“He is.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I told you. It was an accident. He doesn’t even know what he did. If she had been there with him, it would’ve been her, not me.” She twisted, throwing a grin back over her shoulder. “It could’ve been you.”
He drew back, lip curled. “Yet another reason not to get too close to an Elf.”
They flew the rest of the way in silence, until the Eastern Cliffs threaded along beside them and night began to rise. Then she had Gur fly ahead and signaled to Anqa to follow.
Gur and Anqa deposited them in one of the old cliff dwellings and then flew off to hunt.
In the damp cave, Damion laughed, patting what remained of a sculpture carved out of the soft red stone—the bust. “It’s been years since I explored these cliffs, since I was a boy.”
“Since my mother declared them off limits,” she clarified, moving quickly away from the cave opening and the crashing roar of the ocean below.
At the back of the cave, carved steps descended into winding passageways and endless rooms, some grand as Froenz’s hall, and even more intact.
“People lived here?” Honey asked, gazing up at the wall where the remnants of a mural barely showed—little more than the sinuous black lines of dancing figures.
“A long time ago,” she said, “before the sea swallowed the great cities.”
“When the gods walked the Lands,” Kaelan said.
She nodded, though in the deep blue light of encroaching night, she wasn’t sure he could see it.
“We all sleep tonight,” she said.
“No guard?” Damion scoffed.
She set Hero down. The cave floor was littered with dust and the dried grass of bird nesting and small deposits of bat guano. “Hero will stand watch tonight. He will wake us. We all need to sleep.”
“No fire?” Damion asked.
“No fire,” she said. “We leave before dawn.”
She scraped a spot clean with her boot and dropped down onto it, resting her back against the wall.
Closing her eyes, she drifted.
Later, a voice prodded at her.
“Wake up.They’re asleep.”
She groaned and stretched her sore neck. Hero’s nose brushed hers. She stroked his head.
“Thank you.Stay. Watch them,” she said to him.
“Where will you go?”
“There’s just someone I need to see.I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Quietly as she could, she rose. Every rasp of her boot on the loose grit of the cave floor made her wince. Damion slept flat on his back, mouth open, starlight kissing his scars. Honey slept near his feet, in a huddle. Kaelan had moved deeper into the cave, nearer to her, taking up post along the opposite wall and using Endreas’s coat as a pillow. Keeping her distance from him all day had helped weaken their connection. She couldn’t tell if he was sleeping or not. She would just have to trust Hero, who since waking her had delved into the shadows along the edges of the cave.
Turning, she descended the steps.
Down and down. Rustles of rats and bats echoed from connecting chambers. The drip of water and the salty rawness of the sea grew distant behind her as she descended into the chill of stone and places untouched by the sky. She moved swiftly, allowing that habit-place deep in her mind to lead her through the black tunnels. As keen as her eyes were, they found no scrap of light. But she didn’t need any.
Eight years had passed since she’d last traveled these tunnels, but she knew every corridor, every set of stairs. As a child, she’d spent many long hours mapping the old city’s routes.
