“You're a soldier and you are utterly charming,” I argued.
Everan grinned at me. “You are the only person who thinks so.”
“The Commander has had a difficult day,” Master Erlandral said generously. “I believe he's focused on redeeming himself in the eyes of his king.”
“It will take more than focus to do that,” Nial muttered.
“The cave is secure, Your Majesties and Your Highness,” Fabin called from the entrance. Then, to the rest of his soldiers, he said, “Guard the passage and watch the mountain. If you see any sign of another avalanche, fetch us immediately.”
We stepped past Fabin and into an illuminated tunnel. Glowing discs were attached to the walls every few feet and they brightened as we approached.
“Motion-detecting lights?” I asked.
“I installed them,” Erlandral said. “They lead to the location I was monitoring.”
“You could have told us to follow the lights and remained at the castle,” I noted.
Erlandral drew himself upright. “I wouldn't dream of sending you here without me. Besides, you might need me to point out where I felt the magic the strongest.”
“Of course. You're probably right,” I said, then shot Everan a quick grin. I didn't remind Erlandral that I could see the magic he could sense; that kind of honor shouldn't be discouraged.
The tunnel did indeed go deep into the mountain, angling downward as Erlandral reported. The incline was slight, hardly noticeable until the temperature began to drop. Then it became clear that we had descended into Danu. The rock around us shifted color as we went, darkening until it was nearly black. It reminded me of the stuff that had oozed out of the tree root and that thought made me shiver. Had the mountain been drained too? Was that what had caused the trembling? A shaking tree wouldn't be noticed but a shaking mountain was another thing entirely. Perhaps pieces of Danu had been drained all over the kingdom but no one had noticed until the proof came pouring down a mountainside at them.
“Here we are,” Erlandral declared.
The tunnel ended in a circular cave. A knight stood guard against the sloping wall but other than him, there was nothing of note there. The floor was packed dirt and the walls were stone, just as it had been in the tunnel we'd taken there. I switched to my second sight and the walls brightened into amethyst. The calming aura was holding. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another color—a complementary color. I spun to face the flash of yellow—a shade I was growing to hate. It wasn't in the mountain's asha but was instead seeping up from the ground. Everan and I exchanged a grim look—he saw it too. I went to the spot where that neon/pineapple yellow thickened slightly and knelt beside it.
“I see that I'm not needed after all,” Erlandral noted as he joined me. “This is the spot where I sat and monitored the magic.”
“That yellow I mentioned is here,” I explained. “It's not in the stone. I think it's coming up through the ground.”
“It is,” Everan confirmed.
“You can see it too, Your Majesty?” Erlandral asked in surprise.
“I don't have my wife's color magic, but she's shared her ability to see asha with me.”
“How?”
“We are part of a Faulin fusion,” Everan admitted.
“Fascinating,” Erlandral whispered.
The Commander just gaped at Ever.
“I don't suppose you brought a shovel, Commander?” Nial refocused Fabin, startling him a bit with the question.
“No, Your Highness,” Fabin stammered.
“Well, I'm not digging with my dagger again,” Nial announced, then waved at Erlandral and me. “Step back, you two.”
“Your Highness, there are risks—” Erlandral began.
“Nothing happened in the forest,” Nial pointed out. “Not even when that gunk touched me.”
Erlandral sighed, nodded, and stepped back.
Nial held his flattened hands out above the ground, palms down.
