She nods with understanding, sending a wave of comfort toward me.
“So how are we going to find one little metal disc in all ofthat?” Tira asks, bending down to splash her fingers in the water.
“We’ll try my magic first,” Ana says. “If the seal’s hidden at the bottom of the lake, there’s a chance I can orbit it to us.”
She kneels down on the grass, laying her palms up and open on her thighs, concentrating. The buzz of magic fills the air, and I can sense a powerful desire rising in her—a yearning for something out of reach. She frowns, and the buzzing strengthens, but as we watch the surface of the lake, it stays unbroken.
Ana sighs, the magic and the inner desire fading at the same time. She opens her eyes.
“Nothing,” she says, and her disappointment flares sharply across the mooring. “I think I need a more specific idea of an object’s location before I can draw it to me. Plus, I only have a vague idea what it will look like. I’ve not tried to summon something with so little sense of it before. If the sealisin the lake, you can’t feel its power. The water must be dampening it, like we thought.”
“It seems we’ll have to do this the non-magical way,” says Phaia, going to pull off her boots.
Tira bends to unlace her own shoes, but Hyllus stops her with a hand on her arm.
“Let us. We fae can hold our breath much longer than humans.”
Coming from anyone else, Tira would argue this, feeling underestimated. But Hyllus says it so mildly she just straightens.
“Alright then,” she says. “But it’s a shame we don’t have an aquari who could help us search the water.”
“Hey,” Stratton protests as he pulls off his boots and tunic. “My aquari magic is damn useful. Just not for searching lakes for mysterious artifacts. The gods forgot to offer me that particular skillset when they were handing out powers.”
The conversation throws up a thought in my mind. My mother was an incendi—hardly useful for this task, but my father was a geostri, with the power to move stones. Ana’s right that the water’s helping hide the seal, but I also think he would’ve put his own magic to good use too.
“My father likely would have buried it under stone,” I say aloud to the others. “Or done something else with his geostri magic that would make the seal difficult to access.”
“But also not impossible to find,” Phaia points out. “It seems unlikely Prince Keleus would’ve just buried something as precious as the seal in the lakebed. It would be too easy to lose it.”
“But he could’ve put the artifact inside something, like a cavern, and sealed it up again,” I say. “There were caves in these hills when we were looking at the map. There could be one here,underthe water. Keep your eyes peeled for any irregular rock formations,” I instruct as we finish preparing to enter the water.
“Be careful,”Ana warns.
“Always, my love,”I reply, pulling her in for a quick kiss.
“If that were true you wouldn’t be you,”she points out.
I grin and start to wade out into the lake. The water is icy even with the balmy weather, but at least it’s clear. I can see my hand almost perfectly beneath the surface as the water laps at my waist. Further on, there’s a steep drop-off where the lakebed falls away into much deeper water, turning a purplish black as it escapes the sun.
With a nod at my soldiers, we each take a deep breath and dive.
I open my eyes once I’m under the surface, taking in the muffled, blue world. Sunlight dances in specks above me as Hyllus, Phaia, and Stratton swim past me, kicking hard to propel themselves into the lake’s depths. They each take a different direction, while I pull myself toward the waterfall. The churning water acts as my guide, throwing up a cloud of bubbles, hiding whatever shape the lakebed takes beneath it.
The prophecy said the seal was shielded by Siga’s falling tears. My bet is it was being specific, and that whatever hidey hole my father found is near the waterfall itself. I angle myself downward until the storm of frothy water is above me. Then I reach my hands out, feeling along the side of the lake in the gloom.
I search for about ten minutes until my lungs start to ache. I know soon I’ll have to return to the surface for more air, but I’m not ready to give up yet. My fingers dig into the mud, sometimes scraping against rough rock, and then—just as I’m about to give up and swim for the surface—I feel a large, smooth expanse of stone. I push my palms outward, trying to gauge the size, but my body’s protesting too much now.
“Leon! Leon, where in the gloam are you? Don’t hurt yourself, you idiot.”
Ana’s voice finds me, even down here. She can obviously sense my physical pain through the mooring. She’s right, of course, and her message is the nudge I need. As my head starts to pound, I reluctantly place my feet against the lakebed and push away, sending myself shooting up into the light.
I break the surface with a gasp, the sunshine blinding me as I wipe water from my eyes.
“You actually listened to me,” Ana calls from the side of the lake. “It’s a miracle.” I can feel the relief emanating from her as I swim toward the edge where Phaia and Stratton are also getting air.
“Is Hyllus alright?” Tira asks, staring with concern across the lake surface.
“Oh yes,” Stratton smirks.
