The ground rumbles for ages.
When it goes, the quiet stays. The hole is empty. And even the birds are reluctant to break the tense sorrow that hangs like a shroud. The odd weight makes my stomach hollow, but I can’t afford to feel it. Empathy won’t help us now. Rune’s face is drawn, but he agreed to this as much as anyone else here.
Slowly, we gather again. We move on. We haven’t made it to the first key and we’ve already got one man down.
I have a feeling he won’t be the last.
I NEED YOUTO JUMP
11
ODELIA
We walk, the breaks in the canopy offering glimpses of the dark, towering stones. The trees thin and all at once we break through to a grassy meadow. A flurry of fur and racing feet disappears into the woods. A rabbit or a fox or something else that’s right to be afraid.
“We rest here,” Rune says, but doesn’t find a spot to sit. He moves to the other side of the clearing and drops his bag before pacing.
I stifle the urge to go to him, but Elio moves past me, leaving his pack with Tavi and Bear. He stands firm while Rune paces near a half-fallen tree at the meadow’s edge, and I wonder how often this exact scenario has played out: Elio the anchor, Rune trapped in the insistent currents of his mind. A strange ache wells in my chest, sneaking in on the rawness that’s left after adrenaline fades, but I remind myself the trust they have in each other can only lead to pain for both of them. It’s not something I should want.
“Hey Odi, got any water?” Otto sits behind me, holding Tavi’s forearm, where a clean slice sheets blood over her skin.
Sweat drips down Tavi’s brow but she makes no move to wipe it while Bear attends to the wound. “Briar got me while I was trying to secure the rope,” she says by way of explanation.
“Uh, sure, here.” I kneel with them and tug off my water skin.
Bear works efficiently, washing the wound, then pulls a vial from his pack.
Elio feigns a retch as he walks back, his eyes tracing over the blood on Tavi’s arm. “This stuff smells like wyrm shit.”
“Smells better than infection.” Bear grins, and Tavi hisses as the dark liquid coats the wound.
“Whatisthat?” I ask, pulling the fabric of my shirt over my nose. The scent is something between bitter herb and gut-twisting floral.
“Mix of stuff from the islands around, and one secret ingredient.” He winks.
Elio huffs a laugh, glancing at the stone-faced tavi. “It’s mistleroot. Grows everywhere around Nareth. Otto here found when you mix it with herbs from the up top it’s unparalleled as a wound cleaner.”
“Nareth? The ocean kingdom?” I knew they had open trade with some of the islands, but I didn’t know anyone who had ever actually been. The sirens were a secretive and protective bunch, often suspicious oflandsmen, the name they’d given to all who breathe air, though I’d argue sailors and pirates would be grouped in with theseafolkby any other definition. The distinction seems to be more about pride than animosity, thought. I’d even heard the Sirens keep entire rooms in the upper sections filled with breathable air for land visitors.
Otto winds a bandage around Tavi’s arm. His fingers are long and thin, like an artist’s. “Yeah we mostly turn bounties in top side, hunt whoever’s face is on the bounty posters and turn them in wherever is closest. But sometimes Rune gets requests straight from Nareth, and he always prioritizes those. The ointment was an accident. Came up with the idea because the quail. Captain knows I love new ingredients, and apparently it’s popular in certain circles. I hated it. Tastes like you took a munch of this grass. So I tossed it to the quail and they loved it. So every time Rune had some he’d bring it, and once, I noticed one was sick, then it wasn’t. So—”
“Bear, can you bring some of that over here?” a woman with cropped red hair calls from the middle of the group.
Otto leaps to his feet. “On it!”
“We should go too,” Tavi says to Rune, standing to follow him to the others.
Elio’s gaze follows them. Mostly Tavi. He does nothing to hide the way his lips tighten, or the deepening of the creases by his eyes.
“Jealous?” I ask, because I’m an ass. That ache is back again. These people care for each other too much.
He snorts. “No. Are you?”
“Unlikely.” I grin at the wicked gleam in his eye, though I should feign offense. In truth, I am jealous, but not in the way he thinks. I’d never thought to miss any sort of companionship before—attachments are weaknesses, I know that better than anyone—but now I can’t help but feel I’m missing something. If a Viper had been lost to that underground creature, few, if any, would have mourned. My father would have taken itas a price worth paying, if it meant meeting his goal. I would have too. It was the nature of life. Our life, at least.
Bear returns my water skin half empty and Rune calls us to continue, warning everyone to be on their guard as we approach the stones.
Rune and I lead us out. The afternoon sun is on its way down, teasing us with how little time we have before sunset. Near the top of the hill, the obelisks are weathered, leaning on cracked foundations, their shadows stretching long into the forest behind us. One is rigidly linear—sharp lines and a point that spears into the sky. The other is twisted, like its creators had chiselled a spring into the design. Hopefully, we’ll find more clues once we reach them.
