“That’s it! Over there!” She points through the trees. “Can’t you see? Shimmering in the distance?”
I squint through the gloom. I can’t see anything at all. But Fox, with his superior eyesight, nods in agreement, and we all pick up our pace, arriving at the edge of a small black pool ten minutes later.
“This is where I found it,” Briony says, “at the bottom of this pond.”
“Are you sure?” Tudor asks.
“Absolutely certain.”
Clare looks down at the frozen surface of the pond with apprehension. “If there are any more at the bottom of this pond,” she says, “we’ll freeze to death before we find any.”
“You might,” Dray says, winking at her. “We’ve got magic, remember?”
Clare shudders. “I still don’t like the way it looks. It’s sort of sinister.”
“I don’t feel any bad magic,” Beaufort says, “and usually you can sense it, sort of hanging in the air, like a threat. I don’t feel any of that here.”
He looks around at the rest of us, and we all nod in agreement.
“Do you feel anything pulling you that way, Cupcake?” Fly asks, also peering down into the frozen pond.
Nini cocks her head to one side. “I don’t know. Perhaps it’s not as strong as last time, but there’s a sensation in the pit of my stomach, inching me a little closer.”
We’re all quiet for a moment, and then Beaufort whispers into the silence, “I feel it too.”
“Seriously?” Dray says, looking unimpressed. “You always have to be the special one, don’t you, Beau?”
“Hey,” Beaufort says, insulted, “I’m telling the truth.”
“Either way,” I say, “there’s only one way to find out.”
I snatch off the gloves from my hands and send my shadows colliding against the surface of the ice. They smash right through, cracks racing along the surface as the cold waters from below bubble up and drag them down into the depths.
“It looks even more sinister now,” Clare says, shuffling on her feet and scrunching up her nose.
“I don’t feel any danger.” I let my magic swim through the dark waters below, down to the peaty bottom. My shadows sweep methodically, and then they halt. “There’s something there,” I say.
I wrap my magic around the object, unable to decipher exactly what it is. I pull at it, trying to dislodge it, trying to free it from where it’s stuck. It doesn’t move. I yank harder, and it still doesn’t move. I frown.
My shadows are possibly the most powerful in the realm, bar the Empress’s herself. Removing a stone from the bottom of a pond should be no effort at all. And yet, no matter how fiercely I pull, it does not come away.
“It’s stuck,” I say. “It won’t move.”
Dray scoffs and sends his own magic splashing into the water. I feel it race up against mine and weave around the object too. He grits his teeth and grunts as he pulls and pulls and pulls.
Nothing happens.
Finally, he huffs in frustration, and his shadows come hurtling back toward him.
“Maybe we have to wade into the pond and remove it physically after all,” Tudor suggests.
“Or maybe only a lumomancer can remove it,” Clare says.
We all look at her, then back at Briony, who shrugs.
The next moment, light is soaring from her fingertips and piercing through the water, illuminating its gloomy depths and revealing what lies beneath.
Not one stone, but two, lodged right at the very bottom of the pond.
