“Where to?” she asked.
“To get my brother back.” That was the answer she’d been fearing he’d give her.
“Olivin—”
“They want to make this a fight, we’ll make this a fight,” he growled, turning onto a street that connected with a main road. The man wasn’t thinking. He was literally going to march to the Archives right now. Eira took two quick steps forward and wrapped an arm across his upper chest and shoulders.
“Wh—”
“We cannot fall right into their hands.” Eira shoved him up against the wall, holding him there. Olivin tried to break free, but she braced herself against him. She was stronger than he remembered, or gave her credit for.
He seethed. “They have my brother.”
“I know. And I know you’ll risk anything to get him back. But, for a second,think about this: they’ll kill him once they can’t use him as leverage to get to us. So if you hand yourself over to them, what do you think is the first thing they’re going to do?” Eira shifted her grip, making sure she had a firm hold on him. Olivin looked away, but didn’t answer. She took it as a victory. “Ducot, know of any Court of Shadows tunnels in this section of the city?”
“There’s an entrance closer to the docks,” he said. “I’m not totally sure where we are, but it shouldn’t be far. I’m confident I’ll pick up my bearings on the way.”
“You want us to go down into the tunnels that Lorn said are now controlled by the Pillars? Yes, that’s so much smarter than tackling this problem head-on.” Olivin tried to break free again.
A dagger of ice pressed into his throat underneath his chin. Eira locked eyes with his as they widened, shocked by the threat.
“You would threaten me?” Hurt flashed through his eyes.
“Only until your better sense takes over. If we go to the Archives right now, they will kill us all. You are playing right into her hand. Anything you do now, she’s planning for. She already has. We’re finding a place to hole up and recalculate—doing the last thing she expects you to do: approach this logically and calmly.”
“I don’t?—”
“Olivin, please,” she said softly.Don’t make me do this. “I swear to you, we will get him back. If not because we care about him—which we do,I do—because he has the pistol and without it, no one is defeating Ulvarth. So if you can’t believe I’m going to prioritize getting him back because he’s one of this crew and I care, then believe it’s in my self-interest to do so.” Eira tilted her head to look Olivin in the eyes, seeing all his fear and worry. “You’re not going to help him if you’re dead. Don’t die on him. Don’t put him through that.”
Perhaps it was just how recently she’d brought up the pain of Marcus’s death, but Olivin’s shoulders sagged. He shook his head and made a noise of disgust—of pain she could empathize with all too well.
Ultimately, he resigned himself to her plan. “Fine.”
“This way.” Eira led them once more.
It wasn’t hard to find their way to the docks. She remembered the pathways from the books she’d read on Risen and from their arrival. It also didn’t take long until Ducot caught his bearings and led them down a side alleyway and into a door that Alyss helped open for them.
Eira was reminded of the storeroom by the Archives—the place where Alyss and Noelle had first been wrapped into the insanity of the Court of Shadows—and instantly wondered if this somehow connected. Even if the Pillars had brought down the Court, their underground labyrinth was extensive and there was no way they could monitor every tunnel. Even with the risk of the Pillars, she was betting it’d be a safer way to travel than aboveground…
“Through here.” Ducot shifted a back wall into an opening that held a ladder.
“I’ll go first,” Cullen offered. “See if I sense anyone.” He descended into the darkness. After a long stretch of silence, he called up softly, “I think we’re clear.”
Ducot was the next down the ladder. He paused and pulses of magic radiated from him. He shook his head. “I don’t feel anything either.”
The rest of them followed.
“Good, so we’re alone. What next?” Olivin was understandably eager.
“Let’s find a place where we can spread out a bit and organize ourselves in safety,” Eira suggested. The tunnel was rather cramped.
“There should be a supply cache not far from here.” Ducot led the way.
They all followed him around a few bends and ultimately to a door. Inside was a basement. But another ladder going down farther made it feel like the attic of a completely buried home.
The room wasn’t large, but there was enough space for them to spread out among empty crates and cracked barrels. The room had been picked clean, everything of use pulled from it. Still, Cullen and Alyss began searching anyway.
“It goes on forever down here,” Alyss murmured, running her hand along the wall.
