“How long do you think we should wait?” Cullen whispered.
“Maybe a few more minutes.” Eira continued to stare where Alyss had gone. “Do you think this is the right decision?”
“You’re right to trust us all. We can look after ourselves. And…I don’t think we have a choice.” Cullen trailed his fingertips down her arm to take her hand in his.
She smiled slightly and leaned into him, leeching off of the brief second of comfort he could give her. Cullen wrapped his arm around her shoulders, squeezing her tightly.
“I hope this is the right approach.” Lavette’s final stare was scorched behind Eira’s lids.
“We’re going to be fine,” he insisted. “Don’t think like that.”
Eira nodded. She knew such thoughts were unproductive. But doubt and fear were resilient foes.
“Besides…” His tone shifted, prompting Eira to pull away slightly and tilt her face up toward his. Cullen’s hand gently caressed her cheek. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Not now, not ever.”
Rising to her toes, she pressed her lips gently against his. Heart in her throat, there weren’t words in that moment. Even if his sentiments were nothing more than beautiful lies and they both knew it, they were what she needed to keep her bravery.
“Stay safe, Cullen,” Eira whispered against his mouth. She leaned away, looking up at him through her lashes. “We have unfinished business, you and I.”
He smirked. “I look forward to it.”
Eira turned, leaving him behind and starting up the tunnel. It connected to another tunnel, no sign of Alyss or Ducot. She could head upward or down. Instinct told her to go up…logic told her down.
The way Carsovia was mining resembled a spiral, tendrils of tunnels spinning out from the main core—probing deeper for veins of their precious minerals. That meant the majority of theactivity would be at the bottom. Her theory proved correct as she quickly heard the chipping of tools against hard stone.
Shadows moved on a far wall. Eira ducked down against a large crate, pressing herself against the side. Two knights passed, both armed with flashfires. Eira gathered up the dust and dirt, coating herself in grime before continuing. On the other side of the crate was a pickaxe. Eira grabbed it, slinging it over her shoulder.
She went in the direction the knights had come from, and eventually the tunnel curved around, opening to a large, flat cavern. One side was open to the giant hole they were digging straight into the earth. But she was so deep that she couldn’t see the upper rim. The fading light hardly reached here.
Men, women, children, all labored in the smoke and dust of the cavern. Chipping at the walls. Clawing out thin sheets of rock—the size of a palm to a sheet of parchment—and delicately placing them in central basins on tracks that spilled over the distant, open edge of the cavern. Guards were positioned in the center of the room, overseeing the operations. Armed once more.
When they were looking in the opposite way, Eira scrambled down the side of the ramp that emerged from the tunnel. Rock and dust skittered down with her and she quickly turned toward the wall. Holding her breath. Waiting. Hoping…
A hand closed around her shoulder.
“I don’t recognize you.”
36
Eira had been expecting the guards to sound gruffer, harsher. So she wasn’t surprised when she turned and found herself face-to-face with another young woman, rather than one of the knights. The woman was about Eira’s height, slightly shorter. Her cropped, golden hair was gray from all the soot.
“Who are you, and why are you here?” she whispered eagerly.
“I…I reported to the wrong location.” Eira looked to the wall, pulling back her pickaxe.
The woman caught it by the handle. “I wouldn’t do that. While it usually takes magic force to trigger flash beads…strong enough brute impact can trigger the shale. And I’d rather keep my flesh on my bones.”
Eira slowly eased her pickaxe down. She was solidly caught. Perhaps trying to get the lay of the land by assimilating herself was the wrong choice. But the woman hadn’t reported her yet, so that was a triumph.
“I’m Mel. You?”
“Hannah,” Eira lied. Giving her real name, even knowing it was extremely unlikely for anyone to have heard of her, felt far too dangerous.
Mel glanced over her shoulder and leaned in. “Are you with Slip? Did he send you?”
Eira had a second to weigh her options and, with barely any thought at all, she gave a nod. Thanks to Varren, she knew enough about Slip to craft a lie about knowing him. And Slip was on the side of those imprisoned here. So allying herself with him could be a boon.
“I knew he hadn’t deserted us!” Mel kept looking over her shoulder, her words low and hasty. “We should keep working. Let’s talk more when they take us back to the barracks.”
