“It can’t,” Tamra says. “It took us days to locate Asha.”
Thaden is quiet, his expression pensive.
I take another sip of water, drawing deep breaths and finally steadying myself. “I’m fine. Really. Whatever you need to show me, show me.”
Thaden doesn’t question me again. “This way,” he says. “But I need to warn you that I’m about to take you to the darkest place in the village. I don’t want you to think I’m leading you into a trap.”
“Okay,” I say, accepting my sister’s help to stand. “Let’s go.”
Thaden sets off slowly at first. Instead of leading me down the incline toward the main village, he heads to the left, along a wide ledge that leads to the mouth of a cave.
He was right. It’s filled with darkness and looks like a trap, but it doesn’t reek of death or whisper within my mind.
He takes up a fire brand that rests in a metal loop at the mouth of the cave before he strikes a flint across the rock wall itself, lighting up the brand.
Tamra doesn’t hesitate, going in first even without the light, and Thaden follows her, saying to me, “Stay behind us. That way, you can be assured that your way out is clear.”
The mouth of the cave forms a tunnel that stretches far into the distance.
Halfway along, once we’re engulfed in the dark and only the fire brand gives us light, an opening appears on the right, a soft glow emitting from it.
I think we’re going to head inside, but Tamra and Thaden continue past it.
Still, I pause at the door, surprised by what I see—or rather, what Idon’tsee.
The room contains a forge, fully enclosed except for the doorway. The fact that it’s enclosed is surprising enough, since all forges need large openings to allow smoke to disperse.
But the coal glowing in the forge isn’t crimson coal.
I don’t see a single lump of crimson coal, and it’s not as if it could be concealed. This forge is tidy and clean. Everything has a place. The wall is lined with regular tools—the same ones that human metalworkers use—although when I lean closer, I make out tools I’ve never seen before.
“Did you make those yourself?” I ask.
A moment later, the circle of light returns to me, and Thaden stands in the doorway beside me. “Make what?”
“Those tools.” I gesture to the wall. “Did you make them yourself?”
“I did.”
“I don’t see any crimson coal.”
“Because I haven’t forged with it for years,” he says. “I don’t use my hammer to forge here. It’s too dangerous.”
He gestures to the metal box sitting on a pedestal on the far side of the room. “I keep my tools in that iron box and only get them out when I have no other choice.”
He’s already turning away, but I stop him.
“You used your tools when you came for me before,” I say.
He gives a short nod. “Like I said, only when I have no other choice.”
“But if you don’t forge using your power, how have you helped those people?”
How does he make such intricate limbs?
He gives me a fleeting smile. “With hard work.”
I persist. “None of them were made with Blacksmith magic?”
