Page 58

We stand by the edge, waiting as the rest of our crew scales the cliff, while Andor keeps scanning the horizon with his enhanced eyesight to make sure we’re not being watched.

Then when everyone else is up, we hurry as a group along a scrubby path of sagebrush and pricklepalms, doing our best not to kick up the dust. The sun is now starting to rise over the low eastern mountains, and soon all of us will be easy to spot.

“Time to split up,” I tell them, pointing at the sandy stone path that gradually gets wider as it fades over the mesas and plateaus.

“This will eventually turn into the northern road. Follow it east and as soon as you see the cover of those rocks over there, keep to them as much as possible. You should be camouflaged.”

Everyone is dressed similarly to how they were when we trekked through the dunes to the Dark City, except here the fabrics are in shades of tan and clay to match the surroundings. Once my group gets to the spring we’ll switch out for our black armor underneath to keep us incognito.

Vidar, Raine, and Belfaust head down the sandy path, their swords hidden under their beige flowing robes.

I feel a hit of trepidation in my chest, hoping it goes smoothly for them.

The Black Guard stationed at the east gate has always been a small band since there isn’t anything beyond that gate except rockdeer and the convent, but that doesn’t mean the three of them will have an easy fight taking the guard down.

The only thing they truly have going for them is the element of surprise and the fact that the Black Guard doesn’t ingest suen, nor does anyone else in the land.

“Come on, we don’t want to be caught in the open,” Andor says, and Kirney and I follow him, dodging to the left among cacti and rocky outcrops.

I don’t know exactly where the spring begins since I’d never made it to this area, so we’re going by all the different maps Andor has collected.

But luckily we have more cover from the chasms in the sand and various rock formations, and just as the sun gets too hot, Kirney stops and motions with his head.

I don’t hear anything but it’s apparent that Andor and Kirney do because they pick up the pace, and it’s not long before the chasms in the rock start spreading wider, wide enough for a person to fit through.

“In there,” Andor says. “It must be the spring. I can hear the running water.”

He drops to the ground and sticks his head over the side, peering down into the cavern. “There’s water all right. This must be it. There’s maybe ten feet between us and the water and it doesn’t look very deep.” He glances up at us, wincing at the sun. “I’ll go and report back.”

“We’re all going in there,” I tell him, even though it’s really the last thing I want to do. Out of the whole plan I think navigating an underground spring and cave system is my least favorite. I’m all right with caverns but once you add water to the mix, that’s when I get nervous.

Andor slips down into the chasm feetfirst, his fingers holding on to the edge of the ground for a moment.

“It might be a farther drop than I thought,” he says before he lets go. There’s a moment of silence before a big splash.

“Andor!” I yell as Kirney and I drop to our knees and peer down the hole. “Are you okay?

I hear another splash, then him spitting out water and gasping for air.

“Fucking deeper than I thought! Water is nice, though, cold. Current is strong enough to take up the brunt of the work.” A pause, more splashing.

I see a glimpse of him passing underneath as the sun hits his wet hair.

“There might be places down the way to walk or crawl alongside the stream but I think we’ll be swimming for most of it. ”

I exchange a glance with Kirney. “Well, it beats walking in the sun,” he says just before he slips in through the crack and drops into the water below.

I take in a deep breath, bringing my legs over the side and lowering myself down, my muscles shaking from all the exertion of earlier, so much so that they give out and I fall the rest of the way.

My yelp echoes a second before I hit the water, my robes trying to pull me under. I quickly kick to the surface, taking in air while trying to get the robes off me. Andor and Kirney pull at them until I’m free and we let them carry on downstream.

“You all right?” Andor asks, treading water beside me. The current is already pushing us along at a gentle pace.

“I’m fine,” I say. “Just lost my upper-body strength for a moment.”

He gives me a sympathetic look. “I’m not sure if you remember what that’s like,” I add.

He grins. “Sorry, I don’t.”

Then he turns around and starts swimming.

We spend the next several hours floating in the spring water and letting the current usher us toward the convent.

The longer we swim, the less the rock ceiling opens to the sky, and the darker it gets.

If it weren’t for Andor having the foresight to have Steiner create a light cube out of crushed glowferns, we wouldn’t be able to see anything.

Somehow the light makes it even worse, the water blacker in contrast, the walls of the cavern stretching into oblivion.

Suddenly the sound of a splash comes from behind us. I gasp and the three of us whirl around to stare into the darkness.

“What was that?” whispers Kirney.

“Could someone be following us?” Andor asks me, the whites of his eyes glinting blue. “Are there people that could live down here?”

I shake my head, dread creeping up my spine. “Not people…”

Another splash, closer now, and in the dim glow I see the shiny length of scaled skin before it slithers beneath the black water.

“What the fuck,” Kirney says, his voice going high.

“Get out your swords,” I tell them, reaching down through the water and grabbing my ash-glass swords from my belt. “I think it’s a freshwater dredger.”

“Are they…dangerous?” Andor asks, brandishing his sword, the tip only visible above the surface.

“If they weren’t I wouldn’t be about to tell you to kill the thing before it uses its—”

A strong tentacle wraps itself around my ankle and yanks me under the water before I even have a chance to finish my sentence.

I scream, water filling my mouth, thrashing as I try to pull away, doing all I can not to let go of my swords.

The snake tries to take me even deeper and I have no idea how far the water reaches here, but unless I free myself I’ll drown.

I try in vain to slash and slice at the snake, but it keeps contorting itself out of my reach.

Oh damnation.

This is how I’m going to die.

Dragged to my death beneath the Daughters of Silence before I even had a chance to get my revenge.

The egg of immortality doesn’t sound so frivolous now. I’d almost laugh but I don’t even have the strength to fight back anymore. The only thing I can do is hold on to my swords as I’m dragged to the deep, and even then my fingers are starting to let go.

I’m going to let go.

Of everything.

It’s already black so it’s hard to tell if my vision is going fuzzy, but then I see a faint glow.

The light cube around Andor’s neck.

Hope.

Suddenly the water fills with bubbles and blood and the serpent lets go of my leg.

Arms wrap around me, hauling me to the surface, where I burst through, spitting out water and gasping for air.

“We’ve got you,” Andor says from one side, Kirney on the other.

“Snake thing is dead,” Kirney says. “Andor sliced its head off. What were you going to say about them?”

I spit out more water and give him a steady look. “Just that it can kill you.” Then I give them both a sheepish look. “Thanks for saving my life.”

“Are there any other monsters you’d like to fill us in on?” Andor asks.

“No,” I say, my breath coming back to me as we tread water. “Though we better pick up the pace in case there’s another lurking.” I pause, a flicker of a memory in the back of my head. “Except, perhaps, the one about the dungeon.”

We start swimming faster now, helped by the current. We can’t be too far from the cistern now, and yet I’m starting to lose faith that we’ll get there.

“I’m sorry,” Andor scoffs, “there’s a dungeon here?”

“It’s an old convent,” I tell him. “What do you think happens in convents to those who stray from the path? Especially in the old days, when the Saints of Fire first settled in Esland. Punishment was a way of life.”

“And so what was the rumor?” Kirney asks as we start swimming faster downstream.

“Just that they kept something, some creature, in the dungeon that no one was allowed to look at.”

“You sure it wasn’t a dredger that got loose?”

“I have no idea. I never saw anything.”

“Tell me, how did rumors spread when you all had taken a vow of silence?” Andor asks.

“I didn’t learn it here. Very few people have been inside the convent, and people like to gossip about what’s hidden from them. We talk about what we don’t understand, we invent things to make us feel important.”

We fall silent at that and keep swimming, and I know that the moment I step inside the convent, most of the legwork is going to rely on me, the only one who knows the building, the culture, the rituals, and the only woman of the group.

I’ll have to do a lot of it alone. They may have been able to save me just now from the snake, but if anything goes wrong while I’m up on the administrative levels of the convent, there’s a chance they won’t get to me in time.

I take a deep, shaking breath to calm myself. This place fucked with my head when I was a child and there’s no doubt it will do it again.

Stay focused on getting the revenge , I tell myself. Stay focused on the egg.

“I see something,” Andor says, and I squint ahead. Instead of the incessant darkness, there’s a light up ahead.

Not daylight, but…fire.