Chapter 28

The sun had set by the time Corec and Ellerie made it back to the surface. When Boktar let them know Sarette had seen people in the barrens, they’d decided to head back to camp rather than waiting for the stranger to wake up. Leena came as well, in case they needed to send a message to those who’d remained inside the ruins.

Exiting the cave, they met Sarette and Katrin returning from the southern side of the mountain.

“Where’s everyone else?” Katrin asked.

Corec told her what had happened.

“You found one of the Ancients?” she said, her voice rising.

“We’re not sure about that,” Ellerie said. “Whoever she is, she’s unconscious. Treya and the others stayed below to watch her and to watch over the other things we found.”

“Sarette, can you show us what you saw?” Corec asked.

The stormborn woman shook her head. “It’s too dark now, but I think they stopped just after Boktar left to find you.”

“Stopped?” Corec asked. “They made camp? Or you just couldn’t see them?”

“I could see them when there was still some light, but they didn’t seem to be coming any closer. Or going in any other direction.”

“Do they have horses?”

“I don’t know. I can’t even say for sure that they’re actually people—it’s just a tiny bit of movement in the distance. But it doesn’t seem like there’d be a group of wild animals in the barrens.”

“How far away are they?” Ellerie asked.

Sarette thought for a moment, then pulled her writing stick out of her pocket. “I need paper.”

Ellerie handed over the stack of notes she’d been working on inside the ruins. Sarette found a blank page, then looked around and chose the back of Boktar’s armor as the nearest hard surface. Corec held his mage-light lantern up so she could see what she was writing, while the dwarven man grumbled about being used as a table.

Sarette scratched out a series of marks on the page, then turned back to the group. “This isn’t exact, because I’m just estimating my elevation relative to theirs, but I think they’re somewhere around twenty-five miles away. It could be as low as twenty, but I think it’s closer to twenty-five.”

Corec relaxed. “That’ll give us plenty of time to see if they’re coming this way. Even if they’re traveling light and marching straight for us, it would take them most of a day. Are we still moving the camp tonight?” With Sarette leaving to accompany the wagons the next morning, it wasn’t safe to leave the camp out in the open since they’d have no protection in the event of another lightning storm. They’d planned to move back to the abandoned buildings south of the mountain.

“The wagons are already packed,” Boktar said.

“Good. Chances are, these folks are just passing by, but let’s avoid attracting their attention. We can hide the camp inside the buildings, and if Rusol or someone else sent this group after us, it’ll be easier to defend ourselves there too.”

“Should we just move inside the mountain after all?” Ellerie asked. “I don’t really want to stay underground all the time, but it’d be easier than going back and forth.”

“No. We’ve only found one way in or out. They could trap us there.”

Boktar said, “Maybe I should wait another day before heading south with the wagons. Just until we know for sure.”

“Will the supplies hold out if you do that?” Ellerie asked.

“With the extra supply caravan, yes. The problem is that they’re expecting us to meet them. Leena, could you go to Livadi tomorrow and tell Lufton we’ll be late? I don’t think he’s left yet.”

The Sanvari woman didn’t respond right away. She was staring off to the southeast. “Wouldn’t it be better to know for sure, right now?” she said.

“What are you saying?” Ellerie asked.

“Twenty-five miles is within my Seeking range and my Traveling range.”

“Can you do that?” Corec asked. “We don’t know who they are. I thought you said you had to know something about what you’re Seeking.”

“We know where Sarette saw them, or just about. I used that to Seek them.”

Ellerie blinked. “You already found them?”

“Yes. I can go there right now if you want.”

“That’s too dangerous! What if they’re red-eyes? Or those people who’ve been attacking your clan?”

“I can Seek a spot a mile away and walk closer in the dark. If they see me and they don’t look friendly, I’ll just Travel back here.”

“How far away are they?” Corec asked.

“I’m sorry,” Leena said. “I’m still not very good at measuring distances like this. Sarette’s estimate sounds right.”

“Ellerie’s right. It’s dangerous. That’s a long way away if something happens and you need help.”

“If these might be the men who attacked us before, then I have to go. I have a duty to my people.”

Ellerie scowled and looked away.

Corec sighed. He didn’t have any right to stop Leena from doing what she wanted. “If you’re going to try sneaking up on them, you’ll at least need to wear something dark.”

She looked down at herself. She had on one of her modest dresses, this one in bright yellow. “I could wear a cloak,” she suggested. Her other dresses were all light colors too.

“You can borrow my dark blue dress,” Katrin said. “We’re close to the same size—I think it would fit.”

Treya laid her hand over the girl’s forehead to see how she was doing. There didn’t seem to be any change; she was simply asleep.

It was getting late, and Corec and Ellerie had been gone for an hour. It would be at least two more before they returned—possibly longer, if the people Sarette had seen turned out to be a problem.

“Maybe we should wake her up rather than waiting,” Treya murmured to Shavala, who was sitting nearby. “We can’t stay here all night.”

The elven woman wasn’t paying attention, seemingly distracted by the wooden staff she held in her lap. After a moment, she blinked and looked up. “Can you wake her?” she asked.

“I didn’t hurt her that badly, and I can just heal the rest of it normally instead. I mostly only cast the spell to keep her unconscious. I should be able to undo it.”

“What if she tries to kill you again?” Razai called out from the other side of the room, where she was pacing back and forth.

“I stopped her before. Besides, I thought that’s why you stayed here.”

“If you want her dead, talk to me. If you want to keep her alive, she’s yours to deal with.”

“She doesn’t deserve to die. She has no idea what’s happening.”

“So you think.”

Marco came into the throne room carrying his cloak in his arms, using it to hold the jewelry from the room with the enchanted items.

“Is anyone going to help me?” he asked, glaring at the rest of the group.

“Should you be doing that?” Razai asked.

“Ellerie said only the statue was warded. For the rest, she just said not to touch them until we know they’re safe. So I didn’t touch them. But we might as well get it all inventoried and ready to go.” He carefully laid the cloak and the items it held out on the floor.

“I’ll help,” Bobo said. He’d been making sketches of the five thrones. “Shavala, did you bring your gathering sacks?” There was no response. “Shavala?”

“What? Oh, yes, I did.” Shavala put the staff to the side, then stood up and pulled two of her thin cloth sacks from a coat pocket.

“Wait, Bobo, can you stay here?” Treya asked. “I’m going to wake her up and I’ll need your help to talk to her. Marco, maybe Razai can go with you.”

Razai rolled her eyes, but took the sacks Shavala offered her. It wasn’t that Treya distrusted the demonborn woman, but she was hoping to avoid another fight.

She waited until Razai and Marco had left, then said, “I’m going to do it now. It’s probably better to have fewer people around.” She put her hand on the girl’s forehead again and checked to make sure she was fully healed, then removed the healing sleep before backing away.

The girl’s eyes opened slowly at first, then shot wide open as she saw them standing above her. She jerked up into a sitting position and backed away, jabbering incomprehensibly.

Treya held her hands up to show she was unarmed.

“I can’t tell what she’s saying,” Bobo said. “Wait—that was fortress, I think. She’s talking so fast, and all the sounds are different from what I learned. I’m not sure if it’s the first peoples’ language or not.”

“She said vasta,” Shavala mentioned. “Elf.”

The girl pushed herself to her feet, moving easily in her mirror-like plate armor. She stopped and stared when she saw the thrones, seeming to recognize where she was, then renewed her harangue more stridently. She reached for her sword, and when she found the scabbard empty, she spun in a circle, her eyes darting around the room.

Treya said, “Bobo, she’s looking for her sword. Tell her it’s safe.”

“I’ll try.” He spoke a few words, but the girl showed no sign of comprehension. He tried again, varying the pronunciation, and she tilted her head to the side, staring at him with a puzzled look on her face. On his third attempt, she rushed at him and shoved him up against the wall, shouting.

Treya separated them, nudging the girl back with one arm. Luckily, she allowed it. Treya doubted she could have forced her back if she didn’t want to move—not without hitting her as hard as she had before.

Bobo said, “I don’t know what I told her, but she’s not happy about it. Is she saying where?”

“Where what? Is she asking where the sword is?”

“I don’t know! I can’t translate entire sentences when I’ve only understood two words, and I’m not even sure about those!” It was rare to see Bobo so flustered.

“Tell her we want to talk.”

Bobo said something. The girl, in the midst of one of her tirades, stopped to listen.

“I think she understood me,” he said.

She abruptly stalked over to the wall and ran her fingers across it in a pattern. The black lines in the room—the one that ran across the center of the ceiling and the ones that lined each of the walls, just above eye height—suddenly began to glow, illuminating the entire room more brightly and evenly than the mage lights Ellerie had left.

“Those are lights?” Bobo asked. “Could they do that all along? Or is it something she did?”

The black lines had appeared in nearly every tunnel and room they’d found so far. If the lights worked for anyone, it would have saved them a great deal of effort with mage lights and lanterns.

The girl stared down at the tracks she’d left in the dust on the floor. She spoke a single, sharp sentence—obviously a demand.

Bobo shook his head. “I’m still not sure. I think she said what and you and where, but I didn’t catch the rest. It would help if she spoke more slowly.”

“So tell her that, and let’s start with something easy.” Treya pointed to herself, then her friends. “Treya, Bobo, Shavala.” She repeated the gesture. “Treya, Bobo, Shavala.”

The girl glowered at her, but then pointed at herself and spoke a rush of sounds.

“Aridna?” Treya attempted.

The girl shook her head and repeated her name, this time more slowly.

“Ariadne?” Treya asked. The girl nodded. “Ariadne, we don’t mean you any harm.”

Ariadne looked to Bobo, who attempted to translate. She shook her head, apparently not understanding.

Then she disappeared, reappearing behind them and running south out of the throne room.

“Where—” Bobo started, but Treya didn’t wait to hear what he said.

She sprinted after the girl, Shavala following her. They caught sight of her in the vestibule, where she’d stopped to stare at the destroyed vases, but before they could reach her, she changed directions and headed east. She ran through a group of rooms Ellerie had suggested looked like administrative offices, and then into an area with a series of residential suites.

She stopped at one in particular, running into the nearly empty room, then shaking her head and covering her eyes. When she looked again, she saw Treya and screamed at her, then launched into another diatribe. This time she sounded nearly hysterical. Tears gathered in her eyes, and her voice cracked as she spoke.

Bobo reached them, panting from the run. “What...” He stopped to catch his breath. “What do we do now?”

“Tell her...” Treya trailed off. What could they tell her that would make any sense? “Ask her to come back to the throne room with us so we can talk.”

Ariadne seemed to agree, but when they got back to the vestibule, she broke away again, leaving through the main double doors, which had been left open so they didn’t lock again.

Outside, though, she stopped, her breath catching in her throat. She gazed across the chamber, at the animal statues and the metal sphere. She was silent for a moment, and then she caught sight of the melted stone on the west side. She shrieked and ran to it, scraping at the substance with her fingers. When that didn’t work, she detached the metal scabbard from her armor and used it to pound at the stone.

Ariadne yelled at them, obviously an exhortation to assist her, but she wasn’t making any progress with the scabbard and Treya had left the shovel back in the throne room. It wouldn’t have done much good anyway—if they were going to dig into solid stone, they would need a lot more help.

Finally, the girl stepped back, dropping the scabbard as her legs gave out beneath her. She collapsed to her knees and stayed there, staring silently at the melted wall.

Treya gave her a moment, then murmured, “Let’s see if we can convince her to come back. I don’t think she’ll talk to us out here. She’s too upset.”

She offered Ariadne her hand. The girl ignored it at first, but finally pulled herself to her feet. Without speaking, they returned to the throne room. Marco and Razai were there waiting for them.

“There you are,” Marco said. “Where did these lights—” His eyes widened when he caught sight of Ariadne.

“So, she didn’t kill you after all,” Razai said. “What does she have to say for herself?”

“We can’t understand her,” Bobo said. “Not much, anyway.”

Ariadne glared suspiciously at the newcomers, but then her attention was drawn to the blanket lying at their feet. She blinked out of sight and reappeared next to them, snatching up a simple necklace made of copper links that rested there amongst the other objects.

“Hey, wait!” Marco exclaimed.

She disappeared again, then showed up in front of Treya. Draping the necklace over her own head, she grabbed Treya’s hand.

Treya felt a sudden overwhelming weakness. She stumbled to the side, and Bobo caught her, steadying her shoulders. Ariadne didn’t let go. She, too, seemed to be affected, her other hand clutching her head as she winced in pain.