Page 83 of A Tempest of Intrigue (Tempest of Shadows #4)
CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE
Ryker
We emerged from the portal and at the edge of the trees where I’d left Tucker and the others. The crowd remained the same as they waited for us to reemerge from the earth’s bowels.
When we came up from behind them, many jumped and edged back to let us pass.
“They’re alive,” someone breathed.
Others picked up the words and carried them to where Tucker stood with Ianto and Callan beneath the trees. Farley hovered over their shoulders.
Tucker still had a black eye from where the tree branch bashed him, but Ianto looked fine. The beating they’d endured from the trees earlier hadn’t dissuaded them from going out beneath them again as they stood in the area where I’d been taken.
When the whispers of our return reached them, they stopped examining the earth to look toward us. I halted Ellery at the edge of the trees; I didn’t know why they’d taken us and no one else, but I wouldn’t let her walk out there again.
I suspected we’d been chosen over the others because we were lightning bearers, and for some reason, the trees wanted our gift, but they’d also taken the boy. My head tilted as I studied Mouse; could he also possess the gift?
It would be strange to have so many lightning bearers alive simultaneously, but we were living in unprecedented times, and there was a hidden cavern of gargoyles beneath the temple. At this point, nothing would surprise me.
“What happened?” Tucker demanded as he strode toward us.
“That’s a story better told beside a fire with some food and ale,” I told him.
“Food,” Ellery breathed.
Sliding my arm around her waist, I pulled her against me. She had her hand on Mouse’s shoulder and didn’t release him.
I suspected she was afraid he would bolt if she let him go, but he didn’t look like he was going anywhere. His eyes remained filled with terror as he surveyed the trees while huddling against her.
“We can do that,” Tucker said as he stopped before us.
His eyes ran over us as Ianto opened a portal back to the encampment. Once we arrived there, the amsirah came forward to tell Ellery they were glad she was back. The children embraced her, but she still didn’t release Mouse and gave them one-armed hugs in return.
Many of them, including the ones who’d always avoided me, told me they were glad to see me again. Apparently, letting the trees devour me had endeared me to them more than anything else I’d done.
Who could have known?
When things settled down, we sat near one of the fires and were handed heaping plates of food and mugs of ale. Ellery finally released Mouse to dig in; she ate faster than I’d ever seen her.
Mouse sat at her side, watching the flames. His plate sat untouched on his lap.
“What happened?” Tucker asked.
I filled him in on the details, and after some prodding from Ellery, Mouse finally started eating. When I finished talking, Tucker whistled as he studied the three of us.
“Did you know about that cavern beneath the temple?” I asked Tucker.
“No. I spent a lot of time there as a child, but I never knew anything about a hidden cavern full of gargoyles. I don’t know if anyone knows about it; it’s certainly not in our histories, as I’ve read everything there is to read in the temple. I would have remembered if one of the parchments contained information of that caliber.”
“It would be impossible to forget,” Callan said.
“Do you know any scholars?” I asked Tucker.
“Some, but none well enough to reveal something like this to them. I wouldn’t trust them not to tell Ivan.”
“He’d destroy it,” Ellery said.
“Yes, he would,” I agreed.
“I don’t think the scholars know about it either,” Tucker said.
“Why not?” Ianto asked.
“It’s something that would have gotten out over time. They all have family and friends, and while they vow to protect our history, they don’t take one to keep secrets. Over the years, wouldn’t you think at least one of them would have revealed this cavern to a lover, a mother, or a friend?”
“Two can keep a secret if one is dead,” I said.
“Exactly. And dozens of scholars are working there now, never mind the hundreds that came before them. This information would have gotten out.”
“You’re right.”
“There’s an old legend that wind and rain can make a gargoyle speak. It’s always been considered a legend because of how wind and rain sound when it hits or blows across them, but there could be some truth to it.”
“You think that if we go down there again, we could use wind and rain to see if the gargoyles in the cavern have something to reveal to us?”
“It couldn’t hurt.”
“That’s so weird,” Luna muttered.
“Everything about this is weird,” Callan said.
“We can give it a try. I’d like to know where else the tunnel leads,” Ellery said. “We only got to explore in one direction. Something else could be hidden down there.”