Dropping to my knees beside him, I stabbed a dagger into the compacted soil and began to hack at the dirt in quick, determined drives. Each strike with the blade kicked loose small chunks of earth that I flung aside with my free hand. Lore did the same with my other blade, his arms coated with grime as he scraped deeper and deeper.
Farris joined in, his front claws scrambling at the soil, loosening it.
We dug in silence, Lore climbing down into the hole we eventually created, Farris landing beside him with one bound.
Lore dropped my blade to the ground only to hold his hands up for me to slide off the edge and into them. He caught me at the waist and gently lowered me beside him, giving me a quick kiss before retrieving the blade.
“You’re mussing your lovely hair arrangement,” he drawled with a hint of his old spunk. He tugged on a clump of strands that had slipped from the pins.
“And you’ve mussed your lovely leathers,” I pointed out in the same tone.
He only gave me a sad smile.
The sounds of scraping metal and shifting dirt echoed in the throne room above. My hands burned, and my breaths came in short bursts. We flung dirt up onto the marble floor before attacking the base again.
Farris huffed and snarled and put as much energy into this as we did.
“How did Prager get past the Sentinel Veil without us being warned?” I asked. My shoulders ached, but I didn’t care. I poured all I had into tearing apart the ground, as if I could claw my way toward something with meaning, toward purpose, toward whatever might be buried beneath the soil.
He paused, his gaze seeking mine. “I’ve thought about that and…” He raked a dirt-covered hand through his hair, snarling it up and coating it with soil. “Or one of our staff may not have been as willing as we’d assumed.”
“Lord Briscalar. Talvon. Surren. Moira, Faelith, Calista. Which one?”
“I believe we need to find out.”
“Calista’s been a pain in the ass, but she confessed she loved someone, and he scorned her, stating she wasn’t good enough for him even with her new status. That shouldn’t have an impact on her loyalty, though. They’re all bloodsworn too.”
“It’s been bothering me. I want to test them, but this…” He stared at his hands coated in dirt and streaked with blood. “I’ll do it. Soon.”
We continued digging.
Lore kept muttering under his breath, and I only caught fragments. “Hidden… All this time… Evergorne fools.”
Then the tip of my blade hit an object. Not stone or tile, but something different. I poked again, and a hollow thwack reverberated up my arm.
Farris backed away, releasing a yip.
“Here,” I hissed as I laid aside the blade and clawed at the dirt with my bare hands. “Lore, there’s something here.”
He pivoted closer, his body pressing alongside mine as his hands joined in at the spot I’d exposed. Together, we cleared away the dirt in a frenzy until the smooth edges of what I’d found emerged.
It had been crafted of a strange, pale stone, not typical of the throne room and not the marleene used to build the castle itself.
The dagger scraped against the stone again as he shifted the blade, searching for a seam or weak point in the surface. My fingers bled from clawing at the dirt, and a few scrapes along my knuckles stung. A damp, earthy smell filled the air, a reminder of how far below the throne room floor we’d dug, reaching for something we may never find.
“I don’t know what it is.” Lore brushed his hand over the pale surface we’d uncovered. Made up of an almost a perfect circle, the stone was about the length of my full arm. Faint carvings embedded in its surface were so worn from age, I couldn't make them out.
Leaning back on my heels, I slid hair from my face with the back of my arm.
Farris pawed at the side of the stone until Lore gently eased him to the side.
“Look.” With a fingertip, he traced one of the grooves encircling the stone while stroking Farris’s head. “Smart nyxin.”
Farris yipped.
“Do you think this thing was placed here to lock something in or keep everything else out?” Lore asked.
My chest twitched. “Keepwhatlocked inside?”
