Lesva and Lady Abrya?Syla asked silently as Fel asked, “The female dragon rider and Oyenar’s wife?”
Apparently, Wreylith was including him in the conversation now.
A bonded rider and a moon-marked human, yes.Wreylith descended toward one of the buildings.
“Are they already inside?”Syla groaned.
Lesva might run into Tibby right away and attack her out of principle. Or try questioning her for information on the shielder chamber’s location in the mine. Or did she already know that? As Syla had worried about before, Lesva had been with Abrya long enough to extract that information.
Your mine shaft is too narrow for a large and magnificent dragon to enter,Wreylith said.
Even small and modest dragons would struggle.
Indeed. We are not exiguous creatures.
“What’s exiguous?” Fel asked, though he’d probably gotten the gist.
“Ask Aunt Tibby. She’s well-read.”
He snorted. “She’d probably use it to describe my genitals.”
“She’s classier than that.”
“My intellect?”
“That sounds right.”
I will land on the roof,Wreylith said.
Perfect. Thank you. We need to go down there and make sure Tibby and the shielder are safe.Syla dreaded entering the mine with only Fel as an ally. It had made sense for her to scout the area and search for Abrya from the safety of the sky with the powerful Wreylith along. But without the dragon…
Hopefully, Syla could find the troops already in the mine and requisition a squad to help her.
As they landed on the rooftop, Fel pointed to a man near the rail tracks. Adeadman.
Syla slumped. “Lesva must havejustcome through.”
How had this unraveled so quickly? Syla had thought they’d have time to put their plan in place.
“Yes.” Fel slid off Wreylith’s back and jumped to the ground, his mace in hand, his crossbow slung across his back.
More gracefully than usual, Syla also slid off the dragon’s back. Typically, she would very carefully and awkwardly maneuver herself if she had to climb down from something, but a strange sense of vigor prompted her to jump off the roof. She landed on her feet beside Fel, feeling as if she’d dropped two feet instead of more than ten, and he blinked, looking surprised as he belatedly held out a hand to steady her if she needed it. She did not.
You are coming into the power that my magic grants,Wreylith stated, sounding smug.
Handy timing.
Too bad it wouldn’t be enough to allow her to defeat Lesva in a confrontation.
“Let’s find Tibby and the rest of the troops that went in.” Syla eyed the body on the tracks. “Before it’s too late.”
26
The lift cagerattled as it descended on chains, a magical engine in the building up top powering it, linked to simple glowing buttons for up, down, and stop. It was possible Aunt Tibby had played a role in creating it, but something told Syla the lift had been built in a much earlier era. With a worn wooden floor and metal bars for the ceiling and walls, it hadn’t changed an iota since she had visited more than fifteen years earlier. It might not have changed in centuries. A dented and pockmarked iron cart resting inside with them also might have been original to the mine. A few chunks of salt and fine powder coated the bottom of it.
Though large enough to fit eight or ten people, the lift cage felt claustrophobic, the ride down a lot less safe than it had seemed all those years ago with her parents and siblings and a couple of bodyguards cozily crowded in with her. Venia had complained, she recalled, that their brother, Gylonar, had been deliberately sneezing on the girls and blaming it on the dust. Syla shook her head bleakly, missing them all.
“How deep does this go?” Fel’s knuckles were tight, both around the haft of his mace and the handle of one of the two lanterns they’d grabbed from the building.
