made Desa tense for a moment before she managed to relax, recognizing the voice.
“Helia? Are you alright?” she asked softly, looking into the darkness around their camp carefully. There was no telling whether or not the guard had been caught and subverted, but she wasn’t seeing or hearing anyone else yet. Helia emerged from the darkness looking tired.
“Right as rain, though the situation is weird. Apparently, according to Lily and the other two slaves inside, Kelvanis thinks the caverns are a dungeon. So they’re building a town to exploit it, and Sistina is spending almost all her time rebuilding the cavern’s system to try to make herself into an actual dungeon,” Helia explained, shaking her head in obvious disbelief. “Apparently, she’s been rather distant since this whole mess started. But she met me and guided me through the dungeon.”
“That’s not good. In fact, it’s bad. Is there any way to get past the guards?” Desa’s worry spiked, looking at her large group. “There’s no way we can fight our way past them. They’d be in right after us if we tried, and there’s just too many of them.”
“Well, fortunately, Sistina made a second cavern exit on the rear side of the mountain that’s easy for her to open. She made it for Lily and the others,” Helia replied with a wry smile. “She has to open it and shut it each time, to make sure their scouts don’t find it, but if we go there, we can get in easily. That’s how I got out.”
“Oh, that’s a relief.” Desa let out a soft sigh as her tension eased enormously. “I didn’t know what we could do aside from turning around and going back. And that hardly bodes thinking on. What if Kelvanis managed to get their hands on the library in there?”
“Agreed,” Helia told her, sighing as she asked, “Any way I could get a nap before we leave?”
Laughing softly, Desa smiled and nodded. “Go ahead and get some rest. We’ll head inside in the morning.”
“Thanks, Captain. I’m exhausted,” Helia murmured, then headed for her tent.
“You’re welcome, Helia. Thanks for going in there. You’re a lifesaver,” Desa said affectionately, then headed toward bed herself. She’d been waiting for Helia to get back, and the good news would help her sleep. Things were looking better than they had been this afternoon.
Chapter 29
Desa found herself startled by the simplicity of the new entrance to Sistina’s cavern. Compared to the other route they’d taken before, this one was positively straightforward. The shallow cavern hadn’t looked like there was any way out of it until one stone wall had literally melted away into an open doorway. The hall wasn’t terribly wide or tall, but unlike all the other caves, this one was well paved and the walls and ceiling looked like a properly reinforced tunnel or hallway. Even more useful, it didn’t twist and turn nearly as much, and it took them directly down to Sistina’s main cavern.
As she walked into Sistina’s cavern, Desa stepped to the side so that she would be out of the way of the others, then took a deep breath. The air was rich with scents of plants, and a faint tension that she hadn’t even noticed was there slowly eased. The mana-rich air would also do her a world of good, and she took another deep breath before opening her eyes and examining what she could see of the cavern while the others filed out of the tunnel. The exclamations of the researchers was amusing and unsurprising, but she managed to ignore them in spite of their antics.
Some of the trees were bigger, but she could have sworn that the layout of the forest and other gardens had changed since they’d last been there. It was hard to tell if they had, though, since she’d come in from a different angle from the previous visit. If she could change the layout of the tunnels and caverns, why couldn’t she change where plants were, anyway? It was certainly possible that she had.
Lily’s house looked slightly larger and the fields looked mostly the same, though the sight of wheat startled her somewhat. The millhouse along the stream, at a point where the water tumbled downward a dozen feet of rocks, was also new, even if it looked like it’d been in place for years. More surprising was the realization that most of the buildings she’d seen along the edge of the cavern on the previous visit were gone, and where they’d been were only a handful of buildings that seemed to be fully intact.
“Helia, did it loo
k this different when you came through?” Desa grabbed the other woman’s shoulder as she was about to come past, nodding toward the buildings.
Helia blinked for a moment, then her eyes lit up with understanding. “Ah, yes, mostly. I don’t think all of them were in quite that good of shape, though. I could have sworn that part of the big building’s roof was missing.”
“Well, that makes me feel a little better.” Desa shook her head slightly and smiled. “I was afraid that I was misremembering the cavern. Or that Sistina had done all that overnight. And the roof probably was damaged. I’m not entirely sure why she bothered fixing it, though, since we’re inside a cave.”
“That’s a good point. Maybe to allow people to avoid the ‘daylight’ from the crystals?” Helia suggested, pointing up at the lights on the ceiling of the cavern. “I certainly hope she isn’t planning to try to replicate rain.”
“That’s true, but we could also—” Desa paused, then smiled as she saw Lily approaching, along with a plain-looking male dusk elf. The male looked nervous at seeing the large group, but Lily approached with a smile. “And here’s someone who might be able to answer such a pressing question for us?”
“I suppose so.” Helia shook her head and laughed.
“What question?” Lily asked, obviously slightly puzzled. But as soon as she was close, Lily grinned and gave Desa a tight hug, startling both the captain and most of those nearby. “Welcome back, Captain Desa! It’s good to see you again.”
“Thank you, Lily. And whom might this be?” Desa asked, turning her gaze to the man.
“Oh, this is Ilmas. He was part of the first scouting group of the soldiers outside, and fell into a pitcher plant,” Lily replied, grinning as he blushed faintly pink despite his darker pigmentation. “Sistina rescued him and adjusted his brand, like mine. And Sina’s, but she’s off hunting for a deer so we have a better dinner. He’s my boyfriend.”
“I suppose that makes sense. But the question I was discussing with Helia was simple enough. We were curious as to why Sistina bothers adding roofs to the buildings indoors,” Desa told her, smirking a little as Ilmas turned an even brighter shade of pink as he was introduced as Lily’s boyfriend. The two elves were somewhat mismatched. Ilmas was not the most handsome elf by any stretch of the imagination, while Lily was pretty enough that she would draw attention in most small towns. Which actually made them all the more adorable in her eyes, since they were living here, of all places.
“That’s a good question. That’s a really good question.” Lily frowned slightly, then shook her head after a moment. “I don’t know.”
“And trying to get an answer out of Sistina is like pulling teeth,” Ilmas added, shrugging as they looked at him, his feet shifting uncomfortably. “I mean, since she doesn’t talk normally, so it makes it hard to get details on subjects like that. When she even answers us.”
“Has she stopped talking to you?” Desa frowned at that, looking at Lily. And she was surprised to see the elf look guilty. What was going on?
“That… it’s complicated, you know? I mean, remember that she didn’t say a single word after telling me her name through the entire winter until you came here,” Lily explained, shifting from one foot to the other uncomfortably. “So I’m not saying she’s stopped talking to us. She’s actually talking more than she was. But she’s been more distant. Before she was constantly nearby me. Or maybe I went near her because I was lonely. Either way, she was a constant presence. And now she moves away from her tree maybe once a week. Sometimes when I go looking for her, she doesn’t move at all for hours on end. I’m worried about her.”
“And she’s shifting the tunnels around, too,” Ilmas added, frowning. “I’m not entirely sure why, but she’s not letting us go very far. I have to assume that the Kelvanis presence outside is making her nervous. When we want fresh air, we have to go out the exit you used, and she’s refused to open it a few times.”
“I’ve told you, I’m betting that those times there were Kelvanis scouts in the area around the exit,” Lily interjected, giving Ilmas an annoyed look.
“I’m just trying to explain what’s been going on!” he protested. “It isn’t like they’ve been here to watch.”
“That does seem like a reasonable explanation, though,” Desa interjected, shrugging. “Still, it makes me wonder about what she’s up to.”
She was about to say more, but then she paused as she saw that Phynis had quietly slipped past most of the group and was heading toward Sistina’s tree, with Evrial just behind her, looking around watchfully. Helia noticed a moment later, and her voice was soft. “Captain, should I…?”
“No. No, let her go see Sistina herself,” Desa refused gently, shaking her head. “Maybe she can get through to the princess.”
“Wait, isn’t that the princess? What’s she doing here?” Lily asked, startled as she looked over after Phynis as she circled a bush. “I thought that the reason all of you were moving so quickly was to get her out of the country.”
“It is, and the situation is complicated,” Desa spoke softly, shaking her head. “She’s lost a lot of trust for others.”
“She was attacked back home, by a slaver. Only the fact that the Captain’s brand was changed by Sistina kept him from succeeding,” Helia explained. “Unfortunately, the incident seems to have severely harmed the princess mentally.”
“She doesn’t trust anyone anymore. Not even me,” Desa spoke softly, closing her eyes at the pain of Phynis’ accusations.
“Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that something so horrible had happened.” Lily’s eyes went wide at the explanation and she put a hand over her mouth. Ilmas kept quiet, but he was obviously torn between being bewildered and simply moving away from them.
“There’s no way you could have known,” Desa told her, smiling sadly. “All we can do is hope she works her way past it. That and try to regain her trust.”
“I guess that’s true.” Lily chewed her lip a little. “I’ll do what I can, but I’m no good with nobles.”
“I think I’m just going to lead some people over to the buildings Sistina rebuilt,” Ilmas ventured, breaking the mood as he smiled awkwardly. “I’m not entirely sure what to do, so at least that would be something I can help with.”
“Thank you, Ilmas.” Desa smiled at him gently, and Lily’s face lit up as she grinned.
“Good idea, Ilmas. I’m not much more help, but we’d best get people settled. It’ll be a lot more crowded now,” she agreed, and the two smiled at each other before starting to get together small groups to lead over to the buildings near the cavern wall.
* * *
Sistina’s tree still took Phynis’ breath away. Phynis paused, looking up at the gigantic willow and simply taking it in for a few minutes. The sparkling flickers of light along the limbs, the pale bark, and the crystalline red ‘fruit’ on the tree were just so different than what she’d seen on any other tree before. And adding to that, she knew it was Sistina’s tree, and she felt that Sistina was one of the few beings she dared trust anymore. She might trust an angel, but they were rarely nearby.
Evrial hovered a few feet behind Phynis, but she ignored the guard. She’d already been suborned by the general once before, so how could Phynis really trust her? Maybe ignoring Evrial wasn’t the right approach, but by the same token, she wasn’t certain what other options she really had. It wasn’t as though the woman would leave her alone if she asked.
But Sistina… the dryad, or genius loci, or whatever one wanted to call her, she didn’t care about who Phynis really was. Sistina had no interest in the throne, or the fact that Phynis was a noble. Her biggest concern was that Phynis was related to Sistina Constella by some unknown distance. And Sistina was here, underground, and divorced from everything outside of these cave systems. Phynis wasn’t absolutely certain she could trust Sistina, but she seemed like a better option than any other possibility that she could think of. She simply felt… safe.
Brushing
the branches aside, Phynis stepped inside the swaying curtain to find Sistina in almost exactly the same pose she’d found her in the last time they’d visited. Sistina was wearing clothing of a simple cut, similar to Lily’s, but otherwise it gave Phynis an almost eerie flashback, like the librarian in the castle who she felt never moved from his office and never changed clothing. And eerily enough, she opened her eyes to look at Phynis in the exact same way as the last time as well. It was incredibly strange, and Phynis opened her mouth to speak, but then hesitated, growing unsure for a moment. Was this truly a wise decision, what she’d come here for?
“Phynis Constella.” Sistina’s voice was soft as it thrummed through the air, and it was like she’d just strummed a chord that resonated deep inside of Phynis. A chord of understanding and kindness.
Eyes welling up with tears, Phynis sniffed, then stepped forward and almost fell into the dryad’s arms as Sistina wrapped her arms around the warm, soft figure before her. The faint scent of lilacs surrounded the dryad and enveloped Phynis as Sistina slowly pulled her in close. And as she began to cry, Phynis whispered, “Sistina… please help me?”
The dryad spoke in her usual manner, and yet it almost sounded like a vow. “Yes.”
* * *
Sistina knew that Desa was unhappy about something. It had been obvious in Helia’s eyes too, the impression that something was wrong. What it was, though, had puzzled her for a time. Right up until she saw Phynis inside the tunnels.
The princess’ mana was twisted, and her attitude starkly contrasted with what Sistina had seen in Phynis before. When Phynis had visited before, she’d shone with determination, hope, and light. Now she was dark and twisted, almost in agony. Her brand thrummed with energy, and she could feel it resonating with something in the elf’s mind. Or was it something in her head?
Sistina wished she had time to speculate on it, but keeping track of the myriad conversations in the cavern took a large portion of her attention. It wasn’t hard to keep track of everything in her domain, but it didn’t leave any to spare for properly considering or changing things, she’d found to her chagrin. It’d made the last few weeks harrowing, as she tried to learn and adjust her structure at the same time. She was fortunate that there hadn’t been any more determined attempts to break through the outer caverns, or they might have succeeded.
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