Evermine: Daughters of Askara, Book 2 (22 page)

Harper freed the horses, which I viewed as a sign of confidence. They wouldn’t have come into the mine anyway, and we couldn’t very well leave them tethered outside to dehydrate. Next came unloading the sled. Beneath a bucket of dried fruit, I found several folded sacks.

Isabeau
. Always two steps ahead of me.

I stuffed the sacks full of food and water, making sure to pack all the medical supplies and anything else of value. Once I had the bags cinched closed, I used the leather reins to lash the bundles together and made myself an enormous backpack. We had few other choices, and I was, as much as I hated to admit it, the logical choice to play pack mule. “That should do us.”

“Let me help.” Harper made a grab for the supplies, but I staggered out of his reach.

“No. One of us needs to have their hands free in case we have company.” I shifted the pack when his chivalrous side threatened to make a reappearance. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

“Find solid ground and stay to it.” Aldrich scuttled onto a small rock and pushed back his robe. I knew what came next, and grimaced. For someone who said no sacrifice was necessary, the closer we got to the mines, the more willing to bleed he became in order to get there. Harper and I headed inside the mine so solid rock surrounded us on all sides.

Aldrich extended one arm and made his bloody offering. The hum he’d used this morning rose in his throat and reverberated in my teeth. I clenched them and watched. Nothing happened.

I twisted, about to suggest we abandon Aldrich to his ritual and start moving, when Harper tensed. I turned back. The body of the raider I’d fought with vanished beneath the sand.

I took a step, peering around the side where three more were being consumed.

Staring with complete focus, I saw a circular twist in the sand as it spun its meal down an invisible gullet for later digestion. My mouth fell open.
Sand traps
. I gaped at Aldrich.

He’d called them, and worse—they came. No wonder he said we had time. For all we knew, he’d picked off every static point on his grid. The notion chilled the marrow in my bones.

I backpedaled to Harper’s side. Together, we watched the sled upend and disappear. All traces of our journey vanished. If we never came out the other side, no one would be the wiser.

Aldrich crawled from his perch and marched past with his weathered cheeks stretched in a toothy smile. Harper and I exchanged a glance, then followed him into the belly of the mine.

Chapter Twenty

Aldrich shuffled ahead, well outside of the halo cast by Harper’s torch. The old priest hummed steadily under his breath, I assumed as a means of homing in on the strongest magic in the area, which should mean the straightest course to the colony. He tired with ease. Otherwise, I believe he would have led us straight through this maze and into the heart of the colony without a single stop along the way. As it was, we rested every hour or so and let him catch his breath.

He breathed heavily now. Crackling flame eclipsed some of his panting, but not all.

One misstep and he landed in a sprawl of limbs. When he pushed up and glared over his shoulder at us, his expression raged with an undetermined emotion, as if he, too, were frustrated by his body’s limitations. Without a word, he hauled himself onto a nearby rock and slumped.

He gave us no chance to help. I’m sure Harper would have. I would have held the torch…

“Does any of this look familiar?” I sat and pinned our supplies between my back and the wall, relieving me of its weight. I ached all over. There was strength, then there was endurance.

Harper swung his torch wide. It was one of three we’d stolen from holsters embedded in the rock. For now, it was the only one lit. His illegal lighter had come through for us yet again.

“No.” He sat next to me, facing the wall. “I’ll be the first to admit a tunnel is a tunnel without identifying marks. I can say wherever we are hasn’t been used in a long time.” He wiped his fingers across a rocky nub. “What few markers I’ve seen are sweating off the walls. Depending on the moisture content of the area, that takes from six to twenty-four months.”

I tried putting into words what bothered me. “So it’s safe to assume no one’s been down here in a year at least. Not since you took possession of the property. If anyone else had a claim staked, they would have fought Nesvia when she deeded the land and its resources to you.”

“It’s a safe assumption.”

“Hmm.” I considered his timeframe. “And you didn’t recognize this location?”

“No.” His brow puckered in an unasked question.

I pulled an unlit torch from my pack and held it out for his examination. Understanding sparked in his eyes when I tapped the binding. The fabric wound around the metal core was stained a dirty amber color, but should be several shades darker after a year of exposure. I gave it a squeeze, and the oil shimmered on my hand—clear. Carrow oil was the most inexpensive oil used as lamp fuel. Since it hadn’t oxidized, I decided, “These torches were rebound recently.”

“We took them from the entrance.” Harper tucked the torch away and cleaned my hands. “It makes sense for the raiders to keep those fresh in case they ventured into the tunnels.”

Muscles in my back and thighs screamed as I shoved to my feet and crossed to the nearest torch and holder. I lifted it, examining the binding. It was aged. The charred tip fed into a reddish brown color that left flakes on my hands where I touched it. “I guess you were right.”

“You’re right to be concerned. We’ll keep an eye out for squatters as we go.” I turned and found Harper at my elbow. “Even if they did use these tunnels, they wouldn’t have rebound every torch. It would have taken days, and it would give away their location.”

Footsteps shuffled ahead. “It’s time.” Aldrich limped on after giving us fair warning.

His hum began again, filling the tunnel and ringing in my ears. I pretended to chew gum, hoping it would relieve the pressure. It didn’t. Once I gave up on ignoring it, I tuned it in and hummed along with him.
If you can’t beat him, join him.
He stuttered to a stop and glanced back at me. I stopped humming. Had I insulted him? For once, I hadn’t meant to.

He coughed, and his voice came out in a raw croak. “Thank you.”

Before I could ask what for, he resumed his hum. Harper gave me an odd look as I rejoined the strange chorus. The longer I held the notes, the stronger my conviction became there was more than monotony in our song. Steady notes gripped my chest in a painful vise and squeezed until I understood its meaning. The song was an intricate crafting, alive in its hunger.

Below the sustained vibrations, I heard sibilant words.
Sssong isss ssseeking.

I swallowed hard. The noise in my throat had just referred to itself as Song.

Perfect
. More than a delicate crafting, it was a sentient spell. And I’d caught its attention. I glared at Aldrich, whose skin was concealed from head to toe, and cursed. Sentient spells were tattooed on and drew on the life force of their host to power their magic. By keeping his skin covered, Aldrich kept his spells a deadly secret he could animate with a sustained compulsion.

“Emma?” Harper touched my arm. Frown lines crinkled his brow the longer I hummed.

I shook my head and pointed to my mouth.

“What is it?” He grabbed my arm, pulling me to a stop. His fingers tightened, and Song took notice. Spinning down my arm, it crept toward him. I ripped my hand from his before they touched. Song’s high-pitched wail rattled my brain. Warmth tickled my neck. Without touching my throat, I knew blood leaked from my ears. Growling its displeasure, the crafting nestled back into my chest and coiled, ready to strike should an interesting target present itself a second time.

Fear dried my throat to a constant tickle. I coughed, and Song hissed in displeasure.

Blood of your blood runsss within thessse wallsss.

I took a minute to wrap my head around this insanity. When I started humming, I must have somehow invited Song into me. I wasn’t crazy. I
had
heard it speaking earlier. If I’d hummed then, it would have gotten its toehold in me sooner, and I wouldn’t have lasted this long. No wonder Aldrich had sounded grateful. This was torturous. His steps fell lighter, and his gate quickened as he became unburdened. I expected him to break into a jig at any moment.

There ssshe isss.

Song crushed my lungs, and I dropped to my knees. Rocks ripped at my palms, and the crafting slid down my arm, gleefully swirling through my blood. Song painted a red streak as it slithered up a mounded pile of stones and slipped between the cracks. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then I charged Aldrich. Harper grabbed my waist. Rather than hurt him, I relented.

“I thought you understood.” Aldrich sounded so convincing, I almost believed him.

“I was trying to drown out your noise, not invite a crafting to take up root in my chest.”

Dangerous rumbles worked through Harper’s chest. “What are you two talking about?”

“That humming sound he makes? It animates a crafting called
Song
.” My hands shook with my anger, and another emotion I didn’t want to claim. I sliced through the reins with my claws, and our supplies hit the cave with a dull thud. Claustrophobia constricted my chest as easily as Song had wound around my rib cage. I gulped air and let Harper rub my sore shoulders.

“Song?” Harper’s hands clamped down on me. “It told you its name was Song?” When I nodded, he snarled at Aldrich. “That’s what I heard at the castle. You were chanting to it even then.” His tone dripped venom. “You allowed one of your sentient craftings to feed on Emma?”

“Song is harmless,” Aldrich spat, “unless you’re the one he’s sent for.”

I glared at him, counting the seconds until I was strong enough to charge again. Then his words registered. “Wait a minute. What do you mean ‘the one he’s sent for’? You unleashed Song on a person? Who could you possibly know in the colony that it could track for you?”

His wrinkled face sagged beneath indefinable emotion. I picked out grief. Or was it guilt?

I glanced left to right. Sweat popped over my lip and stung a cut at the corner of my mouth. The three of us were alone in the tunnel. Was this an elaborate trap? He was a master of illusion. Our earlier fight, the trek here—had any of it happened? Were we all still trapped in Rihos?

The desperation haunting his eyes made no sense. Then his lips tightened and his jaw set.

This was real, all right. He was desperate. Song had sounded pleased. Whatever it found for Aldrich on the other side of that wall must have been what he’d been tracking all along.

“You weren’t helping us find a way into the colony. You were luring us down here to help you. That’s why Song said ‘There
she
is’ instead of ‘
Here
we are’ or ‘Oh, I found that colony you were looking for.’” I stared where Song had gone and strained my ears. I heard muted thuds…then someone screamed as if her life depended on it. “Who’s in there, Aldrich?”

Aldrich lifted his stubby chin. “Your sister.”

My heart stopped.

My claws unsheathed.

And I roared, “
Madelyn.
”

Rubble crumbled beneath my frantic claws as I attacked the wall. Strong hands gripped my shoulders and pulled. I ignored them. If my
vinda koosh
was in there, I was breaking her out.

“Emma,” Harper said, frustrated. “
Emma
.” I shook him off. Maddie was night blind. She’d be terrified in a room with no light. Growling, he hit the bend of my legs. My knees buckled, and I snagged him to break my fall. He landed on top of me, pinning my cheek to stone. “It’s not Maddie. Think about it. She wouldn’t have come without telling us. It’s not her.”

I melted into a boneless heap.
Not Maddie
. The world righted itself. I could breathe.

Harper stroked my cheek. I turned my face into his hand. “She’s afraid of the dark.”

I don’t know why I said it. He knew it as well as I did.

“I know.” He rolled aside, tugging me until I sprawled over his lap. He tilted my chin up. “And if I had thought for one second Maddie was in there, I wouldn’t have stopped you.”

“I know.” My pulse calmed. I closed my eyes. “I know.”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

All eyes returned to the wall. I scrambled from Harper’s lap and pressed my palm against the stones, and I swore I heard sobbing. Searching for Aldrich, I found him in an identical pose.

“Nesvia.” The answer was obvious now that my panic had abated.

Spittle flew from Aldrich’s lips. “Who else would it be? Are you a halfling or a halfwit?” His voice broke. “Your fallen princess is inconsequential.” He fisted rock. “My
queen
is in there.”

Grinding my back teeth, I forgave him the slur. We’d both responded to a lifetime of conditioning. In this, his devotion and mine were evenly matched. Another time, I might have laughed at how we obeyed opposite ends of the royal spectrum. Maddie was my absolute. Nesvia was his.

For all his talk of his Sereian queen and his obvious distaste for Eliya, Aldrich’s rabid devotion to Askara’s new queen shone through his cool demeanor. His acrid fury tainted the air.

Nesvia was new to me, an undefined variable where affection grew but true and abiding love had yet to blossom. I heard the word
sister
and my thoughts lurched toward Maddie. They always would. The parts of my heart not belonging to Harper were imprinted with her name.

The fact I saw and thought clearly now didn’t mean I didn’t care. Shock caused the crazed panic that would have left us all hip-deep in debris. This calm, rational Emma was the one who could help. Ever the bull in a china shop, I would have brought this tunnel down around us if Harper hadn’t stopped me. I thanked my lucky stars he wasn’t above manhandling me. Many feared becoming the target of a halfling’s fury, but I couldn’t respect males afraid of retaliation.

Focus, Emma
. I considered our absent guide. “Why did Song lead us to a dead end?” I compared this wall to the others. “Can you call him back?” I shivered as I voiced the suggestion. “There must be another way to access the room where she is. She had to get in there somehow.”